The Conversation -- July 20, 2024
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "It makes me sad that Biden doesn't see what's inescapable: If he doesn't walk away gracefully right now, he will likely go down as a pariah and ruin his legacy. The race for the Oval today is between two delusional, selfish, stubborn old guys, and that's a depressing state of affairs.... Shockingly, even as the Republicans roar out of Milwaukee, vibrating with joy, Biden's brain trust continues to run a lousy campaign, as though nothing has changed.... Really, what the Democrats need is a thrilling open convention, rather than a coronation."
Boyz Klub. Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "The GOP, already the party of sexism, is getting more gratuitous with its toxic masculinity. Everywhere one looked at the convention, Republicans were exalting maleness.... Women were welcome, but only as support staff.... They certainly aren't valued as leaders in a party where men live in a constant state of paranoia about being emasculated."
All My Judges. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump is on the cusp of emerging unscathed from his four criminal prosecutions -- thanks almost entirely to the decisions of four judges he appointed. Trump's three Supreme Court picks formed a decisive bloc to declare presidents immune from prosecution for official conduct -- freezing the charges he faces in multiple jurisdictions for trying to subvert the 2020 election and putting his New York conviction in doubt. Then his nominee to the federal court in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, handed him another victory by dismissing the charges he faces for hoarding classified documents and concealing them from investigators."
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Interesting Times
Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "Sick with Covid and abandoned by allies, President Biden has been fuming at his Delaware beach house, increasingly resentful about what he sees as an orchestrated campaign to drive him out of the race and bitter toward some of those he once considered close.... He considers Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, the main instigator, but is irritated at [President Barack] Obama as well, seeing him as a puppet master behind the scenes.... Mr. Biden has made clear that he finds it particularly rich that the architects of historic Democratic losses in the 1994 and 2010 midterm elections would be lecturing him about how to save the party after he presided over a better-than-expected midterm in 2022....
"While Mr. Biden and his team publicly insist that he is staying in the race, privately people close to him have said that he is increasingly accepting that he may not be able to, and some have begun discussing dates and venues for a possible announcement that he is stepping aside. One factor that may stretch out a decision: Advisers believe that Mr. Biden would not want to do it before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visits Washington on Wednesday at the initiative of Republicans to address Congress, unwilling to give the premier the satisfaction given their strained relations lately over the Gaza war."
Marie: On balance, Joe Biden has been the best U.S. president since F.D.R. To insist upon destroying that remarkable achievement by swinging for a sputtering second term seems like a mighty dumb calculation.
Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden on Friday said that former President Trump offered a 'dark vision for the future' during his speech at the Republican National Convention, standing firm that he is not dropping out of the 2024 race." MB: I do remind you that every politician who is contemplating ending a race for ofice insists right up till the minute s/he quits that s/he will stay in the race. As a partical matter, Biden and his team should not say he is going to quit until they figure out the most advantageous way to do so. (Also linked yesterday.)
Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Members of President Joe Biden's family have discussed what an exit from his campaign might look like, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The overall tone of the conversations has been that any exit plan -- should Biden decide to take that step, as some of his closest allies increasingly believe he will -- should put the party in the best position to beat ... Donald Trump while also being worthy of the more than five decades he has served the country in elected office, these people said. Biden's family members have specifically discussed how he would want to end his re-election bid on his own timing and with a carefully calculated plan in place." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annie Karni & Robert Jimison of the New York Times: At a regularly weekly meeting earlier this month, "Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker, recently told her colleagues in the California delegation that if President Biden were to end his campaign she would favor the 'competitive' process of an open primary rather than an anointment of Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic presidential nominee.... When asked about Mr. Biden, she said she did not think he could win, citing polling data.... She believes even Ms. Harris would be strengthened to win the general election by going through a competitive process at the convention." Politico's story, by Sarah Ferris & Christopher Cadelago, is here.
From the New York Times Biden campaign liveblog Friday: "President Biden vowed on Friday to return to the campaign trail next week, maintaining his public defiance even as people close to the president said they believed he had begun to waver privately about whether to stay in the race.... Some people in Mr. Biden's camp have told Democratic allies that the president's resolve to stay in the race has been most shaken by three developments: the decision by Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, to weigh in strongly on his candidacy, new state polls showing that his path to an Electoral College victory has grown far more remote and a spending boycott by key party donors.... Representative Greg Landsman, who had flipped his Ohio district to Democrats in 2022, urged the president to step aside.... Representative Sean Casten of Illinois delivered a similar message in an essay in the Chicago Tribune." ~~~
Robert Jimison: "As President Biden faces mounting calls from within his own party to discontinue his re-election campaign, a group of Black Democrats is working to rally support for him -- but also to send a firm message that Vice President Kamala Harris is the sole alternative to lead the ticket if he opts to withdraw."
