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    Biden no ganará. Los demócratas necesitan un plan. Aquí hay uno

    Recuerden mis palabras: Joe Biden estará fuera de la contienda presidencial de 2024. Esté o no dispuesto a admitirlo. Su petición a los demócratas del Congreso para que lo respalden no unirán al partido en su apoyo. Biden dice que seguirá en la carrera, pero solo es cuestión de tiempo para que la presión demócrata y los sondeos públicos y privados lo lleven a abandonarla. Se acabó el juego, y cuanto antes lo acepten Biden y los líderes de su partido, mejor. Tenemos que avanzar.Pero no puede ser eligiendo a la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris o a cualquier otra persona como posible candidato demócrata. Tenemos que hacerlo de manera abierta; exactamente del modo contrario a como Donald Trump quiere que hagamos.Por primera vez en su vida, Trump está rezando. Para ganar la Casa Blanca y aumentar sus posibilidades de evitar usar un uniforme naranja, necesita que los demócratas sigan los pasos equivocados en los próximos días: es decir, que parezcan amañar la nominación de un presidente en decadencia o de la vicepresidenta en ejercicio o de algún otro aparente heredero. Trump necesita poder escribir en MAYÚSCULAS publicaciones en redes sociales sobre los agentes del poder y los grandes donantes que lo arreglan todo. Necesita, en otras palabras, que los demócratas acaben por echarlo todo a perder.No vamos a hacer eso.Vamos a nominar una nueva candidatura de forma muy democrática y novedosa, no en las trastiendas de Washington, D. C., o Chicago.Estamos en un momento en el que necesitamos ideas constructivas sobre cómo avanzar. El representante Jim Clyburn y el columnista de Opinión del Times Ezra Klein han hablado de unas miniprimarias demócratas, y a mí me gustaría desarrollar esa idea.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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    ‘Pass the Torch’ Sign at Biden Rally Costs Volunteer Role in State Campaign

    Clint Keaveny took his place in the stands behind President Biden at a rally on Friday in Madison, Wis., and held up a sign that read, “Pass the torch, Joe.” Before the rally was over, Mr. Keaveny had lost his role with a Democratic congressional campaign.The event was the first in Mr. Biden’s weekend blitz of campaign events in must-win states to rebuff critics after his halting debate performance on June 27. As the president took the stage, in full view of cameras, Mr. Keaveny unveiled his poster, made of taped-together printer paper and stuffed in his waistband. It had been written by Mr. Keaveny’s mother, he said.The moment quickly went viral. His boss noticed.Before Mr. Keaveny had even left the event, Kristin Lyerly, the Wisconsin congressional candidate for whom he was a communications volunteer, had seen the images circulating online. She called him and asked that he part ways with the campaign, to which he agreed.“He held up a sign that was inconsistent with the values and the ideals of our campaign,” Dr. Lyerly said in an interview. “I was just so profoundly disappointed that I called him right then and there.” Mr. Keaveny, 27, said that Mr. Biden has been a great president, but he does not believe that he can defeat former President Donald J. Trump in November.“It pains me to feel like a black sheep,” Mr. Keaveny said. “But I believe in following my conscience.”The episode with Mr. Keaveny comes as questions over loyalty to President Biden in the Democratic Party are breaking out into the open and some are calling for a new nominee. Mr. Biden has repeatedly pledged to stay the course.Dr. Lyerly is running for a vacant seat that represents a swath of northeast Wisconsin, including Green Bay, a competitive district that leans Republican. Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican, resigned from the seat in April. More

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    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Backs Biden: ‘He Is Not Leaving This Race’

    Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the most prominent progressives in the Democratic caucus, said late Monday that she stood behind President Biden.“I have spoken to the president over the weekend,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol. “I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race. The matter is closed.”She highlighted his efforts on Monday to reiterate that message. “Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said. “He is not leaving this race, he is in this race, and I support him.”Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that it was essential for Democrats to turn their focus back to former President Donald J. Trump and what he would do if elected again. She told Mr. Biden to “increasingly commit to the issues that are critically important to working people across this country” — like expanding Medicare and Social Security and making housing more affordable, she said.“What I think is critically important right now is that we focus on what it takes to win in November,” she said. “Because he is running against Donald Trump, who is a man with 34 felony convictions — that has committed 34 felony crimes. And not a single Republican has asked for Donald Trump to not be the nominee.”Members of Congress returned to Washington on Monday after a recess, and Democrats have been meeting and discussing their path forward.While a handful of House Democrats have called for Mr. Biden to step aside since his debate performance last month, he has received politically important support from others, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — and now at least one member of the so-called Squad, a group of progressives of which Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a part. More

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    Biden Trumpets Small Donors as Rich Backers Retreat

    In a nationally broadcast interview on Monday, President Biden pushed back on rich Democrats who want him to end his re-election campaign, saying, “I don’t care what the millionaires think.”Small donors, he made clear, were coming through for him.But hours later, Mr. Biden joined a private call with his top donors and fund-raisers to reassure them. “It matters,” he told them of their support.The seemingly contradictory messages show the conundrum facing the president as he grapples with the fallout from his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump last month. In order to continue to fund his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden will most likely need the support of wealthy Democratic Party backers, but they have been among the loudest voices calling for him to end his bid for re-election.In trying to diffuse their opposition, Mr. Biden — a politician who has long relied on the party’s establishment to fund his campaign — has adopted a surprisingly populist anti-elite message that, in some ways, echoes Mr. Trump’s.Major donors are warning that the party will lose the White House and down-ballot races with Mr. Biden atop the ticket. A growing chorus of donors has been pushing — first quietly, then publicly — for him to step aside to allow a replacement nominee and threatening to withhold their cash unless that happens.While Mr. Biden’s campaign has continued to court wealthy Democrats, including working to schedule fund-raising receptions despite uncertain interest, the president has also publicly cast the backlash from major donors as a sign that he is sticking up for regular people against moneyed interests. But polls showing that many rank-and-file Democratic voters also have deep concerns about his age.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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    How Biden Is Leveraging His Defiance to Try to Stem Democratic Defections

