Posted on 01/01/2025 5:34:53 AM PST by MtnClimber
In my Sunday Smiles essay, I riffed on this Washington Post retrospective on Joe Biden's presidency and how it soft-pedaled Biden's disastrous policies and all the important questions about who was really in charge over the past few years.
I reserved for today the most important "revelation" in the story: Biden considers one of his biggest mistakes the choice of Merrick Garland for Attorney General. Garland, in his view, was not political enough.
It may seem odd to normal people that anybody could think that Garland was anything but a political hack over the past four years, but seen through the eyes of Democratic Party operatives, you can see how such an absurd idea seems normal.
During the 2020 presidential transition, Biden’s attorney general selection pitted some of his closest aides against each other. Former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware) and Mark Gitenstein, both longtime friends of Biden, advocated for the president naming then-Sen. Doug Jones (D-Alabama) as attorney general, arguing that as a politician he would be better able to navigate the bitterly partisan moment.
But Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of staff, pushed for Garland. He stressed that Garland — a federal judge with a sterling reputation for independence and fairness — would show Americans that Biden was rebuilding a department badly shaken by Trump’s political attacks.
Biden was persuaded, and some Democrats believe the decision had devastating results. Had the Justice Department moved faster to prosecute Trump for allegedly seeking to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents, they say, the former president might have faced a politically damaging trial before the election. (Others blame the Supreme Court and a Trump-appointed judge in Florida for repeatedly siding with the former president and delaying the cases; the Justice Department declined to comment.)
Biden's preference for a sitting Democrat senator over a judge with aspirations to sit on the Supreme Court makes sense. Garland was not averse to playing politics, but he wanted everything to have at least the patina of being lawful. A politician whose elevation to the slot of Attorney General would have been less concerned about painting within the lines.
What sticks out about this tidbit, though, is not Biden's regret but the reason for it: his strategy for defeating Donald Trump depended upon using the Justice Department to prosecute Trump to tie him up during the campaign and use allegations to undermine Trump.
On the one hand, you could say, "That's obviously true," but on the other, this amounts to an admission that Biden's election strategy was to weaponize the Justice Department. SNIP
Exactly the policy of our incoming FBI director. It has to be done. Not should be done. Has to be done.
It was said that it was Joe who refused to give Trump adequate secret service protection. Why did he want to keep it small? Could it be that he had a loyalist working on the inside, and too many agents would complicate his plans?
Nice take.
America dodged a bullet when the nomination of Garlick Merrand to the Supreme Court was stalled out, and Trump got to install one of his own.
Nobody working on an agenda should ever be placed on the Supreme Court, which is there to judge with neither fury nor favor. In addition, there should be no “appointment for life”, but only on something like a ten-year term, at the end of which there is either a replacement or a vote of retention.
I have a feeling Biden had little to nothing to do with choosing Merrick Garland for Attorney General.
Do you hear that Mr President?? You need to step it up big time and have Indictments and Swat raids within 10 days of being Sworn in to Please the Biden Crime Family on efficiency.
Biden and Garland’s plan of attack was perfect: A half dozen, or so, felony charges on Trump were to be nearly simultaneously entered just months before the election, and they would all culminate in convictions just as voting started. Trump’ election would be DOA.
Unfortunately (for Biden and Garland) both were too stupid to realize that Trump would fight back. Given that the charges were all bogus, and that some judges were actually honest, just as in war, the battle plan collapsed at first contact with the enemy (especially against someone who was smart).
Biden = Bolshevik
Everything about him is evil
But listen to Roberts. You must do as Roberts says.
“Biden Angry That Lawfare Was Too Slow to Destroy Trump”
Did he then tell Trumps Secret Service agents to over look Routh’s and Crook’s obvious assassination attempts?
I guess if you’re too senile to be a criminal or even to be expected to follow simple rules, then expecting the prosecution of those just like you is part of the elite sanctuary of government. Doesn’t want the competition.
wy69
Yeah, that pesky “Due Process” thing. Gets in the way of would be dictators all the time.
p
Garbage Joe, the kiddie-diddling pedo schmoe.
It just a stinking shame that the US Gov’t has a hidden policy not to mess with the POTUS under any circumstances, like Klinton, Bush 41 Et al.
once again, a communist trick failed!
Absolutely! With no mercy.
50 years of bribes-—lies-—corruption, etc
ALL GROUND TO A HALT RATHER QUICKLY
Maybe there will be SERIOUS consequences.
Can you imagine if Richard Nixon had said that?
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