Biden, Joseph R Jr

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      The Messages From Biden That Are Understood, and Not

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      A president who long delighted in public speech is now sometimes hard to understand. Does it matter?President Biden’s failure to speak clearly in the unscripted setting of a presidential debate late last month plunged his party — and his re-election campaign — into crisis.He’s hoping an unscripted appearance at the NATO summit in Washington tomorrow will help him turn things around.The political drama over the past two weeks has turned in part on Biden’s fundamental struggle, in a moment that really counted, to send a message that could be widely understood. His effort to clean up the mess with an interview late last week created new questions about his communication skills, some of which were as absurd as the matter of whether he said “goodest” or “good as” when neither option really made sense.It all underscores the fact that a president who for decades has delighted in the power — and the abundance — of his own speech has become, in certain moments, just plain hard to understand. Does it matter that the public can find itself turning up the volume or parsing the sometimes-corrected transcript to figure out what he meant?“He’s become someone who, unless he’s giving a major speech, you have to lean forward to hear what he’s saying and sometimes you have to think twice to understand what he’s saying,” said David Kusnet, a former speechwriter for President Clinton who has observed Biden’s speeches for decades.In scripted appearances or when he can rely on notes, the president typically has an easier time making a strong point — such as the unequivocal assurance he has made this week that he has no plans to bow out of the presidential race. His first solo news conference since the debate, scheduled for tomorrow evening, will amount to a critical opportunity for him to show his party that he can still be understood when speaking off the cuff.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Election Results in Europe Suggest Another Reason Biden Has to Go

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      There’s a dollop of good news for Democrats from the British and French elections, but it’s bad news for President Biden.The basic lesson is that liberals can win elections but perhaps not as incumbents. The election results abroad strike me as one more reason for Biden to perform the ultimate act of statesmanship and withdraw from the presidential race.The U.K. elections on July 4 resulted in a landslide for the Labour Party, ending the Conservative Party’s 14 years in power. Keir Starmer, the new Labour prime minister, achieved this result in part by moving to the center and even criticizing the Conservatives for being too lax on immigration. He projected quiet competence, promising in his first speech as Britain’s leader to end “the era of noisy performance.”But mostly, British voters supported Labour simply because they’re sick of Conservatives mucking up the government. The two main reasons voters backed Labour, according to one poll, were “to get the Tories out” and “the country needs a change.” A mere 5 percent said they backed Labour candidates because they “agree with their policies.”British voters were unhappy with Conservatives for some of the same reasons many Americans are unhappy with Biden. Prices are too high. Inequality is too great. Immigration seems unchecked. Officeholders are perceived as out of touch and beholden to elites. This sourness toward incumbents is seen throughout the industrialized world, from Canada to the Netherlands and Japan.Frustration with incumbents was also a theme in the French election, where President Emmanuel Macron made a bet similar to the one that Biden is making — that voters would come to their senses and support him over his rivals. Macron basically lost that bet, although the final result wasn’t as catastrophic as it might have been.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      George Clooney: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.

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      I’m a lifelong Democrat; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what my party represents and what it stands for. As part of my participation in the democratic process and in support of my chosen candidate, I have led some of the biggest fund-raisers in my party’s history. Barack Obama in 2012. Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden in 2020. Last month I co-hosted the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden’s re-election. I say all of this only to express how much I believe in this process and how profound I think this moment is.I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.We love to talk about how the Republican Party has ceded all power, and all of the traits that made it so formidable with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to a single person who seeks to hold on to the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In TMZ Video, George Stephanopoulos Says Biden Can’t Serve Another Term

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      The ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized on Tuesday night after he was surreptitiously recorded earlier in the day saying he did not believe that President Biden could handle another term in office.His remarks — made in passing to a stranger who approached him on the street — came four days after Mr. Stephanopoulos conducted the only major interview with Mr. Biden since the president’s stumbling debate performance.In a grainy video posted by the gossip site TMZ, Mr. Stephanopoulos can be seen in workout clothes walking on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. An unseen stranger walks up to the anchor but keeps his phone camera angled away; Mr. Stephanopoulos was presumably unaware that the person was recording him.“Do you think Biden should step down?” the stranger asks. “You’ve talked to him more than anybody else has lately.”“I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replies.News anchors and reporters typically avoid voicing their opinions about the topics and people they cover. Mr. Stephanopoulos addressed his remarks hours later. “Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have,” he said in a statement.ABC also issued a statement about the incident. “George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News,” the network said.During Mr. Stephanopoulos’s prime-time interview with Mr. Biden, which was seen by 8.5 million people, the anchor respectfully but firmly challenged the president about whether he was being honest with himself about his health.Mr. Stephanopoulos is one of very few people outside of Mr. Biden’s immediate inner circle who has spent extended time with the president since the debate. The anchor received praise for his handling of the interview, which focused on intimate matters of aging and health. More

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      Pelosi Suggests That Biden Should Reconsider Decision to Stay in the Race

