House Democrats apply pressure: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) recently convened a virtual meeting of House Democrats to discuss whether President Joe Biden should be elected by a Democrat who has a better chance of defeating Donald Trump replace.
“Those who have made it clear that Mr. Biden should end his candidacy include Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; Adam Smith of Washington state, Ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; Mark Takano of California, the top-ranking Democrat. New York Times. The fact that Jeffries called the meeting was significant in itself: It was a high-level acknowledgment that this ticket wouldn’t work, and that Democrats faced a serious problem with lawmakers who didn’t trust party staff, campaign staff or Biden consultant.
Biden made media appearances this weekend aimed at calming nerves over his age, saying only “God Almighty” could convince him to step down and allow another member of his party to run for president against Trump.
Requires divine intervention: “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, quit the race,’ I would quit the race,” he told ABC. He added, “The Lord Almighty will not come.”
When asked how he would feel if he lost to Trump, he responded: “I would feel like as long as I give it my all, do the best I can, do the best I can, that’s what it’s about.” (Interestingly, ABC and the White House initially disagreed over whether Biden had used the word the best. More here.
“All the pollsters I’ve talked to say it’s a toss-up — it’s a toss-up,” Biden claimed. five thirty-eightThe agency maintains “an updated average of each candidate’s 2024 presidential polls, taking into account each poll’s recency, sample size, methodology, and House effects,” but does not support that assessment, saying Trump’s The poll leads by 2.3 percentage points. Two recent Ipsos/Reuters polls assessed Biden vs. Trump and Kamala Harris vs. Trump; Harris performed better than Biden in those matchups. recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult polls in swing states show Biden doing better than before — up recently — but only in Wisconsin and Michigan, and that’s simply not enough.
“Like many people, I was shocked,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told WPRI of Biden’s debate performance. It seems that everyone in a good cognitive state agrees: Biden cannot stay on the ticket. Biden and the few sycophants around him refused.
Chaos in France: Marine Le Pen’s far-right party National Rally performed worse than expected in yesterday’s legislative elections. The left-wing coalition New Popular Front won 178 seats, while President Macron’s centrist party gained 150; the national rally number was 142.
No party will win a majority. It’s traffic jam time now: if New York Times Describing it, “the lower house of parliament, the seat of most legislative power, [has] No governing coalition is immediately imaginable,” meaning Macron’s “centrism” [are] Squeezed between far-right and far-left groups, each hating the other and hating him.
Apparently, Macron’s gamble of calling an election earlier rather than later in the autumn didn’t pay off. Activists on the left and right have more power and influence than before, and Macron, already deeply unpopular, will be caught between the two.
“It will not be easy to find a compromise candidate who can lead the next government,” the report said. Bloomberg. “Some early contenders include the Greens’ Marine Tondelier and the center-left Public Square’s Raphael Glucksmann; current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal may also end up staying on.” Macron Must step down to end his second term in 2027, current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal submitted his resignation this morning (as is customary in French politics), but Macron refused, meaning Attal may Will remain in office.
New York scene: Oysters continue to die rather than reproduce, creating a huge problem for scientists working to restore bivalve populations in New York waters.
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- Philadelphia radio station WURD has parted ways with host of presidential interview [Joe] Biden on Wednesday used questions provided to her by the Biden campaign after the network said the interview violated its journalistic independence. New York Times. “WURD said in a statement on Sunday that ‘agreeing to a predetermined set of questions undermines’ listener trust.” Host Andrea Lawful-Sanders, according to WURD Resign by mutual agreement.
- Joe Biden’s overreliance on teleprompters, even in intimate settings like private donation events, was ultimately overshadowed by places like this. Washington post (It is now safe to publish more explicitly negative articles about Democrats). Big picture: If the media at large had stopped being so tolerant of Biden earlier and actually done their job, we might not be in this late-swap situation.
- The Zyn copycats “pose a challenge to U.S. regulators, who will have to contend with another wave of unauthorized nicotine products as demand for unauthorized flavored e-cigarettes surges since last year,” the report said. Bloomberg.
- Sierra Leone is reportedly in the midst of a drug addiction crisis.
- In a manifesto they call the “Small Tech Agenda,” Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote: “A growing anti-entrepreneurial bias in the U.S. government is detrimental to U.S. tech success.” One reason for this, they say, is that “tech startups as an industry don’t have the same presence in Washington, D.C., and the political system that big companies do.” “
