Biden’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview Proved Once Again He Isn’t Running The Country, So Who Is?

President Joe Biden sat down for a rare, one-on-one interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” this past weekend, and it went about as well as you’d expect.

In addition to dismissing public concerns about skyrocketing inflation and his family’s foreign business dealings, America’s commander in chief decided to lay out his administration’s supposed policy with respect to the ongoing China-Taiwan issue.

“We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago,” Biden said in an apparent reference to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. “There’s a ‘One China Policy,’ and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence. We are … not encouraging [them to be] independent. … That’s their decision.”

Under the “One China Policy,” the United States acknowledges that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the sole government of China and that Taiwan belongs to China. The U.S. does not, however, recognize the PRC’s claims to territorial sovereignty over Taiwan.

While Biden’s remarks about Taiwanese independence fall in line with the United States’ long-standing policy toward the island nation, his next comments almost assuredly left White House staff hopping mad. When asked by CBS News’s Scott Pelley if the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden answered with an unequivocal “yes.”

“So, unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Pelley asked in a follow-up, to which Biden replied, “yes.”

After Biden’s remarks, Pelley noted how a White House official told “60 Minutes” that “U.S. policy [toward Taiwan] had not changed,” and that “officially, the U.S. will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan.”

The remarks from Biden, if true, would greatly alter U.S. policy toward Taiwan. For decades, America has practiced what’s known as strategic ambiguity, wherein the U.S. won’t officially confirm whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Despite the magnitude of such a policy change, this is hardly the first time Biden has publicly expressed U.S. military support for Taiwan and the White House was forced to release a statement “clarifying” the president’s remarks. During a CNN town hall event with Anderson Cooper last October, Biden was asked point-blank if the U.S. would defend Taiwan from China, to which the president responded by saying, “yes, we have a commitment to do that.”

Not even 24 hours later did a White House official release a statement saying Biden “was not announcing any change in our policy” and that the administration would “continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo.”

A separate incident regarding a change in U.S.-Taiwan policy by Biden also occurred the following month in November 2021, when the president declared Taiwan “independent.” Once again, less than 24 hours later, Biden walked back his remarks.

Factoring in his numerous incoherent statements and ramblings about getting “in trouble” with his staff for engaging with the press, Biden’s Taiwan blunders and the White House’s repeated walk backs reveal what many Americans have suspected for the past year and a half, which is that Biden is not running the U.S. government.

As has long been held throughout American history, it is the president that heads up and steers U.S. foreign policy, not unelected bureaucrats. Yet that is exactly the situation the country finds itself in today.

At every turn of his presidency, Biden has abdicated his responsibilities to unknown White House staffers, who direct and carry out the government’s major policy initiatives while America’s commander in chief slinks away to his Delaware beach house at every available opportunity. In essence, Biden has become nothing more than a puppet, whose strings are being controlled by unnamed, high-level White House officials to shape America and her foreign policy through whatever means necessary.

Whether it’s getting lost on stage after giving a public speech or having his wife prevent him from answering press questions, Biden has demonstrated time and again that he isn’t remotely capable of handling the most basic tasks of a fully functioning human being, let alone those of a U.S. president. Under a different president — a Republican one — left-wing Americans and the media would be loudly calling into question Biden’s ability to serve. But sadly, Democrats are in charge. So instead, we’re stuck with a walker-back-in-chief whose oligarchic presidency is running the country into the ground.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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