Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can be an unhinged leftist and crackpot, but he also happens to be correct about President Joe Biden's attacks on constitutional order, particularly free expression.
Speaking to an incredulous Erin Burnett on CNN this week, Kennedy argued that Biden was a bigger threat to "democracy" than Donald Trump, a position that clashes with the media's entire 2024 campaign messaging.
In a more decent world, we'd be debating which presidential candidate was better at upholding the constitutional order, rather than which one was worse. That is not our fate. And yet, the unique thing about the 2024 presidential contest is that voters are given a chance to compare existing presidential records.
Kennedy contends that Biden "is the first candidate in history, the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech or censor his opponent." One suspects Eugene Debs might quibble with this characterization, though not since the Committee on Public Information has there been a White House that has shown such disdain for free expression and debate.
Biden is the first president to openly and secretly pressure major communication companies to take direction and work in conjunction with state agencies to censor debate.
The same left-wingers who do not believe in any limiting principles while regulating economic life will lecture us about how so-called platforms are free to work with anyone they please, including the White House.
OK, but tech companies also spend tens of millions each year in Washington rent-seeking and lobbying for favorable regulations. They are highly susceptible to state intimidation. When Biden deputizes massive communication companies to act as censors, he's merely taking a shortcut in the suppression of speech that undercuts, at the very minimum, the spirit and purpose of the First Amendment.
One might even call this brand of state-corporate relationship "semi-fascist."
RFK is right that the Biden administration engaged in censorship through agencies, but it wasn't exactly a secret. Recall Jen Psaki informing us that the White House was "flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation." Biden claimed that allowing unfettered speech on Facebook during COVID was "killing people." Just contemplate the media's reaction if Trump's White House had been keeping lists of "problematic" posts.
Remember, as well, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield warning that social media companies "should be held accountable" for the ideas of those who use their websites. Was she talking about the ideas that spurred the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, the most expensive in history? Was she talking about those who spread conspiracy theories about Russian collusion? Probably not. Though Trump never did anything to inhibit the spread of criticism or conspiracy theories.
The practical problem with allowing the state to dictate speech is that it will surely abuse the power by tagging inconvenient positions as "disinformation," as it did with the Hunter Biden laptop story and as it did when pressuring Facebook to ban stories on the Chinese origins of COVID. Even if this were not the case, the state has no business guiding, engaging in or suggesting any limits on free expression -- even when it comes to real misinformation or disinformation. The president swore an oath to the Constitution, not the consensus of "experts."
But look at me naively prattling on about neutral principles. There is no uproar when Biden creates a Ministry of Truth to combat alleged disinformation because the media are uninterested in neutrality of free expression. Partisan legionnaires like Philip Bump note that "Misinformation-spouting RFK Jr. muses that Biden is a threat to democracy," as if these assertions are somehow in conflict. Most of the attacks on RFK's comments by "experts and historians" do nothing to dispel the contention that the president works to censor Americans.
One gets the sense, in fact, that just like Ketanji Brown Jackson, most Democrats believe the state dictating speech (as long as it's run by the Left) is both necessary and good for "democracy."
The biggest threat to "democracy" -- if by democracy we still mean the Constitution -- is when the powerful ignore limits of the state with impunity.
From that perspective, Biden has been a cancer on "democracy."
The Left rationalizes and often justifies his authoritarianism by noting the existence of Trump. Even if the former president were as bad as Democrats claim, there is a slew of institutions ready to stop him. Biden? Those institutions cheer on his abuses. And that alone makes him more dangerous.
Recently released Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Police security video shows a suspected FBI special agent clapping and cheering as crowds surged up steps to the Columbus Doors and another meeting with an FBI tactical team just before it entered the Capitol after the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt.
The videos were first identified by defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, in court filings in his own Jan. 6 criminal case. Exhibits Mr. Pope originally filed under seal have become public since the release of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 security video by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
Former FBI special agent John Guandolo (center) with two possible active FBI special agents at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, U.S. Capitol Police/Graphic by The Epoch Times)
Two possible FBI special agents and a third unknown colleaguewere withJohn D. Guandolo,the FBI’s former liaison with U.S. Capitol Police, at the Women for a Great America event on the East Front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Mr. Pope.
In sworn testimony in a December 2022Alaska civil court trialand in numerous media appearances, Mr. Guandolo said he was with two FBI special agents and a colleague with whom he traveled to Washington on Jan. 6. Mr. Guandolo has indicated that he was also introduced to other FBI personnel at the Capitol that day.
