As we passed the late Chief Justice Earl Warren’s portrait on the wall, Secretary Rumsfeld commented to me that his friendship with Gerald Ford, who served on the Warren Commission, and his subsequent tenure as Ford’s Chief of Staff is what convinced him government conspiracies were impossible. He said no one in government can keep a secret. They either spill the beans or get exposed.

All these years later, Democrats are learning the lesson Secretary Rumsfeld told me. Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame now admits Democrats have told him for eighteen months that Joe Biden is not fit to serve a second term. Former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd now reveals that two years ago a Biden Cabinet Secretary told him Biden was not fit to serve a second term. George Clooney, in the New York Times, admits that even at the fundraiser for Biden that Clooney hosted a month ago, Biden’s decline was obvious.

What is obvious, too, is how much deceit the American press corps and Democrats have engaged in. A month ago, at the Clooney fundraiser, a video from a Hollywood entertainment reporter went viral. It shows Biden being led off stage by Barack Obama in an awkward manner. Conservatives highlighted the video. Democrats insisted it was not true. The media largely sided with Democrats. Now, George Clooney admits the Biden at that fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2016 or even 2020. Jon Favreau, the Obama staffer, now says on CNN he was at the fundraiser and Biden’s physical decline was obvious. A month ago, the American press corps insisted that was not so.

To avoid a bad news cycle, the Biden administration has allegedly created a human trafficking disaster. According to multiple whistleblowers, some 85,000 illegal immigrant children have been lost by the Department of Homeland Security after handing them over to largely unvetted "sponsors."

Testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, one whistleblower even alleged retaliation from the Biden administration after she alerted superiors about children being placed with people who "clearly were not their relatives." She also observed signs of abuse. //

Worse is that none of this appears to be changing anytime soon. In fact, Democrats were so miffed by these whistleblowers coming forward that they refused to participate in the hearing (which had to be held unofficially by Republican senators). Biden and his congressional cohorts don't care about children being abused. They just care about whether it will blow back on them or not.

All of this was largely preventable with an orderly, secure border. Instead, we've ended up with the worst border crisis in history, and the consequences have been and will continue to be dire.

But don’t listen to the naysayers, Trump advised in a tongue-in-cheek Truth Social post on Saturday—just keep doing what you’re doing. “MAKE CHINA GREAT AGAIN!”

The climax of the Cuban Missile Crisis was summed up in Secretary of State Dean Rusk's quip, "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked." In this case, we didn't get eyeball to eyeball because Joe Biden did a kowtow based on a glare.

Even though the deployment of this missile system was intended to be "temporary," temporary was never defined. Pulling the missile out as China is grousing about it is a bad look as China is doing nothing to "reduce tensions" in the South China Sea because it looks, smells, and tastes like surrender.

Just as Biden's half-hearted efforts to roll back Russian aggression in Ukraine haven't gone unnoticed by our allies and adversaries, neither has Biden's reluctance to confront Chinese adventurism and provocations in the Pacific. Instead of standing firm, Biden has let China dictate to the US what kind of military equipment we can station on the territory of a willing ally. //

polyjunkie
6 hours ago edited
My guess is that the entire Biden foreign policy apparatus is compromised by China. The “Penn/Biden Center” was entirely paid for by China . FJB, Blinken, and the rest of his inner circle were all paid “employees” at the Center, where top secret documents were being kept. Connect the dots: FJB and his staff are paid agents of China, doing its bidding against US interests. Hunter is the Bagman, and the House has the actual wire transfer records showing Chinese money passing to FJB. And the “press” are willing participants/traitors in the coverup.

The only thing screwing this up is FJB’s senility, or China would own us by 2028…. //

Min Headroom llme polyjunkie
4 hours ago edited
The PRC compromise of America and its institutions extends far beyond the Bidens, although it certainly includes them. I used to think the Soviets were pretty good at compromising American assets, but the PRC has long ago said “hold my Tsingtao,” and made the Russians look like lightweight amateurs. They probably have the most massive effort to subvert an opponent in world history. //

Sojourner
5 hours ago edited
Main comment: I agree with Streiff that Biden is getting rolled by the Chinese.

++++++++++++++++++

Secondary comment: I disagree with the second part of the headline where Xi is JFK (i.e., the winner). I think Xi is Khrushchev (because he, not JFK, was the winner). If you're interested why I take this view, read on.

