How bad is it going for President Joe Biden’s administration right now? Even NBC News host Chuck Todd, a former Democrat presidential campaign staffer, sees it.
“I think he’s got a pretty big credibility crisis on his hands,” NBC’s “Meet the Press” anchor Todd, who worked on former Sen. Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign, said Sunday.
It is not just the allegations of Republicans and critics, but Biden’s own words on Afghanistan, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the souther border crisis.
“All of these problems, in some ways, showed up after he said something, basically, the exact opposite,” Todd continued. “Afghanistan withdrawal: It wasn’t going to be messy. It was going to look like Saigon.
“The booster shots, he came out and essentially said at eight months and maybe we should start it as soon as five months. Now, we’re not sure that anybody younger than 65 is going to get a booster shot.”
Biden cannot even blame the Trump administration for the border crisis that has unfolded since he took over the White House, Todd said.
“We can talk about the border problems,” he continued. “You could say they’re years in the making, but it’s pretty clear we have a bigger problem now than we’ve had in years. And these policies have turned into becoming a magnet.”
Biden must address “his credibility on the world stage” in his address to the United Nations on Tuesday, Todd warned.
Biden needs to show the world the U.S. “is not just a stable government,” but the president himself can be “a competent leader of the free world right now.”
“He’s got a lot of work to do,” Todd said, adding the “next months are still going to be tough for him politically, because he’s got to get this big bill through Congress.”
The bill Todd was referring to is the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill the Senate hoped to pass solely on Democrat and independent votes in the 50-50 divided Senate.
“If that thing is passed, I think he can start to take a few breaths here for a bit, but he’s going a lot on the line here in the next month,” Todd concluded. “That’s for sure.”
