Biden's response to New Year's attacks lacked urgency

We are not such a lucky people that the Biden presidency would end quietly.

We were always due for at least a couple of final insults.

On Jan. 1, at approximately 3:15 a.m. EST, a motorist sped down New Orleans’s famed Bourbon Street, killing more than a dozen New Year’s revelers and injuring more than 30 others. The driver, a U.S. Army veteran who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, was shot and killed following a brief gunfight with responding police officers.

Later that same day, at around 8:40 a.m. PT in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck loaded with an improvised explosive device detonated in front of a Trump-branded hotel. While at least seven people were injured in the blast, the only fatality was the driver, a decorated active-duty U.S. Army Green Beret.

Federal authorities have classified the New Orleans attack as an act of terrorism. They are investigating whether the Las Vegas explosion was also a terrorist act.

Now more than ever, it would be great to have a decisive, commanding and capable president, one who is quick to respond to the demands of the moment. Unfortunately, we don’t have that; we have Joe Biden.

How did “Scranton Joe,” the “empathy" president whose half-century in Washington was supposed to have prepared him for the rigors and extraordinary responsibilities of the office, respond to the dual attacks? Not with a sense of urgency, that’s for sure.

Though key details of the New Orleans assault, including the double-digit death toll, the gunfight between the driver and the police, and even the make of the vehicle used in the attack, were confirmed publicly before 9 a.m. Wednesday (meaning the Oval Office likely had access to those details long before then), the White House didn’t release a statement until around lunchtime. The president’s handlers tweeted portions of the official White House response even later than that.

If you think this is an unimpressive turnaround time, consider the Cybertruck explosion occurred at around 11:40 a.m. EST and that Biden, who had returned from a five-day Christmas vacation in the Virgin Islands the previous evening, didn’t comment on the matter until after dinner. He spent Wednesday morning preparing for a flight to Hagerstown, Md., with his eventual destination being Camp David, where he arrived around the same time as the Las Vegas explosion.

When the United States finally heard from its president following the back-to-back New Year’s attacks, it was via a scripted four-minute address. Biden did not take questions from the press and offered no new information.

The president then shuffled away and presumably went to bed.

Biden’s next public appearance would not be until the following afternoon when he announced at a White House event that he had “[secured] 235 judicial confirmations.” Before discussing his alleged accomplishment, he provided a two-and-a-half-minute update on the federal investigation into the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks. He shared no new information and took no questions.

“New Orleans is a city of tremendous spirit. It can’t keep it down — you really can’t. And we are seeing that today,” the president said Thursday, referring to a college football game scheduled in the city later that evening. “The Sugar Bowl is back on. Kick-off is going to take off very shortly.”

He added, “If I don’t get this damn thing done, we’re going to be in real trouble.”

Attendees at the White House event responded with cheery laughs.

At the time of the president’s remarks, the death toll in New Orleans had already surpassed 14. Ha, ha, ha.

Later that evening, Biden gifted the Presidential Citizens Medal to some of his friends and colleagues, including Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), best known for his refusal to certify the 2004 presidential election results, and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who, along with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), once allegedly sexually assaulted a waitress in Washington, D.C. The president did not comment on the New Orleans or the Las Vegas attacks.

Lastly, just before the Sugar Bowl Game on Thursday, ESPN aired a pre-taped video of Biden.

In the 33-second video, the president repeated a condensed version of his earlier remarks, including the note about how the “spirit” of New Orleans can never be “kept down.”

What a joke.

After spending nearly 40 percent of his presidency on vacation (more than 530 vacation days in just four years), one might expect Biden to at least have enough energy to deliver a serious and robust presidential response to back-to-back attacks. Perhaps something more urgent and reassuring than a ghostwritten lunchtime statement; maybe more than seven minutes of scripted, boilerplate remarks with no questions from the press over a 36-hour period following two attacks.

One might expect that an octogenarian who has spent nearly his entire adult life in the nation’s capital would, at the very least, know how to pretend to look like he is in charge.

But one would be wrong. Very wrong.

If nothing else, Joe Biden can at least slouch away from the White House knowing that his unwavering commitment to serving Joe Biden never faltered, not even in the face of terrorist attacks. He has at least that.

Becket Adams is a writer in Washington and program director for the National Journalism Center.

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