Why Are They Swooning Over Scott Bessent? Iran Update. Dems Furious at Doc Jill. Spooks Lose Track of Millions in Gold Bars. Worthy: California Spends Millions to Teach Indians How to Light Fires. More
Well, it’s certainly innovative—sending Cabinet members to sub for the Press Secretary, who’s on maternity leave. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest to take his turn at the lectern. And wow! A star is born:
Scott Bessent – GAH-RRROOOWWWLLLLLLLL! …
Holy smokes, for a cabinet stuffed to the gills with oversized intellects and booming characters, it really takes a blazing comet-like personality to consistently rise above such a stellar crew, but two guys do it effortlessly. One is obviously the masterful global Jack-of-All-Trades, our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
His polar opposite in personality, yet always a center-stage kind of guy the second he opens his mouth, is the utterly urbane, completely unruffled, and smooth-as-silk Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent.
Nothing fazes the man, and he is so delightful that having a chance to watch him in action is a real treat.
That’s Beege Welborn of Hot Air, whose headline, shortly after Bessent’s stellar performance, was “It Was Scott Bessent’s Turn Behind the Press Podium and Oh, My.” Townhall’s Matt Vespa was similarly impressed. His headline was more hardcore: “Treasury Secretary Bessent Just Humiliated the Washington Post and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the Same Time.” Bessent addressed the question that has the MSM most riled: Will President Trump’s face be on a $250 bill?
What other administration would—or could—draft members of the Cabinet to fill in for the absent Press Secretary? Try to imagine then Vice President Kamala Harris stepping in for the perpetually petulant Karine Jean Pierre. No can do.
The word yesterday was that “something feels different” about the latest announcement that the U.S. and Iran have reached a deal. The Washington Post reports that a deal has been reached but still needs President Trump’s signature. It is a provisional agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and extend the ceasefire while negotiations continue. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen warns, “Trump has devastated Iran’s regime. Don’t give it a lifeline now.” An editorial in the Wall Street Journal says it’s “risky to end the U.S. blockade without getting the enriched uranium.”
According to the liberal Politico, Dems are furious that the Bidens won’t go away and ask, “Why are we talking about” Jill Biden’s claim that she thought Joe was having a stroke during the presidential debate. Jill is dredging up the whole cognitive cover-up thing. Meanwhile, Babylon Bee has a mischievous take on the Doc’s revelations:
Jill Biden Explains She Thought Joe Had a Stroke During Debate, Which Is Why She Left Him Up There to Die
Jill Biden isn’t the only thing that blew up this week. A Blue Origin rocket exploded on the launchpad. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has the wherewithal, both financial and gumption-wise, to roll with the punches. More on the explosion.
And the Biden coverup wasn’t the only coverup shredded:
Ex-CIA officer David Rush’s alleged years-long scheme that netted him $40 million in gold bars and a top-secret security clearance has those in the Clandestine Service community questioning how he slipped through the fastidious vetting process — and who else may be flying under the radar.
The Examiner’s Byron York writes about what he calls “the CIA’s insane bold bar scandal.” Apparently, the spooks never uncovered blatant falsehoods on David Rush’s resume. At one point, Rush asked for millions in gold bars for “work-related expenses”:
And the CIA gave it to him! Officials began handing Rush money and gold. Only later did someone begin to wonder what was going on. The CIA then searched a storage space in Rush’s office but found “only a portion of the currency” that he had been given. Government officials were “unable to locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the foreign currency Rush received pursuant to his requests or to identify the intended use of these funds,” the affidavit said.
At that point, it appears that light bulbs finally started going off at the CIA. …
Can you believe that next Tuesday is the Los Angeles Mayor’s race? Caitlin Flanagan has an interesting piece at The Free Press headlined “Pratt Daddy’s Revenge.” “Pratt Daddy” is the name of candidate Spencer Pratt’s online business. Flanagan writes:
Pratt Daddy’s candidacy is motivated by a singular and purifying anger—more of a hatred, really—all of it directed at the incumbent, Karen Bass. He holds her directly responsible for the burning of his and his parents’ houses in the Pacific Palisades. Unseating her is his intention. The primary election is next week, and the top two candidates will advance to the general election in November (if one of them gets more than that 50 percent of the vote in the primary, he or she becomes mayor, a scenario that is impossible to imagine. Bass and Pratt are expected to run against each other in the general. I assume he won’t win, but I never thought Richard Hatch would win the first season of Survivor.
“Purifying anger”—aka righteous indignation—is, in my book, an excellent reason for running. Perhaps it’s that “purifying anger” that opened Pratt’s eyes to the idea that the Los Angeles homeless problem is really a drug problem. Governor Gavin Newsom has endorsed Karen Bass. It’ll be interesting to see if LA voters go for the establishment or are willing to try something new. Michael Barone has a piece headlined “The California dream ends in empty reservoirs and homeless tents.” Barone recalls a glowing article he once wrote on the Golden State:
No one would write such an article about California today, except maybe in a humor magazine. The public sector that helped make California the nation’s most populous state in 1963 is today producing a dystopia that has tens of thousands more people leaving than arriving in the once promised land of California every year.
California today “has the nation’s highest cost-of-living adjusted poverty rate, the highest levels of functioning illiteracy, and the worst housing affordability in the continental US,” writes Joel Kotkin, who has been chronicling California’s highs and lows for more than 40 years. “California increasingly resembles a neo-feudal state, where a handful of large companies drive the economy while the vast majority of workers endure high energy and housing costs, high taxes, and diminishing opportunity.”
Golden State government has spawned fiascos large and small. Fraudulent Medicaid spending, which made headlines in Minnesota this winter, seems likely to be even more monumental in California, whose Medicaid programs are scheduled to get $138 billion from the federal government, up $18 billion from 2024. The state subsidizes tribal ceremonies and exorcisms, gym memberships and art lessons.
What with spooks who can’t keep track of millions in gold bars and exploding rockets, we’ve had some surprises this morning. What could be next? How about “California Teaches Native Americans How to Light a Fire,” in City Journal:
California Governor Gavin Newsom has allocated millions of dollars to a program that funds Native American “food sovereignty,” owl counting, and “cultural burns,” in which tribal groups use traditional fire techniques to clear brush from the landscape and preserve their “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives.”
Since 2023, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, has awarded $24 million to tribal groups and other nonprofits as part of its “Tribal Wildfire Resilience” program. The man effectively overseeing the program, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, believes that California was founded on a “state-sanctioned policy of genocide” and that the state has pursued “decades of land dispossession, discrimination, and disconnection.” The Newsom administration, he said, was making progress in returning the land to the “leadership of California Native American tribes.”
Could we say this is dumber than carrying coals to Newcastle?
It’s about Time. CBS honcho and Free Press founder Bari Weiss is at last overhauling “60 Minutes,” including installing a new Executive Producer. This is good news. The elderly show badly needs a facelift. … Okay, the story is behind the paywall, but I can’t resist the headline: “The Bulwark’s Tim Miller and James Talarico Discuss God’s Genitalia, and Dems Wonder Why They Lose Texas.” Mr. Talarico is the Texas Democratic nominee for the Senate. TGIF.
