Joe Biden is currently continuing a foreign tour, appearing with the Prime Minister of Japan on Sunday. That went about as well as you’d expect, with Biden being asked about the US commitment to Taiwan.

With Russia still invading Ukraine and seeming to gain ground over the last week, the topic of Taiwan and what would happen if China makes its move has become paramount. For his part, the president answered “yes,” when pressed on whether the US would intervene militarily.

NEW: Pres. Biden says that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, saying the burden to protect Taiwan is "even stronger" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. https://t.co/2kjbrgiQId

— ABC News (@ABC) May 23, 2022

President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, saying the burden to protect Taiwan is “even stronger’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was one of the most forceful presidential statements in support of self-governing in decades.

Biden, at a news conference in Tokyo, said “yes” when asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China invaded. “That’s the commitment we made,” he added.

There’s not really anything wrong with Biden’s comment. It’s long been assumed that the US would step in militarily if China tried to take over the island nation. That despite the fact that US policy is schizophrenic in that it subscribes to an open “one-China” policy while at the same time asserting Taiwan’s independence.

But for some reason, Biden’s handlers felt it was necessary to rush in and clean up his comment. Here is what the unsigned statement from the White House said, presumably coming from his far-left press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

After Biden-Kishida press conference in Tokyo, White House says US strategic ambiguity policy has not changed: pic.twitter.com/8rigTz1AY1

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) May 23, 2022

The contradiction here is mainly contained in the last sentence. While Biden asserted he would intervene militarily, i.e. with the US military, his handlers apparently want to make it clear that we are only committing to providing military aid to Taiwan so it can “defend itself.” That’s significant in that it signals to China that the only thing we’d do is what we’ve been doing in Ukraine with mixed results.

Regardless, I believe the bigger issue here is not the contradictions in policy, but rather that Biden’s handlers enjoy such preeminent power that they can continually override the actual president. If the president’s word means nothing, then what’s the point of having one? This isn’t even the first time they’ve come out and changed the administration’s position regarding Taiwan.

Do we have a president, or do we have a shadowy cabal of far-left apparatchiks seeking to protect China at the helm? I think we all know the answer to that, and it’s another reason Biden is completely unfit for office. If a president is so incapable of accomplishing the duties of his elected position that his handlers have to essentially run the show, that’s a really undemocratic and unsafe place to be as a nation. The White House becomes an extension of the bureaucracy at that point, and that’s not how things are supposed to work.