Latest news with #OfficeofPresidentialCorrespondence
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion - Fake news: No, Joe Biden was not in decline
I have worked in the arena. As a White House intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence, an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and a veteran of campaigns at every level, I have had the chance to see how government really works — behind the speeches and the soundbites. I have seen former President Joe Biden — not resembling the caricature in these new political tell-alls that people keep publishing, but as a man committed to serving others, listening when it's hardest and leading when others duck responsibility. That's why it is disheartening to see the growing shelf of books peddling the idea of a president in decline. Each new volume seems less concerned with truth and more invested in narrative — a cheaply packaged tale of malarkey for the cable news set and the Beltway cocktail circuit. These books offer little that is new, but much that is convenient for those looking to profit from pessimism. They rely on anonymous sources, innuendo, and a tired playbook. They question the man's faculties, reframe routine deliberation as dysfunction, and ignore inconvenient facts that contradict the thesis. There is clearly a market for these portrayals — just not among those who actually take the time to govern. The audience is a self-satisfied chorus of the 'permanent, professional chattering class,' as Naomi Biden rightly put it. They rarely step into the arena but make a living from narrating its battles. And they seem far more comfortable speculating about the president's gait than engaging with the gravity of his work. There is a deeper cynicism at work here — one that goes beyond politics. These books reflect a broader contempt for the idea that decency can still exist in public life. To the authors and pundits profiting off these narratives, it's unthinkable that someone would choose service over self-promotion, empathy over ego, or duty over drama. So they invent a version of Biden that makes more sense to them: a man propped up by aides, out of touch, fading. It is an easier story to sell, even if it is not true. I have seen people moved to tears by a letter from the president — a letter sent not as a press stunt but in the quiet aftermath of grief, of hardship or of triumph. I have worked alongside staff who saw firsthand the care Biden gives to decisions most will never hear about, the hours spent preparing for moments the public will only ever see for thirty seconds. That is not decline. That is the burden of leadership. There are legitimate policy debates to be had, and we should have them. But we should reject the idea that personality assassination, wrapped in the language of reportage, is public service. What these books trade in is not journalism — it's performance. It absolves the powerful of real analysis and distracts from urgent problems with recycled gossip. If you must focus on one halting debate performance, talk also about the electric midnight rally that came afterward. History sorts signal from noise. The books that matter will not be the ones written to chase a news cycle—they will be written to explain a presidency that helped guide a battered nation through recovery, war, and democratic peril. When they include the metrics we can see even now, that see indicators for everything from manufacturing investment to institutional strength skyrocket with President Biden, the truth will be unavoidable. Joe Biden is not perfect. But he is a good man. And sometimes that alone is what people cannot abide—the idea that integrity might actually persist in someone they've decided to mock. That decency might be real. I didn't come to that conclusion because I was told to. I came to it because I saw it. And no amount of anonymous sourcing will convince me to unsee it now. Charles Horowitz is a former White House intern and delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Fake news: No, Joe Biden was not in decline
I have worked in the arena. As a White House intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence, an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and a veteran of campaigns at every level, I have had the chance to see how government really works — behind the speeches and the soundbites. I have seen former President Joe Biden — not resembling the caricature in these new political tell-alls that people keep publishing, but as a man committed to serving others, listening when it's hardest and leading when others duck responsibility. That's why it is disheartening to see the growing shelf of books peddling the idea of a president in decline. Each new volume seems less concerned with truth and more invested in narrative — a cheaply packaged tale of malarkey for the cable news set and the Beltway cocktail circuit. These books offer little that is new, but much that is convenient for those looking to profit from pessimism. They rely on anonymous sources, innuendo, and a tired playbook. They question the man's faculties, reframe routine deliberation as dysfunction, and ignore inconvenient facts that contradict the thesis. There is clearly a market for these portrayals — just not among those who actually take the time to govern. The audience is a self-satisfied chorus of the 'permanent, professional chattering class,' as Naomi Biden rightly put it. They rarely step into the arena but make a living from narrating its battles. And they seem far more comfortable speculating about the president's gait than engaging with the gravity of his work. There is a deeper cynicism at work here — one that goes beyond politics. These books reflect a broader contempt for the idea that decency can still exist in public life. To the authors and pundits profiting off these