By Over the weekend, Biden supporter Douglas Mackinnon asked the obvious question: when would be the opportune time for Joe Biden to announce he’s not running for re-election? The former Republican-now-Democrat wrote, “Like a magician setting up a trick in one hand while distracting the audience with the other, the Biden White House and its allies are desperately trying to distract the attention of the American people from President Biden’s age, his obvious frailty and his increasing verbal and mental gaffes.
It has now gotten to the point where I have had a number of Democrats — including staunch supporters of the president — tell me it makes them ‘nervous,’ ‘uncomfortable,’ ‘sad’ or gives them a feeling of ‘foreboding’ anytime they watch President Biden speak in public, interact with guests or walk up or down the stairs to Air Force One.”
Those fears were made into reality and displayed Sunday evening in an interview between the president and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. During his conversation, Biden let slip that the United States is running perilously low on 155mm artillery shells, a weapon vital to Ukraine’s and American national defense.
Fox News reported that Biden defended his administration for sending cluster munitions to Ukraine as a “transition period” until more munitions are produced.
“This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it,” Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “And so, what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to – not permanently – but to allow for this transition period while we get more 155 weapons, these shells, for the Ukrainians.”
Reactions on social media ranged from confused to outrage as conservative pundits and experts alike wondered why Biden was announcing the U.S. shortage during a nationally televised interview that would be seen by adversaries.
A White House official appeared to walk back Biden’s comment that the United States is running out of ammunition when asked to comment on criticism in response to Biden’s interview on CNN.
“The military has specific requirements for the numbers of weapons systems and ammunition we maintain in our reserves in case of contingencies or military conflict,” a White House official said in an email to Fox News Digital. “Everything we send to Ukraine is in excess of that. So, the U.S. is not running out of ammunition ourselves.”
Many watching the interview expressed their horror at the president’s apparent lack of mindfulness. Conservative commentator Byron York, for instance, tweeted:
In CNN interview, President Biden is not particularly clear but seems to be saying US is sending cluster munitions to Ukraine because we are running out of 155mm artillery ammunition to send them. Seems obvious this is affecting US readiness to defend itself. pic.twitter.com/ofKyZQUx2X
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 9, 2023
Biden’s Democratic primary opponent, Robert Kennedy, Jr., also let him have it for escalating the war out of desperation that we may not be able to keep up ammunition stockpiles. He wrote, “Last year, WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the use of cluster bombs a ‘war crime.’ Now President Biden plans to send them to Ukraine. Stop the ceaseless escalation! It is time for peace.”
Last year, WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the use of cluster bombs a “war crime.” Now President Biden plans to send them to Ukraine. Stop the ceaseless escalation! It is time for peace. #Kennedy24https://t.co/W1uXkQY4dW
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 8, 2023
As the president visits London this week, both the UK and Canada have expressed concern over the United States supplying clusterbombs to Ukraine. The weapons are widely banned throughout the world because of the danger they pose to civilians.
In his interview, Biden seemed like that was the only option the West has left to stop Russia.
President Biden in an exclusive interview with CNN that will air Sunday defended the "difficult decision" to give Ukraine cluster bombs, saying it took him a "while to be convinced" to green light sending the cluster as substitute since the U.S. is running low on 155mm Howitzers pic.twitter.com/hYnB0dM57R
— Mona Salama (@ByMonaSalama) July 8, 2023
Last April, the Associated Press explained the importance of 155mm shells for Ukraine. “The 155 mm howitzer round is one of the most requested artillery munitions of the war in Ukraine. Already the U.S. has shipped more than 1.5 million rounds to Ukraine, but Kyiv is still seeking more.
In Ukraine, 155 mm rounds are being fired at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 a day, said Ukrainian parliamentary member Oleksandra Ustinova, who serves on Ukraine’s wartime oversight committee. They are eclipsed by the estimated 40,000 Russian variant howitzer rounds fired at them, she told reporters at a recent Washington event sponsored by the German Marshall Fund.
The Pentagon previously had said how many rounds it was providing in each of the security assistance packages being sent about every two weeks to keep weapons and ammunition flowing into Ukraine. But it stopped specifying the number of 155 mm rounds shipped in each package in February, citing operational security.
However, in its overall count of assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, the Pentagon says it has sent more than 160 155 mm howitzers, more than 1.5 million 155 mm rounds, more than 6,500 precision-guided 155 mm rounds and more than 14,000 155 mm Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems — essentially a 155 mm shell packed with four mines that scatter on the ground and can take out a Russian tank if it drives over them.”
As the war has continued, American ammunition supplies have dwindled, but expanding production of the valuable shells is not something the military can do overnight. In March, the Army announced it “will boost production of 155mm artillery shells more than sixfold to 85,000 a month by fiscal 2028, according to the service’s undersecretary.
The goal is to replenish ammunition going to Ukraine in large numbers to aid its fight against Russia and to ensure the service has the right levels in its own stockpiles….The Army is spending $1.45 billion on capacity “to expand 155mm artillery production from 14,000 a month to over 24,000 later this year,” and 85,000 in five years, Camarillo said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.”
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