The Biden administration is suffering from low morale these days. The main reason Biden staffers are feeling blue may not be what you expected.
My first thought was they are feeling morose because there is a very good chance that Biden will lose his bid for re-election and they will be looking for other jobs. They have to be concerned that change may be coming. That may be part of their discontent but a lot of it has to do with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war policy. The inmates think they run the asylum, not the president.
There are many wealthy people serving in the Biden administration. One of them is Biden’s chief of staff. Jeff Zients is going to throw an off-campus party for hundreds o staffers. It is to celebrate their work over the last three years. It is also to provide a boost during the uncertainty of what may be Biden’s final year. Fingers crossed.
This party may have found its way to the drawing board because another Biden staffer has resigned in protest of Biden’s support of Israel. Letters to Biden have been flying from unhappy staffers and the latest was from more than a dozen of Biden’s campaign staffers. They issued an anonymous letter (the cowards) letting the boss know they disapprove of his support of Israel. That is something the unhappy ones have in common – they aren’t bold enough to out themselves, they hide behind anonymous letters.
The latest staffer to resign is from the Department of Education. I was hopeful it was Education Secretary Miguel Cardona because he is horrible but it was not him.
“I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government,” Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, said in his resignation letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
The 17 Biden campaign staffers used similar language in their letter as they argued that the deaths of Palestinians “cannot be justified.”
“As your staff, we believe it is both a moral and electoral imperative for you to publicly call for a cessation of violence,” they wrote.
“We joined this campaign because the values that you – and we – share are ones worth fighting for. Justice, empathy, and our belief in the dignity of human life is the backbone of not only the Democratic Party, but of the country,” they added. “However, your administration’s response to Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza has been fundamentally antithetical to those values – and we believe it could cost you the 2024 election.”
Talk about disinformation. Indiscriminate bombing by Israel is not a thing. The IDF goes out of its way to warn civilians about an upcoming raid or air campaign. They are well-known for that. It takes a lot of audacity for a staffer to make demands of the boss, in this case the president of the United States. I realize some things have changed since I entered the work force but holy cow. If staff is that unhappy, resign. Go and work elsewhere. According to Biden, there are plenty of jobs available. If they want to run the show, they should run against Biden.
So the chief of staff Jeff Zients donned a super hero cape and is going to throw a morale booster party. If the name sounds familiar it is because he oversaw the administration’s response to the coronavirus. Yeah. That guy.
The party invite was emailed to staffers on Wednesday, noting it would be held at a private venue in Northern Virginia later this month.
“To ensure we are able to include as many staff as possible, this invitation is non-transferrable and does not include a guest,” Zients wrote in the invitation.
Although the party will be for official staff rather than those working for the campaign, the renewed backlash over Biden’s Israel policy shows the dissent expressed by numerous administration officials as the war ratcheted up in November has only grown.
I don’t know. Does that sound like fun? Sure, they can socialize with colleagues outside the workplace but it’s not for the campaign staff and they can’t bring a spouse or friend. No plus ones. It’s for “hundreds” of people. It seems like the campaign staff should be as fired up, maybe more so, as the White House staff. Does Zients think a party will stop the resignations?
The malcontents want Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Biden can say what he wants but it is ultimately the decision of the Israelis, not Joe Biden. A ceasefire only benefits Hamas.
So, good luck with trying to appease an unhappy staff. Will one party do the job? I think that it’s like everything else this administration does – put a band-aid on the problem and kick it down the road a while. If Biden wins re-election, he should clean house and hire people who know why they are there. They are there to support and promote the president’s agenda, not their own.