Last week, President Biden named former Obama administration attorney Ed Siskel (pictured) as the new White House Counsel. Siskel helped craft the legal response to the congressional investigations into the 2012 Benghazi attack which left four Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador. Siskel will take over during a critical time at the White House, when Biden is vying for reelection amid congressional and judicial investigations into his administration and family.
Bob Maginnis is senior fellow for national security at Family Research Council. He suggests Biden's former boss, Barack Obama, is behind Siskel's new appointment.
"Ed Siskel will do what he did with Benghazi – and that is, to spin it in the media and to confuse the Congress and the American people about what the issues are …. He's a spin master and will do precisely that sort of thing, which is why Biden and his team hired him," says Maginnis.
"It was probably Barack Obama that [told] Biden You're going to have to have this guy aboard because he knows how to do this sort of stuff."
If Siskel is successful, Maginnis says Joe Biden might be able to "run out the clock" on allegations of his involvement in his son Hunter's business dealings with foreign entities – not to mention investigations into the administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago.
"And then we'll have to wait and see if they can manipulate enough of the electorate to put him into a second term," he continues. "I hope not; I don't think he's fit for office – I think he probably is fit for jail, but we'll have to wait and see."
Siskel is scheduled to assume his new duties at the White House at the beginning of September, replacing current White House Counsel Stuart Delery.
