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Remember: Don’t think about the multiple hot crises the Biden administration is facing as “political” tribulations.
Yes, the president’s poll numbers, his party’s midterm prospects, and his own 2024 standing will all be impacted by how he addresses Afghanistan, the pandemic, the intraparty battle over his legislative agenda, immigration, and several other flashpoints.
But these calamities matter because the real lives of real people are being adversely effected by the facts on the ground – and there is no denying that the perception that Team Biden is on the hook with life-and-death implications is more than just a media narrative.
This is serious stuff.
(And that is to say nothing of Haiti, China, Russia, global warming, fires, storms, and a dozen or so other pretty urgent and horrible situations on the medium burner.)
The fact that Joe Biden can count on nothing by way of support (just the opposite….) from about 95% of Republicans in Congress and about 93% of Republicans in America in grappling with these fast-moving conditions only compounds his challenge.
Ask almost any member of the White House press corps or the Gang at brunch at Lauriol Plaza this morning, and you will find the same sensibility: President Biden is not just having his own, stand-alone fall-of-Saigon crisis (complete with humanitarian and the-world-including-our-enemies-is-watching implications) but the disaster on the ground in Afghanistan is more than a metaphor for overall incompetence and being overwhelmed and overmatched.
There’s a bandwidth issue here now as well.
And to repeat and restate: The lack of bandwidth is not just about the political health of Joe Biden’s administration or the Democratic Party. Life and death are on the line. In all four areas (Afghanistan, pandemic, legislative agenda, and immigration), the chances are quite high that conditions are going to get worse before they get better, and only after more people die.
The post-Trump “serenity” Biden storyline has at times since January 20 teetered on the brink of elimination.
Today, that narrative is as solid as the President Ashraf Ghani’s hold on Kabul.
For Team Biden, including Jen Psaki and Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox), circumstances are not going to be calm for as far as the eye can see, and that includes very limited benefit of the doubt from the media.
For the people of Afghanistan, for the immigrants surging over the Mexican border, for those dying in hospitals, and for the American people generally, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
Joe Biden is in charge.
Let us all hope and pray for the luck, skill, fortitude, and, yes, bandwidth required for his administration to get these crises under control.
There’s only so many whole-of-government efforts one administration can do at one time.
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AFGHANISTAN
And this is all before any massive human rights atrocities that will likely be documented by the media in a much more graphic and immediate way than we saw in Vietnam…..
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday and said they were awaiting a “peaceful transfer” of the city after promising not to take it by force, but the uncertainty panicked residents who raced to the leave the capital, with workers fleeing government offices and helicopters landing at the U.S. Embassy.
Three Afghan officials told The Associated Press that the Taliban were in the districts of Kalakan, Qarabagh and Paghman in the capital.
In a nationwide offensive that has taken just over a week, the Taliban has defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swaths of the country, even though they had some air support from the U.S. military.
The lightning speed of the push has shocked many and raised questions about why Afghan forces crumbled despite years of U.S. training and billions of dollars spent. Just days ago, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Qatar’s Al-Jazeera English satellite news channel that the insurgents are “awaiting a peaceful transfer of Kabul city.” He declined to offer specifics on any possible negotiations between his forces and the government.
But when pressed on what kind of agreement the Taliban wanted, Shaheen acknowledged that they were seeking an unconditional surrender by the central government.
Taliban negotiators headed to the presidential palace Sunday to discuss the transfer, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. It remained unclear when that transfer would take place.
The Taliban's stunningly swift advances across Afghanistan have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of U.S. foreign policy promises and drawing harsh criticisms even from some of the United States' closest allies.
As Taliban fighters entered Kabul and the United States scrambled to evacuate its citizens, concerns grew that the unfolding chaos could create a haven for terrorists, unleash a major humanitarian disaster and trigger a new refugee exodus.
U.S. allies complain that they were not fully consulted on a policy decision that potentially puts their own national security interests at risk — in contravention of President Biden's promises to recommit to global engagement.
And many around the world are wondering whether they could rely on the United States to fulfill long-standing security commitments stretching from Europe to East Asia. (Washington Post)
* The New York Times tick tocks the Biden war cabinet’s run-up.
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PANDEMIC
The COVID-19 death toll has started soaring again as the delta variant tears through the nation’s unvaccinated population and fills up hospitals with patients, many of whom are younger than during earlier phases of the pandemic.
The U.S. is now averaging about 650 deaths a day, increasing more than 80 percent from two weeks ago and going past the 600 mark on Saturday for the first time in three months.
Data on the the age and demographics of victims during the delta surge is still limited, but hospitals in virus hotspots say they are clearly seeing more admissions and deaths among people under the age of 65. (Associated Press)
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Hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients in their 30s have hit a new record, U.S. government data show, a sign of the toll that the highly contagious Delta variant is taking among the unvaccinated. (Wall Street Journal)
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The summer of 2021 is a season of mandates, with rules requiring masks and vaccines reemerging as the pandemic’s latest cultural and political flash point. In many parts of the country — including states hit hardest by a resurgence of the virus — the mandates are pitting blue cities against red governors, sparking protests and placing new burdens on already harried workers. (Washington Post)
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With a stockpile of at least 100 million doses at the ready, Biden administration officials are developing a plan to start offering coronavirus booster shots to some Americans as early as this fall even as researchers continue to hotly debate whether extra shots are needed, according to people familiar with the effort.
The first boosters are likely to go to nursing home residents and health care workers, followed by other older people who were near the front of the line when vaccinations began late last year. Officials envision giving people the same vaccine they originally received. They have discussed starting the effort in October but have not settled on a timetable.
While many outside experts argue there is no proof yet that the vaccines’ protection against severe disease and hospitalization is waning in the United States, administration officials say they cannot afford to put off figuring out the logistics of providing boosters to millions of people until that tipping point is reached. The spotty nature of the nation’s disease-reporting network makes the question of timing even trickier. (New York Times)
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Neither the battle over the Biden legislative agenda nor immigration are front and center in the news cycle, but they are looming with dangerous facts on the ground as well. More tk soon on these.
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ESSENTIAL READING
* The Washington Post’s chronicle of Pete Buttigieg’s cleverness and ambition understates the case in both instances.
* Dan Balz interviews Gavin Newsom, who, as usual, reveals a lot when he talks to East Coast reporters he respects.
* Paul Kane on the Mitch McConnell-Kevin McCarthy relationship, whose importance is underrated.
* Ben Smith gets the Maureen Dowd column about the Barack Obama birthday party exactly correct.
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For all the latest news all the time, check out our 24/7 website the Walking Duck.
