memeorandum: Behind the Curtain: Biden's credibility crisis (Axios)

3:30 PM ET, July 6, 2024

Top Items:

Biden Narrows Gap With Trump in Swing States Despite Debate Loss — The incumbent trails his GOP rival by just 2 points across key states, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult shows, even as three in 10 Democrats say he should leave the race. — President Joe Biden registered his best showing yet …

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, Daily Kos, New Jersey Online, Forbes and Political Wire

Axios:

Behind the Curtain: Biden's credibility crisis … Some top Democrats told us Biden made matters worse Friday with his ABC interview, where he denied bad poll numbers and widespread Democratic panic. — “All the pollsters I talk to tell me it's a tossup,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo, Twitchy and Newsbusters

Annie Karni / New York Times:

Jeffries Plans to Meet Virtually With Top House Democrats on Biden's Path Ahead — The House minority leader scheduled a virtual meeting for Sunday. — Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, has scheduled a virtual meeting on Sunday with senior House Democrats …

Discussion: USA Today, Axios, Advocate, No More Mister Nice Blog, Chicago Tribune, NBC News, New York Post, Cointelegraph, Raw Story, Bloomberg and MSNBC

Neil Vigdor / New York Times:

Live Election Updates: Biden Will Return to the Trail, Seeking to Salvage His Campaign — With his candidacy on the line, Biden will visit Pennsylvania. — President Biden will campaign in Pennsylvania on Sunday, his second trip to a battleground state in recent days as part of a crucible …

Discussion: NPR, CNBC, Associated Press, Business Insider, The Guardian, The Spectator World, HuffPost, Forbes and UPI

Washington Post:

Election 2024 latest news Defiant Biden doubles down on staying in race — In a pair of Friday events — a campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin and a prime-time interview on ABC — President Biden dismissed concerns about his fitness to continue his campaign and stated he intends to remain on the ballot in November.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Associated Press, Channel 4 News, Business Insider, The Wrap and NPR

ABC News:

ABC's George Stephanopoulos' exclusive interview with President Biden: Full transcript — Full transcript of the ABC News exclusive interview with President Joe Biden. — President Joe Biden speaks with George Stephanopoulos on July 5, 2024, in an ABC News exclusive.

New York Post:
ABC interview proves that Joe Biden is in complete senile denial

Discussion: New York Times, RedState, HotAir, New Jersey Online, Sun-Sentinel, Power Line, Twitchy, The Daily Caller, Greensburg Tribune-Review, The Atlantic, WSVN-TV, Breitbart, CBS News and Raw Story

Alexandra Hutzler / ABC News:
‘Exhausted,’ ‘bad episode’: Biden doubles down on debate explanations in ABC News exclusive

Zachary Basu / Axios:
Biden at peace if he loses to Trump: “As long as I gave it my all”

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, Deadline, Fox News, Townhall, ABC News, The Gateway Pundit, CBS News, Politico and The Hollywood Reporter

Hans Nichols / Axios:
Biden refuses cognitive test, denies he's losing to Trump

Discussion: OutsideTheBeltway, Bloomberg, USA Today, New York Times, The Sun and San Diego Union-Tribune

New York Times: Some of Biden's Upcoming Fund-Raising Events Face New Uncertainty

Ursula Perano / Politico:
Warner organizing discussion for Senate Democrats to assess Biden's path forward

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, Alternet.org, JONATHAN TURLEY, Raw Story, Twitchy, Blaze Media, Mediaite, PoliticusUSA, Axios and Washington Post

Theodoric Meyer / Washington Post:
Donors pledge $2 million for ‘mini-primary’ if Biden drops out

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Yahoo News, The Dispatch, USA Today, HuffPost, NBC News, Israpundit and ABC News

Politico:
Healey, a top Biden ally, urges him to consider dropping out of the race

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, Plain Dealer, CNN, Breitbart, The Free Press, RedState, Washington Examiner, Fox News, USA Today, Alternet.org, Blaze Media, WHDH-TV and NPR

NBC News:
Biden doubles-down at Wisconsin rally: 'I'm staying in the race'

Rasmussen Reports:
After Debate Disaster, 55% Think Democrats Should Dump Biden

Discussion: Breitbart and Washington Examiner

Robert Reich / The Guardian:

We should all be terrified of Trump's Project 2025 — The presumptive Republican nominee has promised to give rightwing evangelical Christians what they want - and more — “Project 2025” is nothing short of a 900-page blueprint for guiding Donald Trump's second term of office if he's re-elected.

Discussion: New Jersey Online, The Daily Beast, Digby's Hullabaloo, Raw Story, Metro.co.uk, Alternet.org, Talking Points Memo, Fox News, Washington Examiner, PoliticusUSA, New Republic and The American Conservative

Joyce Vance / Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance:

Trump's Project 2025 — We know that Donald Trump was fixated on polls Friday morning. We know that because he posted about them at least 15 times on Truth social. — The horse race polls may not have been the only polling data Trump looked at, because after devoting his 11 a.m. hour to them …

Discussion: CNN, RedState, Forbes, Raw Story, Democrats, The Guardian, One America News Network, National Review, Washington Post, HuffPost, Blue Virginia, Digby's Hullabaloo, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, NOTUS, The Intercept and Axios

MSNBC:

Trump World ‘panicking’ as Project 2025 gets on the radar of voters — “Trump does not want people to know about the entire vanguard of extremist weirdos around him—and what their plans are when he governs,” says Chris Hayes on voters finding out about the far-right agenda that is Project 2025.

Discussion: Raw Story and WBUR

Jon Levine / New York Post:

President Biden's physician met with Parkinson's disease specialist in White House — A top Washington D.C. neurologist had a meeting with President Biden's personal doctor at the White House earlier this year, visitor logs reviewed by The Post show. — Dr. Kevin Cannard …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Fox News, Twitchy, One America News Network, The Guardian, RedState, The Gateway Pundit and Politico

Rebecca Solnit / The Guardian:

Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race? — Yes, Biden had a bad debate - but so did Trump. The media is once again repeating the mistakes of 2016 — I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I've never met, but it does seem like the pundit class …

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

White House Provided the Questions in Advance for Biden's Radio Interviews — The host of “The Source” on WURD in Philadelphia said the president's aides provided her with a list of eight questions to choose from. — The questions asked of President Biden by two radio interviewers this week …

Discussion: RedState, The Wrap, Mother Jones, New York Post, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Examiner

The Guardian:

The French republic is under threat. We are 1,000 historians and we cannot remain silent — Patrick Boucheron, Antoine Lilti and others — We implore voters not to turn their backs on our nation's history. Go out and defeat the far right in Sunday's vote

Discussion: The Kyiv Independent and emptywheel

Tressie McMillan Cottom / New York Times:

Whoever the Democratic Candidate Is, Americans Have Already Lost — I watched the debate from a pub in Ireland. A man sitting next to me pegged me for a Yank. “Sorry about all that — screwed no matter what you do,” he said before the final minutes of the debate ended.