Biden again ignores reporters' questions on classified documents
White House staff quickly rushes reporters out of Oval Office




President Joe Biden again ignored reporters' questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

Biden had a bilateral meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and after the two leaders delivered brief remarks, reporters began hurling questions at the president. They were all met with silence.

"Will you commit to speak to the special counsel?" one reporter could be heard asking in reference to Robert Hur, who has been appointed special counsel to investigate the documents and how they were kept.

Biden did not acknowledge the questions as he smiled and continued chatting with Rutte. Meanwhile, White House staff urgently rushed the media out of the room.

"Thank you. Let's go, thank you," a staffer could be heard repeating.

The same thing happened three times last week. First, Biden refused to answer questions about the documents on Monday, Jan. 9. Then the following day, Jan. 10, the president did not acknowledge questions after his bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.


Video
White House staff quickly herded reporters out of the room, just as they did after Tuesday's meeting with Rutte.

On Friday, Jan. 13, Biden had a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. At the conclusion of the meeting, reporters shouted questions about the appointment of the special counsel. Biden acted like he did not hear them as he shook hands with the prime minister for a photo opportunity.

This instance followed an moment on Thursday, Jan. 12, when Biden responded to a question from Fox News's Peter Doocy, who asked the president, "What were you thinking?" with regard to storing classified information in his garage next to his Corvette.

Biden seemed to acknowledge this as he responded by saying, "By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage."

 

There's no there there. WTF does that mean? There's no they're there? There's no their there? There's no there they're? There's no there their?
Not a fucking one makes sense joe.

Maybe it's like the old sympathy there there now, it's gonna be ok.
Well, there's no there there now.

 

Well, its Joe.

 

Hows SWAMBO?

 

Again lets compare and contrast.

And then there were ten: With 85% turnover across President Trump’s A Team, who remains?
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Monday, April 13, 2020
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixg...r-across-president-trumps-a-team-who-remains/


'Off the charts': White House turnover is breaking records
'I think we have tremendous stability,' Trump told reporters last week

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/charts-white-house-turnover-breaking-records-n1056101


Trump White House Has Highest Turnover in 40 Years
https://www.usnews.com/news/nationa...e-house-has-highest-turnover-rate-in-40-years

Trump's Cabinet Scandals: Is Abuse Of Office Contagious?
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/591524460/trumps-cabinet-scandals-is-abuse-of-office-contagious


Trump’s Cabinet has been rocked by a number of ethics scandals — here’s a complete guide
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/trump-cabinet-officials-in-ethics-scandals.html

The Cost of Corruption: Waste and Abuse in President Trump’s Cabinet
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/cost-corruption-waste-abuse-president-trumps-cabinet/


Ethics Be Damned
More than half of Trump's 20-person Cabinet has engaged in questionable or unethical conduct
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/02/16/ethics-in-trump-cabinet



And now President Biden 's administration.


Biden's Cabinet is sticking around, bucking the turnover trend of his predecessors

Jim Watson
Peter Nicholas and Carol E. Lee
Mon, January 23, 2023 at 6:00 AM MST


WASHINGTON — Ron Klain’s imminent departure as the White House chief of staff is the first step in a broader reshuffling among President Joe Biden’s advisers as he prepares for a 2024 re-election bid.

Jeff Zients, who led the Biden administration's Covid-19 response, is set to replace Klain, and other White House aides are expected to leave in the coming months and shift over to the campaign, sources said.

But one part of Biden's administration has been unusually stable, and it looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future: the Cabinet secretaries who run the sprawling federal government. Not one of the 15 department heads in the presidential line of succession quit in the first half of Biden’s term, nor have any given notice that they plan to leave any time soon, White House officials said.

The absence of turnover among the Biden appointees — whose jobs include stopping crime, keeping food safe and guarding against attack — is a rarity. Since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, only Barack Obama had no one from the Cabinet step down by the midpoint of his first term, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the Miller Center, a think tank on the presidency at the University of Virginia.

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By contrast, Donald Trump churned through Cabinet secretaries as president — and senior staff members — at a head-spinning clip; nearly half his Cabinet had turned over as he entered his third year in office. By early 2019, Trump had cycled through seven of 15 Cabinet secretaries and was on his third chief of staff.

