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jr.'s independent presidential run. officials on a dnc press call tuesday denounced his bid as an abuse of democracy that will deliver the white house to former president trump in november. that a call coming just hours after kennedy introduced lawyer nicole shanahan as his running mate at a rally in oakland, california can, where he said he intended to be a spoiler for both parties. >> our campaign is a spoiler, i agree with that. it's a spoiler for president biden and for president trump. that's why they're trying to keep to me off the ballot, and to the frighten you into choosing between the two tired and unpopular heads of the uniwith party. paul: let's bring in our panel, "wall street journal" columnists dan manning ger, kim strassel and bill mcgurn. kim, so rfk jr.'s been doing about 13, 15% or so in the polls. showing up, which is pretty good for a third party candidate and

shows some real dissatisfaction with the two main contenders. do you think that a number is likely to rise or fall as the campaign gets underway? >> look, i think especially now that he's to getting all of this attention and democrats are helping him to get attention with their efforts to keep him off the ballot and tarnish him, i think he still has room to grow because there is a lot of dissatisfaction out there, paul. and democrats, i think, are also right to be concerned. some polls have suggested that he is polling -- pulling support from both sides almost evenly. but i think with his decision to choose nicole shanahan, it puts much more of a progressive stamp on that party, and republicans are certainly eager to point out that it is the another liberal option and to present if it as an alternative to president biden. and this is why you see democrats in a panic. paul: yeah. the nicole shanahan choice, will -- bill, what do you think

that's all about? he talked about a aaron rodgers and some others. what does he hope to get with her? >> well, for one thing, he has to have a vice presidential nam- paul: to get on the ballot. >> so it could be anyone, but he picked her. i think also she brings cash to get him through these ballot efforts. as far as i know, he's only on utah's ballot now, is so he has some work to do. paul: they claim they have enough for four states so far. >> right. paul: and and four others are close. >> i think she's a short-terming pick. she solves the problem he has in the short term, money and funds to get on the ballot and name. so i don't know that she's known for any positions particularly, but again, that's most vice presidents. they don't, they don't -- paul: doesn't matter to the ticket, yeah. so it's pretty clear9 that the democrats are, as kim suggested, really panicked about this. they want to keep him, rfk jr.

with, off the ballot. do you think their calculation is right that this, that he would hurt biden more than trump? >> not necessarily. i don't think it's obvious at this point who he's going to hurt more in november. we have a hong way to go. a long way to go. but the democrats have decided because of the polls, essentially, that he's going to pull more from if biden, and they're going to do anything they can to stop him. i mean, i get a kick out of they say he's a threat to democracy but also saying he's disgusting. that's pretty heavy. paul: he's a threat to democracy, and we're going to keep him off the ballot. [laughter] >> they hire mark marc elias to look at the ways to look at the election rules and laws to see if they can keep him off the ballot that way. of last time michigan and georgia were decided by about a point for either a candidate, and that could make a big difference if a third party candidate or some of these others pulled, say, from joe biden. that could be the election. so their concerns are not

without with reason. paul: but, kim, is there any way that he is anything other than a spoiler in the sense that he can't win enough electoral votes to become president? the most he could probably do would be to take more votes from one or the other. i suppose, or you know, if things went really strangely, he might be able to win a state although even that's unlikely. >> yeah. i mean, look, i dislike the world spoiler sometimes because i think it's unfair to voters who actually sometimes want another choice, okay? the reason we're all in this situation is because no one's happy with the top two choices. paul: right. >> but you're right, he's not going to win a state. but when we have elections, i mean, look, in the last election joe biden won by a margin of 43,000 votes spread over 3 states. in arizona it was 10,000 votes. if republicans can go out or the can kennedy campaign can go out and convince that many people in arizona that they don't want to pull the lever, for instance,

for joe biden but for him instead, that could change an election. and that is why democrats are so concerned. paul: donald trumping of course, weighed in this week, bill, with his truth social statement saying that rfk jr. is a far left candidate, further even than bind, he said is, but he's delighted he's in the race because if he's going to hurt biden. [laughter] >> because he is a far-left candidate. the only wrinkle i'll add is i was looking at rfk's position in the middle east, he's been a strong supporter of israel in the gaza conflict -- paul: right. >> and that seems at odds with the support he has. you would think the protesters would be natural kennedy voters, but he's said some pretty tough things on israel's side, and he hasn't backed off of them. so it's one challenge to biden from the right in the democrat -- not in the party, because he's separate, but in the liberal -- paul: but that could the reduce his appeal, presumably --

>> yes. i mean, right. paul: -- on the left. of okay. all right, when we come back, a date is set for the first of four criminal trials facing donald trump as the former president's media company goes public and soars on hopes that he'll retake the white house. muck some people have minor joint pain plus stomach problems. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®. it won't irritate your stomach the way aleve® or even advil® or motrin® can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®. it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog.

