As Camero Poe, played by Nicholas Cage, looks out of the rear of the cargo plane in the film “Con Air” and spots a Corvette Stingray tethered to the plane flying several hundred feet in the air, he turns and says to a friend, “On any other day, that might seem strange.” That’s exactly the stance taken by many reporters witnessing the current changeover from Joe Biden’s presidency back to an unfettered, unmanageable and unintelligent Donald Trump. You could also say the exact same thing about President Biden’s cross-country trip this week which began with a stop to console terror attack victims in New Orleans and ended in the smoke-filled streets of Los Angeles.
Biden left on a mission to provide comfort to the victims of mass murder in New Orleans and scored points by staying focused and reminding everyone what compassion from a leader intent on helping others can do for us all. Meanwhile Donald Trump, still not officially the president, is acting like not only is the job already his but that he’s ready to kill to prove it. He recently threatened to attack the Panama Canal, Greenland, annex Mexico, bomb Hamas and open up a McDonalds in the White House. Well, maybe not the last one.
Then on Tuesday, wildfires erupted in Los Angeles; rumors to the contrary, it had nothing to do with rebooting the Road Warrior franchise nor was it a sequel to “2012” (I checked.) Also on Tuesday, Trump told us he wants the Supreme Court to get his back and stop his sentencing for his 34 felony convictions in New York. Rudolph Giuliani was smacked with a contempt charge while Trump reminded us in a news conference from Mar-a-Lago that violence definitely is not off the table in his bid to expand the great American Empire! He even wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. “It has a great sound.” The best sound. America the Greatest.
Sure he may remind some of the Roman Emperor Commodus who in 192 renamed Rome “Colony of Commodus,” but Commodus ended up strangled to death by a gladiator. I am not suggesting such fate will befall Trump. I don’t think he can wrestle — although he loves a good smackdown. I’m sure Trump would love to rename all the months of the year to match his names and the names of his closest kin. Can’t wait to take a vacation during the month of Ivanka. The month of Melania would probably be steamy. The Month of Eric will be shortest, while Donald Jr. probably won’t get a month. His dad will just rename the Santa Ana winds, the “Juniors.” Trump will next rename the Senate the “Trumpian Fortunate Senate”, he’ll rename the White House “Trumpland” and all Americans “Trumplicans." From there he’ll carve his own face on Mount Rushmore. Jan. 6 will be renamed “Trump Day," the Navy will be renamed the “Trumpy Navy," the Army will be “Trumpians” and the U.S. Air Force will be “Air Trumps."
Well, I suppose at least we should be grateful he still gives news conferences.
Some time after Trump again threatened our allies, Biden, fresh off of scoring points in New Orleans, headed to Los Angeles. Reporters weren’t sure why at first and the administration didn’t say. Worse, because of an alleged problem with the White House email server, dozens if not hundreds of reporters were dumped and could not receive updates news outlets need to cover the president. “There was some concern that this was a concession to Donald Trump,” a member of the WHCA shared privately. “Biden has said he wants the transition to go smoothly and several of us thought this was Trump’s way of seeing who noticed and requested to be brought back on board. You know ‘only the real reporters’ type of thing.”
This final presidential trip serves as a microcosm of everything that went wrong during the Biden years. He began with a bang and ended with a whimper.
But that wasn’t the only problem Biden had. No one was really sure why Biden would skip eulogizing former President Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state at the Capitol. Biden knew him well, and while Vice President Kamala Harris did a yeoman’s job delivering a heartfelt send-off, outlining his many achievements and ending with saying, “May his life be a lesson for the ages and a beacon for the future,” why wouldn’t Biden deliver it? It looked awkward and it didn’t seem reasonable for Biden to skip the somber occasion unless, “he’s trying to set her up for another presidential run in 2028,” a Democratic operative offered me.
But that didn’t make much sense either – particularly after Biden came out in an exclusive interview with USA Today this week and said he could have won re-election, though he doubted he could make it all the way through another four years in office. He’s obviously still sore after being kicked to the curb by his own party and apparently can’t accept it.
Eventually, we were told Biden was going to “designate two new national monuments” in Box Canyon near Coachella CA. Why? What? Out in the middle of nowhere? Sure, Joe. That’ll draw a crowd.
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Almost immediately on Tuesday morning, the effort fell apart. The first pool report of the day told us of a delay. About an hour later, the White House told us, “Due to weather issues, the President will not travel to Thermal, CA. The previously scheduled remarks will be delivered in Los Angeles, CA. Additional details to follow.” No details ever followed.
What were the remarks about? What were the monuments? Was it an open press event? Well, if you were kicked off the email list you had no idea what was going on, and if you were on the list, you were confused as Hell about what was going on.
An hour later the White House issued this statement: “Today’s event will be rescheduled for next week at the White House so that key stakeholders can attend.” Who were the stakeholders? Now what was going on? Take a guess. Very frustrating.
