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The Conversation -- July 6, 2024
Biden's Blind Spot Is Shakespearean. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "King Lear gave up power too early. President Biden will give it up too late. And that is Joe's tragedy.... Biden's contention that he alone can beat Trump was never true. And now he has lost some moral high ground because he hid the evidence of cognitive deterioration.... We don't know now who is running the country. We only know who shouldn't be -- the president and the former president.... Let's open the convention and check out all the Democratic stars." MB: Dowd doesn't write anything I haven't written since reading the debate reviews and seeing some 30 seconds of Biden's performance. But she writes it better.
Lisa Kashinsky & Kelly Garrity of Politico: "One of Joe Biden's high-profile campaign surrogates is publicly urging him to consider exiting the presidential race. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a member of Biden's national campaign advisory board who earlier this spring headlined a big-dollar fundraiser for him in Boston, said in a statement Friday that he should 'carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump.'"
Matt Viser & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), who is in a competitive race and among the more endangered Democrats, on Saturday morning called on [President] Biden to drop out of the race, saying 'there is only a small window left to make sure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win.... Given what I saw and heard from the President during last week's debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,' she said in a statement." Politico's story is here.
Sanjay Gupta of CNN: "The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me ... [following President Biden's debate performance] was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public." MB: See also Paul Campos in LG&$. (Thanks to RAS for the link.) See my comment near the top of Saturday's thread. ~~~
~~~ Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Joe Biden's doctor met with a leading Washington DC neurologist at the White House this year, it was reported on Saturday. The report came after Biden on Friday ruled out taking an independent cognitive test and releasing its findings publicly.... According White House visitor logs reviewed by the New York Post, Dr Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson's disease expert at Walter Reed medical center, met with Dr Kevin O'Connor, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who has treated the president for years. The visit took place at the White House residence clinic on 17 January. Cannard has visited the White House house eight times since August 2023.... Biden has consistently rejected taking any cognitive test, including in August 2020 when he dismissed a reporter's question with: 'Why the hell would I take a test?' He has continued to dismiss the need for one and, according to aides, has not received one during his three annual physical exams during his term in the White House. The Washington Post on Saturday reported a White House aide saying that O'Connor, who has been Biden's doctor since 2009, has never recommended that Biden take a cognitive test." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Okay, it's the New York Post, but the Guardian is willing to accept the reporting, so maybe the Post didn't just make up the story out of whole cloth.
Michael Kranish & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "Since winning the White House, [President] Biden has continued to dismiss the need for a cognitive exam, and aides have said he has never taken one as president -- not in three annual physical exams, and not in the week since a halting debate performance raised more urgent questions about the now-81-year-old's mental acuity. That decision has been overseen by a key figure largely unknown to the public: Kevin O'Connor, the physician to the president, who has grown extraordinarily close to Biden since becoming his personal doctor in 2009. A White House official said O'Connor has never recommended that Biden take a cognitive test.... Unlike some physicians to a president, O'Connor, 58, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and a retired Army colonel, has not appeared at the White House podium to take questions about Biden's annual physicals and other medical events....
"Three of O'Connor's former colleagues in the White House medical unit, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential relationships, said Biden's debate performance suggested to them that the president should undergo cognitive screening. In addition, Ira Monka, the president of the American Osteopathic Association, who visited with O'Connor at the White House this year, also told The Post that he thinks Biden's performance should prompt an initial cognitive review to see if more tests are needed."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The questions asked of President Biden by two radio interviewers this week were provided in advance to the hosts by members of Mr. Biden's team, one of the hosts said Saturday morning on CNN.... And yet, despite knowing the questions in advance, Mr. Biden still stumbled over some of them.... Andrea Lawful-Sanders, the host of 'The Source' on WURD in Philadelphia, said Biden officials provided her with a list of eight questions ahead of the interview on Wednesday. 'The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them,' she told Victor Blackwell ... on CNN. Asked if it was the White House that sent the questions to her in advance, she said it was. 'I got several questions -- eight of them,' she said. 'And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.' Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Biden campaign, said it was actually campaign aides, not White House officials, who sent the list of questions.... Ms. Lawful-Sanders said later on Saturday that she 'never once felt pressured to ask certain questions' from the campaign." A Mother Jones story is here.
Delay, Delay, Delay. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Saturday postponed a few deadlines in ... Donald J. Trump's classified documents case to allow prosecutors time to respond to his request for a broader pause in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling this week on executive immunity.... In a brief order on Saturday, Judge [Aileen] Cannon told prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, that they had until July 18 to respond to Mr. Trump's request for a broad delay. In the meantime, she pushed back two approaching deadlines in the case related to filings about expert witnesses the two sides plan to introduce at trial and to the defense's obligation to provide discovery information to the government."