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paul: some big developments this week in donald trump's new york legal cases. an appeals court or slashed the bond in attorney general letitia james' civil fraud case's to $175 million down from $464 million. the judge in district attorney alvin bragg's hush money case said jury selection for april sawth in what -- 15th in what will be the first of the four criminal indictments to go to trial. all this as his social media company went public in a move that could dramatically increase the former e president's net worth at least for now. we're back with dan dan henninger kim strassel, and we're also joined by with "wall street journal" columnist allysia finley. so, dan, a week with ago it

looked like trump could have to declare bankruptcy if that bond a had gone through. now it's cut by 60% and that windfall from his, the ipo, does this save the day for him financially? if. >> i think it probably does save the day at least for the moment. i mean, i like to regard this ipo that so many people crowded into as basically campaign contributions. it is to support trump. and so they've piledded in, all these billions of dollars, and, yes, there is an expectation that if if he wins the white house, truth social's value will rise. but at the moment, it has given him a windfall. he personally benefits to the tune of about $3 billion. to get at that money immediately, he would need a vote from the board of the spac to release that money which conceivably could drive down the value of truth social. so there's a bit of a dilemma there. and i think this money issue though for trump is a serious

one. he's still got the $464 million judgment. it's been reduced pretty much down to the interest -- paul: the bond, yeah. >> the bond. so he has got a lot of problems facing him with money, and he has to run a campaign simultaneously. while he's spending all this time in court. so trump is not completely out of the woods with. he's using the courts as a fund raising venue right now, they've basically become his rally venues, so he has a way of surviving. but these money numbers are huge, paul. paul: yeah. allysia a, the truth social valuation seems, how shall we say, out of sync with the actual profits? that site has never made money. what do you think of it, is it like dan said, basically a way for people to give a vote of confidence for trump's campaign? if. >> i generally agree, but if you look at a lot of the speculative stocks, if you look at reddit which went public just last week and it has an $11 billion valuation, and it's been in

business for almost 20 years, and it's still losing money. so start-ups often lose money for the first early years. facebook did, twitter, or x.com is still losing money. so it's not surprising that truth social is sill losing money. it hasn't been able to monetize the site. now, the bet is that president -- if donald trump wins election, he'll be able to draw advertisers, draw more users to the site and thereby potentially could make it profitable. but right now it's a really long bet. paul: so you're talking about for investors this is really a speculative bet with. do not bet the retirement money if on it, right? [laughter] >> i think that's an understatement. [laughter] if you're 65 a and you're retiring, you should probably be in some bonds. paul: okay. all right. kim, what about this trial date here for april 15th? you've got the new york city trial starting then. it'll be the fist one, presume -- first one, presume my the last three weeks or a month, there'll be a verdict at the end

of it. trump, meanwhile, will have to be in the courtroom, will not be able to campaign although this i guess he's probably going to use the courtroom before and after as a kind of campaign event, right? >> well, this is what we've seen, paul. the media spent a lot of time talking about, oh, dear, all these court trial dates, hine aring them up against political dates on the political calendar. trump views in this as a win. he does the press conference outside, he knows that the cameras are in the courtroom if they're allowed. it's free press for him. and if you think about it, look, his fortunes politically really began to change last year when these lawsuits really hit him and people began with to focus. this is when a lot of republicans in a a primary said i'm going to show my solidarity against democratic lawfaring by being for donald trump. so for his base at least in terms of turn turnout efforts and getting people to rally around, these court appearances respect probably going to be a

net negative at all. now, the outcome could be a different question, but the process, no. paul: well, let's speculate a little bit about that outcome, dan. new york jury, probably not going to be too favorable to donald trump. if he is convicted, i mean, if he's acquitted, it'd be a huge victory for trump, right? vindicate his argument that this was all trumped up. but what about if he's convicted? could he possibly serve time in jail? >> it's almost inconceivable as much as democrats would love to see him in an orange suit. i are say on the conviction issue -- i will say on the conviction issue, paul, a i've always a been intrigued by the opinion polls that say a significant number of people would not vote for trump if he is convicted. paul: yeah. >> i don't see why people's opinion of him would switch other than a there's a threshold in their minds. now, i think that may apply to the federal cases, if he were convicted of a federal felony, and those cases are not going to come to trial, it doesn't look like -- or at least be completed