I admit I'm in the minority, but I have an entirely different take of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I maintain Khrishchev got exactly what he wanted: getting the US Jupiter missiles out of Turkey and Italy. Which is exactly what happened as a result of a very secret agreement between Washington and Moscow that actually resolved the crisis.

So, contrary to Rusk's assertion, I think it's the US that blinked.

And it was only a post-crisis Madison Avenue-style PR blitz that relied on "Camelot" (especially in the wake of the Bay of Pigs PR hit to JFK's rep) to make JFK look the hero with the added claim that the Jupiters were going to be retired anyway.

See the Dec 1962 entry here:
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2019-10-30/nuclear-weapons-turkey-1959

Also, see here:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/jupiter-missiles-and-endgame-cuban-missile-crisis-matter-great-secrecy

To be clear, assassinating your political opponent, or destroying the Supreme Court through EO or violence, is not a part of a President's enumerated powers. Biden can't just go offing people he doesn't like or that are inconvenient to him under this SCOTUS ruling, and it's stupid to think so...but look at who we're talking about here.

But the point I want to make here is that the Democrats have been harping on about how the villain Trump would utilize the military to take over the country and enact absolute rule, banning abortions, murdering LGBT peoples, and terminating the rights of anyone who isn't white and male.

Yet these same people have turned around to seal clap over the idea of Biden utilizing the military to become a supreme dictator and murdering people the left doesn't like, securing his power in office, and God knows what else.

Don't also let it get past you that if given the chance, these people will actively and openly call for violence against you and celebrate it happening. The same party that calls for tolerance and acceptance. The same party that believes it's the adults in the room.

These people are as hypocritical as they are idiotic, and proof that the Democrat Party has become a radicalized mess.

Lara Trump added a key point about Democrats potentially swapping out Biden for someone more vibrant:

If they decide right here in the 11th hour to plug somebody else in, and it’s not Kamala Harris, I can’t think of a bigger assault to our democratic process than doing just that.

AugWest24
2 hours ago
Liberty is the essence of the United States and our Constitution. The Biden administration began to ignore the Constitution and existing law about ten minutes after he was sworn into office. Liberty is antithetical to the beliefs and goals of the coalition that runs the modern Democratic party. //

anon-gs8t
an hour ago
It's time to pull the scab off this open wound and expose it for what it is. If these people, beginning with his wife and family, will abuse this old, senile, completely compromised physically and mentally 81-year-old man to hold on to their power, what will they do to you? There is no limit to which they won't go to get what they want. They have no conscious; they don't care about this country; they certainly don't care about you; they only care about themselves. Yes, they are evil.

Montana radio host Aaron Flint pointed out that replacing Biden with another Democrat will still leave in power the people currently using him like a presidential skin suit. That’s also true, to a large extent, of replacing Biden with Trump. //

However, because we’ve already had the benefit of a Trump presidency, we can see that even a president as vigorous and defiant as he struggled to truly exercise authority over the people and institutions that, constitutionally speaking, the president commands.

Some of the most egregious examples of this occurred among cabinet-level national security types. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman under Trump Gen. Mark Milley was one of the worst offenders. Washington Post and New York Times reporters say, according to excerpts from Haley McLean, that Milley deliberately stayed in his position to sabotage voters’ elected commander-in-chief, saying to staffers of Trump, “I’ll just fight him” and “I will fight from the inside. //

Milley also disobeyed Trump’s order to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan, setting the stage for the disastrous Afghanistan pullout Milley oversaw under Biden that seriously damaged U.S. foreign policy goals, killed 13 U.S. soldiers, and left stranded thousands of American citizens. //

In my new book, I point out that scholars such as Christopher Caldwell have shown that for more than a century the United States has been living under “two Constitutions.” One is the original Constitution that secures consent of the governed, rule of law, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The second Constitution, or regime, is that of the “living Constitution,” which I explain is essentially totalitarian because it recognizes no limits on its powers.

That second regime now has the upper hand, and it is run by this cabal of unelected bureaucrats who believe they have the right to saddle, ride, and spur Americans and bend us to their will. They don’t care what we vote for. We’re getting what they want regardless of how we vote. That goes for Congress, too, whom the deep state also treats like window dressing and who usually lives up to that cynical expectation.