Mr. Pope is seeking to compel federal prosecutors to identify them all. He said even if the men were at the Capitol on personal time, their free movement around the grounds shows they did not believe the Capitol was off limits to the public.
Mr. Guandolo, who handled counterterrorism and criminal investigations for nearly 13 years—from 1996 to 2008—as an FBI special agent, has said he was at the Capitol in a personal capacity and went primarily to pray.
He was interviewed by the FBI about his Jan. 6 visit on July 6, 2022. A heavily redacted copy of the FBI 302interview summaryhas been made public.
‘This Is Huge’
Security video shows that as the crowd broke through the police line on the East Plaza and surged up the steps to the Columbus Doors, one of Mr. Guandolo’s colleagues clapped enthusiastically.
“Oh, oh, oh man, this is huge,” the man said, heard on Mr. Guandolo’scell phone videothat showed the crowd ascending the east steps.
On Capitol Police security Camera 7231, which looks out at the House Egg on the East Front, Mr. Guandolo was seen filming while standing on a chair just before 2:05 p.m. The clapping man, wearing a grey knit cap and dark coat, is identified in Mr. Pope’s court filing as “the Clapper” and “Colleague 2.”
While Colleague 2 cheered the protesters’ advance on the Capitol,a man on Mr. Guandolo’s left, “Colleague 1,” had his phone raised, presumably capturing his own video of the advancing crowd.He wore a brown knit cap and blue jacket, and carried a backpack, video showed.
Mr. Pope asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contrerasto compelthe Department of Justice to identify all FBI agents “who were material witnesses at the Capitol.” Mr. Pope wants the FBI “to produce all photographs, videos, and records related to their presence.”
The DOJ hasfiled oppositionto Mr. Pope’s motion, saying it has “no obligation to investigate” who the men in the videos are.
Some of the exhibits in Mr. Pope’s Feb. 12 motion were redacted, but the recent release ofthousands of hoursof Jan. 6 security video by the Subcommittee on Oversight allows them to be released publicly, Mr. Pope said.
Capitol Police security video shows Mr. Guandolo, Colleague 1, and Colleague 2—often trailed by a third unidentified man, “Colleague 3”—moving about the Capitol grounds.
“For the record, my friend and colleague with me for most of the day on January 6th was not working,“ Mr. Guandolo told The Epoch Times in an April 2 email. ”He was there with his family to experience the event like most of us.”
Subsequently asked to clarify which of the men shown on CCTV he was referring to, Mr. Guandolo did not reply before press time.
“The other FBI guys I saw there I cannot speak about their capacity that day,” Mr. Guandolo added.
Mr. Guandolo said he testified for the defense in the criminal trial of Jan. 6 defendant Rebecca Lavrenz on March 29 and has been “asked to testify in several upcoming cases.”
Mr. Guandolo said his statements about Jan. 6 have been “very public and very clear.”
“There was an insurrection and revolution, and it was not done by the participants of January 6th but by senior government officials of the U.S. government,” he said.
‘Right to Be There’
The video from Mr. Guandolo and security cameras “also indicates that active-duty FBI agents perceived events at the Capitol to not be criminal,” Mr. Pope wrote in his motion. “From the clapping and celebratory expression we can conclude that these FBI agents were in favor of people accessing the building and that they believed the people had a First Amendment right to be there.”
At 2:28 p.m., Camera 7202 captured footage of Colleague 2 walking across the East Plaza and climbing the House steps. He stopped to shoot video or photos just a few feet from a group of Capitol Police officers, the video showed.
He appeared to be filming or photographing a group of five—two young men and three young women or teens—standing about a dozen steps above him. The five then descended the stairs and walked off camera with Colleague 2.
The group of five young adults was also seen walking immediately in front of Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues on the House Plaza Egress—Camera 0811—at 2:55 p.m. and on Camera 0681 on the Southwest Walk at 2:57 p.m., video shows. One of the young adults carried on a conversation with Colleague 2 during part of the walk.
“Since this FBI Agent has professional law enforcement training, and since he found it permissible to walk up on the steps while three Capitol Police officers looked on nearby ...it is reasonable for me to conclude that this FBI agent will provide favorable testimony about the permissive actions of police that is likely to sway a jury away from a determination of guilt,” Mr. Pope wrote.
