Month: July 2024

After concerns over last week’s presidential debate, President Biden met with 20 Democratic governors on Wednesday night to garner support for after his rocky performance. The meeting came just days after Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Mr. Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

The governors at the meeting with Biden, 81, included Tim Walz of Minnesota, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association; Gavin Newsom of California; J.B. Pritzker of Illinois; Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Kathy Hochul of New York; Wes Moore of Maryland; John Carney of Delaware; Maura Healey of Massachusetts; Dan McKee of Rhode Island; and Andy Beshear of Kentucky. Vice President Kamala Harris was at the meeting, and others attended virtually. Biden told the governors during the private meeting that he underwent a medical checkup after last week’s debate, and is fine; however just hours earlier on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden hadn’t undergone any medical exams since February when he last received a thorough physical and took several tests.

In the meeting, three governors expressed criticism of Mr. Biden’s electoral chances in the wake of his debate last Thursday and openly questioned his ability to win their states. Two people familiar with Wednesday night’s meeting told CBS News that Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Maine Gov. Janet Mills and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Luján Grisham expressed concerns with the president’s performance.

Outside the White House following the meeting, Walz told reporters that the Governors all “pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher. What we saw in there today was a guy who was the guy that all of us believed in the first time to beat Donald Trump. And he did beat Donald Trump …Yes, he’s fit for office. None of us are denying Thursday night was a bad performance. It was a bad hit, if you will, on that, but it doesn’t impact what I believe, that he’s delivering.”

Hochul said that Mr. Biden is “in it to win it,” adding that “all of us pledged our support to him, because the stakes could not be higher. I feel very confident in his abilities, we talked about the plan, and how he’s going to be very focused on issues that matter to Americans. And I felt very confident coming out of this meeting as well.”

Moore added that the group of governors “were honest” with Mr. Biden “about the feedback” they are receiving: “we were honest about the concerns that we were hearing from people. And we were also honest about the fact that, as the president continued to tell us and show us that he was all in, that we said we would stand with him.”

Newsom said via a statement through his office that he “heard three words from the President — he’s all in. And so am I. Joe Biden’s had our back. Now it’s time to have his.”

The Biden campaign has repeatedly dismissed the idea of his withdrawal, saying that the President will remain in the race. According to sources, the President said: “Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can and as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running. I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Wednesday afternoon during a daily press briefing that “the president is clear-eyed and he is staying in the race. Anything else that we’re hearing or reporting is absolutely false,” she said, adding “and that’s directly from [Biden].”

On Friday, Biden will conduct an unscripted interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, and attend a campaign event in Madison, Wis.

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On Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, became the first sitting Democrat in Congress to call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, citing his poor debate performance and the fallout since. Numerous Democrats have expressed concerns or suggested that Biden leave the race; however Doggett, who has served in Congress since 1995, is the first lawmaker to say it openly: “I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.” (per CBS News.)

Doggett said in a statement Tuesday: “Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang. Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory—too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now. President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024.”  

Doggett, 77, added that represents the same congressional district as former President Lyndon Johnson during his time as a U.S. representative, and wants Biden to follow Johnson’s example when he declined to seek a second term in the White House (due to his low popularity amid the Vietnam War and cultural upheaval in America).  Doggett said of Johnson: “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same.”

The Texas Democrat said he believes Biden has “achieved much for our country at home and abroad” as president, but added: “While much of his work has been transformational, he pledged to be transitional. He has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process .. President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump. I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”

Biden insiders said the president is “staying in” and noted that other Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have provided supportive statements standing behind Biden. A Biden campaign spokesperson said Biden “absolutely will not” withdraw his candidacy.

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Rudy Giuliani — former NYC mayor and ex-attorney to Donald Trump — was disbarred on Tuesday in a decision handed down by the Appellate Division First Department in New York. The state court stripped Giuliani of his law license over his efforts to help subvert and overturn the 2020 election.

The New York Appellate Division ruled to disbar Giuliani “effective immediately” saying he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer” for former President Donald Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign, in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.

Per ABC News, the 31-page ruling adds: “Contrary to respondent’s allegations, there is nothing on the record before us that would permit the conclusion that respondent lacked knowledge of the falsehood of the numerous statements that he made, and that he had a good faith basis to believe them to be true.” The decision by the New York panel noted that “the seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” adding that Giuliani”not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant.”

Giuliani was admitted to New York’s bar in 1969 but had his state license to practice law suspended in 2021 over his work to overturn the election, and later suspended in Washington. Giuliani claimed he believed the statements at the time he was making them but the court was not persuaded.

Giuliani’s political advisor Ted Goodman told The Hill that the former mayor intends to appeal the decision: “Members of the legal community who respect the rule of law in this country should immediately come forward and speak out against this politically and ideologically corrupted decision. We will be appealing this objectively flawed decision in hopes that the appellate process will restore integrity into our system of justice.”

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