We were also told that a “lunch lid” had been called and would last about two hours. Four hours later the White House then told us “The President has been briefed on the wildfires in Los Angeles and at his direction his team is in contact with state and local officials to offer any federal assistance as needed. In response to the governor’s request, FEMA has just approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to support the impacted community and help reimburse California for firefighting costs.”
He had to be briefed? OK. You’d think he could just look out a window and see the smoke and flames, but again, maybe he was waiting for statistics. I can understand that. But why was he still in Los Angeles, if the event in which he ostensibly was there to participate had been canceled? What was going on? No one knew. Seems like there was much more going on in the world than watching a wildfire — though for the thousands fleeing their homes there was nothing more immediately important.
On any other day, this might seem strange. But while that was going on, we’re dealing with the first death from bird flu, and a Green Beret who used AI to plot his suicide in front of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The DOJ is apparently going to release some of the Trump report, and with all this going on, wasn’t it a little odd for the president to watch Dante’s Inferno from a nice hotel room in Los Angeles?
Without saying anything else, the press was given guidance Tuesday night for Biden’s departure from Los Angeles at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. What was he going to do from 9 p.m. Tuesday until he left Wednesday afternoon? Hell if I, or most members of the press knew. Maybe he wanted to roast marshmallows by a fire, take in a movie, or just chill. Some suspected he was going to “visit a specialist” for a not-so-secret condition.
Bright and early Wednesday morning, while LA continued to burn, “a few miles away” from the president, the White House called an early gather time, said POTUS was in touch with local officials about the fire and to “remain vigilant.” I think those close to the fire were already vigilant — what with all kinds of emergency warnings being incessantly broadcast across television, radio and everyone’s phone. And, of course, the actual sight of the countryside and homes engulfed in flames and explosions should be sufficient to keep those closest “vigilant” to say the least — if not panic-stricken. But who am I to second-guess the president?
A half an hour later, the White House told us, “This morning the President received a briefing from his team on the latest developments of the Palisades wildfire overnight. Soon, the President will receive a briefing from CalFire officials on the Palisades wildfire at a Santa Monica Fire Station. Then, the President and the First Lady will depart Los Angeles, California and return to the White House.” So, now the President was in town to see the devastation of a wildfire that hadn’t occurred when he made his plans to travel to California? Some of us were just a bit skeptical.
An hour after that we were informed that Biden had spoken with California Governor Gavin Newsom by phone “to receive the latest updates” on the fires that Biden could see himself from his hotel room. Trump, of course, thinking that Newsom is somehow omnipotent, blamed him for the fires — and later also blamed Biden. The reason doesn’t matter. It’s typical Trump garbage.
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And then, we found out 20 minutes later that “The President and First Lady are stopping by Cedars-Sinai Hospital for the birth of their great-grandchild.” His granddaughter Naomi had scheduled a C-section. Scheduled. The pool report ended with “a thick pall of smoke is covering much of the sky,” as they drove to the hospital.
Maybe it was from all the smoke the president had blown up our collective behinds in the last two days telling us why he came to California. It makes sense that you would blow off eulogizing a president you admired for the birth of a great-grandchild, particularly if you were upset about losing a chance to run for re-election and quit caring about the job months ago.
Biden has done some great things. He came in with a bang and for a year and a half was on a roll. Getting the infrastructure bill passed, guiding us through the COVID pandemic, righting the ship of state and creating a robust economy would get your average POTUS re-elected. But Biden couldn’t do it, and this final presidential trip serves as a microcosm of everything that went wrong during the Biden years. He began with a bang and ended with a whimper. He simply imploded.
After spending 40 minutes with his great-grandchild, Biden showed up at a Santa Monica fire station saying, “It’s astounding what’s happening.” Astounding? Congress passing a bill is astounding. Five wildfires displacing thousands and killing some in the LA area I believe is best described differently, but I’ll reserve criticism.
After that Biden added, “The good news is I’m a great grandfather as of today… A 10-pound baby girl… baby boy.” The pooler noted that Biden “clearly appeared to correct himself at the end but it’s not clear which version is correct. Seeking clarification.” Gee, I’m glad he got good news. Wish most of those who lost their homes because of a wildfire could say the same.
That’s been the story of the Biden administration. Confusion, clarification, and now more than ever it appears Biden has just lost all interest in anything other than using public funds to travel to Los Angeles to see his great-grandchild born. . . and his son lose a home to fire.
At the end of his meeting at the firehouse, the president packed it up, headed to LAX and while the fires roared from several locations and the smoke rose thousands of feet over the LA metropolitan area, smelling like a firepit from the Gulf War, Joe Biden left early from Los Angeles – stranding some of us who had gathered to witness his exit and hoped to shout questions at him as he boarded Air Force One.
I never even got to wave goodbye.
Like I said, on any other day, that might seem strange.
But not today.
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