Watch LIVE: Biden Presser, 5 pm Aug 26th

So where is he? Isn't the Imodium working?

Assuming they can wake him from his nap, that is.

Apparently it's still happeneing, he's just late

Watching CNN...keep saying he will speak any minute. He is on now.

Here we go.

Where’s the anger?

Finally

Why is Psaki taking questions?

Shouldn't Biden be doing that?

Feels empty.

I want him to say that we're going to bomb them back to the stone age

This is rather pathetic.

He seems like he's in shock

He’s going to talk more about the Afghans than the service members.

He looks spent. Drained..

I really, really hope not, r13

What the hell is he talking about?

How about taking some responsibility? Any?

The service of Lockheed…

Talking about Beau again? Please.

Just call them heroes and it’s all done. I see.

He seems drugged.

Excuses

It’s over for him.

Oh goodie, more war. 🙄

He's not hunting anything down except the tv remote at Matlock time.

I’m waiting for the China bashing. Nice distraction.

Lol^^

He’s not taking responsibility.

That was in reponse to R25

So we laud their sacrifice but don’t talk about what went wrong?

Don't go to sleep Joe..

Guys, he is a politician. His speech is 100 percent designed to absolve himself of responsibility and insist what he is doing is the best thing.

It's not political; it's not a left or right thing. It's politics. Politicians don't do accountability as a rule.

OMG that’s it?!

He's taking questions this time.

"Sleepy Joe" trending on twitter.

Ugh.

OMG he’s taking questions? Kind of vulgar. I thought this was a speech to the people.

Is he dehydrated? Just a bottle of H²O away from comatose.

He said that like his son, many, many soldiers returned home from Iraq with brain cancer. I hadn’t heard that before.

"Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here. The first person I was instructed to call on was Kelly O'Donnell."

Whut? Instructed? Whut?

There is something really wrong with this man, he doesn’t seem right in his head

Biden has entered his quagmire.

I fully understand that this goes back decades and is the result of multiple failures of multiple administrations.

I understand that what is happening might have happened anytime the US pulled out.

But, in today's world and how we consume information -- it's on him, fair or not. And now Marines killed. Oof. I guess the thing going for him (in terms of politics) is that this is fairly early in his presidency -- which could be a good thing, or a bad thing.

Twitter comments for “Biden” are rough.

It feels like he knows he fk'd up with the evacuation. His demeanor says it all..

They’re using a Snapchat filter for him.

And we know that Twitter is filled with thoughtful, insightful and subjective individuals.

All comments 1-40 were posted by the same troll.

Why does he seem so robotic? What happened to him?

WTF are we supposed to do about a terrorist bombing attack? Who did we blame on 9-11? How many service members died under Trump? None, I imagine?

We had two months of warning about January 6th and then Trump stood there giggling with his thumb up his ass but after 80,000 safely evacuated, there's a mad crazed terrorist and now he's the worst President since James Buchanan. Oh, ok.

This country is full of demented right wing mongrels!

Jeez. I feel sorry for Biden.

Where’s Kamala?

Biden fans, be honest. He’s been president for seven months.

[quote]This country is full of demented right wing mongrels!

Duh.

I don't think he's healthy. Remember my old prediction of President Harris

R48 You are correct. Progressives eat their own. which is proven by these comments.

🐰[italic] He's Late

🐇 He's Late

🤭For A Very Important Date !

Unfortunately, Twitter is influencial...even though it's by a handful of individuals.

Yeah, I don't know why this is on Biden or the US. We pulled out our military who really had no business being there. It's a total catch 22. If we are there, we're putting off the inevitable, putting our own people at risk and wasting huge amounts of money. If we are not there, the local terrorists will take over. But we don't have juris diction kver a foreign country unless we break our own rules and annex it as we did with Hawai'i, and many Hawai'ians want us to pull out. There's no correct here.

It’s vicious on Twitter now. Ooof.

Newp.

Damn. I hope the stress hasn't given him some kind of mini-stroke. Seriously he's so much less.... Bidenesque than I've ever seen him before.

I'd be grateful for a "Hey, man!" from him right about now. Anything.

Is he ok?

Did Xiden just make a joke about reporter's tie? Did anyone just hear that and catch his smirk? Oh, he's going to catch flak for this.

