The Outsider Perspective Issue 446 | The Beltway Outsiders

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Good Friday Morning! Except to the White House journalists tasked with trying to prove to the public that the stories they are reporting are true. Aside from the insanity of the Musk-Trump drama, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was in town this week, and Trump had a moment with him.

AP reporter Seung Min Kim tweeted: “Merz references D-Day (anniversary is June 6), and Trump remarks to the German chancellor: ‘That was not a pleasant day for you'” Ladies and gentlemen, the Troll in Chief.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Speaking of more things you can’t make up, Karine Jean-Pierre is releasing a book about her time in the White House, and Biden-world is livid. I’ll dig into that and more – links to follow.

ALSO: Special shout-out this week to Anastasios Kamoutsas the next Education Commissioner of Florida! Stasi is going to be great in that role, I know it because we were in the same law school class. Congrats to him and Florida!

Quick Hits:

Trump vs Musk explodes everywhere. Two things were predictable about this entire thing: 1) Trump and Musk becoming friends after the campaign, and 2) them falling out dramatically. And given what we’ve witnessed about Trump in the past, that makes the next thing predictable, too: Trump and Musk will likely join forces on some project and be friends again. Mark Halperin had an even-handed take on this, discussing his own experiences being on both Trump’s good and bad sides. I’m just enjoying the jokes and memes while waiting for the next inevitable chapter to start.
Supreme Court rules 9-0 for a straight woman who claims she was discriminated against. The press covers this as the “reverse discrimination” case, but the actual case essentially rejects the notion of reverse discrimination, arguing that there is no such thing as reverse discrimination; instead, it’s simply discrimination, and no one should do that. Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson wrote the court’s opinion. The decision drove the legal left to the brink of insanity, with Elie Mystal saying he was going to walk into the ocean.
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Where you can find me this week

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Trump Should Declare Palestinian Groups As Terrorist Organizations – Conservative Institute

China Busted Taking Over U.S. Education System – Conservative Institute

Democrat’s Bizarre Racism On Immigration Exposed – Conservative Institute

Biden’s Staffers Start To Break Ranks

There are aspects of politics that I don’t fully understand. For instance, I don’t understand anyone who chooses Pete Buttigieg as their favorite Democrat in 2028 (or did the same in 2020). I’m not sure why Vivek Ramaswamy is popular. And I don’t understand who is waiting to pick up a copy of Karin Jean-Pierre’s book on her time as White House Press Secretary.

In case you’ve missed it, she’s no longer a Democrat; she’s an independent, and the title of her White House memoir is: “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.”

I don’t know any Republicans or right-wingers who will read this, which is a stark contrast to the “Original Sin” book. Conversely, I don’t know any Democrat who will read it, either. And judging by the hilarious reaction from Biden staffers, who are livid, my response is correct.

Both Politico and Alex Thompson at Axios have lengthy pieces quoting White House staffers coming out of the woodwork to describe how much they dislike KJP. Alex Thompson drops this nugget:

Despite longstanding internal frustration with Jean-Pierre’s performance since she took over as press secretary in mid-2022, Biden aides largely had stayed silent because she was seen as untouchable, given her close relationship with Jill Biden’s top aide Anthony Bernal. During Biden’s presidency, Bernal had a hand in hiring many White House aides who were prioritized for their loyalty.

Bernal is one of the inner circle of the Biden “Politburo” who helped keep his decline a secret. Interestingly, and I went back to check, KJP only gets two mentions in “Original Sin.” If you have the book, check the index. That’s it.

It’s wild that the press secretary who helped launder the worst of Biden’s decline only gets two mentions in a book where Thompson and Tapper blasted Bernal and others for Biden’s decline. Now, KJP has come out with her own book.

Also bizarrely, KJP had her own publicist, who was on White House emails, to help her better publicize and position herself. Thompson was furious about this because he had inquired about it, and both the White House and the publicist had lied about her involvement.

KJP’s book tactic is to do two things: call the White House broken, but defend Biden and say Democrats should have stuck with him. In other words, she’s throwing everyone else under the bus except Biden.

Hence why, Biden’s staffers are exploding over this; they take the fall while KJP takes a cash crab. That’s not my words, by the way, it’s theirs:

“Everyone thinks this is a grift,” the first former official said of Jean-Pierre’s book project.

While a number of former colleagues kept their comments private, Jeremy Edwards, who served in the press shop under Jean-Pierre, posted a succinct response to her book project on X: “lol.”

One Democratic operative who worked with Jean-Pierre prior to her White House tenure called the sudden turnabout “the most grift-y thing I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying something in Washington.”

“SHE was the public face telling us all that this White House was on track and that Biden was amazing. And now she doesn’t even want to be a Democrat????“ one of the former Biden White House officials said via text. “She’s making herself the middle ground here when Republicans hate her. She’s not in any position to be a connector of our two party system and assuming she could be is just ego.”

Thompson had a Democrat tell him this: “The hubris of thinking you can position yourself as an outsider when you not only have enjoyed the perks of extreme proximity to power — which … bestows the name recognition needed to sell books off your name — but have actively wielded it from the biggest pulpit there is, is as breathtaking as it is desperate … It’s difficult to see how this is anything but a bizarre cash grab.“

I’m trying to think of a place where she could theoretically land, and I’ve got nothing. MSNBC’s experiment with Jen Psaki has flamed out spectacularly. KJP isn’t interesting enough to warrant a podcast or commentary landscape. And she’s not going to land on some of these shows like “The View.”

However, aside from all of that, Karine Jean-Pierre’s decision to distance herself from the Democratic Party rather than the Biden family is an interesting choice. It tells you even among Democrats, the party brand is tarnished. Her choice to burn bridges with that party likely ends her political career.

So it’s interesting from a career-ending perspective. However, in terms of uncovering the truth, everyone watched her cover up for Biden during the worst two years of his presidency. I didn’t believe Psaki’s excuses, but she could at least hide behind the fact that she was there for the first half of the administration.

Who is next to grab cash from the Biden Administration? KJP was smart enough to get out earlier. The clock is ticking on everyone else trying to save their careers.

But if you want the real money in that group, you’re going to have to tell the truth. Otherwise, you’ll get tossed to the side like KJP’s book.

Links of the week

Elon Musk tweets about impeachment, President Vance, and Trump fires back – DailyMail

Dem Rep claims we need immigrants to wipe our backsides – Vermont Daily Chronicle

Why can’t Piers Morgan handle the truth about Israel? – The Spectator

How the Media Manufactured a ‘Genocide’: A data-driven investigation into the way coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza surpasses actual genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, and beyond – Tablet Magazine

Boulder and the Gaza Mind-Virus – Commentary

Friends With Benefits: Stacey Abrams Funneled $20 Million to Her Lawyer – RealClearInvestigations

‘Apparently, We Are at the Behest of the SPLC,’ FBI Staffer Wrote in Response to Anti-Catholic Memo – The Daily Signal

Why Navy ships should not be named for gay rights icon – Fox News

The Washington Post is planning to let amateur writers submit columns — with the help of AI – The Verge

Net Zero Is a Net Loser for Democrats: Time to face the facts. – Liberal Patriot