Publicly, President Biden’s allies have spent the past several days aggressively downplaying his missteps in Thursday’s debate by assailing the “bedwetting brigade” of nervous Democrats, highlighting a record influx of campaign donations and noting the long history of incumbents who stumbled during their first debates.
Washington
Biden team works furiously to quell any Democratic revolt after debate
The push to save Biden’s candidacy, which is ongoing as the president is spending time with his family at Camp David, appears to have at least temporarily stemmed the flood of public doubt and bought the president some time. Still, the ambitious and frenzied effort by the president’s aides, supporters and family members to contain the damage after Biden struggled to make a coherent case against Republican rival Donald Trump during the debate on Thursday. It has also become a case study of a campaign thrust into crisis.
As of Sunday, no major Democratic official has called for Biden to drop out of the race and several have publicly expressed renewed support for him, even as they note that his debate performance has prompted worries about the party’s showing in November.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) acknowledged on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” that House Democrats are involved in conversations over the future of Biden’s candidacy. He noted that, because the House will be in recess next week for the Fourth of July, those conversations will continue over the phone and virtually.
But he added that “one thing should be clear: There is a big difference between our view of the world, the country and the future, and the extreme MAGA Republican view.”
Biden’s performance on Thursday “certainly was a setback,” Jeffries added. “But of course, I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback.”
Other top Democrats — including Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and James E. Clyburn (S.C.), and Sens. Raphael G. Warnock (Ga.) and Chris Coons (Del.) — all appeared on various television channels Sunday to recommit to backing the president’s reelection bid.
The public show of support came on the heels of a harried private effort that began even before the debate ended on Thursday, as private group chats, hushed conversations and social media teemed with consternation about Democrats’ prospects.
Biden aides began telling the media as the debate was underway that the president had a cold, rationalizing his thin, raspy voice and unsteady delivery. Vice President Harris said immediately afterward that his “slow start” was not a sign of a broader weakness, and campaign surrogates in the spin room tried to shift the focus from Biden’s stumbles to Trump’s falsehoods and extreme comments.
The push continued Friday and through the weekend, including a rush of activity by Biden, his wife, Jill, and other allies that came against the backdrop of top editorial boards, columnists and Democratic commentators calling on the president to exit the race.
In the days since the debate, a wave of influential voices that have previously backed Biden, including New Yorker editor David Remnick, New York Times columnists Tom Friedman and Nick Kristof, and “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, have called on the president to pull out of the race or at least seriously consider it.
During a virtual Democratic National Committee meeting Saturday, which was hastily scheduled less than 24 hours before, leaders implored their members to stick behind Biden.
“We have to have his back,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said, according to members on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. Harrison acknowledged that Biden had not gotten younger, but emphasized the message that he was not a liar like Trump, one person recalled.
However, the call did not provide an opportunity for members to share their concerns with the party’s leaders; there was no question-and-answer session and the chat function was disabled. Such moves frustrated members who had hoped for a more honest conversation about the party’s difficult path forward.
Party leaders and campaign officials, instead, bragged about their fundraising success, yard sign distribution, house parties and surrogate events. They explained a strategy to bring in social media influencers to the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Harrison concluded the call by telling the members he was going on a Disney cruise, fulfilling a promise he made to his children. The event did not eliminate doubts, while stoking the frustration of some.
“It’s a confident bunch,” said one person who participated. “This is all competent. But who knows if it is enough.”
One Democratic House member said the call was “terrible” and the message wasn’t based in reality.
Jeffries and other Democrats in House leadership have been privately telling worried lawmakers from competitive districts to stay quiet for a few more days and see what happens, the member said.
Despite the pressure campaign, at least some elected Democrats are publicly voicing their concerns and others are awaiting polling numbers before speaking out one way or the other.
Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said there was a “big problem with Joe Biden’s debate performance.”
“There are very honest and serious and rigorous conversations taking place at every level of our party,” he said.