Marie: Speaking on MSNBC this morning, Jill Wine-Banks pointed out perhaps the only hilarious by-product of Supreme Court's presidential* immunity ruling: it blows up the fake purpose of Jim Jordan's infamous House Weaponization Committee where the House was supposed to be investigating how Joe Biden had "weaponized" the Justice Department and other federal agencies. Why? Because the Supremes made all that supposed weaponization (which is a right-wing fiction) is now totally legal. Thanks, Supremes!
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Presidential Race
I have a cognitive test every single day.... Everything I do. Not only am I campaigning, but I'm running the world. -- President Joe Biden, to George Stephanopoulos, in response to a question about whether or not he would agree to independent cognitive tests & evaluations ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday dismissed concerns about his age, his mental acuity and polls showing him losing his re-election bid, saying in a prime-time interview that his sharpness is tested every day while he is 'running the world.' He vowed to drop out only if 'the Lord Almighty' told him to. During a 22-minute interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, which aired unedited, Mr. Biden, 81, said there was no need for him to submit to neurological or cognitive testing. He said he simply did not believe the polls showing him losing. And asked how he would feel if ... Donald J. Trump were elected in November, he brushed off the question.... Again and again, Mr. Biden told Mr. Stephanopoulos that voters should consider his accomplishments in office.... Mr. Biden consented to the ABC interview -- one of the few that he has given to news organizations during his presidency -- and traveled to Madison, Wis., for a campaign rally in the hopes that strong performances could help rescue his teetering presidential campaign." ~~~
~~~ Steve Peoples of the AP: "The president and his team were hopeful that this first interview would help rally his party and generate momentum for the long road ahead. It's unclear if he was successful.... If people were looking for further signs of trouble, they were easy to find.... He needed to do much more than clear the incredibly low bar he set on national television last week. And the ABC interview had several examples of awkward pauses, garbled words and moments where he meandered.... Biden does not have a good explanation for his dismal debate performance.... Biden appeared flustered at times.... Even before the interview was over, it was clear it would take much more to win over a party that is suddenly open to Biden alternatives just four months before Election Day." Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Here's the transcript, via ABC News.
~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... many Democrats who spoke out after the interview, which aired on ABC News on Friday night, signaled that it had done little to shift their stances, regardless of whether they thought [President] Biden should remain in the race or drop out.... The president's critics among the Democrats, including those asking him to step aside, said Mr. Biden appeared to be out of touch or in denial about his prospects for re-election.... Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois..., said Mr. Biden should step aside, telling CNN that he found points in the interview 'disturbing' and that it was clear 'the president of the United States doesn't have the vigor necessary to overcome the deficit here.'... Former Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who also has said that Mr. Biden should step aside, said after the interview, 'I don't think he moved the needle at all...,' Mr. Ryan said on MSNBC. 'I think there was a level of him being out of touch with reality on the ground.'... A handful of Democratic lawmakers who have consistently supported Mr. Biden said soon after the interview that they would stick with the president." MB: Quigley is the fourth member of the House to call for President Biden to withdraw his candidacy.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Biden's prime-time interview with Stephanopoulos will do nothing to reassure people worried about a Biden defeat. Stephanopoulos hectored him with nonstop and repetitive questions about his mental acuity for the full 22-minute session, which undoubtedly made Biden defensive. But the president seemed to be in denial about the magnitude of the problem facing him, unwilling even to acknowledge the obvious truth that he has lost a step over the last 3½ years.... Biden's determination not to give an inch was belied by his delivery: some of the same mouth-agape looks while listening to the question, a couple of meandering answers where he seemed to lose his train of thought. Incredibly, he said he hadn't re-watched the debate that threatens to sink his candidacy. 'I don't think I did, no,' he said after a pause."
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Contingency Plans. Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: "Bill Harris, a former chief executive of Intuit and PayPal, said he is leading a small group of Democratic donors who have pledged $2 million to help fund presidential debates among potential nominees if President Biden decides to step aside. The group of donors is pressing for an open competition for the Democratic nomination that would draw public attention if Biden drops out. The group is looking for robust debates rather than merely coalescing around Vice President Harris or another nominee, according to Bill Harris, who declined to name the other donors. Bill Harris described the vice president -- a likely front-runner to replace Biden if he bows out -- as 'a very strong candidate.' But he and the other donors financing the effort favor a 'mini-primary' similar to what Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) outlined Wednesday." ~~~
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden, who at 81 is the oldest person ever to hold the office, has displayed signs of accelerated aging in recent months, said numerous aides, foreign officials, members of Congress, donors and others who have interacted with Biden over the last 3½ years, noting that he moves more slowly, speaks more softly and has moments when he loses his train of thought more often than even just a year ago. None of those who spoke to The Washington Post said they had seen Biden appear as lost and confused as he did at the presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27, where his halting performance sent panic through the Democratic Party. They largely did not question his mental acuity, and several senior White House aides who interact with Biden regularly said that he continues to ask probing, detailed questions about complicated policy matters and can recall facts from previous briefings in minute detail."