Ok he seems to be perking up a little bit now

Liar, Liar, r46

Caftan-On-Fire.

I would have criticism for anyone, repub or Democrat. It's just that lately, repubs have taken a terrible turn...so I complain the most about them. If a Democrat makes a horrendous mistake, I would criticize that, too.

Oh now it’s the “we must let them in” thing.

At time like this, I always look forward to the keen observations and insights from the DL commenatariat.

I’m sick of hearing about the dead son.

He's acting fine shit heads. Go back to Disqus and make yourselves feel knowledeable.

[quote]I want him to say that we're going to bomb them back to the stone age

They've never left the stone age.

This was never a civilized "country."

Too many people living there are barbarians, and the exit was never going to be simple and easy.

Just get the fuck out of there as soon as possible.

[quote] Did Xiden just make a joke about reporter's tie?

Is "Xiden" his new nickname? I don't get it.

ABC cut away after the second quesiton, is he still talking?

Who’s that reporter?

R71 yes

Testy.

This is a big test for Biden.

At least he took responsibility.

This is all part of the plan, he will be thrown under the bus and President Harris will be installed.

"I have another meeting"

??????!!!!!!!

who is this douche reporter?

Im waiting for the day he confuses the dead son with the living son.

The douche is Doucy

R78 Yeah, dipoity-doo. He might just have something more pressing than creating sound bytes for the media right now.

He’s too damn old.

R32 Finally an adult in the room

Good catch, r70. I picked up "Xiden" from some heavy-duty military discussion threads on Reddit. Allusion to Saigon I suspect. Maybe someone reading this can chime in? I thought it was a funny way to spell his name and it was coming from hardcore military types on Reddit.

Defensive

Why don't we just send some covid infected blankets over there?

[quote] He’s too damn old.

Sadly, you are right.

I thought he handled that quite brilliantly.

On the one hand, I feel bad for his quagmire. On the other hand, that’s the job he wanted.

Are you sure it's only 7months, r50? Feels like 7 years.

Biden's dead son - like our beloved Mayor Pete - only went into the National Guard/Navy Reserves to burnish their credentials to run for President something both of them had planned to do since 4th grade.

That was weird.

R77 who becomes veep?

The UK gays didn't think much of it

This is Biden's first big crisis.

R94 me

The Presidency ages Presidents dramatically. With the exception of Trump who aged us. Hate to think what shape Biden'll be in in 2024. We're doomed, folks.

[quote]only went into the National Guard/Navy Reserves

Which is more than most Americans do.

Jimmy Carter II

R99 most Americans don't decide in 4th grade they are going to run for Prez like Pete and Beau did.

R95 Dan Wootton works for the GB network, some rightwing Fox News equivalent.

I don’t care what anyone says, he’s a million times better than dump.

He get’s credit for confessing to be at fault for everything that has happened the last two weeks, although he did try immediately to walk it back a little though.

.....

Re R95's "listening to a question" link

Yeah, how DARE he listen to questions!

r101, I posted that because they're both prominent gay reporters in the UK.

R102 dump would already have been on Air Force One for a weekend of golf.

We need an LBJ and we got Jimmy Carter.

I'm surprised he can hear the questions so well. I am 43 and have lost half my hearing in my left ear. Seeing someone almost twice my age who has no trouble hearing makes me envious.

I think he wears a hearing aid. I remember there was a mini-scandal about it during the Democratic primary debates.

True R102. If the election were held again, I would still vote for Biden. He is far better. I just wish he were younger and appear stronger. I think he's basically a good man.

🚴When I was in the fourth grade. I could barely plan beyond the next day.

R108 - LBJ was responsible for thousands of American soldiers dying in Vietnam at a time when we should have pulled out of that hellhole.

R112 we know, Chasten

FDR...need someone like him.

R107 Trump would be doing everything he can to distract. He and Congress and Fox News would blame Nancy Pelosi and Obama and Hillary Clinton. He would go on an inane tweeting spree pointing fingers at Democrats. Then he would blame the press and say the press would lying. He would deploy Kellyanne to public affairs shows and cable news to talk about fake terrorism events and overtalk guests until they gabe up and her voice won out. Donald Junior would retweet a Nazi and all the media attention would focus on that. Then Trump would tweet that he is going to declare war on Afghanistan and then he wouldn't. But he would ban Muslim immigrants again, including refugees, say we need good refugees from Norway, would be sued by the ACLU and the circus would keep shifting every six hours.