“Not one single member of the Cabinet has left in disgrace, is writing a tell-all book or has bad-mouthed the president,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who is close to the Biden White House. “There are no leaks, no backbiting, nothing.”

The new Republican-controlled House may try to yank at least one from his job. Some GOP House members hope to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in reprisal for what they see as lax immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. A White House official said Mayorkas would fight any such attempt and has no wish to step down.

The durability of Biden’s Cabinet is something of a surprise. Before the midterm elections in November, some administration officials believed Cabinet departures hinged on whether Democrats kept control of the Senate. The thinking was that Cabinet officials would feel freer to leave because Biden would have an easier time getting a successor confirmed by the Senate than if Republican leader Mitch McConnell ran the chamber.

Democrats, indeed, kept the Senate, but the exodus from the Cabinet didn’t happen. In an interview after the midterms, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she wasn't planning to leave before the term was over, despite the more favorable climate for confirmation.

“We have a lot of work to do,” she said in November. (There had been continual speculation that Yellen would leave and be replaced by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who in turn would be succeeded by Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia. When the Yellen domino didn’t fall, the others stayed in place.)

Why Cabinet members stay put rather than take better-paying jobs in the private sector or embark on independent political careers may have something to do with how they’re treated. Biden has made it a point to show them they’re valued, aides argue.

Before he gives a speech to a union group, he’ll call Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to make sure he is comfortable with the text, said Anita Dunn, a senior White House adviser. When a businessperson raises a concern with him, he’ll pick up the phone and call Raimondo.

Few members of Biden’s Cabinet are strangers. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm played the part of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during Biden’s debate preparation in the 2008 campaign. Biden thoroughly vetted Raimondo as a potential vice presidential pick in 2020.

“This is a president who really uses his Cabinet and values his Cabinet,” Dunn said. “Often, Cabinet members feel as though they are disconnected from the White House. In this case, the president has really depended on his Cabinet for advice."

“They are a group of people that he has deep relationships with and who he listens to and seeks wisdom from that’s broader than their Cabinet agencies,” she added.

Going back decades, presidents have steadily concentrated power in the White House, at the Cabinet’s expense, historians say. Some Cabinet secretaries have felt marginalized as presidents stocked the West Wing with trusted advisers and usurped the prerogatives of Cabinet members who had thought they were brought in to run things.

The most glaring examples are in the foreign policy realm. Presidents have steadily padded the White House’s National Security Council with staff members who have, in some cases, left the secretary of state isolated. President Richard Nixon entrusted his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, with his most sensitive and consequential foreign policy goals, diminishing Secretary of State William Rogers.

Trump had no rapport with his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who once privately referred to him as a “moron” and was eventually fired by tweet.

But Biden is more of an institutionalist, having helped vet and confirm Cabinet secretaries throughout his 36 years as a senator. He also has an affinity with some members of his Cabinet forged through a long career in politics.

“Biden’s inner circle is so close-knit it’s almost familial,” said Chris Whipple, who recently published a book about Biden’s presidency. “It’s not so much a team of rivals but a bunch of team players. Those are just the people he chose. They’ve been pretty cohesive, and I don’t see a whole lot of movement.”

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have worked together for two decades, starting in the early 2000s, when Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Blinken was the Democratic staff director.

Asked about Blinken’s primacy in foreign policy matters, Dunn said Biden’s "relationship with Tony is so deep and goes back so far that it’s just a given.” She laughed.

Another enticement for the Cabinet to stay is that the next two years may be more fun. After grinding negotiations, Biden spent the first two years passing trillion-dollar infrastructure and climate change bills that it’s the Cabinet’s job to implement. That means ribbon-cuttings and visits to grateful states — all of which are helpful in cementing legacies in office.

“It’s just like any job,” said Tenpas of the Miller Center. “When there’s success, you want to keep doing it.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bidens-cabinet-sticking-around-bucking-130000626.html

 

Joe Biden’s Attorneys Misled DOJ About Classified Docs Stored at Residence

JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
WENDELL HUSEBØ23 Jan 2023

President Joe Biden’s personal attorneys reportedly misled the Department of Justice (DOJ) in November about classified documents being stored at his Wilmington residence.