Adriana Licon of the AP: "Donald Trump distanced himself Friday from Project 2025, a massive proposed overhaul of the federal government drafted by longtime allies and former officials in his administration, days after the head of the think tank responsible for the program suggested there would be a second American Revolution. 'I know nothing about Project 2025,' Trump posted on his social media website. 'I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.'... Some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former senior administration officials. The project's director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Trump's campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was featured in one of Project 2025's videos. John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, is a senior adviser." The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Obviously, you can (a) know "nothing" about a subject, then (b) say you disagree/agree with the subject. I guess it takes a stable genius to admit ignorance in the same breath he disavows that about which he knows nothing.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump on Friday asked the judge overseeing his classified documents case to put that proceeding almost entirely on hold as they sort through whether Mr. Trump enjoys immunity from the charges based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling this week.... In a 10-page motion, they asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is overseeing the proceedings, to allow them to file additional briefings on immunity and to freeze nearly all pretrial activity until she resolves the issue.... Mr. Trump's lawyers have already asked Judge Cannon to grant him immunity to the charges...." Politico's report is here.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Social Security Administration's recently departed inspector general abused her authority and undermined the integrity of her office while under investigation for misconduct, a report from a committee of federal watchdogs found. Gail Ennis, who left her post last week, repeatedly refused to steer clear of an inquiry into her leadership of an anti-fraud program that issued extraordinary fines on disabled and elderly people accused of disability benefit fraud, investigators found. The report said she obstructed the probe by refusing to be interviewed, ordering subordinates and witnesses to limit access to information, and at times seeking to mislead investigators." The committee has not yet released its report. MB: Ennis was a Trump appointee, so her obstruction and lies were perfectly consistent with Trump's MO.
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Kansas. John Hanna of the AP: "Kansas' highest court strongly reaffirmed Friday that the state constitution protects abortion access, striking down a ban on a common second-trimester procedure and laws regulating abortion providers more strictly than other health care providers. The pair of 5-1 decisions suggests that other restrictions -- even ones decades on the books -- might not withstand legal challenges.... 'This is an immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of people in Kansas and the entire Midwestern region, where millions have been cut off from abortion access,' said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the abortion providers challenging the two laws."
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the use of absentee-ballot drop boxes, changing the rules for voting four months before the presidential election and reversing a decision made by conservatives two years ago when they controlled the court. The 4-3 ruling came a year after liberals took a majority on the top court in a crucial swing state and six months after they undid a gerrymander that had long given Republicans huge majorities in the state legislature.... Ballot drop boxes were available for years in some Wisconsin communities, and their use was greatly expanded for the 2020 presidential election as voters turned to absentee voting because of the covid-19 pandemic. Top Wisconsin Republicans supported them at the time but turned against them after Joe Biden narrowly beat ... Donald Trump in the state.... The decision leaves it to local officials to decide whether to use drop boxes." The AP's report is here.
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Hungary. Two Members of Dictators' Club Meet in Moscow. Emily Rauhala & Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "Fresh off his first visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin -- a striking break with the European Union's collective foreign policy just days after Hungary took over the bloc's rotating presidency. Even before Orban's plane touched down Friday, the trip drew sharp disavowals from Brussels. Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s top diplomat, preemptively noted that the Hungarian leader's travel is not official E.U. business and 'takes place exclusively in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.' But with Hungary now holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the trip represented a diplomatic triumph for Putin...."
Iran. Farnaz Fassihi & Cassandra Vinograd of the New York Times: "In an election upset in Iran, the reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocated for moderate policies at home and improved relations with the West, won the presidential runoff election, beating his hard-line rival, the Ministry of Interior said on Saturday morning. Mr. Pezeshkian, 69, a cardiac surgeon, got 16.3 million votes to defeat the hard-line candidate, Saeed Jalili.... Mr. Jalili received 13.5 million votes. After polls closed at midnight, turnout stood at 50 percent, about 10 percentage points higher than in the first round of the election with about 30.5 million ballots cast in total, according to Iran's interior ministry. The first round saw a record-low turnout because many Iranians had boycotted the vote as an act of protest." The AP's report is here.
