Democrats not on same page, ‘not even in the same book’, about Biden’s 2024 campaign – live | US elections 2024

July 9, 2024 Stan

Democrats not on same page, ‘not even in the same book’, about Biden’s 2024 campaign

For prominent Democrats, public appearances lately involve a barrage of questions on Joe Biden’s fitness for office.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, one of Biden’s most vocal surrogates, answered some of these questions while eating doughnuts at a New Hampshire rest stop, the New York Times reported today.

After a TV newsperson asked whether Biden should drop out, “Mr. Newsom chewed for a moment, reiterated the next-levelness of the doughnut, then turned to the microphone. ‘The answer is no,’” the Times reported.

After a meeting of Democrats at Democratic National Committee headquarters in DC today, most left without saying much. Despite some calls for Biden to step aside, there has not been a groundswell of opposition – Biden got some key support from the Congressional Black Caucus and progressive “Squad” representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for Biden right now, either, and little unity in the party behind him. Not only is the party not on the same page about Biden, but they are “not even in the same book”, the representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee told reporters after the morning meeting.

Dems exiting their meeting on Biden saying not only are they not on the same page, ‘we are not even in the same book’ pic.twitter.com/n2QEeJinzE

— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) July 9, 2024

Key events

After the 27 June debate, Donald Trump had kept his commentary on social media. Tonight, he will address an in-person crowd at a Florida rally. We’ll be watching closely for Trump to announce a 2024 running mate, which he needs to do before the Republican National Convention next week. Richard Luscombe reports on Trump and the GOP strategy of keeping quiet and letting Democrats fight after the debate:

Donald Trump will host a rally in the Miami suburb of Doral on Tuesday night and break a relative – and uncharacteristic – silence over the turbulent aftermath of June’s presidential debate that raised questions about Joe Biden’s candidacy.

A Trump campaign source and some political opponents say the former president’s strategy has been to sit back and let Democrats tear into each other following Biden’s dismal debate performance, intensifying calls for him to drop out of November’s general election.

“We’re trying something new and shutting up,” an anonymous campaign insider told ABC News last week, a position effectively confirmed by Trump’s decision to largely avoid public appearances since a prearranged rally in Virginia the day after the 27 June debate – and to limit his posts on his Truth Social platform.

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, will meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tomorrow, per a media advisory from Johnson’s office.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who unsuccessfully challenged Donald Trump in the Republican primary, will release the 97 delegates she won and encourage them to vote for Trump at the Republican National Convention, Politico Playbook reports this afternoon.

Haley cast the move as a push for unity among Republicans as they seek to defeat Joe Biden in November. Haley wasn’t invited to attend the RNC, her spokesperson told Playbook, “and she’s fine with that”.

Another House Democrat voices ‘concerns’ over Biden in 2024 race

Another House Democrat has expressed concern about Biden’s ability to win in November, joining a relatively small list of lawmakers who have spoken out against the president’s candidacy.

The Massachusetts representative Lori Trahan said in a statement issued today that, though she believes Biden and House Democrats have delivered “unprecedented progress” for Americans, she has been hearing from fellow Biden voters in her district who have “real concerns” over whether Biden can beat Trump. “I share those concerns,” Trahan said.

“While President Biden has made clear he feels he is the best candidate to win this election, nothing that has happened over the past 12 days suggests that voters see things the same way,” she said, adding that she will do everything she can to ensure Democrats win the House and beat Trump.

US officials announced today that they stopped a Russian “bot farm” that created fake social media accounts to promote pro-Russian ideals and pro-Kremlin stances on the war with Ukraine. The operation used artificial intelligence to help spread the messages, the US government said in a press release today that includes screenshots of the kind of messages the bots were posting, like videos of Vladimir Putin.

Fears over foreign and domestic disinformation campaigns, especially those supercharged by AI, have floated over the US presidential election for months.

Democrats not on same page, ‘not even in the same book’, about Biden’s 2024 campaign

For prominent Democrats, public appearances lately involve a barrage of questions on Joe Biden’s fitness for office.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, one of Biden’s most vocal surrogates, answered some of these questions while eating doughnuts at a New Hampshire rest stop, the New York Times reported today.

