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Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193

The Magnificent Seven

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 193: The Magnificent Seven

U.S. Attorney Looks to Undermine Biden Pardons

April 2, 2025 · 5:40 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Ed Martin, the ardent Trump loyalist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, is pursuing an inquiry into whether former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was competent to pardon his family members and others during his final days in office,” the New York Times reports.

“The inquiry, which includes previously unreported letters to Mr. Biden’s family and former White House staff members, uses the levers of federal law enforcement to try to harass Mr. Biden’s family and allies and undermine his decisions as president, while scoring political points with President Trump.”

Biden Legacy

The Biden Book Deluge

March 30, 2025 · 12:20 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Playbook: “The race to shape Joe Biden’s legacy is on. The former president’s extended orbit is bracing for a steady march of no fewer than four books dropping over the next few months that promise to excavate and relitigate not only the historic 2024 presidential campaign but the former president’s own physical and mental condition before dropping out.”

“Biden’s aides did not make him available to any of those books’ authors, Playbook has learned. According to a person close to the former president, he’s reserving the space to tell his story in his own book. That prospective work, whose existence was first reported by NBC, does not yet have a release date and could publish as early as 2026.”

This is the one that should generate the most buzz.

Biden Legacy, Political Books

How the Biden Autopen Conspiracy Theory Went Viral

March 22, 2025 · 3:00 pm ET · Leave a Comment

New York Times: “In the first two months of this year, the term was mentioned a total of 49 times on television, radio and podcasts in the United States, according to data from the media tracker Critical Mention.”

“It was uttered 6,188 times on March 17 alone. Right-wing talk radio, podcasts and cable news shows have now devoted hundreds of segments to the arcana of wet signatures and autopen technology.”

Biden Legacy

Biden Makes First Public Remarks Since Leaving Office

March 19, 2025 · 2:27 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Former President Joe Biden spoke in public a few days ago, National Review reports.

“What’s fascinating is that President Biden gave his first public remarks since leaving office… and this generated no news media coverage at all. I don’t mean it was downplayed or under-covered, I mean the Facebook post shown and linked above appears to be the only coverage of Biden’s appearance at all.”

Biden Legacy

Trump Moves to ‘Void’ Biden’s Final Days in Office

March 18, 2025 · 7:04 am ET · Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump’s claim that the pardons signed by Joe Biden at the end of his term are now ‘void’ and ‘vacant’ began with an outcry among Trump allies about the former president’s mental capacity,” Semafor reports.

“Trump declared Monday, without citing any evidence, that his predecessor had not seen some of the documents that have his name on them. But that prospect was first invoked nearly two weeks ago by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Trump ally. Bailey asked the Department of Justice to ‘investigate whether it was Biden or others who took executive actions’ in his final days.”

“The following day, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project claimed on X that every document signed by Biden ‘used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year.’”

Biden Legacy

Trump Yanks Secret Service for Hunter and Ashley Biden

March 17, 2025 · 6:27 pm ET · Leave a Comment

President Trump announced he was pulling Secret Service details for former President Joe Biden’s adult children, Hunter and Ashley.

Biden Legacy

Trump to Investigate People Pardoned by Biden

March 17, 2025 · 1:07 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“President Trump questioned the validity of pardons granted by President Joe Biden before he left office, signaling that the new administration could move to investigate those given legal immunity by his predecessor,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Any move to investigate or prosecute the individuals pardoned by Biden would mark a significant escalation of Trump’s defiance of longstanding legal norms.”

“Trump asserted early Monday morning in a social-media post that Biden’s pardons were ‘void, vacant, and of no further force of effect’ because they were signed with an autopen.”

Biden Legacy, White House

Trump Suggests Biden’s Pardons Are Not Valid

March 17, 2025 · 7:30 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump claimed late Sunday — in a middle-of-the-night rant on his Truth Social platform — that he’d declared the pardons that were issued by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, before leaving office to be ‘VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,’” the HuffPost reports.

“The president claimed Biden’s pardons were signed by an autopen, seizing on a report last week from a right-wing group that alleged frequent use of the mechanical device in the Biden White House.”

Biden Legacy

A Biden Family Insider Tells All

February 27, 2025 · 11:06 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Michael LaRosa, longtime press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, opened up to Tara Palmeri:

“There are some things that are true, like the gaslighting. There was a lot of denial of the polling. All of the polling in the spring of 2023, and then the fall of 2023, showed that there was no real depth of support from his own party, let alone independents and Republicans. And Biden had been tied, or within the margin of error, with Trump—who had, by that point, how many court hearings? How many indictments? The fact that he was so close was always a problem, but they were kind of in denial.”