So yes, the deep state is shamefully using Biden as their puppet president. But they believe they have the right to ignore the Constitution and voters even when the president isn’t a walking cadaver. For people who know that when the Democrat press starts shouting something it’s proof the opposite is true, this puts a pretty dark cast on all the Democrat shrieks about “democracy.”

President Biden broke that faith with us, he spoke the unspeakable to Trump in a pathetic and vain attempt at bringing Trump to his knees. Biden lied about what he said, and that is the first insult. The president made the decision to pull out of Afghanistan the way he did, even against the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs and the commanders on the ground. Biden unilaterally decided to pull out haphazardly and recklessly, which resulted in 11 United States Marines, one Navy Corpsman, and another Army soldier killed in a suicide bomber blast that wounded dozens more on that August day in 2021. To this day, Biden's response to the criticism is blase at best, but the facts still remain, he lost 13 American troops that day. Then in January of this year, two U.S. Navy SEALs were initially listed as missing but later confirmed as killed in action as they were attempting to board a vessel at night that was carrying illegal weapons. Three more American Soldiers were killed in an Iranian-backed Hezbollah drone strike on their base in Jordan.

President Biden has had at least 18 United States servicemembers killed in action in the past three-plus years since he has been in office. I do not know what makes that lie worse; the fact that he legitimately forgot about them would show he truly doesn't care. Or the fact that Biden hates Trump so much that he will say whatever it is he needs to say, as long as it makes Trump look horrible. I think it is both and more. //

President Biden was not acting in good faith when he said what he did. He was showing his true colors and that he is a hateful, disgusting old man who needs to step down and or aside. He is not in full control of his faculties, and he is, by far, one of the worst commanders-in-chief that this nation has ever had. //

GBenton
7 hours ago
Biden's biggest lie is that he won in 2020, but beyond that, the current biggest lie is that Trump is the liar.

Biden and the Dems and the media are proven liars.

Trump told nothing but the truth during the debate and all the hoaxes have proven to be lies.

 Weminuche45
7 hours ago
It's naive to assume the "news" media's intention is to inform. Their intention is to persuade you, entertain you, and profit from you. //

Romeg
an hour ago
To paraphrase Mark Twain "If you don't [follow] the news, you're uninformed. If you [DO follow] the news, You're misinformed."

All of the Alphabet networks as well as the two leading newspapers in the United States; the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, are within walking distance of mid-town Manhattan and are totally dominated by leftists whose agendas have one thing in common; The Destruction of The Republican Party, and a secondary objective of the destruction of The Constitution of The United States of America. Their greatest fear is that another four-year term by Donald Trump will further increase the originalist make-up of The SCOTUS and the further diminution of The Administrative State, especially following a week in which the Leviathan took some pretty serious reductions in its power with the abolition of The Chevron Rule.

A truly originalist SCOTUS might well put an end to The Administrative State altogether since there is no provision whatsoever for the delegation of the power to legislate that is granted, EXCLUSIVELY, to Congress.

The Biden administration pressured federal agencies to ignore vaccine safety protocols to fast-track its Covid shot mandates.

 One of the participants suggested recategorizing “concerning” behavior as a public health matter to make people more comfortable with coming forward.

In another press release, AFL discussed how the group labeled supporters of former President Donald Trump as “domestic terrorists.” In one instance, a participant described “indicators of extremists and terrorism” to be members of the military or “religious.”

The group asserted that there exists a “political backdrop” to supposed threats of domestic terrorism. It said that most of this threat “comes from supporters of the former president” and that “people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years.” //

anon-bjep
2 hours ago
If the answer was "military and religious", the question must have been "Who will be least willing to bend the knee to our rule"

 To get specific, the Bureau of Land Management shows that 3,377 permits were issued in 2023, supposedly outpacing the 2,507 that Trump's admin approved in its third year in office. This would bring the total number of permits approved to 9,522, leaps and bounds over the 6,541 permits approved by the Trump admin. This was heralded as a victory by press outlets like Politico, despite them all being eco-warriors in every other situation.

But the real numbers were revealed later when technical errors they blamed on the Trump administration were fixed according to the Beacon:

The spokesman added that the agency couldn't vouch for the data from the Politico report in January. And he noted the "online reporting tool can be interpreted in various ways."

BLM's online system was undergoing a system outage at the time of this report.

In February 2023, meanwhile, BLM quietly revised separate figures, lowering the number of unused fossil fuel drilling permits it had approved. The agency changed that number from 9,000 unused permits to less than 6,700, blaming the error on a Trump-era technical change.