Dems exiting their meeting on Biden saying not only are they not on the same page, ‘we are not even in the same book’ pic.twitter.com/n2QEeJinzE

— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) July 9, 2024

Jim Inhofe, climate-denying conservative former senator, dies aged 89

From the Associated Press:

Former Sen. Jim Inhofe, a conservative firebrand known for his strong support of defense spending and his denial that human activity is responsible for the bulk of climate change, has died. He was 89.

Inhofe, a powerful fixture in Oklahoma politics for over six decades, died Tuesday morning after he had a stroke over the July Fourth holiday, his family said in a statement.

Inhofe, who was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020, stepped down in early 2023.

Inhofe frequently criticized the mainstream science that human activity contributed to changes in the Earth’s climate, once calling it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Today so far

Democrats in the House of Representatives were tight-lipped as they left their caucus-wide meeting at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in DC this morning. Those who spoke to the press expressed support for the president. Others noted that Democrats present at the meeting had aired a range of views on whether or not Joe Biden should continue on as the Democratic party’s presidential nominee.

Representative Jim Clyburn told reporters after leaving that he is still “riding with Biden”.
Progressive squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez indicated she had spoken in Biden’s support during the meeting.

Dems exiting their meeting on Biden saying not only are they not on the same page, ‘we are not even in the same book’ pic.twitter.com/n2QEeJinzE

— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) July 9, 2024

At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, Senator Josh Hawley endorsed the idea of Christian nationalism.

“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation – so I am,” said Hawley during remarks at the conference on Monday. “And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism – so I do.”

Sen. Josh @HawleyMO: “Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian Nation. So I am. And some will say that I am advocating Christian Nationalism. And so I do.” pic.twitter.com/dt13DgkM7w

— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) July 9, 2024

Protesters planning to march on the Republican national convention were delivered a blow when a federal judge on Monday ruled that the group could not march through the designated security zone established for the event. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had previously argued in a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition to March on the RNC that the group should be allowed to rally within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum, where the event will be held.

The New York Times editorial board has issued a second call for Joe Biden to end his re-election bid – this one directed at Democratic party leaders, who the board urged to listen to the “voters who have been telling every pollster in America their concerns for a long time” regarding Biden’s age and prospects in a rematch against Donald Trump.

The piece, which decries Biden’s post-debate efforts to assuage voters’ fears about his fitness as insufficient, calls on Democrats from “the grass roots to the highest levels of the party” to “speak plainly to Mr. Biden” and encourage him to drop out.

Since the 27 June debate, Biden and his allies have denounced the push to end his campaign as an effort cooked up by pundits and party elites.

In the piece, the editorial board rebuffed that notion and urged Democrats to “demonstrate that the party is no longer following him”.

President Biden campaigns in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on 7 July 2024. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Gretchen Whitmer, a rising star in the Democratic party and widely believed to be planning a 2028 presidential run, has repeatedly quashed rumors that she could run in Joe Biden’s place this year. This morning, she reaffirmed her support for Biden and chided Democrats for “clutching your pearls” in response to the president’s dip in the polls in some swing states.

House Democrats keep quiet after caucus-wide meeting on Biden

Lauren Gambino

House Democrats are trickling out of the Democratic National Committee headquarters where they have been meeting to discuss Biden’s campaign.

Most members have refused to speak beyond voicing support for the president and his campaign. The representative Maxine Waters told a group of sweaty reporters – it’s so hot – that she was behind Biden. But most are stoic or on their phones to avoid being pelted with questions. A group of progressives just left, saying they would not share any details and ignored questions about whether the party was united.

Leaving the meeting, Rep. Maxine Waters says: “I’m supporting Biden.”

But nothing else, like most House Democrats leaving. pic.twitter.com/iUbTvg4fOc

— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) July 9, 2024

With less than a week to go before the Republican national convention, Donald Trump is poised to pick a running mate. Among the figures who have emerged as likely contenders is Senator JD Vance, the Trump critic-turned Maga Republican whose 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, launched him into the political spotlight. In a Guardian column today, Jan-Werner Müller argues that if picked, Vance would pose an “authoritarian danger”:

Vance has perfected what, on the right, tends to substitute for policy ideas these days: trolling the liberals. Mobilizing voters is less about programs, let alone a real legislative record (Vance has none; his initiatives like making English the official language of the US are just virtue signaling for conservative culture warriors). Rather, it’s to generate political energy by deepening people’s sense of shared victimhood.

