memeorandum: Rep. Jamie Raskin says ‘honest and serious conversations are taking place’ about Biden's political future after debate (Alexandra Marquez/NBC News)

4:40 PM ET, June 30, 2024

Top Items:

Increasing numbers of voters don't think Biden should be running after debate with Trump — CBS News poll — For months before the first debate, the nation's voters repeatedly expressed doubts over whether President Biden had the cognitive health enough to serve.

Discussion: The Hill, USA Today, Washington Examiner, NBC News, CNBC, Democracy Corps, Mediaite, New York Post, Semafor, PoliticusUSA, RedState, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller and Wall Street Journal, more at Mediagazer »

Karissa Waddick / USA Today:

Historian who predicted 9 of the last 10 election results says Democrats shouldn't drop Joe Biden — WASHINGTON - Allan Lichtman, the historian who has correctly forecast the results of nine out of the 10 most recent presidential elections argued on Saturday that replacing President Joe Biden could cost Democrats the 2024 election.

Alexandra Marquez / NBC News:

Rep. Jamie Raskin says ‘honest and serious conversations are taking place’ about Biden's political future after debate — Raskin's remarks are a break from what most top Democrats have said publicly in their defense of Biden following the presidential debate.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, Axios, Mediaite and WFLA-TV

Axios:

Behind the Curtain: What scares Democrats most … A Democratic official talked us through the gentle approach to getting Biden to end his run on his terms. This official, who demanded anonymity for self-evident reasons, said Biden's sister, Valerie Biden, and longtime friend, Ted Kaufman, should make this case to the president:

Discussion: Fox News, Mailchimp, Washington Examiner, DNyuz, Mediaite, The Sun and The Daily Beast

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Biden and Harris's Absurd Case for Complacency … After absorbing the initial waves of shock from Thursday night's debate debacle, allies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have begun whispering to the media their reasons why the Democratic ticket must consist of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Discussion: Business Insider and Politico

Mia McCarthy / Politico:

Fetterman calls ‘abandon Biden’ campaign dumb, says it helps Trump — The Pennsylvania Democrat also defended Biden after his disastrous debate performance. — Sen. John Fetterman said progressives saying they will abandon President Joe Biden over his response to the Israel-Hamas war is ‘the dumbest shit’ he's ever heard.

Discussion: NPR

NBC News:
'It's a mess': Biden turns to family on his path forward after his disastrous debate

New York Times:
48 Hours to Fix a 90-Minute Mess: Inside the Biden Camp's Post-Debate Frenzy

Discussion: Politico, DNyuz and The Post Millennial

Marc A. Caputo / The Bulwark:
‘Mental Masturbation’: Trump Camp Dismisses Dem Talk of Shoving Biden Aside

Discussion: Public, CBS News and Fox News

David Remnick / New Yorker:
The Reckoning of Joe Biden

Discussion: Axios, New York Times, Althouse, Fox News, Mediaite and The Daily Beast

Tara Suter / The Hill: Pelosi on Democrats calling for Biden to step down: 'I'm not doing it'

ABC News:
Biden campaign argues president dropping out would ‘lead to weeks of chaos’

Discussion: Washington Post, The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali, Washington Times, CBS News, Washington Examiner, The Gateway Pundit and The Guardian

Lew Blank / Data For Progress:
In Post-Debate Poll, Voters Think Biden Is Too Old to Be President Yet Alternative Candidates Perform Similarly Against Trump

Discussion: Politico, OutsideTheBeltway, The Guardian and Rolling Stone

Tyler Pager / Washington Post:

Biden aides plotted debate strategy for months. Then it all collapsed. — The Biden team gambled on an early debate and prepared intensively at Camp David, but they could not prevent their candidate's stumbles onstage. — CAMP DAVID, Md. — President Biden's debate prep went fine.

Alex Thompson / Axios:

Top aides shielded Biden from staff, but couldn't hide the debate … - “It's time for Joe to go.” … - “I know many of these people and how the White House operates. … - Reached by phone, West said he wrote the post because “the debate was not the first bad day, and it's not gonna be the last.”

Discussion: Power Line, New Jersey Online and The Daily Caller

emptywheel:

The “Wow, Pictures!” Tabloid Coverage of Trump's Stolen Documents Is as Bad as Conspiracy Mongering — The other day, I mined the documents and photographs released in the government's response to Trump's bid to throw out his indictment based on a complaint that the FBI failed to preserve the order of documents in boxes.

Clea Caulcutt / Politico:

Le Pen's far right set for big win in first round of French election — Early projections show National Rally on course for victory in the vote for a new parliament as Emmanuel Macron's election gamble backfires. — PARIS — France is facing what until recently was an unthinkable nightmare for Europe …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, Variety, Associated Press, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Times and Breitbart

William Horobin / Bloomberg:
French Far Right Holds Strong Lead Ahead of Vote: What to Watch

Discussion: CNBC, Semafor, DNyuz, Sputnik News, CBS News, New York Times, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Washington Post and Al Jazeera

Dave Philipps / New York Times:

Pattern of Brain Damage Is Pervasive in Navy SEALs Who Died by Suicide … Longtime Navy SEALs like David Metcalf, shown with teammates in a photo from a personal collection, are exposed repeatedly in training to the blasts from detonating explosives and firing weapons.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo

Gilad Edelman / The Atlantic:

Donald Trump's Theory of Everything — At Thursday's debate, while Joe Biden struggled to put a sentence together, Donald Trump struggled to utter any sentence that wasn't about illegal immigrants destroying the country. — Harsh rhetoric—and policy—on migrants and the border has long …

Tess Owen / The Guardian:

Trump loyalists plan to name and shame ‘blacklist’ of federal workers — AAF to publish dossiers of employees they consider hostile to ex-president, with goal of ultimately replacing them — Armed with rhetoric about the “deep state”, a conservative-backed group is planning to publicly name …

Discussion: Raw Story

Amichai Lau-Lavie / New York Times:

The Pride March Doesn't Have a Place for Me — I've been marching in Pride parades since 1995, but I won't be marching this year in New York, where I live. — Pride Month has always been about a political and progressive embrace of our rainbow of choices.

Discussion: DNyuz, Raw Story, New York Daily News and Althouse