The actual number from the Trump administration was 10,795. I'm not a mathematician, but that seems a far larger number to "less than 6,700."

“We did this repeatedly, at the highest levels and I want to make things clear — we did this behind closed doors. We received various explanations, but the basic situation has not changed. Certain shipments trickled in, but the bulk of the munitions was left behind,” he said.

“After months during which the situation was static, I decided to make it public,” Netanyahu said. “I did this based on years of experience and knowing this step was essential to release the bottleneck. I anticipated it would involve personal attacks against me both from within and without,” Netanyahu said. “I’m willing to endure personal attacks for the sake of Israel’s security,” he added.

 I deeply appreciate the support we were given by President Biden and the United States administration for our war effort from the beginning. President Biden came here, he sent two carrier groups, and he gave us valuable assistance and ammunition and weapons from the beginning of the war. I appreciate that. And I remain appreciative.

We began to see that we had some significant problems emerging a few months ago. And in fact, we tried, in many, many quiet conversations between our officials and American officials, and between me and the president to try to iron out this diminution of supply.

And we haven’t been able to solve it. //

What we learn from Netanyahu's confession of spending months behind the scenes trying to get Biden to do what he says publicly he is doing, is that Biden is playing us all. He says one thing publicly to appease one group, then secretly does another thing to appease a different group. This game of charades has one goal - for Biden to never be held accountable because he maintains the facade that he is giving everyone what they want, while in reality giving them nothing.

No seriously. He said this.

 Carey J
4 hours ago
“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn //

cupera1 Hold the Fort
3 hours ago
"We're in a situation where we have put together, and you guys did it for our ... for President Obama's administration before this...." Biden said. "We have put together, I think the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics" Joe Biden

https://rumble.com/vatuxx-biden-says-hes-created-the-most-extensive-inclusive-fraud-organization...-i.html

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016 declined to charge Hunter Biden alongside his business partners in a tribal bond scheme after he invoked his father’s position as Vice President of the U.S.

The faux dramatic ad, which highlights Trump’s legal challenges and says Biden has been focusing on "lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share," says, in part:

This election is between a convicted criminal who is only out for himself, and a president who is fighting for your family. //

Le Fromage Grande
6 hours ago edited
The only reason that there aren't two convicted felons running for president is because one of them was declared to be mentally unfit to stand trial.

Let that sink in. //

Quizzical
7 hours ago
"This election is between an unconvicted criminal who is only out for himself, and a former president who is fighting for your family."

Fixed that for the Biden campaign. //

houdini1984
8 hours ago
We rightly mock this lawfare communication strategy, but we shouldn't assume that everyone sees it the same way. Yes, we know that the convictions are bogus and the sexual abuse trial was a sham, but it's important to remember that tens of millions of Americans exist in a different type of bubble. Theirs is a fact-free, government propaganda bubble that feeds them a steady diet of Orange Man Bad lies. How many Americans will hear those lies - and ads like this - and believe them?

The far left exists in an echo chamber. To a large extent, we do too - that is, if we fail to recognize that too many in middle America only hear what the left wants them to hear. Our side better be aggressive about getting the truth out there if we want it to override the left's lies. Don't just assume that Americans are smart enough to discover the truth for themselves. If they were, the Democrat party would have ended long ago.

Biden’s latest grand energy plan:

President Joe Biden is prepared to release more oil from the country’s strategic reserves if gas prices increase during the summer. //

The strategic petroleum reserve was set up for a purpose:

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program. //

Dieter Schultz
6 hours ago edited

In a letter sent last month to energy secretary Jennifer Granholm, senior Republican politicians called on the administration to “ensure that the SPR is not abused for political purposes in this election year” and described Biden’s SPR release in 2022 as “a transparent attempt to influence the midterm elections”.

Discouraging the use of the SPR shouldn't be done by an appeal the the administration, it should be accomplished by law.

Sadly, I think we have too many laws but the use and abuse of the SPR by all administrations is one where Congress should be more specific about when the SPR can and can't be used as well as how to minimize the carrying costs by specifying firm requirements for buying on the cheap and selling when oil is dear.

Edit: Given that a few years ago we came very close to filling up US oil storage infrastructure, maybe we ought put a provision in the law to offer to let US oil producers use the SPR rather than building more of their own storage tanks.