Biden Kaput!

spaminator

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What to know about the Democratic convention now that Biden’s out of race
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Andrew Jeong, Niha Masih, The Washington Post
Published Jul 22, 2024 • 4 minute read

President Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid means Democrats must now quickly find a new candidate. The Democratic National Convention’s rules committee has called a Wednesday meeting to discuss the process for picking a new nominee.


Although many in the party quickly endorsed Vice President Harris as the nominee-apparent – as Biden did – Democrats still must make a formal nomination, either through a virtual vote that would lock in a new nominee in early August, or in an “open” convention.

What does Biden’s exit mean for the Democratic convention?
Biden’s exit from the race means that the Democratic National Convention could have a more significant impact on the 2024 presidential election than expected. If a virtual roll call doesn’t show a clear majority backing Harris, the party is likely to hold a mini-primary at the convention. The convention may also serve as the venue for the formal announcement of a new vice-presidential nominee.

“If the overwhelming delegations across the country are wanting the vice president to be the nominee, I think we should go ahead and have the virtual roll call vote,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party and a member of the rules committee. “If there’s a big split, which I doubt, then we should leave it to the convention.”


Democrats will probably try to settle the nomination before the convention because some states have August deadlines to get on the ballot for the general election, while early voting begins in some places in September, The Post reported.

When is the Democratic convention?
The dates for the convention are Aug. 19 to Aug. 22.

Where is the convention?
It will be in Chicago. Evening activities such as official proceedings and prime-time programming will take place at United Center, the home of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks. Daytime events will be held at McCormick Place, the sprawling lakefront convention center, according to convention organizers. The Windy City hosted the 1968 Democratic National Convention – the last time the party was forced to pick a presidential candidate because its incumbent had opted not to seek reelection.


Can anyone attend the convention?
Party delegates from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the American territories will attend the convention. The process for selecting delegates is the responsibility of the state parties and was due to be completed last month. It is also possible to attend the convention as a volunteer, after passing a background check, for duties including usher services and coordinating transport for guests.

How many people are expected?
The convention is expected to draw around 50,000 visitors to Chicago. An estimated 15,000 members of the press and around 5,000 delegates are likely to be in attendance.

Will it be an open convention?
If the party is not able to arrive at a consensus on a new nominee before the convention, the Democrats will then have to hold what is known as an “open” convention – their first since 1968 – in which contenders will woo delegates for votes. The potential for chaos is high.


Biden had the support of 3,896 pledged delegates before he dropped out of the race. His delegates do not transfer to Harris based on his endorsement.

Who will be the Democratic nominee?
With Biden out of the race and endorsing Harris, the vice president is the favorite – with many in the party quickly rallying behind her. On Sunday, party chairs for the 57 states and territories said they are endorsing Harris. Delegations from Louisiana, New Hampshire, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina also endorsed Harris, and a handful of prominent governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Kathy Hochul, expressed support. At least 15 Democratic senators and 120 House Democrats have lined up behind the vice president.


Harris has said she will seek to “earn and win” the Democratic presidential nomination. She has not yet received the endorsements of some prominent party leaders, and her approval ratings have largely mirrored the decline of Biden’s since 2021.

Who else could replace Biden?
The names of potential alternatives to Harris making the rounds include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, The Post has reported. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who in recent weeks has been floated as a possible contender, has now endorsed Harris for the top of the ticket. An adviser to Sen. Joe Manchin III (I-W.Va.), meanwhile, told The Post he is considering re-registering as a Democrat to compete for the party’s nomination.


Who is the DNC chair?
Jaime Harrison, a former head of the South Carolina Democratic Party, currently chairs the Democratic National Committee. In a statement posted on social media after Biden’s announcement to not seek reelection, Harrison said Democrats would “undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate” who can beat Trump.

Harrison previously served as an aide to Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), a Biden ally.

Harrison said he was “emotional” about Biden’s decision. “I still support my president. And we will get through this, my friends, as we always do.”
 

spaminator

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As Biden ends campaign, focus shifts to health for remainder of his term
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Dan Diamond, The Washington Post
Published Jul 22, 2024 • 6 minute read

President Biden’s withdrawal from his reelection campaign Sunday ended weeks of speculation about his political future. But continued questions about his health have given rise to a new question: Should he resign from the White House, too?


