The USA 2020 situation: is Joe Bidens’ team too elitist?

It was one of Donald Trump’s greatest hits. Whenever he berated the “Washington elite”, the “bureaucrats” and the political establishment in the US capital during his election campaigns, he always received thunderous applause from his fans. Trump presented himself as the “outsider” who wanted to do away with Washington “insiders”.

Curiously, Trump himself was surrounded by a number of Washington insiders in his administration. But he didn’t like talking about it. He would have preferred, with great gestures, to bring into the government some people who, like him, had no idea of ​​politics in the capital. Just think of his son-in-law Jared Kushner or his daughter Ivanka.

Now Trump has been elected out of office, new President Joe Biden is putting his team together, and the Trump-disapproved Washington establishment is once again popular. Many of Biden’s new members of the government have had typical Washington careers. They are graduates of Ivy League universities like Princeton, Harvard or Yale and has served for many years in Congress, the State Department, or major groups of experts.

Prominent people like Biden’s future Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Finance Minister-designated Janet Yellen and her climate officer John Kerry can draw on many years of experience in Washington. They are well connected, have excellent knowledge of their areas of specialization and also think globally.

From Joe Biden’s point of view, recruiting has many advantages. People behave like him and they act like him. They are professionals in their political fields and do not need a long training. The fact that they are part of the political elite is not a problem for Biden. It works according to the motto: if I have my car repaired, I also go to an expert.

However, the question arises whether such a team constellation might also have drawbacks for Biden. Are Biden’s people too elitist?

There is no doubt that Trump’s anti-globalization populism, directed against the elites, continues to have an effect outside the country. Some Americans like to blame Washington and the pundits there for everything that has gone wrong in the country for decades. Anyone who has made a career in the much-cited Washington Beltway is considered by many Americans to be unaware of the problems of the average citizen.

This feeling will not simply fade with Trump’s departure on January 20. Republicans already see it as a success for the next election campaign.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio uses Twitter to set the anti-elite tone with sarcasm: “Biden’s cabinet members come from elite universities, have strong resumes, have all attended the right conferences. You will be polite and respectable pioneers of America’s decline. “

William Barr wants to save his reputation

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is also being let down by one of his most loyal water bearers. For the past few months, Attorney General William Barr has been eager to please his president. Whenever Trump got into trouble, Barr was ready to protect the boss, for example in the Russia affair. He was probably hoping to get a second term with Trump.

Now Barr has decided for himself that it is time to leave the sinking ship. He fled to the side of right Republicans and announced that his investigators had so far found no evidence of widespread election fraud in the US elections. For Trump, who certainly had high hopes in Barr’s investigation, this is another big setback.

Barr is a trained opportunist and knows the signs of the times. Apparently someone here is trying to salvage his reputation as a lawyer, or rather what’s left of it after nearly two years in Trump’s service.

After the election campaign is before the election campaign

As you know, the runoff for the two Senate vacancies in the state of Georgia on January 5 is very long: the party that wins both seats will also gain control of the Senate in Washington. The Republicans seemed so far in a better position to win the issue. But slowly but surely it gets complicated.

This is mainly due to Donald Trump:

• The current president has a real mud fight with his own party leaders in the state.

• Since Joe Biden narrowly won the state, Trump continues stubbornly to argue that the elections in Georgia were rigged.

• Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Interior Minister Brad Raffensperger dismiss him with growing indignation. They fear that Trump’s accusations could lead to uncertainty among supporters of their party and therefore to abstention from the Senate vote.

• Trump is now planning at least one big concert in front of his most loyal fans over the weekend in Georgia.

The president wants to campaign for the two Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. Governor Kemp and Interior Minister Raffensperger will likely not be present.

Speaking of Trump: The president of the United States continues to make his waves somehow every day, but you can feel how he is slowly moving in the background. Now he is truly a “Lame Duck”. There is less and less coverage of Trump and more and more of Joe Biden’s team every day in many of the major media outlets. Trump is fading.

The attacks on the electoral system, its eternal denial of reality after the elections seem to be worth it for Trump. The New York Times estimates that Trump has raised a whopping $ 170 million in donations from his most loyal fans since election day.

Trump’s reduced campaign team continues to bombard the president’s supporters almost every day with emails urging them to skip a few dollars to fight “election fraud.”

Many Trump fans actually seem to obey these calls. According to the newspaper’s report, Trump can amass 75% of these millions in donations for his own political plans. This then has nothing to do with the fight against alleged electoral fraud.

This is obviously a nice extra payoff for Trump – it would be conceivable, for example, that he would use the millions after his official exit on January 20 to fund a staff of employees preparing his possible renewed candidacy in 2024. use it to cover your travel expenses. He just has to give 25 percent of the money to the Republican office.

What’s happening on social media?

The TV appearances and social media posts of Trump’s loyal supporters are getting crazier by the day. One of the Trump team’s attorneys, Joe diGenova, has since become a trending topic on Twitter because he called for the execution of former government employee Christopher Krebs in an interview.

Krebs’ crime in the eyes of attorney Trump: he dared to reject Trump’s lies about alleged electoral fraud. The “idiotic” cancer should be quartered, DiGenova asked. Or better yet: “He should be dragged out and shot at dawn.”

DiGenova apologized later with itwho had “obviously” made a “joke” in exuberance. “I wish Herr Krebs had no problems.”

Our US Stories of the Week

I would like to recommend these two stories from our US team over the past few days:

I wish you a good week!

With regard,

your

Roland Nelles