As NBC political director Chuck Todd trotted out his mostly liberal panel for Sunday’s Meet the Press, the mood was dreary as they all had to cope with and explain President Biden’s incompetency on multiple ongoing crises, with him on yet another vacation. Some tried to prop up the White House by either touting the mood or by suggesting misinformation was to blame. But the lone conservative on the panel dropped the bad news that Biden was sliding towards a Carter-like legacy.
Describing everything dating back to the fall of Afghanistan as “rough six weeks” Todd looked to Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason for the “mood at the White House” and lamented it “seems as if it's only getting worse.”
Mason tried to put a bit of a positive spin on how the White House was dealing with Biden’s problems:
It got a lot worse on that Friday afternoon with all those things happening in one day. The mood is one of soldiering on. I mean, they're certainly embattled right now. But this White House has said from the beginning Joe Biden can chew gum and walk at the same time and all the people around him can do the same.
“But certainly, some of these crises are not ones they expected,” he added. “So, they're soldiering on, they’re trying to say we've got this, we're going to roll through it. But it's a tough time.”
Todd seemed to express some fears of how Biden was dealing with the crisis in Afghanistan and the crisis on the border. “There is this growing, ‘Wait, can you guys get your arms around our problems?’ This seems to be the real challenge,” he said to Punchbowl News founder Anna Palmer.
Palmer laid it out plainly that things weren’t looking good for the Biden administration in the coming days and weeks. “Yeah I think, they have continued to stumble here. Right? They don't necessarily have the messaging right, they don't necessarily have the policy right,” she said, warning that Congress was coming back and they were going to investigate the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Adding: “And I think this is something where this White House has really not kind of got its feet underneath it. Now we're weeks into this, right? They need to kind of figure out what their messaging is going to be, how are they going to deal with tough questions.”
Todd then went to liberal election activist Maria Teresa Kumar of Voto Latino, who appeared to argue that things only looked bad for Biden because of misinformation. “As you said, Chuck, there is tons of disinformation right now … whether it’s getting information that just doesn't allow them to understand what the government is actually doing for them,” she whined.
Mason even backed her up by suggesting “that has been something they've been trying to combat for months as well and they're frustrated by it.”
Finally, Todd got around to conservative Rich Lowry, editor for National Review, who gave them the bad news that Biden was slowly inching toward being the next Jimmy Carter administration: “And I don't think we're here yet, but if this kind of slide continues, the risk to Biden is a wraps that would stick with people, ‘decent guy but not up for the job.’”
This lamenting and spinning for President Biden was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Amazon and Claritin. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Meet the Press
September 19, 2021
11:04:26 a.m. EasternCHUCK TODD: Jeff mason, what is the mood at the White House right now, because this is – It's been a rough six weeks, and it seems as if it's only getting worse.
JEFF MASON: It got a lot worse on that Friday afternoon with all those things happening in one day. The mood is one of soldiering on. I mean, they're certainly embattled right now. But this White House has said from the beginning Joe Biden can chew gum and walk at the same time and all the people around him can do the same.
But certainly, some of these crises are not ones they expected. I don't think they expected to see one of the U.S.'s oldest allies recalling its ambassador. So, they're soldiering on, they’re trying to say we've got this, we're going to roll through it. But it's a tough time.
TODD: I know, Anna, with the Afghanistan withdrawal and how it went, and then you have what the Pentagon said, and then you look at the border. There is this growing, “wait, can you guys get your arms around our problems?” This seems to be the real challenge.
ANNA PALMER: Yeah I think, they have continued to stumble here. Right? They don't necessarily have the messaging right, they don't necessarily have the policy right. I think there's a lot of questions on Capitol Hill now that these members are coming back; where they're going to face investigations on Afghanistan, what happened there. It's not going away.
And I think this is something where this White House has really not kind of got its feet underneath it. Now we're weeks into this, right? They need to kind of figure out what their messaging is going to be, how are they going to deal with tough questions.
TODD: Maria Teresa, this migrant crisis has been – Look, it's not seasonal. Right? President Biden thought it was going to be seasonal, this was just one of the things he said that turned out not to be true these days.
And this issue with the Haitians – I mean, you and I were talking earlier, this is yet another problem with disinformation perhaps for the Haitian people, but this is a bunch of bad choices. We’re really going to send people back to Haiti?
MARIA TERESA KUMAR: Well, I think the options right now are really limited. As you said, Chuck, there is tons of disinformation right now, that if you were to ask me what's one of the things that’s under the radar that folks aren't paying attention to but is a national security crisis, it is the disinformation that we’re embattling. Whether the crisis at the border, whether it’s people getting vaccine hesitancy, whether it’s getting information that just doesn't allow them to understand what the government is actually doing for them.
When we talk about right now, for example, even in France, France had to pull their ambassador back because they just lost a major contract of government jobs. So, they're trying to figure out how do you actually save face. They understand the alliance right now between the United States, Germany, France, and Australia, through the NATO alliances, they need to make sure they continue to fortify. Because who is our biggest challenge right now? China. And that is why the Australians decided who they wanted to buy their submarines from.
MASON: By the way, I think the White House would agree with you about disinformation. I mean, that has been something they've been trying to combat for months as well and they're frustrated by it.
TODD: But the only thing conservatives are not criticizing Biden on is the deal with Australia.
[Laughter]
RICH LOWRY: Finally! Someone really upsets France, deserves to be upset. The French will get over it. They'll get their stories straight on boosters. But I focus in on the border and Afghanistan because they’re both – to some significant extent – self-inflicted, they’re national embarrassments, and give a sense that things – events are out of control.
And I don't think we're here yet, but if this kind of slide continues, the risk to Biden is a wraps that would stick with people, “decent guy but not up for the job.” And that's what they have to avoid at all costs.
TODD: There’s a certain one-term Democratic president that would be described that way, I believe, from the late '70s in Mr. Carter.
(…)