For his part, Biden has tried to showcase a more forceful public visage than the stumbling, raspy-voiced debater millions of Americans watched at the prime-time event his campaign negotiated and advocated for.
He has held several events in recent days, including a raucous rally in Raleigh, N.C., where he vigorously prosecuted the case against Trump while debuting a new line acknowledging his age and limitations directly.
“I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said, his voice rising as the crowd responded in kind. “But … I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job.”
Several Democrats have pointed to the Raleigh event as a critical moment of reassurance, even as they questioned the sharp difference between the president’s performance at the debate and his rally appearance one day later.
“That is the Joe Biden we all know and love, and frankly the one we had hoped would have shown up on the debate stage,” said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist who remains committed to backing Biden’s reelection.
Cardona, who was on the DNC call on Saturday, dismissed the “tangential chatter from strategists and pundits and editorial boards” calling on Biden to drop out.
“They don’t really matter,” she said. “What really matters are the elected officials, the donors and the voters.”
Around the same time Biden was rallying in Raleigh, he received a critical message of support from former president Barack Obama, whose own shaky debate in 2012 also rocked his reelection bid.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” Obama posted on social media Friday afternoon. “But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
Back at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., several staffers gathered to watch the rally Friday, standing up and celebrating as they saw a more energized Biden in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 supporters.
During an all-hands staff meeting afterward, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon sought to rally the troops, acknowledging the rough night and encouraging aides to focus on drawing a sharp contrast with Trump.
“We’ve all been through hard times,” she told the gathered staff, according to a recording of the meeting. “We’ve all wished something went a little bit better than maybe it did. And then our job and our decision is, can we keep going to fight for it and make sure we put in the work, and that’s what I think the president has done.”
In a series of memos, the campaign has sought to downplay the concerns of pundits and commentators who claimed Biden had done irreparable harm to his candidacy during the debate. They have pointed to a flood of donations — more than $33 million so far since Thursday — and other metrics that suggest voters are still on board with Biden.
On Saturday, O’Malley Dillon released a memo saying that despite the poor performance, little had changed about a race that she had long expected would remain close until the end. She suggested that any polls that showed Biden bleeding support would only be temporary and the result of “overblown media narratives.”
Hours later, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty went a step further in a sharply worded memo to supporters aimed at forcefully combating those who have tried to force Biden out of the race.
“The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to ‘drop out,’” he wrote. “That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose. First of all: Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, period. End of story. Voters voted.”
He suggested that Biden stepping aside would lead to weeks of chaos and internal fighting among Democrats, all serving to boost Trump’s chances.
Such an argument must weigh heavily on Biden’s mind as he considers his place in history and thinks about the implications of what it would mean to end his presidential bid prematurely, said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian.
“Biden holds all the cards here,” he said. “As long as he says he’s going to run, he gets to keep running. It doesn’t matter what Tom Friedman says. It doesn’t matter what Nick Kristof says. It’s Biden’s decision.”
Mariana Alfaro and Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.
Washington
Judge tosses Trump Media’s $3.8 billion defamation suit against The Washington Post | CNN Business
Another one of President Donald Trump’s lawsuits against a news organization has fizzled out.
This time, it is a defamation lawsuit that the Trump Media and Technology Group brought against The Washington Post in 2023 over a story titled “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social.”
A federal judge in Florida has thrown out the suit, saying that Trump Media “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that The Post “published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.”
US District Judge Thomas Barber’s conclusion came during the summary judgment phase of the case, when a judge can evaluate evidence and make a determination before proceeding to trial.
The Post’s lawyers argued that Trump Media could not prove “actual malice,” the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case. It means that the defendant either knew a claim was false or displayed “reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
The Post’s reporter who wrote the story in question, Drew Harwell, “thoroughly investigated” the subject and “had confidence in the article’s accuracy at the time of publication,” the newspaper’s lawyers wrote.
