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      Democrats are facing asymmetrical warfare. It’s time to wake up and fight back | Ben Davis

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      Democrats are facing asymmetrical warfare. It’s time to wake up and fight backBen DavisBiden’s low approvals have caused a crisis in confidence. He needs to act now The New York Times recently published a poll that marks an exclamation point on months of bad news for the rapidly faltering Biden presidency. Biden’s meager 33% approval rating is in line with other polls, but the shocking and worrying number for the White House is that fully 64% of Democrats believe he should not run for another term in 2024. That number rises to an absurd 94% among Democrats under 30.While younger voters have consistently given Biden lower marks than other cohorts this year, that number now stands at a miserable 19%. Young voters are not a group that can be ignored as flighty non-voters: they are the backbone of the Democratic party’s recent wins. In 2020, the youth vote surged to record numbers, and young voters gave Biden a 24-point margin. Without both high turnout and high margins from young voters, Biden would have easily lost every swing state. Increased turnout among the young also provided much of the margin for Democrats in the 2018 midterms.Biden’s low approvals, especially among the young, have caused a crisis in confidence not seen in a sitting president’s party since at least Jimmy Carter. Should Biden step down in 2024? Unless the administration and the Democratic party radically change posture, he may need to retire to prevent the election of a man who only last year attempted a coup. Most importantly, though, he has within his power the chance to turn his presidency around.It’s clear to Americans of all political stripes that we are in a crisis. Many of the basic rights and principles of our democracy have been completely overruled by a party that hasn’t won the popular vote in a presidential election in 18 years. There is a massive disconnect between the will of the people and the actions of the state. This is a situation unprecedented since the Civil Rights Era or potentially even Reconstruction, but the president has not treated it as such. Fundamentally, people, especially young people, want to feel like the president is fighting for them.The Biden administration and the leadership of the federal Democratic party seem dedicated to broken and undemocratic institutions. Given the power these institutions are wielding, this feels hopelessly out of touch. The primary solution offered by the Administration has been to show up to vote in the midterms to potentially codify Roe, or more likely, stave off a federal abortion ban by the Republican party. None of the solutions proposed even come close to addressing the situation.This is asymmetrical warfare, with the Democrats playing by an entirely different set of rules. While the Democrats remain dedicated to antiquated institutions and procedures, the Republican party has remade the state in its image without even commanding a majority of voters. The Republican party has long wanted to undermine many of America’s institutions: numerous serious presidential candidates, sitting senators, and sitting judges have proposed repealing the 14th amendment (the foundation of modern American law), the 16th amendment creating the income tax, the 17th amendment directly electing Senators, and more. Democrats have not seriously countered at all. They are dedicated to playing by the rules of a game everyone has long since stopped playing.The primary response to the rollback of several fundamental rights has been “vote and donate”. Voting is of course necessary, and so are donations and all sorts of political activism. That doesn’t make it less insulting. People have voted. The last two elections have seen record turnout for Democrats. The party has unified control of government, despite all the caveats. The problem is, in the current system, voting will not work, and people know that.It would take decades of uninterrupted Democratic control of the presidency to flip the US supreme court. With the current coalitions and political structure, it’s effectively impossible for Democrats to ever win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Even a simple governing majority requires a clear Democratic wave in the popular vote, and that majority would almost certainly require more red-state Democrats like Sinema and Manchin who would block legislation.In short, “just vote” and using the current institutions is impossible, and voters recognize that. It is not possible to win back the right to abortion, basic environmental protection, schools free of religious indoctrination, basic regulation on guns, protect rights to contraception, marriage equality, and personal sexual activity without radical changes to the basic structure of American governance.Winning elections doesn’t hurt anything, but it is not enough in an anti-democratic system that has been gamed to truly absurd extents. There’s no winning in this system, and that is apparent to most Americans, and to the vast majority of young Americans who disapprove of Biden. To rescue his presidency, and mobilize a real force at the midterms and in the future, Biden needs to boldly champion radical democratic reforms, use his power and dare the supreme court and the Senate to stop him.While in other times, disempowering institutions and taking unilateral action as a president may be unpopular, Americans recognize that our system is utterly broken. The supreme court has approval of only 25% of the populace, by far the lowest measured. This is an institution that can exercise power only so long as it has buy-in from the people. Supermajorities support serious reforms to the supreme court.Young Americans in particular see their future collapsing before their eyes and understand the stakes. They know Biden can’t unilaterally pack the court, or make any significant reforms to the legislative or judiciary. That’s beside the point, however; he needs to put this on the agenda. He has been faced with a crisis of legitimacy, where the vast majority of the people vocally oppose the order being imposed on them. He has to stand with the people and lead the charge for their rights. There’s no way through these rigged institutions. Only around. To save his presidency, this needs to be at the very forefront of his agenda.Biden needs to reverse course and show aggression as soon as possible to counter the lackluster response to Dobbs that has damaged his standing among Democrats and the young. Americans know the president doesn’t have this unilateral power, though they know he can do more. Most of all they want a fight. They want to know that the president recognizes the gravity of the crisis . We’ve seen the most serious rollback in rights for American citizens since Plessy v Ferguson in 1896. The majority of Americans are under attack by a minority, and they need a president who recognizes this and will respond in kind.Biden has the opportunity to change course and be a two-term president who righted the country in a crisis of democracy. If Biden can’t do this, he will need to be replaced. Not only because it’s necessary, but because it’s the only way to recover his popularity and win reelection.The Democratic party must reorient itself around radical democratic reforms and disempowering the supreme court, the Senate, and state governments. This is both necessary and inevitable. If Biden doesn’t do it, the next Democrat will need to. If they don’t, it will be impossible to exercise power of any sort, no matter the opinions of citizens.Anti-democratic government institutions are fundamentally reshaping society and people have no recourse without a radical change. As a smaller and smaller minority exert more and more power, something has to come to a head. A state cannot operate so unmoored from popular sovereignty without a real rupture. Modern governments rely on at least some degree of consent of the governed.There is no future where the Democratic party doesn’t embrace serious reforms to the current constitutional order, because radical resistance to the anti-democratic onslaught is required for their continued existence as a party. If Biden wants to lead the country, he must take the lead. Without an aggressive and radical reposturing, he will be unable to recover his standing. Nearly all Americans understand the country is in a crisis that requires a radical reshaping of our institutions. The Republicans are leading it. Biden is a man out of step with the world around him unless he recognizes this and acts decisively.
      Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign
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      ‘Groundswells of change’: Black activists welcome evolution in gun violence debate

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      ‘Groundswells of change’: Black activists welcome evolution in gun violence debateThe Safer Communities Act finally addressed prevention efforts with $250m dedicated to funding violence interrupters In 2013, a month after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a group of Black pastors and other activists visited the Obama White House to press the administration to do more to prevent gun violence in communities of color.Obama had just released his post-Newtown gun violence prevention plan, which did not include any funding for community violence prevention efforts, and which made no mention of the disparate impact of gun violence on Black Americans.When the clergy members expressed their frustration at the White House’s lack of response, an Obama staffer told them that there was no support nationally to address urban gun violence, and that Americans’ political will was focused on “the issue of gun violence that affected suburban areas – schools where white kids were killed”.Some of those same Black pastors who visited the White House in 2013 were invited back for a ceremony on the South Lawn earlier this week.Senate breakthrough clears way for toughening US gun lawsRead moreCongress had finally passed a modest set of gun violence prevention compromises in the wake of yet another school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. This time, community violence prevention efforts were fully on the agenda, with Congress endorsing $250m dedicated to funding violence interrupters and other community-based efforts.“This is a full circle moment,” said Pastor Michael McBride, the national director of the Live Free Campaign, which works to reduce gun violence and mass incarceration. McBride was one the clergy members who had spoken out publicly about his disappointment with the Obama administration, including then-vice-president Joe Biden, after Newtown.Both Democrats and some Republicans were now willing to dedicate federal dollars to “targeting interventions and resources at those at the highest risk of shooting and being shot”, McBride said.And the $250m in federal funding for community programs was desperately needed, he added: “Many violence interrupter programs in cities are usually funded seasonally, or unevenly, and certainly not to the scale of the problem.”Biden’s speech at the South Lawn ceremony touting the country’s progress in preventing gun violence was interrupted by an objection from Manuel Oliver, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin Oliver in the Parkland school shooting in Florida in 2018, and who insisted that more needs to be done.‘Partial victories’For many violence prevention activists, the struggles of the continuing gun violence crisis were balanced against the value of marking the fact that they had made progress. Some activists who have worked for decades on the issue said they saw changes worth noting in political rhetoric and action, from the White House.The Rev Jeff Brown, a Boston-based minister who was one of the collaborators in “the Boston miracle”, a successful effort to reduce gun homicides in the 1990s, was also at the event on Monday, and said it was good “feeling that hope, that you know, we’re being heard”.It had been an “abject disappointment” to Brown in 2013 that the country’s first African American president had, in his view, ignored the calls for more action and funding to prevent daily gun violence.The federal funding for community violence interventions in the post-Uvalde violence prevention compromise bill that Congress passed, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, was “just the start”, Brown said, and “the honest truth is that we really need more”.In his speeches on gun violence, Biden, a longtime booster of police departments, now sometimes highlights the importance of prevention work by violence interrupters, many of whom are formerly incarcerated or have other criminal justice system involvement in their past.To hear the president of the United States legitimize the contributions of violence interrupters is powerful, said Teny Gross, a longtime violence intervention advocate who runs the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.Eddie Bocagnegra, who worked for years as an outreach worker in the streets of Chicago, has become a senior adviser to Biden’s justice department, an appointment that recognizes the expertise of on-the-ground violence prevention workers with deep ties in the community.“These are groundswells of change,” Gross said.Advocates say the shifts they have begun to see in the gun debate are bigger than the Biden administration. In the past decade, McBride said, organizers have pushed well-funded national gun control groups, which have often been led by wealthier white activists, to raise awareness about community intervention programs, not simply fight for new gun laws. They have also tried to win allies in law enforcement, and convince some police officials that civilian intervention programs can benefit public safety.McBride said there was some progress in reframing the debate, from a “crime and punishment framework”, to a “public health framework”, that is no longer as focused on defining violence as an issue of “personal moral ineptitude”.At the same time, advocates said, the past months have been heavy for anyone working in gun violence prevention. Gun sales spiked during the pandemic. In between brutal mass shootings, a conservative-dominated supreme court dramatically expanded the scope of gun rights, in a ruling that is expected to eviscerate existing gun control regulations.Gross, who runs a violence intervention organization in Chicago, says he feels like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Disney’s Fantasia: the small progress they make is overwhelmed by a situation that has spiraled out of control.Over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, the daughter of one of his staff members was shot, multiple staff members were shot on multiple days, and then, on 4 July itself, there was a mass shooting targeting a parade in Highland Park that left seven people dead and 30 others wounded.“We are drowning in guns,” Gross said.Still, Gross said, it was important to take a moment to acknowledge the progress that organizers had made, through years of meetings in church basements, knocking on doors, and flying from city to city across the country.“Organizing – the power of the people – it still works, even if there are partial victories,” McBride said.TopicsUS gun controlGuns and liesUS politicsTexas school shootingNewtown shootingJoe BidenBiden administrationObama administrationnewsReuse this content More

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      Republicans block bill on right to travel across state lines for abortions – as it happened

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      Republicans in the Senate have blocked a Democratic proposal to protect people’s ability to cross state lines to seek an abortion, with one senator saying the proposal would encourage “abortion tourism” and help “fly-in abortionists.”The bill from Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto came in response to moves by Republican-led states to stop people from traveling to seek abortions, following the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning the right to access the procedure nationwide. Democrats attempted to get the senate to pass the measure unanimously on Thursday, but Republicans refused to do so.Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to protect women who travel for reproductive care and those who help them. They want to allow state legislators to reach across state lines to punish and control women. It’s absolutely outrageous. I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) July 14, 2022
      Montana Republican Steve Daines was among those rejecting the measure, saying in a floor speech that it was “hastily put together” and “very very extreme.”“This bill would give fly-in abortionists free rein to commit abortions on demand up to the moment of birth,” Daines said. “This bill also protects the greed, frankly, of woke corporations who see it’s cheaper to pay for an abortion, an abortion tourism, than maternity leave for their employees.”Joe Biden was feted in Israel, giving him a respite from the troubles awaiting him back home, which include dismal approval ratings, states’ moves to criminalize abortion as well as Donald Trump and his aspirations in 2024.Here’s a recap of what happened today:
      Republicans blocked a bill to guarantee that people seeking abortions could travel across state lines, with one lawmaker decrying “abortion tourism”.
