As we reported earlier, President Joe Biden finally emerged from his Camp David summer vacation in the midst of the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan in order to give a scripted speech that was devoid of reality, full of blame-shifting, and which obscured the big reason why people are so upset with him over the dire situation taking place in the country the U.S. military and its allies spent nearly 20 years in starting immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Biden said during a roughly 18-minute speech where he also declared that he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan the way he did.

“If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” Biden proclaimed.

But perhaps even worse than the speech he read on the developing situation in Afghanistan, which I should note he deigned to give after he and several key members of his administration seemed to go missing for a few days, was what was revealed in the aftermath of it.

As it turns out, instead of staying at the White House to monitor developments, the Commander in Chief of the U.S. military turned right back around and made a beeline for Camp David to resume his vacation:

Biden is going back to Camp David after this speech. pic.twitter.com/JSvhHZBr3d

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 16, 2021

And just as a reminder to folks, Biden did this after (predictably) ignoring questions that were shouted at him today by reporters at the end of his speech:

Joe Biden leaves, set to return to Camp David for vacation, without taking a single question. pic.twitter.com/1VmgDwYYN5

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) August 16, 2021

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was among the many who were not amused:

This can’t be real. https://t.co/t2SQ3ic2QB

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 16, 2021

It cannot be overstated how bad the optics of this move are.

While it’s true that no matter where the President goes that he’s kept in the loop on the important goings-on of the world and can be in contact with all the necessary important people he needs to be at a moment’s notice, when you’ve got both Republicans and Democrats alike giving you serious grief for a deteriorating situation in a country where 20,066 American servicemen and women were wounded and 2,448 made the ultimate sacrifice, maybe you should at least try to give off the appearance of looking like you care enough about what’s happening and not trot back off to your vacation spot as reports continue to come in of Afghans being shot and killed at the Kabul airport, while some American civilians reportedly remain trapped?

Biden’s badly botched response to the worsening state of affairs in Afghanistan and also the resumption of his vacation further begs the question: if he’s not in charge of what’s going on, just who is? Vice President Kamala Harris?

I shudder to think.

Related: The New York Times Provides Us With Perhaps the Most Stunningly Bad Afghanistan Hot Take of All