the DON JONES
INDEX… |
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GAINS
POSTED in GREEN LOSSES
POSTED in RED 3/18/24... 14,887.68 3/11/24... 14,922.81 |
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6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW JONES INDEX:
3/18/24... 38,714,27; 3/25/24... 38,722.69; 6/27/13… 15,000.00) |
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LESSON for MARCH
EIGHTEENTH, 2024:
“DON’S DEMONIC,
DYNAMIC DAYS: PART TWO… PRESIDENT JOE’S STATE of DIS’
n’ DAT UNION!”
With... pertinent
texts attached from our...
LESSON for MARCH
ELEVENTH, 2024:
“DON’S DEMONIC, DYNAMIC DAYS: PART ONE…
GRAMMYS, SUPER TUESDAY, DAYLIGHT SAVINGS, OSCARS, RAMADAN!”
LESSON for MARCH EIGHTEENTH, 2024:
PRESIDENT JOE’S STATE of the UNION (with pre- and post-Super
Tuesday election scuttlebutt...)
THURSDAY MARCH 7th, 9:00 PM
EST: THE UNION STATED
As noted in last
week’s election before the State of the Union, the president promised to defend
policies responsible for "record job creation, the strongest economy in
the world, increased wages and household wealth, and lower prescription drug
and energy costs,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in a
statement.
That's in
contrast, LaBolt continued, to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement,
which consists of “rewarding billionaires and corporations with tax breaks,
taking away rights and freedoms, and undermining our democracy.”
The promises
were kept – at least in the state of uttering more promises on a variety of
topics and crises.
Biden’s campaign
called extra attention to Trump’s own most early 2024 provocative utterances on
the campaign trail, like when he invoked Adolf Hitler in
suggesting that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. and said he’d
seek to serve as a dictator during his
first day back in the White House. More
recently, over this weekend, for one example, he escalated his anti-immigrant
rhetoric to the contention that migrants were “not human beings” and his
dictatorial ambitions to that first day when he promised to pardon all of the
“incredible patriots” of the Capitol insurrectiom (including those convicted of
aggravated assault on police officers and the attempted murders of other cops,
Congresspersons and Vice President Pence).
If not
re-elected, there would be a “bloodbath”.
THURSDAY, 9:00 PM EST:
STATE of the UNION STATED
The President
was summoned by Constitutional duty to outline future goals and defend past
policies responsible (in his words... Attachment “C”... for "record job creation,
the strongest economy in the world, increased wages and household wealth, and
lower prescription drug and energy costs,” White House communications director
Ben LaBolt said in a statement to the scriveners, scribblers and pixels of
America (and, admittedly, the world.
That's in
contrast, LaBolt continued, to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement,
which consists of “rewarding billionaires and corporations with tax breaks,
taking away rights and freedoms, and undermining our democracy.”
Even before
cranking out his SOU, Biden’s campaign, as noted in our introduction, called
extra attention to Trump’s most provocative utterances on the campaign trail,
like when he evoked Adolf Hitler in suggesting
that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. and said he’d seek
to serve as a dictator during his
first day back in the White House.
Al Jazeera... a not-disinterested
party as regards the intent and status of America, especially on issues
transpiring, like by backyard weeds, in their
own backyard... reported, the day before the speech (March 6th,
Attachment Nineteen), that POTUS was planning to Load Up the Congress – where
both Houss were also situated – with special guests whose presence was enlist
to enhance the propaganda value of the discourse.
But the Jazzies also reported that two key figures have reportedly declined the White House’s
invitation to attend this year. “Yulia Navalnaya — the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny —
and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska” chose to be elsewhere.
“The 81-year-old continues to face questions over whether he is fit enough to seek a second term, as well as protests in critical swing states over his staunch backing of Israel despite its deadly
military offensive in the Gaza Strip.”
The Republican rebuttal will be delivered by Senator Katie
Britt of Alabama and will take place after Biden’s address.
“We’ll have a candid conversation about the future of our
nation — and I’ll outline the Republican vision to secure the American Dream
for generations to come,” she wrote on social media last week.
Being, as he is, eighty one, the age and health factors were
roundly (and heatedly) discussed as President Joe prepped for the SOU at Camp
David with voters expected to be watching more closely, “and his performance
will be parsed for any signs that the 81-year-old President is slipping.”
“Rarely if ever have
words mattered less when it comes to the State of the Union than this one,”
said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former senior aide to the late
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.”
(Time, March 4th, Attachment Twenty)
In the aftermath of his mixed-but-calamitous encounter with
Special Counsel Robert Hur highlighted instances where Biden struggled to
recall key dates from his vice presidency and the year his son Beau died,
leading Hur to describe the President as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a
poor memory.”
Time reported that Biden was trailing Trump in seven
battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina,
Nevada and Wisconsin—according to a Morning Consult/Bloomberg poll conducted in mid-February. Within those states, 48% of
voters favored Trump and 43% planned to vote for Biden in a potential general
election matchup. Biden’s age weighs heavily on voters’ minds, the poll showed.
About 8 in 10 voters thought Biden was "too old," compared to just
under half of voters holding that view of Trump, who is 77, four years younger
than Biden. Sprung into action, Biden’s braintrust shipped him off to Walter
Reed National Military Medical Center where the White House physician and 11
other specialists examined POTUS and found “no new concerns” since Biden’s
check up the previous year, according to a summary by Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the
physician to the President.
The doctors found Biden to be “fit for duty,” and “healthy,
active, robust,” and concluded that he “fully executes all of his
responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” O’Connor wrote, ready
to tackle the issues of the day... the wars, economy, climate, immigration and
the such.
Despite gifting some indebted students with pardons for
their student loans President Joe has garnered some brickbats from the
Democratic left over the border and its racial implications, Gaza (Ukraine,
less so) and critics like Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Tx) and Alexandra
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have urged him to be more aggressive, blame Republicans
for scuttling the border bill they themselves more or less drafted and indulge
in a little chest-thumping about bringing America back from the perils of the
plague.
“He should keep talking about what he's done to make sure
the American people know about them, and he should talk about his plans for the
future,” counseled Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma). “That's what a sensible, sober President like
Joe Biden does.”
Still, Democratic lawmakers told Axios that President
Biden's State of the Union performance on Thursday would be pivotal for his
attempts to dispel voter concerns about his age. (Attachment Twenty One) Some expessed dread at a “high-profile senior
moment”; others zeroed in on his “energy level”. Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)
told Axios he was confident that Young White Joe would give a strong performance, specifying: "It's
important that it be good..."
despite the probability of interruptive heckling from the Right and possibility
of being boxed in by the Left.
Heckle the elephants
did... liberalism’s (mainly young, mainly well off and well educated – at least
in the terms of the word) restricted their demonstrations to the strees outside
– socked in and snarling traffic, but at lest without storming the Capitol in
an inverse reprise of the One Six.
“Biden’s failure to forge an enduring cease-fire has
splintered his party and spawned a grassroots
movement to
deprive him of delegates at the Democratic presidential nominating convention
in Chicago,” NBC reported (Attachment Twenty Two)... although it was an
insurrection without a leader (Dean Phillips?
Marianne?)
“This speech has the potential to be the most important
political speech so far in the 21st century,” said Donald Baer, a former
chief speechwriter and communications director in then-President Bill Clinton’s
White House. “We are at a pivotal moment in the history of the country and the
world and certainly in this campaign.”
With Biden’s poll numbers sagging and his re-election in
doubt, he has a chance to get a fresh look from “an electorate that seems
willing to dump him in
favor of an ex-president who is defending himself against 91 felony charges,”
NBC forecast.
“A crisp performance will go a long way toward demonstrating
Biden’s fitness and acuity at age 81. By the same token, should he trip while
walking to the rostrum in the House chamber, or lose his place on the
teleprompter and stare blankly at the screen, he risks a viral moment that
would be tough to overcome.”
The peacock also predicted that, should Biden show the white
feather, Republicans wouldl try to rattle Biden if they can. Even if he launched into the State Of in firm
tones and unwavering zeal, many expected the GOP side of the aisle to jeer
Biden’s remarks — and jeer they did, “as during his 2023 address,” NBC
recalled.
“The GOP has also arranged to highlight Biden’s advanced age
by picking Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to give the party’s official rebuttal,”
NBC announced.
The New York Times, Wednesday morning after the Super
Tuesday results confirmed the “rematch from hell”, asked whether the SOU would
be delivered by a president under pressure to reassure voters that he is not
too old for the job and, moreover, his aides seemed confident that the
President would be ready if and when Republicans to heckle him, as
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene did last year (Attachment Twenty
Three) – in which case Anita Dunn, who
oversees communications strategy for the White House, recommended: “Let Joe
Biden be Joe Biden.”
Still, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research found that “...(r)oughly 6 in 10 say they're not very or not at all
confident in Biden's mental capability to serve effectively as president, a
slight increase over January 2022 polling data.
(At least, the survey also found that six in ten voters also
said they lacked
confidence in the mental capability of former President Donald Trump, the 77-year-old Republican front-runner.)
Many voters cited the unflattering descriptions of him
contained in a special counsel’s report that did not recommend criminal prosecution of Biden for his
mishandling of classified records, but take extensive notic of Biden's memory –
which Counsel Hur stated was “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and had
“significant limitations."
“Keep a close eye on the vice president," said a
machinist from Valley City, Ohio, who voted for Biden in 2020 and would do so
again. "Because that person will probably be the president in four years,
one way or another.”
Previewing Biden’s State of the Union speech, his press
secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said his remarks would focus on the president’s
vision for the nation’s future and his legislative accomplishments. (GUK, Thursday morning, Attachment Twenty
Five)
“This is a
president that has done more in his three years as president than most
presidents have done in their two terms,” Jean-Pierre told MSNBC on Sunday.
“You’re going to hear him talk about that. You’re going to hear him talk about
the future, how he sees the future for the American people.”
“The
numbers don’t lie,” responded Ronna McDaniel, the outgoing chair of the Republican
National Committee, said on Wednesday. “Voters do not want Biden to ‘finish the
job’, which is why this will be his last State of the Union address.”
Axios turned on the
“feistyhose” even before his speech, according to Axios (Attachment
Twenty Six) which interviewed White House chief of staff Jeff
Zie who said that it would “project fighting optimism to an audience with
plenty of doubts about the nation's vigor — and that of the 81-year-old
president.”
“It has the potential to be, for Biden in his re-election,
as powerful an opportunity as he will have,” said Baer (above).
By the time Biden gets that famed introduction, “Mr.
Speaker, the president of the United States!” voters had little doubt that the
Biden vs. Trump rematch is actually happening.
The current President used his State of the Union address in
Washington on Thursday to draw a sharp contrast between his administration's
accomplishments and priorities and those of former President Donald Trump.
“My purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and
alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either,” said
President Joe (Attachment Twenty Seven) before laying out his vision for the
nation’s future.
“Here’s the simple truth: you can’t love your country only
when you win,” Biden said.
Discoursing about the foreign wars (and Republican obstinacy
in refusing to earmark more cash for Ukaraine), social issues like abortion and
IVF, crime and immigration. When he slammed Republicans for walking away from a bipartisan border security deal that collapsed last month—and he shot back when some
Republicans started to groan and boo.
“Oh you don’t like that bill, huh? That conservatives got
together and said was a good bill? I’ll be darned,” he said, going off script.
And when Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was
donning a red Make America Great Again hat and frequently vocalized her
discontent throughout the evening, interrupted Biden’s remarks to call on him
to honor Laken Riley, Biden responded directly: “Laken Riley, an innocent young
woman who was killed by an illegal. To her parents, I say: my heart goes out to
you having lost children myself, I understand.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive
Caucus, and two other progressive Democrats told TIME afterwards that they were
disappointed in Biden for using the word “illegal” in reference to migrants.
And Rep. Delia Ramirez, a progressive Illinois Democrat,
told TIME that “Democrats, in some cases, we are sounding just like the other
side,” she says. “What we heard tonight wasn't very different from what we’ve
heard from the other side. And I wish I would have heard him with more
conviction say no human being is illegal.”
Quack! Quack! Quack!
(Murder, most people concur, is against the law.)
Biden also “threaded the needle” on Israel, Hamas and Gaza,
finance (degenerative) capitalism versus productive (like, making and selling
things people need or even just want)
capitalism, taxing, spending and, inevitably, his age.
“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a
while,” Biden joked in his closing remarks. “And when you get to my age certain
things become clearer than ever before.”
Biden concluded: “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old
we are, it’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among
the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only
take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for
the future of what America can and should be. Tonight you’ve heard mine.”
And, according
to Time opinionaor Philip Elliott, rendering his verdict at a few minutes past midnight
(March 8th, Attachment Twenty Eight) the SOU indeed fulfilled the
modest expectations of Rep. Hoyer that it be good... in fact, Elliott gushed,
it was very good.
In fact, the SOU
was... to use a word that was quickly becoming bacterial, it was feisty.
It expressed vigor (though not
necessarily vim). When hectored by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene,
Biden turned a
troll into a foil, “calmly reaching down and picking up a button she had handed
to him featuring a photograph of Laken Riley,” the college student and Trump
poster-corpse slain by an immigrant in the country illegally; daring MTG and
other conservative hold-outs to “actually act on the bipartisan immigration
package still waiting on their support.”
“For liberals who are still not sold that the 81-year-old
Biden deserves their nomination, his red-meat calls for gun bans, marijuana
leniency and higher taxes on billionaires and corporations gave them the jolt
they needed,” and gave the elephants a “sermon” that laid bare the differences
between a Trump administration and Biden’s.
Another Time server, Mallory Moench, declared on The Morning
After that it was the second time
that week that Greene had made headlines with her words and actions. On Super Tuesday, she told a well-known British journalist to “f*ck off” at the end of an on-camera interview when asked about a
conspiracy theory she had espoused.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, also
mentioned Riley in
the GOP’s response to Biden’s State of the Union, saying the President “refused
to take responsibility for his own actions.”
And as the woke jokes spoke and spooked voters into
revisiting Djonald WhoMe? about calling killer Jose Ibarra “illegal”, Nancy
Pelosi, told CNN that Biden “should have said undocumented, but that’s
not a big thing…We usually say undocumented, he said illegal, I don’t think
it’s a big deal.”
A hundred eighty degrees right of “woke”, the Washington
Examiner had its own problems with President Joe’s SOU, courtesy of none other
than Trump’s Truth Social.
“I will correct, in rapid response, any and all inaccurate
Statements, especially pertaining to the Border and his Weaponization of the
DOJ, FBI, A.G.s, and District Attorneys, to go after his Political Opponent, ME
(something never done before in this Country! – Drump dumpfered... Attachment
Thirty). We did this once before to tremendous success — Beating All Records.
It is important for the Country to get the TRUTH!”
Opinion polls show Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, closely matched in the race. “Most American voters are not
enthusiastic about the rematch after
Biden defeated Trump four years ago,” Reuters sighed (Attachment Thirty
One). Among the “five takeaways” noted
by The Hill – as noted: “Fifty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s
job performance, with just 40 percent approving,” the first was that, “For good
or for ill, this was one of the most ostentatiously political speeches of
recent years.” (Attachment Thirty Two)
President Joe, said The Hill, exhibited vigor (but not feist).
Their other takeaways were...
Joe’s attempt to “neutralize” the age issue...
A new move on Gaza... the “emergency pier” to be
constructed, then used to offload food and medical supplies (in a few weeks, or
months)...
An attempt
to “flip the script” on immigration (by citing the Republican roller coaster on
their immigration bill... dead as Laken Riley), and...
GOP rising
star stumbles in response – the Hill,
the predictable Democrats and some antsy-fantasy Republicans disrespecting Sen. Britt’s response (which resonates with
not only MAGA, but sincere and bipartisan Americans).
The
“feist” was foremost in GUK’s autopsy of President Joe’s State of the Union as,
at its best, offered “a pointed preview of the general election in November”
but, also, was woefully lacking in specifics beyond the promise of a promised
pier upon which bounteous delicious meals would be offloaded to the starving
Gazans – moving towards the day when transpires: “the only real solution to the
situation... a two-state solution over time” – an incredibly foolish and
irresponsible response to a vexing problem as next week’s Lesson will dispose
of in the Dumpster of History.
Calling
the SOU, rightly and wrongly “strikingly combative, while hopeful,” GUK singled
out many of his references to World War Two and then, sliding backwards,
declaiming: “Not since President Lincoln and the civil war have our freedom and
democracy been under assault at home as they are today.” (Friday, Attachment Thirty Three)
Calling
Trump’s threats to let Mad Vlad conquer not only Ukraine but the deadbeat NATO
“allies” a “dangerous and unacceptable” distraction, Biden used his forum to
message Putin: “We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow
down.”
A
statement that, if sincere, means war... nuclear war with Russia (and perhaps
China) for which the United States had best start preparing for... topic for
another forthcoming Lesson.
Reiterating
many of the statements in the SOU, the Guardian predicted that “As America braces for a long general election season that is
expected to be bitterly fought and closely contested, Biden has eight months to
sell voters on that vision.”
Breitbart,
stage right, espoused, expounded and expostulated on exactly that question of
whether China would join Russia in prosecuting nuclear war against America and
the West, or sit back and enjoy the show (and thereafter take advantage of an
opportunity to plunder a demolished neighbor – seizing Siberia and its vast
natural resources).
“The China segment of SOTU,” Breitbart scoffed, “mostly
consisted of Biden bragging that his economy is strong, contrary to the opinions of
most Americans, while China no longer poses much of a challenge.” March 8th, Attachment Thirty Four)
Other SOU scoffers included
billionaires angered by the President’s proposal to raise taxes on the ultra-rich—a central element of his
State of the Union address. The plan would impose a 25 percent minimum income
on anyone worth at least $100 million and Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach real estate speculator voiced his grievances
to the Daily Beast (March 8th, Attachment Thirty Five).
Greene, with an estimated $7.5
billion net worth, “would easily make the cut.”
“I don’t agree with the idea of just singling out people
because of how much they have or don’t have,” fumed the beast-ly
billionaire. “The progressive income
tax, I understand,” he continued, though he argued that tax rates in some parts
of the country have already grown out of control. “You have to leave incentives
for people who are the ones who are going to create the jobs for all those
people trying to climb the ladder.”
Or those who, by hook or by crook, now own the earth upon
which “those people” have to pay rents to be permitted to walk or work or stand
upon.
“I think it sounds like President Biden doesn’t want a
capitalist government. He wants a government for socialism. And socialism
doesn’t work. Ask the people in Russia, ask the people in Cuba, ask the people
in Venezuela,” grocery billionaire John Catsimatidis said,
invoking one of his frequent talking points. (The billionaire hosts his own
radio show; recent guests include right-wing Senate candidate Kari
Lake,
former Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz, and Bill O’Reilly.)
“You’re trying to take away the incentives for people to
work hard,” he said.
The
Cat man has a net worth of 4.3B. How
much is that an hour?
Other haters included
billionaire
investor Leon Cooperman, who said Biden’s proposals amount to “a version of tax
and spend where they don’t tackle the real problem.” Less a hater, perhaps just another tired
American plutocrat Mark Cuban tuned out the State of the Union in favor of
watching his Dallas Mavericks take on the Miami Heat.
Green, actually a Democrat
and even a former candidate for Senate and governor of Florida, Greene offered
a proposal to tame government spending and balance the budget without
increasing taxes by, to give one example raising the age of social security
eligibility over time. “My kids, who are 10, 12 and 14, you could tell them,
‘You know what, when you retire you’re gonna get money at 70, not 65.’” he
said. “Do you think they’re gonna care?”
And Cuban, shrugging off concerns about Old White Joe’s
gaffes and stumbles and, as Special Counsel Hur pointed out, “senior moments”
said: “If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he
was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden.”
Even if, perhaps, he might be voting for a President Kamala
Harris, whose polling numbers are even worse than Biden’s... although she is
now trying to elevate them by taking on women’s health issues (from breast
cancer to IVF to abortion).
That is why Trump... who may be as crazy his haters, or the
double-haters allege, but cannot be deemed stupid in the political sense... is
now floating slices of purple people from purple states like black or brown
skinned Veep wannabees, women and... despite his arrogant denials... Haley
Republicans.
Therefore, the selection of Katie Britt as rebuttal
speaker... checking off the boxes: female, enthusiastic, MAGA-to-the-core but
not exuding odors of sycophantasy... a deft juggler of constituencies on
policies like IVF criminalization, according to the New York Times (Attachment Thirty Six) or personalities
(like the retiring Mitchy Mac), not only young – NBC reminding its viewers that
the combined age of party leaders is “nearly four times her own” (Attachment
Thirty Seven) and, according to Speaker Mike Johnson, the “only current
Republican mom of school-age kids serving in the Senate”: well, what could
go wrong?
Everything! according to angry conservatives
NBC noted that Britt, with her husband NFL player and Super
Bowl champion Wesley Britt, is known for her close friendship with Pennsylvania
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman... a creature that MAGA considers demented...
and his wife Gisele, “a pairing that showcases how Americans on opposite sides
of the aisle can look beyond their partisan differences.”
And nothing enrages the hard right than intimate intimations
of bipartisanship. “Sources” even told
the network that Britt is comparable to the Reaganesque Republicanism now out
of favor with Team Trump and his cult... and, despite effectively linking
murdered student Lakin Reilly with her illegal alien killer, then linking
“Lincoln” to a "dithering and diminished" Biden, “social media lit up
with mocking claims of inauthenticity” according to The Hill (Attachment Thirty
Two, above).
Wincing at her “peculiar, overly theatrical delivery”,
bipartisan “double haters” gave every indication of becoming double dater
double haters should Djonald UnDecided make her his Number Two instead of
reliable Republicans with female parts like Noem, Mace, Huckabee- Sanders...
hell, even MTG!
GUK’s take on “what flopped and what
succeeded” on SOU Thursday primarily celebrated the status quo in these days of
declining democracy and justice... relief at suspension of the debt ceiling
crashthru, his opposition to slashing social security and medicare, losing only
$20B of the $!00B IRS investigatory budget... making the billionaire tax cheats
just a little more cautious in their
piracy.
Democrats could presumably blame their
failures on the obstinacy of Republican legislators for withholding aid to
Ukraine and Israel, funding America’s starving rural hospitals and post-plague,
post-remote workers’ childcare crises, and, of course, the heavy hitters like
Roe v. Wade or gun control.
“An effort to codify the right to abortion into law has no
chance in the GOP-controlled House and would have difficulty overcoming a
Senate filibuster.” GUK admonished.
There is a groundswell of support for slapping down Byte Dance (the
Chinese owners of You Tube) but only crickets on passing “bipartisan
legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and
teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter
limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us.”
The media, at least, agreed that Biden’s speech was feisty but, thereafter, divided over
predictable partisan lines with Mr. Biden’s on-air sympathizers “praising his
forceful delivery”, while the usual critics “suggested that he came across at
times as overly agitated and rancorous.”
Sampling commentary from CNN, Fox News and MSNBC (left), CNN
(center but actually center left) and Fox News (right, but thanks to the Trump
– Murdoch personal enmity trending center-right) the New York Times (March 8th,
Attachment Thirty Eight) reported that MSNBC’s talking heads called it “great”,
even transcendental and, in what conservatives viewed as a negative, “very high
caffeine”.
In a rare concurrence, Fox’s Harold Ford Junior agree that
Biden exhibited “a lot of vigor, a lot of energy” while Sean Hannity called the
President ‘Jacked-Up-Joe’ (surely soon to become a coffee advertising tagline
or even a brand on its ownself).
Mean Sean termed the jacked-up SOU
overcompensation for the normal
everyday Joe who can barely string two sentences together... Brit Hume derided
the “tumbling and slurring of words and all the rest of it that we’ve come to
associate with him,” and predicted voters would that he was just “an angry old
man.” Anchor Dana Perino detected
sensibility, not senility, at the root of the performance, concluding that it
had been a polarizing, divisive speech, “and it was meant to be.”
CNN trotted out the sporting analogies – Dana Bash: “They
wanted him to be a fighter, and, boy, a fight did he deliver,” and John King:
“He came out punching and came out swinging,” using MMA metaphors; Alyssa Farah
Griffin saying that (depite some stumbling and coughing) he “massively
outperformed” and Van Jones, using the V-word (“vigor”) saying “this guy might
be able to go the distance.”
“The State of the Union was . . . loud,” New
Yorker reviewer Susan B. Glasser summed it up.
Saving her personal ironies whilst withdrawing ire at the
forum from the fire, Glasser denigrated the traditional “outsized” expectations
that often herald a dud of a speech—“a windy laundry list of crowd-pleasing
agenda items that may never see legislative action...” consuming nights “more
famous for being long than they are for being good.”
She then praised the President for his “something
different”... a “most unusual State of the Union—partisan, shouty, and even, at
times, a bit rowdy.”
Biden wasn’t exactly a happy warrior on Thursday night,
Glasser acknowledged, but he was a forceful one. “He seemed unfazed by the
occasional word salad that he made of his script. He was definitely not
soporific. The speech kept one part of the evening’s traditions intact—it was
terribly long, more than an hour—but the general vibe was different than most
State of the Union addresses I can recall—sharply confrontational, intensely
divided.”
Democrats broke into a raucous chant of “Four more years!”
even before Biden began speaking; a few Republicans “heckled and jeered” – most
just sat and squirmed. “The prepared text had eighty exclamation points in it;
Biden may have added a few more along the way.”
Glasser’s New Yorker nocturne commended the Commander-in-Chief
for taking “hard punches at reliable bad guys—Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump,
House Republicans who are blocking a vote on his sixty-billion-dollar request
for assistance to Ukraine, meddling judges who take away women’s reproductive
rights...” an array of policy promises to please every conceivable constituency
following—which laundry list included “pledges to lower credit-card
late-payment fees to caps on prescription-drug costs to a new minimum tax on
billionaires.”
However, there was little actual news beyond the announcement, previewed earlier in the day, that Biden had “ordered the U.S. military to construct a
temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza, to bypass Israel’s blockade and
deliver more humanitarian aid to Palestinians.”
So, in this “awful political climate”, Glasser’s deflate
expectations were run over by national and global reality – rendering it “hard
to imagine that Biden’s address will change anyone’s mind.”
And while Politico agreed that President Joe had turned his
State of the Union address into a “muscular campaign kickoff” as extended “a
hammer over an olive branch” the gist was, as always, that Biden might not be
good, nor even competent, but life in these United States “would be further
imperiled if his predecessor returned to office.” (Attachment Forty)
And in these days of diminished expectations... “Nobody is
going to talk about cognitive impairment now,” Rep. Jerry
Nadler (D-N.Y.) told the president shortly after he concluded what both
red faces and blue noses agreed was less a programme of achievable political action than campaign speech – minus the
hotdogs, balloons and sawdust covering the bovine droppings on the Capitol
floor.
“To me,” opined Jim Kessler, vice president of policy at the
left-leaning think tank Third Way told The Hill (Attachment Forty One), “...the
State of the Union is where Biden kicks off the general election.” Following his line of March, a Biden aide
reiterated to CNN that a Trump presidency would not be about “what’s happening
to you, your family at the kitchen table, but is really about his personal
grievances and vengeance.”
The grievances and calls for vengeance boiled over, as most observers
predicted, in occurances of protests without the hall and heckling within...
and it was here, in a rather Trumpian reversion to the primitive, that
President Joe enjoyed some of his best moments.
(Washington Post, Attachment Forty Two)
Biden actually appeared to be looking to capitalize on the
interruptions, “using the heckling to pivot into Democratic talking points...
In perhaps the most tense exchange of the night, Biden condemned Republicans’
decision to reject a bipartisan bill that included border security provisions
after former president Trump came out against it.
As Biden chastised Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(R-Ga.) yelled out “Say her name!” in reference to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old
nursing student whose killing last month led to assault and murder charges
against an undocumented migrant in Georgia. Greene also was wearing a shirt
that read “SAY HER NAME LAKEN RILEY.”
Biden then paused his remarks and lifted up a pin Greene had
handed him earlier as he walked to the dais.
“Laken Riley,” Biden said, repeating what Greene was
shouting at him. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
With that, Greene’s heckling appeared to stop, while other
Republicans chanted: “Build the wall.”
Biden then tried to turn the moment to his advantage. After
saying his heart went out to Riley’s parents — noting that he has lost two of
his children — he called Congress to send him the bipartisan border security
bill.
In the chamber, Sen. James Lankford (R-Ok), who led Senate
negotiations on the failed bill, nodded.
Earlier in the night, Greene made a show of taking out a red
“Make America Great Again” hat, emblazoned with a “Trump 2020” logo, and
wearing it in the chamber. While lawmakers are not allowed to wear hats on the floor,
Greene kept the hat on. Moments later, the House’s sergeant-at-arms asked her
to take off that hated hat. Democrats, meanwhile, chanted, “No hats on the
floor.” “No more hats!”
At another point, Democrats began chanting “Four more
years!” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) replied with a more muted chant of “Trump,
Trump, Trump.” And when Biden said that, during the coronavirus crisis, Trump “failed in the most basic presidential duty
that he owes to American people the duty: to care,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden
(R-Wis.) yelled out: “Lies!”
Republicans booed loudly when Biden said that it was them
who enacted a tax cut for the ultrawealthy during the Trump administration.
At their response, the WashPost wondered, “Biden’s eyebrows
shot up.
“Oh no, you guys don’t want another $2 trillion tax cut?” he
said with a smile. “I kinda thought that’s what your plan was. Well, that’s
good to hear.”
And it wasn’t only Republicans who tried to get a message
across to Biden.
“Democrats demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and calling for
the United States to stop supplying arms to Israel — including Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) — held small signs
reading, “Lasting ceasefire now” and “Stop sending bombs.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib
(D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress, and Reps. Cori
Bush (D-Mo.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) also held the signs
and donned kaffiyehs...” (not interpreted by woke Capitol police as “hats”).
Ultra-liberal Donna Brazile, frequent ABC talking head and
former DNC chair wrote an editorial for The Hill (Attachment Forty Three)
calling the SOU one of the best long speeches of Biden’s long career, and “was
an eloquent statement of why he deserves reelection.” (Last night, Trump explained why he deserved reelection... to prevent a
bloodbath.”
Ol’ 45 later said he was referring to an “economic
bloodbath”, not a repeat of One Six.
Bending a knee to reality, Brazile finally admitted that
unfortunately, she was not optimistic that congressional Republicans would work
with Biden to enact “even watered-down versions of virtually any of his
proposals.”
That gridlock will have to remain in place until at least
November when, perhaps, one side or the other succeeds in capturing the White
House, Congress and Senate.
Biden is 81 and Trump will turn 78 in three months. While neither man is ready to play in
the NFL or climb Mount Everest, Brazile made the daring suggestion that Biden
is “unquestionably sharper than Trump, has a far greater understanding of
public policy and has been a far better president.” And unlike Trump, she needled the Truth Socialist, Biden
“is not charged with 91 serious
crimes and
has not been on the losing end of civil lawsuits that have brought Trump fines
totaling $540 million so far.”
Posting on his platform, President Trump called President
Biden’s SOU “an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled (capital
“S”) Speech.” (Newsweek,
Attachment Forty Four)
The conservative Washington Examiner further accused Joe of
faking his “vigor” (and, presumably, “feist”) by shouting his failing responses
to “glaring weakness” adding that “for every big problem facing the country,
the president’s solutions are small.”
The
WashXaminer’s “big problems”... war, economic ruin, rampant crime, open
borders... include the kitchen table issues such as inflation-caused grocery
prices and housing costs but, at least, there were (despite a few gaffes) no
big “embarrassing blank stare moment (s) or physical fumbling. If Biden wanted
to reassure himself he still has the mental capacity to take on former
President Donald Trump, he will surely take last night’s performance as
confirmation of his abilities.”
(Attachment Forty Five)
Abroad, the China Daily addressed the age issue, reporting
how some other, unnamed candidate saw an
“American story of resentment, revenge and retribution," (Attachment Forty
Six) while Trump countered with the grievance that President Joe was wasting
America’s time and patience by arriving late, then being stopped by lawmakers
who took selfies as he made his way up to the lectern in the House chamber.
"This is the longest walk in Presidential History - It
is ridiculous!" Trump posted, calling the late start "VERY
DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR COUNTRY!"
