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JOE BIDEN'S ARMAGEDDON FUNDRAISER. With just a few weeks left before the midterm elections, on Thursday night, President Joe Biden traveled to New York to attend a Democratic Party fundraiser. Such events don't normally produce earth-shattering news, but this one did. "We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis," Biden told party contributors gathered at the home of investor and donor James Murdoch. Russian President Vladimir Putin, mired in the Ukrainian war he started, is threatening to use tactical weapons, Biden told the crowd. "He's not joking," Biden said. "I don't think there's any such thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon." It was the grimmest of news: President of the United States warns of imminent nuclear annihilation. The headlines were ominous. "BIDEN WARNS OF NUCLEAR 'ARMAGEDDON," said the Drudge Report. "Biden calls the 'prospect of Armageddon' the highest since the Cuban missile crisis," said the New York Times. "Biden suggests Putin’s nuclear threats mean a ‘prospect of Armageddon,’" said the Washington Post. Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue! But here's a question. There could be nothing of greater import to the people of the United States than the prospect of nuclear war. Nothing. So why did the president of the United States make his most extensive and alarming remarks on the subject to a few people at a Democratic fundraiser on the Upper East Side of Manhattan? Shouldn't he tell someone else first — like the nation? Another weird thing about Biden's nuclear scenario: He didn't lead with it. Look at the pool report from the fundraiser, and Biden began his remarks the way he begins most political speeches these days, by expounding on the threat he says the Republican Party poses to American democracy. "This is not your father's Republican Party," Biden said, according to the pool. "There's an assault on all these institutions." He named the Supreme Court and the White House as under GOP threat. He then gave an assessment of the midterm elections — "I feel pretty good where we are as it relates to the Senate," he said, but he did not have as much optimism about Democrats keeping the House. Biden then moved on to abortion. Then to climate change. Then he bragged about passing the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act. Then he attacked Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). It was only at that point, after all the political chat, that Biden got to the threat of nuclear war. This is from the pool report's characterization of Biden's remarks: "He said a lot was at stake in foreign policy, too. Said he would continue to support Ukraine, spoke of the nuclear threat. First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the threat of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going. We are trying to figure out what is Putin's off ramp? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself where he does not only lose face but significant power?" Then the pool quoted Biden: We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis. We've got a guy I know fairly well. 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. I don't think there's any such thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon. I didn't realize how much serious damage the previous administration did to our foreign policy." That was a nice touch in closing — warn of nuclear annihilation and say that if it does happen, it will be Donald Trump's fault. If the worst happens, Joe Biden will be pointing fingers till the end. Another odd thing about Biden's nuclear remarks is that not only did he not lead with what was clearly the most important story — a lot of news organizations didn't either. With the exception of the Drudge Report, which posted a big photo of a mushroom cloud, outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post did not run banner headlines about the president warning of all-out nuclear war. Indeed, as the nuclear threat arising out of the Ukraine war increases, there has been a strangely muted reaction to it in much U.S. media. Not long ago, the writer Matthew Yglesias tweeted, "Everyone is surprisingly chill about the clearly elevated risk of nuclear war." He was right. Everyone is surprisingly chill about it. Why is that? Is it because nobody really believes it will happen? Is it because there has been so much elite, bipartisan buy-in to the increasingly consequential U.S. role in the war in Ukraine that nobody really wants to dwell on the possible result? Is it some other reason? The answer is not clear. Since Biden mentioned Kennedy, and specifically the Cuban missile crisis, it might be a good thing to go back to Kennedy's famous speech of Oct. 22, 1962, in which he explained the Soviet threat, the missile installations in Cuba, and what the U.S. would do to protect itself and the hemisphere from Soviet aggression. "In the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the resolution of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately," Kennedy said as he announced "a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba" and other measures. Kennedy's speech, televised on all channels and broadcast on radio, was a sober, detailed, and determined address to the nation and to the world. It was huge news. No one was surprisingly chill about it. And Kennedy did not deliver it to a small crowd at a party fundraiser in a Manhattan townhouse. To paraphrase Biden himself: This is not your father's Democratic Party. For a deeper dive into many of the topics covered in the Daily Memo, please listen to my podcast, The Byron York Show — available on the Ricochet Audio Network and everywhere else podcasts can be found. You can use this link to subscribe.
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