Leadership

Sally Buzzbee has stepped down as Executive Editor of The Washington Post, the newspaper announced Sunday night.

Buzzbee, who has led the Post since 2021, will be immediately replaced by Matt Murray, the former Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal, until the 2024 election.

Back in the George W. Bush years, I began thinking the US ruling class had entered a serious phase of rot. After a round of tax cuts skewed toward the very rich, Bush and his cronies launched a horribly destructive and expensive war on Iraq that greatly damaged the reputation and finances of the United States on its own imperial terms.

In the aftermath of the Capitol riot, some Republicans say the party needs to recover a lost principle of democratic leadership: humility and a sense of service.

Leaders in America have long faced a built-in challenge – a tension woven into the fabric of their nation’s version of democracy.

Former President Barack Obama delivered a virtual commencement address on Saturday, urging the tens of thousands of graduates from historically black colleges and universities to "seize the initiative" amid what he described as a lack of leadership from leaders in the United States to the coronavirus pandemic.

Barack Obama attacked the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic during a speech on Saturday.

The comments are a rare rebuke of a sitting president from one of his predecessors, and come in the midst of a pandemic that has had devastating and disproportionate effects on communities of color in the United States.

Former President Barack Obama said in a commencement speech on Saturday that current leaders during the coronavirus crisis were failing 2020 graduates.

“More than anything this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” he said. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, criticized governors Thursday, saying they don't have a handle on their own supplies of masks and ventilators needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

In a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, Kushner urged governors and some senators to be more resourceful in their own states instead of looking first to the federal government for help.

"I alone can fix it,” Donald Trump famously asserted at the 2016 Republican National Convention, referring to “the system.”

The arena erupted in cheers. Today, amid a national crisis, the script has flipped. In key ways President Trump has deferred to governors, and hesitated to use the powers at his disposal – both formal and informal.

The moment is laden with irony. Since taking office, Mr. Trump’s critics have called him a wannabe autocrat as he blew through norms and pushed the boundaries of the Constitution’s checks and balances.

Joe Biden is the likely Democratic presidential nominee, but he’s not acting like it.

The former vice president has been noticeably absent from the national stage over the past few weeks, while Congress has worked out a coherent relief package to aid the economy. Democratic governors, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have partnered with the Trump administration to fight the coronavirus pandemic.