As Republicans exploited the UGA murder, Biden bellowed:
"Send me the border bill now!" and countered the accusation that he
was kowtowing to criminal aliens and endangering women by re-asserting his
support for abortion, IVF and lowering the cost of (prescription) drugs and for
eliminating what he called “junk fees" on credit cards.
The
paleo-Communist Jacobins at Jacobin mirrored the right-wing American
publications in their portrait of a President “in denial”... even calling the hecklers, not Joe “feisty” as Ol’
Forty Six tried (and in the left-eye view failed) to address the “slow burning
economic crisis of child poverty, skyrocketing housing prices, rents and
evictions, homelessness and food insecurity.
“It doesn’t make news, but in a thousand cities and towns,
the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told,” Biden
said last night, at a time when financial stress over high prices is through the roof across the country: “More people have health insurance
today than ever before,” he boasted, even as he has presided over nearly eighteen
million Americans
losing their Medicaid coverage, the vast majority of them (70 percent) eligible
for the program, but thrown off for procedural reasons enabled by his
administration.”
“It doesn’t make news, but in a thousand cities and towns,
the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told,” Biden
said last night, at a time when financial stress over high prices is through
the roof across
the country: “More people have health insurance today than ever before,” he
boasted, even as he has presided over nearly eighteen million Americans losing their Medicaid coverage, the vast
majority of them (70 percent) eligible for the program, but thrown off for
procedural reasons enabled by his administration.
The ambitious promises of Biden’s 2020 campaign now seem
forgotten.
And his recollections of Roosevelt... FDR, who called out
the “numerically small but politically dominant” forces of Depression-era
America; the “many private and selfish interests” and “unscrupulous
money-changers,” who were “seek[ing] the restoration of their selfish power”
playing out all over a world that, like ours today, saw fascism on the rise.
Siding with the Gaza protestors in the streets outside the
Capitol (and denying the concurrent rising of left-wing anti-Semitism),
Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic denigrated Biden’s deploy “an emergency mission” to
build a floating pier on the Mediterranean Sea off the shores of Gaza, to
eventually “receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary
shelters” for the Palestinians trapped there rather than forcing Israel to
withdraw its forces from the region.
The floating pier serves mostly to highlight “how servile
the president is to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“This policy should please no one,” according to the
Commies. “If you’re a left-leaning voter concerned about human rights and
Palestinian suffering, then this will do little to nothing to fix the urgent
and rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis Israel is deliberately causing in
Gaza. If you’re an America-first conservative worried about fiscal
responsibility and US prestige, this policy loads yet more costs on the US
taxpayer at Israel’s behest, while continuing to make the United States look
weak, pushed around and humiliated by its own client state.”
Al Jazeera, for once donning its keffiyah, editorialized
that “the ‘State of the Union’ is
genocide” in reporting on the protesters outside the Capitol while ceasefire
talks collapsed in Cairo and Muslims in the region prepared for Ramadan. (See Attachment Forty Eight and last week’s Lesson... also excerpted herein)
“As President Biden prepares to give the State of the Union
address, we’re here to say, no more genocide with our tax dollars,” Cat Knarr,
of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, told Al Jazeera.
“When Palestine is under attack, what do we do? Stand up,
fight back!” they chanted, with some holding electric candles.
“From DC to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” they said –
harkening back to the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to “the
expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their historic lands and
villages in 1948 during the creation of Israel,” (impetus for Hamas to declare
there can be no other solution that dissolution of the Jewish state and
destruction of the Jewish people in a war that seems likely to continue for far
longer than the Russian occupation of Ukraine).
“We see people now taking their anger into the voting booth
and that is something that Democrats should be very afraid of,” said pro-Hamas
activist Jennifer Falcon. “[Democrats] have lost the moral standing to use
Trump as a fear tactic and people are tired of this.”
“We know the State of the Union, the State of the Union is
genocide,” said human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf. “We will not accept a
president who claims to be fighting for democracy while ignoring the majority
of people he represents.”
And amidst conflicting accusations of fascism between left
wing anti-Semites and Trump-hating Democrats, what have the Germans to say?
Well, DW (Attachment Forty Nine) quoted Trump in a Truth
Social post saying: "The anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our
Country back together!" (But yesterday, the Ex also opined that immigrants
storming the border between Mexico and the U.S. “were not people”... a
philosophy that both Netanyahu (and, through him, Biden) and Hamas could
embrace.)
Biden pounced.
"I will not demonize immigrants saying they're
'poisoning the blood of our country,'" Biden said, referring to Trump's
words and urging Congress to pass immigration reforms.
He also vowed not to "separate families," or ban
migrants from entering the country based on their faith.
As for the MidEast, President Joe embraced the
delusion that: “As we look
to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution." (See Jack Parnell’s take in a forthcoming
Lesson – maybe next week, maybe the week after...)
Meanwhile, the Germans reported, several liberal lawmakers
angry over Biden's staunch support of Israel in its war against Hamas are
expected to wear pins in support of efforts to obtain a cease-fire in
Gaza.
And France 24 checked in on the side of the current American
Chief Executive as opposed to the former (referred to only as “my processor” in
the SOU),
“President
Joe Biden turned his State of the Union speech Thursday night into an animated
argument for a second term as he laced into Republican front-runner Donald
Trump for espousing “resentment, revenge and retribution" and jeopardising
freedom at home and abroad,” reported the French on 08/03/24... dates reversed
in the Eurostyling... as Attachment Fifty.)
It was a far different tone from Biden than in his previous
State of the Union address, and the discourse (before what the French called
an “historically ineffective Congress”)
seemed designed to banish doubts about “whether the 81-year-old is still up to
the job as he bids for a second term.”
Biden goaded Republicans over their policies, invited call-and-response
banter with fellow Democrats and seemed to revel in the fight.
“Freedom and democracy are under attack both at
home and overseas at the very same time,” Biden said, appealing for Congress to
support Ukraine's efforts to defend itself (and eventually, the rest of
the West) against Russia's invasion. “History is watching.”
Domestically, France 24 reported that Biden stared down the
GOP benches and said “My predecessor – (again) and some of you here – seek
to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that. This is a moment to speak the truth and to
bury the lies. Here’s a simple truth. You can’t love your country only when you
win.”
The article eschewed “vigor” but reporter Fraser Jackson did
report that Biden appeared more “feisty” and more agile (also mobile, and
hostile) than he has in recent months.
Speaker Johnson, eager to avoid the fate of his predecessor
– the unseated and unlamented K-MacConnell –
urged Republicans in a private meeting Wednesday to show “decorum”
during the speech, “according to a person familiar with his remarks to
lawmakers.
“He appeared to have limited success. A number of House
Republicans began to stand up and leave the chamber as Biden discussed raising
taxes on billionaires and corporations. Others, like Johnson, remained in their
chairs and shook their heads.”
Following the speech, Biden set our for a weekend of
campaign travel, holding events in Pennsylvania on Friday and Georgia on
Saturday. Trump, too, is set to campaign in Georgia that day while awaiting the
court’s decision there on the potential firing of One Six prosecutor Fani
Willis or even dismissal of the case,
And the BBC dispatched three correspondents to respond to
his remarks on Ukraine, the MidEast and China.
“In his State of the Union address,
he referred to Hitler being "on the march" in 1941 in Europe and then
said that the Russian leader was "on the march" himself, warning that
Russian aggression would not stop at Ukraine.” (Sarah Rainsford)
The raucous and rowdy American
address contrasted with China’s own rubber-stamp parliament, the National
People's Congress where nearly 3,000 delegates were also meeting in Beijing
this week - where speeches were watched with quiet nods, a reverent hush and
unwavering approval from the Communist Party elite. China may actually prefer another Trump
presidency... despite his sinophobic rhetoric... because while Biden has warned
that the US would defend Taiwan if China tried to take the self-governing
island by force, Mr. Trump has refused to say he would help Taiwan, which
Beijing claims as its own territory.
(Laura Bicker)
While the incumbent blamed Hamas for
starting the Gaza war, Biden’s SOU stressed the high civilian death toll among
Palestinians and he has had sharp
messages for Israel about the need to allow basic supplies to reach the
besieged territory, amid UN warnings of mass starvation. Aid, said President Joe, "cannot be a
secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent
lives has to be a priority." This rebuke featured prominently in the
Israeli media on Friday morning. (Yolande Knell)
No direct comment emanated from the Russian Tass media or
from Vladimir Putin – but in his own SOU a few weeks back, Bad Vlad threatened nuclear war and reiterated his menacing statements over the weekend.
Laken (not Lincoln) Riley, the 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, was murdered
on the campus of the University of Georgia while out jogging has
already become a Republican icon and a menace to Biden owing to the capture of
her killer... a career criminal alien from Venezuela only days after having
been arrested for use of a fraudulent green card... a suppurating sore among
both migrants and human traffickers who, Republicans say, are not only flouting
immigration laws, but sexual crimes, espionage and even terror. (Fox Atlanta, Attachment Fifty Two)
"Just think about Laken Riley, In my neighboring state of
Georgia, this beautiful, 22-year-old nursing student went out for a jog, but
she never got the opportunity to return home. She was brutally murdered by one
of the millions of illegal border crosser President Biden chose to release into
our homeland," said SOU respondent Britt. "As a mom, I can't quit
thinking about this. I mean, this could have been my daughter. This could have
been yours. And tonight, President Biden finally said her name. But he refused
to take responsibility for his own actions.”
Right-wing media like the New York Post (Attachment Fifty
Three) and Washington Times (Attachment Fifty Four) both hopped on the
President’s mispronunciation of the victim’s name like hungry rats on a chicken
wing fallen from the table.
“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was
killed by an illegal,” the Post reported Biden saying, “both botching her name
and using a term considered politically incorrect by most Democratic
officeholders.”
“Mr. Biden’s prepared remarks did not include any reference
to Riley,
so the remarks appeared to be off-the-cuff,” the Times chimed in.
And the Washington Post, fact-checking the SOU, reported on
a dozen allegations, assertions and accusations voiced by the President
(cautioning that, “(a)s is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios in speech
roundups.”
The majority of Biden’s pronouncements were deemed either
partially or wholly false (Attachment Fifty Five) or, at least, misleading.
Fox (Attachment Fifty Six) piled on more abuse…
And to jump the shark on the upcoming Election from Hell,
none other than George Santos... that
one!... was back in circulation, circulating through the Capitol (which he
is still allowed to frequent). Not only
does he remain a lightning rod for supporters and opponents alike... posting “I
just witnessed a weak, frail president deliver spin and lies to the American
people from inside (these) chambers,” on X after the show (New York Post, Attachment Fifty Seven) even intimating
that he may actually run for re-election!
There was more political dribble and spit from last week’s
Lesson and will be much more of it next week when we stand American Uncle Joe
up against the iconic Russian Dictator, and much. much more of the same between now and November.
Our
Lesson: March Eleventh through March Seventeenth, 2024 |
|
|
Monday, March 11, 2024 Dow: 38.755.32 |
Oscars chafttermath emphasized the cold,
hard facts of life in the reel world:
Oppenheimer won seven, Barbie only one. Toss “Barbenheimer” on the trash heap. Da’Vine Joy Randolph wins for best supporting actress, but Emma Stone upsets Lily Gladstone
in a “firsts” smackdown, while 92 year
old John Williams failes to snag oldest-ever Oscarisk - losing for his latest
Indiana Jones score to Oppie’s Ludwig Goransson.
Back in the real world,
there were more Boeing breakdowns... this time a crash landing in Newark that
injured fifty passengers, one of whom compared the flight to a “roller
coaster.” Boeing execs dismissed it as
a “technical incident.” And
then there were the ongoing worlds of war, with President Joe calling out
Israeli PM Bibi, telling him that killing more civilians in Rafah as Ramadan
got under way would be his “red line”.
Netanyahu blew him off, saying that his red line was “that October 7th never happens
again.” The civilian death toll topped
31K.
Biden did walk away with some
dignity after Donald Trump, now 77 and amidst all of his legal woes, said
that he happened to be “considering” slashing social security and
Medicare. “Not on my watch,” replied
81 year old Old White Joe. (See below) |
|
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 Dow:
38,585.19 |
Rare bipartisan concurrence that Hunter
Special Counsel Robert Hur is a bad dude.
Republicans blamed him for not indicting President Joe. Democrats raged that his categorization of
Biden as a sick and confused old man was politically motivated and POTUS concurred,
saying: “We overclassify Everything!”
Down south, Djonald (still) UnConvicted used the immunity ploy to try
and get his Stormy trial cancelled (or at least postponed, tho’ it’s not
pardonable). Down south in Mar-a-Lago,
his butler of 20 years, Brian Butler, finally ratted out the boss, saying
that Trump ordered him and Paul Nava to load up boxes of classified documents
on a plane while an Australian billionaire hopped off with some data on U.S.
and Russian submarines coming to kill their kangaroos. G’day, Donnie.
Boeing whistleblower found dead and authorities are calling it a
“suicide”. (John Barnett was about to
testify before the NTSB. This elicits
a chuckle from Mad Vlad Putin as he wheels into his own election
(above). A criminal investigation of
falling doors, bolts from the blue and insecure wheels begins. It is publicized that Boeing failed 39 of
89 safety check while Spirit failed 7 of 13.
It’s still raining in the west, but temperatures are at record levels
in the Midwest... Fargo, ND has a record in the 70s. But on the way... colder w/ tornadoes/ |
|
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Dow:
39,806.44 |
After Ukrainian drones strike Russian
infrastructure targets. Mad Vlad again promises to start a nuclear war. Cynics say it’s an election ploy (above).
Rampages in Haiti ease after PM Ariel Henri agrees to resign. Gang leader Barbecue says he will support a
ceasefire (on assaults on civilians) if he can form the next government. US military lands to evacuate Embassy
personnel, but leaving tourists stranded. Yet
another Boeing breakdown – fuel tanks spewing fuel all about. Bigshot boss Stan Deal says nothing to worry about but passengers are cancelling
reservations and flying... anybody not using Boeing!
Trump and Biden win primaries in Georgia. RFK’s third party promotes Veeps Aaron
Rodgers *Green Bay Packers turned NY Jet” and believer that the Sandy Hook
massacre was an “inside job”) and rassler/Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura
(he’s only 72, but would have to renounce his Green Party of Alaska
membership) but without confirmation... yet... And
Robert Costa calls November’s election: “Our American Carnage” |
|
Thursday, March 14, 2024 Dow:
38,965.55 |
It’s National Pie Day... pi being 3.14. Get it?
Congress (362-85) bipartisanly gets to tell China’s Byte Dance to sell
Tik Tok to good (or whatever) Americans within six month or get out of
business. Nancy Pelosi explains... it’s
Tic Tac Toe and makes Masonic hand
gestures.
Lull in Haitian gang wars affords Americans time to send in the
military and evacuate Embassy staff and a few lucky Yanks (like author Mitch
Albom). Embattled President Henri
resigns. Ordinary Haitians are fleeing
en masse to the Dominican Republic, unlucky Americans hiding in place. TV
doctors say that playing with dogs is healthy for kids by reducing their
stress hormones. With a big, fat
smile, they say: “This is your brain
on puppies!” Less gleeful docs warn”
“none of us is not at risk” about breast cancer, after Olivia Munn confesses
her surgery.
Blizzards shut down Interstate highways in Denver. Semi-striking workers shut down Atlanta
airport citing low pay, sexual harassment and rats... but let it open again
the next day. |
|
Friday, March 15, 2024 Dow:
38.714.77 |
In Atlanta, Judge Scott McAfee rules that
either Trump prosecutor Fani Willis or her Number One assistant Nathan Wade
resign, and Natty sacrifices himself “in the interests of the country” so the
Trump trial can go on. But it will
likely be delayed until after November’s election. Channelling Ben Hur (and also the
arch-racist Tennessee Williams), McAfee says that he detects “an odor of
mendacity” about her testimony.
With military aid to Israel (and Ukraine) on hold, Sen. Schumer (D-NY)
says that History’s condemnation calls for Jews to dump Bibi, who respons
that Israel is not “a banana republic.”
Then, PM Netanyahu greenlights a military purge of Palestinians from
Rafah to force Hamas to make a deal. On
the streets and in the subways, criminals on the rampage. One carjacks and kills a North Carolina
woman, then drives to New Mexico, gets a flat, kills a cop who offers to help
and then escapes. Another mass shooter
in Pennsylvania guns down a family, then flees to Trenton, where he is
caught. Even less lucky is the NYC
subway shooter after a passenger takes his gun away and shoots him with it. The
passenger successfully pleads self defense and is exonerated as a hero. Also less lucky in court are Daddy Crumbly,
convicted of the same four counts of malparenting as sunk his wife Jennifer
after his son shot up his school,.. and hundreds of Spring Breakers caught up
in Florida’s anti-crime dragnet. |
|
Saturday, March 16th, 2024 Dow: Closed |
In the aftermath of Friday’s litigations,
Judge McAfee’s “bizarre journey” rambles on with Fani accusing him of being a
white racist while Trump attorney Grubman (??!!?) asks for the charges
against his client to be dropped.
Also, rich people are now swarming to buy up Tik Tok stock – some of
those mentioned include former Trumpie Steven Mnuchian and Shark Tank’s Kevin
O’Leary. Not Elon Musk, tho’... he’s
Canadian. Who
needs Donald when the class war is turning out just find for the overlords...
poor children are getting kicked off (“disenrolled”) from healthcare as
Gazans and Haitians are now competing for the crown of the “world’s most
miserable people”. All
those cops swarming Florida’s beaches can’t stop a 16 year old gunslinger
from shooting up the sands at New Smyrna Beach. And
bees are swarming in California – shutting down a professional tennis match,
migrating from hive to hive as rival Qneens break off from the hive and set
up their own little colony. Less
painful but more annoying will be the
conjunction of 13 year and 17 year cicada bug cycles. |
|
Sunday, March 17th, 2024 Dow: Closed |
It’s St. Patrick’s Day. President Joe meets the
Irish PM and pours green dye into the White House fountain. Donald Trump makes a campaign rally speech;
praises the “incredible patriots” of One Six and declares that migrants are
not human beings, then finds a shortage of the green as all the foreign
bankers and insurance companies redlight him for his $464M bail on the New
York civil fraud case. (To be fair,
the domestic ones too.) Prosecutor
Letitia James said to buying up a lot of padlocks for when she seizes his
real estate.
Guests on Sunday talkshows include Mike Pence on Face The Nation who
says he is turning his face from Trump because he’s... too liberal? Yup, Djonald UnChurched wants to give
preggers sixteen weeks to decide on an abortion, instead of jailing them for
miscarriages or discarded frozen embryos.
There’s also John Kirby making the rounds on behalf of Biden while
Nikki Haley drops out, leaving the dreaded rematch with 20% of the voters
being “double haters”. Around the ABC
Roundtable, Sarah Isgur cites Djonald UnConcerned saying he doesn’t want
Haley voters and says Speaker Mike is a patriot because he does’t want to
give our weapons to Ukraine (keep them Trump advises to fight off the Mexican
hordes).
Naïve old Donna Brazile says Israel should kill terrorists, not
civilians... but, bless her heart, the terrorists in Gaza are hiding among
the civilians. The
week’s weather ends with hail joining tornadoes in the Midwest and new
Icelandic volcano eruptions. |
|
Atavistic statistics revealed that at least the Don didn’t drop as
much as it did last week. But it would
seem that the march of the unemployed to jobs... good or not good... is
apparently over and the Dow’s march towards 40,000 has stalled. |
|
CHART of CATEGORIES
w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING…
approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) Negative/harmful
indices in RED. See a further explanation of categories here… |
ECONOMIC
INDICES |
(60%) |
|||||||
CATEGORY |
VALUE |
BASE |
RESULTS by PCTG. |
SCORE |
OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS |
|||
INCOME |
(24%) |
6/17/13 [revsd. 1/1/22 |
LAST |
CHANGE |
NEXT |
LAST WEEK |
THIS WEEK |
RESULTS by STATISTIC. |
Wages (hrly. Per cap) |
9% |
1350 points |
3/11/24 |
+0.17% |
4/24 |
1,497.86 |
1,497.86 |
|
Median Inc. (yearly) |
4% |
600 |
3/11/24 |
+0.028% |
3/25/24 |
668.65 |
668.84 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
39,416 427 |
Unempl. (BLS – in
mi) |
4% |
600 |
3/11/24 |
-5.13% |
4/24 |
584.92 |
584.92 |
|
Official (DC – in
mi) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
+4.75% |
3/25/24 |
255.89 |
243.74 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
6,238 6,549 |
Unofficl. (DC – in
mi) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-2..08% |
3/25/24 |
241.73 |
246.76 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 13,694
415 |
Workforce Participation Number Percent |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-0.13% -0.74% |
3/25/24 |
303.70 |
301.45 |
In 161,433 225 Out 100,214 413 Total: 261,647 638 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 62.08 61,62 |
WP % (ycharts)* |
1% |
150 |
3/11/24 |
-0.48% |
4/24 |
150.95 |
150.95 |
https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.50 |
OUTGO |
(15%) |
|||||||
Total Inflation |
7% |
1050 |
3/24 |
+0.4% |
4/24 |
970.22 |
966.34 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3
.4 |
Food |
2% |
300 |
3/24 |
nc |
4/24 |
274.07 |
274.07 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.4
.0 |
Gasoline |
2% |
300 |
3/24 |
+3.8% |
4/24 |
246.55 |
237.18 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -3.3 +3.8 |
Medical Costs |
2% |
300 |
3/24 |
-0.1% |
4/24 |
291.95 |
292.24 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
+0.7 -0.1 |
Shelter |
2% |
300 |
3/24 |
+0.4% |
4/24 |
267.85 |
265.78 |
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
+0.6 .4 |
WEALTH |
||||||||
Dow Jones Index |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-0.02% |
3/25/24 |
324.12 |
324.05 |
https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 38,722.69 38,714.77 |
Home (Sales) (Valuation) |
1% 1% |
150 150 |
3/11/24 |
+5.82% -0.96% |
3/24 |
129.80 273.38 |
129.80 273.38 |
https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M):
4.00 Valuations (K): 379.1 |
Debt (Personal) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
+0.36% |
3/25/24 |
268.62 |
267.66 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 75,390
660 |
GOVERNMENT |
(10%) |
|||||||
Revenue (trilns.) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-0.34% |
3/25/24 |
399.82 |
398.46 |
debtclock.org/
4,703 687 |
Expenditures (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-0.015% |
3/25/24 |
318.80 |
318.75 |
debtclock.org/ 6,479
478 |
National Debt tr.) |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
+0.05% |
3/25/24 |
389.87 |
389.64 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 34,502
522 |
Aggregate Debt
(tr.) |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
+0.054% |
3/25/24 |
406.29 |
406.07 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 97,846
899 |
TRADE |
(5%) |
|||||||
Foreign Debt (tr.) |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
+0.17% |
3/25/24 |
300.28 |
299.77 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,933
941 8,190 207 8,221 |
Exports (in billions) |
1% |
150 |
3/11/24 |
+0.39% |
4/24 |
159.74 |
159.74 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 258.2 257.2 |
Imports (in
billions)) |
1% |
150 |
3/11/24 |
-1.29% |
4/24 |
168.76 |
168.76 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 320.4 4.6 |
Trade Surplus/Deficit (blns.) |
1% |
150 |
3/11/24 |
+7.72% |
4/24 |
311.84 |
311.84 |
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 62.2 67.4 |
SOCIAL
INDICES |
(40%) |
|||||||
ACTS of MAN |
(12%) |
|
|
|||||
World Affairs |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.3% |
3/25/24 |
450.73 |
449.37 |
President Vlad re-elected with 91% of
the vote with all his serious opposition dead, in jail or in exile. Supporters chant: SIX MORE YEARS! Sen. Schumer (D-NY) recommends Netanyahu’s impeachment
or howsoever they remove the politicians over there... Bibi replies “Israel
is not a banana republic.” |
War and terrorism |
2% |
300 |
3/11/24 |
-0.2% |
3/25/24 |
290.72 |
290.14 |
President Joe warns Israel about crossing
his “red line” to kill more civilians in Gaza. Ex-President Don tells Hungarian dictator
Orban that, when elected, he will not waster “another penny” on Ukraine. Marines invade Haiti to rescue Embassy
personnel under heavy fire, as Haitian President resigns. Ordinary US expats and tourists –
SOoL. |
Politics |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.2% |
3/25/24 |
475.25 |
474.30 |
Bidenpartisan anger at Biden
prosecutor Hur for failure to prosecute (GOP) and for calling the Prez a
“sick old man.” (Dems) RFK Junior
(Lunar Party) floats Aaron Rodgers or Jesse Ventura for Veep. Trump makes speech, citing TV docs who say
“migrants make measles” then says the migrants are not people after all. Can they still make measles? Mike Pence calls his old boss a liberal for
allowing abortions up to 15 weeks. |
Economics |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.4% |
3/25/24 |
443.27 |
441.50 |
Inflation index out – food flat but
gas prices up. (See above) Workers at Atlana airport threaten strike over
low pay, sex harassment and rats.
Kohl’s acquires BabiesR’Us. Thousands of Dollar Trees and Family
Dollars leaving low-income cities, neighborhoods and rural towns to be Food
Deserts. |
Crime |
1% |
150 |
3/11/24 |
-0.4% |
3/25/24 |
238.77 |
237.81 |
With organized shoplifting gangs
storming stores, retailers want enforcement to deter thieves, but worry that
police state ambience will deter customers.
Police in state of Florida call a corpse buried upside down with feet
sticking out “suspicious” (as in movie “Motel Hell”). New York subway shooting called “a duel”,
not terror, and victim-turned-killer freed on grounds of self-defense,
Pennsylvania active shooter captured as is New Mexico cop killer Jeremy Smith
flagged for buying smokes at a gas station with his own picture ID! after spokescop tells residents to
“fight for your life”. (Cigarettes kill!) Spring Break cops promising to “bring back
law and order” shut down Miami, causing rowdies to migrate to Ft. Lauderdale
and Jacksonville; gun fun Breakers murder bystanders and are now in the wind. |
ACTS of GOD |
(6%) |
|||||||
Environment/Weather |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.2% |
3/25/24 |
387.18 |
386.41 |
The wind is in the Midwest where
hailstorms, blizzards and tornados strike from Denver to Minneapolis. A West Coast deep freeze turns rainfall to
ice, then moves east to chill out Joneses from Texas to Maine. |
Disasters |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.3% |
3/25/24 |
421.35 |
420.09 |
Yet more Boeings mishap happen: a wheel falls off one, that door off
another, and several are spewing engine fluids that catch fire. Incredibly, nobody is killed (tho’ 50 are
injured by that ol’ debbil turbulence that the suits call a “technical
incident”) but a whistleblower commits “suicide” as more suits snicker. |
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX |
(15%) |
|||||||
Science, Tech, Educ. |
4% |
600 |
3/11/24 |
nc |
3/25/24 |
632.75 |
632.75 |
House votes to ban Tik Tok unless
China’s Byte Me owners sell out to some American... former Trumpie Mnooch and
Shark Tanker push to the head of the line.
Deep Fake photos of Princess Kate spark rumours that she’s dead. She isn’t.
|
Equality (econ/social) |
4% |
600 |
3/11/24 |
-0.1% |
3/25/24 |
644.94 |
644.26 |
Female singers and movie stars score big
wins in Grammies and Oscars last week and Caitlyn Clark’s scoring reacords
lead Iowa to Big Ten title. States
“disenroll” thousands of poor children from Medicare and Medicaid, however,
as advocates cite unnecessary deaths. |
Health |
4% |
600 |
3/11/24 |
+0.2% |
3/25/24 |
466.80 |
467.60 |
After high profile confessons, TV Docs
say “none of us are not at risk” of breast cancer. The good news: Other doctors say playing with dogs
relieves stress and improves both physical and mental health. “This is your brain on puppies.” |
Freedom and Justice |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
nc |
3/25/24 |
468.21 |
468.21 |
In Trump trials: Djonald fails to make
bail while Mar-a-Lago judge dismisses motion to dismiss doc theft, butler (Brian
Butler) rats out his boss on Florida docs case and Stormy’s case delayed a
month while ADA’s inspect those 30,000
docs (Porn Pix??) and Atlanta judge
Scott McAfee allows Fani to throw her lover/prosecutor Nathan Wade under the
bus – saving her job but causing that
case to also be delayed. In other
political prosecutions, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) arraigned for corruption
while, in other other cases, Daddy
Crumbly, like wife Jen, convicted of letting Junior murder four schoolmates. |
CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS |
(6%) |
|||||||
Cultural Incidents |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
+0.1% |
3/25/24 |
521.57 |
522.09 |
Mens and women’s NCAA “March Madness”
tournament pairings announced. US beats
Brazil to win soccer’s Gold Cup. “Oppenheimer” crushes Barbie at the Oscars
with seven little golden eunuchs to only one... but Mark Ruffalo gets to sing
among 62 dancing Kens. (See more in
last week’s Lesson reprised below) Beyonce will go country recording “Jolene”
RIP: Eric Carmen (Raspberries & “Hungry Eyes”), Robin Bernard
(“General Hospital”) |
Misc. Incidents |
3% |
450 |
3/11/24 |
-0.1% |
3/25/24 |
509.00 |
508.49 |
Musher Dallas Seavey wins his sixth Iditarod, thanks his dogs. Princes Bill and Harry Diana memorials, but
not at the same time, or same place.
Princess Kate takes a walk to prove she’s still alive. Thousands of bees swarming and stinging as
Queens duel for supremacy and the 17 and 13 year cycle cicadas coincide for
the first time in 200 years. Bugmen
say the bugs are loud and ugly but not dangerous. Just ugly.
Ugly bugs. And loud... |
The Don Jones
Index for the week of March 11th through March 17th, 2024 was DOWN 35.13 points
The Don Jones Index is sponsored by
the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential
candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations
that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former
Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and
cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and
Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns
in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal
action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.
Comments, complaints, donations
(especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com
or: speak@donjonesindex.com.
SEE
ATTACHMENTS (1 - 18) and (58 – OUT) from LESSON of March 4th - 10th
BELOW
SUPER
TUESDAY ATTACHMENTS... (19 to 57)
ELEVATED from MARCH 11th
ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – FROM
AL JAZEERA
BIDEN TO DELIVER STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
By Al Jazeera Staff Published
On 6 Mar 20246 Mar 2024
United
States President Joe Biden is to deliver the third State of the Union address of
his presidency, an opportunity for him to highlight his successes and chart a
path forward.
But this
State of the Union speech will also be his first since he announced his re-election bid last
year. That makes it a pivotal moment for Biden, as the Democrat faces fierce
criticism both from within his party and from the Republican opposition.
Birth of a
Movement: Michigan’s Arab voters rise up to challenge Biden
Biden and
Trump visit US-Mexico border amid immigration crisis
‘Groundbreaking’:
Michigan’s uncommitted vote for Gaza should ‘worry’ Biden
The
president is expected to face his Republican predecessor Donald Trump in
November’s general election. Recent polls show the pair in a neck-and-neck
fight for the White House.
Against
that backdrop, the State of the Union address will allow Biden to make his case
to the American people about why he should get a second term.
Speaking
at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Thursday evening, Biden is expected to
make the future of US
democracy a
central theme. Biden has repeatedly warned that Trump and his supporters are a
threat to the country, referencing their efforts to
overturn the
2020 election.
Support
for foreign allies such as Ukraine and Israel, migration at the
US-Mexico border and a push to bridge political partisanship in
Washington, DC, are also likely topics for Biden.
Here’s all
you need to know about the 2024 State of the Union:
What is the State of the Union?
The State
of the Union is an annual speech in which the US president outlines — as its
name suggests — the state of the country and priorities for the future.
This
fulfils a requirement in the US Constitution, which asserts that a
president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the
State of the Union”.
Ultimately,
the State of the Union address provides US presidents with a “big stage” to
speak both to Congress and the American public, said Donna Hoffman, a professor
of political science at the University of Northern Iowa.
Biden will
want to claim credit for his accomplishments and also say, “Here are the things
that I want to get done,” Hoffman told Al Jazeera.
When is the State of the Union?
