It wasn't easy, but we've finally found someone who claims to have believed Biden when in his speech on the Afghanistan fiasco he boasted, "The buck stops with me." And—no surprise—that person is none other than quintessential liberal-media member Yamiche Alcindor of PBS and MSNBC.
On today's Morning Joe, after Willie Geist pressed her hard, twice asking whether the Biden administration understood the gravity of the situation, Biden ally Alcindor responded:
"I think it’s been very clear to me in talking to White House officials that they understood the gravity. This is a 20-year war spanning multiple presidencies. And President Biden didn’t take this decision lightly. It’s why in the speech he said the buck stops with me. He’s not running away from the responsibility."
Biden's "not running away from responsibility?" Despite claiming that the buck stops with him, Biden has blamed Trump, the Afghan government, the Afghan military, US intelligence, congress—everything short of the Perseid meteor shower.
And on what did ace reporter Alcindor base her conclusion that the Biden admin understood the gravity of the situation? Why, by "talking to White House officials." Because you just know there would never been anything but the simon-pure truth issuing from officials caught in the biggest foreign policy fiasco in decades.
The more generous understanding of Alcindor is that she is simply gullible. A more likely explanation is that Alcindor is a Biden dead-ender. Someone willing to sacrifice journalistic integrity for the sake of defending the sitting Democrat President—facts be damned.
Alcindor continued her talking points:
I think I sense they understand the gravity of it. It’s also why you see President Biden coming back to the White House. Of course, he could do everything he needed to do from Camp David. But it does make sense, for optics, for him to be back at the White House as this big, big crisis continues.
But is that true? Is talking to a Hollywood Squares screen of advisors as effective as face-to-face discussions? And of course, when his speech ended, Biden retreated back to his vacation in the friendly confines of Catoctin Mountain.
Yamiche Alcindor on Morning Joe claiming that Biden is not "running away from the responsibility" for his Afghanistan fiasco was sponsored in part by BMW and AARP.
A partial transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
8/18/21
7:23 am EDTWILLIE GEIST: Yamiche, the president was defiant, I guess is a word you can use, in his remarks earlier this week when he said, I stand squarely behind my decision. The administration caught flat-footed on Sunday when all of this was happening, when these chaotic scenes were playing out, and we saw Kabul being overrun by the Taliban. Does the White House sense now how grave this problem is . . . Has the White House sensed now the gravity of this moment if they didn’t early on?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: I think it’s been very clear to me in talking to White House officials that they understood the gravity. This is America's longest war, this is a 20-year war spanning multiple presidencies. And President Biden didn’t take this decision lightly, sources tell me. It’s why in his speech he said, the buck stops with me. He’s not running away from the responsibility.
. . .
I think I sense they understand the gravity of it. It’s also why you see President Biden coming back to the White House. Of course, he could do everything he needed to do from Camp David. But it does make sense, for optics, for him to be back at the White House as this big, big crisis continues.
