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    Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mount

    Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mount Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the US?Joe Biden is having a rough summer. The US supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for abortion access. Although gas prices are now falling, they remain high and have driven inflation to its largest annual increase in more than 40 years. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has finally ended any hopes that the president had of passing a climate bill in Congress. With an evenly divided Senate, Biden’s options for addressing these problems – or enacting any of his other legislative priorities – are bleak.The American people have taken note. Biden’s approval rating has steadily fallen since April and now sits in the high 30s. A recent Monmouth poll found that only 10% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction.Biden in crisis mode as specter of one-term Carter haunts White HouseRead moreAmid this pessimism, Democrats are bracing for a potential shellacking in the midterm elections, as Republicans appear poised to regain control of the House of Representatives. Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are already looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the nation?Questions over whether Biden should seek re-election in 2024 have grown louder in recent weeks. A New York Times/Siena College poll taken this month found that 64% of Democrats say they would prefer a different nominee for 2024. Among Democrats under 30, that figure rises to 94%.Ellen Sciales, a spokesperson for the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement, said voters of her generation have grown disillusioned with Biden and other Democratic party leaders. After turning out to vote at near-record levels in 2020, young voters are now watching in dismay as the climate crisis accelerates and reproductive rights are stripped away, Sciales said.“Democrats should be treating the loss of my generation as an existential threat,” Sciales said. “We’ve been warning Democrats that unless they pass real meaningful policy immediately, like what was promised in Build Back Better, they are going to lose the engagement of so many voters, threatening their chances in 2022, 2024 and even further.”In addition to his sinking approval rating, Biden is facing increasingly pointed questions about his age. At 79 years old, Biden is already the oldest president in US history, and if re-elected, he would be 86 when his second term ended. The Times/Siena poll found that age and poor job performance ranked as the top two reasons why Democrats said Biden should not run again in 2024.The White House has publicly dismissed concerns about Biden getting older. “That is not a question that we should be even asking,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said last month.But some of Biden’s aides privately tell a different story. According to a recent New York Times report, White House staffers have expressed hesitation about scheduling long international trips for Biden, out of concern that they are too taxing for him. They also worry that Biden’s slower, more shuffling gait could cause him to fall, and they fret over his tendency to jumble words in speeches. David Axelrod, who previously served as Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist, has said that Biden’s age could be a “major issue” if he seeks re-election.A New York Times columnist last week wrote an article titled “Joe Biden is Too Old to be President Again”, but pointed out that this was a wider problem with US politics. “There’s a problem here that goes beyond Biden himself. We are ruled by a gerontocracy. Biden is 79. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 82. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, is 83. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is 71. Often, it’s not clear if they grasp how broken this country is.”Biden insists he still plans to run again in 2024, assuming his health cooperates. “I’m a great respecter of fate. Fate has intervened in my life many, many times,” Biden said in December. “If I’m in the health I’m in now, if I’m in good health, then in fact, I would run again.”But those comments have not quelled the 2024 conversation, even among fellow Democrats. When progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked whether she would endorse Biden as the Democratic nominee in 2024, she demurred.“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ocasio-Cortez said last month. Weeks later, she dodged questions from late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert about whether she would consider launching her own presidential campaign in 2024.If Ocasio-Cortez or another progressive leader chose to challenge Biden, it would be a historic candidacy. No sitting Democratic president has faced a primary challenge since 1980, when Ted Kennedy chose to run against Jimmy Carter as the country faced record-high inflation and gas shortages. Carter was able to defeat Kennedy in the primary, but he ultimately lost the general election to a Republican candidate who promised to “make America great again”: Ronald Reagan..Jon Ward, author of Camelot’s End, which chronicles the 1980 Democratic primary, said there are some clear parallels and important distinctions between Carter and Biden. While Carter had a clear-cut opponent in Kennedy, it remains unclear who – if anyone – from the Democratic party’s highest ranks would challenge Biden.But one element working in Biden’s favor is time, Ward said. The 2024 presidential election is still more than two years away, giving the economy some breathing room to return to a place of greater stability.