Republicans Can�t Wait to Be Putin�s Special Guest at a Biden Debate
That�s Never Happening
The GOP is all in on the Kremlin.

By Bess Levin
March 19, 2021
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Accessory Vladimir Putin and Human
By Lintao Zhang/Getty.

Earlier this week, Joe Biden was asked if he considered Vladimir Putin a
killer, to which the president answered, �I do.� This was not a
controversial statement, given the many people the former KGB agent is
suspected of having killed, to say nothing of ones who�ve been poisoned
but survived (in addition to Russia�s role in Syria�s civil war and the
thousands killed in Ukraine since 2014). Putin apparently didn�t like this
answer, though, and responded like an online troll, challenging Biden to a
televised debate and adding that the leader of free world should
apparently fly to Russia immediately to take part in this event. �I don�t
want to put this off for long,� Putin said. �I want to go the taiga this
weekend to relax a little. So we could do it tomorrow or Monday. We are
ready at any time convenient for the American side.�

Obviously, this debate was never going to happen for a lot of reasons,
chief among them being that world leaders don�t typically�or ever�debate
each other on TV and presidents of the United States definitely don�t drop
everything, hop on Air Force One, and fly thousands of miles to do so.
Reasonable people whose brains haven�t been completely hollowed out
understand this. And then there are the relatives, friends, and assorted
other allies of Donald Trump, whose takeaway from the last four years is
that Vladimir Putin is a great pal of America whose only noncrime was
helping the 45th president get elected in 2016 and who tried his darndest
to do so the last time around too. They�ve spent the last day weighing in
on the matter and, surprise: They�ve put their money on the Kremlin.

�Putin and Biden? It would not end like Rocky IV�I don�t think the
American would prevail,� Republican representative Matt Gaetz told Sean
Hannity on Thursday.

Hannity, obviously, agreed. �The question is this,� he said. �Why would
Vladimir Putin immediately call for a debate with Joe Biden with no time
to prepare? What have I been saying? What have some of us�half the
American people�been saying?� (Hannity, of course, has been baselessly
claiming Biden is in cognitive decline, which Republicans also swore was
the case before the presidential debates, and then had to pivot to
claiming Biden was taking performance-enhancing drugs.) �It�s getting a
little scary,� Hannity said earlier this month. �It�s funny because the
media was attacking me for saying that Joe looks weak and he looks frail
and he�s struggling cognitively. Well, every day now, pretty much, when he
speaks, when he�s allowed to speak, he�s struggling.� In fact, Biden has
spoken publicly numerous times since taking office, including a prime-time
address.

Meanwhile, the president�s namesake and arguably dumbest child had this to
say:

In fact, Putin wanted Junior�s father in office because he knew just how
thoroughly he could manipulate him for reasons that remain unclear (though
will perhaps one day be revealed), and is likely worried about what Biden
has in store for him. That�s something he never had to be concerned about
when Trump was in office, as his favorite little babushka doll would never
even dream of crossing him.

Report: The White House is pretty uncool about weed
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According to a report from the Daily Beast, numerous people have been told
their ass is grass:

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Dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to
resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use,
frustrating staffers who were pleased by initial indications from the
Biden administration that recreational use of cannabis would not be
immediately disqualifying for would-be personnel, according to three
people familiar with the situation. The policy has even affected staffers
whose marijuana use was exclusive to one of the 14 states�and the District
of Columbia�where cannabis is legal.

In some cases, staffers were informally told by transition higher-ups
ahead of formally joining the administration that they would likely
overlook some past marijuana use, only to be asked later to resign. �There
were one-on-one calls with individual affected staffers�rather, ex-
staffers,� one former White House staffer affected by the policy told the
Daily Beast. �I was asked to resign.�

The Daily Beast notes that rules about prior marijuana use and their
impact on security clearance eligibility vary by agency; for example, at
the FBI, an applicant cannot have partaken in the previous three years,
while at the NSA, it�s just one. But the White House �largely calls its
own shots.� For example, Alyssa Mastromonaco, deputy chief of staff for
operations in the Obama administration and a self-described �love[r] of
the ganj,� was allowed to join the administration (though she says she was
�randomly drug-tested pretty much once a month for the first year, and
regularly after that.�)
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In response to the report, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted
that �of the hundreds of people hired, only five people who had started
working at the White House are no longer employed as a result of this
policy.� (As the Daily Beast notes, Psaki did not indicate how many people
had been disqualified for a White House gig before actually starting.) �I
find it absurd that, in 2021, marijuana use is still part of a security
clearance background check,� Tommy Vietor, an Obama administration
veteran, said Thursday. �To me, marijuana use is completely irrelevant
when you�re trying to decide whether an individual should be trusted with
national security information.�

ICYMI: Rep. Lauren Boebert is still all in on QAnon

The Colorado congresswoman will not sit idly by while Marjorie Taylor
Greene gets all the press for being the House�s resident crazy person. Per
the Independent:

Boebert has shared a QAnon conspiracy claiming that the GOP will
retake Congress following a supposed wave of Democratic resignations and
arrests�. The theory, which would see Republicans gain control the House
and Senate before the 2022 elections, has been pushed by the right-wing
Epoch Times. Ms. Boebert reportedly told her constituents at the event
earlier this week that her sources were close to the ex-president.

�And this is my opinion with that information that I have, I believe we
will see resignations begin to take place,� Boebert said, adding that she
has �very good sources that tell me this is very good information. Is it
100 percent? I don�t know but it�s very good information.� As a reminder,
among other things, QAnon believers think Democrats are Satan-worshipping
pedophiles who eat children. So, there�s that.