President Biden was reportedly so mentally exhausted that he missed a call from the chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee ahead of the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, has been incredibly difficult to contact, even by members of his own party, as his aides have tried to tightly contain his apparent mental and physical decline. This was revealed in a shocking report in the Wall Street Journal.
This inaccessibility turned out to be a crucial outcome for one of the administration’s biggest upheavals, which jeopardizes the remainder of Biden’s presidential term.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, had sought to contact the president in 2021 to share concerns about the withdrawal plan from Afghanistan.
Smith said he was concerned about the administration’s optimistic comments about withdrawal from Afghanistan. The congressman said that after working extensively on the issue, he believes it is much more difficult than White House officials have announced and wanted to share his findings.
“I was pleading with them to lower their expectations,” Smith told the newspaper, but he was unable to reach the commander-in-chief by phone.
A chaotic evacuation in August 2021 killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans, ending the longest conflict in U.S. history and giving the Taliban a victory and seizing control.
The United States also surrendered approximately $7 billion worth of weapons and other military equipment.
In the aftermath, Smith commented to the Washington Post that the Biden administration lacked a “clear perspective” on the durability of the overthrown US-backed government.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was enraged by Smith’s comments and called on him to bite his ear, but Smith eventually handed it back to Blinken. Blinken would later accept responsibility for the Afghanistan disaster.
Shortly after, Mr. Smith also received a phone call from Mr. Biden apologizing, which was the only call Mr. Biden made to Mr. Smith during his four years in the White House.
“Biden’s White House was more isolated than many other White Houses,” Smith said. “I spoke to Barack Obama many times when he was president, and I wasn’t even the chairman of the committee.”
Biden will change or cancel scheduled meetings depending on whether he fulfills his duties, which begin immediately after taking office, the Journal reported.
A national security official told aides in spring 2021 that the president “has good days and bad days. Today was a bad day and we’re going to talk about this tomorrow.”
Meetings were often scheduled for later in the day. This fact first came to light after Biden’s abysmal debate performance against former President Donald Trump. Staff acknowledged that it was difficult for the then-Democratic candidate to operate outside of a six-hour window that closed around 4 p.m. each day.
The failure in Afghanistan was a clear stain on Mr. Biden’s record for the remainder of his term, and a major campaign topic for Mr. Biden’s successor, President-elect Trump.