Shortly after documents at the Penn Biden Center were unearthed on November 2, the White House and DOJ reportedly agreed to hide the scandal from the American people. It’s unclear why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially searching for his illegally stashed documents. The White House has failed to provide the initial reason or cause for the search.

After the initial discovery on November 2, Biden’s personal attorneys told the DOJ that the only location where troves of classified were stored was at the Penn Biden Center, the New York Times reported Sunday.

Weeks later, Biden’s personal attorneys unearthed additional troves at his garage on December 20. Still, the scandal remained hidden from the public, despite later claims of total transparency.

On January 9, the scandal was leaked to CBS News. White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked to the press after only a select group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the violation.

The leak of the scandal apparently caused Biden’s attorneys to resume searching his home for more classified documents. The searches took place and unearthed more classified materials on January 11 and 12. At that point, a total of 25 classified documents had been found to be mishandled by the president.
On January 14, the White House claimed that all searches for all classified documents were completed but would not confirm if additional classified documents remained under Biden’s personal possession in violation of the law.

The additional troves unearthed by Biden’s personal attorneys were followed by the DOJ’s request to conduct its own search of his home. The president’s attorney’s agreed. The DOJ’s search was conducted Friday and found six more items consisting of classified marking, according to the president’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer. The trove unearthed Friday is in addition to the about 25 classified documents Biden’s personal attorneys found in past weeks both at the Penn Biden Center and his residence.

After the continued revelations of documents discovered under Biden’s possession, the DOJ is reportedly weighing searching additional locations linked to Biden. It is unclear if that pertains to the president’s family members, such as Hunter and James.
While visiting California Thursday, Biden said he has “no regrets” about mishandling the classified materials and claimed there was “no ‘there’ there.” The classified materials were initially unearthed just days before the midterm elections.

“I think you’re gonna find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no ‘there’ there,” he said.

 

U.S. GDP rose 2.9% in the fourth quarter, more than expected even as recession fears loom
Published Thu, Jan 26 20238:30 AM ESTUpdated Thu, Jan 26 202312:31 PM EST

Jeff Cox@jeff.cox.7528@JeffCoxCNBCcom
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Key Points

• Gross domestic product rose at a 2.9% annualized pace in the fourth quarter, slightly better than expected.
• Consumer spending weakened from the previous period but remained positive.
• A sharp slide in housing helped pull down GDP, while boosts in government spending and private investment aided growth.
• Jobless claims fell last week while durable goods orders increased sharply in December, but mainly due to demand for aircraft.

watch now
VIDEO03:34
U.S. GDP rose 2.9% in Q4; Jobless claims fell to the lowest level since April ’22

The U.S. economy finished 2022 in solid shape even as questions persist over whether growth will turn negative in the year ahead.

Fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced for the October-to-December period, rose at a 2.9% annualized pace, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected a reading of 2.8%.

related investing news



Some economists see a ‘rolling recession’ ahead. Here’s what that means
Jeff Cox
a day ago

The growth rate was slightly slower than the 3.2% pace in the third quarter.


Stocks turned mixed following the report while Treasury yields were mostly higher.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 68% of GDP, increased 2.1% for the period, down slightly from 2.3% in the previous period but still positive.

Inflation readings moved considerably lower to end the year after hitting 41-year highs in the summer. The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 3.2%, in line with expectations but down sharply from 4.8% in the third quarter. Excluding food and energy, the chain-weighted index rose 3.9%, down from 4.7%.

While the inflation numbers indicated price increases are receding, they remain well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.


Along with the boost from consumers, increases in private inventory investment, government spending and nonresidential fixed investment helped lift the GDP number.

A 26.7% plunge in residential fixed investment, reflecting a sharp slide in housing, served as a drag on the growth number, as did a 1.3% decline in exports. The housing drop subtracted about 1.3 percentage points from the headline GDP number.

Federal government spending rose 6.2%, due largely to an 11.2% surge on nondefense outlays, while state and local expenditures were up 2.3%. Government spending in total added 0.64 percentage points to GDP.

Inventory increases also played a significant role, adding nearly 1.5 percentage points.

“The mix of growth was discouraging, and the monthly data suggest the economy lost momentum as the fourth quarter went on,” wrote Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics. “We still expect the lagged impact of the surge in interest rates to push the economy into a mild recession in the first half of this year.”


watch now
VIDEO04:06
What experts think about Q4 GDP data

The report caps off a volatile year for the economy.