In a summary docket entry last week, first reported by Reason magazine, Barber sided with the Post. He said he would issue a full opinion later.
The Post itself reported on the legal victory on Tuesday. “We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to reviewing its written order upon release,” a spokesperson told CNN.
A spokesperson for Trump Media did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, but the company told The Post, “We believe a jury should decide whether these falsehoods were actionable and will evaluate whether to appeal last week’s ruling in due course. We will also continue to hold the media accountable.”
Trump Media positions itself as an opponent of, and an alternative to, traditional tech and media companies. It is best known for operating Truth Social, a relatively small social network favored by the president.
The publicly traded company has been losing money for years; it made less than $1 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year, according to public filings.
The company has repeatedly filed lawsuits over news coverage it deemed false. A defamation lawsuit against The Guardian and other defendants was thrown out by a different Florida judge last November. Trump Media initially filed an amended complaint, but then dropped the matter altogether in April.
Trump Media’s suit against the Post accused the newspaper of a “conspiracy” to harm the company and sought $3.8 billion in damages.
The lawsuit lawyers succeeded in narrowing the case considerably and asserted that Truth Media could not satisfy the “heavy burden” of the actual malice standard.
In May, while awaiting the judge’s ruling, The Post published a correction to the 2023 story stating that “discovery in the ongoing litigation has established” that two assertions in the story were incorrect. But the correction emphasized that the assertions were “based on The Post’s reporting at the time of publication.”
Trump and his businesses have a long history of getting publicity from lawsuits, only to see judges later throw them out.
In April, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing his name. Trump refiled that suit in May. He also has pending litigation against the BBC, The New York Times and the Des Moines Register.
Washington
Washington records world’s worst air quality for a city after 850,000 Fourth of July fireworks
Washington DC residents breathed in “unhealthy” air for hours after a 40-minute Independence Day fireworks show over the National Mall on Saturday night, with the country’s capital briefly recording the worst air quality of any major city in the world.
The highly emitting display, which the president called “spectacular”, came as the Trump administration rolls back an unprecedented number of pollution controls.
Hourly concentrations of particulate matter rose to 6.7 times their pre-fireworks levels, according to a Tuesday analysis from the company Clarity Movement based on its network of 26 air quality sensors throughout the city in partnership with the local department of energy and environment. Every one of those sensors reached air quality levels which the Environmental Protection Agency deems “unhealthy for sensitive groups” during the event, the researchers found, with some recording even worse levels of emissions.
Levels of particulate matter peaked at 4am on Sunday, approximately five hours after the display concluded, according to the new analysis. It remained elevated for approximately five hours after reaching its peak, the authors found, with city officials issuing a Code Red alert.
“Outdoor air quality is unhealthy for seniors, kids, people with medical conditions,” the alert said. “General public may experience health issues. Limit time outside.”
The south-west region of DC experienced the highest pollution levels, the report’s authors found, probably because of its proximity to one of the fireworks launch sites in West Potomac park, as well as overnight meteorological conditions that trapped smoke over the area.
That highly polluted air probably drifted into Arlington, Virginia, said David Lu, CEO and co-founder of Clarity Movement.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have sensors there to confirm it,” he said. “That’s exactly why expanding real-time air quality monitoring matters. Without comprehensive coverage, communities can be exposed to significant pollution events that go undetected.”
The air quality across the city could have been even worse in the aftermath of the display if it were not for thunderstorms that struck the city on Sunday evening.
“Despite the scale of the fireworks display, the city’s air quality avoided a worst-case scenario thanks to favorable weather conditions and the timing of the event,” said Lu.
The Fourth of July fireworks show, organized by the Trump-backed non-profit Freedom 250, began at 11pm on Saturday evening. It involved more than 850,000 fireworks launched from 10 sites across the capital, the organizers said. (A typical Independence Day show in DC involves just 17,000 shells.)
Trump on social media called the show “the Most Spectacular Fireworks Show I have ever seen, and I’ve seen them all”.
