Apparently, the Biden White House tried hard to find a Bond Supervillain to spend Thanksgiving with, but they just missed. They had to settle for a founding CEO of the Carlyle Group. By some kind of coincidence, Carlyle has been lobbying vigorously to shape the Build Back Better bill to its own liking.
The Carlyle Group is notorious for buying up mobile home parks, hiking rents and evicting residents https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks#:~:text=In%202013%2C%20the%20Carlyle%20Group,up%20the%20cost%20of%20living.
Presumably Biden would have his pick of Thanksgiving at any number of mobile home parks but, as Fortune reports “The White House confirmed Tuesday night that Biden and his family would spend the long weekend at Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein’s $30 million property. Rubenstein, who is worth $4.5 billion, will be traveling abroad and will not be at the dinner, according to his spokesperson.” Traveling abroad? I get the feeling that Rubenstein is feeling pretty sure of himself.
Meanwhile, Biden has pardoned two turkeys but not a single human being since taking office. https://consortiumnews.com/2021/11/24/john-kiriakou-on-pardoning-turkeys/
I am not the least bit surprised that he hasn’t issued any actual pardons yet. Have other Presidents by this point in their term? (Not counting Trump who just handed them out like candy to cronies. Normal Presidents who respect process have applications vetted by the Office of the Pardon Attorney.)
BTW, your diaries with URLs would be easier to read if you used the link function.
I share your dismay at Mr. Biden’s choice of associates and accommodations for his Thanksgiving holidays.
The Carlyle Group is far more infamous for its role as war profiteer and government corrupter. President George H. Bush was a senior advisor to the Carlyle Group while his son, as president, was awarding contracts that brought billions of secret and uncontested contracts to the organization. The late Colin Powell, so highly venerated at the time of his death, had close personal ties to the executives of the Carlyle Group. Former Secretary of State James Baker was a senior advisor to the fund.
At the time of the 9-11 attacks, the Bin Laden family liquidated its extensive investments in the Carlyle group in the presence of increased media scrutiny.
I’d say the notoriety of the Carlyle Group has far more to do with its long history of war profiteering and associated influence on national defense policy than whatever real estate speculation it might be involved in.
I don’t doubt that Al Capone stole some cigarettes during his murderous rampages. I would not describe such theft as the behavior that made Mr. Capone notorious.
No argument from me. Carlyle is a target rich environment.
You all know how I feel about former presidents cashing in on their celebrity after leaving office and how I wish, at the very least, Democratic presidents would be more like Jimmy Carter. While he is living a life of humble service and building houses for the poor, our most recent former Democratic president holds a star studded birthday bash at his multimillion vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard.
And now this, the current Democratic President living the high life on Nantucket at the multimillion vacation retreat of the Carlyle Group.
These are all unforced errors, grist for the mill at Fox News to prove that Democrats are hypocrites and out of touch with ordinary workers.
As much as it pains me, I agree that this is an unforced error.
If anything, it’s even worse than that. This is an egregious in-your-face statement that Mr. Biden doesn’t care even a tiny bit about the long record of horrific abuses and corruption of the Carlyle Group.
I’d like to invite Christopher to revisit his down-vote. There is just no defense for this choice.
Since I have a lot of faith that Biden’s heart is in the right place, I would like more context and nuance. For all I know this could be a personal relationship going back years and I do know the part about Thanksgiving on Nantucket goes back years for the Bidens. I understand this barely qualifies as research, but the Carlyle Group’s Wikipedia page did not have nearly as much information on controversy and criticism as I thought it might considering that a couple of you see them as the devil incarnate. I downrated yet another of JTM’s examples of scoring own goals in the service of class envy and I stand by it.
The history of the Carlyle Group is easily found, and the group’s Wikipedia page is among the least reliable of sources.
The role of the Bin Laden family can be inferred from this NYT piece reporting the exit of the Bin Laden family from the Carlyle Group (https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/business/bin-laden-family-liquidates-holdings-with-carlyle-group.html).
From that piece (emphasis mine):
A more detailed description of the intricate shell-game of Carlyle Group profiteering was published in 2004 (https://publicintegrity.org/national-security/investing-in-war/)
From that piece (emphasis mine):
The tawdry combination of a former President acting as senior “advisor” to a shady multinational hedge fund with deep ties to the Saudis while that President’s son is manufacturing lies to promote an illegal US invasion of Iraq — multiplying the value of the Bush family holdings exponentially — makes Hunter Biden’s behavior look like kids selling lemonade on a street corner.