At 2:32 p.m., an FBI tactical team drove onto the East Plaza in an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle. After the dark green vehicle was parked, Colleague 1 came from the area of the Women for a Great America event, walked around the front of the vehicle and spoke to someone inside the front passenger door for approximately five minutes, video showed.
Former FBI special agent John Guandolo with suspected FBI agents Colleague 1 and Colleague 2, along with an unidentified man labeled in court filings as Colleague 3, on the Southwest Walk of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Capitol Police/Graphic by The Epoch Times)
“This could indicate that FBI Colleague 1 was indeed on the clock at the Capitol on January 6, or that the uniformed FBI SWAT team did not consider the events at the Capitol to be a pressing matter and that they had time to shoot the breeze with an off-duty FBI colleague,” Mr. Pope wrote.
Members of the FBI SWAT team were seen on security video entering the South Door of the Capitol just before 2:50 p.m. They immediately turned right down a side hallway and helped Capitol Police carry a mortally wounded Ms. Babbitt, who'd been shot outside the Speaker’s Lobby minutes earlier.
Ms. Babbitt was set on the floor near the south entrance and emergency care was provided by FBI medics and Capitol Police until paramedics from the District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department took over.
At about 2:55 p.m.Camera 0948 on the southeast roof of the Capitol showed Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues walking away from the east steps.Camera 0811 on the House Plaza Egress sidewalk showed the men walking past just before 2:56 pm. Mr. Guandolo looked to his right and appeared to be speaking to someone just before he disappeared from view, Mr. Pope wrote.
An FBI SWAT team enters the South Door of the U.S. Capitol just after the shooting of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshots via The Epoch Times)
A few seconds later, a man known only by the hashtag #FenceCutterBulwark walked into view from the opposite direction. The identity of #FenceCutterBulwark has been a longstanding mystery after he wasshown on public videocutting down the green plastic security fencing erected by Capitol Police to keep crowds away from the Capitol.
Mr. Guandolo told The Epoch Times, “I do not know #FenceCutterBulwark.”
While he was carrying out his fence destruction, #FenceCutterBulwark was filmed by Metropolitan Police Department undercover officer Ryan Roe, who said to him, “Appreciate it, brother.”
A man claiming to be #FenceCutterBulwarkappearedon the Patriot Punk Network podcast in September 2023, saying he was not a provocateur or a federal informant, and did not know Officer Roe.
“If he said, ‘Thanks, brother,’ then our, I’m assuming our exchange would have been, you know, me just basically saying, ‘Hey, I’m just trying to get this out of the way. It’s a hazard. It’s dangerous, or whatever. I don’t want people getting hurt,’” the man told Patriot Punk host Chase Matheson.
Mr. Pope has petitioned Judge Contreras to order the release of video shot by all members of the Metropolitan Police Department Electronic Surveillance Unit (MPD ESU) who captured video on Jan. 6 using cell phones, camcorders and GoPro cameras.
The mysterious Jan. 6 figure known only by the hashtag #FenceCutterBulwark appears on the Patriot Punk Network on Sept. 27, 2023. (Courtesy of Chase Matheson/Patriot Punk Network)
Nearly 30 ESU officers were assigned for duty on Jan. 6, organized into eight teams. Some of the men used their phones to live stream to the MPD command center, according to court records.
One of the undercover officers allegedly acted as a provocateur in the crowd on the Northwest Steps, according toprevious court filingsby Mr. Pope.
Officer Nicholas Tomasula confirmedin an interviewwith defense attorneys in the Proud Boys case that he was heard on Jan. 6 video chanting,“Whose House? Our House!” and “Stop the Steal!”
Mr. Tomasula was identified as “Officer 1” in Mr. Pope’s February 2023 motion seeking to make Officer 1’s undercover video public.
At the foot of the Northwest Steps, as a protester climbed up a makeshift ladder onto the balustrade, Mr. Tomasula shouted: “C’mon, man, let’s go! Leave that [expletive],” his video showed. Mr. Tomasula got help from a protester climbing onto the balustrade, then shouted to protesters moving up the steps, “C’mon, go, go, go!”
Mr. Pope said that Mr. Tomasula was not alone in encouraging protesters on Jan. 6.
“MPD’s internal investigation on Tomasula and my own research has identified that other undercover MPD officers were, in real time, praising protesters who broke windows at the Capitol and thanking persons who removed fencing,” hewrote in a motionon Aug. 21, 2023.
Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues were seen on two security cameras on the southwest drive, passing by at 2:57 p.m.
“It is significant that there were several agents present. The testimony of these FBI agents who believed it was acceptable to be in this alleged restricted area will weigh favorably on the minds of the jury against any contrary testimony brought by the government,” Mr. Pope wrote.
“For this reason, the court should compel the government to identify all FBI agents who directly witnessed events at the Capitol since the exculpatory testimony of many, many agents will lend strength in numbers to my defense.”
First things first: unlike the last two months when both theJanuary andFebruary jobs prints were beyond ridiculously manipulated and goalseeked to pass a terrible number as a strong one, the March print was not a complete disaster.
To be sure, superficially the March report was another artificially goalseeked blowout that guaranteed it would have zero credibility: with 303K payrolls added which was a 4 sigma beat to the median estimate of 214K and above the highest Wall Street forecast. There is just one problem: the number of multiple-sigma beats in recent months has been so high, the entire concept of "beats" has become laughable.
Consider this: January was a 5-sigma beat to expectations; February was a 3-sigma beat and March, we just learned, beat the median estimate by 4-sigma. Not only that, but in every of the last 3 months, the actual payrolls number (at least before it was revised lower the next month), has come in higher than the highest Wall Street estimate! We kinda feel bad for Biden trying so hard to manipulate the economy and population into liking Bidenomics and approving of his disastrous economic policies. Maybe he should just report one month that jobs rose by 10,000,000 and sit back and wait for his approval rating to hit 100... or something.
The silver lining, is that unlike previous months when the Household Survey reported sharp drops in the number of actually employed workers, in March, employment finally rose by 498K to 161.466 million, the first monthly increase in the past 4 months.
Still, despite the modest rebound in employment, it still lags payrolls by almost 9 million jobs since the covid trough.
However, that's where the mitigating factors end, because while there was some improvement in the quantitative aspect of the March report, when it comes to the qualitative aspect, it was another disaster for one simple reason: all the job gains were part time jobs!
Here is exhibit A: in March, the number of part-time jobs soared by 691K to 28.632 million, up from 27.941 million while full-time jobs dropped by 6,000, to 132.940 million from 132.946 million.
This number only gets scarier when we extend the period to the past year: as shown in the next chart, since March 2023, the number of full-time workers has collapsed by 1.347 million while the number of part-time workers exploded by 1.888 million!
There's more.
Regular readers are aware that all the job gains since 2018 have gone to immigrants, mostly illegal immigrants, something we spent last month's jobs post discussing in detail.
What happened in March? It will come as no surprise that there was more of the same, and after the collapse in native-born workers in the last three months when nearly 2.5 million native-born workers lost their jobs, March saw some pick up, and 929K native-born workers were added. Meanwhile, after last month's record increase in foreign-born workers, in March illegal immigrants added another 112K jobs, pushing the total number of foreign-born workers to a new record high of 31.114 million.
Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 6 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers...
... but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since July 2018!
This, as we have been saying for months now, is a huge issue - especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the southwest border...
... and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened - i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.
To this point, we are delighted to observe that after everyone had been ignoring what we have been saying for months, namely that all job growth has gone to illegals...
... overnight none other than Goldman admitted that not only has all job growth in recent years gone to illegal immigrants, but that America is now being invaded. Below we excerpt from the note from Goldman economist Elsie Peng, who amusingly calls illegal aliens "unauthorized immigrants" in her note (available to pro subs in the usual place):
Net US immigration surged in 2023. Recent reports from the Congressional Budget Office and border encounter data from the Office of Homeland Security suggest that net US immigration was running above the estimate implied by the change in the foreign-born population in the household survey over the last couple of years. We estimate that net US immigration surged to roughly 2.5 million in 2023, the highest level in the last two decades (Exhibit 1). In today’s note, we look at where recent immigrants are coming from, what parts of the US they are heading to, and how they compare to the rest of the US labor force.
Unauthorized immigrants from South America, Central America, and Mexico have accounted for most of the recent surge in immigration. Using immigration court case data, we estimate that the number of unauthorized immigrants from these three regions likely tripled in 2023 from its pre-pandemic average (left side of Exhibit 2). We note that these estimates of unauthorized immigration inflow carry some degree of uncertainty because some immigration court cases also reflect visa overstays. In contrast, the overall level and origin composition of authorized immigrants is similar to pre-pandemic trends (right side of Exhibit 2).