Following a 2021 that saw GDP rise at its strongest pace since 1984, the first two quarters of 2022 started off with negative growth, matching a commonly held definition of a recession. However, a resilient consumer and strong labor market helped growth turn positive in the final two quarters and gave hope for 2023.

“Just as the economy wasn’t as weak in the first half of 2022 as GDP reports suggested, it’s also not as strong as the Q4 GDP release would indicate,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “Held aloft by resilient consumer spending, the economy expanded at a solid pace late last year, but remains vulnerable to a more pronounced slowdown in the coming quarters.”

A separate economic report Thursday highlighted a strong, tight labor market. Weekly jobless claims fell by 6,000, down to 186,000 for the lowest reading since April 2022 and well below the 205,000 Dow Jones estimate.

Orders for long-lasting goods also were much better than expected, rising 5.6% for December, compared with the 2.4% estimate. However, orders fell 0.1% when excluding transportation as demand for Boeing

passenger planes helped drive the headline number.

Despite the fairly strong economic data, most economists think a recession is a strong possibility this year.

A series of aggressive Fed interest rate increases aimed at taming runaway inflation are expected to come to roost this year. The Fed raised its benchmark borrowing rate by 4.25 percentage points since March 2022 to its highest rate since late 2007. Rate hikes generally operate on lags, meaning their real effect may not be felt until the time ahead.

Markets see a near certainty that the Fed is going enact another quarter percentage point increase at its meeting next week and likely follow that up with one more similar-sized hike in March.

Some sectors of the economy have shown signs of recession even though overall growth has been positive. Housing in particular has been a laggard, with building permits down 30% in December from a year ago and starts down 22%.

Corporate profit reports from the fourth quarter also are signaling a potential earnings recession. With nearly 20% of the S&P 500 companies reporting, earnings are tracking at a loss of 3%, even with revenue growing 4.1%, according to Refinitiv.

Consumer spending also is showing signs of weakening, with retail sales down 1.1% in December.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/gdp...an-expected-even-as-recession-fears-loom.html

 

GDP rose by 2.9%.
Inflation remains above that.
Net loss in real growth.
Celebrate!

 

Didja see?
So Joe Biden did a speech yesterday touting his administration and the economy.
He opened with a "joke" about how he once told people to take a seat, and there were no seats, so some people think he's stupid.
Duh.
Then he asked "where's Doug?" apparently looking for Rep. Don Beyer.
Swear to God, you can't make this stuff up...........

<iframe width="665" height="374" src="" title="Hannity: Biden embarrassed himself yet again today" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Fact-checkers target Biden over 'false and misleading' statements about the economy.
Biden's comments faced scrutiny from both CNN and members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

President Biden is facing pushback from fact-checkers over a recent speech he delivered in Virginia regarding the economic progress his administration has made during his tenure in the White House.

Speaking at the Steamfitters Local 602 in Springfield on Thursday, Biden made multiple claims about the current state of the economy that have fact-checkers — from both CNN and the House Ways and Means Committee — sounding the alarm.

Following his remarks, CNN reporter Daniel Dale, who works to fact-check political claims for the outlet, accused Biden of making "false and misleading claims."

"Some of Biden’s claims in the speech were false, misleading or lacking critical context in a piece examining Biden's remarks.

Topping the list of fact-checks from Dale was Biden's claim that his administration has "funded 700,000 major construction projects – 700,000 all across America," which the White House has admitted is not the case.

"Biden’s ‘700,000’ figure is wildly inaccurate; it adds an extra two zeros to the correct figure Biden used in a speech last week and the White House has also used before: 7,000 projects," Dale wrote, noting that the White House altered Biden's transcript from the speech to reflect the accurate number.

Dale also took aim at Biden for his claim that "only 3.5 million people had been — even had their first vaccination" when former President Donald Trump left office in January 2021.

The actual number people who had received their first shot against COVID-19 when Trump left office in January 2021 was about 19 million, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The 3.5 million figure refers to those who had received two rounds of the shot.

Biden also faced scrutiny from CNN over his claim that billionaires "pay virtually only 3% of their income now – 3%, they pay," a comment that was later walked back by the White House.