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      Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker, suggested on Wednesday that President Biden should reconsider his decision to remain in the presidential race, the strongest public push yet from a senior member of his party for him to weigh dropping out.Despite mounting concerns that his candidacy could cost Democrats not only the White House but both chambers of Congress, Mr. Biden has been unequivocal about his intention to seek a second term, telling members of Congress in a letter on Monday that his mind is made up and “I’m firmly committed to staying in this race.” On Wednesday, Ms. Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the president should continue to weigh his options.“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she said. “We’re all encouraging him to to make that decision. Because time is running short.”When pressed on whether she wanted him to seek re-election, Ms. Pelosi said: “I want him to do whatever he decides to do. And that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”Ms. Pelosi said she wanted to delay the conversations about Mr. Biden’s future until after the NATO summit he is hosting this week in Washington, which on Thursday will include the president’s first news conference since his disastrous debate performance that raised questions about his mental acuity and fitness to remain in the race.“Let’s just hold off,” she said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ukraine’s President Pleads for More Weapons With Fewer Restrictions

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      “America doesn’t shy away from its friends,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech in Washington as leaders gathered in the city for a NATO summit.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived in Washington on Tuesday with words of gratitude and praise for American support, and pleas for more weapons and fewer restrictions on using them in his country’s war against Russia.Mr. Zelensky credited American missiles — and permission to fire them across the border into Russia — with helping his forces hold off an attack on the city of Kharkiv, stopping a Russian offensive this spring.But he asked for other restrictions to be lifted, so that Ukraine could fire at Russian military bases hundreds of miles inside Russia to destroy aircraft that fire weapons and drop bombs that he said were killing civilians and children.With more American assistance, he said, Ukraine can continue to strike against Russian targets in Crimea and help “push the occupiers” out of the southern part of the country.There were questions of which version of Mr. Zelensky would show up in Washington as leaders of NATO members gathered for a summit. Last year, he flew to the NATO summit in Lithuania after making an angry social media post criticizing alliance members for failing to offer a timeline for Ukraine to join the alliance, prompting complaints from the Biden administration and other allies.There was no sign of anger this year. Mr. Zelensky praised the United States for its early support in the war and pushed back against those who have started to think that “it’s better to delay than act.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden, on Call With Mayors, Works to Shore Up Democratic Support

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      President Biden held a video call with nearly 200 Democratic mayors on Tuesday night, reiterating that he was staying in the presidential race, reminding the city leaders how best to support his campaign and discussing his second-term agenda.Mr. Biden, his campaign and the White House have been working to dismiss and defuse Democratic criticisms about his viability after his poor debate showing. Those efforts included a gathering of Democratic governors last week at the White House, a television interview with ABC News two days later and calls on Monday to top donors, congressional leaders and a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus.The call with mayors lasted about 40 minutes and Mr. Biden took three questions, according to Mayor Cory Mason of Racine, Wis., a Democrat who participated in the call and provided details about how it went — as did five other mayors who insisted on anonymity to freely discuss the conversation. Mr. Mason described Mr. Biden as “the president that everybody’s used to seeing” and not the one who delivered a halting debate performance nearly two weeks ago.“It was understandable for a time for people to ask if everything is OK,” Mr. Mason said. “It’s four months out from the election, so you can’t have too many of those days, but every day that passes, he’s proving he can recover from a bad debate performance.”The mayors described the call as a somewhat scripted pep rally, with Mr. Biden speaking for about 20 minutes and then taking questions from mayors selected by the moderator, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix.Like many video calls arranged by the Biden campaign and the White House, participants could not see who else was on the call or add comments into the chat screen. They could indicate their feelings about what was being said by adding emojis, and many contributed smiley-face ones as Mr. Biden spoke, according to Mr. Mason.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      On Capitol Hill, Democrats Panic About Biden but Do Nothing

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      The president has yet to do what many Democrats said he must to show he is up to remaining in the race. But so far, they have thrown up their hands, doing nothing to nudge him aside.Senator Christopher S. Murphy, an ambitious young Democrat from Connecticut, went on television on Sunday with a carefully worded warning to President Biden about the viability of his campaign.“This week is going to be absolutely critical; I think the president needs to do more,” Mr. Murphy said, arguing that Mr. Biden needed to hold a town hall and participate in unscripted events because “the clock is ticking” for him to put to rest the doubts about his candidacy raised by a disastrous debate performance. Multiple times, Mr. Murphy emphasized his deadline, saying that he, as well as voters, must see more action “this week.”Senator Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who briefly ran for president himself, said Mr. Biden had to “reassure the American people that he can run a vigorous campaign to defeat Donald Trump.”Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a senior member of the Democratic leadership team, put out a statement that passed for fighting words, saying that the president “must do more to demonstrate that he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.”So far, Mr. Biden has done none of that.And yet, Democrats on Capitol Hill are stifling their doubts and falling in line behind him anyway.Having spent the last week and a half in various stages of private panic and public skepticism about Mr. Biden’s viability as a candidate and whispering among themselves about what the best way to push him aside might be — a strongly worded letter? a White House meeting? a high-level intervention? — top Democrats on Tuesday settled on a strategy many of them conceded could be disastrous: They would do nothing, at least for now.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More