Opinion | Biden’s return. The blowback of Mar-a-Lago. The takedown of Cheney. Where do we start?

Gail Collins: Welcome back from your trip to Greenland, Bret. Die to hear your impressions. Is it beautiful? It… is melting?

Bret Stephens: Greenland is a bit like a James Joyce novel: formidable and largely impenetrable. And the ice is definitely melting there – which I’ll talk about in the long post I’m writing about the trip.

Gail: I’ve been looking forward to that since you left.

Bret: But we’ve missed a lot since our last conversation! Return of Joe Biden. The Mar-a-Lago Explosion. Liz Cheney’s takedown. Where should we start?

Gail: Let’s start with Biden. I will admit that the Inflation Reduction Act may not have been the perfect name for his bill, but what a moment for his presidency! For the first time, the country has taken a serious, significant step toward combating global warming. And again, I can imagine future generations looking back at what we did and cheering.

Bret: I agree that the invoice is misnamed. It’s probably better called the West Virginia Privilege Act, after all goodies Joe Manchin has included that for his home state, or Elon Musk’s Additional Enrichment Act, which offers all the tax breaks for electric vehicle purchases. Above all, I doubt that history will look back on the law as some sort of turning point in tackling climate change, since China emits more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the United States.

But Biden – or maybe I should say Chuck Schumer – has definitely regrouped his team and given it a sense of accomplishment before midterms. On the other hand, there’s the raid on Mar-a-Lago, which I really, really don’t know. Tell me I’m wrong.

Gail: Well, I hate that it made so many headlines over the course of a week when Biden should have gotten all the attention because of his track record. And I know Donald Trump is getting a lot of love from his fans. But, hey, if he’s sitting on top of secret documents, possibly including some related to, um, nuclear weapons, I want the country to know about that.

Bret: Obviously we have to refuse to judge until we know more, but makes me skeptical of the nuclear weapons claim.

Gail: Understand. But while I’m still not quite prepared to envision our former president somehow selling our secrets to foreign governments, in this case it’s not quite as difficult to imagine. level you wouldn’t want the coalition to move quickly.

Bret: Gail, do you remember line from “Raise Arizona”, when Nicolas Cage said to Holly Hunter, “What’s right and what’s right, and never the two of you meet”? That seems like a pretty good description of Merrick Garland’s predicament.

Gail: Love it when you do those quotes.

Bret: On the one hand, Trump continues to prepare in advance and resist repeated requests to return the documents, blatantly disregarding the provisions of the law. On the other hand, as a result of the search, he has consolidated support among Republicans, who appear to have disappeared just a few weeks ago. He has turned the media attention away from Biden and back to himself. He has created a new field of theories and conspiracies about what the government is really after.

In short, Garland gave Trump exactly what he wanted. And if the Justice Department can’t show Trump is hiding something really sensitive or explosive – such as evidence that he had direct personal contact with the Oath Keepers before January 6 – then I’m afraid Garland will be the loser from this encounter.

Gail: When in doubt, my rule of purpose in understanding everything about Trump is to follow the wonderful Maggie Haberman, one of our great White House reporters. She analysis includes several possible explanations for document stacking, all of them based on general stupidity. Maybe he wants them as an ultra-high-class keepsake. Perhaps it was his habit of hoarding papers. Or just his cosmic view of the world, that “everything he touches belongs to him,” as one lawyer Maggie put it.

Bret: With Trump, the line between the bad guys and the villains is often blurred. His whole being is like Inspector Clouseau giving the impression of Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” or maybe vice versa.

Gail: But whatever the motive, we cannot allow him to set this kind of precedent for handling presidential documents.

Bret: I’m all about returning government documents to their rightful place, but if this helps get Trump back into the White House, I’d say it’s a bad deal.

Gail: We’ll see what happens next. Meanwhile, there’s another big political story underway. Liz Cheney has lost her main job, as everyone expected. What’s next for her?

