Joe Biden clearly doesn’t approve of President Trump’s handling of our relations with Iran, whether you’re talking about the death of terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani or our handling of the response to Iran’s continual provocations. He was definitely upset over the Iraqi legislature’s decision to hold a vote on kicking our troops out of the country, blaming that on Trump’s mishandling of the situation as well. In fact, he told one crowd yesterday that Trump is probably going to wind up getting us kicked out of Iran. And no… that’s not a typo. (Free Beacon)
“Iran’s parliament voted to eject all Americans and coalition forces from the country,” Biden said at a rally in New York. He made the mistake again when he said Trump threatened to get the United States into war with Iraq.
“I said not long ago that as the walls close in on this president, I worried that he was going to get us in war with Iraq,” Biden said at private fundraiser in New York City.
Also, per pooler @ShaneGoldmacher, Biden twice appeared to misspeak, saying 'Iraq' instead of 'Iran':
"I said not long ago that as the walls close in on this president, I worried that he was going to get us in war with Iraq, as the ultimate wag the dog…'' Biden said.
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) January 7, 2020
At first glance, you might be tempted to forgive Uncle Joe for mixing the two countries up. After all, their names only differ by one letter and they’re right next door to each other on the map, right? And what with the fighting going on across the border, perhaps they both just seem to start blending together.
But it seems to me that voters who have been keeping track of Biden’s campaign appearances might be close to running out of reasons to simply give him a pass yet again. The excuse of “oh, that’s just Joe being Joe” is growing rather thin. As the Free Beacon reminds us, this is far from the first time he’s done this. He previously seemed to believe that he was in Ohio when he was in Iowa, following that up with claiming he was in Iowa when he was in New Hampshire.
He’s also mixed up the dates when he served as Vice President and once seemed to believe that JFK had been assassinated in the late 1970s. There are plenty more of these incidents floating around on YouTube if you bother to look.
I’m not unsympathetic to Joe’s situation. Growing old isn’t for the faint of heart. Biden is more than fifteen years older than me and I already find myself having “senior moments” from time to time. But this guy is asking to be elected leader of the free world. That’s a job that requires you to be on call and hitting on all cylinders pretty much 24/7, as we saw with the situation in Iraq last night.
That’s not to say it happens to everyone. Some of the Democrats’ other septuagenarian candidates such as Sanders and Warren appear to still be mostly sharp as a tack on the stump. But the same simply doesn’t apply to Joe Biden from the look of things. And that’s an issue.
The other point I wanted to touch on from Biden’s remarks yesterday was this recurring theme among Democrats that Trump is trying to pull off a wag the dog maneuver with Iran. This type of ignorant comment ignores Iran’s lengthy history of provocations and, yes, actual wars. They support and fight alongside terrorists in multiple countries. It’s not as if they don’t act in a warlike fashion.
Besides, Trump is the guy who ran on a pledge to pull us out of our “endless wars” and bring the troops home from Iraq. And you know how he loves to remind people of the promises he’s kept at his rallies. Starting a fresh war with Iran would be totally off-brand for him. But it’s not as if we can simply let Iran push us around, either.
I don’t know if Trump is making all of the best moves in handling Iran or not yet. History will be the judge of that. But I’m at least confident that he’s still demonstrating the mental acuity to keep track of the script. I’m sorry to report that I’m really not sure we can say the same about Joe Biden anymore.
