The Conversation -- February 9, 2024
I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing. I've been president and I put this country back on its feet. -- President Joe Biden, White House remarks, Thursday evening
Mr. Biden would likely present himself ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. -- Special Counsel Robert Hur, report
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The White House on Friday called the special counsel's report into President Biden's handling of classified material politically motivated, escalating its attempts to discredit a document that characterized the president as elderly and forgetful. Vice President Kamala Harris suggested that the report was more of a political attack than an unbiased legal document. Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, said the report was 'inappropriate' and 'troubling.'...
"'The way the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated,' Ms. Harris said in response to questions from reporters at the White House. She also said Mr. Biden had sat down for in-person interviews with the special counsel's office just a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. 'It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America,' Ms. Harris said. 'He was in front of it all, coordinating and directing leaders who are in charge of America's national security.'"
Kierra Frazier of Politico: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed Special Counsel Robert Hur's report that contained observations on President Joe Biden's memory. 'Special Counsel Hur report on Biden classified documents issues contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions,' Holder said in a post on X early Friday morning. 'Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised.'... Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts Pod Save America, said the report was filled with 'ad hominem attacks' and was 'just a right-wing hit job from within Biden's own DOJ.' 'Hur, a lifelong Republican and creature of DC, didn't have a case against Biden, but he knew exactly how his swipes could hurt Biden politically,' said Jim Messina, Barack Obama's 2012 campaign manager."
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: Robert Hur's "extensive discussions of [President Biden's cognitive condition] were not merely gratuitous -- they constituted an egregious transgression of prosecutorial boundaries.... [Hur's] portrayal of Biden as a doddering old man is inconsistent with what I hear from those who have frequent interactions with him. But assuming its accuracy, the details go far beyond what is appropriate to explain the decision to decline prosecution, and far beyond Hur's brief.... Prosecutors are supposed to remain above the partisan fray, not embroiled in it.... A responsible prosecutor would have taken care to avoid what Hur has done, which is to let his report become a potent -- perhaps even lethal -- weapon in the coming campaign." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yes, but if you credit Hur with writing, not a report, but a rambling, incoherent novel of the Look Homeward, Angel genre, then maybe it's what you might call a coming-of-aging story about a protagonist whom Hur calls "Joe Biden": ~~~
~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "Hur spent a year trying to find facts that would allow him to charge Joe Biden, charge a President, doing backflips with the evidence along the way, and then writing up a report that provides far more evidence about 40 year old documents covered by Speech and Debate than we'll ever learn about the stolen documents at Mar-a-Lago. This was never an ethical prosecutorial pursuit. It was always about writing a novel for a rabid audience." MB: This is one of Wheeler's long proofs, but Hur gives her a lot of material to work through.
Paul Campos in LG&$: "It's difficult to overstate what an absolutely astonishing own goal Merrick Garland scored by appointing Robert Hur to lead the Biden documents case.... So why did Merrick Garland do this incredibly stupid and reckless thing?... Because Robert Hur was Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was a partner at Gibson Dunn, and somebody with that kind of impeccable legal pedigree wouldn't ever be a partisan hack, because if he was that would call into question the impeccable judgment of the other Elite Lawyers who anointed appointed him to those exalted offices, where Objective Legal Analysis always wins out over Partisan Political Considerations, because only the Very Best People get those kinds of jobs, because ... OK I can't do this any more.
"Merrick Garland should be fired immediately. He has one of the most important jobs in the United States, and he's absolutely terrible at it, which is a bad combination, especially when there's a little light sedition in the air.... This guy might as well be a Republican plant, but the really sad part is that I don't doubt for a second that he's as sincere as Linus in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Spirit of the Law to bring presents to all the good little boys and girls...."
Robert Draper & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress. Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz's former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee related to claims Mr. Greenberg has made about Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Greenberg previously told federal investigators that he had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. 'Mr. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,' Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday."
Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "In a new motion, special counsel Jack Smith shredded Donald Trump's latest attempt to indefinitely delay the classified documents case in Florida before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, urging the court to resist the former president's efforts to 'stop at nothing' to delay facing a jury. '... the tactics they deploy are relentless and misleading -- they will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens...,' Smith wrote in the 9-page brief filed in Florida late Thursday.... Trump's lawyers were either simply unprepared or were flatly ignoring court orders, according to the special counsel, and now, three months on, as Trump's team has filed requests to adjourn the case completely, they still come asking for more time to file pretrial documents.... Most offensive to the special counsel is Trump's attempt to dismiss the 40-some charges he faces for alleged illegal retention of sensitive and classified documents by attempting to advance an argument of 'presidential immunity.' The conduct charged took place after Trump left office, Smith wrote."
Edward Moreno & Joe Rennison of the New York Times: "Stocks rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 index closing above 5,000 for the first time amid a rally fueled by better-than-expected earnings reports. The move comes less than a month after the index returned to record territory, surpassing a high set in January 2022. The benchmark, which tracks the stock performance of the largest companies in America, is the foundation of many portfolios and retirement plans and is the most common gauge of sentiment on Wall Street. The rally in the stock market has come with inflation cooling, corporate profits growing and lower borrowing costs on the horizon."
U.K. Your Royal Gossip Fix, Ctd. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prince Harry has settled his privacy claims against a British tabloid publisher, his lawyer told a London court on Friday, two months after a judge found the publisher guilty of 'widespread and habitual' hacking of the prince's cellphone. The settlement with Mirror Group Newspapers -- which his lawyer said would amount to at least 400,000 pounds, or $504,000 -- brings to an end one battle in Harry's long-running war against the press over its intrusive coverage of his private life.... In addition to paying for the costs of the case, the Mirror Group would pay additional 'significant' damages, the prince's lawyer, David Sherborne, said.... In his statement, Harry singled out Piers Morgan, a prominent TV personality and a former editor of The Daily Mirror, saying Mr. Morgan 'knew perfectly well what was going on.' Mr. Morgan's 'contempt for the court's ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgment,' Harry said."
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The Report
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The special counsel investigating President Biden said in a report released on Thursday that he had decided 'no criminal charges are warranted' against Mr. Biden over his handling of classified material after leaving the vice presidency in early 2017, but had found evidence that Mr. Biden had willfully retained and disclosed some sensitive material. Robert K. Hur, the special counsel, said in his highly unflattering report that Mr. Biden had left the White House after his vice presidency with classified documents about Afghanistan and notebooks with handwritten entries 'implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods' taken from internal White House briefings. The report said that Mr. Biden had shared the content of the notebooks with a ghostwriter who helped him on his 2017 memoir, 'Promise Me, Dad' even though he knew some of it was classified. While Mr. Hur decided not to prosecute Mr. Biden, some of his reasons for doing so are likely to raise new questions about the president's conduct and his mental state....' Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' Mr. Hur wrote."
