Washington: To give you an idea of the frenetic pace of events in American public life, consider a day in the life of divided politics and a divided nation during an election year.
Wednesday began with a surprise appearance by Hunter Biden at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. He faces federal charges of tax crimes related to foreign transactions. Allegations of conflict of interest involving Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the president himself – Joe Biden was on the phone with his son and foreign partners even before he took office. House Republicans are using the charge as the basis for an impeachment inquiry against Biden, accusing him of complicity in business dealings, a charge Biden has consistently rejected.
Hunter has offered to testify publicly, including on Wednesday, but Republican lawmakers who had called for private depositions criticized him for failing to respond to subpoenas and appearing in court in the past. Then he left. And a Republican-controlled House committee ultimately charged him with contempt of Congress. In an election year, the Grand Old Party of America (Republican Party) has used the issue as a useful tool to avoid accusations of corruption or obvious conflicts of interest in the case of Republican presidential candidates, especially the most likely candidates. I want to keep it going.
The day comes as candidate Donald Trump, who continues to outpace his rivals in the first Republican primary caucuses in Iowa, scheduled for January 15, will go on Fox News to project himself as the candidate of both order and destruction. That closed the curtain. These are the two main pillars of the election campaign. President Trump described Biden’s presidency as full of turmoil. “They have chaos at the border. They have chaos in the military. People are starting to wake up. We have chaos now. Hunter Biden goes to Congress and just sits there. Look at the fuss that is being caused today just by saying, “You have chaos.” I scoffed, saying no.
Trump, by contrast, insisted his term was unturbulent and that he was the first president in 72 years without a war. He attacked Biden over the situation at the southern border and illegal immigration. One day he will be a “dictator” to strengthen borders and “drill, baby, drill” to politically demonstrate his commitment to fossil fuels without any sensitivity to climate or environmental factors. That’s all, he said. And amid concerns about what he will do in his next term, he promised there would be no retribution and that his success would be big. Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. It started with that.He faces federal charges for tax crimes related to foreign transactions
At the same time, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis debated each other on CNN tonight as they fiercely competed for the No. 2 slot in Iowa. Haley also hopes a credible performance in the upcoming caucuses in New Hampshire, where she is closing the gap with Trump with the support of the governor, will give her an advantage. DeSantis attacked Haley as a liberal who is not true to Republican values. Haley accused DeSantis of lying. DeSantis accused her of caring more about Ukraine than America’s borders. Haley offered a classic Republican establishment (as opposed to the now dominant isolationist) case for why Ukraine is important.
Both tried to avoid the big elephant in the room: Trump, in the sense that they carve out an independent space but don’t want to antagonize his base too much. But Ms. Haley rejected Mr. Trump’s claim that he had complete impunity for his own actions as president. This is Trump’s defense in lawsuits related to his rejection of the 2020 election results, his efforts to overturn them, and his efforts to encourage a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the presidential certification. . result. And while Mr. DeSantis carefully rejected the premise of the case against Mr. Trump, he warned that a convicted Republican candidate would give Democrats political ammunition. The positions reflect the different strategies being played. Haley’s more principled positions are aimed at independents and moderates. DeSantis’ more instrumentalist position targets his base by projecting himself as more victorious.
Hours earlier, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, the only candidate to face Trump head-on in the primaries, withdrew from the race, but not before publicly speaking again about the dangers of Trump’s presidency. warned the world and dismissed the prospects of other candidates. A race of vulnerable moments.
Meanwhile, back at the U.S. Capitol during the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson faced an insurrection from his party’s far-right wing that could lead to a shutdown of the U.S. federal government. Until recently, he was part of the same far-right wing that Biden likes to call the “Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans” and the plot to oust his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, for treason. was participating in. He challenged Democrats on tax and spending proposals.
Prime Minister Johnson is currently trying desperately to save a deal that is almost identical to the one Mr. McCarthy struck, arguing that it was the best deal given that Republicans had no Senate and only a narrow majority in the House of Commons. are doing. Perhaps no incident more clearly illustrates the tension between irresponsible dissidents seeking all-out war and the responsibility for political accommodation in a constitutionally designed divided government. This tension has led to a broader civil war within each state’s Republican Party. .
Along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., Biden’s official calendar showed him having a private lunch with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. In the James Brady press briefing room, members of the American press asked why the President of the United States could not have known that the Secretary of Defense had been hospitalized with cancer for several weeks and had been hospitalized for days. I struggled to explain this to a bewildered world. This situation is particularly unusual in the notoriously disciplined Biden administration, and perhaps unprecedented in the U.S. system of government and national security.
In fact, Washington DC has been buzzing with the Lloyd Austin mystery for the past five days. A Pentagon press release on Jan. 5 said he was hospitalized with complications after a procedure on Jan. 1. It turns out that even the president and national security adviser Jake Sullivan had no previous knowledge that Mr. Austin was hospitalized. On January 4th, a rather shocking institutional collapse at the top of the American government took place. Austin was reported to be a very private person, and he was blamed for the lack of transparency. Biden, known for his loyalty to his team, wished Austin well and rejected calls for action. Even as the White House was coming through a mini-crisis, it was revealed that Austin had prostate cancer and underwent surgery in December. Biden did not know about the defense secretary’s status until Tuesday, but the incident triggered a political firestorm that prompted the White House to issue a memo to all Cabinet members asking them to reconsider their delegation of authority protocols.
And let us recall that the Pentagon’s failure occurred even as the United States was closely involved in two major wars and related security crises in the Red Sea. Indeed, thousands of miles away, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced Wednesday that he is managing the aftermath of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, waged with U.S. support, and is using diplomatic energy and military resources to secure shipping. He continued to visit West Asia to invest. countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea; The entire conflict has deep U.S. domestic dimensions, with U.S. support for Israel dividing Biden’s domestic coalition and alienating young people, people of color, and minorities.
This is a day in the life of American politics.
The crowded field of Republican presidential candidates is becoming less crowded, but Trump remains the clear favorite for the nomination. She’s already focused on attacking Biden with the general election in mind, while Haley and DeSantis, other participants in the Republican race, are attacking each other loudly, and Trump is focused on attacking less loudly. However, they are hoping that somehow Mr. Trump will fail and they will rise to the top. as the next strong candidate. All of this is happening even as Republican House leadership faces challenges from internal extremists. But the rift within the Republican Party is not good news for Democrats. Mr. Biden has struggled to show consistency within government, deal with external crises and navigate a blurring of lines between the personal and the political.
As America sinks deeper into electoral mode, internal conflicts intensify, rifts deepen, electoral calculus shifts, ratings shift, public messages sharpen, and politicians face good times and bad. There may be too. Wednesday shows what’s to come.
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