I'm back, and based on the available evidence, I can't disconnect from politics for two weeks without the country melting down. Has there been a busier news cycle in the last six months?
The good news is, RedState didn't fire me, as if you guys would get off that easy. The real world came calling, and my full focus was required elsewhere until completion. With that said, hoo boy, did I miss some things.
Let me start with this Fani Willis situation. I was able to catch a few clips of her testimony during her disqualification hearing and was left asking what she'd be doing differently if she were purposely trying to sabotage her own case. I mean, come on. What kind of prosecutor acts like this?
Fani Willis Freaks Out During Her Testimony, Starts Screaming
At one point, Willis got so animated that she started screaming at one of the defense attornies. She also admitted to keeping "cash" from her political campaign for personal use.
That seems rather illegal, doesn't it? I would hope Georgia's attorney general is digging deep into her finances as I type this, though we are talking about the Republican Party, so a strongly worded letter is probably more likely.
Then there was the explanation Willis gave regarding her paramour paying for their lavish vacations with his business credit card. According to her, she paid him back in cash. Cash she just so happens to keep large amounts of at home. That means there's no paper trail to prove she ever paid a dime. How very convenient, right?
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden once again tripped trying to board Air Force One.
They've already got him wearing soft-soled "dress sneakers" and using the short stairs. What's next? Hoisting him up through the belly access door with ropes? We have a president who can't board an airplane without it becoming national news. That seems like a problem, but I'm sure it'll be fine.
Biden did finally make it to East Palestine, Ohio, though. That trip came a full year after a train derailment left the town reeling, dealing with the clean-up and health repercussions of the toxic spill and subsequent explosion. What genius in the president's comms department thought it was a good idea to put off a trip there until February of 2024? At that point, it would have been better to not go at all. That was the move of an administration and presidential campaign in total disarray.
On the bright side, at least Biden didn't lie about the DOJ special counsel that investigated his illegal possession of classified materials. Wait, scratch that. He did.
I for one am shocked that Robert Hur didn't actually ask the president about his son's death unprompted as claimed by the White House. It's not like Biden randomly brings up Beau Biden at the most inappropriate times. Wait, my mistake again. He does that all the time. Lucky for him, the special counsel decided to argue he was too old and feeble to face a jury.
On that note, I want you to count the amount of cuts in this Super Bowl video put out by the White House.
Biden either hired Michael Bay to direct that ad, or the president is so senile that he can't sit down and read cleanly off a teleprompter for more than a few seconds at a time. I'll let you decide which is more likely.
That leads me to the worst press conference in presidential history, which centered on Special Counsel Robert Hur's aforementioned investigation. Not being around to dunk on it was probably the worst part of being gone.
Biden's White House Address Was an Unmitigated Disaster
Things started with the president appearing to be hopped up on some kind of stimulant. He was talking like a chihuahua on speed, but it wasn't long before the crash came. I guess Karine Jean-Pierre, who I assume organized the address, has never heard of the concept of not digging a hole deeper.
At first, Biden appeared to be rehashing the same defensive speech he gave hours earlier, leaving people wondering why he was giving a national address. He then cried about the headlines, lied about the report's findings, and told the falsehood noted above about Hur and Beau Biden.
Then we got the actual reason he was giving the address. The president defended his mental acuity, claiming he doesn't have problems with his memory, and for a brief moment, it looked like he might make it through the gauntlet. He started to walk away from the podium having made himself look like a vindictive, dishonest sociopath, but he hadn't had any real verbal stumbles yet. Then it happened.
In a move that probably left his handlers chain-smoking later that night, Biden turned around and walked back to the microphone. He then proceeded to throw Israel under the bus, promote Palestinian terrorists, and confuse the President of Egypt with the President of Mexico. It was almost poetic.
With all that said, and there were a lot more headlining stories I skipped over, there is something I noticed while taking my dip out of politics. Namely, most people I interacted with while I was doing what I was doing were concerned about two things: The economy and crime. Interest rates came up multiple times unprompted despite inflation usually taking center stage.
That's not to say inflation hasn't been insanely high under Biden, but it is to say that normal people are feeling the repercussions of not being able to build wealth through the purchase of property and the starting of businesses. Republicans should probably keep that in mind as they try to hone their messaging for November. Despite some recent tightening in the polls, Biden is still beatable if he's made to own his record.