MSNBC analyst attempts baseball analogy to absolve Biden of blame for Afghanistan debacle

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Media top headlines August 30

In media news today, Obama's former education secretary gets slammed for likening anti-maskers to Kabul suicide bombers, Disney faces internal pressure to conduct an outside probe of ABC News' handling of sexual harassment claims, and ABC's Jon Karl says Biden admin calling Afghanistan a success is not based in 'reality'

MSNBC analyst Richard Stengel tried to compare the crisis in Afghanistan to a lopsided baseball game Monday in attempting to absolve President Joe Biden of blame for his tumultuous troop withdrawal.

Stengel, an ex-State Department official in the Obama administration, tweeted, "Blaming Biden for Afghanistan is like saying the last batter in a 9-inning 10-to-nothing rout was responsible for the loss."

Stengel's take drew a mixed reaction, with one effort to lightly criticize him faltering in its execution. Washington Post columnist Max Boot, a Biden backer and staunchly anti-Republican voice who has been critical of Biden's Afghanistan pullout, suggested it was more akin to blaming a relief pitcher for losing a game when he comes in with the score tied and allows multiple home runs.

Several people reminded Boot the pitcher would in fact take the loss if he did that.

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Biden has faced some of the sharpest media criticism of his presidency for his handling of the withdrawal, as the Taliban's rapid takeover caught the administration off guard and led to scenes of panic and terror at Kabul's airport. The administration has continued to take fire for a slow-footed public response, rhetoric about the situation on the ground that didn't match reporting, and the ensuing Islamic State suicide bombing attack last week in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. service members.

United States President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the terror attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul Afghanistan, and the U.S. service members and Afghan victims killed and wounded in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Featuring: President Joe Biden Where: Washington, District Of Columbia, United States When: 26 Aug 2021 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages/Cover Images (POOL via CNP/INSTARimages/Cover Images)

Biden supported the initial 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and even said as a U.S. senator that the U.S. shouldn't shy away from "nation-building," but he claimed this month that the idea of nation-building in that country never made sense to him. Biden has also repeatedly framed the situation as him being dealt an unwinnable hand after the Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban.

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Despite the chaotic troop withdrawal, Biden still has his defenders in the media, such as David Rothkopf, a Biden donor and longtime foreign policy figure in Washington who once registered as a foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates. A frequent retweet target of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, he penned a piece in The Atlantic Monday that declared the Biden administration deserved the country's praise for its handling of Afghanistan.