This
year’s State of the Union is set for 9pm local time on Thursday (02:00 GMT on
Friday).
Who attends the State of the Union?
The State
of the Union is delivered to a joint session of Congress. This means members of
both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be in attendance.
As is
custom, Vice President Kamala Harris and the speaker of the House,
Republican Mike Johnson, will be
seated behind Biden.
The
president’s cabinet will also be present, as well as any Supreme Court justices
who choose to be there.
The White
House also typically invites special guests to attend. Last year, Biden invited
the parents of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who was beaten to
death by
police in Tennessee, and Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a
mass shooter in
California.
Already,
two key figures have reportedly declined
the White House’s invitation to attend this year. Yulia
Navalnaya —
the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexey
Navalny —
and Ukrainian First Lady Olena
Zelenska both
bowed out of the engagement.
Have US presidents always delivered the State of the Union?
Yes,
though the format has changed over the years.
George
Washington, the first US president, delivered the inaugural address in 1790.
“This ritual originated from the British practice of giving ‘a speech from the
throne’ to open every new session of Parliament,” according to a
US Congressional Service report.
Washington
and John Adams, the country’s second president, also presented their messages
in person.
But that
changed in 1801 when Thomas Jefferson sent his in writing. “That precedent held
until Woodrow Wilson decided to deliver his message in person in 1913, a
tradition that continues today,” a Senate fact sheet explained.
Was it always called the State of the Union?
No. For
many years, it was referred to as the “President’s Annual Message to Congress” or
simply the “Annual Message”.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd US president, was the first to call it the State of
the Union address. But the title only became official during the tenure of
President Harry Truman, who took office in 1945, after Roosevelt’s death.
The format
of the State of the Union has changed over the years too. “The first national
radio broadcast of the message occurred in 1923,” the Senate fact sheet said.
“Truman’s
1947 address was the first to be televised, and in 1965, President Lyndon
Johnson began the tradition of delivering the address in prime time.”
OK, let’s get back to this year’s address. What can we
expect from Biden?
The speech
provides an important platform for Biden, who will address a deeply divided
Congress months before a presidential election.
The
81-year-old continues to face questions over whether he
is fit enough to
seek a second term, as well as protests in
critical swing states over his staunch backing of Israel despite its deadly
military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Axios reported in mid-February that Biden’s team is hoping the State
of the Union will be a “big, public reset moment” in his bid for re-election.
One
unnamed source close to the president told the US news outlet: “Everyone around
him is well aware — well aware — of the need to jack this campaign up.”
What will be the focus of Biden’s speech?
Biden has
tried to present himself as a bulwark protecting American
democracy against
Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base.
A mob of
the former president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, in an
attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump
also faces two criminal cases linked to his efforts to overturn the election
results.
“Their
extreme agenda, if carried out, will fundamentally alter the institutions of
American democracy as we know it,” Biden said in
September,
articulating a message he will likely bring to the State of the Union too.
Biden will
likely “do a lot of credit-claiming on the state of the economy”, Hoffman said.
She noted that “the economy is doing much better than it was when he started
his term.”
She also
said reproductive
rights — an
issue that resonates with Democratic voters — are expected to come up as well.
US
presidents have typically used their State of the Union addresses to lay out
what they want Congress to do. On that front, Biden is likely to urge
Republican lawmakers to pass a bipartisan
immigration bill.
A proposal
had previously been blocked by Trump’s allies in Congress, who said it did not
do enough to stem immigration. Critics argue they rallied against it to make
the border an election issue.
Biden is
also expected to push Congress to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine and
Israel, two top US allies.
“In this year
in particular with the conflicts in Gaza, in Ukraine, and the nature of what’s
going on in the Congress related to funding in those two areas, I would expect
there to be some emphasis on international issues,” Hoffman said.
What else happens at the State of the Union?
Every
year, the opposing political party offers a rebuttal to the president’s State
of the Union.
The
Republican rebuttal will be delivered by Senator Katie Britt of Alabama and
will take place after Biden’s address.
“We’ll have a candid conversation about the
future of our nation — and I’ll outline the Republican vision to secure the
American Dream for generations to come,” she wrote on
social media last week.
How can I watch the State of the Union?
The State
of the Union will be livestreamed by the White House here.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY – FROM
TIME
IS BIDEN ‘TOO OLD’? STATE OF THE UNION
SPEECH WILL SERVE AS CRUCIAL TEST FOR MANY VOTERS
BY BRIAN
BENNETT AND NIK POPLI
UPDATED: MARCH 4, 2024 9:19 AM EST | ORIGINALLY
pUBLISHED: MARCH 2, 2024 8:00 AM EST
President Biden
spent the weekend huddled with his closest advisors at Camp David honing his
State of the Union speech. It’s the same warmup routine he used ahead of
his well-regarded
address before
Congress last year, when he parried back against hecklers, negotiated on the
fly with Republicans, and did not fall victim to any major gaffes or stumbles.
Biden
desperately needs a repeat performance, as concerns
about his mental acuity dog
his re-election bid. When he addresses the House and Senate on Thursday, many
voters will be watching more closely, and his performance will be parsed for
any signs that the 81-year-old President is slipping.
“Rarely if ever have words mattered less when
it comes to the State of the Union than this one,” says Jim Manley, a
Democratic strategist and former senior aide to the late Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid. Most voters, Manley says, are going to be looking at how Biden
handles himself amid what could be a somewhat hostile crowd in the House
chamber. Voters won’t be looking for a detailed, multi-point policy plan,
Manley says. “It’s more about signaling to everyone that he’s got another four
years in him.”
As
concerns over his age and memory intensify, Biden has found himself playing
defense following
allegations about his mental state from a special counsel’s report on his
handling of classified documents. While the report did not recommend pursuing
charges against Biden for his actions, Special Counsel Robert Hur highlighted
instances where Biden struggled to recall key dates from his vice presidency
and the year his son Beau died, leading Hur to describe the President as a
“well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
There will
be few other moments between now and November when Biden will have a larger
viewing audience than Thursday night’s address. That means a large part of
Biden’s bid to extend his presidency rides on his performance, argues Whit
Ayres, a Republican strategist and pollster. “It is an august moment for most
Presidents, and it will be particularly important for an aging President who is
well behind in the presidential race,” Ayres says.
Biden is
trailing Trump in seven battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania,
Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin—according to a Morning
Consult/Bloomberg poll conducted
in mid-February. Within those states, 48% of voters favored Trump and 43%
planned to vote for Biden in a potential general election matchup. Biden’s age
weighs heavily on voters’ minds, the poll showed. About 8 in 10 voters thought
Biden was "too old," compared to just under half of voters holding
that view of Trump, who is 77, four years younger than Biden. Some 6 in 10
voters considered Trump "dangerous."
White
House officials say that the President’s long list of accomplishments in office
show he’s sharp enough to do the job. On Wednesday, the White House physician
and 11 other specialists examined Biden at Walter Reed National Military
Medical Center for his annual physical and found “no new concerns” since
Biden’s check up the previous year, according to a summary by Dr. Kevin
O’Connor, the physician to the President. The doctors found Biden to be “fit
for duty,” and “healthy, active, robust,” and concluded that he “fully executes
all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” O’Connor
wrote.
But
concerns about Biden’s health and sharpness linger. Some Democrats see
Thursday’s State of the Union address as an important moment to reset
impressions and allay those concerns.
“I think
this will be a very good opportunity to show America that he's a strong
leader,” says Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee. “We have a way of honoring our grandparents, our folks that have
matured, but in politics that's seen as a liability.”
Rep. Ro
Khanna, a California Democrat, argues Biden should be focused on the pitch he
is going to make to Americans, and not worry about his age and acuity. “I’m
hoping to hear his vision for his second term,” he says. “What are we going to
do to help the working class? What are we going to do to improve the economy
for people? What are we going to do in terms of the direction of America?”
Senator
Katie Britt of Alabama is set to deliver the Republican rebuttal to Biden’s
speech.
One issue
high on the minds of many voters and lawmakers is the situation in Gaza, where
tens of thousands have died amid Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. With
a ceasefire deal unlikely by the time of Biden’s speech, some progressive
Democrats are calling on Biden to
use the televised address to strengthen his call for de-escalation and publicly
pressure Israel to pull back over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York Democrat who has
co-sponsored a resolution for an immediate ceasefire, tells TIME that a
ceasefire is just one way in which Biden could use his State of the Union address
to reach out to dissatisfied voters, and young people in particular. “There's a
lot of communities and constituencies that are wondering if the Democratic
Party is still fighting for them,” she says. “I think there's a lot of
nervousness around folding on immigrants’ rights, folding on civil rights,
folding on certain issues. And so I think, in addition to really touting our
enormous victories on student loans and on climate, I think we need to hear an
unapologetic message about how immigration is positive and necessary in America
as well as a bunch of other issues.”
Rep.
Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence
Committees, tells TIME that he wants to hear Biden outline the plan for the
remainder of his term, particularly how he’s been pressing for a ceasefire in
Gaza and what he’s doing to push Europe and other countries to help Ukraine.
Biden, who visited Ukraine last year, has been pushing Congress for months to
approve $60 billion in new aid to the country, part of a larger foreign aid
package that has been stalled by Republicans.
Thursday’s
State of the Union address comes as the Biden Administration faces heightened
scrutiny from Republicans over its approach to border security amid a record
number of illegal crossings. Biden returned Thursday from a trip to the Rio Grande
Valley, where
he called on his political rival Trump to join him in pushing through new
funding for border patrol agents and immigration officers to address the
increase in migrants crossing the border illegally. Cuellar, who represents the
Rio Grande and San Antonio areas, says he hopes the President mentions in his
speech how Republicans last month blocked a bipartisan deal that would have
implemented strict limits along the southern border, curtailed asylum-seeking,
and added thousands of new border patrol and asylum officers. “The Senate came
up with a good deal,” he says, “but Republicans are walking away from it.”
While many
viewers inside and outside the Capitol building may be studying Biden’s
performance on Thursday closer than usual, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a
Massachusetts Democrat, suggests some may be overthinking what a successful
State of the Union address needs to accomplish.
“He should
keep talking about what he's done to make sure the American people know about
them, and he should talk about his plans for the future,” Warren says. “That's
what a sensible, sober President like Joe Biden does.”
“I think
that's what the American people want him to do,” she adds. “He doesn't need to
do more than that.”
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ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – FROM
AXIOS
DEMOCRATS PIN 2024 HOPES AND FEARS ON BIDEN'S STATE
OF THE UNION
By Andrew Solender and Alex Thompson
Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that President
Biden's State of the Union performance on Thursday will be pivotal for his attempts
to dispel voter concerns about his age.
Why it matters: Some Democrats dread a high-profile
senior moment. Others expressed confidence that Biden can repeat last year's
energetic performance.
"We are all nervous," said one House
Democrat, citing concerns about the 81-year-old Biden's "ability to speak
without blowing things."
Another House Democrat said: "Listen, Trump has
made rhetorical slips … Biden is going to make rhetoric slips, I think the key
is his energy level."
Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)
told Axios he expects a strong performance: "It's important that it be
good."
"There's no doubt that he has the vigor [for a
second term], but that's being questioned," said Hoyer. "He's quick,
and he needs to show that."
"Of the various speeches speeches a president
gives, the State of the Union in an election year is a big one," said Rep.
Dan Kildee (D-Mich.).
Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik — who
regularly publishes analyses of the 2024 campaign — told Axios: "Given
concerns about Biden's age, his delivery will be as important as his
substance."
Between the lines: Many Democrats pointed to Biden's
verbal sparring with right-winger hecklers at last year's State of the Union as
a reason to have faith in his rhetorical abilities.
"He owned the Republicans when they tried to
heckle him," said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House
Democratic Caucus, predicting Biden will do an "outstanding job."
Others pointed to President Trump, saying the
contrast between the two will ultimately be Biden's saving grace.
Another House Democrat offered a simpler rationale
for their confidence: "The State of the Union is a speech that's
programmed. It's not a debate."
The other side: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), at a
GOP Conference meeting on Wednesday, discouraged House Republicans from
heckling Biden.
"The underlying message is it was bad form
[last year] and ultimately helps the President. Let him babble on without our
interrupting," said one House Republican who was present.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) predicted Biden would
"get interrupted many times by my colleagues across the aisle" in an
attempt to force gaffes.
"It's going to be early, in my opinion. And
it's not going to be one or two members. I think they're looking to turn it
into a mess."
By the numbers: The State of the Union is watched by
tens of millions of people — 27 million in 2023 — making it Biden's best
opportunity to reach voters before November.
"It's going to be one of the biggest audiences
that the president will have this year, so it's a huge opportunity to make the
case," said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).
The bottom line: A Democratic strategist, speaking
on the condition of anonymity, said simply, "Let's see some main character
energy!"
ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – FROM
NBC
BIDEN TO JUGGLE COMPETING POLITICAL DEMANDS IN STATE OF THE UNION
ADDRESS
Perhaps
the president's most urgent mission is simply to reassure a skeptical nation
that he’s up to the rigors of his job.
By Peter
Nicholas and Mike Memoli March 4,
2024, 6:00 AM EST
WASHINGTON
— In his State of the Union speech this week, President Joe Biden will pose a
question that he hopes will answer itself: Whose side are you on?
Are
Americans, as he’ll frame it, on the side of lower health care costs,
democratic freedoms and Ukraine’s fight to keep itself from being swallowed up
by Russia? Or on the side of drug company profits, tax breaks for the wealthy
and Russia’s autocratic leader Vladimir Putin?
Baked into
the argument that Biden will lay out Thursday night is that he’s on the right
side of all these issues and that voters should unite behind him, as opposed to
his likely Republican rival in the presidential election, former President
Donald Trump.
The stark
choices facing the U.S. will be the propulsive theme of Biden’s third State of
the Union speech, advisers say. He’ll use the moment to remind voters about
hard-won legislative victories of which they’re mostly unaware, polls show,
while pledging to revamp the tax code in a second term so that middle-class
Americans get some financial help.
He’ll also
look to ease growing unhappiness inside his own party about his handling of the
war between Israel and Hamas. Biden’s failure to forge an enduring cease-fire
has splintered his party and spawned a
grassroots movement to deprive him of delegates at the Democratic
presidential nominating convention in Chicago.
“It would
be important for him to show his concerns about the future of Gaza,” said a
Democratic member of Congress, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not
to alienate the White House. The lawmaker added that Biden needs to express
“how horrific is the number of people who’ve died and how he wants to protect
civilian life going forward and get a cease-fire so no one else dies.”
Perhaps
Biden’s most urgent mission is simply to reassure a skeptical nation that he’s
up to the rigors of the job.
Every
State of the Union address gets outsize attention, but the one Biden is poised
to give looms as among the most consequential in decades. Traditions that once
seemed chiseled into American society — rule of law, limits on presidential
power, self-government — all appear to be up for grabs in the coming election.
Tens of
millions of people will tune in, meaning Biden can expect the biggest
television audience he’ll get at least until the convention in August.
“This
speech has the potential to be the most important political speech so far in
the 21st century,” said Donald Baer, a former chief speechwriter and
communications director in then-President Bill Clinton’s White House. “We are
at a pivotal moment in the history of the country and the world and certainly in
this campaign.”
“It has
the potential to be, for Biden in his re-election, as powerful an opportunity
as he will have,” Baer added.
By the
time Biden gets that famed introduction, “Mr. Speaker, the president of the
United States!” voters should have little doubt that the Biden vs. Trump
rematch is actually happening.
The Super
Tuesday primaries take place two days before Biden’s address, and Trump is
expected to sweep the 15 contests and be a prohibitive front-runner for the GOP
nomination once the votes are tallied.
“For
regular folks who are not following the day-to-day news cycle, this will break
through on [Super] Tuesday,” a Biden campaign adviser said in an interview.
“There will be a number of Americans who on Tuesday will stop for the first
time and really kind of digest that this is going to be Trump versus Biden in
November.”
With
Biden’s poll numbers sagging and his re-election in doubt, he has a chance to
get a fresh look from an electorate that seems
willing to dump him in favor of an ex-president who is defending himself
against 91 felony charges.
A crisp
performance will go a long way toward demonstrating Biden’s fitness and acuity
at age 81. By the same token, should he trip while walking to the rostrum in
the House chamber, or lose his place on the teleprompter and stare blankly at
the screen, he risks a viral moment that would be tough to overcome.
Republicans
will try to rattle Biden if they can. Expect the GOP side of the aisle to jeer
Biden’s remarks — as they did during his 2023 address. The GOP has also
arranged to highlight Biden’s advanced age by picking Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.,
to give the party’s official rebuttal.
“The
speech is a high-wire act — and this for a president whose footing hasn’t been
so certain,” said Jeff Shesol, deputy chief speechwriter in the Clinton White House. “For many observers, the point of the
exercise is to see whether he stumbles. It’s not so much what he says, but the
manner in which he says it.”
Biden
could help himself in an unscripted clash with Republicans if he can parry the
boos in real time, a feat he pulled off last year. When Republicans heckled him
for saying they wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare, Biden treated that
as an affirmative commitment to protect the two entitlement programs.
“We got
unanimity!” Biden said.
A White
House official said Biden may revisit that exchange when he delivers his
speech.
“Joe Biden
strayed from the script last year with incredible effect,” said Shesol, who
took a major role in drafting two State of the Union speeches for Clinton. “It
was the most effective and consequential ad-lib in the history of State of the
Union addresses. But I don’t think that his staff will be encouraging him to do
the same thing again this year. The risk-reward ratio is daunting.”
There is
little question that Biden will come to the speech well rested and prepared. He
spent the weekend reviewing the speech at Camp David. Thus far, the only public
event on his schedule before Thursday is one devoted to cracking down on “junk
fees” charged by credit card companies. Even that is tied to the State of the
Union: He plans to mention his efforts to do away with the fees in his address,
advisers said.
Biden will
be working with speech coach Michael Sheehan during the final stage of
preparation this week, a person familiar with the matter said. Sheehan also
worked with Clinton and Barack Obama, the person said. During the 2020 race,
the Biden campaign paid $149,000 to Sheehan’s firm, federal campaign records
show.
Another
seasoned hand, senior adviser Bruce Reed, has been running a review process
meant to identify policy priorities that will figure into the speech, Biden
advisers said. Reed also worked on State of the Union addresses during
Clinton’s time in office.
A State of
the Union speech is always a rich opportunity for presidents to rally public
support for a policy agenda or political cause. Clinton memorably proclaimed
that “the era of big government is over” in his 1996 address, signaling a pivot
to the center that helped him defeat Republican Bob Dole in the election that
year.
A
vulnerability that Biden faces is uncertainty about his future agenda. Some
Democrats have complained that he has been reticent when it comes to what he’d
like to accomplish if he wins re-election.
“He has
laid out what he’s done, and people haven’t always heard it,” the Democratic
lawmaker said. “He also needs to lay out his vision for what the next four
years would be. It’s one of the important things that we’ve got to do.”
On this
front, Biden will use the speech to highlight his support for women’s
reproductive rights, as well as changes to the tax code. Not for nothing, first
lady Jill Biden will be sitting in the audience with Kate Cox, a Texas woman
who was denied an abortion by the state Supreme Court.
Biden has
presided over some
changes in tax law, but he wants to enact a more robust overhaul of the code in
favor of working-class families, aides said. No meaningful legislative changes
are likely before the election, but revamping the tax code could be a
centerpiece of a second-term agenda. Often, Biden will ask audiences to raise
their hands if they believe the tax code is fair. Seldom do hands go up.
“If you
re-elect me — I tell you what, man — hang on, taxes,” Biden said at a campaign
rally in Nevada earlier this month.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – FROM
NEW YORK TIMES
BIDEN PREPS FOR THE STATE OF THE
UNION SPEECH AND ROWDY REPUBLICANS
The
speech, which will be edited up until the president delivers it, will be watched
by one of his biggest audiences before the November election.
By Katie Rogers March 6,
2024, 5:03 a.m. ET
Fueled by
throat-soothing tea, guided by teleprompters and surrounded by six aides and
one historian, President Biden spent hours at Camp David last weekend honing a
State of the Union speech that will be watched by one of his biggest audiences
before the November election.
So the
pressure is on.
Mr. Biden,
it should be noted, had with him at Camp David a copy of “Possible: How We
Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict,” a book by William Ury, an
international negotiation expert.
“You’ll
hear me on Thursday,” Mr. Biden said when reporters asked on Tuesday about his
preparations.
White
House officials have not said what topics the president will address, or
whether he will mention Donald J. Trump, his likely 2024 challenger, by name.
But Mr. Biden is almost certain to talk about the war in Ukraine, the war
between Israel and Hamas, China, abortion, immigration, trade and other topics
in a speech he and his aides have been working on since December.
The final
speech, which aides say will be edited up until Mr. Biden gives it, will be
delivered by a president under pressure to reassure voters that he is not too
old for the job and, more than at any point in his tenure, guard against political
outbursts that
have become commonplace during such speeches. Mr. Biden’s aides say he has
prepared for Republicans to heckle him, as Representative Marjorie Taylor
Greene did last year.
Getting
the speech into shape played out, in true Biden fashion, inside a circle of
aides who have been around the president for years and treat such proceedings
like a state secret.
The Camp
David weekend group included Bruce Reed, the White House deputy chief of staff,
who helped guide policy-related additions to the speech; Mike Donilon, the aide
who has the best understanding of Mr. Biden’s voice; Anita Dunn, who oversees
communications strategy for the White House; and Jeffrey D. Zients, Mr. Biden’s
chief of staff. Rounding out the group was Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the
president and a longtime friend, and Vinay Reddy, Mr. Biden’s speechwriter.
The
historian Jon Meacham, who is called upon to add historical heft, was also
there.
In speech-prep
sessions,
Mr. Biden goes through the material line by line, marking up
words and creating breaks to remind himself to navigate around a stutter he has
had since childhood. If he lands on a passage that he does not think feels like
something he would say, he marks it out. One former speechwriter described this
phase as an exercise in trying to capture Mr. Biden’s extemporaneous thoughts
and put them down on the page.
Ron Klain,
Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff, said that the president “works hard and
rigorously” each year, adding that he knows “it’s his one chance a year to lay
out his agenda for progress to the American people directly.”
Aides say
that clarity is more important to Mr. Biden than almost anything else. The
president will scold those who include acronyms or jargon in their drafts.
During preparatory sessions, he has reminded staff members that he is the one
with the long career in politics, meaning he knows more about Congress than his
younger aides describing congressional relationships and legislative dynamics.
When he
reviews drafts, he will often ask staff members what the headline will be for
the speech and — more specifically — what the spot on news radio would be. One
official said this was Mr. Biden’s way of ensuring that the speech would be
digestible to most Americans, and of getting an idea of how the news media
would cover it.
The key to
success in a high-pressure setting, Ms. Dunn said in a text message, was
simple: “Let Joe Biden be Joe Biden.”
ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR – FROM
TIME
AS BIDEN PREPARES TO ADDRESS THE
NATION, POLL FINDS MORE THAN 6 IN 10 AMERICANS DOUBT HIS MENTAL CAPABILITY
BY JOSH
BOAK AND AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX / AP MARCH 4, 2024 6:15 AM EST
WASHINGTON
— A poll finds that a growing of U.S.
adults doubt that 81-year-old President Joe Biden has
the memory and acuity for the job, turning his coming State of the
Union address
into something of a real-time audition for a second term.
Roughly 6
in 10 say they're not very or not at all confident in Biden's mental capability
to serve effectively as president, according to a new survey by The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That's a slight increase from
January 2022, when about half of those polled expressed similar concerns.
By the
same token, nearly 6 in 10 also say they lack confidence in the mental
capability of former President Donald Trump, the 77-year-old
Republican front-runner.
For many
voters, this
year's election looks like a showdown for the world's toughest job between two
men who are well beyond the standard retirement age. The next president will
probably need to steer through global conflicts, fix domestic emergencies and
work with a dysfunctional Congress.
Biden is
likely to address those challenges and more in his State of the Union address
on Thursday as he tries to convince Americans that he deserves another term.
Going into
the big event, just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Biden is handling his job
as president, while 61% disapprove. Democrats (74%) are much likelier than
independents (20%) and Republicans (6%) to favor his performance. But there’s
broad discontent on the way Biden is handling a variety of issues, including
the economy, immigration and foreign policy.
se issues:
health care, climate change, abortion policy and the conflict between Russia
and Ukraine. But people are less satisfied by Biden’s handling of immigration
(29%), the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians (31%) and the
economy (34%) — all of which are likely to come up in the speech before a joint
session of Congress.
Nearly 6
in 10 (57%) Americans think the national economy is somewhat or much worse off
than before Biden took office in 2021. Only 3 in 10 adults say it’s better
under his leadership. Still, people are more optimistic about the state of
their own bank accounts: 54% say their personal finances are good.
Many
respondents to the survey were deeply pessimistic about their likely choices in
November because of age and the risk of cognitive decline.
Paul
Miller, himself 84, said Biden is just too old — and so is Trump.
“He
doesn’t seem to have the mental whatever to be a president,” Miller said of
Biden. He added that Trump is “too old, too, and half crazy.”
The
retiree from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, said he voted for Trump in 2020 but he
wouldn’t do so again.
“I don’t
think I’m going to vote for either one of them,” he said. “I hope somebody else
is available.”
The
president faces added pressure about his age after unflattering descriptions of
him contained in a special
counsel’s report that did not recommend criminal prosecution of Biden
for his mishandling of classified records, unlike Trump who was indicted for
keeping classified material in his Florida home. The report said that Biden's
memory was “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and had “significant
limitations."
Biden has
tried to deflect concerns by joking about his age and taking jabs at Trump's
own gaffes. Yet the president's age is a liability that has overshadowed his
policy achievements on infrastructure, manufacturing and addressing climate
change.
About
one-third of Democrats said they're not very or not at all confident in Biden's
mental capability in the new survey, up from 14% in January 2022. Only 40% of
Democrats said they're extremely or very confident in Biden's mental abilities,
with approximately 3 in 10 saying they're “somewhat” confident.
And in a
major risk for Biden, independents are much more likely to say that they lack
confidence in his mental abilities (80%) compared with Trump's (56%).
Republicans
are generally more comfortable with Trump’s mental capabilities than Democrats
are with Biden’s. In the survey, 59% of Republicans are extremely or very
confident that Trump has the mental abilities to be president. An additional
20% are somewhat confident, and 20% are not very or not at all confident.
But if
there is one thing Democrats and Republicans can agree upon, it's that the other
party's likely nominee is not mentally up to the task. About 9 in 10
Republicans say Biden lacks the mental capability to serve as president, while
a similar of Democrats say that about
Trump.
Part of
Biden's problem is that his policies have yet to break through the daily
clutter of life.
Sharon
Gallagher, 66, worries about inflation. She voted for Biden in 2020, but
believes he has not done enough for the economy. She also feels Trump is a bit
too quick to anger. The Sarasota, Florida, resident said she doesn't have the
bandwidth to really judge their policies.
“I don’t
pay enough attention to politics to even know,” Gallagher said. "I have
grandchildren living with me and I have children’s shows on all day.”
Justin
Tjernlund, 40, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said Biden “seems like he's mostly
still there,” but even if he was in decline he has “a whole army of people to
help him do the job.” Trjenlund said he voted for Trump in 2020 and plans to do
so again because the Republican is “interesting” and “refreshing.”
Still,
because of both candidates' ages, Greg Olivo, 62, said he plans to focus on
Vice President Kamala Harris and whomever Trump, if he's the nominee, picks for
a running mate.
“Keep a
close eye on the vice president," said the machinist from Valley City,
Ohio, who voted for Biden in 2020 and would do so again. "Because that
person will probably be the president in four years, one way or another.”
___
The poll
of 1,102 adults was conducted Feb. 22-26, 2024, using a sample drawn from
NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be
representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all
respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE – FROM
GUK
JOE BIDEN TO DELIVER FINAL STATE OF
THE UNION BEFORE ELECTION
The president, battling a 38.1% approval rating, is expected
to tout record-low unemployment, lower interest rates and legislation
Joan E Greve in Washington Thu 7 Mar
2024 06.00 EST
Joe Biden will
deliver the final State of
the Union address of his presidential term on Thursday evening,
giving the incumbent Democrat an opportunity to tout his accomplishments and
pitch his re-election campaign as he prepares for a rematch against Donald
Trump in November.
Biden will address a joint session of Congress to deliver
the annual update on the nation’s welfare at a time when the US faces numerous
challenges at home and abroad. Although the rate of inflation has eased, and
unemployment is at a record low, only 27% of Americans rate the country’s
current economic conditions as excellent or good, according to a Gallup poll conducted
in January. Meanwhile, a growing
number of
Americans cite immigration as the nation’s most important problem, and support
for abortion access has neared
record highs even
as dozens of Republican-led states have enacted severe restrictions on the
procedure following the overturning
of Roe v Wade.
Biden has simultaneously had to navigate the US response to
the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The White House’s demands that Congress approve
more funding for
Ukraine have
so far failed to produce results, and Vice-President Kamala
Harris’s
recent call for a temporary
ceasefire in Gaza does not appear to have moved the needle in
negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Previewing Biden’s State of the Union speech, his press
secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said his remarks would focus on the president’s
vision for the nation’s future and his legislative accomplishments. During the
first two years of Biden’s presidency, when Democrats controlled the House and
the Senate, Congress was able to pass a number of major bills, including
the American
Rescue Plan,
the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law and
the Inflation
Reduction Act.
“This is a president that has done more in his three years
as president than most presidents have done in their two terms,” Jean-Pierre
told MSNBC on Sunday. “You’re going to hear him talk about that. You’re going
to hear him talk about the future, how he sees the future for the American
people.”
But the current divided Congress, in which Republicans
control the House of Representatives, has been historically
unproductive. As
Congress has stumbled, Americans’ opinion of Biden’s job performance has
similarly suffered. According to the FiveThirtyEight
polling average, Biden’s approval rating now stands at just 38.1%, and
surveys show him running neck
and neck with Trump
in the presidential race. Optimistic li’l snakes!
The State of the Union address comes one day after Nikki Haley, Trump’s
last remaining rival in the Republican presidential primary, dropped out
of the race following
her disappointing performance on Super Tuesday. With Trump as their presumptive
nominee, Republicans appear eager to capitalize on the State of the Union by
highlighting Biden’s unpopularity and widespread concerns over the 81-year-old
president’s age.
According to an NBC News
poll conducted
in January, 76% of US voters say they have concerns about Biden not having the
necessary mental and physical health for a second presidential term, while 48%
said the same of 77-year-old Trump.
“The numbers don’t lie – Americans know that the state of
the union is weaker because of Joe Biden,” Ronna McDaniel, the outgoing chair
of the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday. “Voters do not want
Biden to ‘finish the job’, which is why this will be his last State of the Union address.”
Republicans have chosen the senator Katie Britt of Alabama,
the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the upper chamber, to deliver the
party’s official response to the State of the Union.
As with past State of the Union speeches, the White House
and members of Congress have had the opportunity to invite guests to the event,
and they have used those invitations to send a message about their policy
priorities.
The first lady, Jill Biden, has invited Kate Cox, who made
headlines in
December when she fled Texas to receive abortion care after she was denied
access to the procedure in her home state. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of
Virginia, announced his guest would be Elizabeth Carr, the first person born
via in vitro fertilization in the US. The invitation comes after the Alabama
supreme court issued a ruling arguing that frozen embryos are children under
the law, jeopardizing access to IVF in the state.
The House
speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, has invited the parents of the Wall Street
Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who remains detained in Russia. The White
House invited Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Kremlin critic Alexei
Navalny, but she is unable to attend.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – FROM axios
TAKEAWAYS:
Exclusive: Biden plans feisty economic reset
By Mike Allen and Zachary Basu
President Biden will use tonight's State of the
Union address to admit that prices are still too high in some areas — but argue
things were worse under former President Trump, White House chief of staff Jeff
Zie tells Axios.
Why it matters: Biden, in what could well be the
most important speech of his presidency, aims to project fighting optimism to
an audience with plenty of doubts about the nation's vigor — and that of the
81-year-old president.
And...
