Jesse Watters: Biden isn't 'emotionally connected' to situation in Afghanistan
'The Five' reacts to Biden's statement on bringing Americans home from Afghanistan
President Joe Biden appeared emotionless and stilted delivering remarks during his news conference; prioritizing Democrats' multi-trillion-dollar spending bills before speaking briefly about the intensifying crisis in Afghanistan, the panel on "The Five" said Tuesday.
Host Dana Perino, formerly the press secretary for President George W. Bush, criticized Biden's delivery, the prioritization of his political policy agenda over the Afghan crisis, and his refusal once again to take questions from the press.
"I screamed a little when he started with ‘Build Back Better’ -- I get it, the Democrats passed it in the House with their razor-thin margin $3.5 trillion in spending that will saddle you for the rest of your lives. But other than that…" she began.
"You cannot try to say your domestic agenda is more important than the international crisis you're supposed to be handling," Perino added.
She wondered aloud whether Biden is actually thinking about or considering the words he is reading from the teleprompter, or if he is essentially reading a prepared script:
"Every time he's spoken this week… when he speaks and is reading the teleprompter, it's like, are you internalizing these words? Are you understanding?" Perino observed. "Because the other thing that's frustrating since last Friday, we pointed out again and again, he says these things or the press secretary has said things that then you are looking at the people you're talking to on the ground… you are actually hearing things that are completely the opposite of what they're saying."
She highlighted one particular example from Biden's remarks where he claimed 70,700 nationals have been evacuated from Kabul since the crisis began, asserting that many of those tens of thousands were by U.S. allies like Great Britain, France, and Germany.
Perino noted United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson took the initiative to call a meeting of the G7 alliance amid the chaos. She added that Biden appeared to have "terms for recognizing the Taliban's legitimacy" as a government in the way he delivered his remarks.
"If you listen to when he said 'we're not going to take their word but here are these things they would need to do'," she thought aloud.
Perino added there is also a possibility that the new and standing terror attack threat from ISIS' Khorasan Group on the Hamid Karzai International Airport is a "way for [the U.S.] to get out of the airport sooner than we actually need to before we can get all of our people out."
"The president said we'll tell you tomorrow how many there are. I don't think they necessarily know and I understand why they might not know. But to me that was subpar, to say the least," said Perino.
Host Jesse Watters added that the White House address was a "bizarre turn of events", in that Biden's rhetoric about Afghanistan painted the crisis as another simple challenge a president faces on a daily basis, like the economy or Democrats' eagerness to pass their election law overhaul.
Greg Gutfeld later added that Biden appeared in the mold of a fading entertainment talent that "just had to play all the greatest hits."
Biden, 78, began with "the free stuff – then the climate crisis, then corporate taxes," Gutfeld recalled.
"All of these things are there, kind of like the way that they can say, 'Look, I'm still president, this [Afghanistan] thing is just something else,'" he said.
Gutfeld went on to compare the difficulty he is having in trying to obtain a personal firearm permit in New York State to the way the federal government essentially left billions of dollars in much more advanced weaponry to the Taliban when they evacuated places like Bagram Air Base.
"I'm going through this complex process of getting a handgun in New York City. I could have just joined the Taliban," he said.
"It is easier to get guns from America being in the Taliban than being a citizen of New York who's come under threat," Gutfeld said. "And all I want to do is get a permit for a gun, and I see that we just hand over rockets, rifles, and handguns, to the Taliban."
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.