Wondering who has been running the country

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chrissteel

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www.nytimes.com

How Biden’s Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President

“Your biggest issue is the perception of age,” Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime strategist, told him in 2022, according to people who heard him.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Six key people protected the president.

Jill Biden, the first lady, and Hunter Biden, his surviving son, fervently believed in his ability to win. Mr. Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, the counselor to Mr. Biden, knew when and how to deliver information, along with Annie Tomasini, the deputy chief of staff. She and Anthony Bernal, the first lady’s most senior aide, took tight control over the president’s public schedule.

Can I ask you a question? I cannot answer this from my constituents in Louisiana,” Johnson recalled telling Biden. “Sir, why did you pause LNG exports to Europe? Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? Cause you understand we just talked about Ukraine, you understand you are fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine, because they gotta get their gas from him.”

Biden, according to Johnson, was stunned. “I didn’t do that,” Biden said. Johnson responded, “Mr. President, yes you did. It was an executive order like three weeks ago.” Biden continued to deny that he paused the LNG exports. At that point, Johnson suggested that the president ask the president’s secretary to print out the executive order, so the two could read it together.

Biden then recalled that he had signed an executive order, but it only called for a study on the effects of LNG. Johnson was firm. “Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state. I talked to those people in my state, I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security.”

In this exchange, Johnson said he realized that Biden was not lying to him. “He genuinely did not know what he had signed,” Johnson said. “And I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, “We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?” Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know.”

On January 26, 2024, the white house — announced “a temporary pause on pending decisions on exports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to non-FTA countries until the Department of Energy can update the underlying analyses for authorizations.” The White House meeting Johnson described was February 27, 2024.

When his staff rolled out a teleprompter for him to use while making remarks at small fund-raisers in private homes, Biden just nodded and went along with it. It never struck him as peculiar that he, the president of the United States, was expected to stick to prepared remarks at an off-camera Democratic fundraiser with only one print reporter in the room.

He never met with his pollsters from his reelection campaign, and that didn’t seem abnormal to him.
 
Seems to me Dems should be the mad ones. Clearly he should not have run for reelection but no one apparently told him him he couldn't win or that he didn't have the mental capacity to be President. It is incredible this could have happened. This could cost dems the supreme court for a generation
 
chrissteel said:
Seems to me Dems should be the mad ones. Clearly he should not have run for reelection but no one apparently told him him he couldn't win or that he didn't have the mental capacity to be President. It is incredible this could have happened. This could cost dems the supreme court for a generation
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That was mostly Mitch McConnell.
 
chrissteel said:
Seems to me Dems should be the mad ones. Clearly he should not have run for reelection but no one apparently told him him he couldn't win or that he didn't have the mental capacity to be President. It is incredible this could have happened. This could cost dems the supreme court for a generation
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The fault lies in failing to prepare. Other electable candidates should have been vetted and positioned for the office sooner. Hillary almost won in 2016 and probably should have. Harris wasn't ready yet, nor was the public ready to embrace her as a presidential figure. No one else had been vetted in time with a high enough public profile and a well-formed platform to inspire voters. Ignoring the voices of tech billionaires during Biden's term probably wasn't wise in hindsight either. Things fell into place perfectly for Trump to make a comeback.
 
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His wife and son could have stopped him, and the staff could have leaked stuff out. If there is not a way, the country needs to figure something out.
 
By the way, here's the EO Johnson was talking about, which you can pretty clearly see does not pause LNG exports to Europe:

www.whitehouse.gov

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports | The White House

President Biden has been clear that climate change is the existential threat of our time – and we must act with the urgency it demands to protect the
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov

The US was still easily able to meet Europe's LNG demands, and in fact European demand for LNG fell in 2024, causing us to have to expoert some of our supply elsewhere:

 
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But you don't know what could have happened with several debates, a real campaign, maybe someone distancing themselves
from Biden. I don't see how it could have gone worse.
 
chrissteel said:
Seems to me Dems should be the mad ones. Clearly he should not have run for reelection but no one apparently told him him he couldn't win or that he didn't have the mental capacity to be President. It is incredible this could have happened. This could cost dems the supreme court for a generation
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We've likely already lost the Supreme Court for a generation, and I'm not at all sure that any other Democrat this year could have beaten Trump. He won the popular vote this time, and I'm skeptical that any other Democrat would have done any better than Kamala did. A slim plurality of voters wanted "change" and they got it. Whether they'll be happy with what they voted for is a separate question entirely.
 
chrissteel said:
But you don't know what could have happened with several debates, a real campaign, maybe someone distancing themselves
from Biden. I don't see how it could have gone worse.
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Of course we don't know what would have happened. That is the definition of a hypothetical - we don't know what would have happened in any of innumerable possible scenarios where Biden steps down, doesn't run for reelection, dies, stays in the campaign, etc. But I don't think I would say "I don't see how it could have gone worse" - Dems certainly could have done even worse in House and Senate races than they did.

I get the angst, and I am personally frustrated by those in Biden's inner circle (particularly his family members) who chose to prop him up rather than telling him the truth, which was reported on extensively over the summer. But given what voters ultimately said about why they voted I'm skeptical a different outcome in the presidential election was particularly likely.
 
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rodoheel said:
By the way, here's the EO Johnson was talking about, which you can pretty clearly see does not pause LNG exports to Europe:

www.whitehouse.gov

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports | The White House

President Biden has been clear that climate change is the existential threat of our time – and we must act with the urgency it demands to protect the
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov

The US was still easily able to meet Europe's LNG demands, and in fact European demand for LNG fell in 2024, causing us to have to expoert some of our supply ellsewhere:

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I was noticing the same thing when I looked earlier. And it speaks to something I've been noticing much more recently. The quality of reporting, even from top notch sources like the NYT, is in an absolute freefall. I read a ton of articles yesterday about Trump's imminent TikTok executive order. Almost none of them mentioned the most important fact of all -- Trump has NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to extend the time for TikTok to be sold, or to waive the fines that are mandatory under the statute. Almost every media outlet reported the story as if Trump's EO could just kick the can down the road. Did no journalist bother to look at the actual statute?

Of all the many things that have me concerned about the next four years, the traditional media's rapid decline, to the point of complete ineffectiveness, is at the top of the list. We no longer have a real fourth estate. And it's not about bias or ethics. It's about effectiveness. The news is just not getting reported anymore.
 
rodoheel said:
I'm not going to defend any decisions Biden made but it's awfully presumptuous to think that him voluntarily stepping down and/or not running for reelection earlier would have made any difference in the election.
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Yes. If the country is stupid enough to elect Trump over Harris, then we deserve what we get.

On the bright side, maybe the rapture will happen soon and MAGA will be left behind to face their beloved tribulation. 🙏🙏🙏
 
TarSpiel said:
How exactly do you envision this? Somebody dipping a rag in chloroform and creeping into his bedroom at night, with a private jet ready to spirit him away to Turks and Caicos?
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By all the senior leaders speaking up like they finally did but after it was too late
 
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