White House

Barack Obama returned to the White House this week, and his presence was a straight up blast from the past. The 2010s might not be our most culturally defined decade, but surely the Age of Barry still has a few touchstones worth recalling. That was back when it was cool to say “there’s an app for that,” all the way back when the Speaker of the House was...actually it was still Nancy Pelosi. And it was back when everyone, and I do mean everyone, could not shut up about Obamacare. Sure enough, Obama was back in Washington to once again revel in the passage of his signature health law, even if it had just undergone yet another round of tweaks to make it work this time for real.

Vice President Kamala Harris might not be the Queen of the White House, but she's still demanding some R-E-S-P-E-C-T à la the Queen of Soul. Harris — who is often affectionately referred to as "President" and "First Lady" by the actual president, Joe Biden — is the subject of another news story detailing the exhausting way she treats staff. According to a forthcoming book by New York Times correspondents Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, Harris felt slighted by White House aides not standing up when she entered a room like they did for Biden.

President Joe Biden delivered one of the worst and most widely condemned speeches of his presidency earlier this week in Georgia while lobbying for a federal takeover of elections. He asserted that Americans who do not support the Democrats' bill are "domestic enemies" who stand on the side of segregationist George Wallace. White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the unifier-in-chief on Wednesday by asserting that Biden's foes had nothing to say about former President Donald Trump's controversial use of language. "I know there have been a lot of claims of the offensive nature of the speech yesterday, which is hilarious on many levels, given how many people sat silently over the last four years for the former president," Psaki argued.

President Joe Biden's message to the unvaccinated is clear: you can't sit with us! Biden claimed he was ushering in an era of national unity, and instead we've received the Mean Girls administration. They intimidate those who don't want the shot by threatening their jobs and accusing them of being walking vectors of death and disease, and encourage the rest of the country to attach a social stigma to being unvaccinated. Someone should tell Biden that the bullying and isolation tactics are more Queen Bee than Captain America. The schoolyard taunts started over the weekend when the White House sent out a not-so-happy holiday message promising Americans who don't get vaccinated that they're headed for a winter of "severe illness and death" for themselves and their families.

Christmas may not come from a store, but Cockburn's poor heart still shrunk three sizes after he saw First Lady Jill Biden's attempt at Christmas decorations on Monday. The good doctor unveiled her first annual White House holiday décor with the theme "Gifts from the Heart", an ode to "small acts of kindness" that was rather small-minded indeed. Cockburn's distaste for Dr. Jill's decorations is only partially motivated by the fact that he was not invited to the press preview as in past years; he is sure that after four years of First Lady Melania Trump's ethereal and Vogue-esque displays, independent observers will agree that the new administration didn't live up to the hype.

The United States is in the midst of a foreign policy disaster, and the President has not been seen publicly in three days. He will give a speech at 3:45 Eastern Time, but this latest crisis has proved that 'Sleepy Joe' is more than just a cruel Trumpist moniker. It's alarmingly accurate. America needs a world leader, not someone who balks at cutting short his 'August vacation.' Biden was last seen at the White House on Thursday morning when he gave a speech on prescription drug prices. He ignored shouted questions afterward about the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban was quickly capturing city after city. Instead of canceling his weekend trip, Biden headed to his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Forget about Hunter, where's Joe? Biden took a long weekend at his Delaware retreat but hasn't been seen since Saturday after a round of golf and evening Mass. The White House did not release its normal weekly guidance to reporters on Sunday so they could be prepared for the President's movements, nor did it release a full schedule for the President on Monday, instead calling a lid before noon. Biden had a meeting bright and early at 10 a.m., but we don't know what he did today after that. Perhaps Biden finally taught Major not to defecate on the rug or bite the help — who knows! https://twitter.com/warddpatrick/status/1424755624416534533?s=21 The move shouldn't shock anyone familiar with the 46th President's living habits.

The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to take its self-created border crisis seriously. Last week, they sent Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemala and Mexico to address the 'root causes' of the recent surge in migration, one of which she identified as 'climate change’. Harris promised to throw more money at the problem and laughed at the idea that she should go to the border and see the crisis firsthand. Today, the White House sent out a press release insisting that they are taking serious action on what they call the 'border challenge’. The email starts out with a couple of factual whoppers. It claims that 'the trend of border apprehensions in May is a reduction of individuals (unique encounters) and families below the peak in 2019’.

President Trump said Monday in a tweet that his administration is willing to start the formal transition of power to Joe Biden, even while asserting that he still intends to 'fight' and 'prevail' in his legal challenges against the results of the presidential election. 'I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused — and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.