Where are they going? According to Goldman, the most popular destination states for new immigrants are Florida, California, Texas, and New York, which together have received over 50% of recent immigrants.
And the punchline, or how the establishment is trying to spin the flood of illegals into a positive feature for the US economy: apparently all these illegals are little gifts from god, keeping wages low and taking jobs that nobody else would ever want.
Data from the 2023 Current Population Survey suggest that recent adult immigrants are more likely to be young or prime age (90%) than the native-born adult population (62%) or adult immigrants who arrived earlier (64%). Recent immigrants have a higher labor force participation rate than the native-born population but a lower rate than immigrants who have been in the US for longer, have a higher unemployment rate than either group, are more likely to work in construction and food services and accommodations, and earn significantly lower wages on average.
POWELL: Because, you know, immigrants come in, and they tend to work at a rate that is at or above that for non-immigrants. Immigrants who come to the country tend to be in the workforce at a slightly higher level than native Americans do. But that's largely because of the age difference. They tend to skew younger.
PELLEY: Why is immigration so important to the economy?
POWELL: Well, first of all, immigration policy is not the Fed's job. The immigration policy of the United States is really important and really much under discussion right now, and that's none of our business. We don't set immigration policy. We don't comment on it.
I will say, over time, though, the U.S. economy has benefited from immigration. And, frankly, just in the last, year a big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.
PELLEY: The country needed the workers.
POWELL: It did. And so, that's what's been happening.
But that's not all: just in case praising illegal immigration wasn't enough to keeping wage growth low (completely ignoring that all these millions in illegals will require trillions in additional welfare spending, and are the primary beneficiaries of the latest explosion in US debt), there has been a second angle this time courtesy of the CBO which recently hilarious "calculated" that illegal immigrants will boost US GDP by $7 trillion in the next decade.
This is how CBO Director Phill Swagel summarized it: "as a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenue will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise."
And there you have it: yes, the US hasn't added any jobs to native-born Americans in six years, as instead all jobs have gone to immigrants, mostly the illegal variety, but that's good news you see, because if it wasn't for these lovely creatures flooding into the US, wages would be higher (that's a bad thing according to the Fed), and the US economy would not grow by $9 trillion. Just please ignore that that $9 trillion in "growth" will come only thanks to $20 trillion in debt, almost all of it soaked up by these same illegals, and of course, a handful of corrupt, embezzling politicians.
And so the scene has been set: if and when Trump or Republicans finally get their act together and halt the flood of illegals, then and only then, will the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis admit just how ugly the US economy, the labor market and inflation truly are... and then they will blame Trump for pushing the US into a stagflationary recession because he halted the record inflow of immigrants without which the US is - drumroll - doomed.
Treatment with Aficamten for 48 Weeks is Associated with Improvements in Clinical Efficacy Endpoints, NYHA Class and Cardiac Biomarkers, Structure and Function
Boehringer Ingelheim on Thursday said it will lay off some of its U.S. salesforce due to poor sales there of its biosimilar version of AbbVie’s blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira.
The German drugmaker said it planned to reduce its customer-facing teams in favor of a hybrid in-person and virtual sales model by June 30, in large part because pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) had kept branded Humira on their lists of medicines for reimbursement.
That choice has led to less uptake of biosimilar versions of Humira in the United States, including Boehringer's Cyltezo, it said.
The company, which has 53,000 employees worldwide, added that a "low double-digit number" of U.S. jobs were affected.
"We remain committed to the U.S. and we will increase investments based on our current and future portfolio," it said in a statement.
Despite nine biosimilars being launched in the U.S. last year, AbbVie has held onto more than 98% of the Humira market.
Boehringer launched Cyltezo last July but has only managed to sell 1,487 prescriptions in total since then, according to IQVIA data. Almost 2.8 million Humira prescriptions have been written during the same period.
Humira until recently was the world's top selling prescription medicine with annual sales reaching $22 billion in 2022, but has been eclipsed by Merck & Co's cancer drug Keytruda.
Unlike easy to manufacture pills that can be copied and sold as generics at a huge discount once patents lapse, complex biologic medicines made from living cells cannot be exactly duplicated and so are known as biosimilars. The introduction of biosimilars was supposed to help cut the price of expensive biotech medicines that go off patent, if not by as much as generics.
The German drugmaker priced its branded and unbranded versions the drug at a 5% and 81% discount to Humira’s 2023 list price of $6,922 per month.
