Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Biden inherits historic burden

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s flash back a few decades, shall we?

President Woodrow Wilson served while the nation was battling a killer pandemic; President Franklin Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression, with an economy in free fall; President Lyndon Johnson assumed office with the nation struggling with racial tension.

President Joe Biden? He’s about to take office to battle a raging pandemic, an economy in dire peril and a nation torn by racial strife.

Oh, and let’s add that his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, will be standing trial in the U.S. Senate for inciting an insurrection that resulted in a deadly riot on Capitol Hill.

The new president is going to have a full plate, you know?

These are challenging times. I am heartened by the knowledge that the new president spent a professional lifetime in government. Thus, he knows which buttons to push, which levers to pull, whose arms to twist.

He will need all the skill he has developed over his years in the Senate and as vice president of the United States. President Biden’s lengthy career should hold him in good stead. It also should serve well a nation that needs significant repair from the damage done by the man who is heading out the door.

national news

Scrap the personal possessive pronoun, Mr. POTUS-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here is a request that in reality isn’t as modest as it might appear.

I direct it to President-elect Joe Biden. It goes like this:

Please refrain from the personal possessive pronoun when referring to our government, the team you assemble to work with you in the executive branch of government.

Donald Trump was fond of referring to “my generals,” and “my attorney general,” and “my Cabinet.” To be candid, President Barack Obama did it, too, and it annoyed me even then as I generally supported the policies that Obama espoused. President Obama would refer to Vice President Biden routinely as, um, “my vice president.”

The Cabinet does not belong to the president. Nor do the generals and admirals who wear our nation’s military uniform. The Justice Department is our DOJ, and does not belong to the president. Nor do any members of the Cabinet or senior staff members who comprise the presidential leadership team.

I get the perception we all had that, for example, the attorney general too often covered the president’s backside. For instance, AG William Barr infamously reported falsely the findings that special counsel Robert Mueller released regarding his lengthy and exhaustive probe into the Russian collusion matter.

Trump himself would talk to us about what “my generals” were preparing to do enemies of the nation.

My message to President-elect Biden is a simple one. Don’t take personal possession of the government. It ain’t his. It’s our government. In fact, the new president needs to understand something that the lame-duck president never got … that in a representative democracy such as ours, we are the bosses.

Presidents work for us.

I hope we’re clear.

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Human rights need renewed emphasis

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If you could list all the key policy issues that went ignored by the Trump administration, you could say that human rights was arguably the most critical unattended issue of them all.

You see, Donald Trump once called North Korean murderer/despot/tyrant Kim Jong Un a “smart cookie” and professed to “falling in love” with the Marxist madman. Trump’s fealty to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has been chronicled on this blog countless times. Indeed, he has given a pass to the conduct of despots all around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Turkey to the Philippines.

So … with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris set to take office in four days it is good insist that they return human rights advocacy to the top of their agenda.

President-elect Biden has heralded the return of the United States to the family of nations, by re-engaging in international treaties and pacts to stem climate change, to fight international pandemics and to prevent rogue nations — such as Iran — from obtaining nuclear weapons.

It is imperative that as president, Biden insists that all nations work toward adhering to basic principles of decency and humanity when governing their own citizens.

Donald Trump never spoke to the nation about those issues in a forthright and authentic manner. He was too busy taking undeserved credit for matters that had nothing at all to do with advancing human rights abroad, let alone at home.

Human rights has been the linchpin of many previous presidential administrations. It is time to restore the issue to the place of prominence at the White House … where it belongs.

Joe Biden has pledged to restore our national “soul.” He contended during the campaign that Trump had inflicted heavy damage on our image abroad, if not at home as well. The quest for adhering to human rights issues should become paramount as part of President Biden’s soul-restoration project.

The first place he can start is by ending the coddling of murderous dictators that infected Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

Uncategorized

This is ‘peaceful transfer’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whatever we were told about a presidential inauguration symbolizing the United States’ tradition of a “peaceful transfer of power” from one administration to the next one has been trampled under a stampede or rioters.

The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 has inflicted potentially mortal wounds on the nation’s tradition of that transfer of power. We used to boast about how we can change presidents peacefully even after bitter campaigns. How in the world can we make that claim in light of what has occurred since Nov. 3, when Donald Trump lost his re-election bid to Joseph Biden?

Trump built his resistance to Biden’s election on a lie, that the election was tainted by “widespread vote fraud.” The lie resulted in what transpired a few days ago when the terrorists marched to Capitol Hill and stormed into the center of our democratic government. It killed five people. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building.

We have not experienced a peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump’s administration to a government led by the man who beat him, Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated in a city swarming with 25,000 Army reservists deployed to deter rioters from repeating what they did the other day.

It is going to take a long time to repair the damage done by the terrorists and by the man for whom they marched against our system of government. It surely won’t be repaired in time for President Biden to launch his administration. Or the next president or the one after that.

It is not too much of a leap to suggest that we have lost another element of our national innocence. I hate to consider the notion that our peaceful presidential transition was merely a delusion. That it really didn’t exist except in our imagination.

It did for more than two centuries. It survived world wars, the Civil War, a Great Depression, constitutional crises.