The point for the rightist trolls is not that Democrats have all the wrong goals, but that they are hypocrites who say one thing and do another. Vance faults Trump’s opponents for pontificating about the rule of law, but in practice only caring about power – an update of the “limousine liberal” slogan for an age of rightwing autocracy.

Few others would try to impress readers of the New York Times with an invocation of the Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt, who, in the 1930s, claimed that liberals were either weaklings or prone to betray their own ideals. Schmitt is an obscure reference to most outside the hallowed halls of Yale Law School, but a signal to cognoscenti that Vance is all in on antiliberalism.

House Democrats have wrapped their caucus-wide meeting – one that almost certainly featured questions about Joe Biden’s future as a candidate.

Democrats starting to file out of their meeting after around 45 minutes. Many staying perfectly silent in response to questions, some look rather shell shocked.

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 9, 2024

Donald Trump is seeking to distance himself from the rightwing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a lengthy document the group has created as a playbook for the next Republican presidential administration. But Trump’s ties to Project 2025 run deep, and the playbook largely matches his agenda, Rachel Leingang reports:

Donald Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 after extreme comments from one of its leaders falls flat given the extensive Trump ties and similarities between the project’s policy ideas and the former president’s platform.

On Truth Social last week, Trump claimed to “know nothing about Project 2025” and have “no idea who is behind it”. The disavowal from Trump came after Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, said: “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”

Project 2025 is a Heritage Foundation effort to align the conservative movement behind policies that an incoming rightwing president should undertake. The far-reaching plan, which would upend the way the federal government operates, includes a lengthy manifesto and recruitment of potential staffers for a second Trump administration.

Trump’s comments show that an alignment with the project could hurt him with key voters and that he doesn’t appreciate being seen as someone who could be controlled by an outside group.

But, in reality, Trump and Project 2025 share the same vision for where the US should go in a conservative presidency. His platform, dubbed Agenda 47, overlaps with Project 2025 on most major policy issues. Project 2025 often includes more details on how some key conservative goals could be carried out, offering the meat for Trumpian policy ideas often delivered as soundbites.

White House explains neurologist’s visits

In a letter to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Joe Biden’s doctor Kevin O’Connor explained why – as the New York Times reported yesterday – a neurologist who specializes in Parkinson’s disease has regularly visited the White House in the last eight months. According to the letter, the neurologist, Kevin Cannard, regularly holds neurology clinics for active-duty service members at the White House Medical Unit.

“Seeing patients at the White House is something Dr Cannard has been doing for a dozen years. Dr Cannard was chosen for this responsibility not because he is a movement disorder specialist, but because he is a highly trained neurologist here at Walter Reed,” wrote O’Connor.

In the letter, O’Connor wrote that Biden had not exhibited any signs of a neurological condition such as Parkinson’s during his last annual physical.

AOC among congressional Democrats appearing to rally around Biden

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today we’ll be continuing to keep an eye on Congress, where lawmakers are mulling how – or if – to deal with the question of whether to call on Joe Biden to halt his re-election campaign after a devastating debate performance that raised questions about his age and ability to win in November. Biden has scored the surprising and weighty endorsement of the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who has in the past clashed with Biden over policy. Biden’s meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus also went well for the president, with members of the caucus reportedly presenting unified support for Biden. That kind of institutional support on the Hill will help Biden, but it hasn’t quelled anxieties about his re-election bid – and more members of Congress could rally around his ouster still.

Here’s what else we’re following today:

House Democrats are scheduled hold a 9am all-member meeting at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC.
Donald Trump will hold a rally in Florida this evening. With less than a week to go before the Republican National Convention, Trump is expected to name a running mate any day now.
Kamala Harris will speak in Nevada on Tuesday to shore up support for the Biden-Harris ticket in the battleground state.