Scoop: House GOP tries to shut down State of the Union
heckling
By Andrew Solender
Mar 6, 2024 -Politics & Policy
House Republican leadership is trying to tamp down
on a potential repeat of the chronic heckling that engulfed last year's State
of the Union, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The effort by Speaker Mike Johnson
(R-La.) to rein in his members underlines how much politics have changed since
2009, when the House passed a resolution of disapproval against Rep. Joe Wilson
(R-S.C.) for disrupting then-President Obama's speech.
And...
By Sareen Habeshian
What to expect at Biden's State of the Union
President Biden's State of the Union address on
Thursday is his chance to deliver a winning message to the American people and
convince them he's exhilarated for another term.
The State of the Union is the president's most
high-profile annual address, and is especially consequential this election year
as it's his biggest opportunity to reset and shift public perceptions.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – FROM
TIME
THE BIGGEST MOMENTS FROM JOE BIDEN’S
2024 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
BY NIK
POPLI / WASHINGTON, D.C. MARCH 7, 2024
11:55 PM EST
Delivering
what will likely be his most-watched speech before the upcoming Democratic
convention, President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address in
Washington on Thursday to draw a sharp contrast between his administration's
accomplishments and priorities and those of his Republican rival, former
President Donald Trump.
Among a
range of topics, Biden spoke about abortion rights, the wars in Ukraine and
Gaza, and the border crisis, which he blamed Republicans for not helping him to
fix.
The
election-year speech comes at a critical juncture for the 81-year-old President
and candidate for re-election, who faces skepticism over his age and fitness
for a second term—compounded by criticism from some corners of his own party
over his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. During his address, Biden
sought to assure the public of his vigor and determination, rejecting
suggestions of frailty, including during intermittent sparring with Republican
hecklers in the audience.
“My
purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people
that this is no ordinary moment either,” President Biden declared before laying
out his vision for the nation’s future.
Pressuring the GOP on Ukraine
Biden
began his speech with a plea to far-right members of Congress to support
Ukraine in its war against Russia, arguing that “freedom and democracy are under
attack” and that Russia’s aggression will not stop at Ukraine. He said the U.S.
needs to continue to provide weapons to Kyiv, which has requested long-range
missiles, ammunition, and artillery to take on Russia.
Notably,
House Speaker Mike Johnson nodded along and applauded Biden’s plea, even though
he is yet to put legislation that would provide $60 billion for Ukraine on the
House floor amid opposition from some members of his party.
“Assistance
for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our
leadership in the world,” Biden said. “It wasn’t that long ago when a
Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, “Do
whatever the hell you want.”
“History
is watching,” Biden added. “If the United States walks away now, it will put
Ukraine at risk.” (Also watching from the seat in the room next to First Lady
Jill Biden was the Prime Minister of Sweden, which just joined NATO.)
A contrast with Trump
While
Biden did not mention his Republican challenger by name, he made his criticism
clear. Not long into his speech, he referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.
Capitol, calling it the “gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War.”
“My
predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th,” Biden
said in reference to Trump. “I will not do that.”
“Here’s
the simple truth: you can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden said.
Biden
Targets Republicans on IVF and Abortion
Biden
reiterated his pledge to codify Roe v. Wade if he’s re-elected
with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, ensuring that abortion
and reproductive rights remain a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. He
criticized the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark decision
nearly two years ago, claiming that “those bragging about overturning Roe
v. Wade have no clue about the power of women, but they found out when
reproductive freedom was on the ballot. We won in 2022 and 2020, and we’ll win
again in 2024.”
Biden’s
early emphasis on reproductive rights reflects its growing importance as a
pivotal issue in the upcoming election year, particularly as the issue helped
mobilize Democratic voters in
red states in the 2022 midterms and last year’s elections.
In attendance
at Biden’s address were several individuals whose lives have been
profoundly affected by reproductive care restrictions, including a doctor who
came under attack for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim and
two women who had to flee their home states to terminate pregnancies due to
fatal fetal abnormalities. As expected, Biden placed the blame for their pain
on Trump. “My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned,”
Biden said. “He’s the reason it was overturned. In fact, he brags about it.
Look at the chaos that has resulted.”
Several
Democratic women lawmakers in attendance wore white and
were donning “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” pins meant to amplify the need
to protect access to reproductive care.
Border policy riles up Republicans
Lawmakers
in attendance mostly maintained decorum up until Biden mentioned the border, a
controversial topic that has divided Congress. Biden slammed Republicans for
walking away from a bipartisan
border security deal that collapsed last month—and he shot back when some
Republicans started to groan and boo.
“Oh you
don’t like that bill, huh? That conservatives got together and said was a good
bill? I’ll be darned,” he said, going off script before rattling off details of
the proposal as well as its wide-ranging endorsers, including the Border Patrol
union and the Chamber of Commerce. “Unfortunately, politics has derailed this
bill so far.”
Georgia
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was donning a red Make America Great Again hat
and frequently vocalized her discontent throughout the evening, interrupted
Biden’s remarks to call on him to honor Laken Riley, who authorities believe
was killed by an undocumented immigrant in Athens, Ga.
Biden
responded directly: “Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an
illegal. To her parents, I say: my heart goes out to you having lost children
myself, I understand.”
(Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, and two other progressive Democrats told TIME
afterwards that they were disappointed in Biden for using the word “illegal” in
reference to migrants.)
Biden then
alluded to Trump again—whom he repeatedly referred to not by name but simply as
“my predecessor” throughout his speech—saying: “If my predecessor is watching,
instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this
bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it. We can do it together. … We can
fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it.”
Rep. Delia
Ramirez, a progressive Illinois Democrat, told TIME after the address that she
wanted to hear Biden emphasize how immigrants are crucial to the American
workforce instead of touting a bipartisan bill that would have added
restrictions on immigration. “Democrats, in some cases, we are sounding just
like the other side,” she says. “What we heard tonight wasn't very different
from what we’ve heard from the other side. And I wish I would have heard him
with more conviction say no human being is illegal.”
Biden threads the needle on Israel and Gaza
Facing pressure
from progressive Democrats to
do more to de-escalate the Israel-Hamas war, Biden said that his administration
has been working “non-stop” on a six-week immediate ceasefire that would return
hostages and ease the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. “The United States
has been leading international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into
Gaza,” Biden said, announcing
plans for
the U.S. military to establish a temporary port along
the coast of Gaza in the coming weeks that will be able to receive large ships
with food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.
“Israel
has a right to go after Hamas,” Biden reaffirmed. But he went on to give a
direct plea to Israel’s
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining
chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.” He added that
the “only real solution is a two-state solution.”
In an
interview after the State of the Union, Jayapal, who has called for a ceasefire
in Gaza, praised Biden for mentioning the humanitarian crisis during his
address, calling it “an incredibly progressive speech” but adding that she
wants to see Biden’s administration back it up with action.
I’m a capitalist, but…
During the
extended portion of Biden’s speech focused on the economy, Biden listed his
accomplishments, including “historic job growth” and “inflation keeps coming
down.” He highlighted positive trends such as declining unemployment rates, a
buoyant stock market, and growing consumer confidence.
“I
inherited an economy that was on the brink,” Biden said. “Now our economy is
the envy of the world.” (A recent poll from CBS
News-YouGov found
that 65% of Americans said the economy under Trump was good, but just 38% said
it’s currently good under Biden. Fifty-five percent of those polled said Biden’s
policies would make prices go up, while only 34% said the same thing about
Trump’s policies.)
Biden
asserted, “Wall Street didn’t build this country!” rather the middle class and
unions did. He added he was “proud to be the first President in American
history to walk a picket line.”
Biden also
renewed his “billionaire tax” proposal that would require those with wealth of
more than $100 million to pay at least 25% of their income in taxes, a
progressive policy push that would almost certainly be dead on arrival in the
Republican-led House. “Look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million
bucks—great,” Biden said. “Just pay your fair
in taxes.”
He also
called on Congress to raise taxes on large corporations, a proposal that could
play a crucial role in his re-election bid by highlighting a stark difference
between the two political parties. Many of the tax cuts signed into law by
Trump in 2017 are set to expire at the end of next year, meaning the next
president will be able to shape the nation’s tax policy.
“For folks
at home does anybody really think the tax code is fair?” Biden asked. “Do you
really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax
breaks? I sure don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair.”
Biden also
said his administration is working to cut credit card fees and called on
Congress to crack down on “shrinkflation.”
Age on display
Biden
waited until the end to confront the pervasive question on the minds of many voters:
his age. “I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Biden
joked in his closing remarks. “And when you get to my age certain things become
clearer than ever before. I know the American story.”
As
concerns over his age and memory intensify, Biden has found himself playing
defense following
allegations about his mental state from a report on his handling of classified
documents. While the report did not recommend pursuing charges against Biden
for his actions, Special Counsel Robert Hur highlighted instances, which Biden
denies, where Biden allegedly struggled to recall key dates from his vice
presidency and the year his son Beau died, leading Hur to describe the President
as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden
concluded: “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our
ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But
you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead
America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what
America can and should be. Tonight you’ve heard mine.”
ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT – FROM
TIME
BIDEN JUST DELIVERED A TOP CAREER
PERFORMANCE. HE NEEDED IT.
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT MARCH 8,
2024 12:19 AM EST
By the
time President Joe Biden made his way around pro-Gaza protesters that jammed the
typical path to the Capitol, navigated the packed halls of Congress, and
negotiated his way through the glad-handing lawmakers who gathered Thursday for
the annual State of the Union circus, it was clear he was primed to have a good
night. The grin was as wide as ever, the step carried a bit of bounce, and he
looked plenty rested. And despite the calls for him to step aside for a less
elderly nominee who might spark more inspiration among young voters and those
of color, the chants of “four more years” seemed sincere, if offered only from
Democrats.
“If I were
smart, I’d go home now,” Biden improvised as he prepared for a speech that
arrived with almost impossibly high stakes. When someone on the Republican side
responded with “Do it!”, Biden gave a little smile before launching into a
feisty and combative address that lasted over an hour and was filled with moments in
which he seemed to be addressing those questioning his political chops. When
hectored by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Biden turned a
troll into a foil, calmly reaching down and picking up a button she had handed
to him featuring a photograph of Laken Riley, a college student slain by an
immigrant in the country illegally, and daring MTG and other conservative
hold-outs to actually act on the bipartisan immigration package still waiting
on their support. And when Republicans erupted at Biden calling out their plan
to change Medicare and Social Security, the President vamped without missing a
beat: “I kinda’ thought that was your plan,” he deadpanned.
For
Republicans who for months have sought to cast Biden as a doddering old man,
Thursday’s speech was a sharp rebuke to that hit. For liberals who are still
not sold that the 81-year-old Biden deserves their nomination, his red-meat
calls for gun bans, marijuana leniency, and higher taxes on billionaires and
corporations gave them the jolt they needed. And for Americans who are staring
down the march to November with little enthusiasm—or as TIME’s Charlotte Alter
calls it, The Dread Election—the
clarity in American foreign policy aims as delivered by Biden made obvious the
choice they’re facing between him and former President Donald Trump.
If Biden’s
showmanship at the Capitol is a tease for the pathway forward, maybe—just
maybe—this election season might be less substance-free than imagined. Maybe
this may yet shape up to be more than simply a double referendum on two of the
most unpopular figures in politics, hinging on a vibe and little more. And
maybe, if Thursday is a preview, Biden might finally be able to put to bed the
notion that he isn’t up for the job.
Put
simply: Biden understood the assignment and aced it.
Biden
thrice Thursday evening took on his age, making clear he understands those
concerns. “I know it may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. When
you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever,” Biden said,
turning a potential weakness into a flex. “The issue facing our nation isn’t
how old we are, it’s how old are our ideas? Hate, anger, revenge, and
retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient
ideas.”
It was a
final, subtle jab against Trump, whom Biden never deigned to call by name. “My
predecessor” came up 13 times. Standing in one of the holiest of places in this
secular democracy, Biden gave a sermon that laid bare the differences between a
Trump administration and Biden’s. The very primacy of democracy and the threats
of autocracy, the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions to save the
environment, and the threats unfurling against reproductive rights all powered
Biden through a feisty speech that showed he has plenty of fight left in his
tank. Directly taking on Republicans and their picks for the Supreme Court—with
the Justices sitting beneath him to his right—the President
made clear that
he would act if a Democratic Congress were to send him a bill reversing the
court’s ruling that ended federal protections for abortion rights. And with
Republicans to his left slouched in their seats and shaking their heads in
frustration, Biden essentially called them political hacks more interested in
heeding Trump’s orders than serving constituents. “We can fight about fixing
the border, or we can fix it,” Biden told them, explaining to Americans
watching at home how a border security deal negotiated by one of the most
conservative Senators ran out of steam once Trump decided it would be an advantage
to Biden’s re-election odds.
Indeed,
much of Washington for the next eight months will be overshadowed by the
presidential race, not to mention Congress’ own contests.
In that,
Biden appeared ready to prove he still has it. When he mentioned Republicans’
proposals that would change Medicare and Social Security, the President had a
simple promise: “I will stop you.” He pledged to keep supporting Ukraine to
fight back against Russia’s ongoing assault, despite Trump’s opposition to
anything that stands in Vladimir Putin’s way. And he directly went after those
Republicans who are trying to rewrite or even erase the violence that unfolded
in the very chamber where they all sat back on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to
keep Trump in office. “You can’t
love your country only when you win,” Biden said in a flourish that may have
been his strongest rejoinder to his rivals. “Political violence has no place in
America,” Biden said, giving voice to a sentiment that seemed universally
understood until a pro-Trump mob sacked the Capitol.
That’s not
to say Republicans and their allies in the conservative media would shelve
their rhetoric. “Right now, our commander in chief is not in command. The free
world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader,” Sen. Katie Britt
said in the Republican response to Biden’s speech that began with the aside
that Biden has been in office longer than she’s been alive. Over on Sean
Hannity’s show on Fox News, the host dubbed him “Jacked-up Joe.”
Ultimately,
Americans select their candidates not on the skills required to do the job, but
rather on how they perform when the cameras are turned on and the set pieces
put in motion. For instance, Presidents don’t spend their days debating rivals
in 60-second sound bites any more than they give hour-long speeches to a joint
session of Congress on the regular. But voters have decided it’s their most
efficient yardstick for fitness to do the job. And, in that, Biden understood
that this was one of his biggest nights of national exposure before the
Democrats’ nominating convention in August. Ever a sharp political mind, Biden
calibrated himself into a sparring-ready figure up to the task. Grasping the
need for that might have been as much a qualifying event as the actual
delivery, and Biden on both fronts just signaled that the campaign ahead might
be many things, but if this pace is sustained, it will be far from sleepy.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE – FROM
TIME
Watch President Biden’s Reaction to
Being Interrupted by Marjorie Taylor Greene
BY MALLORY MOENCH MARCH 8, 2024 7:51 AM EST
U.S. Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, interrupted President Joe
Biden’s State of the Union speech Thursday
to urge him to say the name of Laken Riley, whose murder has become a
flashpoint in
immigration debates this election year.
The
22-year-old nursing student was killed while she was out on a morning run on the University
of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga. in February. Police arrested and charged an
immigrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally with murder, the Associated Press reported.
During the
State of the Union address, Greene, an avid supporter of Donald Trump, wore a
red “Make America Great Again” hat and a t-shirt that read “Say Her Name Laken
Riley.” Greene interrupted Biden’s speech to call on him to acknowledge
Riley—and the President responded directly.
“Laken
Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” Biden said as he
held up the pin Greene had given him earlier, when he entered the
chamber before his address. Biden
added that his “heart goes out” to Riley’s parents, and that he “understands”
having lost children himself.
Biden then
turned the interruption into a policy talking point. “But look, if we change
the dynamic at the border—people pay these smugglers 8,000 bucks to get across
the border, because they know if they get by and let into the country, it’s six
to eight years before they have a hearing, and it’s worth taking the chance on
the 8,000,” he said. “But, if it’s only six weeks, the idea is it’s highly
unlikely that people will pay that money and come all that way knowing that
they’ll be able to be kicked out quickly.”
It’s the
second time this week that Greene has made headlines with her words and
actions. On Super Tuesday, she told a well-known British journalist to
“f*ck off” at the end of an on-camera interview when asked about a conspiracy
theory she had espoused.
Meanwhile,
Biden and Trump continue
to duel over
border policies after a border security package failed in Congress, as
immigration has become a leading issue in the
presidential election.
U.S. Sen.
Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, also mentioned Riley in
the GOP’s response to Biden’s State of the Union, saying the President “refused
to take responsibility for his own actions.”
U.S. Rep.
Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and two other
progressive Democrats told TIME they were disappointed in Biden using the word
“illegal” for a migrant. U.S. Rep. Joaquin
Castro, a Texas
Democrat, told the Texas Tribune that
it was “dangerous rhetoric.”
U.S. Rep.
Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco, told CNN that Biden “should have said undocumented, but that’s
not a big thing…We usually say undocumented, he said illegal, I don’t think
it’s a big deal.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY – FROM the WASHINGTON EXAMINER
STATE OF THE UNION 2024: TRUTH
SOCIAL GOES DOWN AS TRUMP ‘CORRECTED’ BIDEN ADDRESS LIVE
ByChristopher Hutton
March 7, 2024 9:39 pm
Trump announced early on Thursday that he would be
“fact-checking” Biden’s speech as he spoke. Truth Social went
down right as Biden began speaking, according to Downdetector. The website’s
servers eventually recovered by 10 p.m. EST, about 30 minutes into Biden’s
speech. Trump did not appear to notice the disruption to the website and posted
all the way through Biden’s remarks.
“I am pleased to inform you that tomorrow night we will be doing
a LIVE, Play by Play, of Crooked Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address,” Trump
said in an announcement on Wednesday. “I will correct, in rapid response, any
and all inaccurate Statements, especially pertaining to the Border and his
Weaponization of the DOJ, FBI, A.G.s, and District Attorneys, to go after his
Political Opponent, ME (something never done before in this Country!). We did
this once before to tremendous success — Beating All Records. It is important
for the Country to get the TRUTH!”
Biden attacked Trump multiple times during the speech,
including about Trump’s approach to China, immigration, and the 2020 election.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY ONE – FROM
REUTERS
IN STATE OF THE UNION, BIDEN TO SHARPEN CONTRAST WITH TRUMP
By Steve
Holland March 7, 2024 3:46 PM
ESTUpdated an hour ago
WASHINGTON,
March 7 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Thursday will use his last
State of the Union address before the U.S. election to sharpen distinctions
with Donald Trump on the economy, and to try to ease voter concerns
about his age and the Gaza war.
Biden's
annual address, an event that stems from the U.S. Constitution's requirement
that a president report to Congress "from time to time," will be held
at 9 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Friday) before a joint session of the House of
Representatives and the Senate, and a televised audience.
It may be
the Democratic president's biggest stage to reach the millions of voters
weighing whether to vote for him, choose Republican challenger Trump, or sit
out the Nov. 5 election. Nikki Haley, Trump's last remaining rival for his
party's presidential nomination, dropped out on
Wednesday.
Opinion
polls show Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, closely
matched in
the race. Most American voters are not enthusiastic about the rematch after
Biden defeated Trump four years ago.
While he
is unlikely to mention Trump by name, Biden will go into the well of the House
chamber aiming to convince voters that he is fighting to protect democracy from
the former president, who continues to repeat false claims about his 2020
election loss and has proposed jailing political enemies.
Biden will
also vow to protect abortion rights from Republicans and to lower costs for
Americans facing high prices.
"You're
going to hear the president address how democracy is under attack, how freedoms
are certainly under attack," including women's reproductive rights and
voting rights, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told MSNBC on
Thursday.
Biden will
renew his quest to make wealthy Americans and corporations pay more in taxes,
unveiling new
proposals including
higher minimum taxes for companies and Americans with wealth over $100 million.
Any such
tax reform is unlikely unless Democrats win strong majorities in both houses of
Congress in November, which is not forecast.
Biden also
is set to push for new measures to lower housing costs, including a $10,000 tax
credit for first-time homebuyers, and use his legislative successes on
infrastructure and computer
chips production to show what is possible if he is given another four
years in office.
"Joe
Biden is on the run from his record ... to escape accountability for the
horrific devastation he and his party have created," Trump said before the
speech on his Truth Social platform.
GAZA
ANNOUNCEMENT
Biden also
is expected to try to cool anger among many liberal voters over his support for
Israel's offensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Biden will
announce during the speech that the U.S. military will build a port on
Gaza's Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian assistance by sea, U.S.
officials told reporters.
Some
Democratic lawmakers were expected to wear ceasefire pins during the speech. A
movement to end Israel's Gaza offensive led to nearly a fifth of Minnesota
Democratic voters selecting "uncommitted" rather
than voting for Biden on Tuesday following a similar vote in Michigan's
Democratic primary last month.
Biden is
expected to use the speech to push, again, for a $95 billion aid package
for weapons to Ukraine and
aid to Israel that has been blocked by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Those
priorities will also be reflected in the president's
guests for the
speech, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who is in Washington
as Sweden
formally joins NATO on Thursday, two years after Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.
Other White House
guests include
people affected by in vitro fertilization or abortion restrictions, a veteran
of the 1965 Bloody Sunday attack on Black marchers in Selma, Alabama, United
Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and others.
Biden
released a video ahead of the speech with comments from actors who have played
American presidents in movies, including Morgan Freeman of disaster film
"Deep Impact."
"My
advice is just keep telling us how you're working for us and building
hope," Freeman said.
While U.S.
Senator Katie Britt of Alabama will deliver Republican's formal response to the
speech, Trump has said he plans to respond live online during Biden's remarks.
TRUMP
COMPARISONS
The U.S.
economy is performing better than most high-income countries, with continued
job growth and consumer spending. However, Republican voters tell pollsters
they are deeply
dissatisfied with the
economy, and Americans overall give Trump better marks in polls for economic
issues.
"We
intend to remind voters of the chaos and lasting damage Trump caused as
president," Biden's reelection campaign said.
Amid concerns about
Biden's fitness for a second term after a series of slipups, the
president's performance will be closely watched for signs of physical or mental
weakness. Biden is expected to speak for at least an hour, reading from a
teleprompter.
If last
year's State of the Union is any guide, Republicans loyal to Trump who fought
most of Biden's legislative proposals for the past year could provide a raucous
audience.
"This
is a chance for him to really project and possibly allay some concerns about
his age," said Vanderbilt University presidential historian Thomas Alan
Schwartz.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY TWO – FROM
THE HILL
5 TAKEAWAYS FROM BIDEN’S STATE OF
THE UNION ADDRESS
BY NIALL
STANAGE - 03/08/24 12:49 AM ET
President Biden delivered
his final State of the Union before the 2024 election Thursday evening.
It was a
pivotal moment after
dull super tuesday — a rare opportunity to speak unmediated to an
American public that, right now, holds the president in low esteem.
Fifty-eight
percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance, with just 40
percent approving, according to the polling average maintained by The Hill and
Decision Desk HQ.
Biden is a
slight underdog in November against former President Trump, who for all
practical purposes wrapped up the GOP nomination with overwhelming victories on
Super Tuesday earlier this week.
Biden
cleared the modest bar of expectations Thursday, delivering his 67-minute
speech with vigor and passion.
Here are
the main takeaways.
Biden, taking aim at Trump, makes a campaign speech
For good
or for ill, this was one of the most ostentatiously political speeches of
recent years.
Biden
grabbed the opportunity to set out his case for an election that is just eight
months away.
No sooner
had the speech begun than he assailed Trump — without using his name — for
“bowing down to a Russian leader” in his recent comments on NATO.
Biden
segued from there into pressing the case over Jan. 6, 2021, saying that Trump and
other Republicans had sought to “bury the truth” of what happened that day. “I
will not do that,” Biden said.
He sought
to paint the GOP as in thrall to the super-rich on taxation; antagonistic
toward women’s reproductive rights, from abortion to in vitro fertilization
treatment; and a threat to Social Security and Medicare.
Biden and
his speechwriters wove in some deft moments, like his reminder that the
Affordable Care Act is “still a very big deal” — an allusion to his famously
profane remark to then-President Obama about the law.
Republicans
protested that it was an overly partisan speech. But that point is harder to
make when their ranks include figures such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(R-Ga.), who donned a MAGA hat for the occasion and heckled the president.
The bottom
line is Biden used the pomp of the occasion better than many expected to begin
his general election campaign in earnest.
81-year-old president tries to neutralize the age issue
Age is the
president’s most serious vulnerability as he seeks a second term.
Polling
consistently shows roughly 75 percent of the American public are concerned
about the 81-year-old Biden’s ability to serve a second term effectively.
In the
closing stages of Thursday’s speech, Biden took the issue on directly and tried
to turn it to his advantage — or at least reduce the scale of his liability.
Beginning
by joking, “I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Biden
made the argument that his age gives him a broad and true view of American history
and values.
He cited
attributes including dignity and honesty, adding “other people my age see it
differently” in a clear jab at Trump. His predecessor, Biden implied, was
focused on “resentment, revenge and retribution.”
The age issue
is not going away. And Biden did garble several lines Thursday, even while
avoiding any truly disastrous gaffes.
But he at
least did his best to weave a positive narrative around his big weakness.
A new move on Gaza, amid rising progressive outrage
The
political stakes over Gaza have risen along with the horrific death toll in
recent months.
Dissatisfaction
with Biden’s vigorous support of Israel is especially strong among progressives
and younger voters. But more mainstream Democrats have begun to voice unease
too.
Biden duly
announced a new development that the White House had flagged earlier in the day
— a quest to use the U.S. military to build an emergency pier on Gaza’s
Mediterranean coast.
The pier
is intended to get desperately needed aid into Gaza, where the United Nations
has said that more than a half-million people are facing “catastrophic”
deprivation and near-starvation.
Biden was
at pains to emphasize that “no U.S. boots will be on the ground.” Instead, the
plan is to construct the pier from offshore.
It remains
to be seen whether the announcement will alleviate any of the political
pressure that has built up on Biden from his left.
He must
also contend with the fact that, so far, the cease-fire he says he is seeking
in the Middle East has proven elusive.
An attempt to flip the script on immigration
The huge
numbers of migrants crossing the southern border have been a big weight on
Biden’s political fortunes.
Policy-wise,
immigration is generally one of two issues — the other being inflation — where
the president scores worst.
But Biden
and the Democrats believe they were handed a political gift when Trump’s
opposition sank a recent bipartisan border deal that had been months in the
making.
On
Thursday, Biden lambasted the Republicans for opposing the deal, which he noted
would have boosted the numbers of immigration judges, asylum officers and drug
detection machines.
Biden also
emphasized that the deal had been endorsed by the Border Patrol union.
When
Republicans vocally dissented, Biden shot back, “Look at the facts. I know you
know how to read,” as Democrats cheered him on.
Biden did
slip up moments later, when he mangled the name of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old
who was killed in Athens, Ga., last month, as “Lincoln” Riley. The man charged
with murdering Riley entered the United States illegally.
Immigration,
like age, will remain a liability for Biden. The error in Riley’s name could
also undercut the case he was trying to make Thursday.
GOP rising star stumbles in response
Delivering
a response to the State of the Union is a thankless task.
The
response, typically delivered alone to camera, automatically looks less
impressive than a president speaking amid the grandeur of the Capitol.
No one has
pulled the feat off brilliantly. But Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) fared especially
poorly Thursday.
Substantively,
Britt’s remarks were standard GOP rhetoric.
But her
peculiar, overly theatrical delivery made her response stand out in all the
wrong ways.
She was presumably
intending to communicate emotion. Instead, social media lit up with mocking
claims of inauthenticity.
That was a
setback for a young senator seen as a Republican rising star.
On CNN,
former Trump White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin also complained about
the decision to film the response in Britt’s kitchen — a setting that seemed to
play to sexist stereotypes.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY THREE – FROM
GUK
JOE BIDEN DELIVERS FEISTY STATE OF
THE UNION ADDRESS WITH VISION FOR HIS SECOND TERM
The president needed to appeal to voters as he and Donald
Trump are neck and neck in the presidential contest
Joan E Greve in Washington Fri 8 Mar
2024 00.08 EST
Joe Biden confirmed
a new US mission to deliver aid to Gaza and repeatedly took aim at Donald Trump
in his State of the Union address
on Thursday, offering a pointed preview of the general election in November.
Biden’s most significant announcement came toward the end of
his roughly hour-long speech, when he confirmed that the US military would
establish a “temporary
pier in the Mediterranean on
the coast of Gaza” capable of receiving large shipments of water, food and
medicine. Biden pledged the mission will not involve deploying American troops
on the ground and would facilitate a significant infusion of supplies
into Gaza.
While reiterating his belief in Israel’s right to defend
itself against Hamas, Biden condemned the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where
more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“To Israel, I say this: humanitarian assistance cannot be a
secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent
lives has to be priority,” Biden said. “As we look to the future, the only real
solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time.”
The overall tone of Biden’s speech, which marked his
last State of the Union address before
November, was strikingly combative, while hopeful. Biden repeatedly invoked
Trump by derisively referring to “my predecessor” as he criticized the former
president’s views on everything from foreign policy to immigration reform.
Opening his remarks with a robust defense of US allies
abroad, Biden called on Congress to approve more funding for Ukraine amid its
war against Russia and condemned Trump’s recent comments about Nato.
Biden compared this moment to 1941, when the US stood on the
precipice of entering the second world war, and he repeatedly reminded
Americans that “history is watching” how the nation will react to the crises
unfolding around the world. As he reflected on the deadly violence seen at the
Capitol on January 6, Biden warned that democracy faces a fundamental threat.
“Not since President Lincoln and the civil war have our
freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today,” Biden
said. “What makes our moment rare is freedom and democracy are under attack
both at home and overseas at the very same time.”
Biden then accused Trump of “bowing down” to the Russian
president, Vladimir Putin, after the former president said he would allow
Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to Nato nations that fail to make
sufficient financial contributions to
the alliance.
“It’s dangerous and it’s unacceptable,” Biden said. “My
message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple. We will
not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.”
Republican members of Congress, who were seated in the House
chamber as Biden delivered his remarks, occasionally lashed out against the
criticism of Trump. Early in his speech, Biden said: “My predecessor failed the
most basic presidential duty that he owes to the American people: the duty to
care. I think that’s unforgivable.”
One unidentified member of Congress responded to the remark
by yelling: “Lies!”
Biden later directly engaged with Republican members on the
issue of immigration, attacking them over blocking the bipartisan border and
national security deal that stalled in the Senate last month. As Biden blamed
Trump for impeding the bill’s passage by instructing members to oppose it,
Republicans began yelling at him.
In a tense moment, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a
hard-right Republican of Georgia, implored Biden to say the name of Laken Riley, a
Georgia college student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant.
Greene had handed Biden a button bearing Riley’s name as he
walked into the chamber, and the president held the button up as he said her
name, although he appeared to mispronounce her first name. Biden then expressed
his condolences to Riley’s parents and emphasized the need to “change the
dynamic at the border”, saying: “I would respectfully suggest my Republican
friends owe it to the American people [to] get this bill done. We need to act
now.”
Even as he clashed with Republicans, Biden made a point to
paint a vision of his potential second term. He noted that one of first lady Jill
Biden’s guests at the State of the Union address was Kate Cox, a Texas
woman who was forced to flee her home state after courts rejected her pleas to access
abortion care.
“If you, the American people, send me a Congress that
supports the right to choose, I promise you: I will restore Roe v Wade as the
law of the land again,” Biden said to loud applause from Democratic lawmakers
in the chamber.
Biden went on to outline other campaign promises – including
protecting social security and Medicare, banning assault weapons and capping
the cost of prescription drugs. Faced with an underwater approval rating and
widespread concerns over his age of 81, Biden did not waste the opportunity to
contrast his vision for the country with that of Trump.
“I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,”
Biden said, prompting laughter from the audience. “My fellow Americans – the
issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old are our ideas? Hate,
anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America
with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of
possibilities, you need a vision for the future and what can and should be
done. Tonight you’ve heard mine.”
As America braces for a long general election season that is
expected to be bitterly fought and closely contested, Biden has eight months to
sell voters on that vision.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY FOUR – FROM
BREITBART
HAYWARD: CHINA JOE BIDEN AVOIDS ANY
OFFENSE TO BEIJING IN STATE OF THE UNION
By JOHN HAYWARD 8
Mar 2024
President
Joe Biden’s State of the Union (SOTU) speech included a brief mention of China,
but the language was carefully trimmed to avoid saying anything that might
offend Beijing, beyond the most cursory mention of Taiwan.
