Hillary Clinton: "I've not only been a colleague of Joe Biden's, I've been a friend. And I can tell you that I wish he were president right now, but I can't wait until he is if all of us do our part." Via ABC pic.twitter.com/GZJO9j3yl3
I wish we had @JoeBiden's leadership in the Oval Office right now.
Americans deserve a president who will manage the COVID-19 crisis with the compassion, competence, and respect for science we need to save lives and revive the economy.
Today I am proud to endorse my friend Joe Biden for President of the United States.
I’ve known Joe for many years and across a number of settings: making
hard decisions about war and peace in the Situation Room as Vice
President under President Obama, building coalitions and getting things
done as a Senator, and sharing quiet moments with his constituents.
Wherever he goes, Joe’s the same person. He’s passionate about standing
up for families and working to make their lives better.
More than ever, these tumultuous times reveal how desperately we need
level-headed, solutions-oriented leadership. We need someone who
listens to scientists, who acts with kindness and compassion, and who
recognizes that America can and must lead the world in responding to
this pandemic. Joe Biden will be that president, and I hope you’ll join me
in doing everything I can to get him elected in November. If you’re with
me — and with Joe — make a donation right now: Donate now
The world today looks very different than the one so many of us fought
for in 2016. Like many of you, I’m concerned — not only about our
current health crisis, but about the deep-seated problems in our
democracy that it lays bare, from inequity in our health care system to
the high-wire act demanded of too many working parents.
When I think about who I want leading us through this challenging
time, there is no question: Joe Biden has the bold ideas, the smart
plans, and most of all, the character to tackle this crisis and any
others that come our way.
I am proud to call him a friend and colleague, and I will be even
prouder to call him President of the United States. But first, we have
to do all that we can to get to a win in November. Chip in right now to show Joe that you’re ready to do the work.
Onward,
Hillary
Hey there. I’m Joe Biden, and I’m writing to you about a truly special moment in our campaign.
This afternoon, Secretary Clinton announced she’s endorsing us. I’m so proud to have her support.
I got to see first-hand what an extraordinary leader Hillary was in
the U.S. Senate. When I was Vice President and she was Secretary of
State, we would often meet for breakfast meetings at the Vice
President’s residence when we were both in town. That’s where I got to
see why she was such a powerful, respected and admired voice all across
the world. Hillary has long had the courage to speak out against the
worst impulses in our country and the world — and to stand up for the
best in us.
Hillary’s candidacy was historic. It is long overdue that we have a
woman in the White House. I’ve already made public that my Vice
President and partner in campaigning and governing will be a woman. For
me, it’s the obvious, necessary and right choice.
In 2016, you and millions of others built one of the most impressive
operations our party and country has ever seen. Volunteers, donors, and
grassroots supporters that were passionate and organized and worked day
in and day out for Hillary.
I know, for some of you, you are hesitant to get involved again on a
campaign. I understand that. I am going to do everything I can to earn
your support and your trust.
And I’m here to tell you that you’re not only welcome as part of this campaign: you’re needed.
The only way that we’ll defeat Donald Trump is with a broad coalition
of folks working together to win what I have been calling a battle for
the soul of our nation. I’m not here to ask you for money — I know first I have to
earn it. So I’m asking you to think about what is at stake, give me a
chance, and join my campaign. I’M IN FOR JOE’S CAMPAIGN ➞
This endorsement means a lot. I was so proud to support Hillary in 2016, and it means a lot that she’s supporting me now.
If you join me, we can win the battle for the soul of the nation. And
by the way, when I say that, I’m not being nostalgic. I’m not trying to
take us back to a country that never existed. The foundational
principles of our country — that all men and women are created equal —
are ones that we’ve never lived up to. But we’ve never given up trying
to live up to them.
It is not enough to “go back” to anything. We have to take immediate,
bold action to tackle the climate crisis. We have to relieve a
generation of the crushing burden of student debt. We have to make
healthcare a right and not a privilege. And to get there, we’re going to
need millions of grassroots supporters to take action right away.