"White House officials said Mr. Biden had fully cooperated with the investigation and that he took the handling of classified information seriously. 'We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the special counsel's report. Nonetheless, the most important decision the special counsel made -- that no charges are warranted -- is firmly based on the facts and evidence,' Richard Sauber, a special counsel for Mr. Biden, said in a statement.... In the report's introduction, Mr. Hur cited Mr. Biden's cooperation with investigators, in stark contrast with ... Donald J. Trump's behavior when documents were discovered at his resort in Florida, as one of the factors in his decision not to bring charges.... Mr. Hur could not establish whether classified documents discovered at Mr. Biden's house had been willfully retained, or whether they had been obtained during his vice presidency and sloppily stored." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Politico's report, by Betsy Swan, is here: "Biden's memory lapse was a common theme throughout Hur's report.... One of [Biden's] attorneys, Bob Bauer, took umbrage with the portrayal, accusing Hur of 'essentially, "trashing" the subject of an investigation' with 'extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.' Biden's attorneys also wrote directly to Hur and his team before the report's publication to complain about the focus on the president's memory lapses. As documented in the report, they called the focus 'gratuitous' and urged Hur to revise his summarizations, saying it was beyond his 'expertise and remit.'... Biden addressed the report during an appearance at a retreat for House Democrats on Thursday afternoon. 'I was pleased to see the special counsel make clear the stark differences between this case and Trump's,' he said, 'The special counsel in my case decided against moving forward with any charges. This matter is now closed.' He banged the podium with a fist." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The report, via the DOJ, is here. It begins with an executive summary. President Biden's statement, via the White House, is here.(Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: You are not mistaken. This report was Jim Comey on steroids. Remember when Comey released the FBI's report recommending no charges against Hillary Clinton for her home server blunder but then trashed her in a press conference ostensibly called to clear her? (Not to be confused with the "October Surprise," which arguably cost Clinton the election.) Joy Reid pointed out on MSNBC last night that at the bottom of the first page of the executive summary (p. 5 of the linked report), Hur writes, "Mr. Biden has long seen himself as a historic figure.... He believed his record during decades in the Senate made him worthy of the presidency...." This is not how a factual DOJ report is supposed to be written. As President Biden's attorneys wrote, Hur went beyond his "expertise and remit." An analogous Mueller report might have begun, "Mr. Trump is an ignorant, narcissistic sociopath with autocratic tendendies who should never have ascended to any public office, let along the presidency*." It didn't. ~~~
~~~ As to Biden's being "a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," his interviewers asked him questions going back 40 years. I sat for a deposition when I was "a well-meaning 50-year-old woman" with no cognitive problems. When I was asked about a letter I had written when I was 21 years old, I did not remember the letter. At all. Ari Melber of MSNBC pointed out that lawyers usually advise their clients to say, "I don't recall" when asked about something they couldn't remember. And you don't have to be a doddering old codger with a faulty memory to forget dates and specifics. Most of us don't remember much about uneventful matters that occurred decades ago. Hur's characterization of President Biden is over the top, politically-motivated and in extremely bad form. It reflects poorly on him more than it does on Biden. P.S. If Merrick Garland had any balls, he would make a public statement condemning the tenor of the so-called report.
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of the documents ... [made] such startling assertions that they prompted a fiery and emotional attempt at political damage control from the president within hours. Speaking to the cameras from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Mr. Biden on Thursday evening blasted the report by Robert K. Hur, the special counsel, accusing the report's authors of 'extraneous commentary' about his age and mental capacity.... The president's lawyers, Bob Bauer and Richard Sauber, took exception in a Feb. 5 letter with Mr. Hur's description of the president's memory. 'It is hardly fair to concede that the president would be asked about events years in the past, press him to give his "best" recollections and then fault him for his limited memory,' the lawyers wrote. 'The president's inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual.'...
"The tough language by Mr. Hur could set the stage for Mr. Trump and his allies to launch a fresh round of political attacks on Mr. Biden for doing the very same kinds of things Mr. Trump is accused of doing.... Republicans began using the report to attack Mr. Biden almost immediately, sometimes going much further than the prosecutor's actual conclusions. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said on social media, falsely, that 'the special counsel decided not to bring charges against Biden because they believe he has age related dementia.'" NPR's report is here. ~~~
Josh Marshall of TPM: "... this is another example of the universal rule: Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Democrats. And Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Republicans. It may not have been a great idea for Merrick Garland to have a two-time Trump appointee investigate Joe Biden. But here we are. Robert Hur totally slimed Biden with these gratuitous comments about his mental acuity and memory.... Even if you assume they are the product of a good faith evaluation they are still wildly inappropriate. DOJ guidelines make clear that if you're not bringing charges you don't bash the subject of the investigation in your announcement (a la James Comey). You certainly aren't supposed to affirmatively attempt to demean the subject of the investigation with clearly political attacks that aren't even related to what you're investigating." MB: On the other hand, Hur did not find a blue dress. ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: Ditto. "It's very bad, but at this late date it has to hang on Garland at least as much as Hur himself. He was doing what anybody should have expected him to do."
