President Joe Biden promised the American people the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan would not in any way resemble the humiliating end to the Vietnam War. He broke that promise.
"The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army. They're not—they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability," Biden said during a press conference on July 8. "There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable."
Several weeks later, American forces were scrambling to evacuate diplomats and staff from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kabul as the Taliban advanced toward the capital. Chaos ensued as thousands gathered at Hamid Karzai International Airport, where 13 American service members were killed in a suicide bombing attack, and hundreds of American citizens and Afghan allies were left behind. Earlier this week, Biden hailed the disastrous withdrawal as an "extraordinary success" that went exactly "as designed."
Meanwhile, back in the United States, another human-rights disaster has been unfolding on Biden's watch. More than 235,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since Biden took office in January. That is more than quadruple the number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War (58,220) from 1964 to 1975. On average, COVID-19 has killed more than 1,000 Americans every day that Biden has been president.
The horrific death toll marks another broken promise for Biden, who insisted during the 2020 presidential campaign that he would "shut down the virus" in the United States. In fact, the number of COVID-19 deaths on Biden's watch is even greater than the American death toll was on October 22, 2020, the date of his final presidential debate against former president Donald Trump.
"Two-hundred twenty-thousand Americans dead," Biden said. "Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America. We're in a situation where there are a thousand deaths a day."
Once again, Biden promised that electing him president would halt the deadly pandemic in its tracks. "The way this president has responded to this crisis has been absolutely tragic," he said. "So, folks, I will take care of this. I will end this. I will make sure we have a plan."
Fact check: He did not.