Kabuki

In Politico yesterday,

White House officials plotting the administration’s post-Roe response are weighing a narrow public health directive aimed at safeguarding nationwide access to abortion pills, three people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.

The Biden team has zeroed in on that authority in recent days. They consider it the most feasible of the White House’s limited options for protecting abortion rights, and have concluded that it could have the most immediate on-the-ground impact while also quelling Democrats’ demands for stronger action.

In addition to trying to circumvent the Dobbs decision with an abortion public health emergency, there's also been an idea of circumventing Sen Manchin's rejection of the Green New Deal by declaring a climate emergency:

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that President Biden won’t declare a climate emergency this week, but that doesn’t mean he won’t do it eventually.

“He’s going to take, as I said, additional climate actions in that vein tomorrow, and he’s going to continue — he’s not going to just stop with the actions of tomorrow, but I would not plan [an] announcement this week on [a] national climate emergency,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a press briefing.

“Everything’s on the table. It’s just not going to be this week on that decision,” she added.

But here's the problem:

Sometimes, the media presses and asks some good questions. They did that on Tuesday, asking why wasn’t there anything on Joe Biden’s public schedule for the past two days. The scramble from first, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby and then, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, to try to cover for Biden was something to behold.

Co-Press Secretary John Kirby says Biden has been “quite busy” the past few days despite having ZERO public events on his schedule. pic.twitter.com/2VlGtHlDU0

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2022

Kirby claimed that just because there weren’t things listed on the public schedule didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of work going on. Then he passed the buck to explain things to Jean-Pierre. That didn’t go any better.

“What, exactly, has he been doing yesterday and today?” a reporter asked.

. . . “So, he’s been in meetings,” Jean-Pierre claimed, blinking furiously and not looking directly at the reporters. “I was scheduled to meet with him today,” she said, saying he was meeting with senior staff. She also said that they may have seen him briefly with Jill Biden and the First Lady of Ukraine. “He’s been very busy dealing with the issues of the American people and meeting with his staff, senior staff,” she argued.

Nevertheless, there ain't gonna be a climate emergency this week. And if "Dr" Jill is right, he's just so busy he can't seem to get around to either Dobbs or the climate:

“[The President] had so many hopes and plans for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to address the problems of the moment,” the First Lady reportedly told about two dozen people at a private home.

Jill Biden referenced gun violence, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade and opposition to signature legislation within his own party as examples of unforeseen obstacles her husband has contended with.

“He’s just had so many things thrown his way,” she reportedly said. “Who would have ever thought about what happened [with the Supreme Court overturning] Roe v. Wade? Well, maybe we saw it coming, but still we didn’t believe it. The gun violence in this country is absolutely appalling. We didn’t see the war in Ukraine coming.”

In other words, things like Dobbs and Build Back Better going south have made the big guy so busy he can't even deal with Dobbs and Build Back Better going south. I think this actually gives Hunter, the First Crackhead, a certain level of gravitas now that he's been quoted as calling his stepmom a "selfish, silly, entitled [moron]" (more ior less). But it's not just Dr Jill who's selfish, silly, and entitled. It sounds like it applies to the whole family.

They're all coasting. So, of course, is Speaker Pelosi.