Time has followed up on its interview with (the since convicted felon) Donald Trump -- the one in which Trump claimed, more than two weeks before the story was published, that he would announce his position on women's access to mifepristone in "two weeks" (more than six weeks have passed since the story was published, and he still hadn't done so) -- with an
interview of President Biden. That is the source of Biden's literally correct reference to Ukraine having "decimated" Russia's military forces over the past two years. He is, as you would expect, well versed in the issues during a wide-ranging in his admittedly digressive style. Here's an excerpt:
NATO is considerably stronger than it was when I took office. I put it together. Not only did I reestablish the fact that it was the strongest alliance in the history of the world, I was able to expand it. While I was in one of the G7 meetings in Europe. When I got back I called on the President of Finland. because when I had met earlier in the year with Putin, he said he wanted to see the Finlandization of NATO. I told him, he's gonna get not the Finlandization [but] the Natoization of Finland. And everybody thought, including you guys, thought I was crazy.
And guess what? I did it. I did it. And we're now the strongest nation. We have the strongest alliance in all of America, all of history. In the meantime, what we keep skipping over is what the consequence of the success of Russia in Ukraine would be. That's why I brought this along. You probably haven't read it. Most people haven't read it. He says this is part of reestablishing the Soviet Union. That's what this is all about. It wasn't just about taking part of—He wanted, he wanted to go back to the, to the days when there was NATO and there was that other outfit that Poland, everybody belonged to. So that’s what it was about. And in the meantime, what happened was, we were able to—and by the way, we spent a lot of money in Ukraine, but Europe has spent more money than the United States has, collectively. Europe has spent more money in taking on Russia.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday, the
Wall Street Journal published a supposedly exhaustive report titled "
Behind Closed Doors, Biden Show Signs of Slipping." The article cites lots of "participants in meetings" who claim that Biden is showing his age, but almost every one is a Republican. (The
Journal did interview Democrats but didn't actually
quote them.) And even some of those same Republicans have recently
said in other reports (even in the
Wall Street Journal itself) that Biden is sharp and tough in negotiations. I agree with those who think this article exists as a way of negotiating with a terrorist: the
Journal desires the good will of convicted felon Donald Trump (the terrorist in question) so that Trump will have his ally, the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, release their reporter, Evan Gershkovich, whom Putin had kidnapped (i.e., falsely arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned) last year.
Also the story's lead author, Annie Linskey, is the same reporter who
tweeted and then -- following an outcry -- deleted this in Nov. 2021:
In other words, she has an anti-Biden agenda.
But the Biden-Harris campaign is
pushing back.
And as Josh Barro notes, Biden has a great opportunity to show his acuity in the upcoming debate.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
House Republicans have made a
criminal referral of Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden to the Dept. of Justice for supposedly lying under oath.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Three Republican-appointed judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today
threw out a Security and Exchange Commission finding that said investment advisers may not defraud their clients. As Gordon Gekko might say, fraud is good.