Over the Juneteenth weekend, two different men in two different venues told the story of elite Washington in the early Biden era. One was Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), quoted in a New York Times story about the return of extravagant D.C. parties attended by politicians, lobbyists, and media pundits. Asked about busting out the tuxedo after a year in quarantine—while nearby, ballerinas performed Don Quixote and men lined up for photos with Paul Ryan—Warner quipped, “If I was bummed, I’d be in the wrong business.”
The other man was Walter Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director pushed out by Donald Trump. Shaub, a vocal Biden supporter during the election who is now at the Project on Government Oversight, wrote an angry and grief-ridden Twitter thread about reports of rising nepotism in the Biden administration. “This is a real ‘fuck you’ to us—and government ethics,” Shaub wrote. “Do I sound bitter? HELL, YEAH, I’M BITTER! I’m the stupid moron who fell for his [Biden’s] false promises.” Shaub has followed up with more angry tweets and quotes in the days since.