The fanfare came as the region was baking under an extreme heatwave, which brought triple-digit temperatures to the city hours earlier. For a time after the fireworks show, the city recorded the worst air quality of any major city in the world, according to AirNow, the Environmental Protection Agency website that reports air quality measurements from its monitoring stations.
Asked to comment, a White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said: “It was the largest and greatest firework display in the history of our country to properly celebrate America’s 250th birthday! Every year, fireworks on the Fourth of July cause short-term spikes in air quality across the United States, including Washington, DC. This was not unique to the 250th fireworks celebrations in our nation’s capital.”
The Guardian has contacted Freedom 250 for comment.
Americans shoot nearly 300m lb of fireworks into the atmosphere every year, according to the American Lung Association, letting off lung-harming gases such as sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
The Trump administration has, since re-entering office, engaged in a wide-ranging assault on pollution controls, exempting polluting facilities from emissions regulations, boosting coal power, and halting the consideration of the value of lives saved when restricting fine particulate matter and ozone. On 4 July, the president also pardoned nine individuals convicted of violations related to the Clean Air Act, including people found to have tampered with emissions control equipment in cars or selling parts to bypass air pollution standards.
The Washington Commanders are looking for a bounce back performance from their offense, and they’ll need their wide receivers to take a step up to do so.
Terry McLaurin is the clear No. 1 option at the position, but after him, there are several questions about how the rest of the room will shake out. The No. 2 spot is wide open, and there are several players who could fit the role and others in David Blough’s new scheme. Analysts Santana Moss, Logan Paulsen and Fred Smoot broke down the position on one of the most recent “Command Center” podcast episodes, and as one of the franchise’s all-time best receivers, Moss had a few thoughts on the group. Here’s his assessment on three wideouts and how they could fit into the offense.
“Knowing that he can play both outside and inside, I would think with some of the guys and their size and their experience, I would mainly probably see Antonio attack that middle. I think his route running ability is already to the level of some of these guys who have already played at this level. And just showing me that you don’t look like that this is new to you … He ain’t scared to go out and compete against these guys. To me — and we don’t know anything; we’re just sitting here speculating and assuming — I’d say he’s a slot guy out the gate.”
“I think if I had to just say if I look at that paper, and I asked any coach in this building by name how they think this guy played…if you tell me that Burks played well this offseason, he would be my No. 2 out the gate. He would be my No. 2 wide receiver because one: he brings size, he brings speed, he brings a gear at that size that a lot of people ain’t comfortable checking … You got a guy with size, leaping ability, the catch radius and can run.”
“They talk about how he was one of those guys from Day 1 that could play every position, and that’s stemming from him being a quarterback. Quarterbacks learn the game a little different from just a regular skill position guy. Luke came in here, and he knew X, he knew Z, he knew Gator. When you have those intangibles and you have that kind of mindset when it comes to playing that position, they can use him where they want to use him. That’s why I said he’s a great committee guy. He’s a guy that I know I’m gonna have on special teams as a returner, and guess what? If he’s not the starter, I’m okay with that because I know I’m going to ask more of him if somebody needs to take a breather.
-
World2 minutes agoUS urges donors to abandon UNRWA funding as UN defends agency’s mission
-
Politics4 minutes agoEXCLUSIVE: FBI adds alleged COVID fraudster accused of taking $5M from kids’ meal program to Most Wanted list
-
Health10 minutes agoOne walking habit could signal a healthier brain after 80, scientists say
-
Sports17 minutes agoNew Jersey pro wrestling promotion bringing the fight to the beach
-
Technology19 minutes agoAre airline miles still worth it?
-
Business25 minutes agoWalmart’s EV chargers are coming to California with discounts for members
-
Entertainment32 minutes agoStill a Nico and Devo fan, Wes Anderson looks back on 30 years of musical moments
-
Lifestyle34 minutes agoIs it safe to eat from your garden after the Boyle Heights warehouse fire?
