Blinken in charge?

OMG!
I wouldn't put that idiot in charge of the local pound.

<https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4255887/posts>

'The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published an extensive report on
the secret negotiations to secure the release of Journal reporter Evan
Gershkovich from Russian prison. It includes a startling passage about
how President Joe Biden, sometimes referred to as "Sleepy Joe," almost
botched the prisoner exchange because has no idea what's going on, and
strongly suggests that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is actually
running the show.

The following scene involves Gershkovich's mother, Ella, ambushing Biden
in a handshake line at the White House Correspondents' Dinner earlier
this year. She relayed a message from Roger Carstens, the special
presidential envoy for hostage affairs, and urged Biden to call German
chancellor Olaf Scholz in order to advance the multilateral deal:

Ella was at her second White House Correspondents' Dinner that month and
joined Biden’s handshake line to deliver another backchannel message,
this time with more specificity. An official from Carstens' office had
told her to ask Biden to call the German leader to move things forward.
And one of her sources had told her that it would be bad for Scholz to
back out after making a commitment. To make her case, she'd have only
seconds.

"We need more," she said to the president. "Can you please call
Chancellor Scholz?" Biden said he had made that call. Blinken, standing
next to the president, looked down, then gently clarified, saying they
would make the call. "I promise, I promise, I promise," Biden said,
before the handshake line moved on.

Two days later, President Biden sent a letter to Scholz, a formal
request that gave the Chancellor the mechanism he needed to formalize a
deal.'

'Ella was at her second White House Correspondents' Dinner that month
and joined Biden’s handshake line to deliver another backchannel
message, this time with more specificity. An official from Carstens'
office had told her to ask Biden to call the German leader to move
things forward. And one of her sources had told her that it would be bad
for Scholz to back out after making a commitment. To make her case,
she'd have only seconds.

"We need more," she said to the president. "Can you please call
Chancellor Scholz?" Biden said he had made that call. Blinken, standing
next to the president, looked down, then gently clarified, saying they
would make the call. "I promise, I promise, I promise," Biden said,
before the handshake line moved on.

Two days later, President Biden sent a letter to Scholz, a formal
request that gave the Chancellor the mechanism he needed to formalize a
deal.

Mainstream journalists such as CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere have touted
this moment as an example of Biden's superhuman vigor and diplomatic
skill. A nonpartisan reading of the passage suggests the opposite is
true. We have the mother of an American prisoner in Russia waiting in a
handshake line to give Biden a message from his own hostage negotiator.
Upon relaying that message—please call the German chancellor—Biden
insists he already has. Blinken is forced to gently clarify that Biden
doesn't know what he's talking about. Biden never makes that call—a
letter is sent bearing his signature.'

'One can see how a CNN journalist might interpret this passage as an
example of a functioning government and an 81-year-old president at the
top of his game. But it's impossible to see how a normal, well-adjusted
individual could read those same paragraphs and draw the same
conclusion.

Who, exactly, is running our government?'

Trump is taking all the credit. They were already free until he left office
and then Putin locked them up again.