“There’s time for inflation to ease and for the economy to turn around,” Ward said. “However, it’s not clear that’s where we’re headed, since there are a lot of forecasts of recession and even the prospect of the very ‘stagflation’ that crippled Carter.”Biden’s allies insist he has time to improve the economy and the nation’s broader outlook, and they are generally dismissive of polls indicating he should step aside in 2024.“Polls are a snapshot of the time,” said Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Truth be told, what’s hot today could be cold tomorrow, and what’s cold today, it could be very hot tomorrow.”Seawright criticized the recent 2024 chatter as “a manufactured outrage from a few in our party”, suggesting those who are engaging in the speculation should instead rededicate themselves to the midterm elections.Even some of the progressives who did not support Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary echo that point. Rahna Epting, executive director of the progressive group MoveOn, said she has not yet been talking about the 2024 election because of her single-minded concentration on the midterms.Emphasizing the urgency of the upcoming elections, Epting noted that some of the gubernatorial, state legislative and secretary of state races being held this year will have sweeping implications for 2024. A number of Republican candidates who have embraced Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 race are now running for posts that could help them determine election rules in 2024.“We’re going to find out whether our elections in 2024 are going to be free and fair, based on who ends up in office in 2022,” Epting said. “The very terrain of our democracy and our election system is going to be decided this election cycle.”TopicsJoe BidenUS elections 2024US politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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    Trump, battered by January 6 testimony, mulls 2024 run – and not all Republicans are happy

    Trump, battered by January 6 testimony, mulls 2024 run – and not all Republicans are happy Republicans are odds-on to take back the House and Senate in November, and the last thing the party needs, experts say, is a Trump distraction On Thursday the Trump campaign sent out a begging-bowl email to hundreds of thousands of supporters, previewing the former president’s rally in Arizona this weekend and teasing the recipients with a portent of momentous things to come.Trump to face sworn deposition in New York lawsuit as legal troubles mountRead moreDonald Trump “wants to make sure it’s one of his best rallies yet”, his loyal followers were told. “He is preparing the speech that he will give in front of the American people.”“The speech he will give” was a nudge-nudge wink-wink suggestion that the one-term president is poised to announce another run on the White House in 2024. The tantalizing hint was the latest in an intensifying stream of similar baits – most recently in remarks to Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine this week – that are driving Republican party leaders to distraction.With inflation running at 40-year highs, and with Joe Biden suffering record lows in his approval ratings, the Republican script for winning back the US House and Senate in November’s midterm elections writes itself. The last thing the party needs, many top Republicans believe, is Trump muddying the message by talking about himself and 2024.“Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” said Frank Luntz, the pollster who has a long track record of advising Republican campaigns. “He has the chance to participate in an amazing, historic Republican resurgence, and instead he’s making everything all about him. That could cost Republicans the majorities.”Luntz said that Republican leaders have told Trump “in no uncertain terms that anything that takes attention away from inflation and Biden’s failures could hand the election to the Democrats. But they know there is nothing they can do to influence him, and that he doesn’t really care.”The incentive to announce early is self-evident: Trump is a past master at deflecting public attention from inconvenient truths. It is no coincidence that his dalliance with a third presidential bid comes just when he is taking a battering at the hands of the congressional hearings into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.Millions of Americans have watched live as the January 6 committee has exposed the lengths to which the then-sitting president was prepared to go to hold onto power having lost the 2020 election. He tried to grab the steering wheel of his armored vehicle to turn it towards the Capitol and join the insurrectionists; he splattered White House walls with ketchup in a fit of rage; and when his vice-president faced a mob of violent white supremacists chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” he told aides that “Mike deserves it”.