DON’T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR TRUMP!

Kamala Harris, Other Top Biden Officials Missing In Action During Crises Photo of Jonathan Davis Jonathan DavisOctober 18, 2021 80,647 OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion Several of President Joe Biden’s top officials and Cabinet members have been missing in action during some of the country’s biggest emergencies and worst crises thus far during his short tenure. This past week, for instance, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was ripped by critics following reports he has been out of his office for about two months on paternity leave after he and husband Chasten adopted two newborn children while a burgeoning supply chain problem rose to the level of a national emergency. Fox News has more: As the Biden administration has juggled crises in Afghanistan, the southern border and the national supply chain, key officials, including the president himself, have declined to make visibility a top priority. The media wasn’t notified until two months later that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had taken a parental leave in mid-August to care for his newborn twins. Buttigieg’s office told Politico on Thursday that he was “mostly offline” for an entire month “except for major agency decisions” and that his activities had been ramping up in recent weeks. The former South Bend, Ind., mayor who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year did not appoint an interim secretary in his absence, though the country’s supply chain issues worsened and store shelves grew sparse and even bare in some parts of the country. Meanwhile, container ships by the dozens on both coasts sat idle outside of ports for days on end waiting for a spot to open up so they could be offloaded ahead of a holiday shopping season that can often be make-or-break for smaller retailers. Worse, Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday that the disruptions are only going to get worse for the time being and last well into 2022 ahead of next year’s midterms. “Certainly a lot of the challenges that we’ve been experiencing this year will continue into next year,” Buttigieg responded. “Look, part of what is happening isn’t just the supply side, it’s the demand side. Demand is off the charts. Retail sales are through the roof. And if you think about those images of ships, for example, waiting at anchor on the West Coast – every one of those ships is full of record amounts of goods that Americans are buying because demand is up because income is up because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.” “Our supply chains can’t keep up,” he continued. “And of course, our supply chains, that’s a complicated system that is mostly in private hands, and rightly so. Our role is to be an honest broker, bring together all of the different players there, secure commitments, and get solutions that are going to make it easier.” Republicans have pounced on the issue. “Pete Buttigieg was completely unqualified to serve as Secretary of Transportation,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted Monday. “Now, Pete is absent during a transportation crisis that is hurting working-class Americans.” “PETE BUTTIGIEG has been MIA,” Politico noted Thursday. Buttigieg isn’t the only ranking member of the Biden administration who has been MIA during a number of other pressing issues. In March, Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to be his government’s “border czar” as illegal immigration reached a fever pitch with record numbers of encounters with federal border authorities, a problem that continued to worsen all summer and into the fall. But Harris has only taken one high-profile trip to the border: She visited the El Paso Sector in June, though illegal immigration has not been a problem along that section of the boundary. And earlier this month, she was missing from a top meeting with Mexican officials regarding border security.

Finally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was nowhere to be found as the Taliban were sweeping through Afghanistan and into the capital of Kabul ahead of a then-pressing deadline for all U.S. forces to leave the country. “Secretary of State Antony Blinken was vacationing in the Hamptons just before the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, when Taliban insurgents completed their retaking of the country 20 years after their ouster,” Fox News reported. And Biden himself, along with “first lady Jill took a trip to Rehoboth, Delaware, for a quiet weekend of church service and bike rides” August 29, a day before the deadline, Fox News reported, adding: “The president largely avoided cameras during the initial drawdown, watching the Aug. 15 fall of Kabul unfold from the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.”