'Puppet Master is Calling Back His Puppet'? What May Be Behind Biden's 'Vacation' Amid Taliban Surge
02:51 GMT 15.08.2021 (Updated: 13:22 GMT 06.08.2022)
© REUTERS / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN
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For departing to the Camp David presidential retreat for a weekend vacation in the middle of several internal and foreign crises that the United States is facing, President Joe Biden has received an unflattering nickname from the conservative critics - "commander-in-absence".
Does a President of the United States get a chance to go on vacation, given that his job implies never actually being off duty? This is something that many observers got a chance to discuss when Joe Biden decamped for a presidential retreat, even though the southern American border keeps breaking records in numbers of migrants seeking to enter the country, and Afghanistan is being seized by the Taliban* after the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
Opinions on whether now is a good time to travel to Delaware and Camp David differ. While the administration notes that every president works wherever they are, some argue that a commander-in-chief is expected to be in Washington DC when it comes to things like the American drawdown that results in the Taliban getting closer to the Afghan capital city.
Lisa Haven, the co-founder of RestrictedRepublic.com, believes that Biden's move to get out of DC in the current situation is "not only disturbing but troublesome".
"It begs much deeper questions as towards what would lead to the decision to abandon the growing crisis of a southern border crumbling and Afghanistan igniting", Haven suggested. "One can only conclude, there must be an overriding necessity to depart, so it begs the question, 'who is he meeting with and what directions is he being given?' Nothing else, other than health or ignorance, would be an acceptable answer. I believe the puppet master is calling back his puppet."
Biden left for his vacation as border detentions in the south have reached an all-time single-day record, with Chief Agent Brian Hastings of the US Customs and Border Protection saying on Friday that nearly 4,000 illegal migrants were detained in the Rio Grande Valley. The total number of encounters in July, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, is 212,672, a 13-percent increase, compared to June.
At the same time, the Taliban reportedly claims control over some 90% of Afghan territory, with reports suggesting that the militant movement is operating just 50 kilometers from Kabul, as the city experiences power outages.
Haven is not the only one to roll out the "puppet" theory about Biden. Pamela Geller, an American political activist, blogger, and editor-in-chief of her Geller Report, also argues that Biden's departure "does not make any difference", since "those who are in charge are still at work".
"His disappearance in the midst of this crisis his handlers created, however, is an indication of the total contempt that his handlers have for the American people, and their confidence in their total control: they don't even feel any need to keep up appearances, but feel free to have their figurehead quite clearly not in command", Geller said.
She also echoed concerns regarding Biden's health, suggesting that the president's decision to go on a vacation is a signal of his "deteriorating" condition.
"His 'vacation' strongly suggests that he is quite seriously ill and rapidly deteriorating, such that his handlers can't even use him at the moment to keep up appearances", Geller declared without providing evidence to support her claims.
US President Joe Biden makes his way to board Marine One before departing from Fort McNair in Washington, DC on August 12, 2021. - Biden is heading to his residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
© AFP 2023 / MANDEL NGAN
Speculation about Biden's health and his capacity to be US president have been raised by some, with discussions about his physical and mental health particularly hyped after POTUS 46 tripped twice climbing up the stairs of Air Force One, or lost his way in the bushes near the White House.
According to Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who continues to receive questions about Biden's frequent departures from Washington DC, the president simply likes going home.
"Because it’s his home. You like going home right? So does the President", Psaki noted, when asked Biden visit's his Delaware residence so frequently. "He's human, too."
The humanity of a US president was not that much in the argument, however, when it came to Donald Trump, Biden's predecessor in the White House. When Trump decamped for his golf residences, the former president would immediately discover himself in the crosshairs of critics ready to remind him that the country was being ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Haven moved to explain the difference in opinion on presidential vacations with how the mainstream media covers it.
"When viewing the extreme difference between a Trump verses Biden backlash, it can only be attributed to one thing, the mainstream media’s necessity and desire to protect their poster child Joe Biden", she suggested. "In return, Biden provides them with an ongoing and full frontal assault on capitalism that the same media has shown no propensity to protect. It’s an Orwellian socialist symbiotic love affair, that is demolishing the country."
Geller pointed at an "establishment media" and a "far-left propaganda arm" that "frames 'news' events accordingly".
"Consequently, everything Trump does is wrong, and everything Biden does is right, or not worth remarking upon", the blogger concluded.
American writer E. Michael Jones, an editor for Culture Wars, offered a simpler opinion on what is behind what many see as a double standard.
"The answer is very simple. Biden is a puppet of the oligarchs. Trump was not", Jones stated.
*The Taliban - a terrorist movement outlawed in Russia and many other countries
