In cheap publicity stunt, Biden's team incompetence posts picture of four Special Forces soldiers deployed in Israel

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Amateur hour. That is the best way to describe the latest blunder by the Biden administration, where the White House last week posted a picture that showed the faces of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers on assignment in Israel, Fox News reported. The picture was part of a publicity stunt where the soldiers shook hands with Joe Biden during his photo op trip to Israel. 

After being called out for the photo, the White House immediately deleted it, but that was probably too late to prevent enemies of the U.S. from saving it. 

“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo. We regret the error and any issues this may have caused,” a White House spokesman told Fox News. 

The photo was posted on the White House’s Instagram page on Oct. 18 and showed four special forces members as they met with Biden during his Middle East trip. Biden traveled to Israel briefly as the war with Hamas was heating up after the brutal, unprovoked attack on Israeli citizens on Oct 13. 

The caption underneath the photo reads, “In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to Hamas terrorist attacks.” 

Sources say the photo received hundreds of thousands of views before the White House awoke from its slumber and took it down about an hour after it was posted. 

Fox wrote that Department of Defense's standard practice is to blur photos of soldiers who are members of elite units within the U.S. Armed Forces in official photos to protect their identities, typically for safety or operational purposes. 

As expected, Democrat state media attempted to downplay the incident. For example, Newsweek said they were “unable to track down the purported deleted picture on Instagram, but a broken Facebook link contains the same caption as the one shown in Shoemate’s screenshot. [emphasis added] When clicked on, the page says that the content is ‘unavailable right now.’” 

Shoemate refers to Sam Shoemate, who describes himself as an intelligence analyst who screen-shotted the picture and shared it to “X” with the faces of Special Forces soldiers blurred out. 

The Republican National Committee also blasted the Biden administration, with Alec Sears of the NRC posting on “X”: 

“So funny that the ‘Adults in charge’ are so on top of things they doxxed one of our most elite fighting forces in the midst of their deployment to the Middle East.” 

Republican lawmakers also took the occasion to slam the Biden administration’s latest blunder. 

“The Biden Administration photo op compromised the safety of American special forces in Israel,” wrote Rep. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.). “While we should all recognize and appreciate their service, we shouldn’t do so in a way that undermines their mission or puts them in additional danger.” 

Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) simply wrote, “Gross incompetence.” 

On Oct. 17, the Pentagon announced that 2,000 U.S. service members were alerted for a possible deployment to Israel; however, it said none would be used in a combat capacity, nor would they enter the Gaza Strip. Another 5,000 Navy personnel were deployed to the Mediterranean on board the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. 

That carrier and its support group joined the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was already positioned in the Mediterranean, the New York Times reported. That carrier includes four F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter squadrons, in addition to electronic warfare and command and control aircraft. Its supporting force has ships that carry Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Eisenhower carries a similar complement of weapons.