“It’s the cumulative weight of the evidence that’s piling up,” said Charlie Sykes, a prominent conservative commentator who edits the Trump-critical news site the Bulwark. “The most damaging evidence is coming from people within Trump’s orbit. That’s potentially the greatest danger for Donald Trump: it’s the people closest to him, people who were inside the Oval Office, who are saying it was a big lie.”People like Trump’s then-attorney general Bill Barr who testified that he told the president to his face that his claims that the election was stolen were “crazy stuff” and “bullshit”. Or Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, who declared in a heated Oval Office meeting a month after the election that seizing voting machines was a “terrible idea” and “not how we do things in the United States”.It is not yet clear whether the hearings have managed to launch a torpedo sufficiently explosive to sink USS Trump. But the vessel is clearly taking on water, as is demonstrated by the polls.A revealing survey from the New York Times / Siena College this week showed that more than half of Republican primary voters want to move on from Trump. Though the former president remains dominant in the field of possible candidates, there is one obvious and growing threat: Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is quietly but steadily gaining strength.“Trump is dropping,” Luntz said. “Six months ago he was at 60%, and no one else was in double digits. Now he’s in the upper 40s and DeSantis has climbed into the 20s. You see poll after poll suggesting a majority of Republicans not wanting him to run again.”That explains the baby steps that some Republican leaders have begun to take to detach themselves from Trump ahead of a possible 2024 head-to-head. Last month DeSantis, who initially adopted the mantle of Trumpism but is now forging his own iteration of it, pointedly let it be known that he was not interested in Trump’s endorsement in his gubernatorial re-election race.Pence, in May, campaigned with the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, in his primary re-election contest in which Trump had backed a rival candidate (Kemp went on to win).Such activity, tentative though it may yet be, is matched by moves among those who are arguably the real powerbrokers in the Republican party: the major donors. “Donors are increasingly flocking to and chatting about Ron DeSantis – he is increasingly sucking up all the oxygen,” said Dan Eberhart, a Denver, Colorado-based businessman who is himself a longtime Republican donor. “They are tired of rehashing the 2020 election. They like Trump’s policies, but not the drama. If he runs they will vote for him, but their preference would be to have someone else like Trump on the top of the ticket,” Eberhart said.One of those critical battleground states is Arizona which Biden won in 2020 by just 10,000 votes. A fascinating insight into the sea-change that is happening in the Grand Canyon state is given by Rusty Bowers, Republican speaker of the Arizona House.In the fourth day of the January 6 hearings last month, Bowers related in searing detail how he had refused to play along with Trump’s plot to overturn Biden’s victory in his state. Asked at the hearing what he thought of a Trump-backed scheme to send fake electors to Washington countering Biden’s win, he called it a “tragic parody”, citing the words he wrote in his journal at the time: “I do not want to be a winner by cheating”.This week Bowers elucidated his thinking on the future of Trump and the Republican party in Arizona to the Guardian. In response to Guardian questions about Trump’s possibly imminent announcement of another presidential run, he talked about the growing exhaustion that he and many other Republicans are feeling.“I know I am no-one in the great scheme of things, and Mr Trump still has a lot of sway here with the extreme part of the Republican party,” Bowers began. “I personally am more upset that we have inflation robbing us of our financial security and many of our seniors are very worried.”He went on to say that “many Republicans are tired of the friction between the poles of the parties and would like us to focus on getting water supplies increased for our arid state, getting common sense solutions to the border which has gone crazy and which causes much of the angst that the extremists take advantage of. I am in that camp and know there are many with me.”He ended with this reflection: “While the fringes focus on the past, we want to tackle the present and future progress we need.”If those are the expressed views of one of the most powerful Republicans in a key swing state, it is a fair assumption that similar ennui is setting in across the country. The question is, will any of the leaders of the party have the guts to act on it?“This is an ideal off-ramp for Republicans to take from Trump, but they’ve had so many other off-ramps they’ve refused to take,” Sykes said. “The one thing we’ve learned is that the Republican party is ultimately invertebrate – it just cannot stand up to someone like Donald Trump, even in these circumstances.”Luntz’s assessment was more bullish about the prospects of Trump being ousted. “No one attacks Republicans more viciously than Donald Trump, not even top Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” he said.“Eventually that will come back to bite him.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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

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

    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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    Elon Musk hits back at Trump and says ex-president should ‘hang up his hat’

