President Biden’s “Tear Down This Wall” Moment That Wasn’t
Hello Hackaroos,
Well, the big storyline from President Biden’s big “deliverable” moment from his Europe trip continues to be a deliverable that was never planned to begin with. But should it have been? And did the White House clean-up of Biden’s off the cuff remark actually make the situation worse? That’s where we begin before some tidbits.
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Let’s begin!
The Biden Adlib Heard ‘Round The World
MURPHY: Well, they started with a good plan. A powerful speech on the Ukraine crisis from the NATO front lines in Poland. It was a good speech and carried exactly the right message. But then the POTUS added an off the cuff adlib, not on the prompter that, “Putin cannot remain in power.” I applauded. Biden was right in saying what everyone knows; Putin and his crazy Make Russia Great Again obsession is the cause of this tragedy in Ukraine. But then, moments after Biden’s speech, unnamed Administration aides rushed out to bury their own boss. They “walked back” Biden’s remark… No way, no how was the President talking about that most feared – since Iraq – of all foreign policy clichés in the media echo chamber; the two words CW dreads more than others: “regime change.”
Forget for a moment if you agree or disagree with Biden saying what he said. The tactic of the WH staff burying the POTUS with the "ol’ Grampa didn’t mean it, he gets confused before his nap” clean up minutes after the speech served neither Biden nor the administration’s alleged strategy to increase the squeeze on the Russian dictator during a time where his vastly overrated military was stuck in a stalemate against Ukraine’s small but ferocious forces (“we are the John Wick of countries” one Ukrainian pol said on CNN.)
GIBBS: To your point, Murphy, the speech was strong, passionate and eloquent. For a President, it’s one to remember. But, the speech itself wasn’t what got covered, it was those last 9 words that weren’t in the teleprompter. Then came the very quick walk back followed by the back and forth as to whether he should even have walked it back, or to provide some context to the ad lib. And, if you’re still following my chain of events, two days later, Biden is taking your advice, Murphy, to stand by his remarks with some color about why he made them.
What Biden was saying was not that somebody in the United States Special Forces was going to solve the problem of Putin's leadership, but that we were calling on the Russian people to make that determination. Undoubtedly, this line came as a big surprise to Biden’s team. I will say that at least the Reagan line was probably something discussed and planned at a larger level, even if it didn't include the State Department. My hunch is that there was a bit of just sheer raw panic when the last nine words of a 30-minute address in a teleprompter were adlibbed. But, my primary question is this: given what Biden said yesterday, did they talk to him about this before the Warsaw Walk Back?
The real challenge here is that the White House staff and the foreign policy establishment is going to have to become more comfortable with making Vladimir Putin less comfortable. The challenge with that is, again, you've got very smart people who are rightly worried about escalation, but at some point if Putin doesn't get uncomfortable enough to pull the plug on this, we're going to be here for a very, very, very long time. Murphy, pulling up one reporter to soften the idea that Biden had committed us to taking out Putin would have been an elegant way to not step all over the President and his speech. Keep in mind, we’ve already labeled him a war criminal. I doubt anyone thinks we don’t want the war criminal gone!
MURPHY: Exactly. They should have done on the plane what Biden did at the WH yesterday. Well done, Mr. President. More than anything else it was important for Biden to show the buck stops with him and he is fully in charge. That is the vital language thugs like Putin best understand. Biden also adroitly put his earlier remarks in context during his remarks yesterday. Removing Putin is not our policy goal, but it is a statement of moral outrage at his unacceptable behavior. But no, instead of letting Biden clean up Biden, some mystery staffer had to play Metternich the Great and start calling reporters like a tisk-tisking parent after junior did something stupid at school. Bottom line; weak staff work like this is a big reason why Joe Biden’s numbers are as bad as they are. If I were Biden, I’d grab a sharp can opener and retool my comms shop pronto. (That said, the very able Jen Psaki was not on the trip, being out sick. So I don’t pin this one on her and she should escape any purge. She would have known better had she been on the spot.)
