In the first six months of his new term as president, Donald Trump has scored some astonishing successes, and he’s demonstrated an intensity and level of personal engagement woefully lacking in the previous administration.
Trump, the master juggler, keeps a remarkable number of balls in the air at all times, handling most deftly and quickly recovering the occasional bobble. It’s a fabulous show, except for the fact that on occasion, he tosses up a few balls that would have been better left in his magic bag. The Trump bad habit we’ve seen again and again is that he can be obsessed with settling old scores, refighting old fights; the resulting political sideshows interfere with the very critical issues of the day that deserve his and his administration’s full attention.
One example is the current flap about the Justice Department’s release of information in hand about Jeffrey Epstein. After promising details about the rumored Epstein “client list” (presumably implicating noteworthy folks) and probable foul play in Epstein’s supposed suicide, the DOJ abruptly reversed field and announced that investigators have found neither a client list nor credible evidence that Epstein was murdered.
Trump’s MAGA zealots went nuts. They had anticipated a bombshell revelation, were outraged by the DOJ’s reversal, and demanded full disclosure of all the DOJ’s Epstein files. Ironically, many Democrats were outraged as well, immediately concluding that the Trump DOJ is now covering up to protect its own.
This is an entirely self-inflicted wound. For weeks, Trump has been trying to throw a wet blanket on the whole thing — but that’s hard to do when you and your crowd lit the fire in the first place, teasing the release of earth-shaking revelations.
It’s quite likely that Jeffrey Epstein, whose loathsome claim to fame was arranging sexual liaisons with underage girls for his wealthy friends, would keep a client list, but it is also likely that he would keep such a document well hidden. Additionally, the Epstein matter is not entirely resolved, with at least one legal proceeding still pending, and confidentiality must be maintained. So, the DOJ’s position is reasonable — and no, DOJ heads should not roll to satisfy the malcontents.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration is now embroiled in a bitter internal and external squabble, driven entirely by partisan politics and the feverish desire of each side to expose salacious dirt about the other. The current flap has nothing whatsoever to do with justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, and it should not be consuming large chunks of Trump’s time and attention.
And another, more troublesome example: Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and how it was handled by the previous administration.
It seems obvious to any who were paying attention (well, to Republicans, at least) that the former president’s close advisers were actively hiding their boss’s cognitive decline from the public and quite possibly were improperly acting in his stead. The very legitimate question: who was actually running our country in the latter half of the Biden presidency?
Donald Trump calls it the scandal of the century, and in historical context, he may be correct. In October 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. For the last few months of his term, Wilson’s wife Edith shielded him from all access and effectively took over the U.S. presidency, making policy decisions and forging his signature, while assuring all that he was fully informed and in charge.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee, under the direction of James Comer (R-KY), is conducting a full-bore investigation into the Biden staffers’ actions during that period, and in particular, whether their use of the autopen to approve executive actions was done with Mr. Biden’s full knowledge and specific direction.
But here’s the bigger picture: Joe Biden’s incapacity is no surprise to anyone, and nothing that the congressional committee produces will have any bearing on anything Biden did or did not do.
In 2020, the American electorate hired a dud for the presidency. They knew it. Joe Biden had been a dud throughout his entire political career, ensconced in the protected cocoon of the U.S. Senate from his election at age 29 and for decades thereafter (the years when most executives learn management and leadership in the real world), until selected by Barack Obama for eight more do-nothing years as vice president. Biden was tapped by Democrat leadership as a safe replacement for the volatile Donald Trump, someone who would look and sound presidential and who would be malleable enough to go along with the demands of the party’s powerful Bernie Sanders wing. They want open borders? Fine.
In the last few years of his presidency, Biden’s physical and cognitive decline became more pronounced, but it wasn’t a precipitous change, just different shades of grey. The electorate saw through it all: they grew weary of the incessant Nazi/fascist/Hitler nonsense, they cringed at the concerted lawfare campaign targeting their political opponent, and after Biden bombed in the debate, they saw Kamala Harris as Biden 2.0. So, last November, they gritted their teeth and elected Donald Trump. And at that point, many among us said a little prayer thanking God that Biden’s incompetence did not prove fatal for our country.
Regardless of what Comer’s committee comes up with (so far, most of the subpoenaed witnesses are invoking their Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to answer even the simplest questions), their exercise is fruitless. It will reveal competing opinions, curious anecdotes, and many examples of questionable decisions. And no one will be shocked to learn that Biden’s loyal staff, in a wholly political environment, routinely tried to protect him, to put him in the best light, and to clean up after his mistakes.
The committee’s findings will be endorsed by the minuscule Republican majority and will no doubt be viewed by the public at large as politically motivated, regardless of substance. If the administration proposes to use its findings as a basis to reverse any Biden presidential actions (including his flurry of last-minute pardons), it will be rebuffed in the courts because of the absence of irrefutable evidence.
It’s a waste of time, resources, and presidential attention. Biden is gone, we’re still on our feet, nothing else really matters.
As a rule, those who advocate for “getting to the bottom” of past mistakes do so to learn from them and ensure that it can’t happen again. Fair enough, but that rationale does not apply in either of the two cases outlined above.
Reasonable advice for our president as he forges ahead for the balance of his term: Ignore the past, look ahead, apply every fiber of your being to solving the problems we face. Never stop trying to make America great.
