I literally missed the Biden statement this evening…I wasn’t really interested in watching but I figured I’d tune in but by the time I did, he was a couple minutes gone. I don’t know the exact time but it was less than five minutes and he took no questions. I did see the video of him shuffling off afterwards and that is just the symbol of his Administration now…a hollow wreck of a man shuffling off to oblivion. Also: who the heck put the orange makeup on? They must have used a trowel. Our Orange Man may be Bad but at least he isn’t senile.
Now, as to the Court decision, itself: precisely what I expected from the start. The non-lunatic justices know enough history to know that if you start prosecuting former Presidents you’ll shortly have no former Presidents. Caesar crossed the Rubicon because his opponents proposed to prosecute him after his term as Governor of Gaul ended. It was kill them or be killed. That is the choice the Democrats want us to face in the future. The Supreme Court at least temporarily spared us that choice. The legal eagles will analyze it but my quick reading of it is that if you can accuse the President of a crime which is no related to official actions, knock yourself out. So, the President taking a bribe or some such. But, very broadly defined, if the President is just carrying out the powers of the office, you’ve got no case…and you can’t even use such actions as a predicate for a case (so, if the President were essentially to bribe a foreign leader to swing over to the US side in a conflict). The case is remanded and Judge and Prosecutor are going to have to figure out if any of the charges meet the Court’s definition. That pushes any trial beyond November…and some have written that it might take until 2026 to bring this to trial because there will be back and forth as the two sides argue details, possibly requiring one or more trips to the Supreme Court to sort it out.
Side note: Nixon is vindicated. It can be argued that his orders to staff to cover up Watergate were part of official actions. Bottom line, this wasn’t tested in 1974 because Ford pardoned Nixon.
I don’t know who’s idea it was to have Biden give a statement – he looked, as noted, terrible. Taking no questions was a bad idea, as well. Not that he could answer them but to have him trot out, slander the Court and then just wander off is very bad optics. I can only assume that the political professionals are being frozen out and this is now the Jill and Hunter show. They apparently believe they can animate this corpse sufficiently to prevail in November.
I doubt that will work – we’ve now got post-debate polling showing Trump ahead in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire and down just two in New Mexico(!). Nationally, the RCP average shows Trump up about two. There are rumors that Democrat donors are nervous, that plenty of operatives are in a funk – and a continuing rumor that Obama wants Biden out but Jill isn’t allowing him any access. That story is that Obama is willing to roll the dice with an open convention (probably on the theory that he can control such a thing and get his favored person the nomination – he’s probably right about this). Meanwhile, other rumors have Whitmer in Michigan convinced that Biden can’t win – and perhaps willing to make prophecy into reality because her best path to a 2028 nomination is a defeated Biden in 2024, thus taking Kamala pretty much out of the nomination picture.
I do lend some credence to the theory that Obama does want Joe gone – because at least part of the MSM is still attacking Biden. This indicates to me that at least some of the Democrat power structure is pressing for a Biden exit and that part of the MSM most favorable to Obama is falling in line. Keep an eye on Hillary – if she starts showing up in the media a lot then we might have a plot afoot to scratch Biden at the Convention if not before. Hillary would naturally be angling for the slot but I’m confident that Team Obama will thwart that. Main thing is that until all the Democrat leadership is on board, you’re going to see elements of the Democrat coalition pushing and pulling in different directions. And these fractures might continue right up to election day.
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