Biden camp circles wagons after abysmal debate performance – National & International News – Mon 1Jul2024

Biden camp brushes off calls to step aside after abysmal debate performance.

Supreme Court rules Trump has limited immunity in Jan. 6 case.

Biden camp circles wagons amid calls to step aside after abysmal debate performance

Pundits and pollsters see the writing on the wall

President Biden’s unfocused, rambling and stumbling performance in last Thursday’s debate with former President Trump forced many in the political and media elite to confront the growing impression that Biden is in steep cognitive decline. Immediately following the debate, prominent Democratic-aligned media and political figures admitted to receiving “panicked” calls from party insiders just minutes into the debate. Numerous pundits and politicians expressed a sentiment along these lines: Biden had one job on Thursday, which was to reassure voters he was up to serving another four years as President – and he failed. One veteran Democratic campaign operative put it very simply to CNN: “We are f*cked“.

Over the the weekend, the editorial boards of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Atlanta Journal-Constitution all came out with editorials calling for Biden to step down as the 2024 Democratic nominee and to allow some other candidate to take his place at the head of the ticket. These concerns and calls were echoed even by pundits in Democrat-friendly broadcast media, including MSNBC and CNN.

Perhaps most significantly of all, high-level Democratic donors and influential party insiders were furious at having their concerns over Biden’s mental acuity ignored and stonewalled in a recent call with DNC chair Jaime Harrison. Donors are apparently awaiting polling to see just how disastrous Biden’s debate performance was before deciding what to do next. A CBS poll that came out today already seems to indicate how badly the debate hurt Biden’s chances against Trump in November. 

Biden family and partly leadership close ranks

Despite these mounting calls for Biden to step aside, leadership in the White House and the Democratic Party have closed ranks and insisted that Biden will remain as the nominee. Citing a more energetic performance by Biden at a North Carolina rally on Friday (where Biden had a friendly audience and a teleprompter), the Biden camp has attempted to dismiss the debate as a blip. 

The spin on the reason for Biden’s poor performance has been a moving targeting since Thursday. During the debate, several members of the press received texts from Biden staffers claiming that Biden had a cold. One surrogate took to Twitter to blame the lighting in the studio for Biden’s frail appearance. A former KGB officer even suggested that the Russians had targeted Biden with an energy weapon during the debate (a la “Havana Syndrome). Now the Biden family have settled on blaming Biden’s aides for over-prepping him in the week he spent at Camp David ahead of the debate. 

On Sunday, the Biden family held what the press dubbed a “family summit” to discuss Biden’s political future. Apparently, Biden’s wife Jill Biden and son Hunter were adamant that he should remain in the race. 

More reporting on signs of mental decline in Biden

In February, Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur sparked controversy when his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents pointed to apparent memory lapses by Biden. Since then, there has been reporting and commentary that has called attention to Biden’s apparent mental decline, which the White House and Democratic party leaders have swatted aside.

In early June, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece that cited over 40 sources, both Democrats and Republicans, who have had recent contact with Biden and saw signs he was slipping. After that piece came out, the White House and several media pundits came out to slam the Journal for biased reporting. Later reports in which foreign officials expressed dismay at Biden’s gaffes during the recent G7 summit in Italy were similarly dismissed.

Since Thursday, it has become much more difficult to keep a lid on these stories. WSJ ran another piece this weekend highlighting concerns from foreign allies. The report also references frustrations among donors about recent fundraising events where they were unable to interact with Biden as he relied solely on scripted remarks.

Another story in Axios reported that some White House insiders have noted behavior from Biden that could potentially be indicative of “sundowning,” often a symptom of dementia. While staffers Biden was “dependably engaged” from 10am to 4pm (when many of his important meetings and public events are scheduled) his mental acuity slips considerably later in the day. The debate was, unfortunately, scheduled for 9pm.

Some White House staffers were apparently shocked by Biden’s poor debate performance. Axios revealed that Jill Biden’s top aide Anthony Bernal and other close political aides carefully restrict and control who has access to Biden and when. This restriction even extends to residence staff who typically serve the first family in the residential wing of the White House.

Further reading- Concerns about Biden’s mental fitness are not new (opens in new tab). 

Supreme Court rules Trump has limited immunity in Jan. 6 case

In a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, the Supreme Court has rule that former President Donald Trump has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken during his presidency. The ruling was a partial victory for Trump in a challenge he brought to the federal criminal case against him over his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

The court did not rule that Trump could not be prosecuted for his role in Jan. 6. Instead, they left it up to the Washington, D.C., federal district court judge Tanya Chutkan to determine what actions by Trump were “official” and which were taken in his capacity as a private citizen. The court’s decision spelled out that not all actions taken while serving as President are considered “official”. 

The ruling will mean a further delay in the prosecution of this case, which is being led by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. Today’s ruling may also complicate the related case against Trump and over a dozen co-conspirators in Georgia.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).