It Was Joe’s Time to Go & Cheatle Takes the Stand – Top 3 Takeaways – July 22nd, 2024
- He didn’t survive the weekend. A week ago, when we were talking about presidential survival, it was the former and future president of the United States’ literal survival of an assassination attempt. This weekend the focus was once again on the current president’s political viability as he’d been under an unprecedented pressure campaign within his own party to drop out of the race despite having already won the Democrats’ nomination through the primary process. These are strange and historic times we live in indeed (although in full disclosure, as I typed “he didn’t survive the weekend” it wasn’t lost on me that sadly/perhaps ironically – that statement could be construed a different way – Joe Biden is still very much with the living). The backdrop for President Biden’s pressure campaign had been so intense that Republicans no longer needed to troll the president's reelection campaign. Democrats themselves were doing it a la the mobile Billboard driven nearby President Biden’s residence over the weekend stating: To Biden family, friends, allies, staff – it's your responsibility. In this pivotal moment, as he considers his future, President Biden should hear the truth from the people who have always had his back. Isn’t it remarkable that the “truth” doesn’t even need to be stated out loud? But as the pressure campaign reached a full fledge freakout factor on the left two important messages were sent Sunday afternoon by President Biden. The first was in this note posted on X: It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. The second came in this note also posted on X: Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this. The DNC had scheduled a virtual vote of delegates for President starting August 1st and concluding August 7th – in advance of the Democrat’s convention. This meant that we were down to only ten days in which Joe Biden could have left the race before his pledged delegates would have begun voting for the Democrat’s nominee for President of the United States. Now, the DNC has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to discuss what the open nomination process will entail and how quickly it will come about. Democrats don’t have much time to maneuver. Notably, many prominent Democrats, including the Clinton’s immediately endorsed the vice president for president as she officially kicked off her presidential campaign yesterday. One prominent Democrat family didn’t - the Obama’s. Kamala Harris has the inside track, however not all Democrats have immediately had her back and that’s potentially telling about what could be set to come at an open convention next month. Stand by for more news...
- Today’s a big day for the Secret Service’s fledgling credibility. Today Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before Congress for the first time since her department’s inexcusable lapse that led to the former and likely future president of the United States being shot and coming within an inch of his life. Her department’s incompetence in allowing the attack, in addition to her relative silence following the attack, have given birth to conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory. It’s only gotten worse with time. As I mentioned last Wednesday in my takeaways that day... First, let’s address one commonly floated notion on social media that I’ve been asked to account for numerous times. There is almost certainly no grand conspiracy here. It's reckless to suggest that the administration was somehow involved or complicit in the assassination attempt without highly compelling evidence of that having been the case. Second, even if one wanted to entertain that notion minus the evidence, do you really think that the “A” plan inside job would involve officials going to a 20-year-old shooter who practiced in a neighborhood range to carry out the attack? I understand the frustration and the anger by Trump supporters demanding answers.
- They deserve them and the entire country deserves them. As I mentioned last Wednesday in addressing this topic: The size of Trump’s rallies obviously require extensive security, far beyond what’s historically been needed to provide adequate security for either a former president and/or that of a presidential candidate. When Donald Trump was president, he had the level of Secret Service detail that was sufficient to more effectively cover his massive rallies. When he became a former president, his detail was dramatically scaled down to the size former presidents historically have received. When he started up his rallies for this presidential campaign it seems his security team had concerns about holding similar-sized rallies but with a much smaller Secret Service detail. Where there are perceived security gaps in Secret Service protection, they’ve been filled with other, commonly state and local, law enforcement agencies. Each of those additional layers create potential points of failure. Clearly there was extensive failure. As Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee today, it’s imperative that she addresses her department’s inexcusable failures head on in a transparent way. In advance of today’s testimony, she issued a statement saying: We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again. The fact of the matter is that Cheatle’s DEI-directed department assuredly knows what went wrong. What needs to happen now is for her to own it and share it transparently with the American people. She shouldn’t have a job today, but she does because Joe Biden remains President of the United States. It’s time for transparency, a clearly indicated change in protocols and ownership of the failures that are sufficient to put an end to nonconstructive conspiracy theories on the left and right.