Following President Biden’s address to the nation in which he doubled down on his horrific failure in Afghanistan, MSNBC’s left-wing propagandist Nicolle Wallace was equally detached from reality as she falsely claimed the vast majority of Americans agreed with the disastrous policy – despite the opposite being true. She even attacked the media for not being supportive enough of Biden.
“That was a consequential speech by an American president at a consequential time to, quote, toward the end, ‘I am the President of the United States. The buck stops with me,’” gushed co-anchor Brian Williams immediately after Biden concluded his defensive remarks. Turning to Wallace, Williams requested: “I’d love to hear you out on the current split between the press and public. The two audiences that will hear and view this speech and the President’s choice to go hard with his own decision-making.”
Wallace went full White House hack, imagining a fantasy in which the public were happy with Biden’s shameful mishandling of Afghanistan:
Well, I’m going to say two things, and both hard to say. But I'll say them anyway because here they are. 95% of the American people will agree with everything he just said. 95% of the press covering this White House will disagree. And for an American president to finally be completely aligned with such an overwhelming majority of what the American people think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people....And what he has going for him is a vast majority of Americans in both political parties.
Moments later, she admitted she had no idea what she was talking about: “We haven’t seen much public opinion polling on this because it’s happened so quickly.”
Luckily, such polling does exist – it shows that 70% of the American people disapprove of how Biden is handling the catastrophe in Afghanistan that he created.
In addition to that nonsense, Wallace argued that the President “went a long way to really fleshing out a Biden doctrine” and presented “no lack of confidence that this is the right decision.” If the Biden doctrine means recklessly surrendering to America’s enemies and creating a human rights disaster, then sure.
Wallace wrapped up her sycophantic screed by declaring: “So I think what this president did was walk into that room, speak to something that he really does have the support of the vast majority of Americans on, and make clear that this was put in motion because this country is not going to fight for a country that won’t fight for itself.”
MSNBC’s overall coverage of Afghanistan has actually been quite hostile to Biden, yet Wallace is desperately trying to turn the page and pretend the President has righted the ship – after the Titanic has already hit the iceberg.
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Here is a full transcript of the August 16 exchange:
4:20 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: That was a consequential speech by an American president at a consequential time to, quote, toward the end, “I am the President of the United States. The buck stops with me.” Earlier Joe Biden saying, “I stand squarely behind my decision.” Consequential because of the pictures, imagery, and stories the American people are seeing come out of Afghanistan after a two-decade-long engagement, $2 trillion in expenditures. Over to Nicolle Wallace we go. Nicolle, I’m especially interested in your viewpoint in that you were around for the construct, the start of the policy. And I’d love to hear you out on the current split between the press and public. The two audiences that will hear and view this speech and the President’s choice to go hard with his own decision-making.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Well, I’m going to say two things, and both hard to say. But I'll say them anyway because here they are. 95% of the American people will agree with everything he just said. 95% of the press covering this White House will disagree. And for an American president to finally be completely aligned with such an overwhelming majority of what the American people think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people. He also went a long way to really fleshing out a Biden doctrine. And there are questions about whether he can achieve what he set out. But there is no equivocation, there is no lack of confidence that this is the right decision. And what he has going for him is a vast majority of Americans in both political parties.
WILLIAMS: Nicolle, he did talk about mistakes, but he also assigned blame. Political leaders in Afghanistan left the country, gave up. Afghan forces refused to fight. We’ve seen this story just over the course of the last few days across the countryside as the Taliban advanced with rapid speed. The President conceded, it did unfold more quickly than we anticipated. And he also promised, this gets to the doctrinal part of this, to forcefully defend our remaining forces, the Americans we’re trying to get out of harm’s way, the Afghans we’re trying to get out of harm’s way. He threatened to use “devastating force,” his quote, to defend Americans and their interests.
WALLACE: Right. He threatened retaliation against the Taliban if they shoot us on our way out the door is I think is a more blunt description of what he was trying to say there. This White House may not have come to this with a forthright explanation of how quickly the Taliban would take over the country, but this president came to this speech with a very forthright explanation of why that was. He suggested that President Ghani engage in diplomacy. He did not. He suggested that President Ghani engage in, you know, the kinds of ways that you build a state that is trusted and responsive to its people. They did not. So if they were surprised, which was what that soundbite made it sound like they were, he said in July, this will look nothing like our, you know, escape basically from Saigon. And when it did, this White House was caught flat-footed. Again, by the press largely. We haven’t seen much public opinion polling on this because it’s happened so quickly.
But I would say to Republicans who are on TV arguing for a force to have stayed behind, that wasn’t on the menu. Not for this president and not for the last president. So I think what this president did was walk into that room, speak to something that he really does have the support of the vast majority of Americans on, and make clear that this was put in motion because this country is not going to fight for a country that won’t fight for itself.
(...)
