The first week of June was supposed to be a very good, very important week for President Joe Biden. It will begin with a show of force on the U.S. border, culminate with a trip abroad to demonstrate his command over the international order and come shortly after his biggest political opponent was convicted of more than three dozen felony charges.
He was supposed to be Biden the tough guy, Biden the world leader, a far cry from Donald Trump the convicted felon. But that’s not what happened at all.
It started with the immigration issue: With plenty of time left before the president departs for France on Tuesday night, rumors were swirling among reporters that a surprise domestic trip was being planned.
If that potential trip was to the border (as many suspected), it never happened: local politics are tough, and getting mayors of border cities to support a president who oversaw an invasion-level illegal border crossing would have been difficult at best.
Rumors aside, the president issued an executive order from the White House on Tuesday that didn’t generate much buzz: While The New York Times hailed closing loopholes in the US asylum system as common sense (a big shift for the US left, which likened Trump’s efforts to the expulsion of Jews in the 1930s), the broader left condemned it.
“Biden backs Trump’s refugee ban, proving Democrats don’t believe in anything.”
Heading “Biden’s Bogus Border Crackdown,” wrote the left-leaning news site Splinter. editorial The audience seats on the right of center.
and,
Time magazine profilewas meant to set the stage for the week ahead. The White House planned for the president’s speech marking the Normandy landings to be reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan’s famous “Boys of the Pont du Hoc” speech, delivered at the same site 40 years earlier. You may have noticed the similarities in the Time profile, but the White House had hinted at the reference to multiple news outlets on the eve of the anniversary.
The magazine’s article, titled “‘We’re a World Power: How Joe Biden Will Lead,” was the product of a 90-minute tour of the White House by its top editors that included sitting with the president in the Oval Office.
It was an impressive tour de force, highlighting coalition-building with key allies like the Philippines and a pragmatic role in expanding NATO, but Time couldn’t help but notice that the American public doesn’t believe it. Biden is lagging behind Trump in poll after poll on foreign policy. Rightly or wrongly, Americans hold Biden responsible for the shameful and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan and point out that, under Biden’s watch, Russia had the guts to invade Ukraine.
To make matters worse, the profile noted the 81-year-old president’s telltale traits, including his “awkward gait, muffled voice and shaky speech.” The man they sat with, the reporters wrote, “was a stark contrast to the engaged, articulate man who had served as senator and vice president.”
“The impression he gives is that of a man of age, of wide experience, of a man who has lived through history.”
And then something big happened. Wall Street Journal article The statement, that “behind closed doors, Biden is showing signs of decline,” came Tuesday night after months of reporting and interviews with dozens of loyal Democrats and hostile Republicans.
Any day the White House spends assuring the public that its obviously elderly, sometimes stammering and often bewildered president is OK is a bad day for the White House and a tough day for the PR department. And instead of previewing the momentous Normandy speech, Wednesday was a wasted day countering a familiar narrative that is becoming more formulaic with every passing day.
Though the president’s unsteady, stiff, aging gait and apparent confusion in public were evident Thursday morning, the speech struck exactly the tone the White House wanted, rising from an obscurantist tone in recounting history to a defiant one in connecting the Normandy landings to the Russian war.
It would have been a good day for the president. It was a far cry from Reagan’s famous speech or Donald Trump’s defense of Western civilization on the 75th anniversary of the White House (arguably one of his best), but it was a solid performance for an 81-year-old man.
Though he faced away from his wife and the other dignitaries onstage during Taps, and a video of him slowly and awkwardly lowering himself to the floor after finishing his speech drew laughs online, the day would have been good. The week would have ended strong and aggressive.
Instead, it validated a Journal report that Democrats have tried hard to dispel: “Sometimes he’s on his game, sometimes he’s not.”
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In other news
Trump trial a disaster
Georgia appeals court puts Fulton County election interference case on hold On Wednesday, a three-judge panel will review Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to assign the case to Fani Willis.
McAfee said he could indict Trump and his co-conspirators if Willis’s highly paid ex-girlfriend, whom he hired as special counsel, resigned. But now an appeals court is considering whether Willis’s actions were enough to clear up the “smell of falsehood” that hangs over the case because of her infidelity.
In Florida, Judge Eileen Cannon continues to draw the ire of the left. Cannon has not provided all the information requested by special counsel Jack Smith in the Trump classified documents case. Her latest move this week was to schedule a hearing for a third party to make oral arguments about why Smith does not have the constitutional authority to indict Trump, creating another obstacle for Biden Justice Department prosecutors who are growing angry about delays in the case. Cannon said: Special Counsel Tactics.
And in Washington, D.C. Judge Tanya Chutkan won’t have much to do in Trump’s January 6 case until the Supreme Court rules on whether a president has immunity for official duties taken while in office. That will likely come within the next few weeks. But even if the ruling comes, the case may not regain steam anytime soon. Some observers predicted oral arguments would play out over the immunity issue, with some justices leaning toward creating a new legal framework for deciding the immunity issue. If that happens, the court will have to sort out what that means for Trump’s prosecution in Washington before the trial begins.
But unlike the Florida documents case, the judges here have signaled they are sympathetic to Jack Smith’s efforts to fast-track the case, so if the Supreme Court clears the way for a Trump indictment, Chutkan will likely try to get it through before November.