      Saudi Arabia and Israel could announce steps towards normalizing relations, which would give Biden a major win as he visits the region.
      Trump gave an interview to New York Magazine in which he more or less said he was running in 2024, but was undecided on when to announce the campaign. The Washington Post reports that he’s leaning towards announcing before the November midterm elections, though some Republicans don’t think that is a good idea.
      In what is surely a healthy sign for American democracy, voters in a New York county are leaning towards choosing a spider monster thing to represent their local elections.
      The attorney general in Indiana said it would investigate the doctor that provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from neighboring Ohio after being raped.
      Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana Trump has died in New York City, the Associated Press reports.According to the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!”
      The Trump family also released a statement. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Ivana Trump. Our mother was an incredible woman a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend. Ivana Trump was a survivor.“She fled from communism and embraced this country,” the statement continued. “She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination. She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.”An arrest warrant has been issued for Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk and 2020 election denier who recently lost her bid for a position overseeing voting in the state, the Associated Press reports.Peters ran to be the Republican nominee for the position of Colorado secretary of state despite being indicted along with her deputy on charges related to tampering with election equipment. According to the AP, a judge issued the arrest warrant for Peters on Thursday after finding out she had left the state against his orders:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} A judge revoked bond for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters after District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said in the documents that he had learned she traveled to Nevada for a conference.
      Rubinstein said he made the discovery after Peters sent a letter notarized in Las Vegas on Tuesday to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, according to court documents. The letter was released by the secretary of state’s office and requested a recount in her failed primary election bid for the GOP nomination in the state secretary of state’s race.Earlier this week, Peters’s election manager turned herself in on charges similar to those facing the clerk, who is accused of allowing an unauthorized person to impersonate a county employee and access and copy information from the county’s voting equipment.Election denier Tina Peters loses Colorado primary for top poll officialRead moreDemocrats’ prospects in the upcoming midterm elections are shaky, thanks in part to high inflation and President Biden’s low approval ratings. But Politico reports that when it comes to the senate, the party’s candidates have a clear edge in one area: fundraising.Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has 10 times the funds of his Republican opponent Joe O’Dea, while Georgia’s Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock raised more than double that of his Republican challenger in his most recent quarter. Democratic senators facing tough races in New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada have also brought in big bucks.From the story:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} The race illustrates Democrats’ circumstances throughout the country: While Bennet is slugging it out with O’Dea in a state that President Joe Biden won by 13 points, the party still sees a bright spot in candidates’ fundraising as they hope to significantly outperform Biden’s sagging approval ratings in November.
      Candidates are posting “blockbuster fundraising numbers,” as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson David Bergstein put it — though, in some cases, they are spending cash just as fast as they take it in. Nonetheless, Democrats see it as a sign of momentum after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last month and an uptick in their chances of keeping the Senate.
      “It says enthusiasm, I think it says that people understand it’s the United States Senate that confirms judges, particularly in light of what’s happened,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the No. 4 party leader.Texas is suing the Biden administration over its determination that federal law requires hospitals to offer abortions in cases of medical emergencies.After the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra wrote a letter to healthcare providers saying the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act protects providers from any purported state restrictions, should they be required to perform emergency abortions.Texas is suing over that determination, saying in a statement the Biden administration “seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”“This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions,” Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said in filing the lawsuit Thursday. “I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court’s important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda.”US law overrules states on abortions in medical emergencies, health secretary saysRead moreRepublicans in the Senate have blocked a Democratic proposal to protect people’s ability to cross state lines to seek an abortion, with one senator saying the proposal would encourage “abortion tourism” and help “fly-in abortionists.”The bill from Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto came in response to moves by Republican-led states to stop people from traveling to seek abortions, following the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning the right to access the procedure nationwide. Democrats attempted to get the senate to pass the measure unanimously on Thursday, but Republicans refused to do so.Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to protect women who travel for reproductive care and those who help them. They want to allow state legislators to reach across state lines to punish and control women. It’s absolutely outrageous. I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) July 14, 2022
      Montana Republican Steve Daines was among those rejecting the measure, saying in a floor speech that it was “hastily put together” and “very very extreme.”“This bill would give fly-in abortionists free rein to commit abortions on demand up to the moment of birth,” Daines said. “This bill also protects the greed, frankly, of woke corporations who see it’s cheaper to pay for an abortion, an abortion tourism, than maternity leave for their employees.”Might Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel during Biden’s visit? Axios reports that Israel’s government has approved a deal that would resolve Saudi Arabia’s claim to two strategic islands in the Red Sea, which has been a sticking point in getting the countries to establish diplomatic ties.While it’s unclear if the deal will result in an agreement for Riyadh to fully recognize Israel, which it has never done before, Biden could seize on it as a win that would be comparable to what Donald Trump pulled off during his term. The Republican leader presided over deals that got the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan to recognize the country. The potential deal involves the Tiran and Sanafir islands in the Red Sea, and the obligations of the two countries, as well as Egypt, under the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement. According to Axios, “The deal includes moving multilateral forces of observers currently on Tiran and Sanafir to new positions in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, as well as cameras to monitor activity on islands and the Strait of Tiran.” Saudi Arabia would pledge to allow ships to pass along the islands, while the United States would give Israel security commitments under that deal, the report said.Joe Biden once pledged to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah state but the day before his first visit to the country as president, The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports he’s downplaying his views on Saudi Arabia’s rights record, including its murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi:Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom’s crown prince. Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi’s killing was “absolutely” clear. US intelligence services concluded last year that Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was approved by the powerful heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman. On the campaign trail, the president vowed to turn the conservative Gulf kingdom into a “pariah state”, but the turmoil in global oil markets unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced a U-turn.Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visitRead moreJoe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side in Jerusalem moments ago and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.They parted ways, though, on how to get there, the Associated Press writes.The US president, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance.Seconds earlier, Lapid had insisted that words alone won’t thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi
      Arabia.It’s his first trip to the Middle East as president. Biden’s emphasis on a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Words will not stop them, Mr President. Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force,” Lapid said.Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama’s administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office.But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.The US Department of Justice is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google in weeks over its dominance in the online advertising market, Bloomberg News reported today, citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters writes.The Justice Department is likely to reject concessions offered by Alphabet, the report said.DoJ did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment and Google declined to comment.Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google has offered concessions to avoid a potential US antitrust lawsuit, including a proposal to spin off parts of its business that auctions and places ads on websites and apps into a separate company under Alphabet.However, a Google spokesperson told Reuters on Friday that it was engaging with regulators to address their concerns, adding that it has no plans to sell or exit the ad-tech business.The DoJ has been investigating Google’s ad-tech practices since 2019 and expedited the inquiry into the advertising market in recent months under the supervision of antitrust division’s official Doha Mekki, the report said.The Justice Department sued Google in October 2020, accusing the company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals, in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of “Big Tech” in decades.A new US immigration enforcement directive issued today calls on federal officers to ask immigrants about their parental status during arrests, part of a broader effort by Joe Biden to prioritize family unity and replacing more restrictive policies under former US president Donald Trump, Reuters reports.The directive, issued to all US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) employees, also calls for previously deported immigrants outside the United States to be allowed back into the country on a temporary basis for child custody hearings.Democratic president Joe Biden has promised a more humane and orderly approach to immigration than his Republican predecessor, but has faced large numbers of migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border.The new Ice directive replaces Trump-era guidance issued in 2017 that did not explicitly require officers to inquire about and record parental status or guardianship.In another departure from the Trump-era policy, the new guidance applies to parents or guardians of incapacitated adults as well as children.Ice acting director Tae Johnson said in an email to staff that the agency is “committed to safeguarding the integrity of our immigration system and preserving the parental and guardianship interests of noncitizen parents and legal guardians.”Federal courts have blocked separate Biden memos that sought to focus immigration enforcement efforts on individuals convicted of certain serious crimes.Joe Biden is being feted in Israel even as challenges mount at home. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of them: dismal approval ratings, states’ moves to criminalize abortion, Donald Trump and his aspirations in 2024.Let’s have a look at what happened today so far:
      Trump gave an interview to New York Magazine in which he more or less said he was running in 2024, but was undecided on when to announce the campaign. The Washington Post reports that he’s leaning towards announcing before the November midterm elections, which some Republicans don’t think is a good idea.
      In what is surely a healthy sign for American democracy, voters in a New York county are leaning towards choosing a spider monster thing to represent their local elections.
      The attorney general in Indiana said it would investigate the doctor that provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from neighboring Ohio after being raped.
      A Republican senator tested positive for Covid-19.
      A leaked audio recording from top Trump advisor Steve Bannon shows just how gung-ho the president was when it came to declaring victory on election night in 2020, Adam Gabbatt reports:Days before the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump was already planning to declare victory on election night, even if there was no evidence he was winning, according to a leaked Steve Bannon conversation recorded before the vote.In the audio, recorded three days before the election and published by Mother Jones on Wednesday, Bannon told a group of associates Trump already had a scheme in place for the 3 November vote.“What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to the audio.‘Game over’: Steve Bannon audio reveals Trump planned to claim early victoryRead moreNew York Magazine snagged an interview with Donald Trump. The former president lives up to his reputation for loquaciousness in the piece, but the real question is what he’s thinking when it comes to 2024.Here’s what he had to say about that:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} “Look,” Trump said, “I feel very confident that, if I decide to run, I’ll win.”
      I fixated on If I decide. Trump is less a politician than a live-action mythological creature, and so punditry and all of the standard forms of analyses tend to fail. What would factor into such a decision for such an unusual person? “Well, in my own mind, I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in anymore. In my own mind, I’ve already made that decision,” he said.
      He wouldn’t disclose what he’d decided. Not at first. But then he couldn’t help himself. “I would say my big decision will be whether I go before or after,” he said. “You understand what that means?” His tone was conspiratorial. Was he referring to the midterm elections? He repeated after me: “Midterms.” Suddenly, he relaxed, as though my speaking the word had somehow set it free for discussion. “Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision,” he said.
      He was thinking aloud now. “I just think that there are certain assets to before,” he said. “Let people know. I think a lot of people would not even run if I did that because, if you look at the polls, they don’t even register. Most of these people. And I think that you would actually have a backlash against them if they ran. People want me to run.” More

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      Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visit

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      Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visitPresident says he will not avoid rights issues but skirts commitment to discuss Khashoggi murder00:47Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom’s crown prince.Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi’s killing was “absolutely” clear.US intelligence services concluded last year that Khashoggi’s 2018 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was approved by the powerful heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman. On the campaign trail, the president vowed to turn the conservative Gulf kingdom into a “pariah state”, but the turmoil in global oil markets unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced a U-turn.“I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,” the president said. “The reason I am going to Saudi Arabia though, is much broader, it’s to promote US interests.“And so there are so many issues at stake, I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum; a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia.”Biden embarked on his first visit to the region as president with engagements in Israel on Wednesday, a trip dominated by the threat posed to the region by the growing military capabilities of Iran and its proxies around the Middle East.Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid changeRead moreThe Biden administration hopes that Israel’s new relationships with several Arab states – including a gradual warming of ties with Saudi Arabia, which vies with Tehran for regional hegemony – will strengthen a fledgling regional alliance against Iran.After a cursory meeting with Palestinian leaders in Bethlehem on Friday, the president will fly to the Saudi city of Jeddah with the aim of convincing Gulf oil producers to increase supply, as well as lobbying for fully integrating Israel into the emerging regional defence architecture.Iran was top of the agenda for Israeli officials on the second day of Biden’s visit, during which the president pledged that the US was prepared to use “all elements of its national power” to deny Iran nuclear weapons.The “Jerusalem declaration”, a joint communique issued by Biden and Lapid after their meeting, reaffirmed an “ironclad” US commitment to Israel’s security, as well as Israel’s right to defend itself.The two countries, however, continue to disagree on the utility of rescuing the landmark nuclear deal with Iran, abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018. Talks to revive the accord began in April 2021, but have made little progress.The Islamic Republic could still be prevented from enriching uranium to the level needed to manufacture a nuclear bomb, Biden said, and “Diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome”, although the US is “not going to wait forever”.Lapid, on the other hand, said: “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear programme, the free world will use force.”The Jerusalem declaration offered little to the Palestinians other than a brief reaffirmation of Biden’s commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict. Israel made no mention of the peace process, instead promising to improve the economy and quality of life for the 5 million people living in the occupied Palestinian territories.Biden has declined a request for an audience from the family of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, who the US state department concluded was accidentally killed by the Israeli army in May.The family, who accused Biden’s administration of siding with Israel by not calling for a criminal investigation, have instead been invited for talks in Washington. Protests demanding justice for Abu Aqleh are planned for Friday morning outside a US-funded hospital in East Jerusalem which Biden is scheduled to visit.Palestinian expectations for Biden’s trip to Bethlehem are low; Washington has not pressured Israel to return to the peace process, nor moved to curb Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.The administration has also not fulfilled a promise to reopen a US mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, which was closed by Trump after he recognised the divided city as Israel’s capital in 2017.TopicsJoe BidenBiden administrationIsraelSaudi ArabiaJamal KhashoggiPalestinian territoriesIrannewsReuse this content More