It was weird when Biden said there had been no Americans killed since February 2020 because of the agreement that Trump negotiated. It didn’t seem like Biden understood that that made Trump sound good.

......

[quote] I think he wears a hearing aid. I remember there was a mini-scandal about it during the Democratic primary debates.

i don't think he does. That mini-scandal was over whether he was wearing an earpiece (and being "fed" answers, which he wasn't).

The tollyban

if this were Trump, far less Americans and Afghans would have gotten out of there alive.

He'd claim that we got everyone out and that the numbers of those left behind were "fake news and greatly exaggerated".

He also would have declared he defeated Isis

so anyone saying Trump would have done better than Biden is a troll or a moron

R113 he was also responsible for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Medicare, Medicaid, Fair Housing,etc., etc. Any social safety nets we have in this country beyond Social Security (FDR) is due to LBJ beating the Senate into submission. Something Biden needs to do.

R116, Trump lost. Biden is president.

R121 It says a lot, that the only defence for this is whataboutism.

R121, Biden is president.

The pull out from Afghanistan was the right thing to do.

But, obviously, the evacuation of people could have been a lot better. I've heard so much about how the evacuation should have started much earlier and been much broader. I'm no geopolitical expert, so I don't know.

R124 Who gives a shit? Here's more. If Trump was in the WH he'd figure out a way to charge evacuees for airfare and get a percentage.

Biden fucked this up. I voted for him and I'll vote for him again if he's the Dem nominee. But he fucked this up. Who was advising him? Not the military. It was Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. This is their doing.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this. But usually BIden "emotes" quite a lot during any public speech, interview or whatever. He is able to easily summon inner emotions and he is able to convey some depth of emotion almost like a well-trained actor. But since this Afghan situation started, he seems remarkably docile, a cool operator, distant, reflective but also 'removed' and 'unconnected'. I noticed this last week and never commented on this until now.

R106 posts a columnist from the British equivalent of NewsMax and calls him a “prominent Gay Voice in the UK”

The enemy is here, my friends

Look at what else R106 posted

Watch LIVE: Biden Presser, 5 pm Aug 26th

Talking about Beau again? Please.

Watch LIVE: Biden Presser, 5 pm Aug 26th

He seems drugged.

Watch LIVE: Biden Presser, 5 pm Aug 26th

He's not hunting anything down except the tv remote at Matlock time.

right wing trolls you have nothing.

Trump demanded Pompeo to get a deal. Pompeo got a shitty deal that only stipulated the Taliban wouldn't attack us on our way out and to "promise" not to be a safe harbor for terrorism. They didn't involve the Afghan government, they didn't require a power sharing agreement with the Afghan government, they didn't require the Taliban to uphold the rights of women, girls, ethnic and religious minorities. None of that. On top of that, Pompeo and Trump agreed to free 5,000 Taliban criminals against the Afghan government's wishes. Oh and the guy Pompeo negotiated with is a Taliban leader who had been in prison but Trump had freed in 2018. Pompeo and Trump also agreed to withdraw all but 2,500 US soldiers and set a May deadline for our full withdrawal. At the same time, Trump, Pompeo and Stephen Miller decreased the amount of visas allowed for Afghans and dramatically slowed down the process, creating an almost 20,000 backup. The full visa process did not start up again until Biden got into office.

Biden inherited this shitty weak situation and had 2 options: either uphold it or reject it. Had Biden rejected the deal, he would have had to send many more US troops back into Afghanistan for battle.

The US has gotten out a lot of people in a short amount of time. Obviously the terror attack today is a horrible setback but it's impossible to prevent every single threat out there

Please work on your pronunciation, R120.

It's not the tollyban, it's the Tolly Bonn.

The is no "British equivilent of Newsmax", idiot at r130. They have a regulatory body called OFCOM that prevents that from ever happening.

You should look it up.

R129 Just like Churchill. Never let them see you sweat.

Spin little Trumpistas, spin!

