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Politics
Analysis | The politics of Obama's official portrait unveiling – The Washington Post
The big idea
Ties with Biden, Trump, looming midterms, hang over a typically fun event
A former president’s official portrait unveiling is almost always a lighthearted event, largely devoid of partisan politics, a White House tradition with none (ok, less) of the cringe factor that attaches to the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon.
The last time it happened, in May 2012, President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, joked around in the East Room and celebrated the unique burdens of office as a kind of bond, one uniting “the only people on Earth who know the feeling,” the Democrat said.
On a lighter note, Obama observed: “George, I will always remember the gathering you hosted for all the living former Presidents before I took office, your kind words of encouragement. Plus, you also left me a really good TV sports package.”
Bush joked about the crowd size “at my hanging” and quipped to Obama he was pleased “that when you are wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, ‘what would George do?’”
A different time
As president, Donald Trump did not hold the event.
But today, it’s back. President Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama for their official portrait unveilings.
And beyond the corny jokes and the camaraderie of the exclusive club of presidents, it’s a line from Obama’s 2012 remarks that may have seemed saccharine then but is surely salient now.
- “One of the greatest strengths of our democracy is our ability to peacefully, and routinely, go through transitions of power,” he said. “It speaks to the fact that we’ve always had leaders who believe in America, and everything it stands for, above all else — leaders and their families who are willing to devote their lives to the country that they love.”
The violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which interrupted the certification of Biden’s victory, the current president’s warnings that “pro-insurrectionist” and other election-denying Republicans threaten American democracy, and Trump demanding he be reinstated or have the 2020 election done over invest those remarks with new meaning.
That’s just one of the dynamics shaping the ceremony.
Another is the midterm election contest. Biden has recently thrown himself into campaign mode, attacking Republicans and touting his accomplishments as he tries to make the vote a choice, not a referendum, at a time when his job approval ratings have recovered from record lows but are still a liability. He reportedly plans to travel 2 to 3 times per week.
Obama has also taken the plunge. He did an Aug. 30 fundraiser with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee on Martha’s Vineyard with Eric Holder. He’ll raise money for Democratic Senate candidates Sept. 8 in New York, for their House counterparts in San Diego on Sept. 28 (featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) and another in San Francisco Sept. 29 for the DNC.
“He’ll also stump with campaign/GOTV [get-out-the-vote] events as we get closer, with a special focus on roles and states that are important to the administration of the 2024 elections,” according to a person familiar with his plans.
Lingering tensions
The two campaigners could not be more different. Obama the frequently professorial, who built a high-tech online operation that helped him to capture the presidency. Biden more the old-fashioned grip-and-grin retail politician. Democrats need them both.
Which gets us to the final dynamic: the Biden-Obama relationship.
- My colleague Tyler Pager shared some details Tuesday night about some lingering tensions, including some connected to Obama’s previous visit to the White House, this past April, when he began his remarks with “Thank you, Vice President Biden.”
“Biden laughed and saluted, and Obama walked away from the podium and gave Biden a hug, vowing he was just making a joke. ‘That was all set up,’ he said.”
“But for some longtime Biden staffers, the zinger punctured the celebratory mood. They saw the quip, intentional or not, as part of a pattern of arrogance from Obama and a reminder of the disrespect many felt from Obama’s cadre of aides toward Biden.”
In his book “Promise Me, Dad,” Biden chronicled Obama trying to talk him out of running for president in 2016. The most quoted line comes after a face-to-face discussion: “The president was not encouraging.”
And Obama foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes wrote in his own book that “[i]n the Situation Room, Biden could be something of an unguided missile.”
The remarks at the portrait unveiling are more likely to resemble Obama’s words when he awarded his vice president the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2017, calling him “the best vice president America’s ever had” and a “lion of American history.”
But at a perilous time for American democracy, the pomp and palling around may highlight rather than mask how much the country has changed since 2012 and how a once-routine celebration now seems like a vestige from a different time. Not that we have to paint you a picture.
What’s happening now
IRS will look into setting up a free e-filing system
“The Internal Revenue Service will spend $15 million studying a free, government-backed tax filing system under a provision in the sweeping climate and health-care law Congress passed this summer. It’s a landmark step toward overhauling the way most Americans file their taxes and ending years of domination of tax prep by private corporations,” Jacob Bogage reports.
Maura Healey to face Trump-backed Republican in deep-blue Massachusetts
“Maura Healey (D), who made history as the country’s first openly gay attorney general, will face Trump-backed former state legislator Geoff Diehl (R) in the Massachusetts governor’s race this November — a contest seen by analysts as one of the best chances for Democrats to flip control of a Republican-held seat,” Annie Linskey and David Weigel report.
The war in Ukraine
Putin, in defiant speech, threatens Western gas and grain supplies
“Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called Western sanctions ‘stupid’ and threatened to halt all energy sales to Russia’s critics if they move forward with a cap on oil prices proposed by the Group of Seven industrialized economic powers,” Mary Ilyushina reports.
Russians back war in Ukraine, but report finds notable opposition
“Russian public support for the war against Ukraine, while sky-high, is less solid than statistics generally suggest, according to an analysis by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and has fallen in recent months with some supporters saying they are ambivalent, anxious, shocked or fearful about the ongoing military campaign,” Robyn Dixon reports.
