The Conversation -- July 5, 2024
Leigh Ann Caldwell & Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask Joe Biden to exit the presidential race, according to two people with direct knowledge of the effort.... The Virginia senator has told others that he is deeply concerned Biden is not able to run a campaign that could beat ... Donald Trump." ~~~
~~~ Kate Santaliz, et al., of NBC News: "Some key House and Senate Democrats are planning meetings next week where they're expected to discuss the path forward for President Joe Biden. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., will convene a virtual meeting with Democratic committee ranking members on Sunday, three sources told NBC News. The meeting is expected to focus on President Biden, one of the sources said, as he faces calls to step aside as the party's nominee.... The House committee leaders' meeting, set for 2 p.m. Sunday., is not part of any regularly scheduled gathering of ranking members.... Jeffries has been fairly quiet about Biden in recent days and very little has leaked from his conference call with top House Democratic leaders before the July 4 holiday."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "One of America's political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day.... After Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by a Manhattan jury in May -- a verdict that came after civil judgments against him for personal and professional misdeeds -- there was no significant groundswell within the Republican Party to force him out of the race.... Even though many Republican officeholders and strategists privately loathe him, they fell in line and made clear they would stick with him no matter how many scandals piled up.
"Until last week, Democrats had also ... effectively squelched any internal dissent, forcing Democrats to stay quiet despite fears that his age would ultimately undercut his campaign. After last week's debate showcased concerns about his mental sharpness, however..., a wide swath of Democrats concluded that he was no longer viable and mounted an effort to pressure him to step aside.... 'While Biden had the worst debate performance in all of presidential history, Trump's was likely the second-worst,' said Jeffrey A. Engel ... [of] Southern Methodist University. 'Yet we hear crickets from Republicans after their presumptive nominee was incoherent, rambling and utterly divorced from the truth. Oh, and also a convicted felon.'... Mr. Trump ... has turned shortcomings into power, at least among his own partisans."
Robert Scalese & John Bender of WBUR (Boston): "Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton says President Biden should bow out of the upcoming election. Speaking with WBUR on Thursday, Moulton said he does not have confidence Biden could defeat former President Trump in November. 'President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington's footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,' Moulton said. Moulton is the third sitting member of Congress to publicly say Biden shouldn't run again -- and the first from the Massachusetts delegation." A New York Times story is here.
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Presidential Race
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden sought to steady his re-election campaign by talking with two Black radio hosts for interviews broadcast on Thursday, but he spoke haltingly at points during one interview and struggled to find the right phrase in the other, saying that he was proud to have been 'the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.' He also stumbled over his words during a four-minute Fourth of July speech to military families at the White House, beginning a story about ... Donald J. Trump, calling him 'one of our colleagues, the former president' and then adding, 'probably shouldn't say, at any rate' before abruptly ending the story and moving on." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As I read on through the examples Shear provided, Biden's mistakes sounded to me a lot like Donald Trump's.
Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "President Joe Biden's inner circle has been working hard to conceal the 81 year-old's fragile state for the better part of the 2024 cycle only to have the most recent televised debate confirm everyone's fears, according to a new report. In a Thursday article for New York Magazine, journalist Olivia Nuzzi wrote in-depth about conversations with 'Democratic officials, activists and donors' who all shared their concern about Biden's cognitive health.... 'It hasn't been good for a long time but it's gotten so, so much worse,' [a] witness to [an] exchange [between Biden and a donor] told Nuzzi. 'So much worse!'"