While I would have liked for the Biden admin to have started getting more people out in the last few months, there would not have been any way to prevent the mass crowds gathering at the airport. Eventually word would have gotten out that the US is starting to evacuate Americans and eligible Afghans which would have created panic and fury regardless of it was last week or 2 months ago.

The US was ready for the Afghan army and government to fall to the Taliban but they thought it would take a month, not a week for everything to collapse.

R136 Dullard

R127 Betsy DeVos's husband is doing just that.

Betsy DeVos's brother, not husband. (Although she and her brother have fucked, obvs.)

R124 Defence? Whoa! Go back to your pathetic island of billy goats and poor dental hygiene. We can smell you from here.

His approval rating will be below 40% next week.

You have a good point R137. I guess a 007 James Bond covert operation was needed... like in the movies, with all the gadgets.

R66 Which is obviously why you are here by choice.

LBJ didn't do so great in his war, r108. In fact, like Carter would have, Biden made the correct decision to admit that this war has long become completely aimless and useless and it was time to end the charade. Nothing about today changes that. Sadly, LBJ knew that the Vietnam War was a hopeless mess, but just couldn't bring himself to admit it to the country.

"The is no" ......

Seriously, R134, you should work on your ENGLISH skills.

I'm afraid you may be right, r137. I mentioned in my last post that I had been been reading some pretty hardcore (but funny) military posts on Reddit (Yanks and Brits etc). Obviously I can't remember everything but one thing I did pick up was that (going from memory here) is that most Afghans (80%?) have barely any education. On top of that, they commented on the pervasive corruption at all levels of the Afghan military (doubling their own salaries, lazy, promoting themselves based on zero capability etc). Not a good situation.

Not only this, but that the Taliban has been actively and very visibility been infiltrating all aspects of society, even army. Corruption was extremely rife.

Until I read this background information from seasoned fighters, military officers, I thought Biden was wrong, had made a huge mistake. But now, I realize Biden was correct. He had to use the element of surprise and pull out suddenly. He has no choice. I now believe Biden is telling the truth. I did not think this beforehand.

If Trump had made good on his promise to end the war, this wouldn't have happened. Instead, he golfed.

After the presser, his handlers let him have a pudding cup.

"We will hunt you down and make you pay."

Is this a wise statement to be making right before the twentieth anniversary of 9/11?

Frankly, I’m not full of anticipation for the return of all the great Americans who, let’s face it, are the families comprised of Halliburton and Blackwater employees/guns for hire who expected to endlessly profit from the neocon forever war.

☹️ Another US Service Member has died.

It's so nice to have a competent Press Secretary like Jen Psaki, after living through the likes of Sarah Suckabeast and Kayla MAGAtitties.

r147 again. I also remember comments on Reddit by these military types saying that any destabilization (like now) of Afghanistan will lead to "famine, civil war. " etc. It was very interesting commentary by military types with on the ground combat experience. So, those folks escaping are not only escaping persecution from also severe economic hardship.

Grim outlook.

I wish Jen Psaki was the President not Biden.

R149 how many iterations of that sentence did you write until you were satisfied enough to click "Post"?

R154 Strategically, the best thing that could probably happen for the West in the short term is a 3-way Taliban/Al Qaeda/Isil civil war.

I can't help but think how daddy would have handled this..

Don't forget Sean Spicer, the creepy little propagandist twerp who started it all in the rose garden.

Sara Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany get all the heat and for some reason Spicer is never mentioned anymore.

And for some stranger reason, people forgave Scaramucci even though he was willing to be a propagandist for Hitler 2 but just not good at it.

It's a no win situation. Getting out of Afghanistan is the right thing to do, though. It's very complicated.

.....

This Christopher Rufo. Is he special?

r157 that was the on-going "joke" in the Reddit thread (killing each other) but also a very serious observation they made. Taliban thinks Isis-K is "extreme" - they commented that that alone ought to tell you how bad that Isis-K is when the Taliban think you're extreme. They commented it will become a place or location for extremism and encourage the growth of all these factions but that it'll end up as a bloody battle among them.

R162 He is an arch-conservative activist, so yes.

just something to think about...the leaders of the Taliban and ISIS are obviously guys in their 40s-60s. The Taliban soldiers out on the streets and the ISIS members blowing themselves up are mostly teens and 20s...meaning most of the ones on the front lines were not even born or were very young when the Taliban first fell in 2001. This proves that the ideology has not gone away in 20 years with the new generation.

