Did Biden Get Thrown Under the Bus by His Chief of Staff? Just Look at What He Tweeted

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By C. Douglas Golden March 30, 2022

World leaders have attacked President Joe Biden for his ill-considered speech in Poland over the weekend in which he seemed to argue for regime change when he called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” and said, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

Republicans attacked him. Heck, even some in the establishment media attacked him, friendly though they may be.

Now, his own White House is attacking him, too — if perhaps unintentionally.

On Tuesday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain retweeted remarks from CNN’s John Harwood remarks about the president’s speech.

While the tone of Harwood’s tweet was generally complimentary, he said “Biden’s last-line ad-lib about Putin represented a significant lapse in discipline.

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(As The Western Journal has documented, this isn’t the first time Klain’s Twitter account has gotten himself and the White House into trouble. We’ll continue to point out the White House chief of staff’s telling social media gaffes. You can help us by subscribing.)

Harwood’s tweet went thusly: “Biden’s last-line ad-lib about Putin represented a significant lapse in discipline but on concrete military steps, he has remained careful to avoid escalation risks experts on nuclear doctrine say he’s right to do so.”

Biden’s last-line ad-lib about Putin represented a significant lapse in discipline

but on concrete military steps, he has remained careful to avoid escalation risks

experts on nuclear doctrine say he’s right to do so

my @CNN analysis
https://t.co/IftdM4YuKa

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 27, 2022

His analysis of Biden’s speech was what you’d expect from a CNNite; consider that it includes a quote from NeverTrump hack Tom Nichols that identifies him only as “a leading authority on Russia and US nuclear doctrine.”

Was Biden’s speech in Poland a ‘significant lapse in discipline’?

Harwood also waited until the 15th paragraph of a story that tries to paint Biden as a commander in chief threading a delicate needle in a dangerous moment for U.S.-Russia relations to mention that Biden blurted out, at the end of the Poland speech, that Putin “cannot remain in power.”

But I digress. We’re here because Klain foolishly pressed retweet on something he shouldn’t have. Again:

Klain Watch pic.twitter.com/vsYSfMSVf7

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 28, 2022

White House chiefs of staff typically have a number of different roles. They select senior White House staffers, advise the president, manage who and what he sees every day, and tweet stuff that’s politically harmful to the administration. Actually, the last one is rather specific to Klain alone, but he certainly does it with gusto.

Consider these tin-eared retweets about inflation, which has been hovering at near-record highs for most of the Biden administration:

Klain Watch: pic.twitter.com/9xXb6b01Hf

— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) January 12, 2022

This ?? https://t.co/ymh53nEHAg

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) October 14, 2021

And then there was this doozy in which he stated that “America is back to work” after a 0.2 percent rise in the labor force participation rate in November 2021, which brought us back to the highest rate since March 2020. That meant we … were still nowhere near the employment rate before the pandemic:

America is back at work. https://t.co/msPBhjTEng

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) December 3, 2021

Klain’s Twitter habits are so bad they’ve actually had legal consequences.

In November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that Biden’s vaccine mandate for the private sector was unconstitutional. The judge’s decision was in part due to Klain’s retweet of MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, who wrote that “[the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is the ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations.”

OSHA doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is the ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations.

— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) September 9, 2021

“After the President voiced his displeasure with the country’s vaccination rate in September, the Administration pored over the U.S. Code in search of authority, or a ‘work-around,’ for imposing a national vaccine mandate,” the court said.

This isn’t just to dunk on Klain; in all of these cases, he was saying the silent part out loud.

On jobs and the economy, Biden administration officials grade the White House leniently; they didn’t consider inflation to be a serious problem until it started hurting them in polls and they still think the jobs numbers are pretty darn good, even when they’re not.

Doing the vaccine mandate through OSHA was a workaround because the vaccine mandate was wholly unachievable through the executive branch.

And, yes, “Biden’s last-line ad-lib about Putin represented a significant lapse in discipline.”

Consider that, according to The Associated Press, both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — arguably two of the most powerful NATO leaders who aren’t ensconced in the White House — expressed disapproval at Biden’s “cannot remain in power” comment.

Republican lawmakers have also expressed their dismay, including those who have thus far supported the White House on Ukraine.

“Please, Mr. President, stay on script,” said GOP Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said it “plays into the hands of the Russian propagandists and plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin.”

Now, even his own administration is throwing him under the bus for his “significant lapse in discipline.”