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Four days since his disastrous debate, Biden hasn’t called top Democrats in Congress

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Four days since his disastrous debate, Biden hasn’t called top Democrats in Congress

WASHINGTON — Four days after his disastrous debate performance, President Joe Biden still hadn’t personally called top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill to shore up support, five sources told NBC News, though White House chief of staff Jeff Zients was making calls.

Biden’s team has been working to quash questions swirling in the party about whether he can continue in the race against former President Donald Trump. Yet there’s growing frustration at the president’s inner circle for being overly “insulated,” said a Democratic lawmaker, who added that Biden isn’t doing the type of personal outreach they’d expect.

Biden hasn’t personally reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, or to other Hill leaders after his halting debate — a decision that has stunned some lawmakers.

“It’s troubling,” a House Democrat said, adding that the White House staff should be transparent — at least in private calls with lawmakers — about whether Biden’s struggles on the debate stage were a one-off or whether they have seen the problem before.

Schumer and Jeffries haven’t publicly expressed any disappointment at the outreach. Schumer’s office had no comment, while Jeffries’ office didn’t respond to questions.

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The Biden campaign didn’t comment specifically on Schumer and Jeffries but said Biden had talked with some elected officials.

“The president has spoken personally with multiple elected officials on the Hill and across the battlegrounds since the debate,” campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.

Top White House officials have been in touch. Zients called Schumer and Jeffries after the debate, three sources said, and he has continued to trade calls with Schumer to discuss “staying aligned on next steps,” one of those sources said. Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, also was making calls to the Hill.

While Democratic lawmakers are all standing by Biden publicly, at least four told NBC News that they privately believe he needs to drop out now — four months before Election Day — to avoid a lopsided defeat for Democrats.

“It’s a very tough call. But because he will continue to decline, and because if he continues as our nominee we risk some catastrophic event after the convention that prohibits him from continuing as the nominee, he should step aside and allow for a nominating process at the convention in August,” said a Democratic lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

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Asked whether Biden should gracefully bow out now, a moderate House Democrat replied, “yes,” adding that they still would like to see whether Biden’s approval drops precipitously in new polling after the debate.

Another Democratic lawmaker said colleagues will decide what to publicly say about Biden once they see the impact of the debate on House swing district polls. Democrats need to flip just a handful of seats to flip the House to Democratic control, while they face a tough map to hold on to the Senate.

“That has to be the firewall” against a potential Trump presidency, the lawmaker said.

Another House Democrat, this one a vulnerable moderate facing a tough re-election this fall, said they were still processing what happened last week and not yet calling on Biden to drop out of the race. But this lawmaker expressed anger and pointed the finger at the people around Biden 81, for letting him step on the debate stage.

“I hold his family and his advisers directly responsible for this mess,” the vulnerable lawmaker said in an interview. “They are closest to him, and they should have pulled him out before this happened.”

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The person added: “Just hoping someone above my pay grade figures this out.”

Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., the chairwoman of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, also reiterated frustration with the Biden team’s handling of the debate and said Democrats need more information to assess “what happened” as they defend their seats.

“Obviously, we saw what we saw. We saw what 50 million Americans saw, and we have concern for the president’s well-being. We were disappointed and worried for him. … Many of us have been upset with his team of advisers that he was put in that situation,” Kuster said in an interview Monday.

“And I think we need to get a clear understanding of what happened, both in the debate preparation and during the debate. He’s obviously been much more energetic since then at the rallies,” Kuster said. “We all have a lot of concern for him. I hope he’s fine. And so the first stage is to assess what the impact is in these tough races.”

The Biden campaign, his political allies and top Democratic Hill leaders have chalked up Biden’s debate performance to a “bad night” and said he should be judged on his long list of legislative accomplishments and the fact that the alternative, Trump, is dangerous to the country. An energetic Biden acknowledged at a campaign rally Friday, “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” but he said he still plans to win in November.

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Many Biden allies and family members have spent the past several days circling the wagons, and some campaign aides and donors have argued that trying to nominate a replacement so late in the game could create an even worse scenario for the party.

“This magical thinking about the delegate selection process is people using mushrooms,” said Orin Kramer, a Biden fundraiser and a veteran of Jimmy Carter’s White House. “They have to get rid of the drugs and focus on the future of civilization. He’s been a great president.”

In an appearance on MSNBC over the weekend, Jeffries called Biden’s debate showing an “underwhelming performance” and said House Democrats would be having conversations by phone and virtually during the July Fourth recess about the path forward. But he said he was standing by Biden, whom he described as a “good man, an honorable man,” running against a “con man.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, told NBC News on Monday, “I support the president’s decision to stay and fight — the American people respect those with resilience and grit.”

But a Democratic lawmaker who has been in touch with members who face competitive races this fall described them as “scared.”

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“The ones that are in the worst position are front-liners in the swing states who already were feeling as though they had to carry the president … and then the catch-22 of trying to go out there and campaign. … It’s hard not to be panicky,” the lawmaker said. “It’s a lot of pressure. It’s a lot of anxiety.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a Biden ally who led the team of impeachment prosecutors after Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 attack, acknowledged Sunday that “honest and serious conversations are taking place” in the Democratic Party about Biden’s political future.

Two Democratic officials in Washington said the way for Biden to recover would be to get out more in unscripted settings to prove the debate was simply an off night — getting on TV, doing interviews or town halls, holding news conferences.

That’s the “only way to fix it,” one of the Democrats said. “Got to get him out there.” The other said Monday it’s “damning” that four days after the debate, Biden still hasn’t held an event where he speaks without a teleprompter.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks at the Reagan Library on Sept. 9, 2025, in Simi Valley, Calif. Barrett discussed and signed copies of her new book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.

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Even as the Supreme Court was handing down one legal thunderbolt after another last week, the justices were quietly releasing their annual financial reports. Justice Samuel Alito was the only sitting justice to request an extension, which he has done for 15 years. The disclosures do not give a complete account of the justices’ total income and wealth, but they give insights into their concertgoing, guest professorships and even their involvement in youth sports.

In addition to their salaries, much of the justices’ reported income came from their book deals. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson led the pack earning more than $1.1 million last year for a total of roughly $4 million since her memoir, Lovely One, was published in 2024.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy also reported income from published books. Earnings from their books ranged from $849,000 for Barrett, to $300,000 for Gorsuch and $88,000 for Sotomayor, whose books include her 2013 autobiography and five children’s books. Justice Clarence Thomas, who previously earned $1.5 million for his 2007 memoir, listed no publisher payments last year, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of 13 co-authors of a 2016 legal treatise, also received no payments last year. Kavanaugh is said to be working on a memoir but he listed no payments for the anticipated book. Alito does have a book coming out in the fall, but with his financial report still outstanding, there is no data on how much he was paid for the work in 2025.

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The only two sitting justices who have not written books are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan.

Many justices also earned income from teaching at law schools. Roberts reported income from New England Law, located in Boston, and Gorsuch reported teaching income from George Mason University in Virginia. Thomas taught classes at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and Barrett and Kavanaugh taught at Notre Dame Law School. Barrett graduated from the school and began teaching there 23 years ago; Kavanaugh has family connections to Notre Dame.

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.

A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.

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City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”

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Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.

Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.

“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.

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Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.

Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.

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“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.

@fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @Bogs4NY via X

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The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.

Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.

“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.

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Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”

He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.

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Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.

On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.

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