The 81-year-old president wrote on social media that he would “focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” There are about six months – 183 days – until Biden’s term would end.

The White House has reiterated for weeks that Biden’s high-profile debate flop was an outlier and that the president remains fit to serve. But administration officials, lawmakers from both parties and Democratic donors have raised questions about the president’s cognitive fitness, pointing to alarming moments in private in which Biden seemed distant or confused, and his repeated flubs in public.

Republicans on Sunday demanded that Biden step down.

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement. “He must resign the office immediately.”


Democratic leaders generally don’t share that view. Lawmakers showered Biden with appreciation Sunday, and several said they remain confident in his leadership as president. Biden, who is recovering from a bout of covid, had repeatedly said he was up to the job of both running the country and campaigning for reelection.

“I’m good,” Biden said during a July 11 news conference following the NATO summit, adding that age “creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention.”

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said Sunday that Biden would continue to focus on priorities such as creating jobs and fighting abortion bans for the rest of his term. “He looks forward to finishing his term and delivering more historic results for the American people,” Bates wrote in an email.


Some Democratic officials and allies have privately argued that Biden stepping down from the presidency – and immediately elevating Vice President Harris into the Oval Office – would confer additional political benefits in a challenge against Donald Trump.

Outside medical and policy experts said that the job of campaigning – which required Biden to energize voters, engage with donors and give stump speeches around the country – calls on a different set of physical and cognitive skills than serving as president, where Biden is presented with decisions and surrounded by advisers. Biden, some say, is equipped to serve out his term.

“The presidency is not a one-man show,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who advised the Biden administration on its covid response and other health issues. “It is an administration with the president as boss and ultimate decision-maker … and he has a very effective team around him that he knows, and they know him.”


David Grabowski, a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in the study of aging, emphasized the distinction between Biden’s ability to finish out the remaining months of his presidency vs. his capacity to do so for another term as an octogenarian.

“President Biden’s decision to end his candidacy relates to carrying out his duties over the next four and [a] half years,” Grabowski wrote in an email. “From an aging and health perspective, that is different from his fitness to serve today through the end of his current term. The two must be evaluated independently.”

Some of Biden’s aides and allies had insisted – as recently as Sunday morning – that he would not drop out of the 2024 presidential race. But the shifting political reality had complicated his reelection bid: The president had been lagging behind Trump in polls across key battleground states, even as other Democrats fared better in hypothetical matchups against Trump.


While the 78-year-old Trump has had his own struggles – such as confusing names, misstating facts and delivering often meandering speeches – voters have generally expressed more concern about Biden’s age than Trump’s. A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last month found that 72 percent of registered voters believed Biden lacked the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, compared with 49 percent who felt the same of Trump.

Biden was last examined by a team of medical specialists earlier this year, according to a summary released in February by Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s longtime physician. The physicians concluded that Biden was “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” O’Connor wrote.


The specialists ruled out neurological disorders such as stroke and Parkinson’s, although they noted that Biden had developed an increasingly stiff gait and appeared to suffer from peripheral neuropathy – a type of weakness or nerve damage – in both of his feet. Kevin Cannard, a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s, was among the physicians who examined Biden as part of that review.

Biden’s performance in his June 27 debate against Trump – during which the president struggled to explain some of his core policies and repeatedly tripped over his words – prompted worries from Democrats but also health experts who feared a deeper medical problem. Three former members of the White House medical unit who had previously cared for Biden told The Washington Post that they believed the president should undergo cognitive screening, given his rocky debate performance.


Biden had repeatedly declined to seek a cognitive test, telling reporters that he is “tested every single day” on his fitness by the duties of the presidency, but he showed signs of relaxing his position at the July 11 news conference.

“I am not opposed,” Biden said at the news conference. “If my doctors tell me they should – I should have another neurological exam, I’ll do it.”

Biden’s physical and verbal stumbles have worried lawmakers, administration staff and high-level donors who have privately interacted with him in recent months. They said he has become more visibly frail, sometimes in need of physical assistance as he takes the stairs or moves around a room. The lifelong politician known for uncorking long, freewheeling speeches has become increasingly difficult to hear and understand.


