A.J. Caschetta
National Review, Jan. 19, 2025
“Blinken’s Foreign Affairs curtain bow has one single dispassionate mention of the hostages being held in Gaza but not a hint of righteous anger over their abduction. Nor is there any indication that he is as dedicated to the release of those hostages as he is to forcing an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”
In the last days of the Biden presidency, with the media focused on Senate hearings for Donald Trump’s second-term cabinet, now is a good time to recall just how historically inept Joe Biden’s cabinet members have been. Secretary of the Treasury Janet “the inflation is only transitory” Yellen, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro “the border is secure” Mayorkas, Secretary of Transportation Pete “what me worry?” Buttigieg, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd “missing in action” Austin are among the standouts in a crowded field. A piece in National Review named Miguel Cardona “the worst secretary in the 45-year history of the U.S. Department of Education.” Cardona is so “unburdened by what has been” that he once quoted Ronald Reagan’s famous quip, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,” as an affirmation of big-government efficiency, unaware that Reagan called these “the nine most terrifying words in the English language.”
But surely the worst of Biden’s picks was Antony Blinken as secretary of state. His feckless foreign policy initiatives have diminished respect for, and fear of, the U.S. throughout the world. His peace-processing has brought no peace, and his diplomacy has led nowhere. Blinken’s lone achievement came in 2023 when he launched something called the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, creating yet another opportunity for him to play guitar and sing in public. This “guitar diplomacy,” as the media term it, is not always appreciated, though. When he showed up at a bar in Ukraine last May and played Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” many found both the musical and diplomatic performances tone-deaf. As New York magazine put it, “Antony Blinken Sucks at the Guitar and Should Stop Playing.” He’s bad at diplomacy too, and, fortunately, he’ll soon stop doing that.
Blinken’s Life in Government
Like his boss, “the Big Guy,” Antony Blinken has been in government practically his entire career, beginning during the Clinton administration, when he held various positions at the State Department and the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001. During the Bush administration, he was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. During the Obama administration he was national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden from 2009 to 2013, then deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015, and finally deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017. When Joe Biden announced Blinken as his nominee for secretary of state, left-wing sites such as The Conversation breathlessly praised Blinken’s “lifetime of experience” without assessing what he has actually achieved (aside from a purported net worth of $10 million) during all those years of “public service.”
His brief period out of government began during the Trump administration, when, from 2017 to 2019, he was the managing director of the Penn Biden Center — the very site where classified documents were discovered in 2022. During Blinken’s years helming the Biden Center, contributions from China tripled from $24 million to $77 million. Given the Bidens’ propensity for enriching themselves through the generosity of the Chinese Communist Party, it’s fair to wonder if that’s where some of Blinken’s $10 million net worth came from.
In 2020, Blinken was the foreign policy adviser for the Biden campaign when he solicited the letter that characterized Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” as “Russian disinformation” and enlisted 51 “former” spies (at least one, and likely more, was active) to sign it…..SOURCE