There really is no way to defend this decision by Mr. Biden. It is a political disaster.
Then let’s see Biden defend it (though I’m not aware of his being asked about it). My red flags go up quickly when Bob Gardner latches onto something I haven’t seen reported elsewhere. I also thought the bin Ladens mentioned here were decidedly NOT supporters of Osama and possibly even estranged from him. You know I assume by now that mere “appearances” don’t impress me, so I am going to continue to withhold judgement for now. The Bushes do seem from the above to have a real conflict, but so far all it seems the Bidens did was have dinner and stay over.
“My red flags go up quickly when Bob Gardner latches onto something I haven’t seen reported elsewhere.”
Holy mackerel, Christopher. There were three links in my comment. You complained about them, remember?
Yes, you obviously found this somewhere, but as scandalous as you made it sound it seemed I wouldn’t be able to turn on the news without hearing about it and your diary was the first that I had.
Christopher, there is no doubt that the facts as reported by Bob are accurate. They are well-sourced, as is the history of the Carlyle Group.
Perhaps. It strikes me as tone-deaf.
Was there nowhere else to stay on Nantucket? It may not matter to you, but I fear it does reinforce a perception of elitism.
America’s First Family is among the country’s elite – details at 11! (In related news, I am “shocked” to discover that there is gambling going on in this establishment.)
An on-going insurrection threatens representative democracy itself.
ANYTHING that makes it harder for Democrats to preserve or expand our House and Senate majority is important.
We need to get every eligible voter who shares our values and priorities to the polls.
Many of those eligible voters are weary of seeing the elite sip wine in their luxurious seaside villas while they struggle to literally keep their children alive.
This is an unforced error. Your lack of concern epitomizes the same willful arrogance that might well devastate us a few short months from now.
What, exactly, does the Biden’s choice of hangout on Nantucket have to do with an insurrection? Surely you aren’t suggesting one stayover with a rich friend today and tomorrow democracy dies!
If the Insurrectionists take power in 2022, it’s game over.
The most effective way to expand the Democratic majority in the House and Senate is to motivate EVERY eligible voter who opposes the insurrection to turn out and vote in 2022 — in both primaries (in many cases) and in the general election in November.
I just spent five days with my five children, a spouse, and a partner — a total of seven eligible voters. They range in age from 25 to 37. Of those seven, five live and vote in MA while two live and vote in Chicago.
Five of the seven will vote in November. The two who vote in Chicago expressed profound disgust — verging on contempt — with the behavior of the currently elected Democrats. They will probably vote and vote Democratic in November — and I’m pretty sure they vote in a district that is already solidly blue.
The point I’m making is that all seven were absolutely repelled by Mr. Biden’s answer regarding the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. They view Mr. Biden and his administration as offering lip service to progressive Democrats — and not even that with regard to the verdict.
Their response to Mr. Biden’s Nantucket vacation was similar to yours — “What did you expect?”
None of the seven expressed any enthusiasm about 2022 whatsoever. One of the seven has written off the entire political system and refuses to participate at all. Another is registered but votes only infrequently — and has no interest in the 2022 election.
When the progressive Democratic base — and the seven I’m talking about are certainly part of the progressive Democratic base — can barely motivate themselves to vote, they’re not going energize any of their peers.
We Democrats LOST ground in the House in 2020 when we should have had a landslide.
When the leader of our party so clearly has nothing but contempt for a huge portion of the Democratic electorate, that leader does real damage to the party and the nation.
That’s what Joe Biden’s vacation plans have to do with the insurrection.
So let me get this straight – I don’t like some people Biden associates with (and I suspect most Americans don’t know about, or if they did it didn’t prevent W’s re-election and it sounds like he has closer ties) so I will either vote for the insurrectionist party and possibly the Insurrectionist-in-Chief himself or sit on my hands and sulk even with the stakes so high? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. If that isn’t enough motivation the abstainers shouldn’t complain. Biden was also right, I think, in how he handled the Rittenhouse verdict. It’s not the President’s job under separation of powers to second-guess a jury verdict though he did suggest he understood why some were frustrated. Our system is practically designed for government and politics to often be a frustrating slog, but the forces of good need to stay engaged anyway. Nothing good, and potentially plenty bad, comes from disengaging. Besides, if anything the current situation proves we need to elect MORE Dems to have a chance of moving in our preferred direction. I’m really tired of talking about motivation to vote and some days I’m tempted to support obligatory voting. IMO you vote because you are a citizen – period! I also just think that presidential vacations should be off-limits to tut-tutting (not legally of course – 1st amendment still applies).