"Biden’s ‘3%’ claim is incorrect. For the second time in less than a week, Biden inaccurately described a 2021 finding from economists in his administration that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families paid an average of 8.2% of their income in federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018," Dale wrote. "After CNN inquired about Biden’s '3%' claim on Thursday, the White House published a corrected official transcript that uses '8%' instead."

Pointing to comments made by Biden about federal debt under Trump and that his administration "cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion, the largest reduction in debt in American history," Dale insisted that it's "highly questionable" how much of the credit Biden deserves.

"Biden’s boast leaves out important context. It is true that the federal deficit fell by a total of $1.7 trillion under Biden in the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, including a record $1.4 trillion drop in 2022 — but it is highly questionable how much credit Biden deserves for this reduction," Dale wrote. "Biden did not mention that the primary reason the deficit fell so substantially was that it had skyrocketed to a record high under Trump in 2020 because of bipartisan emergency pandemic relief spending, then fell as expected as the spending expired as planned. Independent analysts say Biden’s own actions, including his laws and executive orders, have had the overall effect of adding to current and projected future deficits, not reducing those deficits."

In addition to CNN, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee targeted Biden's remarks from Thursday with a fact-check, claiming that the president "did not let the facts get in the way of his speech in Springfield."

"While Biden claimed the economy is growing strong, the latest report on economic growth reveals that the economy under his Administration’s policies has fallen short of expectations on seven out of the last eight economic growth reports," the committee wrote. "In fact, the entirety of 2022 was worse for economic growth than expected. And even more trouble lies ahead, according to the latest Leading Economic Index report."

Listing five recent "misleading" claims from the president that the committee found fault with, the Republicans wrote: "President Biden has been making inaccurate accusations about Republicans and fearmongering to scare seniors when Republicans have been clear we are not going to touch their retirement security. Biden has also been making Medicare and Social Security worse off — not protecting them. Medicare premiums have risen for seniors since 2020, while Biden’s ongoing inflation crisis has pushed Social Security further towards insolvency."

Biden recently faced criticism from FactCheck.org over claims he had made regarding unemployment during his speech at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting last week.

During the speech, according to FactCheck.org, Biden "botched a statistic on the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, misidentifying them simply as the number of people ‘out of work.’"

"His comment leaves the false impression that unemployment declined by more than 16 million people on his watch, when the decline was actually under 5 million," the nonprofit website concluded. "And a big reason for the large decline in unemployment benefits is the expiration of pandemic-related expansions of such benefits."

"Two years ago this week, 18 million people were out of work — two years ago this week," Biden said at the conference. "Now the — that number is under 1.6 million, near the lowest level in decades."

"The White House transcript notes that the line drew applause," FactCheck.org stated. "But it’s not accurate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people ‘out of work’ — or officially unemployed — in the U.S. in January 2021 was about 10.2 million, and the number in December 2022 was 5.7 million."

By Kyle Morris

Sorry for the long story.

 

I am really liking the way President Biden nd the White House are fighting back against the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans in Congress. They are saying the obvious. We can never believe a word they say because all treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans do is lie. Which like in the past during election season they would stand there and swear they will protect the most popular part of the ACA which is covering preexisting conditions while they were actually in court at that moment literally trying to end insurance companies covering preexisting conditions.

And now its cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. As soon as the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans in the House said they want to do that the entire right came down on them saying don't say the quiet part out loud because that is political suicide. So Kevin the Coward has to go on TV and say of course they would never cut those entitlements programs. Which of course is a lie because they refuse to raise the taxes that pay for them.

So President Biden is not willing to let them get away with those lies and have the advantage of fighting back with the truth.


White House blasts McCarthy for comments on strengthening Social Security, Medicare

Stephen Neukam
Sun, January 29, 2023 at 11:41 AM MST


The White House hit back after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he wants to “strengthen” Medicare and Social Security, arguing on Sunday that the House GOP leader and his conference actually want to slash spending on the entitlement programs.

McCarthy said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” earlier Sunday that he wants to take cuts to Medicare and Social Security off the table in talks with Democrats over the debt ceiling, even though Republicans do want commitments on spending cuts generally. Instead, McCarthy said Republicans were committed to strengthening the programs.

