Biden Signals He's About to Cave on the Houthis...Again

As we reported earlier, Joe Biden's latest failure to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve exposes how bad his policies are compared to those of former President Donald Trump. Biden drained the reserve, which now leaves us in a bad position if we are attacked or if we have an emergency. That shows he puts political interests ahead of the best interests of the country.

Another problem is how weak Biden is on foreign policy, and he also demonstrated that on Wednesday in a report on how he is dealing with the Houthis. The Biden team is reportedly considering revoking the designation of the Houthis as terrorists, if the militants stop attacking ships in the Red Sea.

“My hope is that we can find diplomatic off-ramps,” Tim Lenderking, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for Yemen, told reporters in an online press briefing on Wednesday. “To find ways to deescalate and allow us to pull back, eventually, the designation and of course to end the military strikes on Houthis’ military capability.”
The comments suggest Washington is once more leaning on diplomacy after a nearly three-month-long campaign of airstrikes against Houthi facilities in Yemen. Those have failed to stop the group’s missile and drone attacks against merchant vessels and warships, though the US says it has managed to degrade the Houthis’ military capabilities.

Townhall's John Hasson broke down Biden's weaknesses that has led us to this point, starting with reversing the decision of former President Donald Trump to designate them as terrorists. After that, they began attacking ships in the Red Sea.

1. Biden removes Houthis from terror list

2. Houthis start attacking ships

3. Biden threatens to put Houthis back on the list

4. Houthis keep attacking

5. Biden puts Houthis back on the list

6. Houthis keep attacking

TODAY: Biden offers to take Houthis off the list pic.twitter.com/w98qmnkFDi
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) April 3, 2024

When Biden put them back on the list in January, Biden said he thought they were terrorists.

REPORTER: "Are you willing to call the Houthis a terrorist group?"

BIDEN: "I think they are."

(Biden *removed* the terrorist designation on the Houthis in 2021) pic.twitter.com/k3OYkxloYy
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 12, 2024

So, why did he take them off to begin with?

As Townhall's Guy Benson and Richard Goldberg, a Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, observed, even "putting them back on the list" didn't quite go all the way, and gave them outs.

Remember - Biden never put the Houthis back on "the list." They remain off the FTO list; and the sanctions he announced came alongside massive exemptions to render them toothless.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) April 3, 2024

Step 5 was actually a half measure (https://t.co/1jF7oxnU8S ) that stopped short of fully re-listing them — despite their ongoing terrorism rampage — but the overall point about Team Biden’s embarrassing, incoherent weakness very much stands. The “Smart Power” adults are back in… https://t.co/N4TfDqZxiR
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 3, 2024

While they were designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, they were not designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Basically, they're signaling they'll take away even this half-designation if the Houthis stop, despite them having done nothing at all to indicate they will stop and continuing their bad behavior against shipping in the Red Sea.

Can we say again how weak Joe Biden is? These are the adults back in charge? No wonder every bad actor has become emboldened and gotten ideas under Biden. He inherited the weakness from Barack Obama.