The China
segment of SOTU mostly consisted of Biden bragging that his economy is strong,
contrary to the opinions of
most Americans, while China no longer poses much of a challenge.
“For
years, all I’ve heard from my Republican friends and so many others is, China’s
on the rise and America is falling behind. They’ve got it backward. America is
rising. We have the best economy in the world,” Biden said.
“Since
I’ve come to office, our GDP is up. And our trade deficit with China is down to
the lowest point in over a decade. We’re standing up against China’s unfair
economic practices,” he said.
In truth,
India has the fastest-growing Gross Domestic Product of any major industrialized
nation at the moment. China’s economy is in trouble – probably
much more trouble than its leadership is willing to
admit –
but that trouble has nothing to do with Joe Biden or his policies.
China’s
recovery from its heavy-handed pandemic lockdowns was much slower than the
leadership expected, hindered by some ill-advised fiscal policies, and foreign
capital turned out to be more serious about “de-risking” by moving investments
out of China after the pandemic than Beijing anticipated. The Chinese
real-estate market remains a sizzling
debt bomb that
makes international investors nervous about putting big money into any aspect
of the Chinese economy.
Still, the
Chinese economy grew at a
reported 5.2 percent in 2023 – granted that Beijing’s official figures should
always be taken with some skepticism – and roughly comparable growth is
expected for 2024. Overall GDP growth for the United States in 2023 was much lower at only 2.5 percent. The pace picked up in the third
and fourth quarters, but still lagged considerably behind China’s growth,
contrary to Biden’s boasts.
The U.S.
trade deficit with China remains enormous, although
it did get lower in 2023 compared to a near-record high of $951 billion in
2022. Biden conveniently forgot to mention that the trade deficit soared again
in January 2024.
Even CNN
felt compelled to call foul on Biden’s
trade deficit boast, noting that only one thing Joe Biden has done had any
effect on that deficit: he blew American inflation through the roof, leaving
U.S. consumers with less money to spend on imported goods as they struggled to
feed their families:
The reason
for the narrowing trade gap isn’t because of any Biden administration policy. Inflation
has driven American consumers away from discretionary purchases, such as
electronics – stuff that is primarily made in China. Instead, they’re buying
more non-discretionary items, such as groceries.
On top of
that, the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods, which Biden’s
administration left in place, have made Chinese goods less popular for
Americans, because of the added cost. That’s why, for the first time in two
decades, the United States imported more goods from a country other than China:
Mexico exported more goods to the US than any other country last
year.
Even
Biden’s apologists admit he has
mostly kept former President Donald Trump’s policies on China trade in place,
confounding early expectations that Biden would reverse most of them. The
biggest difference is that all U.S. media complaints about China tariffs hurting
American consumers abruptly ceased on the day Biden was inaugurated.
Biden’s
defenders also credit him with doing more to build international alliances
against rising Chinese power – something Biden himself only mentioned briefly
in the SOTU, since his thesis was that China is no longer rising relative to
the United States. The 2021 AUKUS security partnership uniting the U.S., UK,
and Australia became the most significant of these diplomatic achievements
after a bit of a rocky start;
it is certainly the agreement China complains the
most loudly about.
Biden said
his administration is “standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan
Strait,” which would probably be the most irksome line in the speech for
Beijing, although neither Biden’s words nor policies on Taiwan are much
different from his last few predecessors.
Biden said in
January, after Taiwan’s most recent elections, that his administration does not
support “independence” for Taiwan – a significant climbdown from his previous
assertions that the U.S. would defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack, but
largely consistent with America’s “strategic ambiguity” posture since 1979.
“I’ve made
sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China’s
weapons. Frankly, for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my
predecessor to do that,” Biden bragged, one of several
swipes he took at
likely 2024 opponent Donald Trump during SOTU.
Biden signed an
executive order in August 2023 to restrict U.S. high-technology investments
from going to China. The administration said the narrowly tailored order was
intended to keep the most advanced chips and information technologies out of
China’s hands for national security reasons. The order affected only a very
small subset of the most advanced technologies.
The Trump
administration actually did block some technology transfers to China and talked about imposing
tougher restrictions, but faced considerable resistance from U.S. technology
giants. Among other objections, the companies said heavy export restrictions
would undercut America’s status as the world’s leading hub for research and
development. They also feared losing access to Chinese markets could have a
devastating effect on their income.
“We want
competition with China, but not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position to
win the competition for the 21st Century against China, or anyone else, for
that matter,” Biden said to conclude the China segment of his SOTU address.
This is a
prediction for the future, and only time can weigh its accuracy, but China
still has some formidable advantages: even with its difficulties, it
remains the world’s manufacturing hub; it can act without paying the heavy burden of
activist groups as American government projects and private industry must do;
and while its labor is getting more
expensive, it is
still vastly cheaper than American labor, in large part thanks to slavery.
China has
a stranglehold on the
green energy and electric vehicle technologies America’s
political class is forcing its citizens to purchase. The Chinese believe their
authoritarian speech
controls protect
them from the kind of political meddling they practice against America and
other countries.
There is
also the matter of how much influence China has purchased with the American political
and media class, including the Biden family.
As
Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer details in his new book Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills
Americans, the Bidens
have several suspicious “financial entanglements” with China that probably
limit the steps President Biden is willing to take against America’s primary
geopolitical adversary.
Schweizer’s
book also details how Beijing finances the kind
of destructive
political activism in America that would never be tolerated in China,
creating major competitive disadvantages for American industry. China’s fentanyl
trade has
laid a terrible curse upon an entire American generation, and Biden’s open
borders have only made that devastating project easier.
America’s
strength should never be underestimated – but the most worrisome thought is
that China has not underestimated them. Instead, the Chinese
Communist Party has struck with devastating precision at cultural and economic
weak points, one of which is the bloated political class so perfectly
represented by President Joe Biden.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY FIVE – FROM THE DAILY BEAST
THAT’S RICH: BILLIONAIRES
RAGE ABOUT BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION TAX PROPOSALS
Even
billionaires who voted for Biden are furious they’re being singled out “because
of how much they have.”
By Noah
Kirsch Wealth And Power Reporter Updated Mar. 08, 2024 11:43AM EST / Published Mar.
08, 2024 12:38AM EST
Real
estate billionaire Jeff Greene sat
in his oceanside mansion in Palm Beach on Thursday as President Biden unveiled
a proposal to
raise taxes on the ultra-rich—a central element of his State of the Union
address. The plan would impose a 25 percent minimum income on anyone worth at
least $100 million. Greene, with an estimated $7.5
billion net worth, would easily make the cut.
Perhaps
unsurprisingly, the real estate tycoon doesn’t support Biden’s proposal. “I
don’t agree with the idea of just singling out people because of how much they
have or don’t have,” he fumed to The Daily Beast.
“The progressive income tax, I understand,” he
continued, though he argued that tax rates in some parts of the country have
already grown out of control. “You have to leave incentives for people who are
the ones who are going to create the jobs for all those people trying to climb
the ladder.” Greene also contended that wealth can be difficult to measure.
Some billionaires, like Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, have net worths composed
mostly of publicly traded stock, which is easy to value. In his world—real
estate—that kind of analysis is often subjective.
“People
speculate about my net worth. I don’t think I can tell you what my net worth
is. I have a bunch of assets that are artwork and real estate,” he said. “I
mean, do I know every day what it’s worth?”
Grocery
billionaire John Catsimatidis also raged against Biden’s plan when contacted by
The Daily Beast for an interview on Thursday.
“I think
it sounds like President Biden doesn’t want a capitalist government. He wants a
government for socialism. And socialism doesn’t work. Ask the people in Russia,
ask the people in Cuba, ask the people in Venezuela,” Catsimatidis said,
invoking one of his frequent talking points. (The billionaire hosts his own
radio show; recent guests include right-wing Senate candidate Kari Lake, former
Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz, and Bill O’Reilly.)
“You’re
trying to take away the incentives for people to work hard,” he said.
Catsimatidis added he doesn’t like how the American government doles out
taxpayers’ money, particularly on foreign affairs. “I don’t mind supporting the
United States’ poor, but you can't support the whole world,” he said.
Billionaire
investor Leon Cooperman, meanwhile, said Biden’s proposals amount to “a version
of tax and spend where they don’t tackle the real problem.” According to
Cooperman, “The real problem is excess spending.”
Biden
claimed in his State of the Union address that the 25 percent minimum tax on
the ultra-rich will raise $500 billion over 10 years. “Imagine what that could
do for America,” he said. He asserted that, on average, the country’s 1,000
billionaires pay just over 8 percent in income tax per year. (The math behind
this claim is subject to dispute.)
“I grew up
in a home where trickle-down economics didn’t put much on my dad’s kitchen
table,” the president also recounted in his speech. “That’s why I’m determined
to turn things around so the middle class does well. When they do well…the
wealthy still do very well. We all do well.”
Biden,
reveling in his allies’ chants of “four more years,” proposed other tax
increases as well, including increasing the corporate minimum tax from 15
percent to 21 percent, reducing tax benefits for corporate private jet use, and
quadrupling taxes on stock buybacks for companies.
Greene,
despite his opposition to Biden’s plan, acknowledged that taxes generally need
to increase. “At some point, if you’re not making enough money to pay your
bills, either you get less bills or work more hours. Well, same with the
government.”
A former Democratic
candidate for Senate and governor of Florida, Greene offered other potential
ways to generate revenues, such as raising the age of social security
eligibility over time. “My kids, who are 10, 12 and 14, you could tell them,
‘You know what, when you retire you’re gonna get money at 70, not 65.’” he
said. “Do you think they’re gonna care?”
Not all
billionaires were equally rattled by the tax-hike talk. Reached by The Daily
Beast early on Thursday, Cost Plus Drugs cofounder Mark Cuban said he had no
plans to tune in to the State of the Union and would instead watch his Dallas
Mavericks take on the Miami Heat.
Cuban
needs no more convincing on who he’ll vote for come November. Speaking to Bloomberg this
month, he shrugged off concerns about Biden’s advanced age: “If they were
having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last
rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY SIX – FROM
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
WHY KATIE BRITT IS GIVING THE GOP
RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION
By Ed
Kilgore 3/1/24
It’s not
unusual for the party that does not control the White House to choose a fresh
face to respond to the president’s State of the Union address. And for
Republicans, a party with a poor reputation for diversity, it’s even less
unusual to ensure that this fresh face is female. Of the seven Republican SOTU
responses dating back to Barack Obama’s second term, five were delivered by
women (Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Joni Ernst, Nikki Haley, Kim Reynolds, and, last
year, Sarah Huckabee Sanders) with still another coming from a person of color
(Tim Scott). So freshman Alabama senator Katie Britt, who will respond to
Joe Biden’s big speech next week, fits the mold.
Forty-two-year-old
Britt is actually the youngest Republican woman ever to be elected to the
Senate, and as House Speaker Mike Johnson noted
in announcing
her selection for
the SOTU gig, she is the “only current Republican mom of school-age kids
serving in the Senate.” So she provides an insta-contrast to the man to whom
she will be responding. As the New York Times observed in words
we will surely hear again, Britt “was born while Mr. Biden, 81, was serving his
second term [in the Senate].”
Britt is
also a smart cookie and a dexterous politician. A longtime staffer for the
inveterate pork-barrel king Richard
Shelby, whose
seat she won when he retired in 2022, Britt is an established Swamp Creature
and a favorite of corporate types (she has also been president of Alabama’s top
business-lobbying group). Yet during her very first race for office, she
positioned herself as enough of a maverick-y outsider to steal a
Donald Trump endorsement from
the crusty old wing nut Mo Brooks, one of the leading speakers at Trump’s
infamous January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. After
getting the 45th president’s backing, Britt crushed Brooks in a June 2022
Republican primary runoff that sealed the election. She returned the favor
by endorsing Trump’s
presidential comeback in December. Yet she has also been part of the
soon-to-be-former Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell’s inner
circle.
For all I
know, Britt has been lined up for this plum assignment for a while, but there’s
an added bonus to her moment in the sun: She represents the state whose Supreme
Court just shocked the
world with
its decision ruling that embryos are “children” and that IVF clinics that
discard unnecessary frozen embryos may be subject to wrongful-death litigation.
Like most Republicans in Alabama and nationally, Britt has been quick to defend
IVF. But she has done so without ruffling the feathers of the anti-abortion
movement, as her
statement on the decision makes
clear:
My goal is
for Alabama to be the best place in the world to live, work, worship, and raise
a family. Make no mistake — defending life and ensuring continued access to IVF services for loving
parents are not mutually exclusive.
Britt is
young, photogenic, and slick — and in the extremist mainstream of her party.
She may not have that much control over the content of her party’s response to
Biden next week, but it’s a good opportunity for her to make a high-profile
national debut. And there are already whispers that
she may ascend to Trump’s veep
list. Not a
bad start for someone who has been in public office for just over a year.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY SEVEN – FROM
NBC
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt to deliver Republican State of the Union
response
Britt was
(sic) the youngest Republican woman to be elected to the Senate, and the first
to represent Alabama
By Katherine Doyle March 7,
2024, 4:13 PM EST
WASHINGTON—
Alabama freshman Sen. Katie Britt will deliver the Republican response to President
Biden’s State of the Union address, throwing into relief one of the biggest
challenges facing Biden in his reelection campaign.
A rising
conservative star, Britt will take the stage against
the backdrop of a presidential election fight that is setting up to be waged by
party leaders whose combined age is nearly four times her own.
She became
the youngest Republican woman to be elected to the Senate, and the first to
represent Alabama when she was sworn in last year after garnering Trump’s
endorsement. She is a staunch conservative who has made immigration a top
issue.
Now with
Biden facing increasing skepticism over his age, Britt, 42, is poised to
sharpen the contrast after the president makes his third State of the Union
address on Thursday evening.
Republicans
have sought to emphasize the obstacle for Democrats: In an advertisement that
began airing on Thursday, the super PAC supporting Donald Trump questioned
whether Biden “could even survive” a second term.
At the
same time, Britt, with her husband NFL player and Super Bowl champion Wesley
Britt, is known for her close friendship with Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John
Fetterman and his wife Gisele, a pairing that showcases how Americans on
opposite sides of the aisle can look beyond their partisan differences.
Britt, in
her address, is expected to make an argument that the Republican Party is the
party of family, sharing her perspective on kitchen table issues as a mother of
two, according to people familiar with her remarks.
“Senator
Britt doesn’t have to talk abstractly or even think abstractly about how
policies are affecting American families,” a source familiar with Britt’s
remarks said. “She’s living through it.”
Central to
Britt’s case is that voters are not being heard by Biden and Democrats.
“Frankly, a large part of our message is going to be that the president’s out
of touch,” the source said.
The
Alabama senator is being elevated as voters have expressed deep dissatisfaction
with the choices they are being offered.
A New York
Times/Siena College poll published over the weekend showed a majority of voters
hold an unfavorable view of both Biden and Trump, with even those who supported
the 81-year-old president in 2020 responding that he is “just too old” to be
effective.
In
announcing that Britt would give the party response, Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell called the senator “an unapologetic optimist.”
The
sentiment was among the reasons Speaker Mike Johnson gave to Britt about why he
believed she should be the one to deliver the speech, a source familiar with
the conversation said.
“I do remember the speaker saying, ‘Look, I
think we’re we need the kind of 'Shining City on a Hill' Reaganesque, Republican
… that person who can bring not only strength but optimism for the future. And
you’re somebody who I think can deliver that message,’” said the source.
Her
address comes as Republicans continue to struggle with women voters in suburbs
and highly educated enclaves, who have trended away from the party after
Trump’s election.
“Republicans
are elevating someone who looks and sounds like the demographic that they know
Trump is struggling with,” said Karen Finney, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton
during her 2016 presidential campaign. “They know they have trouble with
women.”
Britt’s
address comes as statewide ballot questions on abortion have yielded victories
for abortion rights advocates in Republican-leaning states, and as efforts are
underway to get protections on the ballot in 2024 in at least a dozen
more.
Britt has
taken on a leadership role with Republicans behind the scenes that there is a
path to talking about invitro fertilization, the source familiar with her
remarks said.
When a
Supreme Court ruling in Alabama threatened fertility clinics in the state,
Britt made the case to Trump that a truly pro-family stance should embrace IVF,
a source familiar with the conversation confirmed. The decision in Alabama
ruled that embryos created during the process of in vitro fertilization can be
considered children under state law, raising questions about what destroying
them could mean.
Trump has
evaded staking out positions on the most contentious fights over reproductive
rights. But soon after the call, Trump issued a post-ruling statement advising
that he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and urging the Alabama
state legislature to find an immediate solution to preserve its access.
She is
expected to address her support for it in her response, said a source.
Allies of
the president are taking note of Britt’s ascent.
“She’s a
rock star,” said a Democratic strategist. “She could very well could be the
face of the post-Trump GOP. And maybe our first woman president in 2028.”
“She’s an
incredible politician and could win a lot of suburban women in a huge way,” the
strategist added.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – FROM
GUK
BIDEN’S 2023 STATE OF THE UNION PROPOSALS: WHAT FLOPPED AND WHAT
SUCCEEDED
Analysis
by Glenn Kessler, The Fact Checker March
7, 2024 at 3:00 a.m. EST
CORRECTION
An earlier
version of this article incorrectly said no government-funded electric charging
stations had been built. The first government-funded charger opened in December
and four states now have fully operational stations. The article has been
updated.
Every
president announces a slew of initiatives in a State of the Union address, and
we can expect many to be advanced on Thursday when President Biden goes before Congress. Here, in order of delivery, is a
summary of 24 key proposals, pledges or priorities he announced in
his address last year — and what happened to them.
Biden’s
success rate, unsurprisingly, was pretty poor, given the Republican takeover of
the House and the narrow edge Democrats hold in the Senate.
Biden: “We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for
seniors on Medicare …. Let’s finish the job this time. Let’s cap the cost of
insulin for everybody at $35.”
Biden’s
2022 Inflation Reduction Act provided a $35 monthly cap on insulin for people
65 and older on Medicare. It would have capped the cost of insulin at $35 for
all Americans, but Senate Republicans used a parliamentary rule to strip that provision out of the bill. Congress
has not acted this year on Biden’s request to reinstate his original proposal.
Biden: “Thanks to the law I signed last year, millions are
saving $800 a year on their [Obamacare health insurance] premiums. And, by the
way, that law was written — and the benefit expires in 2025. So, my plea to
some of you, at least in this audience: Let’s finish the job and make those
savings permanent. Expand coverage on Medicaid.”
Proposals to permanently extend Affordable
Care Act subsidies — first included in the 2021 American Rescue Plan and then
extended in the Inflation Reduction Act — have not advanced in Congress.
Without a new law, marketplace premiums will spike in 2026.
Biden: “We’re going to build 500,000 electric vehicle
charging stations, installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW
workers.”
Biden’s
“500,000” figure is a target for 2030, including 173,000 existing public
chargers. In December, Politico reported that a $7.5 billion government-funded program was off
to a slow start. “States and the charger industry blame the delays mostly on
the labyrinth of new contracting and performance requirements they have to
navigate to receive federal funds,” Politico said. “While federal officials
have authorized more than $2 billion of the funds to be sent to states, fewer
than half of states have even started to take bids from contractors to build
the chargers — let alone begin construction.” Some Republicans hope to roll
back Biden’s funding. Still, the first government-funded charger opened in
December. A White House spokesperson said as of last week 35 states are at or
past the solicitation stage, while four states have fully operational stations.
Biden: “We have to reward work, not just wealth. Pass my
proposal for the billionaire minimum tax.”
Congress
has not acted on Biden’s proposal to impose a minimum 25 percent tax on all taxpayers with
wealth greater than $100 million.
Biden: “I propose we quadruple the tax on corporate stock
buybacks and encourage long-term investments. They’ll still make considerable
profit.”
Congress
took no action on this proposal.
Biden: “Let’s finish the job and close the loopholes that
allow the very wealthy to avoid paying their taxes.”
Congress
also ignored these proposals.
Biden: “Instead of cutting the number of audits for wealthy
taxpayers, I just signed a law to reduce the deficit by $114 billion by
cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. That’s being fiscally responsible.”
✔️
Biden won $80 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service to step
up enforcement, but Republicans scaled it back by $20 billion during budget negotiations.
Biden’s deficit figure of $114 billion was based on a Congressional Budget
Office estimate that the IRS would bolster revenue by $180 billion over 10
years. But the IRS said last
month that it expects to earn as much as $561 billion in extra taxes if it gets
the full $80 billion. So even with a reduced budget, Biden’s deficit-reduction
target is plausible. So we will count this as still on track.
Biden: “How did Congress respond to that debt? They did the
right thing. They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or
crisis. They paid the American bill to prevent an economic disaster of the
country. So, tonight I’m asking the Congress to follow suit. Let us commit here
tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will
never, ever be questioned.”
✔️
Biden, working with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), in May reached an agreement to suspend the debt ceiling until 2025,
after the next presidential election. It came with some costs — such as the
reduction in IRS funding — but it was a victory for the president.
Biden: “So, tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are
— let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social
Security. We will not cut Medicare.”
✔️
Biden’s impromptu back-and-forth with Republicans led to broad agreement that
the old-age programs should not be subject to budget restrictions even as the
nation’s debt piles up.
Biden: “Pass the bipartisan legislation to strengthen
antitrust enforcement and prevent big online platforms from giving their own
products an unfair advantage.”
Tech
giants had thwarted new antitrust laws in 2022, and no
progress on new laws was made in 2023. The Biden administration last year published antitrust guidelines that
called for heightened scrutiny of tech mergers, but the administration’s record
in challenging such mergers has been mixed.
Biden: “We’re cutting credit card late fees by 75 percent,
from $30 to $8.”
✔️
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday issued its final rule on credit-card late fees.
Biden: “Pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies stop
ripping us off.”
Congress
has not acted on this legislation.
Biden: “I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law
by preventing workers from organizing. Pass the PRO Act! Because … workers have
a right to form a union. And let’s guarantee all workers have a living wage.”
The House
passed the pro-union bill in 2021, on a vote of 225 to 206,
but, despite a big push by labor groups, it never
came to a vote in the Senate in 2022. Congress did not act on it in 2023.
Biden: “Let’s make sure working parents can afford to raise a
family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, affordable child care.
That’s going to enable millions of more people to go and stay at work.”
Biden had
included paid family and medical leave in his failed Build Back Better plan
but eventually dropped it. Congress
did not act on such issues in 2023, but in January a House bipartisan working
group on paid leave released a modest, draft framework aiming to enhance access to
paid family leave.
Biden: “Let’s restore the full Child Tax Credit — which gave
tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half
to the lowest level in history.”
Congress
in 2022 failed to extend the expanded child tax credit provisions enacted in
Biden’s first year, despite efforts to add it to the year-end spending bill, and
little progress was made in 2023. But in January, the House of
Representatives passed a
nearly $80 billion bill that would expand the child tax credit and restore a
set of corporate tax breaks. The bill faces stiff resistance from Senate
Republicans.
Biden: “Let’s get seniors who want to stay in their homes the
care they need to do so. Let’s give more breathing room to millions of family
caregivers looking after their loved ones. Pass my plan so we get seniors and
people with disabilities the home-care services they need — and support the
workers who are doing God’s work.”
Congress
did not act on any nursing-home bill. The Biden administration in
September announced several
steps to improve nursing homes, including a regulation mandating a federal
floor for staffing levels, new efforts to improve enforcement of staffing
standards and increased oversight of nursing home performance.
Biden: “If we want to have the best-educated workforce, let’s
finish the job by providing access to preschool for 3- and 4-years-old.”
Biden won
no new money from Congress to fund his child-care initiatives. The
administration last month issued guidelines to
encourage states to navigate a patchwork of federal funding programs to serve
more children.
Biden: “We’re making progress by reducing student debt,
increasing Pell Grants for working and middle-class families. Let’s finish the
job and connect students to career opportunities starting in high school,
provide access to two years of community college — the best career training in
America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree.”
Biden
included in his 2024 budget a $90 billion plan to provide free community
college, but it was dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled House.
Biden: “Let’s triple the [coronavirus] anti-fraud strike
force going after these criminals, double the statute of limitations on these
crimes, and crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing
billions of dollars from the American people.”
Lawmakers
have ignored the president’s request for
an additional $1.6 billion to fight fraud stemming from the pandemic,
while underfunding the budgets at the Justice Department and other top
federal watchdog agencies.
Biden: “Ban assault weapons now! Ban them now! Once and for
all.”
No action
was taken in Congress to ban assault weapons.
Biden: “Let’s also come together on immigration. Make it a
bipartisan issue once again.”
A
bipartisan border-security bill was unveiled in the Senate in February, but it
quickly failed after former president Donald Trump urged Republicans not to give Biden a victory. Even if
the bill had emerged from the Senate, it faced long odds in the House.
Biden: “Congress must restore the right that was taken away in
Roe v. Wade — and protect Roe v. Wade. Give every woman the constitutional
right.”
The
Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, allowing
states to immediately terminate abortion rights. An effort to codify the right
to abortion into law has no chance in the GOP-controlled House and would have
difficulty overcoming a Senate filibuster.
Biden: “We led. We united NATO. We built a global coalition.
We stood against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression. We stood with
the Ukrainian people.”
That may
have been in true for most of 2023, but Biden has struggled to win additional
funding for Ukraine in the House. A Senate-passed bill providing
Ukraine with $60 billion in military equipment has remained in limbo for weeks.
Biden: “It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big
Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted
advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies
collect on all of us.”
Neither
the House nor the Senate has passed comprehensive privacy legislation.
Meanwhile, congressional inaction has led 13 states to enact
their own laws, which vary greatly.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – FROM
THE NEW YORK TIMES
HOW CABLE NEWS REACTED TO THE SPEECH
Television hosts responded to the State of the Union address
along partisan lines. But almost everyone agreed the president was feisty.
By Michael M. Grynbaum and Tiffany Hsu March 8, 2024 Updated 12:31 p.m. ET
After the
speech, the deluge — of punditry, that is.
The
instant hot takes about President Biden’s State of the Union address on
Thursday split mostly along partisan lines on cable news, with Mr. Biden’s
on-air sympathizers praising his forceful delivery, while his usual critics
suggested that he came across at times as overly agitated and rancorous.
Here’s a
sampling of commentary from CNN, Fox News and MSNBC:
CNN
Dana Bash,
chief political correspondent: “They wanted him to be a fighter, and, boy,
a fight did he deliver.”
John King,
chief national correspondent: “He came out punching and came out swinging
right from the beginning.”
Alyssa
Farah Griffin, political commentator: “Joe Biden basically had to show up
and not keel over on the dais tonight. And he massively outperformed, just
objectively. There was some stumbling, there was some coughing, and he’s prone
to some kinds of stutter. But he did show energy. He showed the ability to get
through a long speech.”
Van Jones,
political commentator: “I thought that was a remarkable, fiery, powerful,
vigorous guy. And I think it gives people a lot of confidence that this guy
might be able to go the distance.”
Fox News
Brit Hume,
chief political analyst: “There was plenty of stumbling and slurring of
words and all the rest of it that we’ve come to associate with him. I don’t
think he got out from under that at all. I’m not sure if a person sitting at
home tonight looking at the guy would think he was anything other than an angry
old man. I’m not sure it was the kind of energy the public would want to see at
a time like this in this country.”
Dana
Perino, anchor: “I do think this was a polarizing, divisive speech, and it
was meant to be.”
Harold
Ford Jr., co-host, “The Five”: “He brought a lot of vigor, a lot of
energy.”
Sean
Hannity, host: “He spent most of the night shouting, speeding through his
speech, and clearly overcompensating from the normal everyday Joe who can
barely string two sentences together. … Tonight, America saw, let’s say, a very
different Joe Biden. I might call him ‘Jacked-Up Joe.’ ”
MSNBC
Nicolle
Wallace, host: “This was his ‘How About Dem Apples’ speech.
… Everybody knows that this was a great speech. And everybody knows that if
this is the message going into the next eight months, polls will soon reflect
that and this will be a real fight.”
Chris
Hayes, host: “It transcended my expectations. I did not think this would
be as aggressive, as sharp.”
Joy-Ann
Reid, host: “I thought the speech was very ‘high caffeine.’ I think Joe
Biden woke up this morning, had a cup of coffee, and had his Wheaties. He was
definitely there to fight.”
Lawrence
O’Donnell, host: “I’ve never brought that much energy to the 10 p.m.
hour.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY NINE – FROM
FROM THE NEW YORKER
SO MUCH FOR “SLEEPY JOE”: ON BIDEN’S
ROWDY, SHOUTY STATE OF THE UNION
The
spectre of Trump’s return loomed large over the President’s unusually partisan
annual address.
By Susan
B. Glasser March 8, 2024
The State
of the Union was . . . loud. Delivering the annual speech to
Congress in this election year was a near-impossible assignment for Joe Biden, an
embattled President facing an increasingly uphill campaign amid concerns about
his age and endurance. Expectations tend to be outsized for the ritual
Presidential address, especially considering that it is often a dud of a
speech—a windy laundry list of crowd-pleasing agenda items that may never see
legislative action. These nights are more famous for being long than they are
for being good. Few of the speeches have been memorable in recent years. I
cannot think of a single case of a State of the Union rescuing a troubled
Presidency—or sinking one, for that matter.
But, with
Biden trailing Donald Trump in the polls and facing persistent questions from
within the Democratic Party about his ability to win reëlection and serve a
second term, the President had no choice but to try something different for the
large national TV audience. The result was a most unusual State of the
Union—partisan, shouty, and even, at times, a bit rowdy. What a contrast to the
usual hoary clichés and bipartisan applause lines. Democrats loved it;
Republicans looked on, squirming in their seats as if they’d accidentally been
forced to sit through the Democratic National Convention.
Congress,
it turns out, is an appealing backdrop for a campaign rally. And there is
nothing that this President likes more than to extol the virtues of
infrastructure spending and union manufacturing jobs before a cheering crowd in
the packed House chamber. Biden wasn’t exactly a happy warrior on Thursday
night, but he was a forceful one. He seemed unfazed by the occasional word
salad that he made of his script. He was definitely not soporific. The speech
kept one part of the evening’s traditions intact—it was terribly long, more
than an hour—but the general vibe was different than most State of the Union
addresses I can recall—sharply confrontational, intensely divided. Democrats broke
into a raucous chant of “Four more years!” even before Biden began speaking; a
few Republicans heckled and jeered. The prepared text had eighty exclamation
points in it; Biden may have added a few more along the way. With his
Presidency on the line, no one was going to accuse this eighty-one-year-old of
a geriatric showing when it mattered.
Politically,
it was also a very different State of the Union than most: its purpose was
clearly to rally wavering Democrats far more than it was to push legislation that
would have no chance of passing a Republican House anyway. Did Biden cross the
line into yelling? Probably. But his high-decibel performance seemed to
confound Republicans, who have spent years seeking to portray Biden as a
near-catatonic dementia case. The Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, who has
done as much to promote Trump’s “Sleepy Joe” narrative as anyone, complained that
the President had morphed into “Jacked-Up Joe” for Thursday’s speech, “a
hyper-caffeinated, angry old man!” Democrats, I imagine, mostly responded with
a collective exhale. Whatever low bar there had been for Biden going into the
speech, he had surely cleared it with his energetic peroration.
Biden
arrived a bit late, just after 9:15 p.m.;
his motorcade, in a sign of the fractious times, had to take the long way from
the White House to avoid a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters that sought to block
his route. Inside the chamber, as the President walked the aisle to the podium,
slowly, endlessly, glad-handing legislators, he was confronted by the
Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wore a red maga hat despite the House’s ban
on campaign paraphernalia. (Watch Biden’s priceless reaction, mouth agape and
eyes wide, here.) “If I
were smart, I’d go home now,” Biden joked, by way of opening; some Republicans
cheered. It was going to be that kind of a night.
