Former President Joe Biden delivered a strong critique of his successor, arguing to a room of supporters that President Donald Trump has “taken a wrecking ball” to democracy, CNN reports.
Said Biden: “I knew Trump was going to taking a wrecking ball to the country, but I had no idea, I have to admit, I didn’t know there was going to be an actual wrecking ball.”
At times during the remarks, Biden addressed Trump directly: “You act in a way that embarrasses us as a nation, quite frankly.”
Andrew Sullivan: “There was something perfect about the Supreme Court’s review of President Trump’s tariff spree the week Dick Cheney passed away. What the court was weighing, after all, was Cheney’s core legacy: the limitless executive power now claimed by Cheney’s Frankenstein monster, Trump.”
“In that sense, Dick Cheney pioneered the Trump presidency. Without Cheney and Addington, no Trump and Vought. Cheney was never a constitutional conservative; he was always an extremist, a pioneer of an elected, unaccountable, and secret monarchy that has reached its zenith in the GOP today. His attempt to cast himself in recent years as some kind of principled, old-school constitutional Republican is classic Cheney: i.e. shameless misdirection, calculated spin, and a big fat lie.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told ABC News that former President Joe Biden will go down as “one of the most successful presidents in the last century.”
Said Newsom: “I will defend that to my grave.”
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Greg Sargent: “The left-leaning Roosevelt Institute is releasing a major new report Tuesday — with input from nearly four dozen former senior Biden officials — that seeks to diagnose the administration’s governing mistakes and failures.”
“One of its most compelling conclusions is that the Biden administration seemed reluctant to engage in ‘picking the fights worth having’ and sometimes took refuge in incremental policy gains due to a self-limiting ‘risk aversion.’”
“The Republican-led House Oversight Committee recommended that the Justice Department investigate all of former President Joe Biden’s executive actions, particularly clemency decisions, and determine whether he authorized them,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Washington Post: “The report is the result of a five-month-long investigation into accusations made by President Donald Trump and his allies, that aides covered up a decline in Biden’s cognitive ability, and that the Biden administration misused the presidential autopen to issue executive actions without Biden’s direct involvement.”
“The committee said its investigation found there was no record that Biden approved executive actions in several instances, including ones related to presidential pardons. The committee also said it found Biden’s autopen — a mechanical device that can replicate signatures and that presidents often use to quickly sign documents — may have been used to sign off on actions without his knowledge.”
“After Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last year his team fell into a civil war, with longtime aides insisting he was fine and others — including his chief of staff and Cabinet members — saying he should consider exiting the presidential race, a new report by a GOP-led House panel says,” Axios reports.
“The report, released Tuesday, is the first time most of Biden’s top aides have gone on the record to respond to questions about the former president’s declining health, and what aides did to obscure it from the public.”
New Yorker: “Karine Jean-Pierre feels that Democrats were so mean to Biden that she is becoming an Independent.”
“Since Donald Trump entered the White House nearly nine months ago, most Democrats have wanted Joe Biden to stay on the sidelines — and the former president has mostly obliged,” the Washington Post reports.
“But behind the scenes, the lifelong politician is uneasily adjusting to a quieter, lower-profile life and remains bitter about being pushed to drop out of the 2024 race,”
“Biden remains a voracious consumer of news and regularly debates with his small team of advisers in Wilmington, Delaware, on whether to weigh in on Trump’s latest actions and statements — especially the direct, often unsubstantiated attacks on Biden in settings including an address to the United Nations and a rare gathering of military generals.”
Former President Joe Biden is now receiving radiation therapy for his prostate cancer, ABC News reports.
Three people familiar with the Biden pardon process told NOTUS that former FBI Director James Comey “was never seriously considered for a pardon.”
“But two of those sources said that Comey did initially come up briefly in discussions by a tight group of high-ranking Biden aides after it was floated by an outside advocacy group.”
“While his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was vice president, Hunter Biden began developing relationships that led to an audacious proposal to sell the land around the United States Embassy building in Romania to a group that included a Chinese company,” the New York Times reports.
“Hunter Biden was involved in the proposed deal from multiple perspectives, creating what he privately acknowledged to an associate was an ethical quagmire.”
“Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney revealed Monday night that he called the White House during the Biden administration when Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating Donald Trump to urge President Joe Biden to preemptively pardon him,” CNN reports.
Said Romney: “Why? Number one, I don’t want the anger and the hate and the vitriol. But number two: We just can’t begin to be prosecuting political opponents.”
“Former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients testified behind closed doors at length about former President Joe Biden’s aging throughout the course of his term, including how he pushed Biden’s doctor to conduct a full medical workup,” CNN reports.
“Zients told House Oversight investigators that Biden’s decision-making slowed during the course of the administration and that the former president’s difficulty remembering dates and names worsened over time.”
Also important: “Following the debate, Zients testified he and other Biden advisors believed that Biden should exit the race.”
Wall Street Journal: “Biden is charting a postpresidency that is less lucrative than what he’d expected when he left office. Options for big jobs are limited by his advanced age, his unpopularity in Democratic circles and companies—concerned about retribution from President Trump—that aren’t offering speaking gigs.”
“His own allies have grown critical of his presidency, most recently former Vice President Kamala Harris, who in a new book says the Democratic Party was reckless to allow Biden to run a second time.”
“The result for Biden is a leaner next chapter that lacks the well-funded foundations, plans for exquisite libraries and full calendar of paid speeches his peers enjoyed.”
“Hunter Biden is asking a federal judge to order the arrest of former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne for ignoring court orders in a libel suit Biden filed against the conspiracy theorist and conservative political activist,” Politico reports.
Former President Joe Biden is having trouble collecting donations for a potential presidential library, NBC News reports.
Democratic donors “cited a range of factors, from not wanting to make themselves a target of the White House to holding their financial firepower for the party’s future. Some cited personal interactions with Biden’s inner circle as being so distasteful they believed it would be a barrier to ever raising significant funds for the 46th president of the United States.”
An important excerpt from Kamala Harris’ new book, 107 Days:
“Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president. On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.”
“But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”
Former president Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive, The Guardian reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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