Summary
President Biden expressed regret over appointing Merrick Garland as Attorney General, criticizing Garland’s slow action in prosecuting Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection while aggressively pursuing cases against Hunter Biden.
Biden reportedly blamed former Chief of Staff Ron Klain for persuading him to choose Garland over other candidates, such as Doug Jones, who was seen as more politically assertive.
Many Democrats share Biden’s frustration, believing Garland’s cautious approach harmed efforts to hold Trump accountable.
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AG serves at the will of the president. This whole “woopsie” I regret it! 4 years in is a little silly. How dumb does Biden think we are?
How dumb does Biden think we are?
Have you seen the deflection from his personal choices? From helping to get Clarance Thomas into the SCOTUS by attacking his rape victim of Anita Hill, to personally giving an eulogy for Strom Thurmond, to acting like we’re stupid for paying attention to his documented words from “I won’t ever pardon my son” to “I’m a one term president, I won’t run again.”
Biden is either the 3rd most forgetful president in times of convince, behind Trump and Reagan, or he is actively calling us what he is himself.
And how does it look when he fires the guy investigating his son? That’s the same shit we derided trump for doing… tinkering with the Justice Department which has long operated with a high degree of independence for exactly these reasons.
No win situation for Biden, who assumed he would get another term in office. Don’t pretend it isn’t anything but.
The minute he nominated a rightwing AG it became a no win sitaution of his own making. So you are just assuming Bidens a straight up idiot rather than him appointing Garland out of a desire to get Trump out of trouble. Hrm, well, I accept your logic that he may just be an epic moron instead of corrupt and playing the dems for fools.
Still-- He sure does have a lot of pride in “negotiating” with the right-- where he golly-gee-shucks tends to give them more than they even are bargaining for: https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/biden-debt-ceiling-harry-reid-mitch-mcconnell/
He also generally takes rightwing positions, has decades of racist statements and decades of anti abortion and anti gay rights, so I think him faking being a blue player is not out of the question.
He also generally takes rightwing positions, has decades of racist statements and decades of anti abortion and anti gay rights, so I think him faking being a blue player is not out of the question.
Biden is a 2000 Republican, that’s how far the Democrats have moved backwards in being “progressives”.
I express regret too.
Hey, anybody seen my FUCKING UNREDACTED MUELLER REPORT?
No?
Shit.
You don’t need it The summary was damning. Didn’t make a shred of difference
The American people cannot read
But like it was more than a page and there were no pictures of boobs or guns.
Uh yeah. Biden appointed a pretty nonpartisan AG in good faith that the 4 years of his term could be spent simmering down the hyperdivisionalism of the previous admin and return to status quo. Didn’t read the room and let Trump build 4 years of momentum without so much as a speed bump along the way
Garland actively helped Trump. Slow walking an investigation for fear of being political is itself political. In treating Trump with kid gloves unlike any other perp was political.
Garland fucked over Biden- and America- pure and simple, because he was scared of an angry toddler.
And the worst of it was; that the reason behind selecting Garland wasn’t because he was particularly qualified… but because republicans fucked his nomination to SCOTUS over and people (read: biden) felt bad.
Garland wasn’t scared, he was on his side.
EDIT: this is why Kamala lost the libs when she was like “I’ll put republicans in my cabinet!”
this is why Kamala lost the libs when she was like “I’ll put republicans in my cabinet!”
That was one of the most infuriating things about her campaign. Even if she was saying that just somehow troll the hard right or the die-hard magabrainz, it was still just so fucking stupid. Not one Democrat wanted to hear shit like that, they wanted someone that would fight the hell back against these assholes, not swing the door open and invite the vampires into your household, FFS.
It was amazing watching centrists on lemmy who didn’t want the support for their pet genocide to end bein’ like “She’s the vice president! She can’t differ from Biden in any way at all ever!” fall silent when she decided that she needed to run to Biden’s right.
