On Friday, Joe Biden tried to blame Trump for all the crises he’s dealing with right now. “Take a look at what I inherited when I came into office, the state of affairs and where we were,” Biden said. “We had 4 million people vaccinated, we had no plan — I could go down the list…I’m not complaining… it’s just the reality.”
Except he is complaining, and pointing fingers. By bemoaning what he “inherited,” Biden is trying to deflect responsibility for crises created on his watch. So, let’s look at what Biden actually inherited. It will be obvious that Biden did not inherit a mess, he created one—a very big, horrible mess.
Energy independence
Since taking office, America has suffered a sharp increase in gas prices. He tried to blame OPEC for the rising costs, but in reality, it was all him. One of his first acts as president was to kill the Keystone XL pipeline—a decision that received bipartisan criticism. Biden was even slammed by a union that had foolishly endorsed him in 2020 despite his longstanding opposition to the pipeline. In addition to killing the pipeline, Biden issued a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling leases, which, naturally, reduced supply and drove up prices. Under Trump, the United States produced over 13 million barrels of oil a day, and now we’re only producing 11.2 million. Biden inherited a country that was energy independent thanks to Donald Trump and his small-government approach to energy: By killing ridiculous regulations, domestic oil companies were able to increase supply, and by the end of 2018, the United States was exporting more oil than it imported for the first time in 70 years. Biden managed to screw that up in less than a year. That’s on him, not Trump.
A withdrawal plan for Afghanistan
After the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in the collapse of the American-backed government and the takeover by the Taliban, Biden repeatedly tried to blame Trump for negotiating a deal that he was bound to keep. That excuse truly rings hollow as Biden has spent his entire presidency doing exactly the opposite of Trump (with predictably disastrous results) and Afghanistan was no different. Biden not only ditched Trump’s conditions-based withdrawal plan, but he bypassed his own military advisors in proceeding with the pullout even though the Taliban was not living up their part of the agreement with Trump. It was also Biden who made the bizarre decision to abandon the Bagram airbase and millions in military equipment, weapons, and aircraft. Biden also stupidly withdrew military personnel before civilians, which caused the rushed, chaotic withdrawal that resulted in 13 U.S. service members being killed in a terror attack.
Two vaccines and a distribution plan
By the time Biden took office, two COVID-19 vaccines had been approved for emergency use by the FDA, and a vaccine distribution system was in place. Biden administration officials (including Biden himself and Kamala Harris) have made repeated false claims that no vaccine distribution plan was ever in place when they took office—a claim debunked by former Operation Warp Speed officials.
Not only were there two approved vaccines and a vaccination distribution plan, but the Trump administration had ordered enough vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to fully vaccinate 77 percent of the U.S. population 16 years old and over.
COVID cases on the decline
Thanks to the vaccines that we got from Operation Warp Speed and advances in therapeutics, by the time Biden took office, cases were on the decline. Biden came in like a relief pitcher at the bottom of the ninth inning, only needing to strike out one last player to win the game.
Remember how COVID cases were already falling drastically when Biden took office? pic.twitter.com/56XAfFy9kD
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) September 26, 2021
But, despite his promise to end the pandemic, he seems to have sent us into extra innings—largely thanks to his decision to pause distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over a one-in-a-million risk of severe blood clots. That decision destroyed confidence in all of the vaccines, and vaccine doses have never recovered.
The most secure southern border in history
Illegal border crossings plummeted during the Trump administration—an undeniable result of Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants. The border wall also proved to be successful in blocking illegal crossings. Trump has often described the southern border he left Biden as “the most secure border in history.”
“All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot,” Trump pointed out back in March. “Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast.” And things have only gotten worse. Migrant facilities are overflowing, migrant children are being kept in deplorable conditions and have reportedly been sexually assaulted in Biden’s migrant camps. The Biden administration has repeatedly denied that a crisis is even happening, and staggering numbers of illegal immigrants have been released in the country’s interior. The border crisis is so bad that even Obama’s former DHS secretary says it’s out of control.