Biden has occasionally appeared to briefly freeze up or suddenly veer off topic, instances some said they easily dismissed before the debate but that have caused them to question his ability to do the job for another four years.

The campaign trail exposed these weaknesses. Donors in recent weeks – including actor George Clooney – have said Biden seemed feeble, tired or confused in their small sessions, fueling calls for him to withdraw his reelection bid.

One Democratic donor, who met with Biden in small meetings at the White House early in his presidency and spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the president’s fitness to serve, recalled an encounter with Biden at a fundraiser this year.

“He was different than I’d experienced him in the White House,” the donor said, adding that Biden’s affect in a private meeting at the fundraiser was similar to his performance in the debate. The president was “quieter,” with his remarks trailing off, and engaged in some “staring into space.”


“He felt like an elderly person,” the donor said.

White House aides who work with the president regularly and accompany him on foreign trips said that while Biden may move slower and look older, they do not see signs he is mentally diminished and say his physical aging has no bearing on his ability to continue the job of president.

“I think two things can be true – that he’s fully capable of finishing this term as president but it’s not realistic to expect him to vigorously serve another four years,” said Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine and surgery at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “I do think it would be appropriate for a formal statement from the White House medical team attesting to presidential capacity.”
 

spaminator

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Trump accuses Biden of faking COVID diagnosis, not fit to run the U.S.
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Jul 22, 2024 • 2 minute read

Former U.S. President Donald Trump took shots at President Joe Biden after the 81-year-old dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday.


Trump accused the president of faking his COVID-19 diagnosis while also calling him a “threat to democracy” for staying in office for the remainder of his term.

“Biden never had Covid,” Trump wrote in one in a series of posts to his Truth Social account. “He is a threat to Democracy!”

Many, including those in his own party, have questioned Biden’s mental acuity and Trump joined the chorus, asking how Biden could continue in the Oval Office after acknowledging his fitness for another four years.

“Who is running our Country right now?” Trump asked. “It’s not Crooked Joe, he has no idea where he is. If he can’t run for office, he can’t run our Country!!!”

Trump then questioned whether the GOP should get a refund for spending “time and money” campaigning against Biden.


“Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?” he added.

Trump also appeared to be eager to schedule a debate with likely new election rival Vice President Kamala Harris, but had some conditions.


“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September,” he wrote, referring to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, who has not been slated to moderate the faceoff.

Stephanopoulos’ colleagues David Muir and Linsey Davis were set as moderators but Trump wants a change in network.


“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you! DJT.”

Biden announced he was dropping out of the election in rather surprising fashion, simply posting a lengthy letter to his social media accounts on Sunday afternoon.

Following the stunning reveal, the commander-in-chief expressed his “full support and endorsement” of Harris as his replacement.


“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden wrote on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

However, while many agreed with Biden, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, others feared she might not have a chance against Trump on Nov. 5.

Former President Barack Obama did not endorse Harris, merely saying Dems would pick an unnamed “outstanding nominee.”

The party has about five weeks to determine a new candidate before the Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to start in Chicago on Aug. 19.
 

Retired_Can_Soldier

The End of the Dog is Coming!
Mar 19, 2006
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I said this before. Democrats are Dumb Fucks.
They may as well have run Hillary again.
Four more years of the giant orange baby fighting with reporters.
Get your popcorn folks.
 
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spaminator

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Trump turns focus on Harris at 1st rally since Biden’s exit from race
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Meg Kinnard and Adriana Gomez Licon
Published Jul 24, 2024 • 4 minute read

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of attack lines Wednesday against his likely new opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, who he called his “new victim to defeat” and accused of deceiving the public about President Joe Biden ‘s ability to run for a second term.


The rally in Charlotte, N.C., marked his first public campaign event since Biden dropped out of the 2024 matchup and Harris became the Democrats’ likely nominee.

“So now we have a new victim to defeat: Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” Trump said, labelling her “the most incompetent and far-left vice-president in American history.”

Trump called her a “radical left lunatic” and called her “crazy” for her positions on abortion and on immigration. He also mispronounced her first name repeatedly.

The former president’s stop in North Carolina shows he’s concerned about keeping the state in his column this November, even as his team reaches for wins in traditionally Democratic-leaning states like Minnesota, which Trump is set to visit on Saturday.