    President Biden’s increasingly emphatic declarations that he will not exit the presidential race are delivering an unmistakable message to potential wayward Democrats: Any criticisms going forward damage the party’s chances against Donald J. Trump.For days, Mr. Biden has said he will remain his party’s nominee after his poor debate short of an intervention from “the Lord Almighty.” On Monday, he put that assertion into action.It began with an open letter to congressional Democrats saying he was definitely running. It continued with a defiant call into one of his favorite cable news shows decrying the “elites” trying to shove him out. It included a midday appearance on a private video call with some of his campaign’s top financiers as well as a call into a virtual meeting on Monday evening with a bulwark of his past support: the Congressional Black Caucus.“I am not going anywhere,” Mr. Biden told the donors.The moves amounted to a show of defiance that the Biden operation hoped would earn him some deference, as uneasy Democratic lawmakers trickled back to Capitol Hill after a holiday break. At the same time, the Biden team was trying to reframe the pressure campaign to get him to step aside as one hatched by the elite party establishment rather than a genuine reflection of grass-roots voter fears about the 81-year-old commander in chief’s age and acuity.“I love this fighting Joe Biden,” said Representative Robert Garcia of California, a Democrat and an outspoken Biden supporter. “When he takes a punch, he’s going to come back and punch harder.”As lawmakers returned to Washington, Mr. Biden received some key words of support, including from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (“He is in this race; the matter is closed”), but also some concerns among influential lawmakers, including Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who is in the Democratic leadership (“We need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate”).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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    What Biden Is Doing to Survive as He Faces Calls to Drop Out of Race

    Eleven days after his disastrous debate performance, the president’s strategy is coming into focus.Good evening. Tonight, we’re taking a look at the strategy behind President Biden’s efforts to steady his candidacy. And I’m covering a new ad campaign from Republicans who want to defeat Trump.The latest developmentsAn expert on Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times in eight months, including at least once for a meeting with President Biden’s physician.Biden told his biggest donors he is staying in the presidential race.Jill Biden, the first lady, emphasized to voters in several states that her husband was “all in” on his campaign.A defiant President Biden sent a simple message on Monday to the detractors who say he needs to bow out of the presidential race: Bring it.“Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,” Biden said while calling into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, all but daring the Democrats who have been complaining about his electability since his disastrous debate performance to stand up and do something about it.Biden has been roundly criticized not just for his halting debate performance but also for moving too slowly to acknowledge and quell the hailstorm of doubts about his fitness to campaign and serve another four years. He is now rolling out a more aggressive playbook to try to shut down talk of his being shoved aside as the Democratic presidential nominee.Biden campaigned in North Carolina the day after his showdown with Donald Trump, but it wasn’t until Friday, eight days after the debate, that he sat for questions about it in a major television interview. He held campaign events in two swing states over the holiday weekend.“Even the president acknowledges that, that there was too much distance between, you know, between the debate and being out there,” said Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a Democrat, noting the North Carolina stop. “He understands that, in order to be successful, we’re going to have to do that and then some.”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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    Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s Independent Streak Marked Supreme Court Term

    The junior member of the court’s six-justice conservative supermajority often questioned its approach and wrote important dissents joined by liberal justices.Justice Amy Coney Barrett, 52, is the youngest member of the Supreme Court and the junior member of its conservative supermajority. Last week, she completed what was only her third full term.Yet she has already emerged as a distinctive force on the court, issuing opinions that her admirers say are characterized by intellectual seriousness, independence, caution and a welcome measure of common sense.In the term that ended last week, she delivered a series of concurring opinions questioning and honing the majority’s methods and conclusions.She wrote notable dissents, joined by liberal justices, from decisions limiting the tools prosecutors can use in cases against members of the Jan. 6 mob and blocking a Biden administration plan to combat air pollution. And she voted with the court’s three-member liberal wing in March, saying the majority had ruled too broadly in restoring former President Donald J. Trump to the Colorado ballot.The bottom line: Justice Barrett was the Republican appointee most likely to vote for a liberal result in the last term.That does not make her a liberal, said Irv Gornstein, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Supreme Court Institute.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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    Joe Biden, in the Goodest Bunker Ever

    When I saw the Michael Shear story in The Times on July 4, recounting how President Biden had stumbled talking to Black radio hosts days after his debate debacle, telling one he was proud to have been “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president,” I knew it spelled trouble.First of all, if any white man could claim to be “the first Black woman” in the Oval, it was Bill Clinton. Black fans called him “the first Black president” and feminist fans called him “the first woman president.”Second of all, we were entering a new post-debate examination period with President Biden, where his every word would be scrutinized. He was always a fast and voluminous talker, and as he has gotten older, the words and ideas sometimes tumble out in the wrong order. Also, he’s more slurry now, so words get smushed together, and words and thoughts collide; words get dropped, caesuras skipped, and sentences sometimes trail off into the ether.The Times’s chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, told me he has started using the translation headsets on overseas trips, even when he is 20 feet away from the president, because they offer a magnified volume when Biden starts to mumble.The White House press corps, stung by critiques that they did not pull back the curtain enough on the president’s diminished powers, are now on the alert, ready to tear down the Pollyanna scrim erected by Biden’s family and aides.The White House and the Biden campaign are so smotheringly protective that, as news outlets reported, Biden aides helped draft the questions that local radio hosts asked the president in the wake of his calamitous debate.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