“Today, we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, a reminder not only of the progress women have won through the years, but of the important work that remains to be done.”
That’s the message from the Biden White House this Thursday, Aug. 26. More specifically, that’s the only message from the Biden White House today.
Nearly five hours since the first report of an ISIS suicide bombing outside the airport in Kabul, where thousands of Americans are still waiting to be evacuated after the Biden administration’s thoughtless and failed exit from Afghanistan almost two weeks ago that left the Taliban free to run amok and take control, the president of the United States has yet to show his face or to take questions from journalists. And his press team’s only statement is a female empowerment pump about a constitutional amendment passed more than a hundred years ago.
In the five hours that have passed, another explosion rocked Kabul, this one outside the Baron Hotel, which is adjacent to the airport. Twelve U.S. service members are dead, the first U.S. military combat fatalities in the country since February 2020. More are reportedly injured. Sixty Afghan civilians suffered the same deadly fate, with reportedly “many more fighting for their lives.”
This is a situation President Joe Biden created. With lack of foresight and a bumbling refusal to take an ounce of responsibility, the leader of the free world decided it was time to pack up in the Middle East as he packed up for vacation, neglected to acknowledge his outsized role in the fallout, and lied about getting stranded Americans home safely.
Some of those Americans are now dead. Many others are still stranded, now without hope of utilizing what’s left of the unsecured airport after the bombings. And the response from the Biden administration is worse than crickets.
Crickets might imply that the president was busy trying to lend aid to the Americans and Afghan civilians traumatized and in imminent danger in Kabul. Silence might imply a posture like George W. Bush, flawed though he was, preoccupied with visiting in their final hours the Marines who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and internalizing the responsibility for their grieving families.
But we aren’t getting silence from the White House. We’re getting a slap in the face. As Americans and innocent civilians scramble for cover in Kabul and pray for a peaceful death, as Taliban terrorists rape and murder women, the tone-deaf Biden administration’s only proclamation is to condemn Republicans’ continued efforts to bolster election integrity and to declare Aug. 26, 2021, Women’s Equality Day.
“As I have said before, some things in America should be simple and straightforward. Perhaps the most important — the most fundamental — is the right to vote and to vote freely. With it, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is,” Biden’s press release proclaimed. “My Administration is committed to bearing out the promise of the suffragists, who understood that for women to attain true equality in our country, they must have an equal place at the ballot box. As the Vice President has said, the status of women is the status of democracy. This is true abroad, too, where we are committed to strengthening women’s political participation and leadership around the world.”
On Tuesday, Biden literally turned his back on reporters when asked about evacuating Americans stranded in Afghanistan. Today, Biden once again turned his back on those stranded Americans — or at least the ones who have so far survived the blasts.
This is the image that has come to define President Biden’s leadership during his Afghanistan crisis. Turns his back on America, and refuses to answer questions.
Now he heads back to Delaware for a “long weekend.” pic.twitter.com/aSjWUXFHOe
— Michele Perez Exner (@michelepexner) August 18, 2021
