Biden’s gaffes reveal some dark, deep-state secrets

Biden’s gaffes reveal some dark, deep-state secrets

By: Rachel Marsden

PARIS — Joe Biden took to the podium last week and made a mess that immediately required a clean-up crew.

“He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden added, as if to drive the point home. So where did Biden get this idea that Putin risked going nuclear? “If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without a doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff,” Putin had said earlier, in a televised national address.

So Putin didn’t actually threaten to use any nuclear weapons. He merely pointed out the obvious — that if Russia is attacked on its own soil, then it has a range of tools at its disposal. Both the Pentagon and the White House were subsequently forced to backpedal on Biden’s behalf and explain that there was no evidence to actually suggest that Russia was on the verge of deploying a nuke.

Various press reports claimed that Biden’s comments just represented his own anxieties, or those of the more discreet players inside the executive branch. Clearly Biden has a filter problem in that a lot of what goes into his brain comes straight out of his mouth, giving us a rare glimpse of what’s really being said in the back rooms of Washington power — the kind in which Biden has been immersed his entire life. Whether partisan staffers or career bureaucrats, both types of deep-state actors are permanent fixtures within the Washington orbit and it’s rare to get confirmation of the power they wield at the highest level. Through Biden’s gaffes, it’s clear that what’s reigning behind the scenes is a bipartisan neoconservative globalism aimed at goading Russia — one of the key defenders of global multipolarity and certainly the most militarily influential — into a war of attrition through America’s Ukrainian proxies. The setup allows Washington to pretend that it’s not actually in a direct war against Russia. But through Biden’s gaffes, it’s becoming obvious that the deep state isn’t exactly secure or confident in its ability to discern how far it can push its luck with Putin, even as it continues to do so recklessly and negligently.

Consider some of the recent escalations. Europe’s gas lifelines to Russia and one of Moscow’s economic Crown Jewels, the Nord Stream pipelines, had holes blown in them. Russia’s Kerch Bridge to Crimea was blown up a day after Putin’s birthday as Ukrainian officials celebrated on Twitter. And the car bombing assassination in Moscow of a prominent young pro-Kremlin activist was attributed by U.S. intelligence to elements within the Ukrainian government.

If we rule out any absurd nonsense suggesting that Russia has been busy running around blowing itself up, then that leaves Ukraine and Washington as likely suspects, which are effectively one and the same at this point. The Intercept has just reported, for instance, that “clandestine American operations” are underway in Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia that risk abusing a narrower authorization approved under former President Barack Obama to “counter malign foreign influence activities”. So any claims by Washington of wanting an end to the conflict, and that Russia holds all the cards and could unilaterally choose peace at any time, as the White House has suggested, is preposterous when the deep state seems intent on advancing Russian regime change through covert actions. And how do we know that regime change is what the deep state ultimately wants in Russia? Through another one of Biden’s unfiltered gems. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said during a trip to Poland back in March.

The only one who seems to be gunning for an all-out match of nuclear football between NATO and Russia over Ukraine is the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, himself, who mused last week in an address to an Australian think-tank: “We need pre-emptive strikes so that Russia would know what awaits them if they use nuclear weapons. Not the other way around — to wait for Russia’s nuclear strikes, and then say: "Oh no! OK then, take this!" Zelenskyy and his staff later backpedaled, conveniently claiming that he was misunderstood. It’s telling that the Biden administration has been overtly obsessing over nuclear threats that Putin didn’t actually make while publicly pretending that they didn’t notice Zelenskyy’s call to essentially unleash another world war. Washington is a de facto party to the conflict in Ukraine, isn’t actually interested in peace beyond paying lip-service to it, doesn’t have a grip on its proxies, and is nervous about what it might inadvertently provoke. And it’s all plainly evident thanks to those raw, unfiltered and uncensored Biden moments. So keep ‘em coming, Joe!