Daily Broadside | Awesome Leadership Skills Only Show Up When No One Is Looking

Daily Verse | Isaiah 48:17
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.”

Monday’s Reading: Isaiah 52-57

Monday and I’m back after a week away. Even though I couldn’t check in with the Daily Broadside, I kept an eye on political shenanigans and the more serious developments in Washington, D.C., while I was gone.

Perhaps the most surprising event was the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda. He was Usama bin Laden’s deputy during the 9/11 attacks and took over al-Qaeda after UBL was killed in 2011. Now both of them have gone to their reward, and thank God they’ve been removed from this world.

As regular readers of the Broadside know, I’m no fan of Joe Biden or his cabal of imposters in Washington, D.C. But credit where credit is due: they apparently learned where this cretin was, obtained detailed intelligence that confirmed his identity, put together a plan based on long-term observation of al-Zawahiri’s habitual routines, then eliminated him with a precision drone strike that killed him and caused no collateral damage, i.e., civilian casualties, including his wife and children.

So, props to Biden for approving the plan and his posse for pulling it off. The dirtbag got what he deserved.

However.

I literally laughed out loud when I read a report of how the assassination was approved.

On July 1, Biden was briefed on a proposed operation in the White House Situation Room by key members of his Cabinet, including CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid, as well as other national security officials.

“The president was, as always, deeply engaged in the briefing and immersed in the intelligence. He asked detailed questions about what we knew and how we knew,” the official explained, noting that the president sought explanations of “lighting, of weather, of construction materials and of other factors that could influence the success of this operation and reduce the risk of civilian casualties.”

“He was particularly focused on ensuring that every step had been taken to ensure the operation would minimize that risk and he wanted to understand the basis upon which we had confidence in our assessment,” the official continued.

Biden then directed the intelligence community to prepare a series of impact analyses that he could fully understand, and directed that the U.S. government be “prepared to manage the ramifications of the strike in the region and beyond.”

[…]

Biden and officials met multiple times in person in the White House Situation Room over the course of June and July to “pressure test” the intelligence.

“At the conclusion of the meeting, the president authorized a precise, tailored air strike on the condition that a strike minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the risk of civilian casualties,” the official explained, noting that meant the government could conduct a strike “once an opportunity was available.”

“Deeply engaged”?

“Immersed in the intelligence”?

“Asked detailed questions”?

He “sought explanations of lighting, of weather, of construction materials and of other factors that could influence the success of this operation”?

He “directed the intelligence community” and “the U.S. government”?

LOL.

The undistinguished bumbling idiot who can only speak using a teleprompter (and most of the time, not even then), who is hustled away as soon as the press starts asking questions, who looks lost on stage when he finishes a “speech,” who has to be instructed, “YOU take YOUR seat,” who has been on the wrong side of every major policy decision for the last 50 years, including disagreeing with the strike that killed Usama bin Laden—this moron is somehow “deeply engaged” and laser focused and asking detailed questions about lighting, the construction materials and the weather in Kabul, Afghanistan, as though he’s gamed it out in his head and is on par with intelligence experts and is directing intelligence agencies to provide him with “impact analyses” for him to scour so he can determine the right course of action?

Really?

REALLY?

No, he’s not.

First, Brandon and his gang lie to our face every single day. The border is closed. We’re not in a recession. The economy is the best ever. Raising taxes will reduce inflation.

You can’t trust a word they say.

Second, the media is only too happy to support this administration and their lies. Anything that makes Brandon look competent will be prominently displayed across their pages. This is clearly a report made-for-the-press to prop up an unpopular party boss who is going to be shellacked come November (assuming toilets can hold their water in Arizona).

Third, the claim is not verifiable. The planning was done in secret of necessity, but how conveeEeenient that no one objective was there to see this Great Man Working His MajickTM. The description of what happened makes Brandon sound like some kind of take-charge leader who is in the middle of all the planning and commands his staff with a firm hand.

I don’t buy it.

The take down of al-Zawahiri was bound to be a significant event that most Americans would perceive positively and connecting Brandon as tightly to it as possible a couple of months before the mid-terms is a cynical way to boost his ratings. But that senior administration official’s report is the greatest instance of gaslighting I’ve ever read.

Good for Brandon that he took down al-Zawahiri. But don’t expect me to believe that he was capable of anything more than nodding his approval before he had his tapioca pudding and went to bed.