before -- paul: january 6th would be the only one that seems on a path the that possibly. >> right. but there is sort of that hammer hanging over with the possibility of a conviction negatively affecting him. paul: well, he'd appeal, no doubt, so then that would extend things maybe beyond the election. all right. when we come back, the issue of abortion returns to the supreme court as the justices weigh access to an fda-approved pill. like wearable tech. trends? all that research. sounds exhausting! nope. schwab's technology does the work. so if i spot an opportunity, in robotics or pets, i can buy those stocks ina few clicks. can't be that easy. it is with schwab! schwaaab! schwab investing themes. 40 customizable themes. up to 25 stocks in justa few clicks. diabetes can serve up a lot of questions, like... what is your glucose, and can you have more carbs? before you decide...

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don't wait- call today. ♪ if. paul: the supreme court this week heard its first major is abortion case since overturning roe v. wade almost two years ago as the justices considered a challenge to the food and drug administration's -- of a medication used in almost two of thirds the of u.s. abortions. a group of pro-life doctors say

the agency improperly eased restrictions on the drug without properly assessing safety data and potential risks for patients. but the court on tuesday appeared skeptical that the plaintiffs had the legal standing to sue. we're back with our panel. allysia a, so you followed this, and most of the justices seemed skeptical of the challenge here from the plaintiffs to the fda's regulations on this. why? >> well, first, leaving aside even the merits of the challenge, you have to look at this issue of legal standing. federal courts only hear, quote-unquote, cases in controversies, meaning plaintiffs must show they have a concrete injury that is addressable to a defendant's conduct and can be redressable by the courts. and here the plaintiffs, the pro-life doctors, congress show any of their members were actually harmed by the fda's relaxation of its dispensing rules. they couldn't show that any of their members had to complete abortions in violation of their

consciouses. it was all basically relied on statistical probabilities. paul: so none of the doctor plaintiffs actually had to perform abortions, and if they -- as a result of this and if they were asked, they could say i won't do it because i have the right under, i guess it is federal law, they said consciousness protection. so they really aren't injured? that's the argument? >> well, that's the argument that the suspect g. made -- s.g. made at the oral arguments, and i think it's a pretty strong argument. they couldn't show that they will have to, and amy coney barrett brought this up again during the oral argument. now, the potential or the risk here is that if they were granted standing, you could have all kinds of doctors bringing challenges to fda rules, approvals of drugs that were potentially created with the use of stem cells and saying that this violates their consciouses -- consciences. but i don't think the court wants to open up that pandora's

box. paul: kim, what about justice alito's question to the lawyers that the, that -- could this mean that the the plaintiffs, if they feel they're injured or anyone from this regulation has no way to challenge the food and drug administration? what's the response to that? >> well, there are plenty of ways to challenge the food and drug administration. i mean, i think allys irk a's making some really good points about whether or not you do this through the court system. and there are ways to sort of get around this. i mean, look, the question is that you really have to look and what he's asking is, is there any way to get to the merits of this decision and their claim that this somehow violated the administrative procedures act. and i think what you end up having to find is somebody who with did end up having some sort of adverse effect, for instance, having to go back and saying,

look, your safety data is not as correct as you said it is, and then there might be some sort of claim. it's just that these particular doctors are very much engaging in hypotheticals to get to that standing case. paul: you know, it was really interesting to me, dan, that the conservative justices here are standing on proper legal judicial procedure even hoe it might -- though it might in this case cause a ruling that runs against what is their policy preferences. anding of course, their critique of the conservatives is all they care about politics. this case shows, i think, that's not the case. >> no, it shows they have consistency in enforcing standing. and i think justice gorsuch put his finger on one of the problems here as well. he's talked about the difficult of what could be a small lawsuit turning into, essentially, a national assembly. and i think justices like gore such are concerned that as a heart felt and sincere as these objections are that were brought to the court, that people are running to the supreme court