    Elon Musk hits back at Trump and says ex-president should ‘hang up his hat’Tesla chief tweets that ex-president should ‘sail into the sunset’ after Trump calls Musk a ‘bullshit artist’ over Twitter bid Stepping up an ongoing verbal clash between the two men, Elon Musk said Donald Trump should “hang up his hat” and is too old to run for the Oval Office in 2024, as a poll shows the former president is losing support among Republican voters.“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” Musk tweeted late Monday, using the same social media platform that he first tried to buy and is now trying to walk away from. The billionaire businessman’s tweet came after Trump, at a public appearance in Alaska last weekend, called Musk a “bullshit artist” over the Twitter sale.Elon Musk may have to complete $44bn Twitter takeover, legal experts sayRead moreMusk further tweeted that Democrats – who hold seven of the nine seats on the congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters – “should also call off the attack”.“Don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the presidency,” Musk wrote.Trump would be 78 when the 2024 presidential election is held. If he ignores Musk’s suggestion to hang it up and wins, Trump would be 82 at the end of his second presidential term.Musk on Friday filed notice to withdraw his $44bn bid to buy Twitter, after the company agreed in late April to sell to him. He argued that the platform had failed to provide promised information on fake and spam accounts, though many observers have noted that tech stocks have plummeted recently, making the sale price look much higher.It’s unlikely Musk will walk away easily. Twitter said Musk backing out was “invalid and wrongful” and is suing him to enforce a provision in the agreement that may compel him to go through with acquiring the platform, assuming he had the financing for it – which the businessman said in May that he had.Trump spoke up after Friday’s announcement, saying the Tesla and SpaceX chief’s deal with Twitter was “rotten” anyway.The Trump-Musk spat has gone on for a while: Musk said he was contemplating supporting Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, as the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race.In Alaska, Trump claimed Musk said he’d previously voted for him; Musk has denied it, though he has also criticized Twitter for banning Trump’s account on the platform after the Capitol attack.If Musk did vote for Trump, he isn’t alone in having a change of heart, a recent poll from the New York Times and Siena College found. Nearly half of Republican party primary voters are interested in supporting someone other than Trump in the 2024 election, and 16% even indicated that if he was the GOP nominee they would support president Joe Biden, vote for a protest candidate, abstain from voting or be unsure of what to do, according to the poll.That may not sound like much, but that number among Democrats if Biden were to face Trump was 8%, the poll said.TopicsElon MuskDonald TrumpUS elections 2024US politicsReuse this content More

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    Trump 2024 run could upend midterms – and deflect risk of prosecution

    Trump 2024 run could upend midterms – and deflect risk of prosecutionRumors are swirling that the ex-president could make an announcement soon, as January 6 revelations continue Speculation is swirling in the US media that Donald Trump is considering announcing a 2024 presidential run as early as this summer and in the face of ever more damaging revelations from a congressional investigation of his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Irrespective of Trump’s chances of winning a second term, another presidential campaign under consideration – as reported by the New York Times, CBS and other US outlets – could give the former president a multi-year shield to deflect the attention of prosecutors.The reports have come after committee hearings into the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot that could see the congressional panel itself recommend Trump face criminal charges for his role in an attempt to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win. Or the justice department could charge Trump via its own investigation of the scheme.In testimony to the panel last week, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, strengthened a potential criminal case when she alleged that Trump knew his supporters were armed when he encouraged them to march on the Capitol.January 6 panel getting more new evidence by the day, says KinzingerRead moreBut if Trump were to run for a second stint in the White House, most experts believe it would – at the very least – complicate any decision to criminally charge him. It would also be likely to bolster his support in the Republican party, which has begun to ebb slightly in the wake of the January 6 revelations.It would also, perhaps, stem the rise of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who has emerged in recent months as a genuine potential rival to Trump with the promise of pursuing the same rightwing agenda but with more traditional political skills and style.A former House Republican aide told MSNBC on Saturday that Trump would probably announce his intentions soon.“Well, we all know from past experience that Donald Trump doesn’t care about anybody else but Donald Trump,” said Kurt Bardella. “So it doesn’t surprise me that when faced with the criticism that’s been mounting right now, following the January 6 hearings, he’s thinking about pulling the trigger.”At recent rallies, Trump has been relatively explicit about his designs. “This is the year we’re going to take back the House, we’re going to take back the Senate, and we’re going to take back America,” he said at a recent rally in Illinois. “And in 2024, most importantly, we are going to take back our magnificent White House”.