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| Robert Hur |
Democrats should bronze or frame the hatchet wielded by special counsel Robert Hur in his gratuitous slap at president Joe Biden’s advanced age.
Rather than composing a “just the facts” report about why there is insufficient evidence to charge Biden with mishandling classified documents, Hur described him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Bingo. Thanks, Bob.
That comment outraged Biden supporters who cast Republican Hur as a toady of Donald Trump. Their rage is misplaced.
Democrats should applaud Hur for putting the age issue front and center. It’s no longer the elephant in the room.
Anyone with eyes and ears knows that 81-year-old Biden has lost more than a step or two. Time will continue to march on at Biden’s physical expense. The thought of 86-year-old Biden finishing out a second term is not a pleasant one.
Hur didn’t exactly uncover new ground. An ABC/Ipsos poll released Feb. 11 found that 86 percent of Americans say Biden is too old for a new term.
The special counsel did the job Biden’s sycophantic White House staff and family failed to do. He burst the Biden bubble.
Thanks to Hur, there has been a wave of media reports about the president releasing his primary delegates at the Democratic convention.
That would open the pathway for “newcomers” like California governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer. They have a much better shot at beating Trump than an enfeebled Biden.
Hur should get a VIP seat at the Newsom/Whitmer presidential inaugural.
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” is a quote that can be applied to the New York Times’ Feb. 14 analysis about the elevation of Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby to serve aside White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Michael Grynbaum wrote that Jean-Pierre had hoped that her appointment as the first openly gay White House press secretary would inspire others.
“But the perception in Washington that President Biden has allowed Mr. Kirby, who is white, to upstage a Black woman as the face of his White House has turned their double act into a third-rail subject,” he wrote.
But could Kirby’s elevation have something to do with his crisis management qualifications for the job at a time of carnage in Gaza, the possible withdrawal of US military support for Ukraine and a presidential re-election campaign?
He served more than 28 years in the Navy, including deployments in the Middle East and Mediterranean, before retiring in 2015 as Rear Admiral.
Kirby became Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs on January 20, 2021, where he advised Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks on public communications and community engagement.
In contrast, Jean-Pierre did a one-year stint as deputy press secretary to her predecessor Jen Psaki and was chief of staff for Kamala Harris during the 2020 campaign. Earlier, she was a spokesperson for liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org and NBC/MSNBC.
Kirby, who has the trust of Biden, has the gravitas required to command the press room in ways that Jean-Pierre simply can’t. Now is not the time for on-the-job training.
What will the Securities and Exchange Commission think? Lyft shares jumped more than 60 percent after the ride-share company released its earnings report, showing that 2024 margin growth would be up 500 basis points.
Lyft shares plunged after CFO Erin Brewer told a Feb. 13 analyst call that margin growth would actually be up 50 basis points and mentioned that a correction appeared in a revised release.
The snafu leads one to wonder about the strength of the financial controls at Lyft.
Captain Carl flies again. Financier Carl Icahn has taken a 9.9 percent stake in beleaguered JetBlue Airways. The carrier lost $310M in 2024 on $9.6B in revenues and had its merger with Spirit Airways blocked by a judge.
Icahn may seek board representation at JetBlue, according to his Securities and Exchange Commission filing. His disclosure of an investment stake cheered stockholders and sent JetBlue’s stock up 22 percent on Feb. 13.
Investors, though, should cast a wary eye on Icahn’s track record with airlines.
He burst onto the national scene with the messy 1988 leveraged buyout of Trans World Airlines, which shared the international flagship carrier role with Pan Am.
Icahn cut TWA down to size by unloading routes and employees. The company declared Chapter 11 in 1992.
JetBlue shareholders should be careful what they wish for.
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Why MSNBC’s recent MS NOW rebrand won’t help the cable news channel’s flagging viewer numbers if it doesn’t take the opportunity to change its content model and mission.