Nobody should believe Biden when he says he cares about ordinary people.
My problem with the Nantucket Thanksgiving is not that it sends the wrong signal, but that it is a signal of who Biden really is, someone who does favors for rich people in return for putting his children into lucrative no-show jobs or even just putting him and his grasping relatives up for the night.
@bob-gardner & Christopher:
I wish I could disagree with Bob — and I can’t.
I don’t have the same hostility to Joe Biden that Bob expresses, but there really isn’t any valid criticism of his viewpoint.
This, in turn, is why I think Christopher’s approach is so misguided.
Messaging matters. These are crucial times for all of us, and Joe Biden and his team made a significant unforced blunder here.
While it is true that the usual suspects like MSNBC and CNN will ignore it, and the other usual suspects like FOX will mercilessly harp on it, the fact remains that the most important impact is a lost opportunity for millions of working-class and especially young voters.
It is true that today’s GOP is terrible and, I think, literally seditious.
Like it or not, and true or not, MILLIONS of Americans assert that the Democrats are no better. It isn’t that those Americans will vote for GOP candidates, the probably won’t.
Instead, it means that they just won’t vote at all. They’ll cite this tone-deaf vacation as one of many reasons (Mr. Biden’s comments about the Rittenhouse verdict being another) to not vote at all — “Why bother voting when it makes no difference at all?”
One of my children asked — near tears — what more anybody expects her to do. They and their partner already work long days at jobs they hate just to keep themselves alive. They’re both being creamed by student loans that they’re likely to have to resume payments on next January — and they’re both in their mid thirties. They said, to paraphrase:
This despair is what will replace representative democracy with tyranny sooner rather than later.
Joe Biden’s Nantucket vacation redoubles, rather than soothes, that despair.
We Democrats are absolutely ignoring the abject despair of tens of millions of Americans. That’s why we’re losing the civil war that is already being waged against us.
Every vote counts. You don’t need the time or money to be engaged at the level BMGers tend to be; you just have to vote. That said, your children appear to find themselves in situations very familiar and similar to me and obviously I’ve made engagement a priority. I really don’t know what to say to those who believe the objective falsehood that there is no difference between the parties. As Biden himself would say, “C’mon, Man!” You don’t have to be paying THAT close attention to know that both parties are not on the same page regarding something as obviously problematic as January 6th, let alone the ambitious agenda Dems are trying to push through. Yes, there are a couple of Dems who are making that difficult too, but the trick is to ADD to the Dem ranks to make those couple less relevant and powerful. Please explain to me how a single American would be better off had the Bidens opted for the local motel (or appropriate equivalent – truth is the Carlyle CEO residence is probably much easier for the Secret Service).
“truth is the Carlyle CEO residence is probably much easier for the Secret Service”
C’mon man! Chris, as they say, I think maybe you just have to hit bottom.
I’m waiting to hear how Nantucket is closer to where JFK Jr was last seen. Just for the record, I don’t buy that one either.
Where do you think the Bidens should stay which is both logistically practical and satisfies your desire for virtue signaling? I for one don’t like submitting First Family vacations to polls and would much rather reserve our critique for policies.
Heh. If I had been on their staff, I would have suggested the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport.
It’s familiar turf for the Secret Service and would have provided ample and positive media opportunities.
That would be a good move. I’d also suggest Camp David or any hotel in on of our National Parks. The Bluenose Inn at Arcadia National Park, maybe invite Senator Collins!
Camp David is of course reserved for the President, but I figured they would occasionally like a change of scenery. National Parks are nice and I’m all for that, but my concern was that a presidential stay would inconvenience the public which could also lead to negative press.
But, but, but – the Kennedys are by definition part of the elite (and you pointed out the less-than-reputable source of their fortune on this thread). I guess I was also assuming that the Nantucket part was locked in. Remember, this is reviving a family tradition for the Bidens that long predates his presidency.
I think enough time has passed and enough Camelot mythology has been propagated that the Hyannisport Kennedy compound is fine.
In my view, the national interest should take a higher priority than any family tradition. I certainly wasn’t impressed any of the “family tradition” arguments of the prior administration.
I don’t recall discussions of family traditions regarding the Trumps, and I’m not sure I agree that national interest or opinion should be considered regarding vacation. There was an episode of The West Wing wherein Bartlet was quite annoyed with his re-election campaign manager upon discovering the manager had conducted a poll about where the First Family should spend Thanksgiving. I very much sided with Bartlet who told his manager in no uncertain terms that such was off limits.