narratives, it's unthinkable that someone would choose service over self-promotion, empathy over ego, or duty over drama. So they invent a version of Biden that makes more sense to them: a man propped up by aides, out of touch, fading. It is an easier story to sell, even if it is not true. I have seen people moved to tears by a letter from the president — a letter sent not as a press stunt but in the quiet aftermath of grief, of hardship or of triumph. I have worked alongside staff who saw firsthand the care Biden gives to decisions most will never hear about, the hours spent preparing for moments the public will only ever see for thirty seconds. That is not decline. That is the burden of leadership. There are legitimate policy debates to be had, and we should have them. But we should reject the idea that personality assassination, wrapped in the language of reportage, is public service. What these books trade in is not journalism — it's performance. It absolves the powerful of real analysis and distracts from urgent problems with recycled gossip. If you must focus on one halting debate performance, talk also about the electric midnight rally that came afterward. History sorts signal from noise. The books that matter will not be the ones written to chase a news cycle—they will be written to explain a presidency that helped guide a battered nation through recovery, war, and democratic peril. When they include the metrics we can see even now, that see indicators for everything from manufacturing investment to institutional strength skyrocket with President Biden, the truth will be unavoidable. Joe Biden is not perfect. But he is a good man. And sometimes that alone is what people cannot abide—the idea that integrity might actually persist in someone they've decided to mock. That decency might be real. I didn't come to that conclusion because I was told to. I came to it because I saw it. And no amount of anonymous sourcing will convince me to unsee it now. Charles Horowitz is a former White House intern and delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump has removed one thing from the Oval Office that has been there for 50 years. But why?
For over half a century, one thing was a constant in the Oval Office: the Swedish ivy plant above the fireplace - until now, that is. As the second Trump administration moved in, the plant was replaced by a range of golden objects. The ivy had seen a host of visitors since it was first perched atop the Oval Office's mantel including Nelson Mandela, Pope John II, Margaret Thatcher and Whitney Houston, The Washington Post noted. During the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, the ivy was bushy before being cut down during the reign of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. It appears in Bill Clinton's presidential portrait. When the second George Bush arrived, it was split into three shrubs. It grew into a wider, hedge-like plant during the presidency of Barack Obama, who briefly changed it out for a different kind of ivy before it was cut into two smaller plants during Trump's first term. During President Joe Biden's time in the White House, the ivy once again grew bushier. While it was still there when Trump returned to office in January, it was gone by last month. Numerous people have descendants of the ivy in their homes, The Post noted. Clippings have been handed to White House staff when they leave their posts, and they have, in turn, given parts of the plants to friends and family. Rico Gardaphe worked in the Office of Presidential Correspondence during the Obama administration. He told the paper that his Brooklyn home is 'overrun' by the ivy. 'I kept a spreadsheet of all the people I've ever worked with,' he said. 'It's been my goal to get every one of them a clipping.' 'It was at the very bottom of things that I decided to get upset about,' he said regarding the ivy's February disappearance from the Oval Office. On March 8, Mother Jones reported in a headline that 'The Country's Most Famous Houseplant Is Missing.' At a reception in Dublin, Ireland, in 2000, Clinton told the attendees: 'In the Oval Office of the president, on the mantel, there is a beautiful ivy plant which has been there for almost 40 years now. It was given to President Kennedy by the then-Irish ambassador to the United States as an enduring sign of the affection between our two people.' However, the story may not be true, The Post noted, as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library told the paper, 'Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find evidence of the plant's origins.' Kennedy scholar Barbara Ann Perry told the paper the oldest photo she has been able to find of the plant in the Oval Office is from the Ford White House. 'It does not make sense, does it? For an Irish ambassador to give Swedish ivy,' said Perry. 'I mean, it's still possible that the Swedish ambassador gave President Kennedy this gift.' However, the plant, Plectranthus verticillatus, comes from South Africa and is in the same family of plants as mint and sage. The White House ivies get switched out and rest up in a greenhouse between their stints in the Oval Office, which is where the ivy was moved, without being replaced, last month, according to The Post. So why the change? Each new presidents decorate the White House to their individual tastes, and the second Trump administration has replaced the ivy with golden artifacts from the White House collection, including a bronze basket made in France in about 1815, handed to the Nixon administration in 1973. To each of the basket's sides are urns acquired by President James Monroe in 1817, not long after the British burned the White House during the War of 1812. The outer two pieces come from the Eisenhower administration and are usually stationed in the Vermeil Room.
