The State of the Union with a Black Hole: The “Blue Wall” candidate’s frustrations are real, but they don’t really matter
On Friday, Biden heads to Michigan to campaign, hitting the third “Blue Wall” state in a week, after Pennsylvania on Sunday and Wisconsin on Friday. These three states are seen as critical to a Democratic victory in November.
Biden said the Lord would persuade him to step back from the campaign for a second term after he lost a debate to Donald Trump.
He has been trying to demonstrate that his debate flub was just one bad night and not a sign of something more serious. He attended Sunday services at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, where a praise band belted out the worship song, “I need you to survive,” and Bishop J. Louis Felton led a call-and-response for Biden, and urged unity.
“We are forgiven for allowing the enemy to drive wedges between us,” she prayed. “Because if we ever lock arms and come together, there’s no election that we cannot win.”
At a campaign office, Biden talked about economic issues important to voters, like grocery and insulin prices.
Biden referred to the meme his campaign uses to mock his opponents as “Dark Brandon’s coming back”, to a group of about 150 cheering volunteers. They will get a good glimpse at who Donald Trump is over the next 120 days or so, he said.
Biden and Fetterman were with Dean. Fetterman said that there was only one person in the country that had kicked Trump’s ass in an election. He is going to do it twice.
Multiple Democrats have told NPR that they are frustrated it took Biden days to call top congressional leaders and sit down for a televised interview, and that they are frustrated he’s not getting the message about how serious lawmakers’ concerns are about the political fallout from the debate.
It is not only about whether he made the right decision to run but also whether he passed the torch. If Biden steps back, he thinks Harris could beat Trump.
During the 4th of July break, she said she heard from voters who said Biden should stay in. “I had people in parades shout at me, ‘Tell him to stay — we have his back,’” she told CNN’s State of the Union. “I really do think that as much as you’re hearing a lot of different opinions from other people, that’s what’s happening,” she said.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said he had spoke with Biden on Saturday. The president talked about what he’s seeing in internally polling data, and what his plans were for coming days. “He is as pumped and as eager as I’ve seen to make sure he’s taking this campaign seriously,” Padilla told MSNBC.
Biden is going to be faced with answering questions about his age when he gives a rare solo press conference in Washington next week as lawmakers return to Congress and world leaders come to the city for a NATO summit.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., Tom Brush called the current state of the Democratic race “a sad moment,” explaining he doubts whether Biden can make it through the election and had hoped the president would voluntarily step aside for the good of the party — perhaps for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
In an interview at his home, Brush stated that people can reach a stage in their life when they are not as important as they were.
In support of Joe Biden, he says: ‘We need a better president’ after his victory in the ’50th South Carolina primary
Biden blamed his poor debate performance on exhaustion, and insisted that medical checkups prior to the debate found “no indication of a serious condition.” Biden said he was sick before the debate and had a bad cold.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary committee is Jerry Nadler of New York.
A House Democrat who is granted anonymity said he was worried after hearing Biden may not do events after 8 p.m. The member added that Democrats don’t have much time for Biden to leave if he ultimately choses to do so but time is running out for a graceful exit.
So far there have been no public calls from senators for Biden to step aside, despite rumors of a meeting led by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., aimed at encouraging Biden to leave the race.
Indeed, many Democrats are still publicly supporting Biden, even as anxiety grows within their ranks. The issue is causing a lot of panic within the party just weeks before their convention in Chicago.
“Personally, I love Joe Biden, I don’t know that the interview on Friday night did enough to answer those questions,” he said. “So I think this week is going to be absolutely critical. I believe the president needs to do more.
“Joe Biden is who our country needs, and his presidency has laid a foundation upon which we can continue our pursuit of a more perfect union,” he said in a social media post on Friday. Mr. Clyburn’s endorsement four years ago is often credited with helping Mr. Biden prevail in the South Carolina presidential primary and propelling him to win his first term.
Mr. Clyburn caused a lot of concern among Democrats when he mentioned a possible mini-primary to replace Mr. Biden if he withdraws from the race. But he quickly moved to clarify that he considered the idea strictly hypothetical.
The younger Black lawmakers are silent so far in their support for Mr. Biden. And the highest-ranking Black Democrat in Congress, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, has stayed quieter. Days after the debate last month, he said Mr. Biden was poised to make a “comeback” after an “underwhelming” performance.
“The reality is Joe Biden has confronted and had to come back from tragedy, from trials, from tribulations throughout his entire life,” Mr. Jeffries said during an interview with MSNBC. A comeback moment is what we are in right now.
The Biden campaign has taken solace in the backing of Black Democrats, an influential force on Capitol Hill and in the party, at an otherwise grim time. It chose a Black church in Philadelphia as the backdrop on Sunday for Mr. Biden to make his case.
If we stick together, Mr. Biden said that he was more confident about America’s future than he had been before.
“I don’t care what anybody says — it ain’t going to be no other Democratic candidate,” Representative Maxine Waters of California told audiences at the Essence festival in New Orleans over the weekend. “It’s going to be Biden.”
Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who was a member of the Black Caucus, hailed Mr. Biden’s record as a defender of democracy, in a post late Sunday on social media.
Up First Newsletter: Boeing will plead guilty to fraud and Hurricane Beryl lands in Texas (source: [Boeing pleaded guilty] to a criminal fraud charge in relation to two fatal crashes of the MAX]
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The Justice Department said in a court filing that Boeing would plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge in relation to two fatal crashes of the MAX. As part of the plea deal, Boeing will pay a $243.6 million fine, invest upwards of $450 million toward safety and compliance programs and be on probation for three years.
France’s far-right party fell far short of getting a majority after a historic number of voters participated in the country’s snap elections. The country saw a 67% voter turnout.
The National Hurricane Center said that a Category 1 Hurricane was hit in Texas this morning. More than 100 counties are under a state disaster declaration, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said yesterday more may be added. There are more than 2,500 responders in the state.
Source: Boeing will plead guilty to fraud and Hurricane Beryl lands in Texas
Ubaldo Sanchez, a Latin American artist and creator of the Smithsonian Folklife festival, celebrated at the 12th International Folklife Festival
Eating out with friends is fun until you have to pay for your meal. The splitting of the bill is an art. “It’s important for there to be an equal distribution of check when the meal is done,” says a New York Magazine food editor. She offers advice on how to keep the peace.
Indigenous arts and culture from across Latin America were on display at this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival. From an all-female Bolivian skateboarding crew to artists singing and painting to weaving, people from the Latin American contingent at the festival shared their stories and expertise with excited onlookers like 2-year-old first-time skateboarder Poppy Moore. One of the artists NPR’s team met was Ubaldo Sanchez from Guatemala. His portrait of former President Obama was selected for his White House collection, and he successfully painted a giant kite by the festival’s closing. 📷 See photos from the festival and read about the special connection Sanchez found with NPR’s Marc Silver.