with every problem, every disagreement they have. it's just like, well, put it in the court system is, push it through and take it up to the supreme court, and they're supposed to sit there and decide these political issues for the whole country. i think the conservative justices are saying that is not our primary role, to simply solve all of your problems. you have to have a strong legal are standing position as a allysia was suggesting, before you take it to the supreme court. paul: and the other issue is that gore -- gorsuch raised this tendency to run to the court, get a judicial and national injust -- injunction which which basically sets the law or the regulation for the entire country, and he is skeptical of that kind of habit which has developed on both the right and the left. >> right. you see is it in all a kinds of cases, immigration, you've also seep it in the obamacare case, recent obamacare case. and that really prehave vents

the merits being litigated -- prevents the merits being litigated and a full briefing. this is actually a case in point to that where the plaintiffs -- rather, sorry, the government actually argues that the the lower courts didn't do a full briefing of the issue and, therefore, some questions came up to the high court, for instance, regarding the -- [inaudible] act that really weren't fully or considered in the lower courts. paul: yeah. and the supreme court likes to make sure that you have, had a full briefing. the lower courts have vetted things fully on the merits before they have to hear it. still ahead, the return of isis. in the wake of last week's massacre in moscow, there's growing fear that the terror group's revival could threaten the united states.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ paul: in the wake of last week's deadly terror attack in russia, there's growing fear that the islamic state may be making a comeback if its sanctuary in afghanistan and could soon target the west. here's centcom commander general erica april la testifying before congress a day before the moscow rampage. >> isis surged their attacks in iraq and syria earlier this year, and the risk of attack emanating from afghanistan is increasing. iss -- assess isis retains the capability and the will to attack the u.s. and western interests abroad in as a little

as six months with little to no warning. paul: let's bring in seth jones, senior vice president and director of the international security program at the center for stream thetic rain and international studies -- strategic. seth, great to see you begin. so you heard the general. is he right on target there, or is perhaps that a little alarmist? >> well, paul, the growing evidence right now is that isis corazon, the group that's the affiliate of isis that is based out of afghanistan and pakistan, does present a more serious external threat to a range of european, u.s. and other targets and, obviously, we've seen their capability to strike in russia it. so the evidence does show that there were a number of arrests last year, for example. the or germans and the dutch had a series of arrests against isis-k plotters in europe. so that evidence seems to support what the general said. paul: well, now, we were told

when the u.s. withdrew i from afghanistan that that u.s. would retain what was called over the horizon capacity to monitor isis and al-qaeda in afghanistan. so it would not become a sanctuary again. is that something that has turned out to be not true,ing we're not capable of that? >> i think u.s. has very limited ability to strike targets in afghanistan. it has retained some, the u.s. back in 2022 killed the head of al-qaeda at the time, ayman al-zawahiri, in kabul -- paul: right. >> but for the most part when i was there in u.s. special operations, the intelligence that we add had of isis in al-qaeda -- and al-qaeda activity, u.s. has nothing like that right now. it also has no bases in the region from which to launch nq-9s or other drones, it's got to do that from the if persian gulf. so all of that talk, paul, early on about the u.s. having this capacity to strike targets in

afghanistan, that was just overhyped. paul: now, what about the taliban versus ooh isis? because, of course, there's sait loggerheads, they don't like each other. they're competing, essentially, to be the top jihadists around. but are they not doing anything to control isis? are we back to the 199 0s when the taliban let al-qaeda run free in afghanistan? >> well, the reality is that the taliban for years has worked closely with al-qaeda, and the islamic state a -- is an enemy offal tide, so the taliban has taken sides in this jihadist struggle. so taliban has conducted operations against the islamic state. is so has pakistan. the challenge is, as the u.s. found, in afghanistan a lot of these border regions it's really tough to control those the areas. so that's kind of what the taliban faces right now. paul: so another base for isis is has been, obviously, syria.