Kenneth Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: "After several days of quiet griping and hoping that President Biden would abandon his re-election campaign on his own, many wealthy Democratic donors are trying to take matters into their own hands. Wielding their fortunes as both carrot and stick, donors have undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure Mr. Biden to step down from the top of the ticket and help lay the groundwork for an alternate candidate. The efforts -- some coordinated, some conflicting and others still nascent -- expose a remarkable and growing rift between the party's contributor class and its standard-bearer that could have an impact on down-ballot races, whether or not the donors influence Mr. Biden's decision.... A group of them is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund, called the Next Generation PAC, that would be used to support a replacement candidate. If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down-ballot candidates, according to people close to the effort. Supporters of potential replacements like Vice President Kamala Harris are jockeying to position their preferred successor. Other donors are threatening to withhold contributions not only from Mr. Biden but also from other Democratic groups unless Mr. Biden bows out." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "President Joe Biden is facing an uprising from some his own party's wealthy donors, including an heiress to the Disney family fortune, who say they will no longer fund the Democratic Party until Biden drops out of the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance. Abigail Disney, the granddaughter to Roy O. Disney, who cofounded The Walt Disney Company, told CNBC on Thursday that she plans to withhold donations to the party she has funded for years until Biden drops out. The president has said he has no plans to withdraw from the race...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case you are thinking of all this as a massive reprise of "Democrats in Disarray!" stories -- take heart! Here are these fatcat Democratic donors devising ways to help the part come up with a candidate for president who can (a) win and (b) take positive steps to help the American people. Meanwhile, over at the GOP donors' club, everybody is bribing Trump to lower their taxes, write drilling & mining permits, appoint corrupt aides, department heads and judges, and fire all the "deep-state" regulators.
Jonathan Martin in Politico Magazine: "By descending on Washington to meet with President Joe Biden and then emerging from the West Wing to oh-so-earnestly pledge their public support to the beleaguered president, [Democratic] governors complicated the efforts of congressional Democrats to ease him off the ticket.... Most congressional Democrats simply see no path to take back the House and hold their Senate majority if they are led by a president who large majorities of the country, as new polls indicate, believe is too old for the job. Yet by showing up at the White House and then, more significantly, offering public displays of support, the governors only encouraged a standard bearer many lawmakers feel is doomed -- and will doom them. Most House Democrats are outrunning Biden in their internal surveys, I'm told by people familiar with the results. But they know they can't overcome his drag if he's losing their seats by 15 points...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Reid Epstein & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Biden told a gathering of Democratic governors that he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8 p.m., according to two people who participated in the meeting and several others briefed on his comments. The remarks on Wednesday were a stark acknowledgment of fatigue from the 81-year-old president during a meeting intended to reassure more than two dozen of his most important supporters that he is still in command of his job and capable of mounting a robust campaign against ... Donald J. Trump.... Mr. Biden told the governors, some of whom were at the White House while others participated virtually, that he was staying in the race." (Also linked yesterday.)
Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump kicked off the Fourth of July with a lengthy screed on Truth Social praising himself and lobbing insults at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris -- barely mentioning anything at all about the founding of the country or any of its values." (Also linked yesterday.)
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U.K. William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Keir Starmer and his renewed Labour Party won a landslide election in Britain on Thursday, according to the exit poll, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule and moving toward a new government dominated by the center left. This was an election that was more about mood than policy, and voters conveyed their frustration with the incumbent Tories and a willingness to take a chance on a 'changed Labour Party,' as Starmer calls it, purged of its hard-left elements and socialist rhetoric. The sophisticated exit poll, sponsored by Britain's top broadcasters, found that Labour was on track to win 410 seats in the 650-seat Parliament. The Conservatives were projected to take 131 seats -- which would the party's worst result since its founding."
The New York Times liveblogged Britain's election results. Mark Landler: "Britain's Labour Party was projected on Thursday evening to win a landslide election victory, sweeping the Conservative Party out of power after 14 years, in a thundering anti-incumbent revolt that heralded a new era in British politics. A nationwide exit poll conducted for the BBC and two other broadcasters indicated that Labour was on course to win around 410 of the 650 seats in the British House of Commons, versus 131 for the Conservatives. If the projections are confirmed, it would be the worst defeat for the Conservatives in the nearly 200-year history of the party...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. New pinned item, by Landler & others: "Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office in Britain on Friday after his center-left Labour Party won a landslide election victory, sweeping the Conservatives out of power after 14 years in an anti-incumbent revolt that heralded a new era in the nation's politics. Mr. Starmer met at Buckingham Palace with King Charles III and then delivered a speech outside No. 10 Downing Street, saying Britons had 'voted decisively for change' and calling on the country 'to move forward together.' Hours earlier, the departing prime minister, Rishi Sunak, gave brief, conciliatory remarks in Downing Street, congratulating Mr. Starmer, accepting responsibility for his party's resounding defeat and saying to voters that he had 'heard your anger.'" ~~~
~~~ William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post write a brief biography of Keir Starmer. It's complicated.