Samantha Latson of Politico: "Donald Trump and his GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley each slammed a Justice Department special counsel decision Thursday not to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents.... 'THIS HAS NOW PROVEN TO BE A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION! The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine,' Trump, who faces criminal prosecution for deliberately retaining classified material, said in a statement. 'I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal.'... Haley also used the decision to take a jab at both Biden and her rival Trump: 'Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents,' she wrote on social media platform X. "If Biden's defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim....'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe the upside of narcissism is that it doesn't require any coordination with facts. A narcissist can lie with alacrity, as Trump does here. He doesn't have to read; he doesn't have to study; he doesn't have to rationalize or make excuses; he just flips off the world and presents his own fantasies as reality.
Presidential Race
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court seemed poised on Thursday to issue a lopsided decision rejecting a challenge to ... Donald J. Trump's eligibility to hold office again. Justices across the ideological spectrum expressed skepticism about several aspects of a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that Mr. Trump's conduct in trying to subvert the 2020 race made him ineligible to hold office under a constitutional provision that bars people who have sworn to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection.... The ruling is likely to resolve not only whether Mr. Trump may appear on the Colorado primary ballot but also whether he is eligible to run in the general election. Indeed, the decision in the Colorado case will almost certainly apply to any other state where Mr. Trump's eligibility to run has been challenged, including Maine, where the state's top elections official ruled he should be excluded from the ballot. There was very little discussion of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol or of Mr. Trump's role in it. But a majority of the justices indicated that they were prepared to rule that individual states may not disqualify candidates in a national election unless Congress first enacts legislation allowing them to do so. Some justices also seemed open to two other arguments: that the post-Civil War prohibition at issue, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, bars candidates from holding office, as opposed to running for it, and that the president is not among the officials to whom the provision applies."
Traditionally the idea of state's rights has been the purview and preponderant obsession of the wingers on the court.... But of course if that means states get to decide stuff the wingers don't cotton to, then that state's rights stuff is right out. The only thing consistent about them is the belief that their side needs to win no matter what. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's thread
They are textualists only when textualism provides a means to and end -- like when they say, "Well, we have to give everybody a gun because it says so right here in the Second Amendment." But when a purported 'close reading' does not suit them, suddenly they are pragmatists. -- Chris Hayes of MSNBC, Thursday (very loose paraphrase)
You do have to wonder how the Supremes would have reacted had Hillary Clinton led a motley army into the Capitol to try to prevent Joe Biden from counting electoral votes in 2016. Would she still be eligible to run for president? Just asking. -- Marie
Chris Geidner of Law Dork: "... the U.S. Supreme Court appeared all but certain to rule that, at least under current federal law, Donald Trump can appear on Colorado's Republican presidential primary ballot, reversing the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to the contrary.... The justices appeared to be more concerned about what removing Trump from the ballot would do rather than whether the Constitution says he is disqualified."
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "After saying he'd listened to the Supreme Court oral arguments Thursday..., Trump reverted to one of his signature falsehoods.... Trump ... referred to what his detractors 'kept saying about what I said right after the insurrection ... if it was an insurrection.' He claimed that what he really did was offer 'very beautiful, very heartwarming statements' during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He also suggested people should view the video he posted late in the day -- or as he put it, 'very shortly after.' That would be hard. The video was removed from YouTube and other social media shortly after being posted, on the grounds that it violated the terms of service by spreading false information about the 2020 election." Kessler provides a timeline of the events of the day and Trump's responses. It's a useful and shocking reminder of what a horrible human being Trump is. ~~~
~~~ Marie: CNN played live bits of Trump's remarks after the hearing. They kept cutting out because, as Jake Tapper said, Trump was lying so much and just giving a campaign speech. What was more startling than the lies was how infantile Trump is. If he listened to the hearing, why didn't he say any more about it than "they did a good job," or words to that effect. Instead, he rambled on about extraneous matters: "We're at 90% in Nevada, I think we're at 90% everywhere, Joe Biden sucks, blah, blah." Don't tell me Joe Biden is off his game when Trump is totally out of it, reduced to toddler babble. I suspect his aides tell him how good his poll numbers are the way you tell a severely intellectually disabled person that the stick figures he drew are great, and the poor fellow is able to parrot back, "I did good, didn't I?"
