Joe Biden

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Featured image I know, I am a day late. And frankly, St. Patrick’s Day is not something that I celebrate. Especially when it falls on a Sunday. Still, we are all familiar with the holiday, and if someone stands up in a crowd to talk about St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland, and speaks incoherently, slurring his words, it is normally safe to assume that he has celebrated too enthusiastically. Unless, of course, »

Terrorist Apprehended at Border?

Featured image This account in the New York Post is confused, not to say incoherent. It relates to the apprehension of a Lebanese man named Basel Bassel Ebbadi near the Mexican border: A Lebanese migrant who was caught sneaking over the border admitted he’s a member of Hezbollah, he hoped to make a bomb, and his destination was New York, The Post can reveal. Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, was caught by border »

Biden unplugged

Featured image In his weekly NRO column yesterday, Andrew McCarthy urges readers to review the transcript of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview of President Biden. Hur interviewed Biden in the course of his investigation last year on October 8 and October 9. The Department of Justice did not see fit to release the transcripts until the day of Hur’s congressional testimony last week. As McCarthy puts it, “the transcript is such a »

The Tao of Joe

Featured image You may recall Benjamin Hoff’s popular book Tbe Tao of Pooh (“[i]n which it is revealed that one of the world’s great Taoist masters isn’t Chinese–or a venerable philosopher–but is in fact none other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear”). When President Biden welcomed the Irish Prime Minister (“Taoiseach” Leo Varadkar) to the White House yesterday, the president displayed the Tao of Joe. It is the Tao of a »

After last week

Featured image Last week the mainstream press ranked President Biden’s State of the Union address up there with the Sermon on the Mount. I reviewed it in detail and found it to be “The SOTU from hell,” but then I wasn’t the target audience. My assessment might have been unreliable. In my comments I asked to whom the speech was addressed. That wasn’t clear to me. I guess it was addressed to »

Willfully yours

Featured image Special Counsel Robert Hur found that President Biden willfully mishandled documents subject to the Espionage Act provision set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 793(e). However, Hur clouded the “willfulness” element of the offense by resting his non-prosecution recommendation in part on Biden’s present senility. Hur presents his analysis of the element of “willfulness” under section 793 in Chapter Nine of his report. The relevant question is whether Biden committed the »

Hymn to Hur

Featured image Special Counsel Robert Hur testified for some five hours before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday on his investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents over his too long career in public life. I have posted the Washington Post’s YouTube video of the hearing at the bottom. At the same time, transcripts of Hur’s interview of Biden in the investigation were released: October 8 (99 pages) and October 9 (157 »

Him or Hur?

Featured image Politico Playbook previews the testimony later this morning of Special Counsel Robert Hur before the House Judiciary Committee. Hur is to testify on the report of his investigation of Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents (i.e., the report submitted to Attorney General Merrick Garland). The Playbookers have obtained and posted Hur’s opening statement here. These are the operative paragraphs: My report reflects my best effort to explain why I declined »

Biden’s DOA Budget

Featured image Joe Biden unveiled his 2025 budget proposal earlier today. In general, presidents’ budgets are hardly worth discussing. They project revenue and spending over the next ten years, and if you go back and look at them a few years later, they usually bear no relation to reality. And, in this instance, there is zero chance that Congress will pass anything resembling Biden’s budget, which can best be seen as a »

Biden Waffles on Apology

Featured image A final (I hope) footnote to Joe Biden’s disgraceful SOTU performance: he referred to Jose Ibarra as an illegal, which was, as I said here, perhaps the only true statement in the entire speech. But Biden met with blowback from Democrats who don’t seem to mind that Ibarra is an (alleged) murderer, but were horrified by Biden’s admission that his presence here is illegal. So, as recorded at the link »

Biden’s animus [With Comment by John]

Featured image President Biden’s animus against Israel was patent in his State of the Union Address this past Thursday evening. The White House has posted the text of his remarks as given here. JNS editor Jonathan Tobin sets forth a rounded view of “the moral failure” of Biden’s remarks on Israel. Tobin separately addresses and elaborates on Biden’s demands on Israel, the floating harbor for Hamas, the two-state final solution, the lack »

Biden Waxes On

Featured image In his SOTU Thursday, Joe Biden used the term “illegal” but failed to mention or condemn Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan national charged with murdering University of Georgia student Laken Riley, whom Biden twice misnamed as “Lincoln Riley.”  On Saturday, Biden apologized for using the term “illegal,” and took it to another level. “I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect,” Biden told MSNBC.  “Look, they »

Biden’s red line

Featured image It turns out that President Biden has a red line. It applies to Israel. In an unlocked story, the Wall Street Journal reports that “Biden Warns Netanyahu an Assault on Rafah Would Cross ‘Red Line.’” Biden apparently seeks to depose the Netanyahu government. He thinks that Netanyahu is the problem. He also seeks to preserve Hamas. He finds them easier to deal with than Netanyahu. Biden’s daycare minders in the »

Biden explains

Featured image In the video clip from his interview with Jonathan Capehart below, President Biden explains why Hamas wants a ceasefire. He forgets that he’s not supposed to explain how it promotes their goals. He seeks to backtrack but can’t figure out how, except by falsely implying that Israel is violating the laws of war. What a disgrace. Watch Biden say the quiet part out loud. This is actually kind of amazing. »

Illegal or undocumented?

Featured image Referring to an illegal alien as “illegal” in unscripted remarks during his State of the Union Address this past Thursday, President Biden inadvertently offended a core Democratic constituency (i.e., illegal aliens). That could not stand and it didn’t. As John notes nearby, Biden recanted and apologized within 48 hours. Illegal or undocumented — which is the correct term. As a matter of fact, “Illegal alien” is the correct term. When »

Biden Recants

Featured image In his State of the Union speech, Joe Biden correctly referred to Jose Ibarra, the alleged murderer of Laken Riley, as an illegal alien. Democrats aren’t at all concerned about the murder of a 22-year-old girl, but they were horrified that Biden didn’t use their preferred term, “undocumented.” Which implies, I guess, that the guy was perfectly legal but maybe misplaced his driver’s license. Biden has now apologized for telling »

What’s wrong with this picture?

Featured image President Biden displayed a monumentally misguided animus against Israel in his State of the Union address this past Thursday evening. (The White House has posted its transcript of the speech as given here.) In a column behind NRO’s paywall Philip Klein characterized the address as “the most anti-Israel presidential speech in history.” I’d have to compare and contrast it with the presidential speeches of Barack Obama to be sure, but »