“The message to everybody was to make sure you tell people, ‘It’s too early. These polls don’t mean anything.’ Then for about a year and a half, the numbers never moved, and by denying the data that was out there publicly, by denying and undermining the really insightful journalism that The New York Times was doing, that you were doing, and all of the free press, they were actually demeaning a lot of those people.”

“It was the data denial that really bothered me… Anyway, the point is that they did do a lot of gaslighting. If you were watching MSNBC, you probably believed them. But if you were consuming information, consuming data, and looking at it objectively, and trying to interpret it and process it objectively, none of it was surprising.”

Biden Legacy

Clooney Says Media ‘Dropped the Ball’ Covering Biden

February 21, 2025 · 12:14 pm ET · Leave a Comment

George Clooney accused the media of dropping the ball when it came to covering former President Joe Biden’s “incapacities,” Mediaite reports.

He added that Biden “abdicated” his responsibility by “hiding his incapacities.”

Biden Legacy

Kamala Harris Signs with Talent Agency

February 18, 2025 · 10:10 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Former Vice President Kamala Harris has signed with CAA for representation in all areas, with a focus on speaking engagements and publishing,” Variety reports.

“CAA will work closely with Harris on her post-White House initiatives, creating strategic opportunities that expand her platform in support of the issues she has championed throughout decades-long career in public service.”

Biden Legacy

Biden Is the Least Popular Living President

February 11, 2025 · 8:09 am ET · Leave a Comment

Joe Biden is viewed the least favorably of all current living US presidents — including Donald Trump — while Barack Obama is the most well-liked, according to new Gallup polling.

Biden Legacy

Nancy Pelosi Still Hasn’t Talked to the Bidens

February 7, 2025 · 11:09 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that there has been no communication between her and former President Joe Biden after the former House speaker was asked about ex-first lady Jill Biden’s reported disappointment in her,” the New York Post reports.

Biden Legacy

Trump Can’t Quit Bashing Biden

February 4, 2025 · 7:45 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Joe Biden has left Washington, but he still seems to be living rent-free in Donald Trump’s mind,” Axios reports.

“Trump has brought his grievance-laden playbook against Biden to the White House and frequently derides his Democratic rival — in speeches, executive orders, off-the-cuff comments and social media posts.”

“Trump’s criticisms follow a strategy he’s used since he first took office in 2017: Accuse his predecessor of doing a terrible job (then it was Barack Obama, now Biden) and blame them for any problems or setbacks.”

Biden Legacy, White House

Biden Signs with Hollywood Talent Agency

February 3, 2025 · 7:51 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Just weeks after leaving office, Joe Biden is laying the groundwork for his post-presidential era in Hollywood,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“One of the entertainment industry’s biggest talent firms, Creative Artists Agency, which represents actors including Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, said Monday it had signed Biden to its roster.”

Biden Legacy

Biden Commutations Angered His Own Aides

February 2, 2025 · 10:54 am ET · Leave a Comment

“In the weeks before leaving office, President Joe Biden and his advisers wanted to undo what they saw as an injustice—and make history—by cutting short the prison sentences of thousands of people behind bars for drug offenses,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The zeal to achieve that goal resulted in a haphazard White House process that prompted anger and dismay inside the Justice Department, where officials believed Biden granted mercy to many offenders with violent histories who didn’t deserve it.”

Biden Legacy

Throw Biden Under the Bus

January 29, 2025 · 11:00 am ET · Leave a Comment

Matt Yglesias: “Of course, many good people served in the Biden administration. And the administration did a number of admirable things. But on a fundamental level, Biden defined his entire post-2016 political comeback in terms of averting the Trumpian threat to American political institutions. And he failed, catastrophically! It’s not just that Trump won, it’s that he has returned more powerful than before. It’s that we are genuinely much worse off than we would have been if Trump were narrowly reelected in 2020. It’s that Biden alienated an entire cohort of young people, along with many of the leaders of the most important companies in America.”

“And in his lame-duck interviews, Biden expressed nothing but arrogance about his political and policy choices. He even boasted that he believes he’d have beaten Trump had he stayed on the ticket and seems to be nursing a grudge against Nancy Pelosi.”

“The sheer bad manners of talking Harris down like that was the last straw for me.”

Biden Legacy

Doug Emhoff to Return to Corporate Law

January 27, 2025 · 12:19 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“The latest guessing game in Washington is where former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, might go next. Half of that question has been answered,” the New York Times reports.

“Starting Monday, Mr. Emhoff will become a partner at the corporate law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, splitting his time between Los Angeles and New York. He will advise companies on crises including litigation and corporate investigations.”

Biden Legacy

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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