Let’s not forget, on that note: Biden picking him was bad but so was Obama nominating him to the SCOTUS to begin with. Replacement for Scalia or not, we see what that led to. Garland getting on the Court wouldn’t really be making a difference there either.
Once again, our side plays by the rules and does “ethical” stuff while the GOP continues to fuck around while we all find out. These next four years are going to be insane.
The Dems don’t even play by the rules. They play by some made up rules that exist only in their heads and boil down to “you’re not allowed to oppose the Republicans in any way that matters”. There’s tons of legal and ethical stuff Biden could have done in the last four years and here we are, sitting on our asses in the sinking ship, waiting for the water to rush in and drown us all.
I’m with you there. I am still haunted by the idiotic things we’ve done to shoot ourselves in the foot, though. Time and time again, we listen to people wanting to do bipartisanship from the Dem side, and only be met by betrayal. Anybody remember Al Franken and what a self-own it was for him to be forced out?
I can go on and on, but we don’t learn and our own don’t want to do honest reflection.
Fuck it.
I mean, getting rid of Franken was reasonable. Refusing to challenge the Republican creeps has… well… resulted in a government of mostly creeps and that’s not where i want to be. (Admittedly that specific piece is not specifically the Democratic Party’s fault, though they could have done more. Not using the moral leverage they got by booting Franken was an unforced error.)
Franken was ousted for a harmless joke in which all parties were privy. In the grand scheme of things, he would have done more good in office than out.
Franken should have been running for President. Smart, incisive, charismatic. Everything we needed.
Fuck.
Yet, here we are. Tangerine Gorilla is the next president in line and a hoard of supplicant chimpanzees with the complacent centrist democrats incapable of critical reflection propping it up.
Fuck.
Wake up, assholes. Wake the fuck up.
We could have the 25 amendment if he got his head out of his ass.
That’s not even playing ethical. Garland’s stance was effectively that Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted because it might look bad. That’s the opposite of a strict ethical code.
Garland is a piece of shit who slow-rolled the prosecution of Trump for years for whatever convoluted political plan he had in mind. I’ve been baffled by this since 2020. Trump should have been indicted after Jan 6, not within striking distance of the election.
Merrick Garland had to have been an agent for the Trump team in some shape or form.
These next however many years America has left are going to be insane. This won’t end in 4 years. Garland and the Democrats made sure a dictator was elected and the Republicans will never give up power again.
Exactly why I’m angry.
Been that way since Obama. Turns out they aren’t “our side”, they’re the party of conservativism, neoconservativism and just happy to rely on minority votes and therefore focus on minority rights.
I use the term loosely, but as you can see with the reactions I get from others, you’re either all on board or apparently they think you’re a Trumper. Which takes me back to the “nuance” argument I had. Which is probably synonymous with critical thinking in this case.
Americans are terrified of Trump, which is understandable, but they then demand that a free pass be given to his opponents, up to and including their acts of genocide.
Biden should be in prison for breaking US laws saying he cant aid any regime thats plausibly accused of genocide. Our party doesnt always play by the rules and do ethical stuff.
No shit. But look how people reacted when I criticized them elsewhere in this conversation.
Yea, I hear ya. Just ignore them. I always say dont take any criticism or feedback from people you dont respect. I dont respect centrists or people who let the DNC box them in so they can vote for an AIPAC genocide (also dont respect republicans). It didnt thave to be this way but Harris/Biden and the DNC made it this way with their hostage taking and ignoring their base on almost every key issue polled. So they deserve whats coming to them, and Harris/Biden/centrist leaders all deserve to leave politics for good. Unfortunately progressives and youth cant win unless we form a coalition with the centrists, and neither can they win without us, but they pretend we owe them votes even when they sell out and make absurd choices. Thats not the way a coalition works. Dumb centrists need to learn and their childishly refusing to acknowledge this reality doesnt change the reality. Let them swim in the sewage with the rest of us until they learn they arent emperors.
I really wish I could Homer my way into a hedge.
An apolitical AG would have prosecuted Trump. Multiple times. Garland was a very political AG.
