You might have expected Joe Scarborough to play defense for the Biden administration on the matter. But instead, a skeptical Scarborough asked Ignatius how Austin survives this, and whether any other Secretary of Defense would keep his job in such circumstances. Declared Scarborough: Austin “went AWOL.” Ouch!
A stumbling Ignatius, playing defense for Austin, unleashed multiple sighs in response. He asserted that Austin’s failures were not a “capital crime” [i.e. a firing offense]. …
At the end of the discussion, Ignatius argued that firing Austin in an election year would be “more trouble than it’s worth.” Really?
[Actually, I think David Ignatius was trying to explain the White House’s thinking on this, not his own — and he may well be correct. Biden doesn’t want a contentious Senate confirmation hearing on a SecDef appointment in the middle of an election campaign, especially as that would give Senate Republicans carte blanche to reopen the abandonment of thousands of Americans in Afghanistan in August 2021. Duane and I discussed that briefly in our Week in Review show today, too. But all sighing aside, Joe Scarborough’s exactly right and kudos to him for making that argument. — Ed]
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