If you join our campaign, we will not just defeat Donald Trump. We
will not just win the battle for the soul of our nation. We will
transform it too.
To close, I will humbly ask: Will you join my campaign today? I’d be honored if you did.
Thank you for everything,
Joe Biden
These photos are not in a particular order. Most of them came from Twitter where the camera attention was almost fully upon the guest side where the presidential lineup was seated rather than on the family side.
Sully said his goodbyes at the Capitol. With the former president since last April when Barbara Bush passed away, he will go on to serve other veterans.
[caption id="attachment_82159" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Hillary always has a fascination with church ceilings.[/caption]
The day belonged to the Bush family, but understandably there were moments. Here is one.
Friday, December 1, 2017
What a week! Talk about men who crucified Hillary getting their #JustDesserts! #PoeticJustice! #Karma!
Reminder: Flynn chanted “lock her up” at the RNC, said “If I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail.” pic.twitter.com/AQY79rlzhm
Now that the retired general has pleaded guilty, the president's son-in-law could be one of the next dominoes to fall.
Jared Kushner back when he was willing to be photographed next to Mike Flynn. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea Friday for lying to the FBI is alarming news for Donald Trump. But the first person it's likely to jeopardize will be the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Two former officials with the Trump transition team who worked closely with Flynn say that during the last days of the Obama administration, the retired general was instructed to contact foreign ambassadors and foreign ministers of countries on the United Nations Security Council, ahead of a vote condemning Israeli settlements. Flynn was told to try to get them to delay that vote until after President Barack Obama had left office, or oppose the resolution altogether.
That is relevant now because one of Flynn’s lies to the FBI was when he said that he never asked Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, to delay the vote for the UN Security Council resolution. The indictment released today from the office of special prosecutor Robert Mueller describes this lie: "On or about December 22, 2016, Flynn did not ask the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution." Read more >>>>
Interesting, disconcerting, upsetting, disappointing, and depressing to see some longtime Democratic veterans engaging negatively in an unsourced (as is the practice) post by a pro-Hillary eastern European troll discrediting Joe Biden. This is but one of the dangers of trolls writ large, broad, and general. Not just anti-Hillary trolls. Pro-Hillary trolls, too.
Trolls target emotions and get visceral responses. It's their MO. In the long run, this can be damaging to the party and to future primaries no matter how the Unity Reform Commission transforms the primary process. Trolls can, as we saw last year, influence the vote and interfere with the democratic process. The bottom line is that this borders on illegal. The fact that the troll is for Hillary should be irrelevant.
Here are some comments made by Joe Biden this morning.
Joe Biden has insisted that under no circumstances would he have agreed to replace Hillary Clinton last year as the Democratic presidential nominee running against Donald Trump.
The former US vice-president was asked about former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Donna Brazile’s book, Hacks, which says she considered replacing Clinton with Biden because of health concerns, particularly after the nominee suffered a fainting spell at a 9/11 anniversary commemoration in New York.
Biden told NBC’s Today show on Monday: “I give you my word, the first time I or any of my staff heard of anything about that was in the book, number one. And number two, I would never have taken it.”
He added: “I was for Hillary. I did 83 campaign events for Hillary. I think I can say I did more events and worked as hard for Hillary as anyone else. She would have been a first-rate president.”
Has Joe made critical comments about Hillary's campaign? Sure. He said it lacked joy, a subjective judgment with which campaign staff, volunteers, rally attendees, and voters disagree strongly. He also said there was no discussion of issues.” That simply is not true. The evidence is here on this blog as well as at Hillary's website. The truth is that the media chose to focus on emails and bogus health reports rather than on the issues she spoke about routinely on the trail. We can agree to disagree with him on these remarks.
Here is the portion of a Facebook post that elicited a firestorm of negativity against Vice President Joe Biden today.