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      Democratic voters say Biden could be doing a lot more for the climate crisis

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      Democratic voters say Biden could be doing a lot more for the climate crisisA Pew survey found more Americans favor stricter environmental laws and regulations – even at an economic cost More than 80% of Democrats think the government is not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis, according to a large nationwide survey that found younger voters across both parties are most frustrated with the pace of political action on green issues.Overall, Americans are largely split along party lines in how they view Joe Biden’s record on pressing climate and environmental challenges like clean water and air quality, according to the Pew Research Center survey of more than 10,000 adults.Just 15% of Republicans think the president’s climate policies are taking the country in the right direction compared with 79% of Democrats.Global dismay as supreme court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tattersRead moreBut worryingly for Biden, whose popularity among his own party has fallen steeply according to recent polls, almost two-thirds of those broadly supportive Democrats think he could be doing a lot more to tackle the climate crisis. As it stands, the US is unlikely to meet its pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as Biden’s climate legislation has been stonewalled by fossil fuel friendly Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the entire Republican party.The political stagnation is shocking given that 71% of those polled by Pew said their community had suffered an extreme weather event in the past year. This included severe floods or storms (43%), heatwaves (42%), droughts or water shortages (31%), large wildfires (21%), and shoreline erosion due to rising sea levels (16%). Overall, more than eight in ten of those affected by extreme weather believe the climate crisis contributed to the event.The survey was conducted over the first week of May – before the supreme court’s monumental decision limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set standards and emissions. In another sign that the conservative justices do not reflect the views of most Americans, Pew found that 72% of Americans favor requiring energy companies to use more renewable sources such as wind and solar, while 68% support linking corporate taxes to carbon emissions.The results are an indication of Biden’s struggle to translate rhetoric – he has called climate change “the existential threat to human existence as we know it” – into tangible action. Any hopes of passing significant climate legislation could be essentially snuffed out within weeks if the Republicans come out on top in the November midterms, with dire long-term implications for people suffering worsening heatwaves, droughts, floods and other impacts in the US and overseas.Yet the need for urgent transformative political action could not be clearer. The US was battered by 20 separate billion-dollar climate and weather disasters in 2021, one of the most catastrophic climate years on record, which led to at least 688 deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).After a myriad of dangerous backward steps under Donald Trump, climate action was expected to be a top priority of the Biden administration after the US rejoined the Paris climate agreement and passed a major infrastructure bill with funding for adaptation and renewables.But Biden’s Build Back Better bill, championed as the most aggressive action ever proposed to combat global heating, has been sunk by the opposition of Manchin, who holds a crucial swing vote in an evenly split US Senate.Democrats still hope to scramble about $300bn in clean energy spending in a separate bill before the Senate begins its summer recess in August, after which focus will switch to midterm elections that are expected to go badly for the party. But there is no guarantee Manchin will agree to this, given his objections to support for electric vehicles and a reluctance to do anything that sidelines fossil fuels, an industry in which he is personally invested in via a coal trading company.“If there’s people that don’t want to produce more fossils, then you got a problem,” Manchin said on Monday, citing fears that reduced oil production will further add to inflation.Scientists have said the world must cut emissions in half this decade if disastrous heating is to be avoided, and there is little chance this will happen without swift action from the US. Biden’s administration is now reportedly contemplating allowing various polluting projects, such as a gas pipeline in West Virginia, as well as oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, in return for Manchin’s support to bolster renewable energy.This previously unthinkable trade-off by the White House has dismayed climate activists already critical of Biden’s call for increased oil production to bring down gasoline prices and his failure to meet a campaign promise to halt fossil fuel leases on public land.“Locking in decades of deadly, planet-heating fossil fuels is an outrageous trade that negates the benefits of an ever-weaker climate bill,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Pandering to Manchin has proven disastrous, and continuing to do so will have catastrophic consequences.”Despite Manchin’s fear mongering, according to the Pew survey 53% of Americans believe stricter environmental laws are worth any associated cost to the economy – though this is down from 65% in 2019. On this issue, the partisan divide is actually widening: three-quarters of Republicans say stricter environmental laws would hurt jobs and the economy – up 20 percentage points from 2019. Among Democrats, only 21% have a negative view of stricter environmental laws and regulations, up from 14% in 2019.There is some common ground across the political divide. The vast majority of Americans (90%) say they favor planting a trillion or so trees to absorb carbon emissions to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and 79% favor tax credits to encourage businesses to develop technology to capture and store carbon.But despite record high fuel prices Biden, and whoever succeeds him in the Oval Office, has an uphill battle persuading Americans to give up gas-guzzling cars. Pew found that 55% of people oppose phasing out new gasoline cars and trucks by 2035.TopicsClimate crisisBiden administrationJoe BidenDemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden in Israel as poll shows support for re-election bid at new low – as it happened

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      More bad news for Joe Biden on the polling front, where a mere 18% of respondents to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll said he should run for re-election in 2024 and 64% said he should step back in favour of another Democratic candidate.Among Democrats, 41% said Biden should not run again, against 35% who still wanted him as president. The result was worse than the same poll in May, when 25% of respondents said Biden should run for a second term. Among Democrats then, the figure was 49%.Biden’s favourability rating remains stuck in the mid- to upper-30s – not good by any measure.The Yahoo/YouGove poll also contained bad news for Biden’s vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was supported by just 19% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to run in Biden’s stead – behind doubty campaigners “someone else” (20%) and “not sure” (30%).Biden has said he will run again but he is already the oldest president ever inaugurated and will turn 82 shortly after the 2024 election. He has also faced his fair share of crises in his short time in office, from the economic and physical effects of the coronavirus pandemic to the threat to democracy posed by his Republican opponents, and from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its effects on gas prices, food supplies and more.Such a roster of challenges would, it seems fair to say, challenge most non-Biden candidates the Democrats might be able to find.Here’s Ross Barkan with more:Joe Biden is deeply unpopular. But can Democrats find an alternative for 2024? | Ross BarkanRead morePresident Joe Biden is in Israel, where he reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to one of its top allies. Meanwhile, back home, another month of sky-high inflation data rocked the Democratic leadership and caused a key senator to warn he may not be on board for big spending bills as long as prices keep increasing.Here’s what else happened today:
      Biden saw support for his re-election plummet in a poll that said a mere 18 percent of respondents would back him in 2024.