That this
was a more combative Biden than usual was evident from the opening sections of
the speech, which took hard punches at reliable bad guys—Vladimir Putin, Donald
Trump, House Republicans who are blocking a vote on his sixty-billion-dollar
request for assistance to Ukraine, meddling judges who take away women’s
reproductive rights. An array of policy promises to please every conceivable
constituency followed—from pledges to lower credit-card late-payment fees to
caps on prescription-drug costs to a new minimum tax on billionaires—though
there was little actual news beyond the announcement, previewed
earlier in the day, that Biden had ordered the U.S. military to construct a
temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza, to bypass Israel’s blockade and
deliver more humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Amid the jumble, the sprawling
speech offered a sharp-edged preview of the President’s 2024 campaign theme—a
warning to Americans of the threat to their freedoms from illiberal,
anti-democratic forces, whether the January 6th rioters who attacked the U.S.
Capitol or the Russians who invaded Ukraine. “Freedom and democracy are under
attack both at home and overseas at the very same time,” he warned, adding,
“History is watching.”
The
inescapable context for the speech—as for Biden’s entire Presidency—was Trump.
The ex-President went unmentioned by name—Biden referred only to “my
predecessor”—but the increasingly real threat of his return gave palpable
urgency to Biden’s address, coming as it did the same week that Trump, for the
third election running, shoved aside all comers to claim his party’s
nomination. “This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies,” Biden
said, early on. “Here’s the simplest truth: you can’t love your country only
when you win.” Stone-faced Republicans could not even applaud this most
American of sentiments.
Biden
invoked the spectre of Trump throughout his speech, even directly quoting the
ex-President to mock him for telling Americans to do nothing to stop gun
violence, and for his recent
memorable line that Russia should do “whatever the hell they want”
to nato allies who
don’t spend what Trump wants them to on defense. In fact, the prepared text of
Biden’s speech had thirteen references to “my predecessor,” which was
unorthodox for a State of the Union but directly appealed to Democrats who have
been yearning for Biden to draw a sharper contrast. One of Biden’s best lines
came near the end of the speech, when, invoking Trump, he said, “Now, other
people my age see it differently. The American story of resentment, revenge,
and retribution.”
No speech,
though, could begin to explain why Trump’s grievance-filled narrative has him
beating Biden in most recent national polls. Or why it is that Biden’s
insistent optimism and signature pleas for bipartisan action have been falling
flat with many voters. Going into the speech, the Web site FiveThirtyEight had
Biden’s unfavorable ratings at the highest level of his Presidency, with more
than fifty-six
per cent disapproving
of his performance in office.
In this
awful political climate, it is hard to imagine that Biden’s address will change
anyone’s mind. But I do not think that was the goal. The flood of words—and
especially their in-your-face delivery—aimed more to reassure than to persuade;
this was Biden promising his own party that he is still in the fight, that he
is not too old to join the battle and say all the tough things that need to be
said. Was it a game changer? The speech of a lifetime? Of course not. I don’t
think it needed to be.
In 2023,
Biden also delivered a strong—if overly long—State of the
Union. His
corny jokes landed; his pleas for bipartisan dealmaking sounded genuine and
constructive—and contrasted well with the Republican hecklers newly ascendant
in the House. And yet it made essentially zero difference for the President’s
political standing. The bottom line, then and now, is this: the work of 2024
will not be done in a night, even a very good one for Joe Biden. But it sure
beats the alternative.
ATTACHMENT FORTY – FROM
POLITICO
BIDEN
CHOOSES A HAMMER OVER AN OLIVE BRANCH
The
president turned his State of the Union address into the opening salvo in a
long campaign, and ugly rematch, between him and Donald Trump.
By JONATHAN
LEMIRE 03/07/2024
11:38 PM EST
President
Joe Biden turned his State of the Union address into a muscular campaign
kickoff, never once uttering Donald Trump’s name but repeatedly invoking the
threat posed by his likely general election foe.
The
overtly political tone underscored the stakes of the night for the president.
And it was set from the beginning, as a fiery Biden laid out three challenges —
the war in Ukraine, the Jan. 6 insurrection and reproductive rights — that
would be further imperiled if his predecessor returned to office.
It was a
president recognizing the campaign crunch he faces. His speech was not an act
of reconciliation or an effort to forge political unity. It was the opening
salvo in what seemed certain to be a historically long and unprecedentedly ugly
rematch between him and Trump.
“As I’ve
done ever since being elected to office, I ask you all, without regard to
party, to join together and defend our democracy,” Biden told the assembled
lawmakers, plainly laying out the stakes of November’s contest.
The speech
was well received by Democrats, who have spent months fretting whether Biden
has the vigor for the campaign ahead.
“Nobody is
going to talk about cognitive impairment now,” Rep. Jerry
Nadler (D-N.Y.) told the president shortly after he was done.
And Biden
allies were quick to use the performance to combat age criticisms.
“So here’s
my question — are we going to have another forty news cycles about Biden’s age
now that he just delivered a barnstormer on the House floor?” said Pat Dennis, the
president of American Bridge 21st Century, a top Democratic super PAC. “His
opponent couldn’t tout record job numbers, protecting reproductive rights, or
unifying our nation at his State of the Union addresses — because he didn’t do
any of those things. The comparison between Donald Trump and President Biden
couldn’t be more stark.”
And, to a
degree, that was a victory for the White House.
But the
speech was hardly defensive. Coming eight months before voters go to the polls,
the address saw Biden defend the nation’s democracy against extremist forces
and repeatedly attack Trump, the criminally indicted presidential front-runner.
Biden
delivered a vigorous and rapid speech for 67 minutes at high volume. He had
some stumbles but also delighted his staff with the way he jostled with
Republicans. He painted himself as an experienced, steady hand, even if he was
getting long in the tooth.
“Now some
other people my age see a different story,” said Biden, who referred to his
“predecessor” 13 times. “An American story of resentment, revenge, and
retribution. That’s not me.”
The State
of the Union address has proven to be a beneficial moment for Biden during his
presidency. Last year, he won an impromptu exchange with Republican hecklers
about the future of Social Security and Medicare. But while internal White
House polling from a year ago revealed the speech eased some voters’ doubts
about Biden’s age, West Wing aides have repeatedly acknowledged the stakes are
much higher now with Election Day approaching.
That is,
in part, because of the sheer number of complicated issues Biden faces. On
Thursday, he confronted a variety of those. Biden touted an improving American
economy and addressed the migrant influx at the southern U.S. border by
highlighting how Republicans rejected the recent bipartisan border security
deal at Trump’s behest.
He also
held up a button handed to him earlier by heckler Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene
(R-Ga.) and addressed the parents of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student killed
last month by an illegal immigrant. Though he flubbed the victim’s first name
and used the cringeworthy term “an illegal,” he used the moment to call for the
GOP to approve the bill it once supported.
“Unfortunately
congressional politics has derailed this bill so far,” Biden said. “Look at the
facts: I know you know how to read.”
Perhaps
the thorniest topic, however, was the Israel-Hamas war, which Biden had not
given a major address on since the days following the Oct. 7 attacks that set
the fighting in motion. The night gave Biden a chance to reframe the conflict,
to more clearly articulate why the United States has backed Israel despite the
images of humanitarian horror emerging from Gaza. His handling of the war has
received low marks in polling and has alienated some of his base. The president
on Thursday tried once more to thread the needle, acknowledging Israel’s right
to defend itself, while also ordering the construction of a floating pier off
Gaza to help facilitate aid deliveries to the suffering Palestinians.
The speech
took head-on the dividing lines that have come to define this presidency, in
which pleas for partisan differences to be set aside often clash against the
realities of modern politics. A symbol of the bitter politics appeared just
over Biden’s left shoulder: House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose brief time in
power has been marked by internal GOP dysfunction but also an effort to impeach
the president with little evidence. Johnson repeatedly grimaced and shook his
head at a number of lines that Democrats cheered.
Biden
seemed nonplussed by how Republicans received his remarks. Instead, he appeared
aiming to not just ease Democratic fears but to outfit them with a campaign
template: the new mantle of the party of freedom. That included over
reproductive rights.
That
hot-button issue — brought to the forefront again recently by an Alabama
judge’s ruling that endangered in vitro fertilization in that state — has
proven to be an electoral winner for Democrats and will likely again dominate
the upcoming campaign. But he never uttered the word “abortion” — he rarely
does — though it was in the prepared text of the speech released by the White
House.
For the
81-year-old president, old habits may be hard to break. But the night was spent
trying to turn that age into a sign of wisdom. He noted, at one point, that
he’d been born during World War II. And he began his speech by recalling how
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 urged an isolationist Congress to assist a world
imperiled by war. He compared that moment to the nation’s current threats at
home and abroad - notably pushing the Republicans to fund Ukraine’s fight
against Russia’s invasion — and repeatedly previewed what he believed was in
the balance amid his looming rematch with Trump.
“Now it is
we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union,” Biden said.
“And my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the
American people that this is no ordinary moment either.”
ATTACHMENT FORTY ONE – FROM
THE HILL
TRUMP-BIDEN REMATCH HITS OVERDRIVE
WITH SUPER TUESDAY, STATE OF THE UNION
BY BRETT SAMUELS -
03/03/24 12:00 PM ET
The
expected general election rematch between President Biden and former
President Trump is roughly eight months away, but the starting gun for the
marathon campaign will go off this week.
Trump will
have all but secured his party’s nomination after Super Tuesday, and Biden will
use Thursday’s State of the Union address as a springboard to offer up a vision
for a second term to millions of Americans before traveling in the days after
the speech to battleground states Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Both men
and their campaigns see it as being in their respective best interests for the
general election cycle to kick into gear as quickly as possible, albeit for
different reasons.
Trump and
his team are ready to fully move on from nagging questions about Nikki Haley winning
thousands of votes in the GOP primary, and the Trump campaign is eager to fully
merge with the Republican National Committee (RNC) so it can bolster its
lagging fundraising.
The Biden
campaign, meanwhile, has insisted it will benefit once Trump is definitively
the GOP nominee, a reality officials have argued millions of Americans have yet
to realize.
“The next
week is a big week,” said Jim Kessler, vice president of policy at the
left-leaning think tank Third Way. “The Republican primary should be over at
that point, and the president has the State of the Union. To me, the State of
the Union is where Biden kicks off the general election.”
Sixteen
states will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in presidential primaries. While
Trump and Biden are on a collision course for a rematch in November, Tuesday’s
results will allocate enough delegates to solidify that reality.
Haley, a
former ambassador to the United Nations, is still in the race, but she has been
unable to point to a single state where she can beat Trump.
The former
president’s team has projected he will secure the 1,215 delegates needed to
become the presumptive nominee by March 19 at the latest.
Once Trump
is the presumptive nominee, his campaign can more formally merge with the
Republican National Committee (RNC), opening up joint fundraising
opportunities, allowing them to data and
other resources, and potentially cracking the door to the RNC helping with
Trump’s legal bills.
Trump has
in many ways already been behaving like the nominee, making a trip to the
southern border on Thursday and attacking Biden personally and directly while
largely ignoring Haley after he trounced her in her home state of South
Carolina.
At the
same time, Biden and his team are also eager for the general election campaign
to begin in earnest.
Polling
has shown Trump ahead of Biden in key swing states like Michigan, Arizona and
Georgia, with Biden ahead in Pennsylvania and the two candidates neck-and-neck
in Wisconsin.
One source
familiar with the Biden team’s thinking argued the threat of another Trump term
will crystallize for many voters in March. The former president is expected to
sweep Super Tuesday and officially clinch the nomination by the middle of the
month. His trial in New York City in his hush money case is also set to begin
at the end of March.
Some Biden
allies have suggested it is to the president’s benefit if Trump is more visible
to voters, who can be reminded of his legal troubles and his controversial
rhetoric.
Kate Bedingfield,
a former longtime Biden aide, said Thursday on CNN that having developments
around Trump’s legal troubles front and center reminds voters “not just that
he’s a threat to our democracy, but also sort of a bigger issue that he’s all
about himself. That power is for him a personal pursuit, that the presidency is
not about what’s happening to you, your family at the kitchen table but is
really about his personal grievances and vengeance.”
Biden will
use the State of the Union to make an affirmative case for his second term. The
president’s address last year was watched by 27 million Americans, making the
annual speech a massive opportunity for Biden to lay out the stakes for
November and for his campaign to rally volunteers and communicate with voters.
A White
House official said the speech will highlight major first-term accomplishments
like the bipartisan infrastructure law, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act
that invested millions in semiconductor production, and the Inflation Reduction
Act, which passed with only Democratic votes and lowered health care costs and
incentivized climate-friendly investments.
But the
speech will also be a major opportunity for Biden to contrast his vision for the
future with that of Trump and the congressional Republicans who support him.
“There’s
obviously an argument that Biden will want to make that whatever
disappointments you have about him, don’t you remember what you didn’t like
about this other guy, and do you really want Republicans in control of the
White House and Congress,” said Dave Hopkins, a political science professor at
Boston College.
ATTACHMENT FORTY TWO – FROM
WASHPOST
AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS HECKLE, BIDEN SERVES IT BACK
The
president’s State of the Union address was interrupted several times, but the
night lacked some of the major disturbances of past years
Biden's feistiest State of the Union exchanges
By Marianna
Sotomayor and Mariana Alfaro March
8, 2024 at 1:01 a.m. EST
While Thursday’s
State of the Union contained some contentious moments — particularly when President Biden discussed the southern border and Republicans’ tax
cuts — his fourth address to Congress went largely without the major
disturbances seen in previous years.
At several
points, Biden went back and forth with lawmakers — something that used to be a
rarity. But in each moment, Biden looked to capitalize on the interruptions,
using the heckling to pivot into Democratic talking points.
In perhaps
the most tense exchange of the night, Biden condemned Republicans’ decision to
reject a bipartisan bill that included border security provisions after former
president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came out
against it.
As Biden
chastised Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) yelled out “Say her
name!” in reference to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student whose killing
last month led to assault and murder charges against an undocumented migrant in
Georgia. Greene also was wearing a shirt that read “SAY HER NAME LAKEN RILEY.”
Biden then
paused his remarks and lifted up a pin Greene had handed him earlier as he
walked to the dais.
“Laken
Riley,” Biden said, repeating what Greene was shouting at him. “An innocent
young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
With that,
Greene’s heckling appeared to stop, while other Republicans chanted, “Build the
wall.”
Biden then
tried to turn the moment to his advantage. After saying his heart went out to
Riley’s parents — noting that he has lost two of his children — he called Congress
to send him the bipartisan border security bill.
“I would
respectfully suggest ... my Republican friends owe it to the American people:
Get this bill done,” he said. “We need to act now.”
Then, he
addressed Trump directly.
“If my predecessor
is watching, instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to
block the bill, join me in telling the Congress to pass it,” he said. “We can
do it together.”
In the
chamber, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who led Senate negotiations on the
failed bill, nodded.
It was
clear from the beginning of the night that Republicans would seek to provoke
the president on the issue of immigration. Earlier on Thursday, House
Republicans, with the support of 37 Democrats, passed a bill named for Riley. The
measure would require the detention of any migrant who commits theft or
burglary.
Earlier in
the night, Greene made a show of taking out a red “Make America Great Again”
hat, emblazoned with a “Trump 2020” logo, and wearing it in the chamber. While
lawmakers are not allowed to wear hats on the floor, Greene kept the hat on.
Moments later, the House’s sergeant-at-arms asked her to take off the hat.
Democrats, meanwhile, chanted, “No hats on the floor.” “No more hats!”
At another
point, Democrats began chanting “Four more years!” Rep. Lauren Boebert
(R-Colo.) replied with a more muted chant of “Trump, Trump, Trump.” And two
lawmakers, Reps. Max L. Miller (R-Ohio) and Michael Bost (R-Ill.), left the
speech when Biden said the state of the union is strong, and that he expects to
win again in 2024.
When Biden
said that, during the coronavirus crisis, Trump “failed in the most basic presidential
duty that he owes to American people the duty: to care,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden
(R-Wis.) yelled out: “Lies!”
And
Republicans booed loudly when Biden said that it was them who enacted a tax cut
for the ultrawealthy during the Trump administration.
At their
response, Biden’s eyebrows shot up.
“Oh no,
you guys don’t want another $2 trillion tax cut?” he said with a smile. “I kinda
thought that’s what your plan was. Well, that’s good to hear.”
It
mirrored an exchange in last year’s speech, when Greene yelled out “Liar!”
after Biden chided Republicans for floating the possibility of cuts to Social
Security and Medicare. Others followed. But Biden responded by saying, “We all
apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? ...
We’ve got unanimity.” (The exchange was one of several outbursts from Greene
last year, who also interrupted Biden’s speech, yelling, “China’s spying on
us!” and “Secure the border!”)
Presidential
addresses to Congress used to be muted, bipartisan affairs, with disturbances
kept to a minimum. But that trend changed in September 2009, when President
Barack Obama addressed Congress to make his pitch for what turned into the 2010
Affordable Care Act. Obama used parts of the address to try to debunk rumors
about the bill, including one about undocumented immigrants receiving
government-funded insurance through the proposed law.
“You lie!”
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted in response.
The
outburst stunned the chamber. A week later, the House passed a resolution,
largely on party lines, admonishing him for the remark.
In 2022,
Boebert drew criticism when she interrupted Biden when
the president brought up his late son, Beau Biden, an Iraq War veteran who died
of brain cancer in 2015. Biden was calling on Congress to pass legislation to
aid veterans exposed to toxins while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan — a
problem he said leads to cancers “that would put them in a flag-draped coffin”
and believes contributed to Beau’s death.
Boebert
interrupted him then, yelling: “You put them there. Thirteen of them!”
She
appeared to be referencing the 13 troops killed during the
U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Immediately, Democrats booed. Some yelled,
“Kick her out!” The next day, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House speaker at the
time, said Boebert and other Republicans who heckled Biden during his
address should “just shut up.”
That topic
returned to focus Thursday night, when a guest also caused a brief interruption
during the speech. Rep. Brian Mast’s (R-Fla.) guest, Steve Nikoui, was escorted
out of the House gallery after yelling: “Remember Abbey Gate! United States
Marines!” He is the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who was one
of the 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide attack in
2021 during the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from
Afghanistan.
And it
wasn’t only Republicans who tried to get a message across to Biden.
Democrats
demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and calling for the United States to stop
supplying arms to Israel — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
and Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) — held small signs reading, “Lasting ceasefire
now” and “Stop sending bombs.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only
Palestinian American member of Congress, and Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Summer
Lee (D-Pa.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) also held the signs and donned kaffiyehs.
(The
Sergeant-at-Arms yawned and shrugged.)
ATTACHMENT FORTY THREE – FROM
THE HILL
THE VIEWS
EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Biden’s fiery State of the Union
shows he’s miles ahead of ‘the alternative’
BY DONNA
BRAZILE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 03/08/24 11:45 AM ET
President
Biden delivered a powerful and passionate State of the Union address last
night, recapping his accomplishments and asking Congress to work with him to
strengthen our economy, protect our freedoms, preserve our democracy, advance
racial justice and stand by our foreign friends.
The
speech, one of the best of Biden’s long career, was an eloquent statement of why
he deserves reelection. The president looked strong and fit as he appealed for
national unity and bipartisanship, and outlined his optimistic vision for
America’s future. He showed clearly that the Republican claim that he is too
old and feeble to serve another term is absurd — as big a lie as former
President Donald Trump’s false claim of winning the 2020 presidential
election.
Biden
displayed energy and was quick on his feet to respond to Republican hecklers who shouted false claims at him. Rep. Marjorie Taylor
Green, (R-Ga.) was particularly rude, wearing a red “Make America Great Again”
hat to show her support for Trump. Democrats chanted “four
more years” several times in a call for Biden’s reelection.
Biden appealed to Republican lawmakers to end the obstructionism that
has paralyzed Congress on key issues, including strengthening border security with a bill negotiated by Republicans and Democrats in
the Senate, restoring women’s reproductive rights nationwide
and providing vital military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along
with desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in
Gaza.
The
president also urged Republicans
to join Democrats in passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to
protect the voting rights of Black Americans and other minorities, repairing
damage caused by Supreme Court decisions that weakened the landmark Voting
Rights Act of 1965. The nearly 60-year-old law enabled my parents and millions
of other Black people in the South to vote for the first
time.
In
addition, Biden called for bipartisan
support for lowering prescription drug prices, expanding aid to historically
Black colleges and universities and other higher education institutions serving
Black and Hispanic students, boosting Pell grants for low-income college
students, raising public school teachers’ salaries and increasing taxes on
corporations and the wealthiest Americans to raise $3 trillion.
Biden
also advocated for more research on women’s health issues, eliminating
junk fees charged by corporations to save Americans $20 billion a year, tax
breaks for homebuyers and lowering the cost of renting a home and banning
assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, along with other actions to
reduce gun violence.
The
president said he would
block Republican efforts to weaken or repeal the Affordable Care Act
(ObamaCare), cut Medicare and Social Security and raise the retirement
age.
Unfortunately,
I’m not optimistic that congressional Republicans will work with Biden to enact
even watered-down versions of virtually any of his proposals. I expect the vast
majority of Republican lawmakers will choose confrontation over compromise and
partisanship over patriotism. That’s because Trump — now the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee — has told GOP lawmakers he doesn’t want them
to pass any legislation that would solve problems and make Biden look
good.
Republican
lawmakers largely follow Trump’s command, making serving him a far higher
priority than serving the American people. This is bad news for our
country.
Biden is 81 and
Trump will turn 78 in
three months. While neither man is ready to play in the NFL or climb Mount
Everest, Biden is unquestionably sharper than Trump, has a far greater
understanding of public policy and has been a far better president.
And unlike Trump, Biden is not charged with 91 serious crimes and has
not been on the losing end of civil lawsuits that have brought Trump fines
totaling $540 million so far.
As he has
for decades, Biden demonstrated in yesterday’s speech that protecting America’s
freedom and fighting racism is in his DNA.
“You can’t
love your country only when you win,” the president said; a
clear criticism of Trump’s refusal to admit defeat in the last presidential
election. Biden denounced “lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal
the election” and said the plots posed the “gravest threat to our democracy
since the Civil War.”
Biden paid tribute to the civil
rights crusaders who marched 59 years ago on a bridge in Selma, Alabama to
protest racist restrictions that kept Black people from voting.
The late
Rep. Johns Lewis, (D-Ga.) was nearly killed and
many nonviolent marchers were seriously injured when law enforcement officers
savagely beat them. One of Biden’s guests at the State of the Union address was
Betty Mae Fikes, a Black woman who Biden said, “sang
songs of prayer and protest on that Bloody Sunday, to help shake the nation’s
conscience.” The march led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of
1965.
In a
poignant passage near the end of his State of the Union address, Biden said, “My
lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” and recounted how he
was moved to devote his life to public service so he could follow in the
footsteps of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy,
(D-N.Y.) who were both assassinated in 1968.
I realize
that Joe Biden isn’t
perfect. None of us are. But as he often says: “Don’t
compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”
Biden has
been an outstanding president and can deliver even more for the American people
if we give him another four years in office. Doing so is in our self-interest
and the national interest, and certainly beats the alternative.
Donna
Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair
of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “Hacks: Inside the
Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the
White House.”
ATTACHMENT FORTY FOUR – FROM NEWSWEEK
REPUBLICANS COMPLAIN JOE BIDEN HAD TOO MUCH ENERGY AT SOTU
Published Mar
08, 2024 at 5:17 AM ESTUpdated Mar 08, 2024 at 1:40 PM EST
A number of
conservative commentators hit out at President Biden, suggesting that his State
of the Union address in the House on Thursday was too aggressive or
energetic. Fox News host Sean Hannity branded
Biden "very angry" and "over-caffeinated," while a former
White House press secretary said he was "weirdly amped up."
The
Context
Biden used
his State of the Union address to lay down a challenge to Donald Trump, who, after a succession of primary victories on
Super Tuesday, has all but sown up the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
In an
energetic performance, Biden claimed Trump is seeking to "bury the
truth" about the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and also accused him of
"bowing down" to Russia.
What We
Know
In a post
on X, formerly Twitter, former
Republican White House press secretary Ari Fleischer wrote: "No one is
going to remember a single thing Biden says tonight. Everyone is going to
remember how weirdly amped up he is and how bizarrely fast he's speaking."
Frank Luntz,
a political consultant and pollster associated with the Republican Party,
posted on X: "This is the loudest State of the Union speech I can
remember. Let's see whether undecided voters like being yelled at."
·
Joe Biden
finally says something MAGA likes
·
Donald Trump
wants to protect one of China's most popular companies
·
Mike
Johnson's surprising reaction to Joe Biden's state of the union
During an
interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Fox News
host Sean Hannity described Biden at the address as "very angry, very
jacked up, who might say charitably over-caffeinated."
Fox News
then broadcast a clip of Biden appearing to mumble during a speech at East
Palestine, Ohio, on February 16, which was compared to an energetic clip from
his State of the Union address.
Newsweek reached
out to the White House press office for comment at 6:30 a.m. ET on Friday. This
article will be updated if they decide to comment.
Views
Adam
Parkhomenko, a Democratic Party strategist,
hit back at Fox News on X, writing: "Fox has
spent so much time attacking Biden he could have crawled onto the House floor and
crawled over their bar. Their approach attacking his memory and energy that
they thought was so effective backfired tonight. They should reassess their
s***** tactics but they won't."
Trump criticized Biden in a
series of posts on Truth Social. After Biden had finished speaking, the former
president commented: "This was an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled
Speech.
"He
barely mentioned Immigration, or the Worst Border in the History of the World.
He will never fix Immigration, nor does he want to. He wants our Country to be
flooded with Migrants. Crime will raise to levels never seen before, and it is
happening very quickly!"
As he
entered the House ahead of his speech, Biden looked shocked and appeared to
recoil when he was approached by Georgia Republican Marjorie
Taylor Greene wearing a
red MAGA hat. Clips of the incident went viral on social media racking
up more than 3.4 million views.
Greene
then handed Biden a badge bearing the name of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old
Georgia nursing student who police believe was murdered by a Venezuelan
national on February 22.
During his
speech, Biden addressed Riley's death directly, though
he appeared to call her "Lincoln Riley." The president said she was
"an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That's right. But
how many thousands of people are being killed by legals? To her parents, I say,
my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand."
Update
3/8/24, 7:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
ATTACHMENT FORTY FIVE – FROM
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A SMALL SPEECH BY A SHRINKING
PRESIDENT
March 8, 2024 12:00 am
The big question going into Thursday night’s State
of the Union speech
was whether or not President Joe Biden would
appear old and frail, so he shouted his way through the speech apparently to
appear vigorous.
But the content of
the speech amounted to much less. Biden’s volume was covering up glaring
weakness; for every big problem facing the country, the president’s solutions
are small.
Interest rates have caused the average monthly mortgage
payment to almost double under Biden’s tenure, making houses unaffordable for
most people. Biden’s answer? He’s going to eliminate closing costs and give
home buyers a $800 tax credit. That’s not going to help.
Thanks to inflation, each of
us is now spending more income on groceries than at any time in more than 30
years. Biden’s solution? He’s going to force Mars not to shrink the size of
your chocolate bar. This means companies will raise the price of food even
higher.
Climate change is raising temperatures around the world?
Biden is going to start a “Climate Corps” of 20,000 people to help transition to
a “clean energy future.” No one believes these government make-work jobs will
lower temperatures by even a fraction of a degree.
Illegal immigrants are murdering and raping women and
children across the country? Biden wants new legislation that would mandate
catch and release for illegal immigrants like Daniel Ibarra, charged with
killing Laken Riley. That will only make the crisis worse — a crisis that Biden
created.
Israel is locked in a life-and-death struggle with Hamas,
which is still holding eight Americans hostage. Biden is going to build them a
pier to bring in more humanitarian assistance. That is not going to help Israel
defeat Hamas and appeases the anti-Israel elements in the Democratic Party that
shut down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday night.
He attacked credit card “junk fees” and online ticket travel
fees, claiming his administration was creating new rules to eliminate them.
These are minor annoyances, but the new regulations will force companies to
pass costs on in other areas or prompt credit card companies to limit lines of
credit. They are not really saving consumers money, just pushing it around to
other places. They are all such small ball. None address the underlying issues
of inflation and high interest rates.
On his age, Biden did pass the test, barely. He forgot to
let House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) introduce him. He accidentally added
“Moscow” to a list of cities in which Americans could buy cheaper drugs. He
called Laken Riley “Lincoln” Riley. And he said every “American” voted against
his inflation-causing stimulus bill when he meant every “Republican.”
Those mistakes aside, however, there was no big embarrassing
blank stare moment or physical fumbling. If Biden wanted to reassure himself he
still has the mental capacity to take on former President Donald Trump, he will
surely take last night’s performance as confirmation of his abilities.
But will Democrats be excited by the shrinkflation agenda
Biden proposed? We doubt it. And we’ll see in November.
ATTACHMENT FORTY SIX – FROM CHINA DAILY
BIDEN DELIVERS FORCEFUL STATE OF THE
UNION ADDRESS
By HENG
WEILI in New York | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-03-08 13:01
US
President Joe Biden delivered an aggressive State of the Union speech on Thursday
amid a rancorous, high-stakes political environment in an election year.
Biden, 81,
used the speech as a vehicle to reverse perceptions of him amid falling polls
and doubts about his ability to serve another four-year term.
"My
lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy," he said.
"To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe
harbor.
"Now
some other people my age see a different story: an American story of
resentment, revenge and retribution," Biden said in an apparent reference
to former president Donald Trump, his likely Republican opponent in what would
be a rematch of the 2020 election. "That's not me."
Biden
frequently criticized Trump throughout the speech, referring to him as "my
predecessor" and shouted back at Republicans over Social Security and the
border.
Trump, 77,
provided a running commentary on Biden's speech in real time on his Truth
Social platform, criticizing the 9:25 ET pm start to the speech scheduled for 9
pm. The president was frequently stopped by lawmakers who took selfies as he
made his way up to the lectern in the House chamber.
"This
is the longest walk in Presidential History - It is ridiculous!" Trump
posted, calling the late start "VERY DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR COUNTRY!"
Among the pressing
issues to Americans are illegal immigration and inflation, according to
numerous polls.
Biden also
is trying to navigate two divisive armed conflicts — in Ukraine and in the Gaza
Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Continued
military aid to Ukraine in its two-year battle with Russia has divided Congress
and recently led to the derailing of legislation that included US border
security measures.
Biden said
the US should provide the weapons "Ukraine needs to defend itself",
while also mentioning a comment by Trump in February that Russia "could do
whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries that don't contribute
enough to their defense.
Biden also
railed against the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, which he called
"the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War".
On
abortion, a key election issue for Democrats, Biden said, "Women are not
without electoral or political power" and "those bragging about
overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. But
they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022,
2023.
"We'll
win again in 2024," he said about the issue.
He said
that if Americans "send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I
promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again," he
said.
Biden also
touted the economy on his watch, along with the low unemployment rate and said
15 million new jobs were created "in just three years — a record".
He also
said he was "ending" the fact that Americans pay more for
prescription drugs than anyone else in the world and how the federal Medicare
program would negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of
prescription drugs.
The
president engaged in a spirited back-and-forth with Republicans, accusing them
of wanting to cut Social Security benefits. He also said he wanted to eliminate
"junk fees" on credit cards.
"Send
me the border bill now!" Biden bellowed about a measure that passed the
Senate but was not taken up in the House.
House
Speaker Mike Johnson released excerpts of the Republican response to the
Democratic president by Senator Katie Britt, 42, of Alabama.
In the
excerpts, she brought up border security: "President Biden inherited the
most secure border of all-time. But minutes after taking office, he suspended
all deportations, halted construction of the border wall, and announced a plan
to give amnesty to millions.
Biden also
said the US would build a floating pier off Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea to
help deliver humanitarian aid to the war-torn area.
ATTACHMENT FORTY SEVEN – FROM
JACOBIN
BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION SHOWCASED A PRESIDENT IN DENIAL
BY BRANKO
MARCETIC
Look past
the theatrics of a feisty, bellowing
president and reactionary hecklers. Joe Biden’s State of the Union address didn’t
offer working-class people a clear economic alternative or signal real
opposition to Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.
Last
night’s State of the Union (SOTU) address made official what we’ve heard now
from countless pieces of reporting: despite every warning sign about his
handling of both the economy and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, President Joe Biden
will continue stubbornly doubling down on his approach to both — despite the
majority of both official and public opinion rejecting his handling of the two issues.
