Well, Joe Biden does, but who cares what he says, right? President Joe Biden held an hour long press conference last night and answered a range of questions about his age, his competence, his stamina, his health and his future. He also delivered several incisive disquisitions on foreign policy that Donald Trump’s staff would have to use a very large coloring book and possibly a puppet show to explain to him. Not that that would work. He’d probably storm out of the meeting long before they got to the part about China and Russia, yelling something about love letters and being a boss. The media didn’t seem all that impressed, judging his performance to only be fair to middling and virtually ignoring the substance of what he had to say. He offered a serious overview of America and its relationship to its allies and adversaries and made some news about Israel, calling for the war to end. But everyone was more interested in Biden’s theatrical performance and how he answered questions about whether he plans to quit so any talk of his actual policies and worldview are apparently irrelevant.
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Last night Biden questioned the reliability of the polls and he’s not wrong. They’re very weird this year, not necessarily in terms of the close race, which they almost all show, but in the cross tabs which keep featuring weird stuff that doesn’t make sense like Trump only being ahead in single digits among white people while garnering huge numbers among African Americans. I don’t know what the problem is but I’m finding myself very skeptical that we’re getting a real look at the state of the race from public polling. Anyway, yesterday the Washington Post/ABC Ipsos poll had Biden at 42% and Trump at 43%, essentially tied. Here’s another respected poll the NPR Marist poll today: With just days to go before the start of the Republican National Convention, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to be closely matched among registered voters in both a head-to-head matchup and a multicandidate field. It too has weird cross tabs so I don’t know what to think.
We haven’t seen much of Donald Trump lately but he did poke his head up yesterday to speak at a little rally he held at his Doral golf resort, almost certainly paid for by his campaign and put directly into his pocket. (Too bad he’s stiffed so many of the other venues that have hosted him but that’s just his way.) It wasn’t anything special. He sounded as unhinged as usual, delivering his greatest hits to a hot and wilted but adoring Florida crowd. He did admit that when he became president he didn’t even know what NATO was before he launched into his tiresome rant about making the alliance countries pay their dues (they don’t have dues) and reiterating that he told some unnamed foreign leader that he wouldn’t defend them against Russian aggression if they were “delinquent.”. That stale lie is standard boilerplate at his rallies and hasn’t changed since he first started saying it years ago. But it was especially crude of him to say it on the day the NATO meeting was taking place in Washington DC on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the alliance. He was speaking at roughly the same moment as President Biden, in fact.
ROB SCHMITT (HOST): Do these donors really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden would? I mean, that’s — because it can’t be anybody else, right? SEBASTIAN GORKA (GUEST): Rob, you’re being logical. Stop it. All right. She’s a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman. She’s colored. Therefore, she’s got to be good. And at least her brain doesn’t literally freeze in mid-sentence. That’s what we can expect from the right if Biden drops out. On the other hand, it’s so crude and disgusting it might galvanize the Democrats to come out and beat them. I wish I could be sure of that but I’m not sure of anything right now.
And when? Several stories appeared yesterday about where and when Joe Biden’s war chest would go should he drop out of the presidential race as the slavering press hopes. Days ago, The Wall Street Journal alleged that Biden could not transfer the entirety of the nearly $100 million to Kamala Harris until after he is his party’s official nominee. The DNC still plans to hold a virtual roll call vote for that purpose sometime between July 21 and August 7. The move was originally planned to work around a rule in Ohio (since rescinded) that required a party’s candidate there to be formalized before August 7. The New York Times seems to confirm the WSJ report that were Biden “to be officially nominated” Harris might receive the funds seamlessly since her name is already on the ticket. The Times and Forbes also run down options for where else the money might go. But there is a lot of gray area, reports USA Today.
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It’s astonishing to me that anyone could think this is preferable to even the decaying corpse of Joe Biden being propped up behind the resolute desk. But apparently, at least half the country will vote for him some of whom are saying they will do so because they think Biden is too old to do the job. But this guy is a batshit crazy, criminal, imbecile who is surrounded by fascist freaks. I’ll pick halting old guy with normal professional staff over that any day if that’s what’s on the menu.
Pun intended Younger voters might save us after all. CNN caught GenZ Rep. Max Frost (D-FL) Tuesday morning and he, like other younger party electeds, is standing behind Joe Biden: Frost said that he had discussions with young voters, during which he said he heard concerns about Project 2025 — a playbook from the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation for a potential Trump presidency — not about Biden’s age. Former President Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he doesn’t know anything about it. Frost added that he plans to head to New Hampshire this weekend to continue engaging with young voters. Frost said he is convinced Biden will secure a second term this November and help Democrats regain control of the House. Why, I don’t know, but electeds like Frost, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of The Squad seem not just cooler than some of the old party hands, but have kept cooler heads during the public freakout over Biden’s awful June 27 debate. The Congressional Black Caucus remains committed to Biden. Others who have asked Biden to step aside are accepting that he will not.
Oh boy. Someone posted this and it sent a chill down my spine:
How many eggs is a dozen? Public Notice sees fallout from the SCOTUS decision to overturn the Chevron deference doctrine. It’s already heading to courts: It’s been barely a week since conservatives on the US Supreme Court radically upended the balance of power between the branches of government, giving the federal courts the exclusive power to interpret statutes rather than deferring to agency experts. And we’re already seeing impacts on the ground. Right-wingers have been in the habit of running to their preferred courts to get regulations overturned, but the decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which officially destroyed agency deference, will make it easier — even routine — to block every Biden administration rule they don’t like. Lawsuits to invalidate specific rules had been proceeding through the federal courts before Loper Bright, generally arguing that agencies exceeded their authority in promulgating a rule.