Garland is a partisan Republican.
It’s weird how this “centrist” was rejected by the qons just to give a middle finger to the Black guy.
Biden appointed a Republican to slow walk the trump investigation so that Biden could run as second worst to trump again.
Garland did what he was hired to do.
Not sure if true, but a very interesting thought. Wheels within wheels, sort of. I’m not sure people are that “good” at planning though.
Buddy you’re still president. Get to work.
He’s the first president with immunity and all he’s going to do is absolutely nothing. What a fucking waste of a man.
He literally doesn’t even need to worry about polling. He could just snap his fingers and give us $100 Minimum wage, order Trump gone, and then give everyone trans-healthcare with abotions on the side, and then go “Cool, I’m king, deal with it.”
This is all well and good but I don’t see any changes happening and I don’t see any lessons being learned.
We voted for Biden, not Garland. Advisors can push him whatever way they want but at the end of the day it’s his call. And voters have been sharing every frustration for the last decade or two at getting presidents that don’t actually push the real reforms people want.
IMHO, in Biden’s place, The smart thing to do would have been go full Bulworth mode the second he dropped out. If he cut the bullshit and started calling everybody out he could endorse a damp paper bag as his successor and they’d get votes.
People voted for Trump because he is a reform candidate. He may not be a reform President (he wasn’t the first time) but he talks a lot of reform on the stump.
Hillary was not a reform candidate. Kamala was not a reform candidate. Both lost.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it’s that DNC needs to jettison a lot of the old guard that have been the face of the party for the last 50 years. Get some young people with energy and new ideas and put them in charge.
After the United CEO shooting, it would have been a great time for Democrats to put the public option back on the table. That should never have been dropped from Obamacare. But there is enough sentiment in favor of it that they could probably get it through, or at the very least make Republicans pay in the court of public opinion for stopping it. Yet another wasted opportunity.
Man, this dude is admitting a lot of regrets but he’s still not trying to prevent more. Needs a couple big hits before he goes.
Correct the headline. Biden expressed regret. He doesn’t actually feel regret.
He could have sacked him at any time.
We apologise for the fault in the government. Those responsible have been sacked.
I’m sure the optics of that would be good with Hunter in the mix.
And Biden cared about optics, which is why he spent a year shoveling weapons to Netahyahu for genocide.
he should regret so much more
He was a Trump pick originally. The fact Biden kept him was so stupid. Fuck Garland, fuck Trump, and fuck Biden.
No, he wasn’t. He was Obama’s pick for a Supreme court seat. Why are you spreading obvious lies?
And Obama picked him because he was a conservative do nothing that he thought the Republicans could agree on because, and this is important, he is the kind of person that stayed a Republican even when the party turned fascist.
As John McClane so eloquently put it: “welcome to the party, pal!”
Kinda dramatic that this is becoming public news though huh
Man the comments. I don’t want two parties that are abusive of power. Still it sorta reminds me of why I put biden over obama on my list of best presidents of my lifetime. I hope future ones will see things like this and take it to heart. I think biden got somewhat of the proper way. Give them one chance to collaborate and if they do bullshit then move forward without them. They can’t be given multiple chances or the benefit of the doubt. You can’t leave their people in anymore, even the ones who seem moderate, their criteria for their picks is zealotry.
“Abuse of power” means not having a tiered justice system?
No it means using power in a questionable way. Its because of folks saying things like he is the first president with immunity type stuff.
When does the move forward without them start, because it’s been “give one more chance” since the 1970s.
It has. biden did take the lessons from obama and as I said gave them like one chance to collaborate then moved on. It was great relatively speaking. Its hard to move on when they are given just barely time to fix the last fuck up and then folks decide hey lets try fuck up again.
It would have been the same outcome regardless of who Biden appointed. The oligarchy will never charge one of their own.
Trump has never really been one of “their own”. They see him like Jed Clampett. He has some degree of wealth, but the elites can’t stand him. Of course that doesn’t keep them from kissing his ass as president.