The strengthening of entitlement programs laid out in the Republicans’ “Commitment to America” is vague. One of the legislative recommendations made in the plan is that Congress must “must be prepared to make reforms to extend the solvency of the entitlement programs.”

The White House rebuked the Speaker’s claim, saying on Sunday that Republicans have wanted to cut earned benefits for years.


“For years, congressional Republicans have advocated for slashing earned benefits using Washington code words like ‘strengthen,’ when their policies would privatize Medicare and Social Security, raise the retirement age, or cut benefits,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in an emailed statement. “House Republicans refuse to raise revenue from the wealthy, but insist they will ‘strengthen’ earned benefits programs.”

The White House argues that the only option for the GOP to “save” the entitlement programs is to make cuts, as House Republicans have ruled out raising more revenue from tax increases on the wealthy.

But McCarthy was adamant that Social Security and Medicare would be off the table in the conversations around the debt limit. McCarthy is set to meet with President Biden on Wednesday in a much-anticipated get-together between the two leaders.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-blasts-mccarthy-comments-184113297.html

 

When all else fails, despicables will try to scare the hell out of senior citizens.
FAIL
<iframe width="718" height="404" src="" title="Social Security, Medicare cuts ‘off the table’" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says cuts to Medicare and Social Security will be 'off the table' in the upcoming debt limit talks (msn.com)

 

Comer sounds alarm on Biden's mishandling of classified documents: 'Nothing' he's done is 'normal'
Biden notebooks discovered in Delaware FBI raid may contain classified information: report.

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said the investigation into President Biden's alleged mishandling of classified information is of the "utmost importance" after it was revealed the FBI discovered notebooks in his Delaware home that may contain classified material.

JAMES COMER: Nothing that Joe Biden's done with respect to mishandling these classified documents is normal. Take into consideration that he's also being investigated for influence peddling with our adversaries around the world, and it's even more concerning. Look, more information comes out every day where his son, especially, as well as his two brothers, have had shady business dealings with our adversaries around the world, and part of what they would do when they would make a pitch to these shady characters in these foreign countries is prove to them that they actually had direct access to their brother and that they had direct access to people at the highest levels of our federal government. So when we learned that Joe Biden had classified documents from all over the place and that Hunter Biden especially lived in his house where he had those classified documents, we became extra concerned, and that's why this it this investigation is of the utmost importance for the United States Congress as well as the American people.

 

You know what's interesting?
When the debt ceiling is the topic of the minute, everyone wants to talk about how the "other guy" is going to cut social security benefits, and the whole debt thing is "their fault" and blah blah blah.

How about a politician saying "Maybe we ought to cut Congressional salaries, and perks, and how about cutting some of those bloated Federal salaries?"

Wouldn't that be refreshing?

 

I really like this. Treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans and the religious zealots on the Supreme Court are trying to turn the US into a theocracy governed by Sharia Law For Christians and enforced by the American Taliban. And those trying to fight back against that and maintain the separation of church and state have a really uphill battle with few weapons they can use short of expanding the Supreme Court. So I am glad to see President Biden doing what he can and this is a pretty smart move.



Contraceptive Coverage Expanded: No More ‘Moral’ Exemptions for Employers

1k
Ari Blaff
Mon, January 30, 2023 at 5:48 PM MST·2 min read



Today, the White House issued a proposal that would overturn a Trump-administration rollback of an aspect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rollback had allowed employers with a “religious or moral objection” to opt out of the ACA’s mandate to cover contraception in their insurance plans.

The proposed new rule released today by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury would remove the ability of employers to opt out for “moral” reasons, but it would retain the existing protections on “religious” grounds.

For employees covered by insurers with religious exemptions, the new policy will create an “independent pathway” that permits them to access contraceptives through a third-party provider free of charge.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

“We had to really think through how to do this in the right way to satisfy both sides, but we think we found that way,” a senior HHS official told CNN.

Planned Parenthood applauded the announcement. “Employers and universities should not be able to dictate personal health-care decisions and impose their views on their employees or students,” the organization’s chief, Alexis McGill Johnson, told CNN. “The ACA mandates that health insurance plans cover all forms of birth control without out-of-pocket costs. Now, more than ever, we must protect this fundamental freedom.”