and for a while at least in iraq. the u.s. has retained a couple of bases there, small deployments of troops, a couple of thousand, i think, in syria say. how crucial are those bases to the u.s.' ability to monitor isis and maybe hit it in those countries? and i say that because with we allegedly, reportedly warned both russia and iran about the recent isis potential to attack in those countries. >> paul, i think it's critical that the u.s. keeps at least a limited presence in those countries. the u.s. has a very limited presence in around the conoco oilfields in syria and, obviously, in iraq as well. the the u.s. uses those bases for the collection of intelligence. and as we've seen over the last two to three years, it has conducted attacks against senior

isis leaders in syria from those locations. so if you pull out, first of all, your blind to what's going on and, second of all, you have very limited ability to strike if there is plotting against the u.s. or u.s. interests. and then third, obviously, u.s. gets just a better insight which it has provided even to its enemies. paul: right. and, another a place where isis is said to be growing is in africa. we've seen the french booted out of parts of that, of northern africa and the u.s. base in one welcome back country at least is in jeopardy can. how big of a problem is isis there? >> well, this is, without a doubt, the biggest expansion of isis and even some al-qaeda activity that we see on the globe. in the sahel, in cups like mali -- countries like mali, there's been an expansion of jihadist extremist groups including ones associated with

isis. for the moment what we don't see is a lot of external plot, again, like what we've seen out of coreson in afghanistan against european, potentially u.s., iranian and even russian targets. most of that is largely, or most of that a violent is largely in the sahel -- violence is largely in the sahel. but it has the potential as isis in the sahel expands to become external in its threat. paul: so i guess the question is, how concerned should americans be that we could see another attack on the homeland? we haven't had one here for a long time. >> i think the likelihood of an attack on the homeland from these groups is pretty limited right now except as what we saw in orlando with the omar mateen pulse nightclub attack, an inspired one. i think what is more likely is an attack against u.s., like an embassy or u.s. infrastructure in an area like europe or in central asia. , those kinds of groups have a much better ability to conduct

attacks in those regions. trying to get across the atlantic has been really difficult. paul: dangerous in any case. seth jones, thanks so much for coming in for that great overview. appreciate it. still ahead, a grim anniversary for "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich as he marks one year in a russian prison. plus, the rift between the israel and the biden administration grows after the u.s. fails to veto a u.n. security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. ♪ ro ♪ form 1040 and limited credits only... see how at turbotax.com... that's me! life, diabetes, there's no slowing down. each day is a unique blend of people to see and things to do. that's why you choose glucerna to help manage blood sugar response. uniquely designed with carbsteady. glucerna. bring on the day.

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or other eosinophilic conditions. allergic reactions may occur. don't stop your asthma treatments without talking with your doctor. tell your doctor if your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. get back to better breathing. get back to what you've missed. ask your doctor about fasenra, the only asthma treatment taken once every 8 weeks. if you can't afford your medication astrazeneca may be able to help. paul: yesterday marks the one-year anniversary of russia's arrest and conning imprisonment of "wall street journal" reporter evan a gershkovich and on tuesday he was ordered held for another three months at the request of russia's security service though he has not been formally charged or put on trial. the kremlin claims he is suspected of spying, but we all know that our colleague's real offense is honest reporting on

russia. bill, he's now spent a year there. it's a terrible place to be. the prison in moscow. is there any doubt in your mind that this now was a considered, deliberate decision by putin and the kremlin? >> yes. he likes having americans in prison that he can holder for a moment when he wants -- hold for a moment when he wants something. he seems to want a german aa saws sin now -- assassin now, and i assume the administration is in talks about that. the problem is they, the guys who take these hostages, they hold almost all the cards. and so i have a lot of sympathy for the government trying to negotiate their -- paul: it was difficult. >> it's difficult. and especially difficult to do and succeed without incentivize toking putin -- to, oh, pick up another american and put them in jail, what the iranians have done before. so it's a really horrible

situation and, of course, most horrible for evan and his family, the uncertainty and so forth. but that's what you get with dealing with putin. he's cold-blooded about it, and this is the useful to him. and he has no incentives not to keep evan. paul: right. because he figures he can get some bad actor -- >> what is he is suffering by keeping him? paul: but this is a little different, dan, than even brittney griner, the basketball celebrity who he, they had arrested, or even paul whelan, former marine that's been there for five years. evan's the first american journalist taken in russia since the cold war ended. what does this tell us about the u.s.' ability to protect a free press operating abroad? because we have an interest in having light shined on places like russia or china or iran. but it's terribly risky to go there. >> terribly risky to go with

there. and it is just putting the press' function at risk not merely in russia, but in all these authoritarian states. and i think it relates in no small part to the decline of u.s. influence around the world in the sense that countries, especially these authoritarian countries, don't really fear us anymore. and so they're leaning on reporters in moscow and, certainly, in beijing. it's now become an extremely -- and hong kong -- an extremely dangerous place to be a reporter. and until the united states, i think, shows more muscle and pushing back against countries like russia, iran and china, that reporters are going to continue to be at us erasing like this -- at risk like this. paul: kim, you worked abroad, and it's a lotteriesingier than when i worked abroad back in the 1980s. putin doesn't right now seem to be even interested in playing this trade game. there's nobody in the u.s -- the