Then we had an election between a career politician and a businessman who masqueraded as a president, a guy who said after he won the 2016 election that the vote count then was fraudulent as well. The result in 2020 turned Donald Trump out and he has resisted the outcome to the detriment of our entire nation.

I never thought I would witness this kind of transition. It is a nightmare in broad daylight.

national news

Biden facing tough prosecutorial call

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joseph R. Biden Jr. laid down an important marker a while back when he said he had no interest in pursuing federal criminal charges against his predecessor as president of the United States.

I’ll just get this off my chest: I think that was the correct course for President Biden to take. However, Biden made that judgment prior to the events that occurred on Jan. 6, which is the insurrection that Trump incited with that hideous speech on The Ellipse.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump a second time just one week after that tragic event. Joe Biden will take his oath of office just one week after the impeachment.

Trump will stand trial in the Senate. What the senators do, of course, remains the Question For the Ages. A conviction won’t remove Trump from office; he’ll be long gone from the White House. It would deny Trump the ability to seek public office ever again.

Should the Justice Department pursue criminal sedition charges against a former president if it determines there is evidence that he committed a crime by telling the mob to walk down the street and “take back the government”? If it doesn’t pursue them, does that let Trump off the hook, letting him get away with a punishable felony?

Here’s another question. Would a federal prosecution put the soul of the nation — which President Biden vowed to restore — in even more dire peril? Would such a prosecution inflict mortal wounds on our national psyche?

I now am officially undecided on the pledge that President-elect Biden made, that he has “no interest” in prosecuting Trump.

Joe Biden might have to assess the national mood in real time as he faces whether DOJ should proceed with prosecuting Trump.

I am not suggesting that Trump should avoid all prosecution. State authorities are looking into myriad other allegations leveled against the president. They involve campaign finance violations, his personal finances, the activities of his closest advisers and even his own family and a host of other matters. Local prosecutors’ ability and willingness to prosecute Trump are beyond the federal government’s reach, which renders DOJ’s view irrelevant.

What’s more, I also believe that local authorities need to keep looking until they determine whether they have enough to level charges. And if they don’t …

President Biden’s lengthy political career, burnished by his legal background, prepared him to ponder the decision he likely must confront.

If only Donald Trump had exhibited a scintilla of decency on Jan. 6 by telling the rioters to stand down. He didn’t. He incited them to attack the bastion of the government of this great nation.

That’s why President Biden faces an agonizing decision.

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Hoping to be done with Trump, but …

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You may choose to believe this or … disbelieve it. Makes no difference to me.

I had hoped to be done, finished with Donald J. Trump the moment President Biden took office. Biden will take office next week and for that I remain hopeful for a new day.

Sadly, none of us will be finished with Trump just yet. You see, we have this impeachment trial to follow and to assess as it convenes and progresses for the time it takes to render a decision on Trump’s culpability in the hideous attack on Capitol Hill that occurred Jan. 6.

Senators will debate openly about the evidence that the House of Representatives prosecutors will present them. I don’t know what the debate will entail precisely or the extent to which Trump’s defense team will be able to, um, defend what I consider to be the indefensible.

However, Donald Trump will remain the focus of this important debate and, dammit anyway, he will remain in our sights even as we move on to watching and commenting on the Biden administration.

The scuttlebutt now concerns whether there might be 17 Republican senators serving in a Senate that is split 50-50 on party lines who will deliver guilty verdicts on whether Trump committed “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. government. The Constitution sets the bar high for conviction of a president; it requires a two-thirds vote among senators.

I can think right now of roughly four, maybe five, senators who can cross over and join the Democrats. One of them might include the Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who has endorsed the House impeachment; he remains mum on how he intends to vote.

Again … this is all about Donald Trump. I suppose at one bizarre level he likes it that way, given that he remains at the center of attention, unwanted as it might appear to be.

Alas, only a little while longer.

Then he’ll really be gone.

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Call him ‘Cool hand Joe’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans are getting an advance look at the difference in style between Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden.

Trump is leaving the presidency under an air of chaos, confusion, controversy. Biden is preparing to enter the presidency with a cool, calm, collected approach to governing.

Thus, I do believe we are going to be able to rest assured that President Biden will continue this approach as he takes the oath and gets to work on trying to grapple with the myriad problems that await him.

Trump never got his arms around the government. He never understood the compromise needed to legislate, or how to cajole those on the other side. He flew blindly the entire way. Trump used his now-defunct Twitter account to make key policy decisions, to fire Cabinet officials, to tell Americans directly what was on his mind in the moment.

Biden isn’t likely to use that social medium to the degree his immediate predecessor did. Which is fine by me!

What’s more, as Trump prepares to exit the White House, he does so as a two-time impeached president. Trump’s coterie of advisers is shrinking, frightened by his reportedly erratic and outrageous behavior.

Biden is preparing to grasp the reins of power like the cool customer he has taught himself to be. I mean, he has all those decades of government experience under his belt. President-elect Biden is a man of the U.S. Senate, where he worked for 36 years before becoming vice president during President Obama’s two successful terms in office.