      A suspect was arrested in the case of a girl who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion after being raped, refuting the doubts of Ohio’s Republican attorney general.
      The main Senate candidates in Georgia brought in boatloads of money last quarter, though Democrat Raphael Warnock raised the most.
      Michigan’s Democratic governor moved to stop other states from trying to arrest people who travel there for abortions.
      The chair of the January 6 committee dropped more hints of its cooperation with the department of justice, which could potentially charge former president Donald Trump with a crime.
      Shortly after the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, the story of a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from Ohio to neighboring Indiana for an abortion after being raped went viral.Ohio was one of the states whose law greatly restricting access to abortions took effect after the court ruling, and news of the girl’s ordeal sparked outrage over its consequences. However, the story had its doubters, chief among them the state’s Republican attorney general Dave Yost, whom the Columbus Dispatch reports gave interviews questioning whether the story happened at all.It did indeed, the Dispatch reported today, with police arresting a 27-year-old man who confessed to twice raping the child. From their story:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Gershon Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment on Columbus’ Northwest Side, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He’s since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio.
      Columbus police were made aware of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes’ arraignment. On June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Huhn said. While Yost had plenty to say when the story first broke, the Dispatch reported he kept his comments following the arrest brief:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost questioned the validity of the account during an appearance on Fox News this week.
      Yost, a Republican, told Fox News host Jesse Watters that his office had not heard “a whisper” of a report being filed for the 10-year-old victim.
      “We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs — not a whisper anywhere,” Yost said on the show.
      Yost doubled down on that in an interview with the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau on Tuesday, saying that the more time passed before confirmation made it “more likely that this is a fabrication.”
      “I know the cops and prosecutors in this state,” Yost said. “There’s not one of them that wouldn’t be turning over every rock, looking for this guy and they would have charged him. They wouldn’t leave him loose on the streets … I’m not saying it could not have happened. What I’m saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence.”
      On Wednesday, once news of the arraignment of the Columbus man accused in the child’s rape came, Yost issued a single sentence statement:
      “We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets.”10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortionRead moreThe Associated Press reports a third arrest has been made related to allegations officials mishandled election equipment in a Colorado county after the 2020 election.The case centers around Tina Peters, the clerk of Mesa county who last month lost her bid to be the Republican nominee for the position of top election official in Colorado. The AP reports that her election manager turned herself in earlier this week.Here’s more from the report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Sandra Brown, who worked for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, turned herself in Monday in response to a warrant issued for her arrest on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempting to influence a public servant, said Lt. Henry Stoffel of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. The arrest was first reported by The Daily Sentinel newspaper.
      Peters and her chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, are being prosecuted for allegedly allowing a copy of a hard drive to be made during an update of election equipment in May 2021. State election officials first became aware of a security breach last summer when a photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social media and a conservative website.
      Peters, who has become a hero to election conspiracy theorists, following the lead of former President Donald Trump, lost her bid to become the GOP candidate for Colorado secretary of state last month.
      Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.The Guardian’s Sam Levine has previously covered the saga around Peters:Election denier Tina Peters loses Colorado primary for top poll officialRead moreJill Biden’s questionable phrasing during a speech earlier this week has resulted in an apology from the first lady, Erum Salam reports:Jill Biden has apologized for remarks in a speech to the civil rights and advocacy organization UnidosUS in which she likened the diversity of Latino Americans to breakfast tacos.Speaking in Texas on Monday, the first lady said: “The diversity of this community – as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio, is your strength.”Amid condemnation of the statement, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists said: “We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures and food traditions. Do not reduce us to stereotypes.”Biden’s press secretary, Michael LaRosa, responded: “The first lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community.”Republicans, however, were quick to seize on the remarks.The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, tweeted: “Breakfast tacos? This is why Texas Hispanics are turning away from the Democratic party.”‘We are not tacos’: Jill Biden criticized over Latino Americans remarkRead moreThe Guardian’s David Smith has the latest on whether the January 6 committee’s hearings will lead to Trump facing a criminal prosecution:Donald Trump is facing growing legal peril as the House January 6 committee lays out a case that appears increasingly geared to making a criminal prosecution all but inevitable.The panel’s seventh hearing on Tuesday argued that Trump instigated an attack on the US Capitol that was premeditated rather than spontaneous and that he cannot hide behind a defence of being “willfully blind”.The committee also sought to show an explosive convergence between Trump’s interests and those of far-right extremist groups, although critics said the case fell short of direct collusion.Even so, the late revelation that Trump had tried to contact a person talking to the committee about potential testimony – raising the prospect of witness tampering – was only likely to compound pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate the former president.Trouble for Trump as committee makes case Capitol attack was premeditatedRead moreChair of the January 6 committee Bennie Thompson has revealed a bit more about the body’s interactions with the justice department as it turns up more and more evidence of potentially criminal misconduct by Donald Trump around the time of the 2020 election.At yesterday’s hearing, the House committee revealed that Trump had contacted a former witness who was working with the panel. Here’s what Thompson had to say about that:CNN’s @mkraju on Trump calling witnesses: “Is it your opinion that there’s enough evidence to say that there was an attempt to intimidate these witnesses?”1/6 Cmte Chair Thompson (D-MS): “It’s highly unusual … that’s why we …put that in the hands of the Justice Department.” pic.twitter.com/hizi9wi4Wa— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
      He also talked about what of the committee’s evidence the justice department was most interested in:Bennie Thompson told us that DOJ is only interested in J6 panel’s witness testimony over fake electors issue. He said they are in talks with DOJ over establishing a process for them to come in and review the records. “That’s right,” he said when it was just about fake electors— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 13, 2022