Luke Broadwater: "Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and a respected voice on Capitol Hill, sent Biden a letter last night calling for him to drop out of the race."
Noam Scheiber: "A major labor union in Washington State has called on President Biden to quit his re-election bid, saying that if 'he continues to demonstrate that he is unable to effectively campaign, and subsequently loses,' a second Trump administration would create an 'immediate risk' for workers. The union, Local 3000 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, represents about 50,000 workers in grocery, retail and other fields in the Pacific Northwest."
Zach Montague: "Kevin O'Connor, the White House physician, said in a letter that President Biden's Covid symptoms had 'improved meaningfully' after four doses of the antiviral drug Paxlovid.... The president's pulse and blood pressure, as well as bloodwork and other measurements, were 'absolutely normal,' the letter said."
Shane Goldmacher & Theodore Schleifer: "Michael Moritz, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and a top Democratic donor, is calling for President Biden to step aside, becoming one of the party's largest contributors to go public with his concerns about the president's candidacy."
Nicholas Nehamas: "Top Democratic Party officials on Friday urged the Democratic National Convention's rules committee to choose to nominate President Biden through a virtual roll call vote rather than on the convention floor, as Mr. Biden continues to lose support from Democrats about whether he should be on the ticket at all.... Some [Democratic elected officials] have worried that the party is trying to nominate Mr. Biden as soon as possible to lock him in as the party's standard-bearer...."
Tim Balk: "Representative Morgan McGarvey, a first-term Democrat from Kentucky, called on President Biden to withdraw...."
Jimison: "Representative Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico called on President Biden to 'step aside to give Democrats the best opportunity to win this November.' Vasquez ... faces a tight challenge to his congressional seat.... Today alone 10 congressional Democrats joined the chorus of party members calling for Biden to exit the race. This is the most urging the president to withdraw his candidacy in a single day since calls began nearly three weeks ago."
Jimison: "Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, another vulnerable Democrat who faces a well-funded Republican challenger in this year's election, has become the fourth senator to call on President Biden to drop out of the race. In a statement, he says that he agrees with voters from his state who 'think the president should end his campaign.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Yash Roy of the Hill: "Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who has already called on President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, says Biden did not recognize him at a ceremony in Normandy, France last month. 'Every time we crossed paths and I caught his eye, he would break into that big, wide Joe Biden grin and say how glad he was to see me. It was like that just last Christmas at the White House Ball,' Moulton wrote in a column in the Boston Globe.'More recently, I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn't seem to recognize me,' he added." (Also linked yesterday.)
Caroline Vakil of the Hill: "Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who is up for reelection this cycle, on Friday became the third Senate Democrat to call on President Biden to exit the race. While Heinrich called the president 'one of the most accomplished presidents in modern history' in a statement, he also argued that 'this moment in our nation's history calls for a focus that is bigger than any one person.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Four more House Democrats are calling on President Biden to step aside from the 2024 race, increasing the pressure on the incumbent as concerns mount in the party over his ability to beat former President Trump in November. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Jesús 'Chuy' García (D-Ill.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) issued a joint statement Friday morning, writing that while they have 'great admiration' for Biden, the public worries over his age and fitness for office are threatening his chances of winning the election, zeroing in on his disastrous debate performance last month." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York urged Democrats to reconsider their efforts to replace President Biden as their nominee, warning that members of her party were discounting his electoral strengths and hurtling ahead without a clear succession plan. In a late-night livestream on Instagram, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that there were good-faith arguments for Mr. Biden to leave the ticket. But she said the ongoing debate was being clouded by wealthy donors to a 'disturbing' degree and being distorted by social media, 'groupthink' and anonymous leaks by her colleagues to the news media.... 'I have not seen an alternative scenario that I feel will not set us up for enormous peril,' [she said].... She predicted that Democrats would only fracture further over who should replace Mr. Biden if he dropped out."