“About 20 percent of respondents said they did not support the war, up from 14 percent in March, the analysis found. About 75 percent said they supported the war, compared with 81 percent in March.”
Stoltenberg: NATO countries will ‘pay a price’ this winter for supporting Ukraine
“But chief of the military alliance Jens Stoltenberg still insisted that Europe had a ‘moral responsibility’ to stand up to Russian aggression, Whitney Juckno and Jennifer Hassan report. “There are tough times ahead,” he wrote in the Financial Times. “For Ukraine’s future and for ours, we must prepare for the winter war and stay the course … We do pay a price for our support to Ukraine. But the price we pay is counted in dollars, euros and pounds, while Ukrainians are paying with their lives.”
Lunchtime reads from The Post
From border town to ‘border town,’ bused migrants seek new lives in D.C. area
“So far, more than 230 buses carrying nearly 9,400 migrants, including families with young children, have arrived in D.C. since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began offering free passage to the nation’s capital in April, with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) following suit in May. Last month, buses from Texas started heading to New York and Chicago, too,” Antonio Olivo reports.
ICYMI: Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
“A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property,” Devlin Barrett and Carol D. Leonnig reported last night.
… and beyond
Elected officials, police chiefs on leaked Oath Keepers list
“The names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that’s accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Wednesday,” the Associated Press‘s Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman report.
“The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists and identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law enforcement agencies — including as police chiefs and sheriffs — and more than 100 people who are currently members of the military.”
The latest on covid
U.S. plans to shift to annual coronavirus shots, similar to flu vaccine
“White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha said Tuesday the newly reformulated omicron-targeting boosters mark an “important milestone” in the U.S. pandemic response, moving the country to a point where a single annual coronavirus shot should provide a ‘high degree of protection against serious illness all year,’” Lena H. Sun reports.
The Biden agenda
Clean energy projects surge after climate bill passage
“In the weeks since President Biden signed a comprehensive climate bill devised to spur investment in electric cars and clean energy, corporations have announced a series of big-ticket projects to produce the kind of technology the legislation aims to promote,” the New York Times‘s Jack Ewing and Ivan Penn report.
Analysis: Biden on pace to buck history
“Presidents don’t improve their political standing in midterm election years. That is, they didn’t until President Joe Biden came along. And the uptick in Biden’s job approval rating is one factor in Democrats’ renewed optimism about the upcoming elections,” Roll Call‘s Nathan L. Gonzales writes.
Biden’s Cabinet hasn’t changed, a sharp break from Trump
“When President Joe Biden met with senior members of his administration on Tuesday, the 24 officials sitting around the table were identical to the ones Biden gathered 17 months ago for his first Cabinet meeting,” CNN‘s Kevin Liptak reports.
“There has been zero turnover among the secretaries, administrators and directors that form the official Cabinet, a level of consistency representing a sharp departure from Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who had already lost three Cabinet officials at this point in his presidency.”
White House confirms Biden will visit Detroit auto show
“The White House on Tuesday afternoon confirmed that President Joe Biden will attend the North American International Auto Show, which begins next week,” the Detroit Free Press‘s Todd Spangler reports.
“In a statement, the White House said Biden will travel to Detroit next Wednesday, Sept. 14, to visit the show. No further details about when he would be there, whether he would make remarks or whether he would go anywhere else in metro Detroit were immediately available.”
This summer’s extreme divide in rain and drought, visualized
“Like an unhinged seesaw, this summer’s rainfall has teetered between too much and too little across the United States. Record-high rainfall in pockets of the country brought unprecedented flooding; meanwhile, other communities yearned for just a few drops as droughts worsened,” Kasha Patel and Tim Meko explain.
Hot on the left
President Biden is right about MAGA Republicans
“Let’s not be children about what’s going on here. The conservative legal establishment has for decades viewed the legal system as an instrument of partisan power. It produces committed ideologues to be nominated to the bench—from the Supreme Court on down—where they implement conservative policy goals, trampling over precedent, norms, and laws as necessary. [Judge Aileen Cannon] is following that script. She is attempting to prevent Trump from facing any accountability for his numerous crimes; it’s as simple as that. She’s not being subtle about it, either—she said she was going to do it before she even heard the Justice Department’s arguments,” Ryan Cooper writes for the American Prospect.
Hot on the right
Republicans anxious about cash-strapped NRSC amid Scott’s feud with McConnell
“GOP senators are privately alarmed at the cash problems facing Sen. Rick Scott‘s National Republican Senatorial Committee, uneasy over his feud with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and worried that their internal issues could undercut their already difficult road back to the majority this fall,” CNN‘s Manu Raju and Alex Rogers report.
“Behind the scenes, GOP senators are maneuvering to make up for the committee’s cash shortfall, with discussions underway to take matters into their own hands to circumvent the NRSC entirely and directly help candidates who need critical resources down the homestretch of the high-stakes campaign, according to multiple GOP sources.”
Today in Washington
At 1:30 p.m., Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the unveiling of former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s White House portraits.
In closing
Special masters: An educational experience!
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.
OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.
The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.
It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.
A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.
During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.
They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.
“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.
Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”
Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.
These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”
These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.
Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.
The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”
It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.
“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”
This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.
“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”
However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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