CHRIS CRUCIAL: The incredibly shrinking Joe Biden 🤏

PLUS: A Trump pardon? 🙃

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1. Joe Biden, Nowhere Man

On Sunday, following the Syrian rebel takeover of the country’s capital — and the news that President Bashar al-Assad had fled to Russia — Joe Biden spoke to the nation.

If you missed it, you can watch it here:

I caught a bit of the remarks. And it reminded me: I hadn’t thought of Joe Biden in weeks.

Why not? Well, he simply hasn’t been around much. It appears as though, in the wake of Kamala Harris’ election defeat, Biden has just sort of disappeared.

This POLITICO story, which ran this morning, captured that reality nicely:

Joe Biden is president of the United States for 42 more days. But within the Democratic Party, on Capitol Hill — and even within his own administration — it feels like he left the Oval Office weeks ago.

Biden has effectively disappeared from the radar in the wake of Democrats’ bruising electoral loss. Since Nov. 5, he’s largely stuck to prepared remarks, avoided unscripted public appearances or press questions and opted to sit out the raging debate over Donald Trump’s victory, policy conversations in Congress and the Democratic Party’s future.

“He’s been so cavalier and selfish about how he approaches the final weeks of the job,” said a former White House official.

Across nearly two weeks abroad since the election, Biden spoke just seven words to the media traveling with him. He has yet to schedule a post-election press conference, as Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did when they were on their way out of office. He went to the Rose Garden to publicly praise a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and spoke to the press Sunday about Bashar Al-Assad fleeing Syria, but otherwise his post-election domestic schedule has been filled with events such as honoring the 2024 NBA champions, thanking longtime supporters at a South Lawn dinner and participating in a Friendsgiving event.

I don’t know about allowing a source to call the president of the United States “selfish” and “cavalier” without his or her name attached to it but the rest of the story rang totally true to me.

Why has Biden shrunk so much in his final weeks in office (as of today, he has 6 weeks left as president)?

A few thoughts:

• Biden is 82 years old. And, as was made plain in the June 27 debate, he has some bad days. (And that is the kindest possible reading of his current mental and physical state.) Even during the campaign, his senior staff were working to shield him from any major gaffes or slip-ups — mental or physical. My guess is the desire to protect Biden in the final months of his presidency is guiding at least some of the decision-making in his inner circle.

• Biden is persona non grata among Democrats. As party strategists — and activists — have dug through the election entrails, a whole lot of blame has fallen on Biden for a) running at all for a 2nd term and b) staying in the race for as long as he did after the June 27 debate. I actually don’t think that’s entirely fair — I thought Harris was a mediocre candidate and deserves blame too — but that is the narrative that has taken hold among Democratic influencers. Add on top of that the political shit sandwich that Biden handed his party by pardoning his son, Hunter, and my guess is that there is very little interest from Democrats in having Biden in the news at all.

• Trump is everywhere. Trump, never one to fail to step into an available spotlight, has been acting like he is already president. He’s at the re-opening of Notre Dame hob-knobbing with Emanuel Macron! He’s having dinner with Justin Trudeau! He’s making tariff threats! The bigness of Trump makes Biden look smaller by comparison.

The Biden team appeared to react to the “where is he?” criticism on Monday.

In a memo from White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, he suggested that the administration would be acting on “climate to conservation to AI and more" in its final six weeks. “Let’s finish strong,” he told staff.

Maybe! Typically the final days of an administration are a flurry of activities and actions as they try to do everything they can before the other party takes over.

But there’s no question that Biden has been something close to a nonentity over the last few months.

2. A Trump Pardon?

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a longtime member of House Democratic leadership, said over the weekend that President Joe Biden should pardon President-elect Donald Trump before leaving office in January.

“He should pardon all of those people who have been accused and targeted so that we can clean the slate,” Clyburn told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, who asked him directly whether Biden should pardon Trump. “If we keep digging at things in the past, I’m not too sure the country will not lose its way.”

Biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for potential Trump administration targets — like former Rep. Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci among others. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported last week:

Biden’s aides are deeply concerned about a range of current and former officials who could find themselves facing inquiries and even indictments, a sense of alarm which has only accelerated since Trump last weekend announced the appointment of Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel has publicly vowed to pursue Trump’s critics.

The White House officials, however, are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket pardons to those who’ve committed no crimes, both because it could suggest impropriety, only fueling Trump’s criticisms, and because those offered preemptive pardons may reject them.

There does not appear to be any consideration in those discussions of pardoning Trump — although the idea has been kicking around in political circles for a while now.

Back in May, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney urged Biden to pardon Trump, for example.

“You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I’d have pardoned President Trump,” Romney told NBC News. “Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.”

Clyburn’s logic — with the election now over — appears to be along the lines of Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon as a way to move the country beyond Watergate. Of course, Nixon was out of office, not entering it as Trump is.

In that same interview with Capehart, Clyburn cast himself as an “insistent” voice urging Biden to pardon his own son, Hunter.

“You have an obligation to protect your son from what could become an eventuality if all of these people were to keep their promises,” said Clyburn.

That pardon decision caused a massive political reaction — and left many Democrats deeply dismayed.

3. Joni Ernst does Hegseth a solid

A week ago, Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense looked dead in the water. Today it got a MAJOR boost in the form of a kind-of, sort-of endorsement by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst.

Here it is:

To be clear: Ernst doesn’t say she will vote for Hegseth. But it sure sounds like she is moving in that direction — which is a HUGE step for Hegseth. Ernst, a military veteran and a sexual assault survivor, is widely regarded as the linchpin of the Hegseth nomination. If she is ok with his past — the sexual assault allegation, the drinking, saying women shouldn’t serve in combat roles — it gives a whole bunch of other senators the ability to be ok with it too.

On the heels of the Ernst statement, the chances of Hegseth being confirmed skyrocketed on Kalshi, the political betting market.

Before the Trump forces start patting themselves on the back, however, it’s worth noting that Hegseth still has more than a month before the actual confirmation hearings start — and longer than that until there is a vote.

During that time, his position could weaken considerably — whether simply from a re-airing of all the behavior issues we already know about or from new and damaging information coming to light.

But, for today, Hegseth is in the best position he has ever been to be confirmed.

4. The BIG takeaways from Donald Trump’s ‘MTP’ Interview

I went through the whole transcript of Trump’s interview Sunday on “Meet the Press” — his first major sitdown since he was elected president last month.

If you need a CliffsNotes version of what you missed in that interview, I’ve got one for you! I broke down the 7 big takeaways from the Trump chat on my YouTube channel today. Check it out — and join the more than 50,000(!) people who subscribe to it!

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“He’s a good looking guy. He looked really, very handsome last night. Some people look better in person? He looked great. He looked really nice, and I told him that.” — Donald Trump on Prince William

ONE GOOD CHART

As Donald Trump floats the idea of trying to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (again), it’s worth checking out this chart that shows the percentage of people without insurance in each state.

SONG OF THE DAY

Just before the election, my wife and I got invited to a concert by friends with impeccable musical taste. The band we saw was named Oliver Hazard. The show was amazing — and their new album is now out! It’s called “Raindrop River” and, trust me, you need to listen to it. My favorite song on the record is “Haunted.”

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