Harris Bombs with Donors. Theodore Schleifer & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris tried to buck up the Democratic Party's biggest donors on Friday, telling about 300 of them that there was little to worry about in President Biden's campaign.... But several listeners said they found the meeting overall to be of little value and even, at times, condescending, believing that the message ignored donors' legitimate concerns about the Biden-led ticket. Ms. Harris, of course, is in a delicate position: She must demonstrate loyalty to her boss but also be prepared to jump immediately to the top of the Democratic ticket if Mr. Biden were to withdraw.... A campaign official ... said Ms. Harris had joined the call at the request of the White House.... After Ms. Harris stopped speaking..., one participant who was unmuted could be overheard calling the entire call 'ludicrous.'"
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Within the past month, cascading events have changed the dynamic and possibly the ultimate trajectory of the [presidential] election. Leaving his convention..., Donald Trump is in a stronger position politically than at any point in the campaign, or for that matter in any of the three campaigns he has run since he was first a candidate in 2016. Meanwhile, many Democrats despair that President Biden could lead them to a broad defeat that could leave the White House, House and Senate in Republican control. But they also worry that, even if the president yields to calls to step aside, a possible replacement, whether Vice President Harris or one of several governors talked about as possible candidates, would carry significant risks as well."
Eric Levitz of Vox: "The Trump campaign is at once a savvy, disciplined operation and an illiberal narcissist's personality cult.... The tension between these tendencies was on lurid display at this week's Republican National Convention. At the behest of Trump and his allies, the RNC approved a new GOP platform, one free of calls for federal abortion bans or any explicit opposition to same-sex marriage.... Trump used some of the RNC's primetime speaking slots to signal sympathy for nonwhite voters, younger Americans, and union members.... The most politically damaging manifestation of Trump's weirdness and authoritarianism at the RNC ... was the candidate's own address.... The Republican nominee is unpopular, odd, authoritarian, and beatable. Democrats despondent over their own standard-bearer's shortcomings should not embrace defeatism, but rather, get themselves a normal and age-appropriate nominee."
Trump Looked Like a Loser Thursday Night. Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "After beginning his speech with calls for unity ..., the former president turned the convention into a Trump rally, attacking 'crazy Nancy Pelosi' and slamming [President] Biden by name.... He ripped into Democrats on Social Security, Medicare, the border and energy policy, saying America was 'stupid' under Biden while ad-libbing about Hannibal Lecter and having the next Republican convention in Venezuela.... Biden may have messed up the June debate, but Trump's own cognitive functioning was messing up the July convention.... Democrats are so worried about Biden, but he is not the one who poses a huge risk to the economy, national security and civil rights." (Also linked yesterday.)
Dan Pfeiffer in the Message Box: "From the outset, the goal of the Republican Convention was to humanize Trump and normalize MAGA extremism.... Don't remind voters of the chaos and incompetence that caused them to reject Trump four years prior.... A sense of inevitability loomed over the convention and permeated the media coverage, magnified by the near-miss assassination attempt on the former President. His party and even some in the media are treating Trump as a candidate of destiny. But Trump is not inevitable. He is vulnerable. Yes, he is ahead in the polls today, but he can be beaten.... The speech wasn't good.... It was low energy, bordering on somnambulant. Trump couldn't discuss his policy agenda because that would stick a thumb in the eye of most voters. There was no message.... It's easy to forget, given the tone and tenor of the press coverage over the last week, but the majority of voters in this country are anti-MAGA." (Also linked yesterday.)
James Poniewozik, the New York Times' teevee critic, assesses the fourth night of the RNC convention: "The night began with a pageant of hypermasculinity, with musclemen and ripped garments. It led to Mr. Trump's taking the stage with a new, somber voice as he recounted his brush with death. Then, over the course of a digressive hour-and-a-half speech, he somehow changed back before our eyes....This is what male identity politics looks like. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality -- who has embraced the alt-right angst over testosterone levels -- spoke off the cuff, suggesting that the shooting established Mr. Trump as a leader on a biological level. 'A leader is the bravest man,' Mr. Carlson said. 'This is a law of nature.'... But the splashiest spectacle brought Hulkamania to Milwaukee." And so on. (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Courtney Hagle of Media Matters: "At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday..., Donald Trump gave a rambling speech late into the night in which he demanded Democrats drop criminal investigations against him, pushed 2020 election conspiracy theories and said Democrats are 'cheating on elections,' erroneously claimed that immigrants are 'coming from mental institutions and insane asylums,' and cracked incoherent jokes about Hannibal Lecter.... Despite the reality of the former president's remarks..., many newspaper front pages on Friday morning ran stories highlighting Trump's recounting of the recent assassination attempt and claiming that his convention speech was 'somber,' 'unifying,' and 'healing.'" The article reproduces front pages from the Detroit News, St. Paul, Minneosota's Pioneer Press, the Baltimore Sun, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, and others. ~~~
~~~ IOW, if -- like the vast majority of Americans -- you didn't sit through it as Jill Filipovic did, you might not know the speech "was incoherent, wildly digressive, and often bizarre without being at all entertaining.... This is not a well man, and this is not a man fit for the presidency.... It's hard to overstate just how bad his speech was.... Trump is an elderly man in decline."