The
president’s address saw the welcome infusion of pro-worker, economically
populist notes that Biden has historically been allergic to. He invited and
shouted out United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain to the event, called out
billionaires for paying too little in taxes, and once again attacked the GOP
for their plans to
cut Social Security and Medicare.
But a closer
read of the speech suggests that, rhetoric aside, the president is continuing
to resist pressure, both from the streets and from within his own governing
coalition, to change course on his handling of the Israeli war and to run on an
ambitious progressive platform akin to the one he won the 2020 election. That
could spell continuing trouble for the president, whose prospects at this early
point in the campaign look dismal.
An Unusual Economic Comeback
Reportedly mystified by
Americans’ economic dissatisfaction and convinced the
problem is simply pessimistic media coverage, recent reports have indicated
Biden’s reelection plans are to simply keep insisting the economy is in great
shape, while putting the lion’s of his
energy toward hammering Donald Trump over January 6. This was more or less what
we got last night.
The United
States today is embroiled in a slow-burning economic crisis: child poverty has
seen a record-high
spike;
homelessness has soared to
never-before-seen levels; cost-burdened renters are at an all-time
high;
evictions are back to
pre-pandemic levels; and food insecurity is rising for
the first time in a decade. The president of the Oregon Food Bank
recently declared that
“we are living through the worst rates of hunger since the Great Depression,”
just one of countless food pantries around the country that has seen demand for their help
explode.
You would
have no idea any of this is happening from listening to the president’s speech
last night, in which he boasted that “our economy is literally the envy of the
world.”
“It
doesn’t make news, but in a thousand cities and towns, the American people are
writing the greatest comeback story never told,” Biden said last night, at a
time when financial stress over high prices is through the roof across
the country: “More people have health insurance today than ever before,” he
boasted, even as he has presided over nearly eighteen million Americans
losing their Medicaid coverage, the vast majority of them (70 percent) eligible
for the program, but thrown off for procedural reasons enabled by his
administration.
Biden laid
out some plans to address these struggles: capping the price of insulin
for all Americans, instead of just those on Medicare
(something Democrats could have
done two
years ago but didn’t);
expanding the number of drugs whose prices Medicare can negotiate to
five-hundred (albeit over the course of a decade); a $400-a-month tax credit to
help homeowners, though not renters, pay their mortgage costs, which have soared to a
median of nearly $1,800 a month.
But the
ambitious promises of Biden’s 2020 campaign, like the public health insurance
option he occasionally mentioned on the trail then immediately dropped upon
winning, now seem forgotten. So are popular provisions of Biden’s never-passed
Build Back Better (BBB) bill, like lowering the Medicare eligibility age and
universal pre-K, which, respectively went either entirely unmentioned or
watered down with wishy-washy language (“providing access to pre-school”).
Bernie Sanders reportedly urged Biden
to make lowering the Medicare age and including dental, vision, and hearing
coverage in the program part of his 2024 platform. Neither made their way into
the speech last night.
The ambitious
promises of Biden’s 2020 campaign now seem forgotten.
The only
exceptions to the BBB amnesia, once the centerpiece of Biden’s presidency, were
the child tax credit, which Biden pledged to restore; raising the minimum wage,
tossed off in a single line while leaving out the $15 value; and raising the
corporate tax rate, which occupied by far the most speaking time of any of
these proposals. On that matter, Biden reiterated his 2021 plan to raise
the corporate tax rate to 28 percent — in reality, a permanent tax cut,
since it would hike the rate to a level seven points
lower than
it had been before Trump slashed it.
The
president did move toward voter concerns on one issue, though. Even as he
downplayed the level of economic hardship, he elevated the issue of the border,
again touting his far–right border
bill from last month, and for the second time publicly urging Trump to work
together with him to get it passed. At one point, he held up a pin given to him
by far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bearing the name of Laken Riley, the
Georgian nursing student killed by an undocumented immigrant, whose death has
become a flash point for conservatives looking to use it to push a dismantling
of the US immigration and asylum systems.
In
response to the heckling of
Greene, who the Biden campaign terms an
“unhinged conspiracy theorist,” the president, off the cuff, said Riley’s
name and that she had been “killed by an illegal.” It’s yet one more sign that
with his reelection chances in peril, Biden and his team have decided to
wholesale adopt the far right’s framing of this issue and its solution — a
framing that for years, both Democrats and much of the press decried
as racist and even fascist.
Avoiding Their Hatred
Biden
began his speech with a reference to one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(FDR)’s SOTU addresses. But even at its most populist and pro-worker, Biden’s
speech was a far cry from the address that
FDR — the president that he and his advisors have self-consciously and very
publicly harkened back to — gave, like Biden, on the year of his reelection in
1936. That speech, too, was delivered at a time of widespread economic
suffering and was overwhelmingly concerned with an internal threat to democracy
— or, in Roosevelt’s words, with the fact that “popular opinion is at war with
a power-seeking minority.”
But unlike
Biden, who last night gestured at Trump and the Republicans behind him as “the
greatest threat to our democracy,” Roosevelt explicitly identified this
minority not as a partisan one, but as “the domination of government by
financial and industrial groups,” situating this battle for democracy firmly
within his larger economic program.
Even at
its most populist and pro-worker, Biden’s speech was a far cry from the address
that FDR gave.
These
“numerically small but politically dominant” forces, the “many private and
selfish interests” and “unscrupulous money-changers,” were “seek[ing] the
restoration of their selfish power,” Roosevelt said, an internal battle he
warned was playing out all over a world where fascism was on the rise.
Though
Roosevelt stressed the “substantial material progress” the country had made
under his leadership, he also took care to acknowledge the very real suffering
Americans still felt four years into the New Deal, even as he framed it as a
warning of how these “determined groups” planned to turn back the clock: the
“several millions of unemployed citizens who face the very problem of
existence, of getting enough to eat,” the “children who have worked all day in
the factories,” the “the men and women who live in conditions of squalor in
country and in city.” These were all reasons, Roosevelt said, that for all the
strides the country had made, he would “recommend to the Congress that we
advance.”
Measured
by this benchmark, Biden’s populist address last night (“If you want to make a
million bucks — great! Just pay your fair
in taxes”) looks remarkably conservative and unambitious.
Staying the Course on Gaza
The
section of Biden’s address on the war on Gaza — the issue currently driving a
1968-style internal rebellion against the president, with hundreds of thousands
of Democratic voters threatening to
torpedo his reelection in November over his unconditional support for it — was
also lacking.
The depth
of outrage at the president was made clear when antiwar protesters blocked Biden’s
motorcade as he traveled to deliver the speech, holding up signs that read,
among other things, “Biden’s legacy is genocide.” Inside Congress,
keffiyeh-clad socialist and left-wing members of the “Squad” sat
stone-faced, holding up
signs calling
for a “lasting cease-fire” and to “stop sending bombs,” and refusing to
applaud for
the leader of their party as he entered or to join in Democratic chants of
“four more years.”
Biden at
last was able to publicly display the empathy, which he’s long made a part of
his political brand, to the Palestinian people — something he’s struggled or
simply refused to do until now. But on the policy front, there was little in
the speech that will quell the growing intraparty fracture his own fellow,
centrist lawmakers are urging him to
do more about.
Rather
than announcing he would do as previous presidents
have done and
condition US aid to Israel to force an end to the war — as humanitarian groups,
antiwar activists, and centrist Democratic lawmakers are all urging, and as
the majority of every
demographic of Americans now prefers — Biden opted for another convoluted
half-measure to let him kick the can down the road. The US military would pay
for and deploy “an emergency mission” to build a floating pier on the
Mediterranean Sea off the shores of Gaza, to eventually “receive large ships
carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters” for the Palestinians
trapped there.
The president,
it seems, has decided to simply recommit to existing policy that in recent
weeks has moved beyond being merely a target of disdain among antiwar voices,
but from establishment ones, too: from CNN anchors Fareed Zakaria and Christiane
Amanpour, to a
former US
Central Command communications
director and former US ambassador to
the region. For the past week, with aid trucks held up for weeks by Israel, the
Biden administration has been airlifting a meager amount of aid (a drop which
this morning tragically
killed five Palestinians when an
aid pallet’s parachutes failed to deploy) into what is now effectively a
famine-stricken concentration
camp, on the
basis that Israel’s continued bombing and siege of the territory can go on as
long as it wants.
As many
have pointed out, among the many absurdities of this situation is the fact that
the United States is expending money and effort to circumvent a blockade that
it is itself responsible for — and which is being put in place by what is meant
to be its closest friend in the region.
US
officials have admitted that the point of these meager humanitarian efforts is
mere public relations to quiet growing outrage at Israel’s actions so the war
can go on.
Given the
US-Israeli relationship and given that the United States is overwhelmingly
bankrolling and supplying the Israeli war effort, the White House can simply
demand that Israel let in whatever amount of aid it wants. Instead, it has been
meekly asking nicely, only to be ignored by Israeli officials and forced to
airlift supplies like it was a second-rate power dealing with an adversary.
Biden’s
floating pier idea is more of this, only in a more elaborate, absurd packaging
serving mostly to highlight how servile the president is to Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Besides the obvious problem of trying to alleviate
an urgent humanitarian crisis with a project that will take weeks to complete,
“the risk of mission creep is very a serious concern,” says former CIA analyst
and Defense Priorities public policy manager Michael DiMino, who warns that US
ships and personnel will be exposed to attack and sabotage during that time.
Then there are questions about what follows.
“Who is
going to get the aid ashore? What will the security cordon look like on the
beach? Will US troops or the Israelis be responsible for securing the port
itself?” he says. “I could see US troops getting involved in these missions
over time if we’re not careful.”
The
administration is boasting that
it worked “very closely with the Israelis in developing this initiative,” but
at this point, that means nothing. As far back as October, the
administration claimed it
had gotten a “commitment” from Netanyahu to deliver more aid to Gaza, one it
would proudly and periodically reiterate in
the months ahead — only for Israeli forces to then hold the aid up and
even open fire on
aid trucks whose movement had been coordinated with them. Sure enough, Israeli officials
are already qualifying that they’ll only let the aid go through “after proper
security checks,” opening the door to the Netanyahu government once again
blocking this latest effort by Biden.
Meanwhile,
US officials themselves have admitted throughout this war that the point of
these relatively meager humanitarian efforts is mere public relations to quiet
growing outrage at Israel’s actions so the war can go on.
Just this
week, Vice President Kamala Harris told a
visiting Israeli minister behind closed doors that the White House wanted to
keep backing Israel — which has made very clear it plans to eventually invade
Rafah, cease-fire or no cease-fire — and that cooperating with US aid efforts
was a way for Israel “to help us help you” do that.
In sum,
this policy should please no one. If you’re a left-leaning voter concerned
about human rights and Palestinian suffering, then this will do little to
nothing to fix the urgent and rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis Israel
is deliberately causing in Gaza. If
you’re an America-first conservative worried about fiscal responsibility and US
prestige, this policy loads yet more costs on the US taxpayer at Israel’s
behest, while continuing to make the United States look weak, pushed around and
humiliated by its own client state.
A Worrisome Future
The
president and his team are undoubtedly thrilled with the speech. Aside from
pandering to the far right, Biden made no major embarrassing trip up, was far more
energized than his average public appearance, and included just enough populist
notes to strike a nerve with the public. CNN’s polling shows that
a majority of viewers (65 percent) had a positive response to the address.
But this
figure looks less encouraging the deeper you delve into the numbers. That same
polling also shows this proportion is the lowest such out of all of Biden’s State of the Union
addresses so far, and in fact is the lowest positive reaction of any State of
the Union speech given by a president — including Trump and a lame-duck George
W. Bush — going back to at least 1998.
More
worrying for anyone concerned with preventing a Trump win in November is what
the content of the speech signals: that the president is sticking to the course
he’s charted thus far that has made him the most unpopular president
in modern history, dismissing voters’ concerns about the economy, while
rebuffing a vocal (and pivotal) segment of his base’s increasingly vocal
opposition to his support for Israel’s genocide.
The
president may have had a good night. But it could well be leading to a very bad
one eight months from now.
ATTACHMENT FORTY EIGHT – FROM AL JAZEERA
‘STATE OF THE UNION IS
GENOCIDE’: GAZA PROTESTERS CHALLENGE BIDEN SPEECH
Demonstrators
in the capital say they represent the ideals Biden claims to speak for, as they
call for full ceasefire in Gaza.
By Joseph Stepansky Published On 8 Mar 20248 Mar 2024
Washington, DC – United States President Joe
Biden may have been preparing to
address Congress, but protesters gathered outside of the US Capitol had
their own message: “Stop funding Israel” and “Complete ceasefire now”.
About 150
protesters gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue – the arterial road that connects
the White House to the seat of the US legislature in Washington, DC – ahead of
the annual address on Thursday.
Palestinians
displaced by Gaza war prepare for Ramadan
Gaza
ceasefire talks end in Cairo with ‘no substantial answer or solution’
The Take:
Gaza’s starvation looms over Biden’s State of the Union address
Organisers
said they wanted to block Biden’s way, or at least make him find another route,
as he travelled to the 9pm local (00:00 GMT Friday) speech. Five months into
the war in Gaza, they
said more pressure than ever was needed, with more than 30,000 Palestinians
dead and nearly two million facing humanitarian catastrophe.
“As President
Biden prepares to give the State of the Union address, we’re here to say, no
more genocide with our tax dollars,” Cat Knarr, of the US Campaign for
Palestinian Rights, told Al Jazeera.
Protesters
near the Capitol laid out a swimming-pool-sized Palestinian flag across the
avenue’s asphalt. They held signs that said “Biden’s legacy is genocide” and
“End the occupation”.
“When
Palestine is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” they chanted,
with some holding electric candles.
“From DC to
Palestine, occupation is a crime,” they said.
With the
eyes of the nation preparing to watch Biden, protester Joanna, a 39-year-old
accountant by day, said it was more important than ever to take the streets.
“I feel
like they’re killing with my hands with my tax dollars,” she said.
“I just
cannot be silent while genocide is happening. It’s wrong because it is wrong,
so I have to use my voice every day.”
Organiser
Knarr also the people of Gaza are on her mind every day: “As a Palestinian
person, a granddaughter of a man who survived the Nakba, these are my people,
and I have no choice but to wake up every single day and think about what they
are living through.” The Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the
expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their historic lands and
villages in 1948 during the creation of Israel. About 500 Palestinian villages
were destroyed during the Nakba.
US
officials said Biden is set to announce a plan to construct a temporary
port to
deliver more aid to Gaza. That comes shortly after the administration began
airdropping aid to the enclave, and Vice President Kamala Harris called for a
short-term “ceasefire” as part of a captive release deal, in a rhetorical, but
largely empty, shift.
Still,
after months of unequivocal support for Israel’s war – and the continued
transfer of aid and weapons – protesters say the administration is still only
playing at the margins.
For its
part, the United Nations has said a famine is imminent in the enclave, and that
Israel continues to slow aid deliveries into and within Gaza. A surge in
reliable ground deliveries – not maritime or air drops – is needed to prevent
more deaths from hunger, UN officials have said.
Knarr
dismissed the new Biden plan, which is expected to take weeks to implement, as
more “publicity stunts”.
“After
funding all of these bombs that Israel dropped that completely devastated Gaza
and killed 30,000 Palestinian people,” she said. “It’s just infuriating that
Palestinian life is not valued.”
Thursday’s
State of the Union comes days after voters in several states sent a message to
the Biden administration at the ballot box. In Minnesota, more than
45,000 voters cast
“uncommitted” votes in protest. That came a week after at least 100,000 voters
in Michigan did the same.
The
protest on Thursday underscored that same solidarity, organiser Jennifer Falcon
told Al Jazeera
“We see
people now taking their anger into the voting booth and that is something that
Democrats should be very afraid of,” Falcon said. “[Democrats] have lost the
moral standing to use Trump as a fear tactic and people are tired of this.”
The State
of the Union is typically a time when US presidents hail their administration’s
successes and offer a vision for the path forward.
But
Palestinian American human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf said the protesters in
Washington, DC, actually represented the ideals Biden claims to speak for.
“We know
as Joe Biden will stand in front of millions of people and gaslight people that
the state of the union is prosperous and people are doing well,” Arraf,
wielding a megaphone, told protesters in a speech.
“We know
the State of the Union, the State of the Union is genocide,” she said. “We will
not accept a president who claims to be fighting for democracy while ignoring
the majority of people he represents.”
Shortly
after she spoke, the presidential motorcade approached Pennsylvania Ave, taking
a left turn to avoid the protesters on the way to the Capitol Building.
ATTACHMENT FORTY NINE – FROM DW
STATE OF THE UNION: BIDEN SWIPES AT 'PREDECESSOR' TRUMP
In an
election year, President Joe Biden focused most of his State of the Union
address on domestic issues, but also touched on numerous challenges abroad.
Follow DW for more.
What you
need to know
·
President Joe Biden
delivered his last State of the Union address before the 2024 US
presidential election
·
'Freedom and democracy under
assault' Biden told lawmakers
·
He pushed Congress to approve more
aid to Ukraine
·
Biden announced the US military will
construct a port in Gaza
TAKEAWAYS
Republican
Britt calls Biden 'dithering and diminished leader'
Katie Britt,
the youngest Republican woman elected to the Senate, responded to Biden's
State of the Union speech, condemning him as a "dithering and diminished
leader."
She
criticized Biden's age and said the American dream turned into "a
nightmare."
"The
true, unvarnished State of our Union begins and ends with this: Our families
are hurting. Our country can do better," she said.
"Our
commander in chief is not in command," Britt said in the Republican
Party's official response.
Biden
wraps speech by addressing age concerns
President
Joe Biden wrapped the State of the Union speech by addressing concerns
regarding his age as he strives to get reelected in November.
The
81-year-old president said his age gave him a unique perspective as president.
"I
know it may not look like it, but I've been around a while," he said.
"When you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever
before. I know the American story."
"Again
and again, I've seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the
soul of our nation -- between those who want to pull America back to the past
and those want to move America into the future," he added.
"The
issue facing our nation isn't how old we are, it is how old our ideas
are," Biden said, referring to "hate, anger, revenge and
retribution."
The
Democrat president in 2021 broke the record, becoming the oldest president
inaugurated, aged 78 at the time. Should he secure a second term this year, as
he intends, he would be 86 after leaving office.
Trump
attacks Biden 'anger' during speech
Former US
President Donald Trump criticized Biden's "anger" during the State of
the Union speech.
"He
looks so angry when he’s talking, which is a trait of people who know they are
'losing it,'" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"The
anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our Country back together!"
Biden
"referenced his "predecessor" 13 times, not saying Trump's
name once.
Biden says
'ready to fix' migration issue
President
Biden has called on Congress to pass immigration reform bills, including the
bypartisan bill, arguing that this would prevent migrants from
paying traffickers.
"This
bill would save lives and bring order to the border," Biden said,
arguing that it would increase border security agents, immigration judges, and
asylum officers, alleviating the migration crisis.
"I
will not demonize immigrants saying they're 'poisoning the blood of our
country,'" Biden said, referring to Trump's words and urging Congress to pass
immigration reforms.
He also
vowed not to "separate families," or ban migrants from entering the
country based on their faith.
"We
can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I'm ready to fix it," Biden
said, with chants of "fix it" echoing in the background.
Biden's
tenure has seen a record number of migrants illegally cross in from the Mexican
border. Former President Donald Trump has turned migration to a focus of his
campaign against Biden.
Biden says
'working non-stop' for Gaza cease-fire
US President
Biden said he was working "non-stop to establish an immediate cease-fire
in Gaza" that would last for six weeks to get the hostages released.
"It's
heartbreaking," Biden says of the situation in Gaza.
"To
the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance to Gaza cannot be
a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip," Biden said as protesters
gathered near the White House calling for a cease-fire.
Biden said
most of those killed in the conflict were not Hamas militants.
"Protecting
and saving innocent lives has to be a priority. As we look to the future, the
only real solution is a two-state solution."
He also
announced plans to set up a temporary port on Gaza's coast.
"Tonight,
I'm directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a
temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large
ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter," Biden said.
He pledged
to the families of the hostages still held by the Palestinian, militant group
Hamas that he would not rest until they are brought home.
Biden has
faced increasing pressure from Democrats over his support for Israel's response
to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
Biden says
US economy 'envy of the world'
President
Joe Biden making the case that the US
economy is
stronger now than when he took office.
"Folks,
I inherited an economy that was on the brink," he said.
"Now
our economy is literally the envy of the world. Fifteen million new jobs in
just three years, that's a record. Unemployment at 50-year lows," he said.
Biden says
Trump 'seeks to bury truth' about Jan 6
President
Joe Biden addressed the January 6 Capitol riots of 2021, when former
President Donald
Trump's supporters
stormed Congress to protest the 2020 election results.
Biden said
the riots posed the greatest threat to US democracy since the US Civil War.
"But
they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed," Biden
said.
He accused
Trump of seeking "to bury the truth about Jan 6," vowing not to do
the same.
"Here's
the simplest truth, you can't love your country only when you win."
Biden
begins State of the Union speech with comments on Ukraine
US
President Joe Biden kicked
off the State of the Union Speech by saying that "freedom and
democracy" were under attack.
"Freedom
and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very same
time," he said.
He was
referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine,
stressing he will not "stop at Ukraine."
"Ukraine
can stop Putin, if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to
defend itself."
He denied
any American soldiers in Ukraine, saying he was "determined to keep it
that way."
"History
is watching. If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at
risk," Biden said.
"My
message to President Putin is simple; we will not walk away, we will not bow
down, I will not bow down," he said to loud applause.
Dozens
gathered near the White House in Washington DC, as the police blocked off a
nearby road.
"We
are here today because enough is enough," the Reuters news agency quoted
Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian
Rights, as saying.
Videos
purportedly depicting the protests in Washington were d on social media.
Protesters
also blocked off roads in Boston and Los Angeles.
Biden to
take jabs at Trump's 'revenge and retribution' plots
US
President Joe Biden will
attack election rival Donald
Trump for
plotting "revenge and retribution" during his State of the Union
address.
Excerpts
from the speech released by the White House suggest Biden will attempt to ease
growing concern over his age.
"My
lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy," he is due to
say. "Now some other people my age see a different story: an American
story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That's not me."
Though
refraining from naming Trump, the speech is believed to be referencing the
former president.
In a video
responding in advance to the State of the Union Speech, Trump said Biden was
"on the run from his record" and accused him of "horrific
devastation" during his three years so far in office.
He vowed a
"rapid response" to Biden during the speech.
"It's
time to tell Crooked Joe Biden – you're fired," Trump said, in a well-worn
reference to the catchphrase of his former TV reality show "The
Apprentice."
SOTU
disruptions possible
If last
year's State of the Union is any indication, Republicans aligned with former
President Donald
Trump, who
opposed most of President Joe
Biden's legislative
proposals throughout the year, may create a noisy audience.
Republican
Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN she might heckle Biden again.
"If
he's a liar, he should be called out," she said. "We'll see how he
talks tonight and I'll decide then."
Meanwhile,
several liberal lawmakers angry over Biden's staunch support of Israel in its
war against Hamas are expected to wear pins in support of efforts to obtain a
cease-fire in Gaza.
Republicans
to deliver rebuttal immediately following Biden's address
Britt will
deliver the official Republican responseImage: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/picture
alliance
Alabama Senator
Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate, will
deliver a rebuttal to Biden's address.
She plans
to paint a picture of a nation that "seems to be slipping away" and
one where "our families are hurting."
"Right
now, our commander-in-chief is not in command. The free world deserves better
than a dithering and diminished leader," Britt plans to say, according to
excerpts of her speech released early.
"America
deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe
streets, and a strong defense are the cornerstones of a great nation."
Swedish PM
among the State of the Union guests
On the
day Sweden officially joined NATO, Prime
Minister Ulf Kristersson will be one of the guests attending the State of the
Union in the House of Representatives chamber.
President
Joe Biden, his wife Jill, and members of Congress carefully choose guests for
the annual State of the Union speech to highlight political causes.
Other
guests on Thursday night include Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich, the parents
of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is
being held in Russia on spying charges.
Orna and
Daniel Neutra, the mother and brother of Omer Neutra, who is being held hostage
by Hamas militants in Gaza, will
also be in the audience.
Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, and the wife of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Yulia
Navalnaya, were both invited by the White House but declined.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY – FROM
FRANCE 24
BIDEN ATTACKS TRUMP, DEFENDS
DEMOCRACY IN FIERY STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Issued
on: 08/03/2024 - 01:55
Modified: 08/03/2024 - 02:09
President Joe Biden turned his State of the Union speech
Thursday night into an animated argument for a second term as he laced into
Republican front-runner Donald Trump for espousing “resentment, revenge and
retribution" and jeopardising freedom at home and abroad.
Revelling
in the political moment, Biden fired multiple broadsides at “my
predecessor” without ever mentioning Trump by name – 13 times in
all – raising his voice repeatedly as he worked to quell voter concerns
about his age and job performance while sharpening the contrast with his
all-but-certain rival in the November US presidential election.
It was a
far different tone from Biden than in his previous State of the Union address,
and it was designed to banish doubts about whether the 81-year-old is still up
to the job as he bids for a second term. Biden goaded Republicans over their
policies, invited call-and-response banter with fellow Democrats and seemed to
revel in the fight.
“Freedom
and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very
same time,” Biden said as he appealed for Congress to support Ukraine's
efforts to defend itself against Russia's invasion. “History is watching.”
Biden
quickly pivoted to the threats at home, referencing the January 6, 2021,
insurrection at the Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020
election, and calling for the threat to democracy to be countered.
“My
predecessor – and some of you here – seek to bury the truth about January
6. I will not do that," Biden said. “This is a moment to speak the truth
and to bury the lies. Here’s a simple truth. You can’t love your country only
when you win.”
To the relief
of lawmakers in his party, who are acutely aware of how heavily his age is
weighing on the presidential race, Biden was in rare form, showing stamina in
an hour-plus speech, speaking in a clear tone and quick clip, taking jabs at
Republicans and offering sprinkles of humour.
"I
know it may not look like it, but I've been around a while," the
octogenarian president said with a grin.
Reporting
from Washington, FRANCE 24’s Fraser Jackson said Biden appeared more agile and
feisty than he has in recent months. “Biden was trying to flip the script on
this narrative for the last couple of months – he has had numerous gaffes
over the course of the last couple of months,” said Jackson. “His supporters
have been trying to get him to be more fiery and be more verbal. And that is
exactly what we saw at the State of the Union speech on Thursday night. We saw
a much more agile Biden. He was there. He was taking comments, heckles by the
Republican side and pushing back against them.”
A victory lap for Biden’s policy achievements
The
president showcased his accomplishments on infrastructure and
manufacturing and pushed Congress to approve more aid to Ukraine, tougher
immigration rules and lower drug prices. He also sought to remind voters of the
situation he inherited when he entered office in 2021 amid a
raging pandemic and a contracting economy.
Taking a
victory lap in selling his legislative accomplishments, including a law to
bolster manufacturing of computer chips nationwide, Biden veered from his
prepared script to take a dig at Republicans who voted against such policies
but are eager to take credit for them back home.
“If any of
you don’t want that money in your districts,” Biden said, “just let me know”.
The
president was speaking before a historically ineffective Congress. In the
GOP-led House, Speaker Mike Johnson took power five months ago after the
chaotic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Legislators are
still struggling to approve funding bills for the current year and have been
deadlocked for months on foreign assistance bills to help Ukraine stave off
Russia's invasion and support Israel's fight against Hamas.
Taxes on billionaires leave Republicans cold
The State
of the Union address is a marquee night on the White House calendar,
offering presidents a direct line to a captive audience of lawmakers and
dignitaries in the House chamber and tens of millions of viewers at home. But
even so, the night has lost some of its lustre as viewership has declined.
Biden
aides inside the White House and on his campaign had hoped for some fresh viral
moments like those of last year, when he tussled with heckling Republicans and
chided them for past efforts to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Johnson,
eager to avoid a similar episode this year, urged Republicans in a private
meeting Wednesday to show “decorum” during the speech, according to a person
familiar with his remarks to lawmakers.
He
appeared to have limited success. A number of House Republicans began to stand
up and leave the chamber as Biden discussed raising taxes on billionaires and
corporations. Others, like Johnson, remained in their chairs and shook their
heads.
Biden
engaged in a loud call and response with lawmakers as he rhetorically
questioned whether the tax code was fair and whether billionaires and
corporations need “another $2 trillion in tax breaks”, as he charged
Republicans want.
‘I know you know how to read’
One of the
most contentious moments of his speech came during his remarks
on immigration, when Biden was running down the endorsements by
conservative groups of the bipartisan border legislation that Republicans
killed last month.
Some in
the audience appeared to yell and interject, and Biden shot back, “I know you
know how to read.”
As
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, decked out in pro-Trump paraphernalia,
continued to shout at Biden, the president held up a white button that the
Georgia Republican had handed him earlier bearing the name of Laken Riley, who
authorities say was killed by a Venezuelan national who unlawfully crossed into
the US in September 2022.
“Laken
Riley,” Biden said, calling her an “innocent young woman who was killed by an
illegal.” He expressed condolences to her family, saying his heart goes out to
them.
Biden
painted an optimistic future for the country as the massive pieces of
legislation he signed into law during his first two years in office are
implemented. But he also was set to warn that the progress he sees at home and
abroad is fragile – and particularly vulnerable if Trump returns to the White
House.
Trump, for
his part, said he planned to respond to Biden's remarks on his Truth Social
platform.
Pins for Israel, keffiyehs for Palestinians
This year,
Biden faced heightened emotions, particularly among his base supporters,
over his staunch backing for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The White
House had initially hoped a short-term ceasefire would
be in place by the speech. It blames Hamas for not yet accepting a
deal brokered by the US and its allies.
A slew of
Democrats and Republicans wore pins and stickers in honour of the Israeli
hostages still being held captive in Gaza. Meanwhile, several House
progressives wore Palestinian keffiyehs, the black and white checkered scarves
that have come to symbolise Palestinian solidarity. Biden’s motorcade took a
circuitous route to the Capitol, as hundreds of pro-ceasefire demonstrators
tried to disrupt its path from the White House.
Amid
growing concerns about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Biden
announced in his address that he has directed the US military to establish a
temporary port on the Gaza coast aimed at increasing the flow of aid into the beleaguered
territory.
The
president also issued an emphatic call for lawmakers to pass sorely needed
defence assistance for Ukraine. Acute ammunition shortages have allowed Russia
to retake the offensive in the 2-year-old war.
Access
to abortion and fertility treatments was also a key component of
Biden's speech, especially in light of a controversial ruling from
Alabama’s Supreme Court that has upended access to in vitro
fertilisation treatments in the state.
“If Americans send me a Congress that supports
the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as
the law of the land again,” Biden said. Several House Democratic women were
wearing white – a symbol of women’s suffrage – to
promote reproductive rights.
The White
House also invited union leaders, a gun control advocate, and others that Jill
Biden and her husband met as they travelled the country promoting his
agenda. The prime minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, attended to mark his country's accession to NATO in
the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Following
the speech, Biden was set for a weekend of campaign travel, holding events in
Pennsylvania on Friday and Georgia on Saturday. Trump, too, is set to campaign
in Georgia that day. The president's Cabinet also will fan out across the
country to amplify his message.
The Biden
campaign had said it would host more than 200 watch parties around the country
Thursday night, including in cities, suburbs and rural towns in battleground
states. Campaign officials were slated to use the events to recruit volunteers
and encourage others to get involved in Biden's reelection effort.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY ONE – FROM
BBC
State of the Union: What the world
made of Biden's big speech
Foreign
policy figured highly in Joe Biden's annual address to Congress, which
highlighted US involvement in conflicts around the world. So how was his speech
received in those places?
It was
notable that the president chose to begin his State of the Union by discussing
Ukraine. He later went on to spend a few minutes on the Israel-Hamas war and
finished by talking about "standing up" to China.
We asked
three BBC correspondents to analyse his comments in each area.