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump has removed one thing from the Oval Office that has been there for 50 years. But why?
For over half a century, one thing was a constant in the Oval Office: the Swedish ivy plant above the fireplace - until now, that is. As the second Trump administration moved in, the plant was replaced by a range of golden objects. The ivy had seen a host of visitors since it was first perched atop the Oval Office's mantel including Nelson Mandela, Pope John II, Margaret Thatcher and Whitney Houston, The Washington Post noted. During the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, the ivy was bushy before being cut down during the reign of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. It appears in Bill Clinton 's presidential portrait. When the second George Bush arrived, it was split into three shrubs. It grew into a wider, hedge-like plant during the presidency of Barack Obama, who briefly changed it out for a different kind of ivy before it was cut into two smaller plants during Trump's first term. During President Joe Biden's time in the White House, the ivy once again grew bushier. While it was still there when Trump returned to office in January, it was gone by last month. Numerous people have descendants of the ivy in their homes, The Post noted. Clippings have been handed to White House staff when they leave their posts, and they have, in turn, given parts of the plants to friends and family. Rico Gardaphe worked in the Office of Presidential Correspondence during the Obama administration. He told the paper that his Brooklyn home is 'overrun' by the ivy. 'I kept a spreadsheet of all the people I've ever worked with,' he said. 'It's been my goal to get every one of them a clipping.' 'It was at the very bottom of things that I decided to get upset about,' he said regarding the ivy's February disappearance from the Oval Office. On March 8, Mother Jones reported in a headline that 'The Country's Most Famous Houseplant Is Missing.' At a reception in Dublin, Ireland, in 2000, Clinton told the attendees: 'In the Oval Office of the president, on the mantel, there is a beautiful ivy plant which has been there for almost 40 years now. It was given to President Kennedy by the then-Irish ambassador to the United States as an enduring sign of the affection between our two people.' However, the story may not be true, The Post noted, as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library told the paper, 'Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find evidence of the plant's origins.' Kennedy scholar Barbara Ann Perry told the paper the oldest photo she has been able to find of the plant in the Oval Office is from the Ford White House. 'It does not make sense, does it? For an Irish ambassador to give Swedish ivy,' said Perry. 'I mean, it's still possible that the Swedish ambassador gave President Kennedy this gift.' However, the plant, Plectranthus verticillatus, comes from South Africa and is in the same family of plants as mint and sage. The White House ivies get switched out and rest up in a greenhouse between their stints in the Oval Office, which is where the ivy was moved, without being replaced, last month, according to The Post. So why the change? Each new presidents decorate the White House to their individual tastes, and the second Trump administration has replaced the ivy with golden artifacts from the White House collection, including a bronze basket made in France in about 1815, handed to the Nixon administration in 1973. To each of the basket's sides are urns acquired by President James Monroe in 1817, not long after the British burned the White House during the War of 1812. The outer two pieces come from the Eisenhower administration and are usually stationed in the Vermeil Room.