When a former President messes with a speech written by professionals, it never goes well. (Sorry about that bit at the end; no parallel intended): ~~~
Yvonne Sanchez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Despite the brimming confidence of Trump supporters, the campaign is preparing them to question the results if things don't go their way. Trump has preemptively questioned the outcome of the election, sowing doubt in the results long before votes have been cast. In his convention speech on Thursday, he falsely said Democrats 'used covid to cheat' in the 2020 presidential election. 'We're never going to let it happen again,' he said. Trump has refused to promise to accept the results no matter the winner, which the Biden campaign said in May is a 'danger to the Constitution.' In a May interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Trump said..., 'If everything's honest, I'd gladly accept the results.... If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country.'"
Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "Investigators found a small drone in the car owned by the gunman who tried to assassinate ... Donald J. Trump -- and believe it was used to survey the site of Mr. Trump's rally in Butler, Pa., at least once before the shooting, according to law enforcement officials. Thomas Crooks, 20, visited the area near the fairgrounds used for the rally on July 7 -- six days before the event -- and appears to have made another trip the morning of the shooting, according to geolocation data found on one of his two cellphones, the officials said. At some point last Saturday, Mr. Crooks seems to have flown the drone to gather footage for a layout of the Butler Farm Show grounds using a preprogrammed flight path, according to an official briefed on the situation.... The Secret Service did not seek to use drones to provide agents with aerial views of the rally, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait a minute. A 20-year-old lone gunman does aerial surveillance of the venue but the Secret Service does not? I'm beginning to think their "security plan" could be boiled down to one word: "Whatever."
Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they spoke on Friday as the U.S. presidential race hangs over the future of the war in Ukraine. Zelensky said in a statement that he emphasized the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine amid Russia's invasion..., and added that he and Trump agreed 'to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.' Trump, in a social media post about their phone call, said he will 'end the war' and that 'Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence' -- but did not elaborate on the terms he would accept." MB: If it were true that Trump could end the war -- a claim he had made repeatedly -- then the grotesque immorality of not ending it while people suffered and died would be the main reason for shunning him. But of course the "I alone can fix it guy" is a lying braggart.
"A Very Fine Person" Gets Five Years. Hank Sanders of the New York Times: "A South Carolina man who was serving in the United States Marine Corps when he stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and stole a police officer's riot shield to help break into the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison, according to federal prosecutors. The man, Tyler Bradley Dykes, 26, who was previously convicted of a felony for his actions while marching in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., was sentenced by Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to four years and nine months in prison for assaulting law enforcement during the 2021 riot, the U.S. Department of Justice said." MB: Chris Hayes reported that Dykes had endorsed Donald Trump for president. Of course.
Rikers Springs Weisselberg. Aaron Katersky & Peter Charalambous of ABC News: "Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was released from jail Friday. Weisselberg served 100 days in New York City's Rikers Island jail complex after being sentenced in April to five months in jail for committing perjury in ... Donald Trump's civil fraud case." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "A court in Russia on Friday sentenced Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, to 16 years in a high-security penal colony, ending his espionage case but possibly opening a way for a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. The harsh sentence represented the first espionage conviction of a Western reporter in modern Russia. But the expedited nature of the case suggested that Moscow might be ready to trade Mr. Gershkovich.... Dow Jones, the parent company of the Journal, called the conviction 'disgraceful' and a 'sham.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Calling plastic pollution one of the world's most pressing environmental problems, the Biden administration on Friday said that the federal government, the biggest buyer of consumer goods in the world, would phase out purchases of single-use plastics. The administration also said it planned tougher regulations on plastic manufacturing, which releases planet-warming greenhouse gases and other dangerous pollutants. The efforts, which the White House called the first comprehensive strategy to tackle plastic use nationwide, aim to reduce demand for disposable plastic items while also helping to create a market for substitutes that are reusable, compostable or more easily recyclable."
