Joe Biden needs to fire somebody, ASAP
President Biden needs to fire somebody — anybody — to show voters he understands they are angry about his administration’s innumerable cock-ups, and that he is angry, too.
When a president’s approval ratings hit historic lows while he’s running for reelection, he has to do something. Whining to the press that they are misrepresenting your success is, and sounds, pathetic.
The country is appalled at the way things are going and decidedly unenthusiastic about giving Biden four more years. One of the president’s biggest problems is his age. Biden seems frail (despite Jill Biden’s unconvincing testimony) and timorous; escalating aggression from our enemies is no surprise. We see Biden as weak, and so do they.
If Biden runs against former President Trump, as is expected, the contrast will be stark. A word cloud describing the former president would include “arrogant” and “unpredictable,” but it would also include “strong.” Don’t expect that adjective in Biden’s word cloud.
Firing one of his top officials could help make Biden look more forceful and decisive. Finding a worthy candidate is not challenging.
First up is Karine Jean-Pierre. She is a catastrophic White House spokesperson who is by turns surly and uninformed, offering little but an often incoherent version of what has been written down in her infamous binder. The White House has clearly seen the light; national security spokesman John Kirby now regularly adds some heft to the podium. The administration should bite the bullet and let her go.
Can the White House fire a “Black, gay, immigrant woman,” as she introduced herself to the press corps? Yes; with the country beginning to push back on the insidious diversity, equity and inclusion imperative, it is the perfect time for Biden to show that he is brave enough to let a diversity hire go.
The most obvious Cabinet candidate for the axe is Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Iowa Republicans deemed immigration their No.1 issue, even ranking it above the economy. Americans are horrified that millions of people have entered the nation illegally during the Biden presidency and have been allowed to stay. Biden’s team half-heartedly blames Republicans for not taking up the president’s immigration reform proposal, which he announced on Day One of his administration, as if the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would magically solve the problem. It would not.
House Republicans have threatened to impeach Mayorkas for “willfully” refusing “to maintain operational control of the border as required by the Secure Fence Act of 2006.” Section 2(a) of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 defines “operational control” as “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.” Mayorkas told Congress under oath in 2022 that he had complied with that act; that clearly was untrue. As former immigration official Robert Law wrote at the time, “This definition was read out loud to Mayorkas before his response, making it all the more remarkable that he claims to have fulfilled that edict.”
Biden’s approval rating on the border is at just 18 percent in a recent ABC poll. Someone’s head should roll.
Biden could also fire Lloyd Austin. The Defense secretary, a lifelong military man, went AWOL recently, failing to tell anyone that he was in the intensive care unit of Walter Reed hospital because of complications from prostate surgery. He didn’t tell Biden or his No. 2, a woman named Kathleen Hicks, that he was ill. He went to great lengths to conceal his illness, even having his aide ask the ambulance that took him to the hospital to turn off their lights and siren.
This secrecy, which went on for five days, was a monstrous dereliction of duty. Austin is our top military man; the night before he vanished, we engaged with and killed Houthi terrorists for the first time, shooting up some small boats. Every day U.S. personnel are coming under attack. For Austin to ignore the chain of command, and for Biden to not have any communication with his Defense chief for several days, is not acceptable.
Several Republicans have demanded that Austin resign; it would be far better for Biden to insist on it.
There is also a good case to fire Janet Yellen. Our Treasury secretary has gotten nearly every big issue wrong and is playing political cheerleader as opposed to honest overseer of our financial health. She has chased international tax agreements that do not benefit U.S. companies, crafted an agreement with our allies to cap the price of Russian oil that completely flopped, and claimed the economy was “reeling” when Biden took office.
Similarly untrue is Yellen’s claim that “Bidenomics is working for the Middle Class,” as she recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Meanwhile, she actually denied that the Biden White House eased sanctions on Iran, though others have admitted as much. How does Yellen explain the 37 percent risein Iran’s foreign currency reserves since Biden took office?
A year ago, only 37 percent of respondents told Gallup they had confidence in Yellen; I doubt that has changed for the better. Only 31 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy; swapping out his Treasury leader might be a good move.
Other candidates abound: There’s Jake Sullivan, who cheerfully noted that “The Middle East is quieter than it has been in two decades” just days before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, or maybe the president could fire both Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who together oversaw the disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan and decided we should no longer consider the Houthis a terror organization.
The embattled president must act. After the raucous Trump years, many have celebrated the stability of the Biden White House. But stability is no substitute for competence.
Published in The Hill
