Biden tells governors he’ll stop hosting events after 8pm as Trump mocks him: live

Democrat says his health is fine and that he’s remaining in race as Republican rival sneers at possibility of Kamala Harris succeeding him

Trump falsely claims ‘broken down’ Biden is quitting White House race and derides Harris

President Joe Biden told a group of Democratic governors that he needs to work fewer hours and get more sleep, which includes limiting events after 8pm, two people who took part in the meeting told The New York Times.

Biden also told the governors that he’s staying in the race. He outlined his recent foreign travel in the weeks ahead of his dismal debate performance on 27 June, during which he lost his train of thought, his voice was raspy, and he made several gaffes.

Biden said on several occasions on Wednesday that he had not been listening to his staff about his schedule.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a physician, asked Biden about his health, to which Biden said his health is fine.

“It’s just my brain,” he added.

Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Biden had said, “All kidding aside.”

“He was clearly making a joke,” she told The Times.

Meanwhile, a gloating Trump has posted a video to Truth Social in which he is seen falsely claiming that the embattled president has already quit the race for the White House, referring to him as a “broken down pile of c***” and ridiculing his Vice President Kamala Harris as “pathetic.”

Key Points

• Biden campaign uses July 4th to blast Trump for turning U.S. ‘into monarchy’
• Biden admits to Democratic governors he’s tired and needs to work less: ‘It’s just my brain’
• Trump lashes out at Biden, Harris, and special counsel in July 4 message
• Netflix co-founder and major Democratic donor calls for Biden to exit race
• Recap: Biden admits he ‘screwed up’ debate

[3 July 2024 20:00 · Alex Woodward]

How the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling opened the door for a shocking question: Can presidents kill their rivals?

Can a president order a rival’s assassination and get away with it?

It was an absurd hypothetical raised by an appeals court judge to point out the literally unbelievable and dangerous consequences of the legal argument from Donald Trump’s attorneys.

But it landed as a shocking warning from a Supreme Court justice in an earthquaking decision this week that shields Trump from accountability for crimes committed in office.

There has never been any legal precedent that would give a president such authority. But according to legal scholars, attorneys and the Supreme Court’s liberal justices, the decision has seemingly opened the door to question whether the commander in chief can commit legal murder.

[3 July 2024 19:30 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump lashes out at Biden over Iran

Would somebody please inform our WORST President in history, Crooked Joe Biden, who doesn’t have a clue, that while he dithers around and illegally attacks his political opponent, ME, and is always trying to blame everyone else for the MANY, MANY, MANY mistakes he has made, IRAN IS RAPIDLY BUILDING A LARGE SCALE ARSENAL OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Once they have them, which will be soon, all negotiations STOP. That’s when our incompetent fool of a President will drop to his knees and beg IRAN for mercy.

“Please, Please, Please, Mr. Ayatollah, SIR, I will give you everything, I will do anything you demand. Don’t hurt us!” This is the position that this stupid fool has put us in.

Three years ago, under “TRUMP,” Iran was BROKE — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS, OR PROSPECTS. BIDEN HAS MADE THEM RICH, AND HAS NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.

They started the attack on Israel and desperately want to become openly involved. “Death to Israel,” they chant. DON’T LET IRAN HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS!

Donald Trump on Truth Social

[3 July 2024 19:12 · Alex Woodward]

Biden insists ‘I’m not leaving’ while allies prepare for end of his campaign

President Joe Biden has insisted to his campaign staff that no one is pushing him out and that he’s “not leaving” his re-election campaign after multiple reports have suggested that he is preparing to drop out if he fails crucial campaign tests in the days and weeks ahead.

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running,” he reportedly told campaign staff on a call on Wednesday.

“No one’s pushing me out,” he said. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”

The presdident reportedly admitted that he will have to end his re-election campaign if he cannot convince voters that he is up for the job after his flailing performance at last week’s debate against Donald Trump.

[3 July 2024 19:00 · Eric Garcia]

Trump moves ahead of Biden in new CBS post-debate poll

A new poll from CBS News shows that Donald Trump has taken a slight lead over President Joe Biden. The former president slightly trailed Biden last month.

The poll comes after Biden’s lackluster debate performance against Trump in Atlanta, which sent Democrats into a panic. Some Democrats have even speculated that Biden might need to be replaced.

CBS News surveyed 2,826 registered voters between in the days after the debate between June 28 and July 2, with a margin of error of 2.3 points.

The poll showed that 51 per cent of voters would pick Trump compared to 48 percent of voters who would pick Biden. The numbers are a reversal from last month, when 50 percent of voters said that they would pick Biden and 49 percent said they would pick Trump. That poll came days after a jury in New York found the former president guilty on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to corruptly influence the 2016 election results.

[3 July 2024 18:54 · Gustaf Kilander]

Biden: ‘I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end'

On a campaign call on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said, “Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running … no one’s pushing me out,” according to Politico.

He added: “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”

[3 July 2024 18:51 · Andrew Feinberg]

Biden staffers preparing to move Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket: ‘It’s a case of when, not if’

Staffers working on President Biden’s re-election effort are preparing for the campaign to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket. Sources say Biden will step aside but finish out his term after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump nearly one week ago.

One Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign and still speaks regularly to senior campaign officials told The Independent on Wednesday that there’s “no question” that Harris would be passed the torch.

They said campaign officials have been counseling prominent Democrats to refrain from explicitly calling for Biden to withdraw his candidacy in favor of letting him make the decision on his own.

[3 July 2024 18:50 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump leads by six points among likely voters, poll shows

Trump now leads Biden by six points among likely voters, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

The poll comes after Biden’s debate debacle last week which reignited concerns that he’s too old to govern.

The former president is ahead by 49 to 43 percent – increasing his lead by three points compared to the previous week, ahead of the debate.

Among registered voters, Trump’s lead is eight points – 49 to 41 percent.

Meanwhile, 74 percent of voters see Biden as too old to be president, an increase of five points since the debate.

[3 July 2024 18:40 · Gustaf Kilander]

VIDEO: How Trump has molded the RNC to fit his MAGA agenda

[3 July 2024 18:25 · Gustaf Kilander]

Biden and Harris take part in call to rally White House staff

[3 July 2024 18:20 · John Bowden]

Who could replace Joe Biden? Debate performance has Democrats in crisis talks

“Sleepy” Joe Biden gave the Democratic Party a wake-up call last week. And the concerns about the incumbent president’s age and mental fitness are not going away.

Last week’s debate in Altanta, Georgia, was the president’s shot to bat away concerns about whether he can effectively serve a second term, one that would end well into his 80s.

Instead, apparently battling a cold, Biden appeared raspy and hoarse onstage, forgetting words at times and at other points seemingly losing track of his point altogether.

Democratic sources who spoke to The Independent and a wide range of other media outlets immediately after the debate were in panic mode, with some openly fretting about whether it was possible for their party to do the unthinkable: replace a sitting, incumbent president on the ticket after he breezed through primary season virtually uncontested.