House Democrats put pressure on: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, recently convened a virtual meeting of House Democrats to discuss whether President Joe Biden should be replaced by a Democrat who has a better chance of beating President Donald Trump.
“Among the senators who have spoken out loud and clear that Biden should not run are Sen. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; Sen. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; Sen. Mark Takano of California, the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee; and Sen. Joseph D. Morrell of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee,” the report said. The New York Times. The very fact that Jeffries convened the meeting was significant: a high-level acknowledgment that the matchup wouldn't work, that Democrats have serious problems and that lawmakers aren't leaving it to party activists, campaign staff and Biden advisers to solve them.
In a media appearance this weekend aimed at easing public fears about his age, Biden said only “Almighty God” could convince him to step aside and allow others in his party to run for president against President Trump.
Divine intervention needed: “If the Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, step aside,' I would step aside,” he told ABC, before adding, “The Almighty is not going to come down.”
When asked how he would feel if he lost to Trump, he replied, “As long as I've done my best and I've done the best job I can, that's how I would feel. That's what this election is about.” (Interestingly, ABC and the White House initially disagreed on whether Biden had used the word “defeat.”) BestClick here for details.
“Every pollster I've talked to says it's 50-50. It's 50-50,” Biden insisted. Five Thirty EightThe Ipsos/Reuters poll, which “updates each candidate's average of 2024 polls to account for each poll's recency, sample size, methodology and house effect,” did not support this assessment, saying Trump has a 2.3-point lead. Two recent Ipsos/Reuters polls have assessed Biden vs. Trump and Kamala Harris vs. Trump pairings, but Harris has outperformed Biden in those matchups. Bloomberg/Morning Consult polls of battleground states show Biden's approval rating is higher than it has been in the past (it has been trending upward recently), but only in Wisconsin and Michigan, and that's not enough.
“I was pretty scared, like a lot of people,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told WPRI about Biden's debate performance. Anyone with a cognitive sane mind seems to agree that Biden can't stay on the shortlist. That includes Biden himself and a few of his acolytes.
Chaos in France: Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party fared less well than expected in yesterday's parliamentary elections, with the left-wing New Popular Front coalition winning 178 seats, President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party winning 150 seats and the National Rally winning 142 seats.
No party can win a majority. It's deadlock. The New York Times “The lower house of parliament holds the lion's share of legislative power. [has] “A governing coalition is not in the cards anytime soon,” Macron's “centrist” faction said. [are] He is caught between far-right and far-left groups who hate each other and hate him.”
It is clear that Macron's gamble of calling elections earlier rather than later in the fall has not paid off: the radical left and right are stronger and more visible than ever before, and Macron, already incredibly unpopular, will be caught between them.
“Finding a compromise candidate to lead the next administration will not be easy,” the report said. Bloomberg. “Early candidates include Marine Tondelier of the Greens and Raphaël Glucksmann of the centre-left Plus Public Party. Current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal could also stay on.” Macron must step down after his second term in 2027, but current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal submitted his resignation this morning (as is customary in French politics). Macron has refused, so Attal could stay on.
New York City: Oysters have been dying instead of reproducing, posing a major problem for scientists working to restore the bivalve population in New York waters.
Quick Hit
- “Philadelphia radio station WURD has parted ways with the host who interviewed the president. [Joe] Biden gave an interview on Wednesday using questions provided by the Biden campaign, but the network argued the interview violated its journalistic independence,” the report said. The New York Times. “WURD said in a statement Sunday that 'agreeing to a pre-determined set of questions puts listeners' trust at risk.' Host Andrea Lawfull-Sanders has resigned by mutual agreement, according to WURD.”
- Joe Biden's over-reliance on teleprompters, even in intimate settings like private donor events, has finally been reported in places like: The Washington Post (Now that it's safe to run more explicitly negative stories about the Democratic nominee.) The bigger picture: If large segments of the media had stopped pandering to Biden sooner and actually done their jobs, we might not be in this late-stage turnover situation.
- The report said that Jin's copycat products “pose a challenge for US regulators who must deal with a new wave of unlicensed nicotine products after demand for unlicensed flavoured e-cigarettes exploded since last year.” Bloomberg.
- Sierra Leone is reportedly in the midst of an addiction crisis.
- “The anti-startup bias that is increasingly pervasive throughout the US government poses a clear and real threat to the health and vitality of America's tech success,” Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote in a manifesto they called “The Little Tech Agenda.” One reason for this, they say, is that “tech startups, as an industry, are not as visible in Washington DC or in the political system as larger corporations.”