News Ledes
CNBC: "The U.S. economy again added slightly more jobs than expected in June though the unemployment rate increased, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 206,000 for the month, better than the 200,000 Dow Jones forecast though less than the downwardly revised gain of 218,000 in May. The unemployment unexpectedly climbed to 4.1%, tied for the highest level since October 2021 and providing a conflicting sign for Federal Reserve official weighing their next move on monetary policy. The forecast had been for the jobless rate to hold steady at 4%."
New York Times: "Hurricane Beryl was churning toward the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico at Category 3 strength early Friday after tearing through the eastern Caribbean, where it left islands flattened, communities inundated and at least eight people dead. The storm, the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, had weakened to Category 2 strength on Thursday, but it regained force in the Caribbean Sea, with maximum sustained winds up to 115 miles an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was expected to make landfall in Mexico later on Friday morning."
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Reader Comments (6)
"Gangsters vs. Nazis
How the Jewish mob fought American admirers of the Third Reich"
Tom Sullivan
"A reliable feature of our politics is that people from the center to the left, including the press, direct more fire at Democrats than at Republicans. It’s not that Democrats deserve more criticism. It’s that the aggrieved see more chance that their complaints will leave a mark on the left than on conservatives better armored against them. If shamelessness is conservatives’ superpower, giving a damn is the left’s kryptonite.
Protecting our freedoms matters. Improving other people’s lives matters. A more perfect union matters. Equal justice under law matters. Just not to our opponents, if ever it was.
And while the piranhas chomp away at the party that actually gives a damn about salvaging a country once aspirationally dedicated to the proposition that all
menpersons are created equal, supposed Real Americans™ who never accepted that proposition (except as a marketing slogan) march towards reformatting the United States as a monarchy similar to the one we declared ourselves free of on July 4, 1776.The cruelest irony is that it was a mad king that drove our 18th century forebears to separate from England. Now, MAGA Republicans want not just to restore the monarchy, but with a 21st century mad king. A poor person’s idea of a rich person, a foolish person’s idea of a smart one."
This whole business is just a rats' nest...I have defended Biden for so long it embarrasses me. The only thing I noticed continually was how slitted and squinty his eyes were, like he needs glasses dreadfully. The debate treated us all to the confused stare and the gape-y mouth, all of which I had not really noticed when he spoke previously. I suppose that is because everything has been scripted and the coverup has been massive. That makes me sad too-- Does this mean all this time the NYT and all the other age-shamers were right and I am a silly goose?
I guess I am on the Kamala bandwagon at this point, since the idea of Fatstuff anywhere near the Oval gives me heart palpitations. He and his allies in/at Heritage and NRA and Fox and all are death to the USA.
New York Times doing it's thing again.
"The NYT published an op-ed from one of its house reactionaries based on the premise that he doesn’t vote (with the implication that you, the typical liberal who reads the Times, shouldn’t either). This turned out to be based on a total lie, so they corrected things by…changing the title:"
Interesting take on the state of the media post-debate, especially the New York Times. Unfortunately, none of this reads as anything new, especially since trump first showed up back in 2015.
https://heartlandsignal.com/2024/07/03/opinion-the-biden-news-coverage-requires-less-hysteria-more-journalism/
So...the press, who also "report" many democratic supporters are ready to drown Biden in favor of ? in the 11th hour are ready and willing to give a sociopath, hard fascist leaning narcissist a pass. In my view, Kamala Harris is quite capable of governance, should Biden become incapacitated ( yup - she was my choice to begin with). Trump, on the other hand, is a shitstorm just waiting to destroy our country and drive us decades backward. As if the current configuration of SCOTUS isn't doing that on its own while embracing the breathtaking hubris of white man Christian privilege and snorting up unimaginable payoffs for decisions.