Bret: I got the feeling from her concession speech that she intended to run for president. If she does so as a Republican there is no hope: the nomination will almost certainly go to Trump or Ron DeSantis.

But I can imagine her coming out on top in the third-party ticket, maybe with a centrist Democrat as her running mate.

Gail: Yeah, a centrist Democrat who espouses Republican fiscal policies and opposes gun control. I could admire her without ever imagining that I would support her presidential ticket.

Bret: I will vote for it, although the most likely effect is to elect the Democratic candidate, whoever it may be. Do you think Biden’s legislative achievements make it more or less likely that he will seek the nomination?

Gail: I worry that any positive news will further encourage Biden to run again. As you know, I think it’s a bad idea. I’m not a proponent of epochism, God knows, but starting the presidency at 82 doesn’t really seem like a great plan.

Bret: Plus, I can’t remember a recent president who had a smooth second term. Nixon: Watergate. Reagan: Iran-contra. Clinton: Lewinsky. George W. Bush: Hurricanes Katrina and Iraq. Obama: the rise of ISIS and Democrats lose the Senate. What does Biden think he can expect?

On another topic, Gail, also purports to be about Salman Rushdie’s life. Your thoughts?

Gail: Well, I’m definitely… against it.

Bret: Good to know!

Gail: Sorry, I shouldn’t be nervous when it comes to such a terrible moment. Something like this happens in a place like the Chautauqua Institute – a venerable retreat in western New York where people come to relax and do some deep thinking before getting back to their normal business. their usual – terrible.

Bret: Some commentators wrote eloquently about the broader meaning of the attack. It makes lies more and more popular concept that speech can be a form of violence, sometimes used to justify restricting freedom of expression. The truth is that speech is the antithesis and the best alternative to violence, which is why protecting the right to free speech is so essential to effective democratic life.

Gail: That made the attack both disappointing and very unexpected. Compared to, say, Liz Cheney’s main loss, it was a real downfall even though everyone knew it was going to happen.

Bret: True, although the scale of the failure surprised me. Then again, we also had some surprises on the positive side. Like the good people of Kansas are emerging strong to keep abortion rights in their constitution.

Gail: If you feel down, think Kansas. Who would have thought that would be our slogan of the year?

Bret: Years ago, Tom Frank wrote a book called “What’s the problem with Kansas?” Obviously the answer is: nothing much.

Gail: We have some big primaries coming up on Tuesday. One of them is right in my own Capitol, where two big House figures, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, have been restricted from competing. Each is an important committee chair. And the third candidate, 38-year-old lawyer Suraj Patel, went on to point out that both are in their 70s. Do you have a favorite?

Bret: None of the above. The only representative of New York City that I admire is Ritchie Torres, and he’s in the Bronx. Who do you support in that race?

Gail: I decided Nadler has a longer history of being smart, tough, standing on important issues, and he got my vote. Now it’s your turn: let me read another big contest on Tuesday – in Florida. Representatives Charlie Crist, a former governor, and Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner, are fighting to be Democrats who take over as Florida’s current governor this fall.

Bret: Fried, mainly because I know enough about Crist as a former Republican to dislike his politics.

Gail: DeSantis is constantly being talked about as a possible Republican replacement for Trump in 2024. How would you feel about him as a presidential prospect?

Bret: There’s a lot to dislike about DeSantis. But the truth is that Florida is thriving, he’s a pretty traditional conservative, and he’s the primary candidate that could deny Trump the GOP nomination, that’s my central priority. Personally, I like someone like Nikki Haley, but beggars can’t be pickers.

Zing me is back next week. But before you do, be sure to read our colleague Roger Cohen beautiful portrait of the city of Odesa Ukraine, to which many of my totalitarians trace their origins. It’s a portrait of grace under pressure and a place worth fighting for. And since I’ve always been critical of Biden, let me end by saying that he deserves great credit for helping the Ukrainian people do that.