To call yesterday’s COVID-19 address by Joe Biden a damned disgrace does a disservice to damned disgraces everywhere. It was at once a nasty piece of rhetorical misdirection and preemptive blame-shifting. It was also preachy, vindictive, misleading, desperate, divisive, demagogic, angry, and accusatory.

In short, it was utterly unbecoming of an American president. And if his unfitness for the presidency could be distilled into a single sentence, it might well be this: Speaking about the decision of whether one takes the COVID-19 vaccine, Biden said, “This is not about freedom or personal choice.”

Of course it’s about freedom and personal choice.

Biden, desperate to distract us from his unmitigated disaster in Afghanistan — especially just ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 — began by taking a swipe at a certain subgroup of his fellow citizens: “Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated,” he said. Later on, he continued to scold and demonize, calling this “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and warning, “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.”

Here, Biden seemed to be setting up the unvaccinated as a scapegoat for whatever failures await us due to his ruinous policies and his feckless leadership. A new COVID surge? Blame the unvaccinated. A sluggish economy? Blame the unvaccinated. Runaway inflation? Blame the unvaccinated.

If only Biden had been as tough with the Taliban as he is with his fellow Americans. Or as tough at our southern border as he is at every other border on earth. “We also know this virus transcends borders,” he said. “That’s why, even as we execute this plan at home, we need to continue fighting the virus overseas, continue to be the arsenal of vaccines. … That’s American leadership on a global stage.”

Try as he might to change the subject, Afghanistan, not COVID-19, is Joe Biden’s lasting legacy of “American leadership on a global stage.”

Less than a minute into his speech, Biden reminded us how swell things are with him in the White House: how the economy is just humming along, and how he warned us about COVID-19’s Delta variant way back in July. Of course, if things were really so swell, we wouldn’t need our president to remind us.

Biden said the vaccine is “safe, effective, and free.” Okay, we’ll give him “free,” so long as we can ignore the many billions in associated costs that have been picked up by the federal government, which, come to think of it, are ultimately picked up by the American people.

As for “safe” and “effective,” compared to what? Compared to natural immunity? The various vaccines have demonstrated varying degrees of effectiveness, and they appear to be relatively — although not entirely — safe. Thus, the very personal decision about whether to take the stick should be made individually, and perhaps in consultation with one’s doctor, but not mandated from on high.

Remarkably, and tellingly, Biden uttered 3,500 words over the course of 25 minutes, but not once did he mention the words “natural immunity,” which, as Harvard epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff and many other honest experts have said, “is stronger and longer lasting than vaccine immunity.” Still, the evidence does indicate that vaccinated people are significantly less likely to end up in the hospital — meaning that while the vaccine won’t necessarily keep one from getting COVID, it will tend to lessen the severity of the illness.

Biden didn’t mention herd immunity, either, which history and science tell us is the only way out of a pandemic. Instead, “15 days to flatten the curve” has become 18 months of abusing our children — children whose risk of death is, according to Dr. Kulldorff, one one-thousandth that of the elderly.

And we thought the Democrats were The Party of Science™.

“Unfortunately,” said Dr. Nicole Saphier on Fox News, “[Biden] again says to follow the science, but it’s only the science that he’s choosing. … He will never gain the trust of the American people so long as there’s this omission of natural immunity.”

“I trust the scientists,” Joe Biden said last September when asked about the vaccines that were in development, “but I don’t trust Donald Trump. And at this moment, the American people can’t either.” Kamala Harris and other Democrats likewise politicized the vaccines of Operation Warp Speed. Now they can’t stop chirping about them.

“We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from their unvaccinated coworkers,” Biden said. But wait: He just said the vaccine was “effective.” And if it’s so effective, why on earth do folks who’ve gotten it need to be protected from those who haven’t?

Setting aside this president’s inability to make a coherent argument, what does it say about him when he refuses to level with the American people and refuses to respect their fundamental freedoms? Whatever happened to “My body, my choice,” Joe? Or does that only apply when we’re killing the unborn?

No doubt the biggest news of Biden’s address was his announcement that he’ll use an “emergency rule” from the Department of Labor “to require all employers with 100 or more employees … to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.” In addition, Biden ordered that all executive branch federal workers and contractors be vaccinated. Whether he’s exempted our nation’s 600,000 postal workers from this mandate remains unclear at the moment, but we can think of no good reason why such a double standard could be justified.

Joe Biden is thus a liar. Straight up. Not that we didn’t already know he’s a liar about things great and small, but last December, this is how Biden responded to a reporter’s question about mandatory vaccination: “No, I don’t think it should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand that it be mandatory.”

Likewise, Anthony Fauci once said, “You cannot force someone to take a vaccine.”

Liars.

It’s a weird world we live in when all we heard from leftists and their media fellow-travelers during Donald Trump’s presidency was what a fascist he was. And here, now, we have real fascism, real totalitarianism, right in our faces. We have a president who for the second time in his brief administration has conceded that he doesn’t have the constitutional power to do a certain thing — and then he goes and does it anyway. First it was the eviction moratorium, and now it’s this vaccine mandate.

“We have the tools,” said Biden in closing. “Now we just have to finish the job, with truth, with science, with confidence, and together, as one nation.” These were rich words coming from a guy who’d just spent 25 minutes hiding the truth, ignoring the science, and dividing the nation by demonizing millions of Americans.

“Is this constitutional, Mr. President?” shouted a reporter as Biden scurried away without taking a single question. We’ll soon find out. The Republican National Committee has announced that it’ll sue the administration over its vaccine mandates “to protect Americans and their liberties.” It might have to take a number, though, if the words of Governor Kristi Noem and a host of others are any indication of red-state resistance. “South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom,” she tweeted. “Joe Biden, see you in court.”

Indeed, we’ll see you in court, Mr. President, because this cannot stand. Not in a free republic. If ever we needed a Supreme Court unafraid to stand up for Essential Liberty, a Supreme Court unafraid to rein in an out-of-control chief executive, it’s now.