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump glided to victory in Nevada's Republican caucuses on Thursday, an outcome all but guaranteed because he was the only major candidate on the ballot. The Associated Press declared Mr. Trump the winner shortly after caucus sites closed in Nevada, giving him his fourth straight triumph in a Republican nominating contest that awards delegates this year."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Hannity Promotes Violence Against Strangers on Live TV. Jake Offenhartz of the AP: "Members of the Guardian Angels roughed up a man during a live interview on Fox News Tuesday night, then misidentified him as a 'migrant' in a primetime segment meant to highlight disorder and crime caused by new arrivals to New York City. The bizarre altercation played out as Curtis Sliwa, founder of the anti-crime patrol group, was speaking to Sean Hannity from Times Square, flanked by volunteers in their signature red berets and bomber jackets. As some Guardian Angels began leaving Sliwa's side to attend to an off-screen disturbance, the camera panned to show them confronting an unidentified man, pushing him to the sidewalk and placing him in a headlock. 'In fact, our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys...,' Sliwa told Hannity.... The man is not a migrant, but a New Yorker from the Bronx, police said Wednesday afternoon. Though Sliwa claimed the man had been caught shoplifting, police provided no evidence to support the allegation.... Police said the man was issued a disorderly conduct summons because he was acting in a loud and threatening manner on a public sidewalk.... Sliwa said he had believed the man was a migrant because he was 'speaking Spanish.'..." ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Hannity "welcomed Sliwa back at the end of the show to explain what happened. 'Well, he had been shoplifting first,' Sliwa claimed. 'The Guardian Angels spotted him, stopped him. He resisted. And let's just say we gave him a little pain compliance.' Hannity chuckled. 'His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He's sucking concrete. The cops scraped off the asphalt.'... That Fox News carried the scuffle live was a function of a number of bad decisions, certainly. But all of them were downstream from the same point of origin: wanting to cast New York City, once again, as collapsing metropolis overrun by criminal immigrants."
The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang
Igor Derysh of Salon: "Legal experts sounded the alarm after the judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case rejected special counsel Jack Smith's bid to keep government witnesses secret. Smith's team opposed making information public that could reveal the identity or any personal identifying information of any potential witnesses in the case or any transcripts or other documents they may have provided, citing concerns about witness intimidation. Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in Trump's favor on the matter, writing: '... the Special Counsel has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue.'... Longtime Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe said he hopes Tuesday's order 'will trigger a motion to remove her.... The 11th Circuit might well agree this was the last straw. Compromising national security is a bridge too far,' he tweeted. 'It is impossible to overstate how awful and unethical is Aileen Cannon,' added Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. 'Clearly has no business being a judge at any level.'" ~~~
~~~ So Then.... Mike Levine & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "Federal authorities are currently investigating a series of threats made online to a potential witness related to special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents case against ... Donald Trump, according to a new court filing from Smith's team. In the filing late Wednesday in federal court in Florida, Smith's team asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ... to let them file an exhibit under seal because, they wrote, 'The exhibit describes in some detail threats that have been made over social media to a prospective Government witness and the surrounding circumstances, and the fact that those threats are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being handled by a United States Attorney's Office.'"
They're Going to Take Him Away, Away. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro to begin serving a four month-prison term for ignoring a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, rejecting his request to stay free while he appeals his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.... In a 12-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said that none of Navarro's claims posed a 'substantial question of law' or a close call. Unless the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia stays his sentence imposed Jan. 25, Mehta ordered, Navarro 'shall report to the designated Bureau of Prisons ('BOP') facility on the date ordered by the BOP.' Navarro has not received a reporting date and is expected to ask the circuit court to intervene."