As tragic as it is, the only way for Afghanistan to rid itself of these terrorists is for them to have a civil war. Now there is a resistance army forming in Panjshir Province, the last holdout area not under Taliban control. The Afghan Vice President is there along with some generals and the son of a local assassinated hero. There is an army there comprised of locals and any Afghan army members who were upset that the national army as a whole surrendered. They are obviously outnumbered but so far are holding their own.

Pakistan also needs to be dealt with as they have largely provided a safe haven to Taliban fighters over the last 20 years. I'm hoping they have to deal with a large influx of refugees. They deserve it. Pakistan is the biggest reason why terrorism in that area has survived

Multiple families today lost their daughters and sons and spouses and parents...but all the Christopher Rufos and Josh Hawleys and GOP shitstains care about is bashing CRT and playing cheap politics. There is just no low to which they will not sink.

This is a time for us to honor our dead.

When their times come, may anyone who has played partisanship now rest in piss.

I have no illusions about the Taliban being good guys in any sense, but I suspect they do not want a repeat of 2001. I think they know that if they don't kill the terrorists in their midst, like ISIS, they will eventually pay the price for whatever those groups do outside of Afghanistan. I suspect ISIS knows this and the attack was done in hopes that the U.S. will decide to stay after all. We won't change our minds. We are leaving. Followed by a serious bloodletting of ISIS members by the Taliban.

R162 and a Senior Fellow too. What is that? An actual paid job where you sit around with a group of like-minded folks and pretend that you're philosophers?

The Taliban might have a hard time establishing a stable country. They're not going to get much aid from international sources due to their extreme policies. If they let ISIS and other groups run wild, it's going to make things worse. There will be the risk that eventually Afghans will rise up against them

Very much agree with r165. Pakistan has never been an ally in any normal sense of the word. They love terrorism and terrorists, Sunni terrorists at least. Or at least the intelligence services and military that actually run Pakistan love terrorists. They find them useful in their endless, moronic struggle with India.

There was absolutely no reason for those attacks. It's like if you asked someone to get out, then as they were leaving your house you tripped them.

If Biden ever got to the source behind this, it would lead right to Stephen Miller and Mike Pompeo. Pompeo is 10 times more evil than Trump. He wants to be President more than anything, and he'll do anything to make it happen. He knew how to charm Trump.

He must never, ever be President.

[quote] [R162] and a Senior Fellow too. What is that? An actual paid job where you sit around with a group of like-minded folks and pretend that you're philosophers?

It is unadulterated bullshit, is what it is.

The overwhelming majority of what you have heard about CRT this summer has been crafted and promoted by this...thing. That is his full-time job. He has been one of the number one marketers of that false narrative.

And now, he's using tragedy to score cheap points.

[quote] Yet, as Popular Information previously explained, Rufo is misrepresenting CRT for political purposes. In March 2021, Rufo acknowledged that he is simply using CRT as a vessel to capture concepts he thinks are politically unpopular. As Sarah Jones of New York Magazine recently wrote, Rufo “takes critical-race theory as a concept, strips it of all meaning, and repurposes it as a catchall for white grievances.”

[quote] Rufo's own tweets confirm his tactics. “We have decodified [CRT]…and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans,” Rufo tweeted.

How fucking embarrassing

The US Mission was involved with evacuating civilians, a humanitarian mission. Biden did not do this. They other side attack us, civilians and a Humanitarian Mission. If you are for the other side here, you are ANTI-Americans and anti-democracy.

This country is NOT SAFE. These psychos are attacking people at the airport.

Remember, The Republican Party do not care about the Afghani people, at all. Why didn't the republican party evacuate these people voluntarily before they ended the war? They could care less about them. They stated publicly they are against refugees and evacuation. They left them there. Biden is trying to get them out.

Republicans left our troops in danger. Remember, when they were planning a photo op with the Taliban at Camp David. Maybe they should have been evacuating people before they ended the war?

THIS IS A DANGEROUS PLACE!

obviously twitter is not the whole world but the past 2 weeks I've been reading tweets from as many Afghan users on there as I can find. The ones with twitter access tend to be upper class and more educated.

