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Kayleigh McEnany Forgets the Entire Trump Presidency
Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Donald Trump’s final White House press secretary, has been doing some serious revisionist history ever since taking a job as a Fox News commentator. McEnany appeared on Fox News Primetime yesterday and attempted to rewrite the Trump years while at the same time criticizing the Biden administration. Kayleigh said, “look when President Trump was president, you didn’t have crisis after crisis. You just didn’t see it.” For starters, half a million Americans died from COVID under Trump, a virus which he downplayed, equated to the flu, and pushed quack cures for in an effort to reopen the country early while putting people in danger. On top of that, there was the Ukraine scandal, the disastrous response to the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, the attacking of reporters and a free press, racism against minority members of Congress, and the list goes on and on. President Trump’s term wrapped up with him whining about a “stolen election,” a claim he had no proof of, and an insurrection at the Capitol that led to an unprecedented second impeachment.
McEnany must think the people watching have selective amnesia, or that they slept through the entire Trump presidency. Kayleigh went on to say in the Fox appearance: “I have shuttered to think about what COVID would have been like under Joe Biden.” The idea that anyone could have handled the pandemic worse than Donald Trump is laughable, but also COVID persists into the Biden administration and we know exactly how the current president is fighting it. Biden ramped up the timeline to get vaccines available to the American public, something Trump was not concerned with. Biden has also fought back against attempts by some Republican governors to ban mask mandates at the municipal level and encouraged local officials to use carrots and sticks to get people vaccinated. Though another wave of the virus is upon us now (mainly because of right-wing anti-vaxxers) the country was able to get close to normal for most of the late spring and summer and Biden deserves a great deal of credit for that. McEnany’s claims are ludicrous at every turn, but sadly they’ll sound convincing to the Fox News audience that adores her.
Joe Biden Is Completely Right to Leave Afghanistan
Despite this month’s messy departure of Americans from Afghanistan, Joe Biden has confirmed that the Pentagon will be sticking to the August 31st deadline for withdrawal. There has been pushback in recent weeks from the left and right for Biden to commit to staying longer in the country and some even want to reengage in a full-on war to fight back the Taliban and take back Kabul. Biden has ignored those calls and maintained that he doesn’t want any more US troops put in harms way when many Afghan troops aren’t willing to put up a significant fight themselves. The reasons for leaving far outweigh the justifications for staying, especially at this point. The US has been fighting in the Middle East for nearly 20 years, this war has cost trillions of dollars, and we know by now the policy of nationbuilding has failed. Whether the US stayed in Afghanistan for 1, 5, or 10 more years, eventually when we left the Taliban or another extremist group would be waiting in the wings to take over. What then, is the point of staying longer only to waste more money and put more US and NATO troops in danger?
Leaving Afghanistan is arguably the best thing Joe Biden has done during his administration so far, even though it has for now led to a slight downtick in his approval rating. The media have been criticizing Biden in recent weeks, as have some voices on the left. Republicans too have been piling on, arguing the Taliban would not have taken over had Trump been the one in charge of the American troop withdrawal. If Trump did commit to taking out US troops as planned, the same thing would have happened as evidenced by the speed with which the Taliban was able to take over in our absence. Ultimately, Trump did not withdraw completely from Afghanistan despite promising to, whereas Biden actually followed through with his promise and is leaving the country. Perhaps he is getting some flack now for the messy withdrawal, but history will ultimately judge the president kindly for pulling out the troops and ending America’s longest military conflict.
From yesterday’s show:
Pentagon Mandating Vaccine for All Military Members
The Pentagon is following through with a plan to require all members of the US military to be vaccinated for COVID-19. A couple of weeks ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated in a memorandum that all servicemembers would need to get vaccinated either by mid-September or shortly after the FDA gave full approval of the Pfizer vaccine — whichever came first. As it turned out, FDA approval came first and the mandate will soon be going into effect. Secretary Austin said about the policy decision: “These efforts ensure the safety of our service members and promote the readiness of our force, not to mention the health and safety of the communities around the country in which we live.” Not surprisingly, the backlash has already begun. Many right-wing members of the US military are planning their out from the service over the requirement, which makes no sense, because plenty of other vaccines are already required of US troops. These mandates are likely to continue across different sections of the government now that the first vaccine has received full approval, and perhaps it will actually encourage people who waited this long to finally go get their shots.
More on the show:
--Another possible "Havana syndrome" incident occurs in Vietnam
--Would it be fair to treat vaccinated patients first, all else being equal?
--Three independent emergency rooms in Texas are forced to close due to COVID pushing them completely beyond their capacity
--"Doctor" Gina Loudon, who has a PhD in organization systems, appears on television to say that the FDA didn't "really" approve the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
--A very disturbed woman appears at a Greenville, South Carolina school board meeting to claim that the CDC has a plan to turn schools into concentration camps, and shockingly, the crowd cheers her
--MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell now says Donald Trump's reinstatement will happen by the end of 2021, another cult-like shifting prophecy
--Voicemail caller correctly points out that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell didn't understand what was happening when David interviewed him
--On the Bonus Show: House passes voting right bill, Airbnb will provide housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees, Oregon implementing outdoor mask mandates, much more...
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