Dino Grandoni of the Washington Post: "Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist, won his long-standing legal battle against two right-wing bloggers who claimed that he manipulated data in his research and compared him to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, a major victory for the outspoken researcher. A jury in a civil trial in Washington on Thursday found that the two writers, Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn, defamed and injured the researcher in a pair of blog posts published in 2012, and awarded him more than $1 million. 'I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech,' Mann said in a statement[.] Mann's victory comes amid heightened attacks on scientists working not just on climate change but also on vaccines and other issues." The AP's report is here.
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: President "Biden's comments [that Israel's attacks on Gaza are 'over the top'] follow National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying 'we would not support' a major Israeli military operation in crowded Rafah under current conditions, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he had conveyed 'profound concerns' to Israel about inflammatory rhetoric and actions, calling for it to address the high civilian death toll. Biden also issued a memorandum laying out standards for countries that receive U.S. weapons and, for the first time, requires the administration to submit an annual report to Congress about whether they are meeting the requirements. It comes after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the extent of Israels campaign in Gaza." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Friday are here.
Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday said Israel's military campaign in Gaza has been 'over the top' in his sharpest rebuke yet and said he hoped the current negotiations over a release of hostages in exchange for a long-term pause could lay the groundwork to change the course of the war.... Biden, who has been resistant to speak in detail about the suffering in Gaza, also spoke in the most visceral terms yet about the desperation in the enclave. 'I've been pushing really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. A lot of innocent people are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and they're dying and it's got to stop,' Biden said. The comments mark a stunning turnaround for Biden, who has an emotional attachment to Israel and has largely refused to criticize the country even as anger grows among left-leaning parts of the Democratic base over the war in Gaza and its enormous civilian toll."
Ukraine, et al.
Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A sweeping emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel inched ahead in the Senate on Thursday, providing glimmers of hope for the measure after a series of setbacks. But hurdles remained as Republicans slow-walked progress, demanding changes and feuding internally over whether to back it. In a bipartisan show of support, the Senate voted 67 to 32 to advance the bill, with 17 Republicans joining Democrats to move it forward. The legislation would provide $60.1 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in global conflicts. But many Republicans were still withholding their backing as they demanded changes to the package, and many others opposed it outright. 'We hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues on amendments,' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said. 'We are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done.'" (Also linked yesterday
Andrew Kramer & Mark Santora of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday removed his top general as part of a sweeping overhaul of his military command, the most significant shake-up in Ukrainian leadership since Russia invaded almost two years ago. The dismissal ended weeks of speculation about the fate of the commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, whose relationship with Mr. Zelensky had deteriorated as Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough in its counteroffensive last summer and fall. Mr. Zelensky was prepared to fire the general 10 days ago before temporarily backing off, Ukrainian officials have said. The upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Ukraine in the war, amid intensified Russian attacks, partisan wrangling in the United States over providing aid to the government in Kyiv and the tensions between Ukraine's civilian and military leadership. General Zaluzhny will be replaced by Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine's ground forces, the president said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "Speaking to Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, [Vladimir] Putin called on the United States to 'make an agreement' to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia in order to end the war. He sought to appeal directly to American conservatives just as Republican lawmakers are holding up aid to Ukraine on Capitol Hill, echoing the talking points of politicians like ... Donald J. Trump who say that the United States has more pressing priorities than a war thousands of miles away.... Much of the interview constituted a familiar Kremlin history lesson about Russia's historical claim to Eastern European lands, beginning in the ninth century, that Mr. Putin made little effort to distill for American ears.... Mr. Carlson pressed Mr. Putin to release [Evan] Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent whom Russia arrested last year on espionage accusations that The Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Mr. Putin said 'the dialogue continues' on his fate, hinting that the Kremlin was holding out for a favorable offer from the United States to release him as part of a prisoner swap."
News Lede
New York Times: "Seiji Ozawa, the high-spirited Japanese conductor who took the Western classical music world by storm in the 1960s and '70s and was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002, died on Feb. 6 in Tokyo. He was 88."
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