Americans under President Biden are 'confused' and 'distrustful': Jesse Watters
'The Five' panel slam President Biden on how he is communicating with the American people
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The Five" panelists slammed President Biden on Tuesday for what they said was a speech that missed the mark on reassuring Americans his administration was tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Some panelists compared the political sentiment in America to tensions between a parent and a child.
"Being a president is kind of like being a parent," said Jesse Watters. "You have to manage expectations. We take the twins on a car ride to Maine from New York … I don't tell the twins we're going to get there in three hours … They're going to be cranky and confused, and they're not going to trust me the next day. And that's how other people feel. They're cranky, confused, and they're distrustful of the president."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Greg Gutfeld compared Biden to "the dad who's driving the station wagon."
"He's lost and the kids are in the back seat," he said. "They're America going, ‘Where are we? Where are we?’ And he's saying it, 'We're all good.'"
DANA PERINO SUGGESTS BIDEN HAS FAILED TO USE 'VACCINE DIPLOMACY' TO TACKLE COVID
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden, during a Tuesday speech addressing the omicron variant, couldn't even pretend to offer the American people hope, Gutfeld said.
"He has no power to express any optimism," he added. "He can't express a glimmer of hope."
Biden had promised during his campaign that his administration would effectively tackle COVID-19.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’m never going to raise the white flag and surrender," he said. "We’re going to beat this virus. We’re going to get it under control — I promise you."
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
"The guy ran on crushing the virus, said Trump didn't crush it, and then declared this summer that he crushed it," Watters said. "And now you have two successive waves and people don't think you're credible."
A Fox Business poll found that 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden's job performance and 65 percent feel dissatisfied about how things are going in the country.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On inflation, almost half of Americans believe Biden is making it worse, and about 67 percent said inflation had hurt their finances within the past six months.
Cinematic Earth view from space. (iStock)
The poll numbers show that Biden's political capital is "dwindling," and his speech on omicron did not help his cause, said Dana Perino.
"I know vaccination requirements are unpopular," Biden said. "My administration has put them in place not to control your life, but to save your life."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden speaks about the omicron variant in the White House. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden put a vaccine mandate into play to distract Americans from the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Perino said.
"The vaccine mandate was a distraction during Afghanistan," she added. "Yeah, it was a Friday afternoon in the middle of August, and all of a sudden he's going to give a speech. OK, great. [We were thinking] he's going to maybe tell us, like, what's going to happen here? Are we going to be able to have extra time to get these people out? Instead, it comes on instead of around a vaccine mandate, and that was super confusing."
The Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15. and the White House announced actions for COVID-19 three days later, including "requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for long-term care workers who serve Medicare and Medicaid enrollees."