Washington
Biden compared to George Washington by liberal commentators in rush to support his withdrawal
Political commentators and liberal media hosts are hailing President Biden for choosing to withdraw from the presidential campaign, with multiple broadcasters comparing him to George Washington.
Biden faced increasing pressure from members of the media to step aside as the nominee for the good of the Democratic Party in the weeks after he debated former President Trump.
The president’s announcement on Sunday that he would drop out of the race ended weeks of debate within the Democratic Party, with multiple members of Congress and even actor George Clooney requesting that Biden give up his presidential ambitions.
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Columnists and reporters react to Biden’s Oval Office address
Political commentators and liberal media talking heads called Biden a hero for choosing to withdraw from his campaign, with multiple broadcasters comparing Biden to Founding Father and first president of the U.S., George Washington. (Getty Images)
“If you cannot appreciate the dignity, the grace, the selflessness, the patriotism of that speech – akin to Washington’s farewell – but instead feel compelled to denigrate him, nitpick or return to petty partisan politics I pity you,” Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin wrote Wednesday. “You’re denying yourself the majesty, the inspiration of America and of a great president. Go self-reflect.”
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“A powerful photo,” CBS News correspondent Roberta Costa wrote on Wednesday. “The hand toward his father’s face. The eyes. Put aside politics and everything related for a moment, and viewed simply on a human level, you see two men, father and son, still at each other’s side, more than a half-century since the darkness of Dec. 18, 1972.”
Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, were both killed in a car accident in 1972, an event that the president has spoken about on multiple occasions in the years since and on the campaign trail.
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MSNBC hosts compare Biden to Washington for his address announcing that he would withdrawal from the race
MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Wednesday that Biden showed the country the extent to which he would sacrifice his own personal ambitions.
“This was selfless on a level, I think, that’s important in a way that we talk about George Washington being selfless,” Reid said. “In saying, ‘I could keep doing this, for me, because I think I can, but I’m going to stop doing it because I think there are choices,” she said.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough read from a guest essay by historian Jon Meacham that was published on Monday in The New York Times.
“His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington, who also stepped away from the presidency,” Meacham wrote.
Meacham was fired as an MSNBC contributor in 2020 for failing to disclose that he served as a speechwriter for Biden during the campaign.
CNN’s Abby Phillip and other commentators say Biden is another Washington
CNN host Abby Phillip said that the president would be a much more “powerful” national figure if he continued to lean into the decision he made by dropping out of his presidential campaign.
“This moment puts [Biden], you know, with a bunch of American greats, you know, the sort of George Washingtons of the world,” Phillip said. “He’s stepping away from power. If he stays in that lane, I think that will be so much powerful and impactful.”
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Thursday that Biden reminded Americans that presidents were not in power for life, but served as temporary representatives of the people.
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said that Biden reminded Americans that presidents were not in power for life, but served as temporary representatives of the people. (“The View”)
“Presidents are merely custodians of the White House,” Griffin said. “They’re there as elected representatives of the people. Not to be there forever. Not running because the country is all based around them and their vision. They’re there to serve for a period.”
“George Washington knew when to pass the baton,” she said. “I said a year ago on this show, if [Biden] did pass the baton to a next generation of leadership the history books would remember him very fondly and I believe that deeply.”
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Rep. Dean Phillips compares Biden to Washington
Phillips was one of the few Democratic members of Congress who openly opposed Biden, repeatedly citing the president’s age and criticizing Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders before ending his presidential bid in March. (Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I want to celebrate Joe Biden and his remarks last night, giving up power, as you know, almost never happens in Washington,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said Thursday in response to Biden’s Oval Office address on Wednesday night.
“George Washington led by example. Joe Biden did,” Phillips said. “I want to celebrate him and also recognize what a gift he gave to his country, putting it above his own self-interest.”
Phillips was one of the few Democrats who challenged Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination during the primaries earlier this year, before ending his presidential bid in March. He repeatedly cited the president’s age and criticized Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders.
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Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Washington
Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.
Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.
Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.
The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.
This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.
One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”
The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.
Washington
A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington
The Newsfeed
This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest
Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown
By Venice Buhain
The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten.
One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID.
“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.
He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.”
The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum
In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID.
“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said.
Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.
While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.
“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said.
The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals.
Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle.
“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said.

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Washington
The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple
The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.
“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”
The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.
The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.
Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.
The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.
In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.
“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.
The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.
This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.
This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.
The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.
Five dozen temples are now under construction.
President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.
At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.
- May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
- May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
- May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
- June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
- June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
- Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
- Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
- Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
- Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
- Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.
Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.
Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.
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