      President Joe Biden is in Israel right now but in an interview with the country’s Channel 12 broadcaster filed at the White House before his departure, he weighed in on the issues facing one of Washington’s top allies in the Middle East.The president kept the door open to using military force to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but said that would only be done as a “last resort”:EXCLUSIVE @POTUS interview with @N12News: committed to keeping IRGC on the foreign terrorist organizations list even if it kills the deal; willing to use force “as last resort” pic.twitter.com/jWjLO0SVQz— Yonit Levi (@LeviYonit) July 13, 2022
      He also drew a line between himself and fellow Democrats who criticize aid to Israel and claim it’s an apartheid state:More from exclusive @POTUS interview with @N12News: voices in the Democratic Party calling Israel an apartheid state are “few, and they are wrong” pic.twitter.com/CkX3XRkRSL— Yonit Levi (@LeviYonit) July 13, 2022
      Biden will on Friday travel to Saudi Arabia, but he made clear he does not expect that country to normalize relations with Israel anytime soon:Normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia “will take time” @POTUS to @N12News: pic.twitter.com/4GBnv92B0A— Yonit Levi (@LeviYonit) July 13, 2022
      Steve Bannon, a former top advisor to Donald Trump, has tried again and again to delay his trial on contempt of Congress charges for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 committee.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that his latest bid has failed:New: Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon makes new motion to delay his contempt of Congress trial date of July 18 — noting Jan. 6 committee’s mention of him at hearing yesterday. Judge Nichols though said he could seat jury and then assess if trial needed to be delayed.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 13, 2022
      A brief look at Bannon’s attempts to stay out of the courtroom:Bannon suffers setback as judge rejects delaying contempt of Congress trialRead moreCongress held two hearings today on the impact of last month’s landmark supreme court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, in which advocates for and against the procedure made their case to House and Senate lawmakers.Here are some highlights:A Missouri lawmaker worried the state’s regulations would mean doctors and women alike would face jail for seeking out the procedure:MI State Sen. @MalloryMcMorrow (D) on impact of Roe’s reversal if a 1931 law making abortion a felony “with no exception for age, rape, or incest” goes into effect:“Not only would doctors and medical professionals be sent to jail, but so too would countless women and girls.” pic.twitter.com/obFeJBkjLv— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
      And a Georgia state representative said the burden of abortion bans would hit Black women and racial minorities the hardest:“Our criminal legal system is really good at locking up Black and brown folks and … will likely believe Karen, but not believe Keisha when she says she had a miscarriage.”— Georgia State Rep. Shannon (D) on women who have miscarriages mistakenly being prosecuted for abortions pic.twitter.com/Wb7SlDKXbi— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
      Anti-abortion lawyer Erin Hawley, wife of Republican senator Josh Hawley, batted away pro-abortion talking points:Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) wife Erin Hawley, who worked with the state of Mississippi on Dobbs v. Jackson, asked how the anti-abortion movement is pro-women:“Babies can be female as well, so it’s definitely pro-women in that sense.” pic.twitter.com/4GPzNbvQUR— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
      As did Roger Marshall, Kansas’s Republican Senator:“Members will imply today that carrying a baby to term is more dangerous than an abortion. So, using their logic, should we abort every baby? Should we stop all childbearing?”— Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) during hearing on abortion rights following Roe v. Wade reversal pic.twitter.com/R194o94XJo— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
      More bad news for Joe Biden on the polling front, where a mere 18% of respondents to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll said he should run for re-election in 2024 and 64% said he should step back in favour of another Democratic candidate.Among Democrats, 41% said Biden should not run again, against 35% who still wanted him as president. The result was worse than the same poll in May, when 25% of respondents said Biden should run for a second term. Among Democrats then, the figure was 49%.Biden’s favourability rating remains stuck in the mid- to upper-30s – not good by any measure.The Yahoo/YouGove poll also contained bad news for Biden’s vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was supported by just 19% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to run in Biden’s stead – behind doubty campaigners “someone else” (20%) and “not sure” (30%).Biden has said he will run again but he is already the oldest president ever inaugurated and will turn 82 shortly after the 2024 election. He has also faced his fair share of crises in his short time in office, from the economic and physical effects of the coronavirus pandemic to the threat to democracy posed by his Republican opponents, and from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its effects on gas prices, food supplies and more.Such a roster of challenges would, it seems fair to say, challenge most non-Biden candidates the Democrats might be able to find.Here’s Ross Barkan with more:Joe Biden is deeply unpopular. But can Democrats find an alternative for 2024? | Ross BarkanRead moreJoe Biden has said the US is committed to Israel’s security, on arriving in Tel Aviv for the first leg of a three-day visit to the Middle East, a trip focused on deepening the majority Jewish state’s ties with the Arab world as the region faces a common foe in Iran.The president was greeted by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, and caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, on Air Force One’s arrival at Ben Gurion airport on Wednesday afternoon, fist-bumping rather than shaking hands with Israeli officials on the tarmac over what the White House said was concern over rising Covid cases.Ahead of Biden’s trip, senior Israeli officials briefed reporters that the two countries will issue a broad-ranging communique titled the “Jerusalem Declaration”, which will take a tough stance on Iran’s nuclear programme, and reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself.In his opening remarks, Biden recalled that his first visit to the country had been as a young senator in 1973, just a few weeks before the Yom Kippur war with Egypt and Syria broke out. At that time, Israel and imperial Iran were still allies, and Egypt and Jordan were still hostile to the majority Jewish state.“We’ll continue to advance Israel’s integration into the region and the relationship between the US and Israel is deeper and stronger in my view than it’s ever been,” the president said.Air Force One will make a first direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia amid efforts to build a relationship between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not officially recognise Israel’s existence.Full story:Biden commits to Israel’s security as he embarks on Middle East tourRead moreAnother sentence has been handed down against a January 6 rioter, in this case a Maryland man who pled guilty to charges related to striking a police officer with a lacrosse stick that had a Confederate battle flag attached.He was ordered to serve five months in prison, according to the AP: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also sentenced David Alan Blair, to 18 months of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution, said William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.