“The advantages of declaring now are that potential rivals could be dissuaded from running against him,” said Carl Tobias, Williams chair in law at the University of Richmond. “Meanwhile, the pressure will build for the January 6 committee to move quickly to find as much damning information as it can and refer it over to the attorney general.”Carly Cooperman at Schoen Cooperman Research said Trump could be attempting to change the narrative because the January 6 hearings have painted him in a bad light. Cooperman also cautioned that the speculation could be just that – rumors – and that some Republican officials might try to stave it off.“I’m skeptical Trump will actually make an announcement before the midterms. Republicans would rather have the conversation be about the economy, inflation, and a referendum on Biden. An early announcement from Trump would change the midterm elections to become a referendum on Trump and his claims of election fraud in 2020,” Cooperman said.On Sunday, Trump’s Republican party nemesis Congresswoman Liz Cheney told ABC’s Jonathan Karl that the party could not survive if Trump were the nominee in 2024. “Those of us who believe in Republican principles and ideals have a responsibility to try to lead the party back to what it can be,” Cheney said.The case against Donald TrumpRead moreTrump has reportedly told advisers that declaring a run for the White House now would allow him to strengthen his argument that other criminal investigations against him in New York and Georgia are politically motivated.According to a CBS report on Sunday, Trump’s deliberations are fluid and no decision has been made on a bid or the time of an announcement. As with other media reports, sources said to be close to Trump requested anonymity.Typically, a presidential candidate waits until after the midterms in November, but the presidential cycle has been stretching longer and now begins as early as two years before the general election. A declaration now could upend both parties’ midterm strategies.Trump told Newsmax last week that he thought “a lot of” the committee hearings were about trying to prevent him from running in 2024.“I am leading in all the polls – against Republicans and Democrats. I am leading in the Republican polls in numbers that no one has ever even seen before. And against Biden, and anyone else they run, I am leading against them.”“At the right time, I will be saying what I want to do,” Trump added. But in comments to the New Yorker last month, Trump said he was “very close to making a decision” about whether to run.TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansUS elections 2024analysisReuse this content More

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    ‘I think I would win’: Donald Trump takes aim at Ron DeSantis

    ‘I think I would win’: Donald Trump takes aim at Ron DeSantis As the Florida governor rises in the polls, Trump begins to disparage his former ally The bromance between Donald Trump and the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, appears to be waning as the prospect of the two extreme-right Republicans facing off for the party’s presidential nomination grows, with Trump declaring “I think I would win.”As DeSantis’s popularity among the Republican base grows nationwide – thanks in part to his regular combative appearances on Fox News and anti-liberal rhetoric – his dramatic ascent in the polls and his refusal to rule out running for president has clearly riled Trump.True to form, Trump has begun his offensive by taking credit for his likely rival’s success.“If I didn’t endorse him [DeSantis], he wouldn’t have won,” Trump told the New Yorker, which published an in-depth story profiling DeSantis’s rise. The former president said that he and DeSantis had a “very good relationship”, adding “I’m proud of Ron.”Trump endorsed DeSantis in 2017 over then-Republican frontrunner Adam Putnam after being impressed by the former athlete’s combative stance.Trump, who could soon be forced to give testimony under oath in a New York state civil investigation into his business practices, said he was “very close to making a decision” about launching a third consecutive presidential run, which he has been hinting at ever since losing the 2020 election – a truth he still refuses to publicly accept.“I don’t know if Ron is running, and I don’t ask him,” Trump said. “It’s his prerogative. I think I would win.”In a handful of polls DeSantis, who faces an election for the governor’s mansion later this year, comes out ahead of Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Without Trump, he commands a big lead. (Lagging way behind in third place is the Texas senator Ted Cruz.)The governor’s rising star and declining interest in hanging out with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, are fuelling resentment among the former president’s inner circle. One Republican political consultant told the New Yorker, “Trump World is working overtime to find ways to burn DeSantis down. They really hate him​.”Perhaps worried that neither his fanbase nor DeSantis subscribe to the New Yorker, Trump said much the same when asked for his thoughts on the 43-year-old governor running for the White House during a phone interview with the rightwing TV station Newsmax on Monday.“I have a good relationship with Ron, I don’t know that he wants to run. I haven’t seen that. You’re telling me something that I’ve not seen, so we’ll see what happens,” he said. “But no, I was very responsible for getting him elected.”In another move that’s unlikely to please Trump, some wealthy donors who supported Trump’s failed 2020 election race have started contributing to a political committee tied to DeSantis, Politico reported on Sunday. For many this was their first time donating to a candidate in a Florida state-level election.TopicsDonald TrumpRon DeSantisUS elections 2024US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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    AOC refuses to endorse Biden for 2024 as Democrats doubt his ability to win