GIBBS: Hard to underestimate the panic of all the headlines screaming “regime change” which undoubtedly led staff to feel forced to do this and forced it quickly. We have Post-Iraq Policy Stress Disorder, which is exactly what I think took over here. All too often, we think about our politics less about the moment we’re in and more about trying to correct the mistakes from 10 or 15 years ago.
MURPHY: And in this case, it made what should have been a great news cycle for Biden sending a signal to the Russian leadership all about Biden, which is such a loss. Still, Biden did a decent clean up yesterday, so onward. It’s clear as the Kremlin back peddles today on Ukraine (“we have won so many glorious victories in Ukraine that we have run out of Heroes of the Great Russian Army medals, so we are pausing our operations for now”) that Biden is winning the day.
TIDBITS
MURPHY: I can’t resist touching base on the real issue buzzing around America’s water coolers and Zoom calls today: Will Smith. I’m old school. They should have ejected him from the ceremony. You don’t slug the comic. It’s that simple. I’m tired of special rules for the Hollywood bubble. What say you my Hollywood elite friend, Gibbsie?
GIBBS: My only problem with Will Smith was I don't know why you slap the guy when you could have just punched him. He played Muhammad Ali after all?
MURPHY: I’m told by backstage friends that such was the joke Chris Rock made after the event to staffers… “I took a shot from Ali and it didn’t leave a scratch.” By the way, it now appears that the best investment of Q1 2022 isn’t some crypto scheme, but Chris Rock concert tour tickets; they are up 600% today. I’m looking forward to Rock’s tight new 15 minutes on Will and Jada. #Gold.
GIBBS: What I am outraged about isn’t Will Smith or what happened at the Oscars (melodramas that dull our senses to real news!), but rather by the texts from Virginia Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas. I know we are getting more and more immune to anything that happens around and about Trump, but this is really worthy of stopping and thinking about: the wife of a Supreme Court Justice was texting the White House Chief of Staff using QAnon talking points on how to keep Donald Trump in power despite the election results, all while Clarence Thomas continues to rule on cases around Trump’s involvement around January 6. The other challenge, too, is there's no real recourse because there’s nobody at the Supreme Court who rules whether or not somebody should recuse themselves. It's up to the individual judge. This is off the charts of otherworldly loony. And, it's yet another reminder of how markedly dangerous this time was and the lengths people were planning to go to in order to try and keep Trump in power. Any person on any side defending either the texts or the idea that Clarence Thomas should continue to hear these cases is also out of their mind. By the way, another headline that I’m sure will whiz right by us is that U.S. District Court Judge David Carter found that Donald Trump and John Eastman likely committed a felony in trying to subvert the election while knowing it was completely illegal.
MURPHY: Being filled with Irish rage, I can be upset about both. On Justice Thomas, this is a simple one. He should totally recuse himself. Should have then, must do now.
GIBBS: Lastly, let’s not in all of this forget the most important state politically in 2022! Yup, Georgia (is on my mind)! Trump returned this past weekend to support former Sen. David Perdue’s lagging campaign to beat sitting GOP Governor Brian Kemp. The rally was complete with chants of “lock him up” though this time the crowd meant the Republican Governor. This primary is just 8 weeks away and it’s a big, big test for Trump. As you can imagine, he’s not going quietly into the night.
If you’re even remotely as obsessed as I am about Georgia, give this book a read!
MURPHY: Speaking of plugs, when you read it make sure you have a Hacks on Tap coffee or beer mug close by! Here's a again link to the Store: https://themerchspot.com/collections/hacks-on-tap
And for what it’s worth, I think Kemp is going to beat Trump/Perdue in the primary… a big deal inside the GOP.
On that note, we’ll see you on Friday, (where Gibbs will explain Biden’s new plan to soak the rich! – MM).
Murphy and Gibbs