John Yoon of the New York Times: "Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas who was a leading voice for racial justice and progressive causes during the three decades she served in the House, died on Friday. She was 74."
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Tennessee. Phil Williams, a Nashville News Channel 5 reporter, confronts a group of neo-Nazis who were harassing people in the downtown entertainment district. Besides pummeling the neo-Nazis with facts that didn't fit their narrative, Williams said (in response to one of them calling him a "loser" and a "scumbag"), "When I look at you guys, I do not think 'master race.'" Sweet.
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Reader Comments (11)
Out all morning picking fruit, driving through the countryside.
The only signs were for Trump. Mostly at run down houses with
run down yards and junk cars in the yard.
What do these people think they'll gain with a president like him, who
hates anyone who isn't a billionaire.
He's the one who will take away their welfare checks, screw up their
medicare, or medicaid, especially if we get a Republican congress.
Forrest,
Logic is not their strong suit. I can only say these people are 'True Believers', not Truth Believers. They've given in to the con while denying reality.
Gonzo,
And they are ignorant and angry and proud of it.
Very satisfying psychologically, and as I've said (perhaps too often), it doesn't require any work.
David Frum>, writing in The Atlantic
"The job of defining what a presidency is all about—in other words, what it wants to do and what it has accomplished—is inescapably the president’s and his alone.
...
Trump was an unfathomably lazy president. But however little time he committed to work, one task he did not shirk: demanding and getting credit for good news on his watch.
...
That has not been Biden’s way. He has seldom succeeded in directing the nation’s attention where he wanted to go.... The Biden presidency has too often disappeared into that gap between perception and reality, a gap that a different president might have closed.
...
The republican national convention cast a bright light on the party of Trump’s weaknesses: its extremism, its cultishness, its lack of welcome to the majority of Americans. ... The central idea in the presidential nominee’s speech was “me, me, me, me, me” for more than an hour and a half.
gift link:
This Crew is Totally Beatable"
posted twice^^ thinking the first got lost
MEANWHILE, paralysis for Democrats, and for democracy. Lots of commenters in the two "blogs" I read daily have said that it is so discouraging to have decided to stay positive, hope for the best, yet watch everything go south but be unable to help, or look away. Judging by the dearth of comments, I venture to say that we are all feeling like we are "doomsday scrolling" to still want to read this stuff.
Instead, I am watching rom-coms (this one was Harry Connick Jr. living on a cliff in Cypress and actually singing a song, flat.) That felt like appropriateness. It seems that everything has run its course. I was in our Kohl's today, and it felt like a different store. I don't know that I have been there since Covid, but it has changed for the worse. Not enough help, dressing rooms, nice clothes to choose. The rest of the mall is scarce, and only Penney's is left as a stakeholder. It joins other malls that are dying on a daily basis. Ugh. Heading to a favorite bar-- at least cocktails are much more creative lately.
Thanks for the Atlantic link, Laura. From has some points worth considering, that Democrats don't seem to know how messaging works.
@Jeanne: I'm with you. This afternoon I watched a 1994 film "The Paper" starring Michael Keaton, who plays the metro editor of a NYC tabloid. I had seen the movie before, years ago.
But I knew I'd made the right choice when the first line the Keaton character had as he walked into the newsroom was a facetious response to a question about what the next day's headline would be. He said, "Donald Trump jumped off a building. Landed right on Madonna."
@laura hunter: I deleted the first one. The second one -- which was shorter -- was better. Although I don't always do a good job myself, I do try to keep the text I cite as short as possible. A quotation is "fair use"; copying half the article is not.
@Gonzo: I think the crux of the problem is that Democrats don't have a good messenger now. Nobody knows what the problems are better than Joe Biden, but he can't articulate them. And I told him so. (I was sure my input would be of great significance to him, and I just can't figure out why he didn't bow out as soon as he got my letter. So strange!)
Marie - I’ll keep that quotation in mind.
Now, I’ll put the devices down, leave doomscrolling for another day, and escape into some rom-com or another.