The laughter was so off-kilter, it made you wonder if Joe Biden had taken leave of his senses during his mini-press conference Sunday.
Americans are trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. Our troops at Kabul airport are faced with an uncontrollable surge of people so desperate to escape, they are dying in the crush. America has suffered its worst self-inflicted humiliation and the free world is less safe — all because of his dumb decisions.
And he laughs? A cold, inappropriate laugh, muscle memory deployed as a political weapon by a man operating on empty.
The first bout of hilarity came in response to a question from CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe, one of four questions Biden allowed from a pre-approved list of reporters in the Roosevelt Room, seven days after the fall of Kabul.
Did he trust the Taliban? A swaggering, streetwise smile swept his face. I’m no chump, it said, after he and his congenitally naive national security team were taken for chumps by those Stone Age Islamists.