Trump has ramped up his criticism of the vice-president since Biden’s abrupt departure, calling Harris “the same as Biden but much more radical.”

He has blamed her for what he portrays as the Biden administration’s failures, particularly security along the U.S.-Mexico border. On Wednesday, the speakers who appeared on stage before the Republican nominee attacked Harris’ record on the border, highlighting she was tasked with leading a White House effort to tackle migration issues. Harris’ name was met with boos several times during the speeches.


“She was assigned that, she was given that task, and she failed,” said Brandon Judd, former president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents.

Trump has also hedged on plans for an expected debate with Harris, first saying that he wanted Fox News, not ABC, to host the matchup he had originally scheduled for September with Biden. On Tuesday, Trump appeared to tweak that message again, saying on a call with reporters that he’d like to debate Harris “more than once” but not committing to appearing at the debate currently on the books and saying he’d only agreed to debate Biden twice, not Harris.

Harris, meanwhile, spent Wednesday in Indiana, telling members of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta that “we are not playing around” and asked for their help in electing her president in November, an election she characterized as “a choice between two different visions for our nation, one focused on the future, the other focused on the past.”


Voters in Indiana haven’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate in nearly 16 years. But Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian descent, was speaking to a group already excited by her historic status as the likely Democratic nominee and one that her campaign hopes can expand its coalition.

Quietly, Republicans have spoken about how subbing Harris in for Biden nullifies a portion of their party’s argument in favour of Trump’s vitality and vigour.

At 81, Biden would have been the oldest presidential nominee heading into a general election. Now, the 78-year-old Trump occupies that slot. Harris, 59, has launched a campaign that at least in some corners appears to be stoking interest among the younger voters who could be key in deciding an anticipated close general election.


North Carolina is a state Trump carried in both his previous campaigns but by less than 1.5 percentage points over Biden in 2020, the closest margin of any state Trump won. Trump stumped heavily in North Carolina even as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on, while Biden largely kept off the physical campaign trail and did not personally visit the state in the last 16 days of the election.

Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte — the state’s biggest city — was also the scene of Trump’s narrowest margin of victory in North Carolina’s GOP primary, edging out Nikki Haley by fewer than eight percentage points.


This year, Trump had planned to hold his first rally since the start of his hush-money trial in Fayetteville, but that event was called off due to inclement weather. Trump called in from his private plane instead.


Democrats also have been working to win North Carolina, where the party’s most recent presidential win was Barack Obama’s 2008 victory, despite recent GOP dominance.

Biden held a campaign event in Raleigh the day after his disastrous June debate with Trump. While he was much more forceful in that appearance than he was on the debate stage, it did not help much to quell the growing concern from members of his party about his ability to win the White House again.

With Harris now poised to take his spot, she may again be turning to North Carolina for some political help: State Gov. Roy Cooper is among the Democrats that Harris’ campaign is vetting for a possible pick as her vice-presidential running mate.

Cooper is term limited and cannot seek re-election. The highly competitive race to replace him pits Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein against Republican Lt.-Gov. Mark Robinson, a staunch Trump supporter who is North Carolina’s first Black major party nominee for governor.


Trump’s Charlotte event is his second campaign rally since a July 13 assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. Days later, Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination and gave a speech at the Republican National Convention, where his ear — injured in the shooting — was bandaged.

Wednesday’s rally also is the first since the resignation of Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, who said she took “full responsibility for the security lapse” that led to a gunman being able to get so close to Trump at the outdoor event in Pennsylvania.

The Charlotte rally, like the one over the weekend in Grand Rapids, Mich., will be held in an indoor arena.

— Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
 

spaminator

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Pelosi wants Biden on Mount Rushmore despite news of possible rift
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Aug 06, 2024 • 2 minute read

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she hasn’t spoken to President Joe Biden since he stepped down from his re-election bid.


Pelosi was one of the key figures in convincing Biden to end his campaign for a second term as concerns about his physical and mental abilities to challenge Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump became too difficult to ignore.

“Is everything OK with your relationship?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked the lawmaker in an interview on Monday.



“You’d have to ask him,” Pelosi replied. “But I hope so.”

Pelosi stressed that it was Biden’s decision to end his campaign.

“I have loved Joe Biden, respected him for over 40 years,” she said. “I think he has made one of the biggest contributions to our country in the shortest period of time of any president.”