White House coronavirus task force member Dr Scott Atlas said during a Tuesday interview with The Spectator there was 'no fair basis' for canceling this week's presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden following the President's coronavirus diagnosis. 'The debate absolutely should have been able to continue. Honestly, I think there is no fair basis for canceling that debate — none,' Atlas said. Trump and Biden were scheduled to meet for the second time on the debate stage on Thursday in a town-hall style event moderated by Steve Scully. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced last week, without agreement between the two campaigns, that the debate would be conducted virtually due to health concerns raised by the President contracting the virus.

The White House is currently facing an internal battle over President Trump’s announcement Monday night that he will sign an executive order temporarily halting immigration amid the coronavirus outbreak. The details of the order had not been finalized as of Tuesday morning, causing frantic debate over which groups of immigrants will be exempt from the ban. Immigration restrictionists have been trying to sell the president on the idea of a ban for at least a week, pointing to various polling that shows it is popular among voters due to fears of the spread of COVID-19 and the high unemployment numbers in the US. Twenty-two million people thus far have filed for unemployment as the economy has practically shut down because of social distancing measures.

Michael Bloomberg is not running in 2020 but he wants Donald Trump to lose, we all know that. He will spend $500 million trying to undermine the president. That’s quite an animus. But who does Bloomberg want to win? Speaking to the Bermuda Executive Forum, his favorite sort of event, the media titan didn’t endorse anyone. He moaned about the state of politics and mocked two leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke. Bloomberg said that he realized he would not be a successful presidential candidate, ‘unless I was willing to change all my views and go on what CNN called ‘an apology tour.’ And he’s too much of a man to apologize, you see.

For Donald Trump, parting is never such sweet sorrow. He’s been jettisoning cabinet officials with rapidity. The latest is Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, whose stiff resignation letter has predictably enraged Trump, prompting him to appoint Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who has curried favor with Trump by backing a space force, as acting Defense Secretary starting January 1. This morning, Trump tweeted, ‘I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019. Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!

Things are getting quite hairy at the White House. Apparently, senior adviser Stephen Miller reckoned that he needed to perform a cover-up before he went on national television this past Sunday. He seems to have sprayed on hair-in-a-canister to camouflage his glabrous head. Like many of the moves this administration has made, Miller’s gambit only drew more attention to what he wished to conceal. The Washington Post observed, ‘it emanated from Miller’s head like a physical manifestation of his personality — a follicle’d inferiority complex that was suddenly in charge of creating the nation’s policies.’ Since then, the White House has run into a fresh spate of bad news. Former Lt. Gen.

What does Nick Ayers, the vice president’s aggressive, ambitious chief of staff know? The 36-year-old turned down the president’s offer to replace General John Kelly over the weekend, taking the extraordinary step to rule himself out on Twitter ahead the administration and its allies. https://twitter.com/nick_ayers/status/1071879332283453440 Ayers was thought to be the eager, hands-down next chief of staff to the president – a key consideration in the sacking of Kelly. Amid the legal typhoon the White House appears destined for, does he think it’s a sinking ship?

Oh how the anti-Trump media licks its lips at news that Ivanka, the precious First Daughter, may have breached federal rules by using her private email for government work. It seems a perfect rebuke to the President, who has made such a fuss about Hillary Clinton doing exactly the same thing. As endless Twitter bores pointed out last night, Trump still obsesses over Clinton’s server issues in his tweets and encourages his crowds to chant ‘Lock her up!’ What’s he going to say now? That media schadenfreude file is so huge it could overload your inbox. But the Washington Post’s latest Ivanka scoop should come as no great surprise.

Ivanka Trump holds rather more sway in the White House than a First Daughter should — that much is well-established. Yet this week we see that it is her step-mother, Melania, who calls the shots in her husband’s administration. Mrs T is the real force behind the throne, as Mira Ricardel has discovered to her cost. Palace intrigue doesn’t get more intriguing. Ms Ricardel, a close ally of National Security Adviser John Bolton, made the mistake of clashing with Melania over her ‘Be Best’ trip to Africa. Ricardel allegedly insisted a member of the security council should accompany Mrs Trump as she posed her way around Ghana, Malawi and Kenya in a pith helmet, cream jacket and trousers, and black-neck tie. Melania disagreed. https://audioboom.

It’s becoming a cliché but it bears repeating: in the Trump era, media and politics have merged like never before. The Fox News channel serves as something like, in American baseball terms, a Triple-A farm team for the White House. Most recently called up to play for the Yankees is John Bolton, America’s new national security advisor. Other alumni that have gone in -- and out -- of the White House include Mercedes Schlapp, Tony Sayegh and Sebastian Gorka, the last of whom has, for now, found himself back at Fox.Both Gorka and John Bolton have used the president’s media diet, heavy on the Wall Street Journal and Fox, to their advantage.