Vatican. Excommunication Comes to the Archbishop. Emma Bubola & Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "The Vatican said on Friday that it had excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the church's former ambassador to the United States, after finding him guilty of schism for refusing to recognize the authority of Pope Francis and the liberal reforms enacted after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Archbishop Viganò has emerged as one of the most unbridled conservative critics of Francis, calling him in public statements a 'false prophet' and a 'servant of Satan,' while embracing right-wing conspiracy theories and lauding ... Donald J. Trump. Though excommunicated, Archbishop Viganò will be able to keep his title, but he will not be allowed to celebrate Mass, receive or administer sacraments and hold official positions within the church's hierarchy."
News Lede
New York Times: "Texas was bracing for Tropical Storm Beryl as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico early Saturday, and a hurricane watch was issued for the state's southern coast. Hours earlier, the storm made landfall in Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. Damaging winds and storm surge battered the Mexican coast, leaving snapped trees and power outages in its wake. Beryl, which then weakened to a tropical storm, was expected to become a hurricane before reaching the Texas coast as soon as late Sunday. In the past week, the storm flattened islands and killed 12 people in Grenada, Jamaica and Venezuela."
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Reader Comments (6)
I get what he might have meant, but that "I'm running the world" line is kinda creepy..
Guess when you're running the world, it's hard to quit..
@Ken Winkes: I take your point, but I didn't find the "I'm running the world" remark as hubristic as Biden's refusal to take a battery of neurological tests. If you're "running the world" (or even just as "has-been" country like ours), you ought to be willing to make certain your mental health is tip-top. And you should be afraid to have that tested often, especially when friendly observers question your mental fitness.
Traditionally, men are not as good as women at recognizing their limitations, but it seems that Joe Biden is not the only one in his family who's refusing to confront the facts.
And another thing. Why aren't Biden and his family concerned about his legacy? He's had a terrific presidency (despite the low poll numbers, which I think say more about the public's concern about his age than about his accomplishments -- because the general public has no idea what Biden's accomplishments are), and he's about to have a disastrous election loss. Even if he wins, his second term will be the ultimate in lame-duck presidencies. Congress & the Supremes will run roughshod over him.
If Biden is right, and any other Democratic candidate would lose to Trump, too, well, why not let them? It's more satisfying to be able to say "toljaso" than "oops, I lost to a dictatorial moron, just as everybody said I would."
Something to consider.
"Medical experts: Biden needs to be evaluated for Parkinson’s"
BY Paul Campos
So Biden will lose to trump but Kamala or whoknowswho won't??
The next four months are going to be non-stop "dems in disarray" from the MSM, while trump gets away with the most gob-smacking lies and rants. Has the NYT or WaPo spent half the time they've been criticizing Biden's "debate" performance talking about the endless stream of lies coming from the pathological liar malignant narcissist?
How about this: elect Biden/Harris, then if he really begins to show signs of mental decline (kind of like what we have been seeing from the orange blob for years now), he can step down and Kamala Harris can take over. Works for me.....
Biden seems to be stubbornly refusing to examine himself. It won't be a fun four months, so why doesn't he decide to leave? Because Obama got a full second term? I agree with someone above, that if all the time grousing about his age in the papers etc. had been spent touting his accomplishments, it would have given him a better-perceived legacy. I am completely off The NYT forever-- they were late to the party about the Iraq war, and now all this claptrap they have printed the last years... I feel bad about Biden, but that's life. My husband has "mild cognitive impairment" and it won't get better, so the future is not good for Biden, I'm sad to say. But the Liar will continue wrecking what he began from 2016 on, and that is a nonstarter for most of us, I hope. Even if he lies about "2025," we all know he is lying, so there is zero point to his candidacy. He could expire today and we would still be stuck with his allies the SC, Congress, Fox, the NRA, Heritage and the morons in the rest of the US, so I don't know where we go from here.
Unfortunately the MSM has shown that they are as fond of Harris as they are of most women in politics. The headlines will switch from questions about the age of the Democratic candidate to questions about experience. Any Democrat is going to have to fight against the Republicans and most of the press, but Biden's age issue looks to be baked in now and the coverage will probably only get worse from the current low point. Harris or another candidate will at least be able to make a case for themselves and their policies. The press will continue to drown out any positives that Biden can bring with the age issue. And as the press focuses solely on Biden's age Trump gets a pass for most of what he says and his plans for the future. You would think that the front runner for president saying that he doesn't know anything about the center of his campaign policies, Project 2025, would be a huge story. Especially since the press claims that the mental state of the current or future president is so vitally important to them and the country.