Who Biden really is should be judged on the policies he is proposing to help people, not whom he spends the night with.
That is a rather naïve perspective. Why did he “spend the night” with a wealthy member of the military industrial complex instead of being a “man of the people”?
Would public opinion of President Carter be the same today if he was hanging out with hedge fund managers instead of building homes for the homeless?
To the diehard Democrats, you are correct. It does not matter. They vote blue no matter who.
Diehard Democratic voters do not determine elections. If our candidate does not inspire them, even many diehards stay home on election day.
Swing voters, independents (yes a few exist) and an enthusiastic Democratic voter base determine elections. See:2016. Democrats ran a candidate who would not disclose the text of speeches given to Goldman Sachs in return for a “donation” of over a half million dollars. While that was not the sole reason for her loss, it was just one of many self imposed errors. They add up.
I’m sure that did not matter to you, but do Democrats have such a secure safety margin in the upcoming elections to risk losing any votes with unforced errors?
Because the two are not mutually exclusive. Yes, Carter gets great credit, as he should, for the choices he has made. That does not make different choices automatically bad.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/us-holds-oil-and-gas-lease-sale-in-gulf-of-mexico-after-cop26.html
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/03/1061150244/biden-administration-will-resume-remain-in-mexico-policy-for-asylum-seekers
To start with.
That’s better, though it appears in both cases his hand has been at least partially forced by the judicial branch (though I confess I don’t understand why the President doesn’t have more leeway to set his own policy – Trump seemed to do a lot of things that I thought would at least need Congress’s approval). I noticed neither article appeared to solicit comment from the WH.
“. For all I know this could be a personal relationship going back years . . . .”
That should make us all feel better.
NB. the career of the new Governor of Virginia. That should have been the main topic of the election. I thought before that McAuliffe couldn’t harp on that without seeming hypocritical (since he was a Carlyle investor). but now I think he should have made it an issue anyway, and let the empty suit hit back. It would have changed the focus of the campaign.
Biden would have served us much better by having his dinner at a mobile home park. Just as the Dem’s for the last four years should have been having Thanksgiving with people who were fighting displacement after Steve Mnuchin flipped their homes.
These mistakes and missed opportunities add up.
You don’t hit your opponent for things you well know you could be called on as well. The rest strikes me as empty virtue signaling.
But that’s the point. Republicans praise the wealthy class and brag about living in mansions on the coast. They call them “job creators” and give them tax breaks. A Republican having Thanksgiving at a posh vacation home with wealthy CEO’s fits the image their voters support.
When Democrats do it, it’s a little hard to support and smacks of hypocrisy,
What hypocrisy? I don’t see any do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do here. Being wealthy or hanging out with them does not automatically make you Marie Antoinette – just ask the Kennedys or FDR.
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.” FDR Please let me eat in your dining room–Joe Biden
The Kennedy’s and Roosevelts were born into wealth. I don’t hold that against them. Being wealthy does not preclude one from being an advocate for the working class, but being born into the working class and fawning over the wealthy class, doing all one can to join the wealthy class, does tarnish ones image of being an advocate for the working class.
Funny, I thought upward mobility was the lynchpin of the American dream.
Oh, it is…and Democrats have failed to deliver on that dream for the past fifty years. Looks like many of them have been too busy having a good time on the Vineyard and Nantucket.
Right, because THAT’s mutually exclusive! /s
The kind of upward mobility you describe is itself a lie. It has nothing positive to do with Joe Biden and today’s Democrats.
America trails the first world in upward mobility today.
Taking expensive favors from a corrupt war profiteer has NOTHING in common with FDR.
I’m not sure we trail the world on upward mobility. Last time I looked into it, we ranked at the #27 spot, behind much of Europe, Canada, and Australia. Still, #27 is nothing to be proud of.
But it’s still an asperation very much associated with this country. Even a working-class boy from Scranton can grow up to be President of the United States.
The Kennedy fortune was gathered by Joseph Kennedy during the prohibition era. The history of the Kennedy family is very different from the “Camelot” fantasy of the JFK era.
JFK is not an exemplar to be emulated.
I know where the fortune came from, but nonetheless the family has been cognizant of the challenges others face.
(Boy, do we have a lot of party poopers on this thread – just let the Biden’s enjoy their vacation for crying out loud!)