Pelosi, who is on a press tour promoting her upcoming book on her career, was also on Good Morning America and explained further what went down behind closed doors, insisting that the only call she made regarding the 2024 Democratic ticket was to Biden himself.

“I wasn’t asking him to step down,” the 84-year-old clarified. “I was asking for a campaign that would win. And I wasn’t seeing that on the horizon.”

Pelosi added in an interview with Politico: “We just wanted him to make the decision in how he best preserves that legacy. And also — win.”


But Pelosi continues to rave about the president and what he has accomplished during his run, affirming in her appearance on CBS Sunday Morning that he has been “such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president.


“You have Teddy Roosevelt up there,” she said. “And he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down. But you can add Biden,” where he would join former presidents Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the South Dakota national monument.



And in a Tuesday sit-down with CBS Mornings, when asked why she thinks Biden made the decision to step down, Pelosi said: “I think it’s important that he did so. His legacy is one of the greatest — it’s hard to think of any president in a two-year period, one term, with as many accomplishments as he has.

“Much of that is threatened by a Republican victory because they will want to undermine.”



As for Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Pelosi endorsed last month, she said that Harris gives Dems the best chance at winning.

“It’s fresh and new and we’re very excited about what she will bring to the table,” she said.

“I know people are excited about a woman, a woman of colour and that, but it’s about what a difference she will make in people’s lives. Jobs, education, protecting the environment against gun violence as well as other threats … and a women’s right to choose. That’s a democratic freedom principle.”
 

spaminator

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Pelosi wants Biden on Mount Rushmore despite news of possible rift
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Aug 06, 2024 • 2 minute read

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she hasn’t spoken to President Joe Biden since he stepped down from his re-election bid.


Pelosi was one of the key figures in convincing Biden to end his campaign for a second term as concerns about his physical and mental abilities to challenge Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump became too difficult to ignore.

“Is everything OK with your relationship?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked the lawmaker in an interview on Monday.



“You’d have to ask him,” Pelosi replied. “But I hope so.”

Pelosi stressed that it was Biden’s decision to end his campaign.

“I have loved Joe Biden, respected him for over 40 years,” she said. “I think he has made one of the biggest contributions to our country in the shortest period of time of any president.”


Pelosi, who is on a press tour promoting her upcoming book on her career, was also on Good Morning America and explained further what went down behind closed doors, insisting that the only call she made regarding the 2024 Democratic ticket was to Biden himself.

“I wasn’t asking him to step down,” the 84-year-old clarified. “I was asking for a campaign that would win. And I wasn’t seeing that on the horizon.”

Pelosi added in an interview with Politico: “We just wanted him to make the decision in how he best preserves that legacy. And also — win.”


But Pelosi continues to rave about the president and what he has accomplished during his run, affirming in her appearance on CBS Sunday Morning that he has been “such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president.


“You have Teddy Roosevelt up there,” she said. “And he’s wonderful. I don’t say take him down. But you can add Biden,” where he would join former presidents Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the South Dakota national monument.



And in a Tuesday sit-down with CBS Mornings, when asked why she thinks Biden made the decision to step down, Pelosi said: “I think it’s important that he did so. His legacy is one of the greatest — it’s hard to think of any president in a two-year period, one term, with as many accomplishments as he has.

“Much of that is threatened by a Republican victory because they will want to undermine.”



As for Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Pelosi endorsed last month, she said that Harris gives Dems the best chance at winning.

“It’s fresh and new and we’re very excited about what she will bring to the table,” she said.

“I know people are excited about a woman, a woman of colour and that, but it’s about what a difference she will make in people’s lives. Jobs, education, protecting the environment against gun violence as well as other threats … and a women’s right to choose. That’s a democratic freedom principle.”
usa-5958092_960_720[1].jpg
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
112,992
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Low Earth Orbit
So where is Joe? Either one tall Joe or short Joe? Smoking joints with Putins fat faced double behind the shed with Cornpop?
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
112,992
12,695
113
Low Earth Orbit
He's running the country. You can be forgiven for forgetting that's what the President is supposed to do.
He is? If hes still there and Kamala is still there why Is Kamala advertising to fix things if elected when she is already is in office and fully able fix the issues?