The Braggart
This week, I read through the transcript of Joe Biden’s press conference in Brussels on March 24. And let me tell you when it comes to boastful rhetoric, even Donald Trump has nothing on old Braggart Joe.
Don’t get me wrong. President Trump was a braggart.
The difference is Trump had reason to brag. Under his presidency, America became a net exporter of oil and gas for the first time in history. Unemployment was at the lowest rate in a half-century. Black unemployment was at the lowest rate in history. And, because we were energy independent, gas and home heating prices were comfortably low. Jobs were being created rather than simply restored. Our country was not being flooded with illegal aliens pouring across our border.
And for the first time in a long time, the country was not dragged into a war.
So if Donald Trump was a braggart, he had reason to be.
Biden has crippled the economy with 40-year high inflation. Millions of illegals are flooding across our border. Gas prices are skyrocketing because Biden placed sanctions on the American energy sector long before he sanctioned Putin.
Despite that, the braggart boasts of what a terrific job he’s doing.
But put him in front of a foreign audience, and the broken-down old crock really goes to town.
We’ve seen this every time Biden travels to Europe.
Old Joe struts around Europe like a has-been rock star preening for his fawning fans. Only he was never a rock star and the people he mistakes for “fans” are world leaders who know, with Joe in the White House, America is once again their doormat.
Joe thinks European leaders ogle him the way 60-something housewives ogle Tom Jones.
I’ve mentioned before that Joe Biden is a very vain man:
The aviator glasses, the crooked matinee idol smile, the convertible, the hair plugs for Pete’s sake – the guy is very touchy about how he looks. And he always has been.
I was in my mid-twenties when Vain Joe launched his first Presidential campaign. And he was just as vain back then as he is today.
It’s why he embellishes his life story to include tales of tough guy derring-do.
It’s why he endlessly brags about his IQ and his education – even to the point of lying about it.
It’s why he gets touchier than a beauty losing her looks anytime he is publicly challenged.
I also think it’s why Joe gets handsy with the ladies. There’s a part of him that actually thinks those women are aching for his attention because he’s just that suave.
He’s a Beta Male with delusions of Alpha – the waterboy who fantasizes he’s the star quarterback. The 98-pound weakling who can’t stop challenging people to wrestling matches.
And because old Braggart Joe fancies himself such a foreign policy genius, whenever he goes to Europe, his boastful rhetoric gets kicked up to Spinal Tap 11.
“Hello, Brussels!!”
This brings me to the transcript from his press conference in Brussels last week.
A reporter for the German outlet Der Spiegel asked Joe about the 2024 election and if he had taken any steps to prevent his successor from undoing what Joe has implemented with NATO “two years from now.”
I admit, when I read the question, I laughed out loud.
Clearly, the reporter from Der Spiegel doesn’t think old Joe will be reelected two years from now.
But old Braggart Joe didn’t even notice.
Instead, during the course of his rambling answer, he made the following boasts:
“I’ve been dealing with foreign policy for longer than anybody that’s involved in this process right now.”
And:
“My focus of any election is on making sure that we retain the House and the United States Senate so that I have the room to continue to do the things that I’ve been able to do in terms of grow the economy and deal in a rational way with American foreign policy and lead the world — lead the — be the leader of the free world.” (emphasis mine)
And:
“I don’t think you’ll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job. And I mean that sincerely.”
And:
“But the next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me.”
See what I mean?
It’s one thing to be a braggart when you have plenty of accomplishments you can boast about.
But Joe Biden has none — especially on the world stage.
Joe stabbed our allies in the back during his bungled Afghanistan withdrawal.
And during his trip to Europe last week, Joe kept making statements, including in that damn press conference, that made our NATO allies deeply nervous while sending the White House into “what he meant to say” hyper-drive.
And yet there he stood at the podium honking his own horn and boasting that nobody has the experience in foreign policy that he has. And he is the “leader of the free world.”
As I wrote in my column “Vain Joe,” his vanity is one of the reasons he gets so angry when challenged.
After spending that press conference strutting around like Mick Jagger, the very last series of questions Joe got made him so irritated, once again, he lost his cool with a lady reporter.
CBS News correspondent Christina Ruffini asked the vain, boastful old codger:
“Sir, deterrence didn’t work. What makes you think Vladimir Putin will alter course based on the action you’ve taken today?”
How dare she question the “leader of the free world?!”
Joe snapped back at Ruffini:
“Let’s get something straight: You remember, if you’ve covered me from the beginning, I did not say that in fact the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that.
“Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions — the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain, and the demonstration — why I asked for this NATO meeting today — is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we’re doing not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That’s what will stop him.”
In point of fact, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and other assorted cast of characters at the White House all said the purpose of sanctions is deterrence:
Anyhow.
Ruffini pressed on, asking Joe again:
“Do you believe the actions today will have an impact on making Russia change course in Ukraine?”
And once again, the old crank lost his cool, telling Ruffini:
“That’s not what I said. You … you … you’re playing a game with me.”
This is what happens when someone as arrogant and self-satisfied as Joe Biden gets challenged.
How Joe sees himself is radically different from how the rest of the world sees him.
Old Braggart Joe believes he is the smartest, most experienced foreign policy tough guy to ever strut across the world stage. Every utterance that tumbles from his mouth is sacrosanct and should never be challenged.
Part of Joe’s braggadocio likely stems from the fact that the White House is keeping him in the dark about the fact that Joe Biden is not the guy in charge of the Biden administration.
We know he’s in not in charge. The White House knows he’s not in charge. Foreign leaders know he’s not in charge. And the press knows he’s not in charge.
The only person who doesn’t know that Joe’s not in charge is Joe Biden.
And perhaps Jill.
He believes that he’s the rock star and the rest of the administration are just his backup dancers.
If I had to venture a guess, I’d say Joe isn’t even aware that the White House spent last week issuing correction after correction to clean up his dangerous gaffes while he was strutting around Europe shooting off his mouth.
But because we all know that happened, in hindsight, it makes Biden’s bombastic boasting all the more absurd.
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