In 2016, I understood when some conservative pundits weren’t happy with Trump’s candidacy or his winning the Republican nomination. I was one of them. At the time, I was convinced he wasn’t a true conservative and had no chance of winning. I was wrong on both counts, and I’m happy to say so. Trump proved me wrong—he turned out to be the Republican candidate and president we needed.
Yet there were several people on the right whose anti-Trumpism never abated, and somewhere along the line, they ended up sounding like liberals—constantly bashing Trump and parroting left-wing talking points. They didn’t like Trump’s style, and, again, I get that. Even now, I wish Trump would be a little more disciplined when he speaks.
I’m not sure what happened, but even after Trump left office, the anti-Trump right has never managed to come back home—as if the conservative values they claim to espouse just vanished.
Even now, as Biden has proven himself to be dangerously incapable of handling the presidency, these so-called conservative pundits feel the need to defend him, if not praise him.
Last week, Joe Biden made several very public and very dangerous gaffes, including his apparent call for regime change in Russia. Rather than concede Biden’s problematic ad-lib, which was widely criticized by world leaders, Bill Kristol actually hailed the remark as a historic call to action on par with Ronald Reagan.
“Gaffes” by U.S. presidents, per the foreign policy establishment:
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
— Joe Biden, Royal Castle, Warsaw
March 26, 2022“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
— Ronald Reagan, Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin
June 12, 1987— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 27, 2022
It’s hard to imagine how anyone, regardless of what side of the aisle they are on, could possibly think these two moments are at all comparable. Kristol’s evangelical anti-Trumpism has taken him to the highest level of absurdity. Kristol has become so devoted to lauding Joe Biden in the wake of Trump’s presidency that he will literally praise him for setting off a firestorm heard around the world.
Related: Biden’s ‘Armageddon Gaffes’ Threaten to Annihilate Us All
”It was a remarkable statement that would reverse stated U.S. policy, directly countering claims from senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who have insisted regime change is not on the table,” an article at the Washington Post said of Biden’s remarks. “It went further than even U.S. presidents during the Cold War, and immediately reverberated around the world as world leaders, diplomats, and foreign policy experts sought to determine what Biden said, what it meant — and, if he didn’t mean it, why he said it.”
Kristol may have seen brilliance and resolve in Joe Biden’s remark, but the White House quickly scrambled to clarify Biden’s comments and assure our allies and the entire world that Biden wasn’t actually calling for regime change. Biden himself walked back the comments on Sunday when a reporter asked him, “Mr. President, do you want Putin removed? Mr. President, were you calling for regime change?”
“No,” Biden replied.
Reagan’s “tear down this wall” speech may have been controversial, but it was a planned and debated part of his speech that was meant to be delivered—not a gaffe in any sense of the word. Biden’s line that Putin “cannot remain in power” came as surprise to all who heard it, and Biden seemed to be unaware of the significance of the statement, and White House officials conceded to the Washington Post that “it was just the latest example of Biden’s penchant for stumbling off message.”
Biden’s remarks were not an indication of a bold change of policy or a display of leadership. Biden clearly failed to grasp the weight and power of his words and how they’d be interpreted by our allies or our enemies. Biden proved himself the dangerous man that many of us on the right warned he would be all throughout the campaign.