u.s. holds that he e seems interested in getting. bill suggested there's an assassin in germ isny, but -- germany, but really putin does hold all the cards. >> yeah. i mean, look, i think about the number of countries, paul, that i would not go to now that i wouldn't have thought twice of 15 year ago, it's really astonishing. it says a lot about the new tactics that dictators like putin are using. and, you know, right now the immediate concern has got to be getting evan back with. and what we can hope is if there is some trade putin wants to make, because it's clear that's the only thing he's going to do in the end. to other amount of pressure -- he's going to get something in return for this. but i think the united states has to take steps going forward that make clear around the world that when somebody engages in this, that it is or considered the gravest of offenses against the united states especially when you take a journalist. because of the toxic consequences in particular of journalism being taken in that what it does is it worries other

journalists. they tend not to do reporting. they back off on their reporting, they leave the country. now, putin loves that. buts it is very, very problematic for shining a light on many of these authoritarian areas. he gets a double benefit out of this, maybe a trade and that lesser press scrutiny. but that's why the united states has to have a more muscularrings position on this in the future. paul: bill, just changing subjects here, how do you read the biden ab abstention at the u.s. calling for the ceasefire in gaza? >> well, i think it's dangerous because it delinked the hostages from the if ceasefire if. youd to be that we said -- used to be that we said, okay, give us the hostages, then you'll have a ceasefire. now it's delinked -- . paul: right. >> -- and the hostages are going to get forgotten. what dan and kim have just been talking about in america and russia, we have four americans many gaza is. -- in gaza, and they seem to have been

forgotten. now, the president did mention them at the state of the union and promised to get them all back. but what dan was saying, the policy has to be strong. the problem is the policy has to be strong before if they're taken. we have to spend the -- send the signal that there's a high price for molesting or killing an american: and i don't think, i don't think we sent that signal. paul: all right. thank you, all. when we come back, a c suite shake-up at boeing as the air to space giant grapples with a string of safety incidents and growing scrutiny from regulators that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were showing up left and right. and so did our business needs the chase ink card made it easy. when you go for something big like this, your kids see that. and they believe they can do the same. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card.

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manufacturer. the departures come as the company faces increasing scrutiny following a string of incidents including the mid-air blowout of a door mug on an alaska airline ares jet -- plug -- in january. transportation success e tear pete buttigieg told fox this week that the next ceo must make safety the top priority. >> we had a lot of concerns about what's going on inside boeing with. the faa ad a morer talked about a -- administrator talked about concerns that arose when he visited their manufacturing facility. what we saw was a lot of focus on production. of course, production's important, but the most important thing is safety. whoever is going to lead boeing going forward feeds to lead boeing in a direction where culturally and and operationally they are a thousand percent on top of all quality and safety issues. paul: let's bring in "wall street journal" business world columnist holmankins. welcome -- jenkins. to dave calhoun was brought in after the 737 max crashes

precisely to fix the problems at boeing. is it fair to say he's failed in that? and how so? >> well, i don't think it's fair to say he failed. he didn't cause the crashes, and the problems that did have been fixed. but, you know, during that long shutdown of boeing's assembly line, they lost at lot of workers and have been trying to gear up production again. they've been overing taxing their work force and causing a lot of errors, and that's the problem that he gets responsibility for. i'm to not sure it's entirely a boeing problem, you know? the airlines and the airports are short of skilled workers. the defense industry is short of skilled workers. they're all competing for the same shrinking pool. so boeing probably overreached in trying to get its production up and running, but this is a bigger problem than boeing. unquestionably, there's problems inside the company too. ah. paul: so why do you think he and these other executives resigned? did they really have to? somebody have to take the fall for this in because you write in

your column this week that, actually, there was a lot of signals coming from the government that there needed to be something happening at the senior ranks. enter yeah. this was a change -- >> yeah, this was a change that was directed toward an outside audience. it doesn't do anything for boeing internally. the company still needs to find a new ceo, and now it's set a deadline that it's going to force it to make a decision maybe faster than it should have. but the national transportation safety board gave some scathing testimony recently about the inability of boeing to find the maintenance records to explain what happens with the alaska airlines flight. the finishing aa conducted an audit of the 737 assembly line and found all kinds of problems. the fbi and the justice department have told alaska airlines passengers they may have been victims of a crime. all this happened in the last couple weeks. and so boeing had to show some change. so it moved some faces around really, that's all it really did. it did not solve the internal problem of finding a ceo who can take the company to where it