Joe Biden publicly adored Hillary all the time when she had great chances (yes, great chances) to be POTUS, and now that she is robbed, he turns against her? It is hypocrisy and backstabbing in my book. Plus, horrible tactics: Hillary fans are the majority.
Minus a single quote from him or link to a story attributing remarks, Facebook friends came down on Joe Biden like Sharknado based solely on this Facebook character's allegations.
Aside from the fact that Americans for Hillary object strenuously to being called "fans" since we worked our hearts out, voted for her, and consider ourselves supporters, the problem here is two-fold.
There are no links to remarks indicating that Biden has "turned against" Hillary. This source routinely eschews posting links. Readers are supposed to trust "her" as the source. The Facebook character who posted this offered no basis for the "report." (I am not certain "she" is not a coalition, i.e. electronic troll farm, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that her name is also the name of a fictional character.)
That Facebook character is neither a Democrat nor even an American. Technically, a foreign agent has no business influencing any Americans regarding any internal issues be they national or partisan.
As to the first issue, a few commenters asked for links to source material on this subject or argued with the assessment. One who asked for a source was told to "Look around on the news, it is everywhere that he is criticizing Hillary, AGAIN." (Let me remind you, this account is operating out of eastern Europe.) A few objected to the effort to sow discord within the party. One chap said the discussion was getting "too tribal" for him. A few, having heard Biden's remarks, said they did not interpret recent remarks as negative. Another veteran handful tried to argue that Hillary, in fact, has no intention of running again, to the chagrin of the character in charge of that page.
The overwhelming majority, however, went after Biden ruthlessly. (Think kids with tin cans at the end of "Suddenly Last Summer.")
On the second issue, there is much to be wary of. There is no reason why a foreign fan of Hillary's cannot say "we Hillary fans" or "we Hillary supporters." Lots of my friends are foreign nationals who like Hillary but do not refer to themselves as "we Democrats" or imply by omission that they are Americans. They do not say "We (emphasis mine) however have a candidate to vote for in 2020 and IT IS HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON." This character does that regularly leading friends to believe that they are interacting with an American who lives here and can vote. Untrue on both counts. This is a foreign agent.
Aside from the deception and subterfuge, which is despicable, there is the emotional impact a post like this inspires. The Facebook friends have faith that these comments 1)come from an American and 2)are true.
That troll stirred up a mighty reaction against Vice President Joe Biden today. Think about that. Digest it. It was an attack by a foreign agent on a former vice president of our nation who is now a private citizen not running for any office. Anything here sound familiar?
When no one but Hillary Clinton is an acceptable candidate, the clear objective of this troll account, there are a few imaginable ways, none of which I choose to entertain, to throw this country into chaos such as we have yet to see although we thought we had seen it all.
In the end, for me it is interesting, disconcerting, upsetting, disappointing, and depressing that smart, battle-tested veterans of campaigns take this bait. It is divisive and dangerous for Americans, for Democrats, for the party, and for future elections.
It imperils the nation when politically aware people cannot see that they are being played by a troll even when five full days after Election Day that character finally but vaguely refers to "the Blue Wave of the last few days," and no one catches on.
We know exactly when we saw that Blue Wave. We can pinpoint it. It was last Tuesday night and most of us were up late on social media posting and celebrating.
It did not take us until Sunday to know about it or to mention it. We whooped and hollered and drank all kinds of Chardonnay and other spirits. It did not take days. We knew right away that night. We exploded the social nets with it.
So what kind of comment is that? It is a troll comment from someone who had no idea that we were even having elections here.
Disinformation on this account has been called out in the past. The reaction is never to correct the original statement but rather to blow off the truth and then act hurt. Saying you "try to be as accurate as possible" doesn't cut it when you refuse to be accurate about who and where you are.
You don't like backstabbers? I don't like liars ... especially when they stab others in the back with lies.
Hillary always has a fascination with church ceilings.[/caption]