    AOC refuses to endorse Biden for 2024 as Democrats doubt his ability to win Congresswoman says she’s focused on trying to preserve Democrats’ congressional majority in November’s midterms Left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday refused to endorse Joe Biden for another run at the White House, adding to growing anxiety in Democratic circles over the president’s ability to run in and win the 2024 election.The powerful progressive New Yorker said she could not commit to supporting Biden during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, saying she was more focused on trying to preserve Democrats’ congressional majority in November’s midterms.“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ocasio-Cortez said when asked directly if she would support Biden.“If the president has a vision and that’s something we’re all willing to entertain and examine when the time comes… we should endorse when we get to it. We’ll take a look at it.”“Right now we need to focus on winning a majority instead of a federal presidential election.”Ocasio-Cortez is a vocal member of the Democratic party’s left wing, which has been pushing Biden to take executive actions to get past a congressional logjam in his agenda.But there appears to be growing discomfort with the 79-year-old president across the array of Democratic ranks.The New York Times reported on Saturday that “dozens of frustrated Democratic officials, members of Congress and voters” were doubtful Biden possessed the ability to turn around the party’s fortunes.And New York magazine’s Intelligencer explored the issue of Biden’s longevity last month, noting that: “Many of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors – even as they pledge to back Biden’s reelection in earnest – have quietly started to poke around for alternatives in 2024.”Biden is mired by the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and seemingly unable to solve a raft of problems facing the country from inflation to abortions rights and gun reform.Despite Democrats having control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, he has also been unable to advance signature policy objectives such as the Build Back Better act and voting protections.Adding to the discomfort is Biden’s age: he will turn 82 the day barely two weeks after he would be seeking re-election.“The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,” David Axelrod, former president Barack Obama’s chief strategist, told the New York Times.Ocasio-Cortez did tell CNN that she thought Biden was “doing a very good job so far” and didn’t rule out eventually backing him “if the president chooses to run again”.Traditionally, however, sitting first-term presidents have always enjoyed the unswerving loyalty and backing from their party, something Biden clearly does not have. The questioning is expected to intensify if, as polls suggest, Democrats take a hammering in November’s midterms and lose control of one, or both chambers of Congress.“[Biden] should announce his intent not to seek re-election right after the midterms,” Steve Simeonidis, a Miami-based member of the Democratic national committee (DNC) told the Times.“To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality.”Many of the Democrats interviewed by the newspaper, including elected officials, indicated the situation was not helped by a lack of clarity over a natural successor.At a Detroit rally during his 2020 campaign, Biden said he viewed himself “as a bridge” to a younger generation of Democratic leaders, an indication that his objective was to run to get Donald Trump out of office, then prepare to hand over the baton.But vice-president Kamala Harris, once seen as Biden’s heir apparent, has struggled to make a mark, despite attempting to seize the lead on Democrats’ opposition to the supreme court’s expected imminent ruling ending almost half a century of abortion rights.Biden has indicated he intends to run again, telling his old boss Obama in April that he was preparing for 2024 with Harris on the ticket. Sources said he sees himself as the only candidate capable of keeping Trump out of the White House if the former president launches another campaign.According to Intelligencer, Democrats are broadly split into two camps, those who see Biden’s troubles as familiar midterms woes facing most administrations, with fortunes set to improve as 2024 approaches; and those who consider that the unprecedented combination of circumstances, including Biden’s age, his strategy and uncertainty of succession, make a future path uncertain and unpredictable.Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic Texas state representative, told the New York Times that many of her party’s problems at a national level, and by extension Biden’s problems too, come down to one thing: failing to stimulate voters by using their power.“Democrats are like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” Crockett said.“Our country is completely falling apart. And so I think we’re lacking in the excitement.”TopicsUS elections 2024Joe BidenUS politicsDemocratsUS CongressAlexandria Ocasio-CorteznewsReuse this content More