Rep. Pat Ryan, a moderate Democrat from New York, calls on Biden to withdraw from the race
Rep. Pat Ryan, a moderate Democrat from New York, joined some of his colleagues on Wednesday in calling for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
“Trump is an existential threat to American democracy; it is our duty to field the strongest candidate against him. Joe Biden is a patriot, but he is no longer the best candidate to defeat Trump. For the good of our country, I am calling on Joe Biden to step aside — to fulfill his promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders,” Ryan wrote in a post on X.
He first shared his position in a telephone interview with The New York Times.
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Cruz campaign says it raised $12.6 million in last quarter
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign says his political operation raised a lot of money from April to June as the Republican braces for what could be a tight reelection.
A new press release from Cruz’s camp adds that his political operation closed the second quarter of fundraising with $22.1 million in cash on hand. However, the campaign notes that those totals include money raised at “all entities,” committees over which Cruz has no direct control but which will support his candidacy.
His Democratic opponent, Rep. Colin Allred, has yet to announce his second-quarter fundraising, but he has also established himself as a strong fundraiser.
Campaigns must file their second-quarter fundraising reports with the FEC by the end of this month, so the numbers aren’t verifiable until then. But those reports will provide a full picture of the Senate fundraising landscape.
Democratic senator to meet with Biden campaign leaders tomorrow
Senate Democrats will hear from Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti during a special caucus lunch tomorrow, according to a source in Senate Democratic leadership. The meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
AOC Files Articles of Impeachment Against Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“The crisis of unchecked corruption at the Supreme Court has now escalated into a constitutional crisis that threatens American democracy on a massive scale,” she wrote. She cited Thomas and Alito’s financial and personal entanglements as a “grave threat to the American rule of law” and the “integrity of our democracy.”
She added that these cases are “one of the clearest examples of what the impeachment tool was designed to do.”
AOC is scheduled to deliver remarks on the articles of impeachment on the House floor at 6 p.m.
Biden praises his administration’s commitment to NATO at summit
Biden spoke earlier today at the NATO summit in Washington, DC, praising his administration’s support for the alliance and telling member states that his administration “has already invested $30 billion in defense manufacturing to restart or expand production in 35 of our states.”
The effort is part of an alliance-wide effort to strengthen defense manufacturing, but Biden also cast the initiative as positive for the U.S. economy, saying it will lead to “stronger supply chains, a stronger economy, a stronger military and a stronger nation.”
The president added: “Every NATO member is committed to doing its part to keep the alliance strong. We can and will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together.”
Biden promotes economic policies in speech to union leaders
Biden spoke for a few minutes at the AFL-CIO headquarters this morning and said he was warned “not to waste too much time with you today in terms of conversation.”
He said leading economists have praised his administration’s economic plans and said Trump’s proposals “will bankrupt our country.”
Biden said there are “a number of things we will do in a second term” and that he has “never been more optimistic about America’s chances, not because of me, but because of what we are doing together.”
“We are the fastest growing economy in the world, that’s a fact…food prices are still too high because of corporate greed…we need more housing…” Biden said, asking for union help to do more.
Pelosi ‘fully supports’ whatever Biden decides on race, her spokesman says
Hours after Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC that “time is running out” for Biden to make a decision on his 2024 election plans, her spokesperson issued a new statement reiterating that the former president “fully supports whatever President Biden decides to do.”
“Speaker Pelosi fully supports whatever President Biden decides to do. We must turn our attention to why this race is so important: Donald Trump would be a disaster for our country and our democracy,” Speaker Ian Krager said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Pelosi said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “it’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out.”
Biden has been preparing all week for tomorrow’s press conference
Ahead of Biden’s press conference tomorrow night, a White House official told NBC News that the president has been preparing for the event all week, comparing the upcoming press conference to those he gives at the end of foreign trips.
Biden will face intense scrutiny tomorrow after his poor performance in last month’s debate. A separate official noted that preparing for a news conference is different from preparing for a debate because, the official said, the topics during a debate are “less rooted in the news cycle” and the structure of a debate is more rigid — 90 minutes with set time blocks for answers.
These officials say the president is focused on emphasizing the contrast with Trump and making clear his policy positions and what he says he has already accomplished for the American people.
One of the officials said they know this will be a “difficult” press conference given the scale of the problems the president is facing. They also expect it to be framed in the NATO context and want to see the issue of the summit, which is taking place this week in D.C. with NATO member states, discussed.
These officials say the White House does not view this as a singularly high-stakes moment; instead, they are framing it as part of a series of press engagements after the debate, including interviews with local and national outlets. More interviews are scheduled for next week.
“We need a new candidate,” writes Democratic donor George Clooney
Actor and Democratic donor George Clooney published a guest op-ed in The New York Times today expressing his concerns about Biden’s fitness ahead of the upcoming election, writing “We need a new nominee.”
In the essay, Clooney details his longtime support for the Democratic Party and his friendship with Biden.
“The Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F–ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney also expressed his displeasure with party leaders’ efforts to suppress the widespread backlash. He added: “We are all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we chose to ignore all the warning signs.”
The Democratic donor ended his essay by calling Biden a hero for “saving” democracy in 2020 and said the president would do it again in 2024 by resigning.
Sen. Chuck Schumer considers new bill that would rebut the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling on Trump
Accusing conservative Supreme Court justices of putting “a crown on Donald Trump’s head” that allows him to commit crimes with impunity, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he was eyeing a legislative response to last week’s court ruling.
“We Democrats will not let the Supreme Court’s decision go unnoticed. The Constitution makes clear that Congress has the authority to check the judiciary through appropriate legislation. I will work with my colleagues on legislation that classifies Trump’s acts of election subversion as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.
Schumer spoke as the Senate returned from recess, a week after the Supreme Court handed Trump a major victory in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines that said presidents have legal immunity from prosecution for “official acts” performed on the job, but not unofficial acts. The terms are subject to interpretation, and Schumer is seeking to define Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results as falling outside the scope of his presidential duties.
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