House Democrats quiet after caucus-wide meeting about president; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boosts Biden – live | US elections 2024
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
Key events
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.
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Representative Jim Clyburn told reporters after leaving that he is still “riding with Biden”.
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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”.
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:
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House Democrats are scheduled hold a 9am all-member meeting at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC.
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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.
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Kamala Harris will speak in Nevada on Tuesday to shore up support for the Biden-Harris ticket in the battleground state.
