How long can Karine Jean-Pierre keep her White House press pass?

“Most reporters in the galley are handpicked by the president and won’t put you on the spot. If you don’t know the answer, tell them so. Don’t make a fool of yourself, making excuses. ”

— Jen Psaki

During the early years of our government, reporters were not allowed in the White House except on special occasions. Most legislative sessions were off limits out of fear they would tarnish the image of the new government. For years, they’d wait outside the capitol to catch up with senators or representatives to get a scoop of federal news. They had little contact directly with the president or his staff.

In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt invited rain-soaked reporters into the White House. They were awestruck that he offered them an office to work in and brought them coffee and food. And this was the birth of the White House Press Corps.

Soon reporters grew in presence, and this terrarium of newsmen morphed into the outpost that repeated White House-approved news to influence public opinion.

The White House press secretary is a liaison between the president and reporters to keep him off the hot seat. They

Government’s dirty secret

Classified documents are found in former President Donald Trump’s home! Democrats were outraged! Mr. Trump is guilty of “mishandling of some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets” creating “a national security crisis!” said MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Nicole Wallace.

Then President Joe Biden got caught.

Suddenly conservatives were upset.

“Thanks to Joe Biden,” said Sean Hannity, “America’s most sensitive secrets were floating around.”

But both sides were wrong.

The truth is, the word, “classified” means little. Our bloated government now classifies three things every second.

If you stacked up all the classified paper in Washington, the stacks would be taller than 26 Washington Monuments.

In my new video, Matthew Connelly, author of “The Declassification Engine,” explains that “as much as bureaucrats know they’re only supposed to classify information that’s really important, they end up classifying all kinds of nonsense. ... Even like telling a friend, ‘Let’s go have coffee.’ They’ll end up classifying that email as top secret.”

Former CIA Director Mike Hayden once got a classified email saying “Merry Christmas.” and Martin O’Malley in 2016. Since accepting this job in May, Ms. Jean-Pierre has responded to reporters with “I don’t have anything on that,” or, “I’ll get back to you on that issue later” at least 100 times in the briefing room. are presidential favorites, with or without experience. Some have done their job well, while others failed. Some made contentious statements; others were softspoken.

From day one on the job, she has not given a clear, succinct answer to most questions. She talks in circles as if she is avoiding saying anything she thinks Joe Biden might not approve of or make her look ignorant. Her responses are more like meaningless word salads much the same as you would get from Vice President Kamala Harris. Ms. Jean-Pierre acts like someone on trial who has no attorney defending themselves.

For years, the government classified how much peanut butter the Army bought. They classified a description of wedding rituals in Dagestan. They even classify newspaper articles.

They are especially eager to classify dumb things they do, like the Army’s reported experiments testing whether “psychics” could kill people with their eyes.

“A lot of what the government keeps secret, they keep secret simply because it’s embarrassing,” says Mr. Connelly.

Occasionally, government tries to reduce overclassification.

All must be loyal to the president and defend his actions. They must be a beacon of confidence on the podium.

White House press secretary is an extremely challenging job. That individual must know a great deal about politics and current events. They must know the president’s agenda and his opinions and react without hesitation. It’s a tough job and a baptism of fire in front of the nation.

“The press secretary’s job is so arduous few presidents could handle it themselves.”

— Nikki Hale

Press secretaries speak for the president. It is important they are chosen for their experience, not their gender or their race.

Yet when press secretary Jen Psaki left to take a job at MSNBC, Joe Biden hired novice Karine Jean-Pierre because she checked the boxes. She is black and a woman, and she is openly gay. The only political experience that Ms. Jean-Pierre had was short-lived jobs working on the Democratic presidential campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008, John Edwards in 2004

Ms. Jean-Pierre’s near-total dependence on a binder full of administration talking points is distracting. This is a book compiled for her by President Biden’s advisers with indexed notes for her to reference if she needs to clarify a topic. She frantically turns pages through this book, looking for answers these reporters already know and just want clarified. When she can’t find the answer, she says, “I have nothing on that.”

“I never trust anyone who must look inside a book to answer a simple question.”

— Kelly Sadler

It’s one thing for a press secretary to have notes for reference. But it shows her lack of confidence and knowledge when she stares down at them

Please see HAUPT on C4

The Reds’ balloons: How dangerous is China?

‘The Red Balloon” is the title of a classic popular film from France that can serve as a metaphor for the alleged Chinese balloon menace.

This whimsical fantasy of a boy and his balloon appeals to our need for companionship and our urge to escape routine existence, a desire hardly limited to children.

The film appeared in 1956, during constant government instability in France. The previous decade witnessed stunning military defeat by Nazi Germany, then four years of humiliating, brutal occupation. The appeal of escapist fantasy in those circumstances is fully understandable.

Sudden media obsession with Beijing balloons is not fantasy, but, combined with occasional professional reporting, an opportunity for stratospheric speculation and making money.

Facts, as opposed to speculation, include the violation of North America airspace by a sizable lighter-than-air craft from China. The vessel was about as large as a small car. But what distinctive, special intel could be gathered by such primitive means?

After drifting across the United States, military officers under orders from President Joe Biden terminated the balloon’s leisurely flight. A stateof-the-art F-22 jet fighter shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

Now recalibrated surveillance tools seek out balloons. One shot down in Alaska likely was a project of balloon hobbyists in Illinois.

Predictably, Beijing has vocally protested the military response to the Chinese balloon. Its official explanation is that the craft was pursuing an innocent meteorological mission and blew off course.

To be sure, balloons have a long though uneven history of military uses. These include surveillance and gathering terrain information, useful in making maps, and aerial attack.

Late in the 18tth century in France, entrepreneurial brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier developed a working balloon, and in 1783, there was the first documented human ascent in a piloted lighterthan-air craft. The Montgolfier family was in the paper business, and the new invention proved extremely useful in map-making, along with providing publicity that could only aid profits.

Six years later, the French Revolution began. This ongoing conflict brought the first recorded use of balloons for military purposes, primarily reconnoitering and tracking enemy operations. The Civil War (1861-1865) brought significant expansion of balloons used for military missions. President Abraham Lincoln demonstrated relentless interest in exploiting existing technologies, notably the railroad and the telegraph, and developing new ones. Better firearms were a constant preoccupation.

Lincoln is the only U.S. president to hold a patent, Patent Number 6469, issued in 1849 for a device to lift boats over river obstructions. The device was never manufactured.

Professor Thaddeus Lowe, an inveterate inventor of the time, persuaded President Lincoln to implement a military balloon program. His presentation included describing by telegraph the view of Washington D.C. from a balloon.

Lincoln created the Union Army Balloon Corps in 1861, with Lowe in charge. Opposition from traditional officers forced disbanding the corps two years later.

In 1899 and 1907, disarmament conferences were convened at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Balloons were included. There was no mention of airplanes.

Balloons were used for both offense and defense during both World War I and World War II, and were a focus of planning between the wars, but quickly became marginal.

Uncertainty clouds the Beijing balloon efforts. Beneath ubiquitous President-for-Life Xi Jinping, China now is in economic and social turmoil.

The odd balloons may be one indicator of this. Above all, our leaders and the rest of us must remain firmly grounded.

Avoid fantasies.

Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He is also the director of the Clausen Center at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisc., and a Clausen Distinguished Professor. He welcomes questions and comments at acyr@carthage.edu.

Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all pledged to reduce the excess.

“Not in one case did they actually reduce the rate at which our government was creating secrets,” says Mr.

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