needs to go next. in fact, it probably made it harder by putting an artificial deadline on and creating more management turmoil. paul: what about this december 2006 that pete buttigieg, the transportation secretary, made in our introduction between production and safety? if it strikes me as somewhat a little too pat. i mean, certainly any airline has to be concerned first with safety because if you have any kind of disaster like we've seen with boeing, it really, really hurts boeing. [laughter] >> yeah, and it kills boeing's shareholder. they do not benefit from corner-cutting at all. nevertheless, boeing created this chaotic situation on its assembly line, and it had at least one bad mistake which was the alaska a airlines, failing to -- the boeing failing to properly reinstall that or door plug. and so you can easily draw a connection between boeing pushing too hard to get planes

out the door and that mistake, and that's easy that stands for -- stance for pete buttigieg to take and, of course, he's going to take that stance. boeing already knows it has that a problem, is already working to fix it. it does not want more incidents like the alaska airlines thing, so boeing does not need to be told how to fix that. but, you know, there's a lot of heat on washington over this and a lot of heat on, from airline passengers who are complaining to airline management who are a complaining to boeing. paul: so boeing with is also an a enormous military contractor. as you know, i think its business, the military business may be even bigger than it commercial business now. so it's enormously important to american national defense. so if you were president biden and you were thinking, you know, we need to really ramp up here the contend with a lot of adversaries around the world, or what would you do to get your arms around boeing and get it shipshape so it can start doing the right thing by our defends? -- defenses? >> i would get a new ceo in

there fast who basically reorient the company. boeing is talking about spendino develop a 737 replacement which may not be that mart an agenda if we're moving into a world where air travel is suppressed because there's a lot of international disorder and or, you know, there are wars going on. i think boeing's going to find its defense business under a lot of pressure to ramp up quickly to meet the u.s. and ally demand for missiles and refueling tankers and that sort of thing. but i think, you know,ing i think pete buttigieg sets the wrong agenda, because the agenda for buying in the future is going to be getting his defense business which also has problems, has, you know, shortage of workers, it has supply chain problems, and it's way over budget on a lot of projects. boeing's got to get that stranged out too k and that's probably where the real pressure in the future is going to come from. paul: holman jenkins, thanks so much. we have to the take one more break, when we come back, hits and misses of the week.

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♪ ♪ time now for our hits and misses of the week. kim, you are up first. >> so, a double rnc chair to be a contributor. also to the nbc executive who came to that tantrum and canceled her contract. to be clear to nbc execs were trying to do the right thing. to give their audience access to a different voice. instead what we have is another commentary on the conformity media caucus. it bodes ill for what we may see coming in this next election and coverage. >> right, bill? >> big hit to ron desantis. this been an epidemic of people coming home and finding squatters have taken over their

homes. a lady in new york came home, tried to evict them by changing the locks. she was the one led away in handcuffs. this week evidently santos took a big step to fixing things by citing a law that makes squatting criminal. other states are going to follow but good for florida for sending the lead. >> alicia? >> this is a mr. treasury secretary janet yellen who this week complained chinese manufacturers were dumping the r panel tvs and batteries on the u.s. market. the indicted administration has rolled out more than $1 trillion in a subsidy for green energy. now as angry at the chinese are taking advantage it's like campers who leave food out and are surprised when bears show up. [laughter] alright, dan? >> questioned. >> 's farewell head to connecticut senator joe lieberman who died suddenly this week. much has been said about senator lieberman's ability to work

across the aisle. there's another lesson in his career for us. in 2006 the democratic essentially kicked lieberman out of the party because he was not progressive enough for them. well, instead of bending to the dominant cultures senator lieberman held by his principles won reelection as an independent went on to have an extraordinarily admiral public career. that is the kind of independence we need more today. >> he really understood we have to face up to america's enemies of forthrightly. that is it for this week show for it thank you to my panel and for all of you for watching. we hope to see you right here next week. ♪ with the inspiration and strength from that motive and the desire to reach the united states, to see my kids grow. so for every time they asked me for something i have the memes to solve any and all their problems. beca