While they are mostly angry at the US for pulling out, they are almost all furious at the Afghan government for being corrupt and inept. They also mostly blame Pakistan for the Taliban, ISIS and terrorism in general. Very interesting to read that

13 service members dead now.

He’s ancient but he got rid of dump. He served his purpose and then some. He’s a stepping stone to the next candidate.

It doesn't matter that Trump would have handled this worse (and yes, he would have). Biden is president now. If we lower the bar to "better than Trump", then Trump really has won.

There are very few people who would make competent US presidents at the age of 78, and I don't think Biden is among them.

He evacuated a small city..I stand behind the president

if anyone younger than Biden was president, we never would have pulled out of Afghanistan because they would have been afraid of how it would make them look. Only Biden could have pulled this off. This war had to end.

Biden isn't stupid. He knew what the risks were. I wouldn't even be surprised if he pulled the troops now because he knew Isis was coming. We always make assumptions based on little knowledge. On the other hand the media tries to report everything. Listen to some of their questions. If they were answered they would put all those in Afghanistan in danger but the media wants the scoop, the hell with people. We have been watching the evacuation every day with every outlet reporting. Does anyone think Isis wasn't watching? Seeing all those people congregated and knowing what an impact it would be to be able to kill multiple at once. I think we get way too much info before and while things are happening and a lot of it should wait until it is almost or is over. I have come to detest the media.

If I hear Biden talking about his Sainted Son Beau one more time, I'm gonna puke.

What's even more bizarre r180, speaking of technology, and the media etc, I was staring for a long time at a photo in the DM today showing a group of Talibans lunching at a local Kabul diner. There was also a young kid there - male about 10 or 11 years old I think. Anyway, on the table in front of the was his cell phone, and nearby was a Talban fighter holding his own cell phone. But what is so bizarre is seeing all this technology and the stark contrast with their traditional robes, turbans, beards, etc.

Just so .....so odd.

The only reason Congress won’t impeach him is because they’re terrified of a Kamala presidency.

R183, the GOP may impeach him in the next Congress, knowing that the Senate won’t convict.

YAWN

Could it be that it was going too smoothly (despite FOX News constantly screeching the opposite) and the Rethuglians were afraid Biden would look like a hero? So they plotted a bomb attack on American soldiers in the waning days of the evacuation?

I don't believe most conspiracy theories and don't really believe that but that's more reasonable than anything the GQP has ever claimed in their existence.

make no mistake the repub pieces of shit are happy this happened and they're hoping for more so they can try and use it as political leverage against Biden and the Democrats. We've seen they don't actually give a fuck about our military or police officers if it's their side against them (see Jan 6th)

R177 Joe's more like a land mine than a stepping stone

impeach him??? for What?? get a grip.

The US is fucked. Choices for President were a psychopathic conman and a loopy old politician who drags His Dead Son the Hero out every 5 minutes to get sympathy while ignoring His Son the Crackhead? These were the choices we had, folks. In a country of 330million, we couldn't do better than this?

R191 tell me about it!

We need to readjust the ages for a President: 35's too young and that was set back in the day when average longevity was 40. So nobody under, say, 45 (nobody under that has the experience for such a job) and nobody over 65.

65 is still too young r193. There are still some 65 year olds who are athletic and look say, 5 years younger, and are very mentally alert. I'd cap it at 68 or 69 - but it really depends on the person, their overall condition and how they've taken care of themselves over their entire lifetime.

70 at Inauguration should be the max age

Most people retire in their 60s. No one should be starting the hardest job of their life 20 years after that! It’s insane.

Seriously Biden looks like he's on his last legs. No way he'll be able to run in 2024 and Kamala's underwhelming to say the least. We. are. fucked.

R198 we had a senile Republican for years! And I’m not talking about Trump.

We also had a seriously ill stroke victim in the presidency.

You could hide stuff better back then…

Biden drives me crazy with his maudlin Beau bullshit. He was only in the National Guard so it would look good on his resume to run for office and counteract the fact Daddy Biden, like Trump, draft-dodged Vietnam.

The candidate in 2024 will be just-turned-35, crazy-eyed AOC.