      Federal prosecutors recommended sentencing Blair to eight months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
      Blair’s attorney, Terrell Roberts III, asked for a sentence of probation.
      Blair, 27, left his home in Clarksburg, Maryland, and started driving to Washington, D.C., after the riot erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Shortly before 6 p.m., Blair encountered a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers on the Capitol’s West Lawn and refused to heed their commands to leave the area, prosecutors said.
      A police officer’s body camera captured Blair walking in front of the police line and yelling, “Hell naw. Quit backing up. Don’t be scared. We’re Americans.”
      Blair was arrested after he pushed his lacrosse stick against an officer’s chest.
      The officer responded to the push by striking Blair three times in the head with a baton, drawing blood and giving him a concussion, according to Blair’s attorney.The race for the Senate seat in Georgia currently occupied by Democrat Raphael Warnock is among those considered pivotal to deciding who controls the chamber following November’s midterm elections, and the incumbent seems to be prevailing, at least when it comes to money.As the Associated Press reports, Warnock raised $17.2 million in the second quarter running from April through June, much more than the $6.2 million Republican Herschel Walker brought in.From the AP’s report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The dueling Senate campaign numbers underlined two truths. Georgia is again going to be one of the most expensive races to run for office in 2022, and Democrats are building a strong fundraising advantage.
      Like Warnock, Democrat Stacey Abrams heavily outraised incumbent Republican Brian Kemp in the race for governor, collecting almost $50 million compared to the $31 million Kemp has brought in over a longer period. Abrams and Warnock plan to run closely linked campaigns, echoing many of the same themes.
      Warnock is one of several Democratic Senate incumbents in swing states who is trying to cling to their seat amid President Joe Biden’s deep unpopularity. Republicans had long dominated statewide races until Georgia helped elect Biden to the presidency and enabled Democrats to control the Senate by electing Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff in a January 2021 runoff. More

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      Biden’s Hyperbolic Fawning Before the CIA

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      Joe Biden is deeply unpopular. But can Democrats find an alternative for 2024? | Ross Barkan

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      Joe Biden is deeply unpopular. But can Democrats find an alternative for 2024?Ross BarkanFor now, Biden is emboldened. No prominent Democrat will cross him and he will feel especially motivated if Trump is back on the campaign trail The Democrats find themselves with a 2024 conundrum. Joe Biden, the party’s standard-bearer, is widely disliked. A new poll found that a 64% of Democrats would want a candidate other than Biden to seek the nomination in two years. Rapid inflation has eaten away at the 79-year-old president’s popularity and he is viewed as increasingly out of touch, a vestige of another era that many voters want to leave behind.At the same time, Biden will easily win a Democratic primary if he runs again. Sitting presidents are rarely forced aside. The top candidates in a hypothetical primary don’t want to take him on – almost all of them ruled out the idea of waging a direct challenge. This is understandable, since no single governor or senator has the ability to defeat Biden, one-on-one. Democrats look warily to examples like Ted Kennedy, who ran a primary against President Jimmy Carter and was soundly beaten. Carter went on to lose the general election, in 1980, to Ronald Reagan.What should be done? In an ideal world, Biden would recognize that he’ll turn 82 shortly after election day in 2024. There are plenty of Americans who are vigorous at that age, but none of them are governing large states or nations. Biden could fully deliver on the promise of his 2020 campaign that he would defeat Donald Trump and be a bridge to the next generation of Democrats. In not seeking another term, he could declare victory on a host of matters, like overseeing much-needed infrastructure funding and finally ending the war in Afghanistan. There are plenty of American presidents who have done less than Biden in one term.If Biden decides against another term, there will be a healthy open primary for the nomination. One problem for the Democrats is that the obvious frontrunner will be Biden’s vice-president, Kamala Harris. Though his poll numbers are slipping, Biden can still make the credible case that he can defeat Donald Trump a second time if Trump chooses to run again. Harris’s polling numbers are as frail as Biden’s, and she ran a very poor campaign for the presidency in 2019. Harris is simultaneously well-positioned to defeat any Democrat who takes her on, and is poorly suited for a general election, where she’d carry all the baggage of the Biden years without being able to summon the memory of Barack Obama, who Biden served with for eight years. A Kamala Harris 2024 campaign, for Democrats, could end up the worst of all worlds.Ideally – and this would not happen, because Harris is ambitious – Democrats would find a way to hold an open primary without any of the candidates tied directly to the Biden administration. Beyond Biden, there are a growing number of Democrats across America who could be viable in a general election against Trump or Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, the most politically potent Republican hovering around 2024 right now. If they win re-election, Georgia senator Raphael Warnock and Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, could be top contenders, having won multiple times on forbidding swing turf. Warnock would be particularly strong as a charismatic Black candidate – he was a prominent pastor – with the potential to recreate Obama’s multiracial coalition. Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, assuming he survives his 2022 re-election campaign, is another purple-state Democrat who would be an intriguing national candidate, having made a name for himself by defying liberals on unpopular Covid restrictions.Part of Harris’s weakness is that, as a California senator, she was never battle-tested in a state where Democrats don’t dominate. Both JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, and Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, have the Harris problem: they run states where Republicans are increasingly impotent. As executives, they can argue, unlike legislators, they have to make tough decisions each day that affect millions of people. Pritzker is attempting to be a national leader on gun control and Newsom is taking on DeSantis directly, running ads in Florida promoting California as a place that won’t infringe on abortion rights and meddle in the classroom.Progressives don’t have the equivalent of a Bernie Sanders, who is not going to run again. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is unlikely to run in 2024, when she will just turn 35, the age to be legally president. Like Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna, a former Sanders campaign co-chair, is in the House, which is a historically tough place to mount a successful presidential bid. Both, though, could be strong future candidates, particularly if they win Senate seats.For now, Biden is emboldened. No prominent Democrat will cross him and he will feel especially motivated if Trump is back on the campaign trail. Biden and Trump crave a rematch, even though each political party would be better off if both men moved on.
      Ross Barkan is a New York-based journalist
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