The Dark Brandon Mug

Yesterday, Joe Biden pitched 2024 campaign merch based on a Dark Brandon theme, a mug showing a portrait of himself with eyes gleaming a demonic red. Fox News gives the context:

President Joe Biden advertised a mug for his reelection campaign Thursday by sharing a video appearing to drink a cup of coffee emblazoned with his "Dark Brandon" persona.

President Joe Biden tweeted, "A cup of Joe never tasted better," along with a video of himself appearing to drink a cup of coffee from a mug showing his face with glowing laser eyes. He declared in the video, "I like my coffee dark."

The story continued with reaction:

"The ‘great unifier’ is back with a Dark Brandon flex just hours after indicting his main political rival AGAIN," Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, tweeted. "When tyrants speak, BELIEVE THEM."

Podcaster Tim Pool wrote, "[I’m] glad they embrace the ‘biden is evil’ memes."

I've been looking at Biden's character here now and then, and I think this move is completely consistent with what I've seen so far. What struck me over the past week, between Hunter's plea deal falling through at least for the time being, followed by Devon Archer's testimony, which mostly just corroborates and adds weight to the extensive existing record, is that neither Joe himself nor the White House has had any specific statement about either development.

The problem for Joe is that he's been on the record repeatedly saying he never discussed overseas business with his family.

"First of all, I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period," Biden said in August 2019.

. . . "I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings," Biden told Fox News' Peter Doocy in September 2019.

During a September 2020 presidential debate with then-President Trump, Biden repeatedly said, "None of that is true" when Trump invoked several foreign transactions regarding Hunter's international business dealings. Biden further said it was "totally discredited."

Even in the face of incressing evidence that Joe was in fact involved in Hunter's business dealings, the White House has continued to deny it, while Joe has simply stayed away from the discussion:

"It's not an unreasonable question to ask if United States was involved - as this message seems to suggest in some sort coercive conversation about business dealings with his son - if he wasn't, then maybe you should tell us," a reporter said after the WhatsApp messages surfaced.

"I just answered this question by telling you my colleagues at the White House counsel have dealt with this, and I would refer you to them," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

At another recent White House briefing a reporter asked, "Does this not undermine the president's claim during the 2020 campaign and the reaffirmations of that claim by his two press secretaries since then that he never once discussed his son's overseas business dealings with him?"

"No, and I'm not going to comment further on this," the White House spokesperson responded. "Let me save you some breath if you're going to ask about this: I am not going to address this issue from this podium," he said before storming out of the press briefing.

The people at the White House press office must certainly be aware of Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler's futile attempts to deal with equivalent revelations:

“The other statements that were made were based on information that was provided prior to these events, which have been referred to in the President’s statement today [yesterday]. Therefore any comment which was made up until today, or previously, was based on that activity. This is the operative statement.

“The way to assess the previous comments is to assess it on the basis that they were made on the information available at that time. The President refers to the fact that there is new material. Therefore this is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.”

According to the source, Ziegler made these statements, which originated the "inoperative statement" neologism, on April 18, 1973. Nixon didn't resign until August 8, 1974, but the "inoperative" statements were a key turning point in the whole Watergate narrative. My guess is that Joe's press office is acutely aware of how any equivalent admission will play out and is doing all it can to avoid it.

The problem is that we have to add Joe's character to the mix. Nixon's neuroticism, his highly visible traits of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt, made him far from Joe Biden's traits of bombast and bluster. Where Nixon, if by facial expression and body language if nothing else, always exhibited uncertainty, Biden will never acknowledge any sort of error or miscalculation. If necessary, and this is part of his routine, he'll feign senility to avoid any sort of detailed explanations.

But in addition, I keep referring here to Biden's view of himself as a skilled Machiavellian manipulator, operating in a behind-the-scenes dimension of Realpolitik beyond conventional expectations. In his view, unlike Ziegler channeling Nixon, there's no need for him to retract, justify, explain, or apologize for anything in however contorted a way. He's simply going to retreat to his beach house and continue to manipulate the levers of power. What's anyone going to do about it? He's the most powerful man in the world.

And as I've kept noting here, the smirk is part of his repertoire as well as his feigned senility. The difficuty I see at this point is the demon eyes on the coffee mug. The whole mug pitch in effect says he isn't going to make Nixon's mistake, to have the basic decency to know when he's lost the game and resign. He's just gonna keep on keeping on like -- er, like some kind of demon. I like my coffee dark.

I've already asked here if Hunter is Joe's main advisor. This whole pitch seems like it was thought up by some guy on crack. According to this story, "The mugs have been for sale on Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign website since he announced his run for reelection in April." We don't know, for that matter, when Joe made the video. The problem is that in the current context, it's coming off as reckless and hamartic. Well, Hunter seems to have left the White House. Maybe he left this behind.