Ahh, the difference is a joy to behold.

national news

Trump makes history!

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well …

Let’s just start by acknowledging that Donald John Trump has crossed into the realm of “history-making president.”

The U.S. House of Representatives today impeached Trump for the second time in his single term as president of the United States. That’s for the history books, man.

Here’s another history-making aspect: 10 Republican House members joined their Democratic colleagues in casting “yes” votes on impeachment.

Is the president standing tall today after this event? Hardly.

He will walk out of the White House for the final time no later than Jan. 19, when he high-tails it to Florida a day ahead of President Biden’s inaugural.

I reject the notion that this impeachment is overly divisive, or that it tears at the nation’s quest for unity. Donald Trump has done a marvelous job all by himself of widening the divide among Americans. The vote today — 232-197 — does not signal an increase in that chasm. To me it merely signals the start of another political era, one that highlights restoration of the presidency.

To be sure, there now will be a Senate trial. It will occur after Trump is gone. I am not even close to believing that the Senate will muster up the two-thirds majority it needs to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection,” but it might.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the leading Senate Republican, expressed support for impeachment. That means he could vote to convict Trump of inciting that riot on Capitol Hill. Were he to make that declaration ahead of a vote, it could provide some form of political cover for other Republican senators who otherwise might want to hide in the weeds.

To my ears, I heard nothing that gave me pause for supporting Trump’s impeachment today. All I heard from many of Trump’s defenders were “what about” arguments from those who said, “What about those protests last summer?” or “What about Democrats who endorsed the violence then?”

What happened then has nothing to do with what Donald Trump did this past week? He incited a mob to storm the seat of our democratic government and to seek to overturn the results of a free and fair election.

For that act, Donald Trump made history today by becoming the nation’s first-ever two-time impeached president.

Nice going, Mr. President. Now … get the hell out of my house!

national news

POTUS-VPOTUS pairing more critical than ever

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The ghastly insurrection the world witnessed this past week has torn open many sores, revealed many flashpoints about our government.

One of them involves the relationship between the president and vice president. It is now on full display and that pairing becomes even more critical as we move in just eight days from one administration to the next one.

Donald Trump exhorted the mob to march on the Capitol Building, where at that very moment Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over a congressional session to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Spoiler alert: Trump lost that one; President-elect Joe Biden won bigly.

Trump tried for days to browbeat Pence into doing something he had no power to do, to ignore the Electoral College results and declare that Trump won. Pence told Trump he had to follow the Constitution. That didn’t set well with Trump. He reportedly was furious with the VP.

The mob stormed into the Capitol Building. It occupied the speaker’s office, ransacked several other offices, stole computers … and sent the congressional session scurrying for cover. That included Pence. Oh, and rioters also were yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” while they were bludgeoning overwhelmed police officers with flag poles flying Old Glory.

It took Trump six days to even talk to the vice president after the attack. Did I mention that the rioters were intent on harming or killing the vice president?

I believe I can say this with confidence, but Trump never valued the experience that Mike Pence brought to the administration. Trump chose Pence because Pence is a darling of the evangelical Christian movement, which Trump manipulated during his term in office. Pence was a Trump toadie to the core, standing up for Trump even as the president embarrassed and shamed the presidency and even as he told lie after lie to the public.

They will be gone soon. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will bring an entirely new and presumably more constructive relationship to the executive branch of government.

Try to imagine President Biden turning his back on Vice President Harris were she put into the spot Pence found himself during the insurrection. It would never happen.

For that matter, Biden’s role as VP during the Barack Obama administration wrote a new chapter in that relationship that should become the standard for future administrations to follow. President Obama routinely refers to himself and his family as “honorary Bidens” and describes the new president as his “brother.”

Yes, this relationship is critical to the max. We are witnessing in real time just how dysfunction can ruin such a pairing and the potential it has for ruining the conduct of our government.

national news

Ready to use the term ‘president’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this moment to boast.

I made a vow four years ago that I never would attach the term “President” in front of “Trump” consecutively, that I was so repulsed by Donald Trump’s election that I could not possibly bestow the title directly in front of his name.

My pledge rankled many of the Trumpkins who still read this blog. I stand as firmly behind that pledge today as I did when I made it to myself — and declared it publicly — four years ago when Donald Trump became president.

Indeed, the events of the past week only have solidified in my own mind and heart the decision I made. Accordingly, with a new president and vice president about to take office I gladly will refer to President Biden and Vice President Harris.

To be fair and in the interest of full disclosure, I have referred on this blog to Mike Pence as Vice President Pence. Why the VP and not the president? Because my loathing of Trump is so intense, so visceral and so personal that I just couldn’t bring myself to bestow the title of president on him while writing about him. Pence is not my ideal politician, but he at least knows how to conduct himself in the high office he will occupy for just a few more days.

OK. The past is going to recede quickly. I want to deal in the moment with what we have in front of us. To my way of thinking, we will welcome a president who will restore the office to the stature it deserves. We also will have a vice president who, if Joe Biden follows the script he and Barack Obama wrote when they took office in 2009, will be the last person in the room when it’s decision time.

Welcome aboard, President Biden and Vice President Harris!