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The Treaty

Joe Biden Is Putting America In Mortal Danger Abroad

Joe Biden President White House.
President Joe Biden talks on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Thursday, September 9, 2021, in the Treaty Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz).

The president of the United States oversees both domestic and foreign policy. When the president is incapacitated, the dirty little secret is that domestic policy runs itself. Governors manage their states, and Congress continues to legislate. Checks-and-balances continue. The system is strong.

The Global Stage Meets a President In Trouble

The same is not true on the international stage. There is no spinning of how disastrous the debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump was. Biden had a week to prepare at Camp David. Excuses ranging from colds to jetlag do not reassure, as leadership requires battling through fatigue. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt could not step aside from World War II if he felt unwell, nor could President John F. Kennedy take a break from the Cuban missile crisis. The punditry surrounding Ronald Reagan’s second-term forgetfulness now appears quaint.

Joe Biden’s efforts to restore confidence have done the opposite. It is one thing to declare oneself a black woman; it is quite another to do so when using a teleprompter or answering pre-staged questions aides provided to friendly radio interviewers. Sitting down with George Stephanopoulos, a Clinton-era White House communications director who has become the Biden team’s go-to media personality at ABC News, sat down with the president on July 5 for a taped interview to allow President Joe Biden a friendly forum to reset his public image. Biden may declare, “Not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world,” but his stumbling shaky performances during his moments of lucidity do not imbue his audience with confidence.

If Biden cannot convince the American public that he is well, how must Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping view their American counterpart? In 2008, then-Senator Hillary Clinton launched her “3 am phone call” political ad to imply rival Barack Obama was not up to the round-the-clock international crisis management of the presidency. The irony today is that Jake Sullivan, one of Clinton’s most trusted aides while she was secretary of State, is now Biden’s national security advisor yet remains silent when Biden assures the public that his bedtime is now 8 pm.

Seasoned national security veterans expressed alarm when Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III checked himself into the hospital in January 2024 for an extended stay and neglected to inform either his deputy or Sullivan. Should a crisis have erupted, the Pentagon would have been absent without leave, with no one knowing they had decision-making authority. Even a delay of minutes during a crisis could have had profound national security implications. The hole that Biden’s infirmity now represents is far worse. It is hard to be commander-in-chief when one is unable to comprehend, let alone command.

From the perspective of Biden’s close-knit national security team, Biden’s infirmity might be personally empowering. Sullivan has never run for office nor faced a confirmation hearing, yet can now design policy in the name of the president without having the president able to supervise or interject. This is the ultimate arrogance and an abuse of both Biden individually and democracy more broadly. Sullivan may see himself as a Kissingerian figure, but ever since the Anchorage Summit, Xi looks at him as a self-indulged upstart.

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping (1)

President Joe Biden greets President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, California.(Official White House Photo by Carlos Fyfe)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken likewise does not exude strength on the world stage; rather, American adversaries laugh at his naïveté, his focus on gender ideology, and his effeteness. Blinken road Biden’s coattails to the top of the diplomatic community and realizes his career is over when Biden’s presidency ends.

None of this should matter. The left-leaning Bulletin of Atomic Scientists regularly updates its so-called doomsday clock to highlight the grave danger facing the world. Prior to Biden’s infirmity, the group determined it was 90 seconds to midnight, its closest ever to apocalypse. The world is even more dangerous today, as the world’s tyrants and dictators smell America’s blood in the water.

Kamala Harris and the 25th Amendment

This situation is why the 25th Amendment exists. Vice President Kamala Harris may represent more identity politics and the modern Democratic Party’s racial virtue signaling, but elections matter. She may not be a foreign policy whiz kid, but even her critics will acknowledge she can be awake after dark. Certainly, Xi and Putin will test her, but Americans rally in crisis.

Until and unless elected president, Kamala Harris should recognize she is only a placeholder and acknowledge her lack of expertise. This need not be a weakness but rather an opportunity for bipartisan solidarity with veteran secretaries of State and Defense from both Democratic and Republican administrations coming together in private to counsel and advise.

As much as Biden’s infirmity invites aggression from Xi, Putin, and other enemies, bipartisan solidarity would deter it and show that mature leadership prevails in times of crisis and Americans put country above partisan divides.

About the Author: Dr. Micheal Rubin

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum. He is also a contributing editor for the Middle East and Africa at the National Security Journal.

Michael Rubin
Written By

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units. Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics.

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  1. Pingback: “I am running the world” – Beueler-Extradienst

  2. Pingback: NATO Expansion Is Not the Success Joe Biden Believes - NationalSecurityJournal

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