In 2018, the Trump administration sought to carve out an exception, based on “sincerely held religious beliefs,” to the ACA’s contraceptive mandate. The move triggered a Pennsylvania district court judge to issue a nationwide injunction in 2019, blocking the implementation of the change. However, in 2020, in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court, in a 7–2 ruling, defended the legality of the original Trump policy.

The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, in its Dobbs ruling, played a role in HHS’s decision to release the new proposal. Guaranteeing access to contraceptions at no cost to the individual “is a national public health imperative,” HHS said in the proposal. And the Dobbs ruling “has placed a heightened importance on access to contraceptive services nationwide.”

“Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it, and — thanks to the ACA — with no out-of-pocket cost,” HHS secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

HHS projects that over 100 employers and roughly 125,000 workers will be affected by the new proposal.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/contraceptive-coverage-expanded-no-more-004826941.html

 

One of the talking points since the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans took the House is screaming President Biden said he will not negotiate on spending cuts. That was all the rage going into the big meeting this week. Especially on the Sunday shows.

And then.

McCarthy hopeful after first meeting with Biden on debt limit: ‘I think that at the end of the day, we can find common ground’

https://ktvz.com/politics/cnn-us-po...the-end-of-the-day-we-can-find-common-ground/

President Biden picked Kevin The Coward's pocket on that one and he never even saw it coming.

 

Yeah. When asked what the despicable plan was to avoid a debt limit crisis, the answer was " do away with a debt limit".

Seriously.
Thats their plan.

We can only blame ourselves.
We get the government we deserve.

 

This is not actually true but still very surprising. President Biden did take a hit on his approval in the average of polls after the classified documents broke. Which is not surprising at all. The press just hammered on the revelation and even people like me were WTF and frustrated. But now President Biden is bouncing back despite the press still having a feeding frenzy and the drip drip drip of more documents being found.


Biden approval rating unchanged despite Americans’ views of document handling: poll
by Jared Gans - 02/02/23 7:26 AM ET

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President Joe Biden speaks during an event to thank outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Biden’s approval rating remains mostly unchanged despite a majority of Americans disapproving of the way he has handled the discovery of classified documents at his residence and former office, according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 41 percent of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s performance as president, 2 points lower than the 43 percent recorded in December.


That comes as almost 40 percent of respondents said they disapprove of how Biden has handled the classified document disclosures, while 23 percent said they approve and 36 percent said they neither approve nor disapprove.

Pollsters found significant splits in views of Biden along party lines. Almost 70 percent of Republicans said they disapprove of how Biden has managed the situation, while 44 percent of Democrats said the same.

Only 6 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Democrats said they approve. But 40 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of Republicans said they have no opinion.

The results come after the FBI completed a search of Biden’s home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Wednesday but did not find any additional classified documents.

Biden has said he was surprised by the discovery of classified documents in his possession.

The FBI conducted a search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in August and obtained hundreds of classified and sensitive documents from his time as president. The situation took another turn when former Vice President Mike Pence’s team notified the National Archives last month that documents with classified markings were also found at his residence.


A plurality of respondents, 37 percent, said they have heard only a little or nothing about the situation, while 35 percent said they have heard some about it but not a lot. Only 28 percent said they have read or heard a lot about it.

The poll found in follow-up questions that some respondents said they make a distinction between the situation with Biden and Trump, who delayed requests from the National Archives to turn over his documents for months. But they said the country’s leaders should be able to properly handle these types of materials and information.


A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday also showed Biden’s approval rating holding steady despite concern among respondents about the national security threat the documents could pose.


The AP poll was conducted from Jan. 26 to 30 among 1,068 adults. The margin of error for the entire sample was 4.2 points.


https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...te-americans-views-of-document-handling-poll/

 

So you think his approval rating will take a hit because he wants to do away with the debt ceiling?

 

But say, old Joe had an epiphany recently and shared it with us.
Ready?
Half the women in his administration are .............. get ready for it ............ WOMEN!!
Really.
That's what the old fart declared.
You can't make this shit up.

Biden mocked for bizarre boast that 'more than half the women' on his team 'are women:' 'Is he a biologist?' (msn.com)

Waits for despicables to race over and start making excuses ................