The 24 Seven: Stewing In It Edition
24sight News’ daily newsletter highlighting the most important stories shaping the race for the White House
1. Deflated
While Joe Biden has repeatedly said he’s staying in the presidential race and firmly believes he can still defeat Donald Trump, some congressional Democrats are no longer buying what he’s selling.
While higher ups including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries continue to have Biden’s back amidst the crisis of confidence sparked by the incumbent’s disastrous debate performance two weeks ago, rank and file members worried Congress might suffer the consequences of misplaced hubris already see everything slipping away.
Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jon Tester of Montana, and Michael Bennet of Colorado told colleagues Tuesday that they didn’t think Biden could win in November. Brown and Tester are vying for reelection this cycle in states Trump won in 2020.
Across the Capitol, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey urged Biden to spare the next generation from undue horrors.
“When I think of my four children and all the rights that another Trump presidency endangers, and in light of the recent Supreme Court decision that gave inordinate power to the President of the United States, the stakes are too high – and the threat is too real – to stay silent,” she wrote in an official statement, pleading with Biden to “declare that he won’t run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee.”
2. Determined
Vice President Kamala Harris is taking the fight to reelection doubters out on the campaign trail, trumpeting her confidence in Biden and her pride in their administration’s record in battleground states like Nevada.
“One thing we know about our President Joe Biden is that he is a fighter,” Harris told rally goers in Las Vegas, per Politico. “And he is the first to say when you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Harris, who has been floated as a natural successor should Democrats succeed in pushing Biden out, has also stepped up her attacks against Trump and the polarizing policy proposals his supporters have outlined in their second term blueprint.
“Someone who vilifies immigrants, who promotes xenophobia, someone who stokes hate should never again have the chance to stand behind a microphone and the seal of the president of the United States,” she said of Trump’s comeback bid.
3. Disgusted
Harris isn’t the only one sickened by what Trump’s got planned for the future.
Former Vice President Mike Pence scolded Republican National Committee officials for adopting a 2024 party platform – which Trump recently rewrote to match his campaign talking points – he sees as backpedaling on abortion.
“The right to life is not only a state issue; it is a moral issue,” Pence wrote in a rare public reprimand. “And our party must continue to speak with moral clarity and compassion about advancing the cause of life at the federal, state and local level.”
Depending on who he is talking to, Trump has alternatively taken full credit for and tried to distance himself from the Supreme Court’s revocation of national abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade.
As other conservative-led courts have endorsed more stringent abortion restrictions and taken aim at IVF treatments, legal contraception, and other reproductive issues, Trump has settled on telling each state to figure things out for themselves – without going too far.
4. Defeated
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who tried to wrestle away the GOP nomination from Trump this cycle, has given the delegates she won along the way the green light to vote for the twice-impeached former president next week in Milwaukee.
“Joe Biden is not competent to serve a second term and Kamala Harris would be a disaster for America,” Haley wrote in a statement urging the 97 delegates she collected during her short-lived presidential campaign to support Trump at the RNC meeting.
Haley, who dropped out of the GOP primary earlier this year and urged both Biden and Trump to court her supporters, wasn’t invited to the upcoming convention, one of her spokespeople said.
5. Diminished
Unlike Haley, fellow failed presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis is expected to be bouncing around Milwaukee next week.
But the Playbook Florida team says not to look for him on the main stage, as the Trump campaign hasn’t reserved him a speaking slot.
DeSantis, who some pundits expected to give Trump a run for his money this year, flamed out after a second place finish in Iowa and immediately Trump.
6. Disturbing
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon have asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to dig into whether Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas broke federal tax laws by accepting millions of dollars in loans, gifts, and lavish trips from conservative patrons.
"The public must have confidence that the judiciary and the Department of Justice execute their responsibilities fairly, impartially, and without respect to political expedience or partisan interests,” the duo wrote in their request to have a special counsel investigate Thomas’ finances.
Thomas has been the subject of numerous reports citing his personal relationship with and previously undisclosed financial ties to billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow. Senate Democrats continue to push for more oversight of the high court, which the judiciary branch has summarily rejected.
7. Demoralizing
In not-my-problem news, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav suggested he is fine with whatever outcome in November – as long as the money keeps rolling in.
“We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to be even better,” he said at a business conference in Idaho.
No. 6 has my attention. An investigation into “justice” Thomas is appropriate and warranted.