In one of the most “wait, what?” moments of 2022, a top Democrat leader in the House has declared that the United States is currently at war. That’s not an exaggeration nor an uncharitable reading of the situation. Apparently, unbeknownst to the public at large, Congress and the White House have managed to enter into a war with Russia without going through any of the constitutional steps to do so.

Truly, nothing surprises me anymore.

“We are at war.” – Steny Hoyer pic.twitter.com/al9zOXdDMN

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 13, 2022

Perhaps having an 82-year-old as the House Majority Leader isn’t that good of an idea? I’d like to think that someone with more cognitive capacity would at least couch their words instead of just blurting out that the country is at war, when it’s most certainly not at war. I’m probably being too kind to the rest of the Washington apparatchiks, though, by suspecting mental decline is at play here. After all, we’ve had multiple Republicans assert we are in a proxy war over the last few days.

Regardless, I think we all know what this is really about. Joe Biden’s presidency is a disaster. Inflation is through the roof, the border is a crisis zone, and the sanctions that were put on Russia for invading Ukraine aren’t having their desired effect. Those realities have the Democrat Party barrelling toward an electoral cliff in November. What better way to try to turn things around than to start falsely proclaiming that Biden is a war-time president?

Hoyer goes so far as to suggest that Biden shouldn’t be criticized during these supposedly trying times. It’s a strategy so overt and stupid that you almost have to respect the fact that Democrats are willing to try it. Putting economic sanctions on another country does not make a president a war-time president. The same is true for giving lethal weapons to another nation while it does all the fighting. If those were the standards, essentially every president has been a war-time president, at least since the turn of the 20th century.

Come on, no one is buying this, right? I know pretending Biden is something he’s not is kind of a trend on the left, but there’s just no chance this attempt to make him into a war-time president works. Further, it risks a backlash from war-weary Americans who want to help Ukraine but might not take too kindly to the government once again shipping billions in unchecked dollars overseas.

Unfortunately, Republicans are playing right into this Democrat ploy by full-throatily supporting the $40 billion slush fund bill, which is currently on hold in the Senate. Sen. Rand Paul has stood alone trying to put boundaries on the spending package (he wants an amendment that will make the money accountable to the inspector general), and GOP leaders have lambasted those who’ve expressed skepticism. The uni-party is back, and it’s the same as the old uni-party.