Nazi comparison will annoy Putin
By Sarah
Rainsford, Eastern Europe correspondent
A year
before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Biden agreed with an
interviewer that Vladimir Putin was a "killer", enraging the Kremlin.
Three years later, Mr Biden has now compared him to Adolf Hitler.
In his
State of the Union address, he referred to Hitler being "on the
march" in 1941 in Europe and then said that the Russian leader was
"on the march" himself, warning that Russian aggression would not
stop at Ukraine.
·
Biden draws election battle lines in fiery
speech
·
'We know what's coming': East Ukraine
braces for Russian advance
His
message to President Putin, he said in his speech, was simple. "We will
not bow down."
The Russian
leader has claimed, falsely, that his invasion of Ukraine is aimed at
"de-Nazifying" Russia's neighbour and he has elevated the Soviet
Union's defeat of Hitler in World War II to near-cult status. So Moscow won't
like this comparison at all.
But Mr.
Biden wasn't addressing Russia alone. He stressed the urgent need for the US to
continue supporting Ukraine as it battles to defend itself and he called on
Congress to unblock the bill that would release the funding Kyiv needs.
I've heard
politicians and analysts in Ukraine describe losing US financial backing as
"catastrophic". The delay is already damaging, forcing soldiers to
ration ammunition on the frontlines.
As Moscow
smarts at the comparison with Nazi Germany, Ukraine will welcome a State of the
Union speech that opened with a rallying cry for democracy and support for
Kyiv. President Biden said the US wouldn't "walk away".
Such words
are important and appreciated. But similar calls have been uttered before and
all the time Ukraine is losing more territory and more soldiers.
Unease in China as Biden talks tough
By Laura
Bicker, China correspondent
It's hard
to know which candidate China would prefer as it watches the discord on display
in Washington during the State of the Union.
The
contrast with its own rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress,
is stark. Nearly 3,000 delegates are meeting in Beijing this week in the Great
Hall of the People where speeches are watched with quiet nods, a reverent hush
and unwavering approval from the Communist Party elite.
There will
be a level of unease from China's business sector that President Biden sees the
need to show how tough he will be on Beijing. He said he wanted
"competition - not conflict" with China, but business leaders may ask
what form that competition will take.
He has
already expanded sanctions against China on a range of issues, from human
rights abuses to its relations with Russia. Relations are also strained over
China's behaviour in disputed areas of the South China Sea, its military intimidation
of Taiwan and growing technological competition.
Beijing
will not see Mr Biden's competitor as a more promising prospect. While
president, Donald Trump started a trade war with China and recently threatened
to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese goods if he wins in November.
But
Beijing might like the idea of another Trump presidency. The Biden
administration has built an alliance to counter the might of China and he has
been clear that the US would defend Taiwan if China tried to take the self-governing
island by force.
·
The Taiwan that China wants is vanishing
In
contrast, Mr Trump has refused to say he would help Taiwan, which Beijing
claims as its own territory.
China can exploit
these differences in Washington and use them to appear as a safer, long-term
diplomatic bet for countries around the world as the two compete for global
influence.
Biden's rebuke picked up in Israeli media
By Yolande
Knell, Middle East correspondent
President
Biden called events of the past five months "gut-wrenching" in his
address.
While he
blamed Hamas for starting the Gaza war, he stressed the high civilian death
toll among Palestinians and had a sharp message for Israel about the need to
allow basic supplies to reach the besieged territory, amid UN warnings of mass
starvation.
Aid, he
said, "cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.
Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority." This rebuke
featured prominently in the Israeli media on Friday morning.
Driven by
domestic politics in an election year - the need to show stronger American
action - as well as deep humanitarian need, Mr Biden announced a plan for a new
floating pier off Gaza to bring in food and basic supplies on ships via Cyprus.
In many
ways, this ambitious idea - which the president was careful to say would not
involve US military boots on the ground - is a measure of frustration with a
key ally.
Israel
officially welcomed the plan. It has stopped aid from entering via its own
Mediterranean container port, Ashdod, 35km from northern Gaza, and also
resisted opening more border crossings.
No comment
emanated from Vladimir Putin – but in his own SOU a few weeks back, he
threatened nuclear war.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY TWO – FROM
FOX 5, ATLANTA
BIDEN PRONOUNCES LAKEN RILEY AS
'LINCOLN RILEY' DURING SPEECH; GOP RESPONSE ADDRESSES MURDER
By Colin Lawler Published March 7, 2024 10:48PM
Updated 11:17PM
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden mentioned
murdered Georgia college student Laken Riley while
discussing immigration during his State of the Union address Thursday before
Congress.
The president was discussing a proposed bill aimed at strengthening
border security when he was interrupted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.),
demanding that Biden "say her name."
"[Laken] Riley. An innocent young woman who was
killed by an illegal. That's right. But how many of thousands of people have
been killed by illegals," Biden said. "To her parents, my heart goes
out to having lost children myself. I understand. But look if we change the
dynamics at the border, people pay these smugglers eight thousand bucks to get
across the border. Because they know if they get by, it will be six to eight
years before they have a hearing."
Biden mispronounced Laken Riley's first name as
"Lincoln."
Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student, was
murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia while out jogging.
Authorities say the man accused of killing her was in the country illegally.
GOP response also brings attention to Laken Riley murder
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt issued the Republican response to
Biden's speech, in which she too mentioned Riley's murder, linking the death to
Biden's "release of millions of illegal border crossers into this
country."
"Just think about Laken Riley, In my neighboring state
of Georgia, this beautiful, 22-year-old nursing student went out for a jog, but
she never got the opportunity to return home. She was brutally murdered by one
of the millions of illegal border crosser President Biden chose to release into
our homeland," Britt said. "As a mom, I can't quit thinking about
this. I mean, this could have been my daughter. This could have been yours. And
tonight, President Biden finally said her name. But he refused to take
responsibility for his own actions. Mr. President, enough is enough."
RELATED STORIES
·
Georgia immigration bill: Latino
officials, civil rights groups voice concerns over rhetoric
·
Laken Riley Act: Immigration bill
named for murdered student passed by U.S. House
·
Brother of Laken Riley murder suspect
has ties to Venezuela crime gang, prosecutors say
Laken Riley's parents decline invite to State of the Union
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) invited Riley's parents to the
State of the Union, but said they declined. He instead left his guest seat
vacant in honor of Laken.
Earlier in the day, in the same room, the House passed the
"Laken Riley Act," which would require the detention of any migrant
accused of theft. Meanwhile, Republicans in Georgia are pushing for tougher
state immigration laws.
Politicians have been accused of using Riley's death to gain
political points after learning her suspected killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra,
entered the U.S. illegally in 2022.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY THREE – FROM
THE NEW YORK POST
BIDEN BOTCHES NAME OF
MIGRANT-MURDERED ‘LINCOLN’ RILEY IN TRUMP-BASHING STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH
By Steven Nelson ,
Diana Glebova and Josh Christenson
Published March 7, 2024
Updated March 8, 2024, 12:10 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Biden stunned listeners
Thursday as he veered from his highly partisan State of the Union
address script to call out Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s
murder last month by an illegal immigrant — erring twice by calling
her “Lincoln.”
Biden, 81, began his campaign-style speech by highlighting
his best-polling positions — railing against former President Donald Trump
on issues such as abortion, NATO and the Capitol riot — but was derailed
by Republicans’ persistent heckling, finally responding to their demands that
he say Riley’s name hours after the House passed legislation in her honor
to require that migrants who commit certain crimes be sent to federal custody.
The president then held up a pin bearing Riley’s name,
which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had handed him on his way
into the chamber, with Biden telling the congresswoman, “I know how to say
her name.”
“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was
killed by an illegal,” Biden said, both botching her name and using a term
considered politically incorrect by most Democratic officeholders.
“That’s right, but how many of the thousands of people being
killed by illegals —” he began as Greene interrupted him with continued
heckling over his border policies.
The president did not correct himself after botching
Riley’s name before adding: “To her parents, I say my heart goes out to you.
Having lost children myself, I understand.”
Biden pivoted quickly to arguing for a stalled bipartisan
Senate bill, which conservatives balked at last month over provisions they say
bless rather than counter the current White House policy of quickly
releasing most migrants who request asylum after illegally crossing the
border.
The president emphasized the bill also had funding to boost
the processing of asylum claims, as Senate GOP negotiator James Lankford
(R-Okla.) nodded along and mouthed “That’s true” — and House Speaker Mike
Johnson (R-La.) shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Look, if we change the dynamic at the border — people pay the smugglers $8,000 to get across the border because they know if they get in the country, it’s six to eight years before they have a hearing … But if it’s only six weeks, the idea is it’s highly unlikely that people will pay that money and go all that way, knowing that they’ll be able to be kicked out quickly,” Biden said.
Republicans had hounded Biden for not addressing Riley’s murder
since her body was found Feb. 22 on the University of Georgia’s campus.
Authorities say Riley was killed by 26-year-old Venezuelan
migrant Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was released near El Paso in
September 2022 pursuant to Biden administration policies and subsequently
busted by police but not held in jail for allegedly endangering a child in New
York and shoplifting in Georgia.
Republicans accuse Biden of unleashing the border crisis by
terminating former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that
required most asylum seekers to await rulings on their claim while staying
south of the border.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), who represents Staten
Island, pressed Biden to use his existing presidential authority to reverse
course on border policy shortly before his speech, pulling him aside as he
walked down the central aisle of the House chamber.
Malliotakis “told him to secure the border, Americans are
dying. He used his authority to dismantle it, he can use it to put it back
together,” her spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre told The Post.
Republicans note that Biden largely ignored the border issue
until recently — with the White House initially insisting that a surge in
crossings that coincided with Biden taking office was simply seasonal or a reflection
of global issues and not US policies.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY FOUR – FROM
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BIDEN BUNGLES NAME OF LAKEN RILEY IN STATE OF THE UNION, SAYS SHE WAS
‘KILLED BY AN ILLEGAL’
By Stephen
Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 7, 2024
President
Biden waded directly into the dangerous waters of immigration in his State of
the Union address Thursday, but he bungled the name of Laken Riley, the
female nursing student whose death has been blamed on an illegal immigrant let
into the U.S. under his catch-and-release policies.
Mr. Biden
was prodded by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who had
accosted the president on his way into the chamber and kept saying Riley’s
name.
She did it
again, shouting “Say her name” at Mr. Biden when he began a section of his
speech on the border.
“Lincoln
— Lincoln
Riley,” Mr. Biden
said, holding up a button with her name on it that Republicans were passing
out. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
He
continued: “That’s right, but how many of the thousands of people are being
killed by illegals.”
“To her
parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I
understand,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr.
Biden’s prepared remarks did not include any reference to Riley, so the
remarks appeared to be off-the-cuff.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY FIVE – FROM
WASHPOST
FACT-CHECKING PRESIDENT BIDEN’S 2024 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Analysis
by Glenn Kessler The Fact Checker
March 8, 2024 at 12:18 a.m. EST
A State of
the Union address generally is a product of many hands and is carefully vetted.
But State of the Union addresses are political speeches, an argument for the
president’s policies, so context is sometimes missing. Here’s a roundup of a
dozen claims in Thursday night’s speech that caught our attention, listed in
the order President Biden made them.
As is our
practice, we do not award Pinocchios in speech roundups.
“15 million
new jobs in just three years — a record, a record!”
At the
moment, Biden can claim a record for a presidential term, but he is comparing
his jobs record for the first three years of his term with the full four-year
terms of previous presidents. That’s misleading. He has no idea what might
happen in the last year of this term that could affect the final number.
Donald Trump found
this out the hard way. In his 2020 State of the Union address, he
bragged: “Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is
lower than any administration in the history of our country.” But the coronavirus was
already spreading across the globe, and within weeks, the U.S. economy was shut
down, throwing millions of people out of work. Trump’s record went from great to horrible.
That’s why
it’s often misleading to measure job creation by presidential term — an
artificial metric beloved by presidents and the public alike. Of course, the
U.S. population was much smaller under other presidents with great jobs
records, like Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt, so a
raw-number record needs to be seen in that context.
Still,
Biden’s job record in his first three years certainly tops Trump’s performance.
In the first three
years of Trump’s term, about 6.5
million jobs were created — less than half the number created under Biden in the
same time period. The number of jobs is now 5.4 million higher than the peak
under Trump in February 2020, before the pandemic struck the economy.
“800,000
new manufacturing jobs in America and counting.”
The number
of manufacturing jobs has rebounded since the pandemic started, but growth in
manufacturing jobs has essentially stalled since Biden last gave his State of
the Union address. Only about 70,000 of the nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs
were created since Biden addressed Congress 13 months ago, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The level
reached in January, a tad under 13 million, is still below that of 2008, before
the Great Recession. Left unsaid is that overall manufacturing jobs have declined by
a third since a
peak was reached in 1979, even as the number of
available workers has
climbed by nearly 60 percent.
“Inflation
has dropped from 9 percent to 3 percent — the lowest in the world.”
This boast
is no longer accurate. Biden
presumably was comparing the United States with its peer countries, members of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Group
of Seven. The U.S. inflation rate is much better than the OECD average of 5.7
percent. But other G-7 members such as Japan, Italy and Germany had lower
inflation rates as of January. Italy’s inflation rate is below 1 percent, according to an OECD report this week.
“And now
instead of importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re
exporting American products and creating American jobs — right here in America
where they belong!”
Biden is
being a bit slippery here because he’s only telling only part of the story.
Exports are up, which means more U.S. products are being shipped overseas. But
that does not necessarily mean jobs are no longer being shipped overseas.
Imports are also up during his presidency, though they fell a bit last year.
According to the Census Bureau, exports
in goods and services have climbed from $2.16 trillion in 2020 to $3.05
trillion in 2023.
But imports
have also gone up, from $2.81 trillion in 2020 to $3.8 trillion last year. That
total was down 3.7 percent from 2022, bringing the trade deficit down with it.
The trade
figures obscure the fact that many manufacturers import goods used to
manufacture products that are later shipped overseas. Some of those imports
represent lost American jobs.
“Bring
your prescription with you [overseas]. I promise you I’ll get it for you for 40
percent. The cost you’re paying now. Same company, same drug, same place, folks.”
This is
basically correct, at least with similar countries (Biden referenced “Toronto,
Berlin, Moscow”). A Rand study published
last month, using 2022 data, concluded that across all drugs, U.S. prices were
2.78 times higher than prices in 33 other countries that are part of the OECD.
“Obamacare,
known as the Affordable Care Act, is still a very big deal. Over 100 million of
you can no longer be denied health insurance because of preexisting
conditions.”
This
figure — over 100 million — is in dispute. Biden appears to be taking a
high-end estimate from the Department of Health and Human Services that 50
million to 129 million non-elderly Americans have some type of preexisting
health condition. But before the ACA, state-run high-risk insurance pools did
help some people with preexisting conditions.
Before the
ACA was enacted, a 2010
investigation by
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, based on documents from the four
largest for-profit health insurers, found that companies denied coverage to 1
out of every 7 applicants. So that would be 14 percent. So even if you took the
entire U.S. population with health insurance — about 271 million people — that
means 38 million would face a denial of coverage.
Meanwhile,
a KFF study said 27 percent of American adults younger than 65, about 54
million people, have “health conditions that would likely leave them
uninsurable if they applied for individual market coverage under pre-ACA
underwriting practices that existed in nearly all states.”
“I’ve
already cut the federal deficit by over 1 trillion dollars.”
Biden
misleadingly claims to have lowered the deficit by a huge amount even though
his policies have added significantly to the national debt. How is this
possible? Welcome to federal budget magic.
The
Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper, in February 2021 estimated that the budget deficit would fall dramatically in
fiscal years 2021, 2022 and 2023 because emergency pandemic spending would
lapse.
But Biden
enacted additional covid relief funds and other new policies, resulting in the
more modest decline in the deficit — and thus a bigger increase in the national
debt. For instance, the deficit was projected to be about $1 trillion in 2022,
and it turned out to be about $1.4 trillion. The deficit continued to get worse
in 2023, climbing from CBO’s original estimate of $963 billion to $1.68
trillion.
All told,
Biden has increased the national debt nearly $1.6 trillion more than originally
projected.
“The last
administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the
top 1 percent, the very wealthy and the biggest corporation, and exploded the
federal deficit. They added more to the national debt than any presidential
term in American history. Check the numbers, folks.”
We did.
Biden suggests Trump’s 2017 tax cut is responsible for most of the deficit
during the Trump presidency, but that’s wrong. The debt grew about $8 trillion
during Donald Trump’s four years as president, or about 25 percent of the
nation’s $31 trillion in debt. But a larger part of that was debt accumulated
to help fund Medicare and Social Security as the baby boom generation began
retiring — automatic spending over which Trump had no control.
Massive
spending to stabilize the economy during the pandemic also added to the debt —
but that was approved with vast bipartisan support. The tax cuts passed by
Congress in 2017 helped add to the deficit — but not as much as various
spending bills approved during his presidency.
“In 2020,
55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion and paid zero in
federal income tax — zero.”
This is
one of Biden’s favorite statistics, and it pops up yet again in a State of the
Union address. It’s not necessarily wrong, but there are some limitations.
The figure
comes from a report issued in April 2021 by the
left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The group studied the
corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission of companies
listed in the Fortune 500, zeroing in on companies that posted profits.
In 2020,
ITEP found that 55 profitable companies indicated that they paid no federal
income tax even though they collectively earned almost $40.5 billion in pretax
income. ITEP previously reported that 91 companies paid no federal income tax in 2018,
so the situation has improved.
Company
tax returns generally are not made public, so ITEP’s numbers are the product of
its own research and analysis of public filings.
But it is
an imperfect measure. A company’s annual 10-K filing in March generally have
only estimated numbers, as the actual tax return generally is not filed until
later in the year. Total tax numbers may be determined from looking at cash
flow statements, but there is no guarantee that the calculations reflect the
actual tax liability.
Nevertheless,
the notion that 10 to 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies do not pay federal
income taxes is consistent with a 2020
report by
the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. The JCT was able to examine the
actual tax filings but could not reveal the names of the companies. It found
that about 20 percent of the 50 corporations reported no tax liability on their
tax returns. That mirrors ITEP’s examination of the Fortune 500.
“Thanks to
the law I wrote and signed, big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15
percent.”
As part of
the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress included a new 15 percent corporate
minimum tax, beginning last year, on large corporations that for three years
have an average financial statement income of over $1 billion. The Tax
Foundation estimated that
would raise $153 billion over 10 years — a relative pittance — and it could be
less if companies figure out how to avoid it. The average effective tax rate
under the corporate income tax would rise from 18.7 percent under current law
to 19.3 percent.
“There are
1,000 billionaires in America. You know what the average federal tax rate for
these billionaires is? … 8.2 percent! That’s far less than the vast majority of
Americans pay. No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a
sanitation worker or a nurse!”
This is
another favorite line — the president has referenced this “fact” in more than 30 appearances over the past year — but Biden is
comparing apples and oranges. We’ve given the president two Pinocchios for
this claim.
The “lower
tax rate” refers to a 2021 White House study concluding
that the 400 wealthiest taxpayers paid an effective tax rate of 8 percent. But
that estimate included unrealized gains in the income calculation. That’s not
how the tax laws work. People are taxed on capital gains when they sell their
stocks or other assets. So this is only a figure for a hypothetical tax system.
According
to IRS data on the top 0.001 percent — 1,475 taxpayers with at least $77
million in adjusted gross income in 2020 — the average tax rate was 23.7
percent. The top 1 percent of taxpayers (income of at least $548,000) paid
nearly 26 percent.
As for
less-wealthy Americans, few, such as schoolteachers or firefighters, pay even
the lowest rate of 10 percent because of deductions, exemptions and the like.
According
to the Tax Policy Center, about 60 percent of all tax returns are filed by
those with income under $50,000 — and about half of those pay no income tax at
all; 22 percent paid an effective tax rate of less than 5 percent and another
22 percent paid less than 10 percent.
Among
taxpayers with income between $50,000 and $100,000, about 60 percent paid an
effective tax rate below 10 percent.
“Last
year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime
fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years.”
This is
correct. The official FBI numbers have not been released, but preliminary data
led analysts to predict the decline in murders in 2023 is expected
to be the sharpest drop on record. Murders had spiked during the pandemic, as
Biden noted, and he attributed the drop to investments in public safety made by
his administration. But it’s too early to make a definite link.
ATTACHMENT FIFTY SIX – FROM
FOX NEWS
DID BIDEN PASS OR FAIL? FORMER
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITERS GRADE THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Democrats and Republicans disagree on whether the president's
address was too political
By Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray Fox News Published March 8, 2024 4:07am EST
Saddled with negative approval ratings and trailing former
President Trump in the latest polling average of their general
election rematch, President Biden went for the jugular in primetime Thursday
evening as he delivered the State of the Union address with eight months to go
until the November showdown.
Biden early and often took aim at Trump, whom he only
referred to as "his predecessor," and also fired numerous salvos at
Republican lawmakers sitting directly in front of him as the president
delivered his address to a joint session of Congress.
"My predecessor, a former Republican president, tells
Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want,’" Biden charged three
minutes into his speech. It was the first of 13 references to Trump, who this
week became the GOP's presumptive nominee.
While Democrats applauded the tone and tenor of the
president's address, Republicans savaged the speech for crossing the line.
"This was the most partisan State of the Union I’ve
heard in my lifetime," said Bill McGurn, who served as chief speechwriter
for then-President George W. Bush.
"No outreach to Republicans, and the clear message was
this: the era of big government is back, with a vengeance," added McGurn,
a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and columnist as well as a Fox
News contributor.
FOX EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP REACTS TO BIDEN
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Marc Thiessen, who also served as a speechwriter for
Bush, argued Biden's speech was an "utter disgrace."
"Attacking his opponent directly in the first minutes
of his speech is unprecedented and perhaps the most partisan start to a State
of the Union address in modern memory," Theissen emphasized in a social
media posting.
It was a very different take from Dan Cluchey, who served as
a speechwriter for the president in the Biden White House.
"With energy and vigor, the President laid out the
clear choice facing America — a choice between two starkly different visions
for our future. Will we expand freedom, or restrict it? Will we defend
democracy, or attack it? Will we continue to grow the economy for all, or
rig it on behalf of billionaires and the wealthiest corporations?
President Biden made it crystal clear where he stands — and he did it while
commanding the room with equal parts sharp oratory, disarming banter, and
matter-of-fact moral authority," Cluchey told Fox News.
And Cluchey argued that "State of the Union addresses
don't get better than this."
Longtime Democratic consultant Maria Cardona told Fox News
"the contrast with Trump was brilliant and scathing. He pulled no
punches, told the truth, and he was everything he needed to be."
"Of course, Republicans thought it was too political.
If that’s their only criticism, they know he had a homer, and they have nowhere
else to go," added Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member and
veteran of multiple presidential campaigns.
Cardona argued that the president "was energetic,
direct, funny, eloquent, and he laid out his accomplishments clearly and
relevantly, connecting them with peoples’ lives."
McGurn agreed that the 81-year-old Biden "was vigorous,
more than we’ve recently seen."
But he added that the address "had a
get-off-my-lawn-you-rotten-kids! quality to it."
And Clark Judge, who served as a speechwriter for the late
President Ronald Reagan, concurred that Biden's address "sounded angry.
For its force, it depended upon him basically shouting and projecting
outrage."
He also charged that the speech was "a laundry list of
bad solutions for the problems he [Biden] caused."
Biden used a portion of his address to spotlight the
economic rebound during his tenure in the White House.
"I inherited an economy that was on the brink,"
Biden noted before touting "now our economy is the envy of the
world."
And he spotlighted that "wages keep going
up and inflation keeps coming down!"
But poll after poll indicates that Americans aren't giving
the president much credit for the easing in inflation.
And Biden went on offense against Trump and congressional
Republicans on another issue where he's politically vulnerable, the crisis at
the nation's southern border.
But Colin Reed, a veteran Republican strategist, said that
when it came to the economy and the border, "both were buried deep within
the confines of the speech."
"On the two most important issues, he whiffed big time,"
said Reed, a campaign veteran who served as a top adviser this cycle on a super
PAC supporting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's 2024 GOP nomination bid.
Biden is the oldest president in the nation's history. And
polls indicate a majority of Americans harbor serious questions about his
physical and mental ability to handle another four years in the White House.
"I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around
a while. And when you get to my age, certain
things become clearer than ever before," Biden quipped near
the end of his address.
Seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer
acknowledged that the president "can’t stick his head in the sand and
pretend voters don’t know he’s old, and this was the first time he took on his
age directly. It was smart to do so, and I think he’ll refine this more and
more over the course of the campaign."
And Moyer, who's served on multiple Democratic presidential
campaigns, noted that "this was more campaign speech and less State of the
Union address." But he argued that Biden "did what he needed to do,
showing a fighting spirit and hitting many of the expected notes on popular
issues."
ATTACHMENT FIFTY
SEVEN - FROM THE NEW YORK POST
EXPELLED LYING REP. GEORGE SANTOS
SAYS HE’S RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAIN AFTER ATTENDING BIDEN’S STATE OF UNION
SPEECH
By Diana Glebova
Published March 7, 2024
Updated March 7, 2024, 10:46 p.m. ET
He’s back.
Expelled Republican Rep. George Santos revealed that he
would challenge Rep. Nick LaLota for his seat in New York’s First Congressional
District, which covers most of Suffolk County on eastern Long Island.
“I just witnessed a weak, frail president deliver spin and
lies to the American people from inside the chambers,” Santos wrote on X while
attending President Biden’s State of the Union address.
“I have made several personal sacrifices in the name of
serving the American people. My promise is that I will never back down because
of my love for this country.”
The New York Republican, who was expelled from the House
Dec. 1 and indicted last year for alleged campaign finance fraud and
embezzlement, said he would “shake things up” by “challenging Nick for the
battle over #NY1.”
Santos was expelled after a scathing House ethics report came out and
members voted 311-114 to oust him.
Santos surprisingly attended Biden’s speech to the nation
Thursday night.
“I was just off visiting with some of my colleagues in a
very bipartisan fashion,” the 35-year-old Republican — decked out in silver
shoes and a studded collar — told reporters in the House hallway, saying
Congress felt “different” since he was last there.
“I’m a spectator, I’m just here watching,” he added, saying
he “doesn’t know” if he will come back again.
“I don’t put anything past my desire to run for office
again,” he said before his announcement.
Good
evening.
Mr.
Speaker. Madam Vice President. Members of Congress. My Fellow Americans.
In January 1941,
President Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to
the nation.
He said,
“I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.”
Hitler was
on the march. War was raging in Europe.
President
Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people
that this was no ordinary moment.
Freedom and democracy were
under assault in the world.
Tonight I
come to the same chamber to address the nation.
Now it is
we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the
Union.
And yes, my
purpose tonight is to both wake
up this Congress, and alert the American people that
this is no ordinary moment either.
Not
since President Lincoln and the Civil
War have freedom and democracy been under assault here
at home as they are today.
What makes
our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are
under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.
Overseas,
Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout
Europe and beyond.
If anybody
in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will
not.
But
Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it
needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are
not asking for American soldiers.
In fact,
there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I
am determined to keep it that way.
But now
assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away
from our leadership in the world.
It wasn’t
that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, “Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Now, my
predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, “Do whatever the hell
you want.”
A former
American President actually said that, bowing down to a Russian
leader.
It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable.
America is
a founding member of NATO the military alliance of democratic nations created
after World War II to prevent war and keep the peace.
Today,
we’ve made NATO stronger than ever.
We welcomed Finland to
the Alliance last year, and just this morning, Sweden officially
joined NATO, and their Prime Minister is here tonight.
Mr. Prime
Minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance
the world has ever known.
I say this
to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National
Security Bill.
History is
watching.
If the
United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at
risk.
Europe at
risk. The free world at risk, emboldening others who wish to do us harm.
My message
to President Putin is simple.
We will
not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow
down.
History is
watching, just like history watched three years ago on January
6th.
Insurrectionists stormed this
very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American
democracy.
Many of
you were here on that darkest of days.
We all saw
with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots.
They had
come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the
people.
January
6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election,
posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.
But
they failed. America stood strong and
democracy prevailed.
But we
must be honest the threat remains and democracy must be
defended.
My
predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January
6th.
I will not
do that.
This is a
moment to speak the truth and bury the
lies.
And here’s
the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when
you win.
As I’ve
done ever since being elected to office, I ask you
all, without regard to party,
to join together and defend our democracy!
Remember your oath
of office to defend against all threats
foreign and domestic.
Respect free
and fair elections! Restore trust in our institutions! And make clear—political
violence has absolutely no place in America!
History is
watching.
And
history is watching another assault on freedom.
Joining us
tonight is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama. 14 months
ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of
IVF.
She
scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut
down IVF treatments across the state, unleashed by the Supreme Court decision
overturning Roe v. Wade.
She was
told her dream would have to wait.
What her
family has gone through should never have happened. And unless Congress
acts, it could happen again.
So tonight,
let’s stand up for families like hers!
To my
friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer.
Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide!
Like most
Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right. And I thank
Vice President Harris for being an incredible leader, defending reproductive
freedom and so much more.
But my
predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned.
He’s the
reason it was overturned. In fact, he brags about it.
Look at
the chaos that has resulted.
Joining us
tonight is Kate Cox, a wife and mother from Dallas.
When she
became pregnant again, the fetus had a fatal condition.
Her
doctors told Kate that her own life and her ability to have children in the
future were at risk if she didn’t act.
Because
Texas law banned abortion, Kate and her husband had to
leave the state to get the care she needed.
What her
family has gone through should never have happened as well. But it is
happening to so many others.
There are
state laws banning the right to choose, criminalizing doctors, and forcing
survivors of rape and incest to leave their states as well to get the care they
need.
Many of
you in this Chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on
reproductive freedom.
My
God, what freedoms will you take away next?
In its
decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority
wrote, “Women are not without electoral or political power.”
No
kidding.
Clearly,
those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue
about the power of women in America.
They found
out though when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023,
and they will find out again, in 2024.
If
Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you,
I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again!
America
cannot go back. I am here tonight to show the way forward. Because I know how
far we’ve come.
Four years
ago next week, before I came to office, our country was hit by the worst pandemic
and the worst economic crisis in a century.
Remember
the fear. Record job losses. Remember the spike in crime. And
the murder rate.
A raging
virus that would take more than 1 million American lives and
leave millions of loved ones behind.
A mental
health crisis of isolation and loneliness.
A
president, my predecessor, who failed the most basic duty. Any President owes
the American people the duty to care.
That is
unforgivable.
I came to
office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in
our nation’s history.
And we
have. It doesn’t make the news but
in thousands of cities and towns the American
people are
writing the greatest comeback story never told.
So let’s
tell that story here and now.
America’s
comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy
from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all of
America, in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no
one behind!
The pandemic
no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now
being used to help beat cancer.
Turning
setback into comeback.
That’s
America!
I
inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is
the envy of the world!
15 million
new jobs in just three years—that’s a record!
Unemployment
at 50-year lows.
A record
16 million Americans are starting small businesses and each one is an
act of hope.
With
historic job growth and small business growth for Black, Hispanic,
and Asian-Americans.
800,000 new
manufacturing jobs in America and counting.
More people
have health insurance today than ever before.
The racial
wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.
Wages keep going
up and inflation keeps coming down!
Inflation
has dropped from 9% to 3%—the lowest in the world!
And
trending lower.
And now
instead of importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re
exporting American products and creating American jobs—right here in America
where they belong!
And the
American people are beginning to feel it.
Consumer
studies show consumer confidence is soaring.
Buy
American has been the law of the land since the 1930s.
Past
administrations including my predecessor failed to Buy
American.
Not any
more.
On my
watch, federal projects like helping to build American roads bridges and
highways will be made with American products built by American workers creating
good-paying American jobs!
Thanks to
my Chips and Science Act the United States is investing more in
research and development than ever before.
During the
pandemic a shortage of semiconductor chips drove up prices for everything from
cell phones to automobiles.
Well
instead of having to import semiconductor chips, which America invented I
might add, private companies are now investing billions of
dollars to build new chip factories here in America!
Creating tens
of thousands of jobs many of them paying over $100,000 a
year and don’t require a college degree.
In fact my
policies have attracted $650 Billion of private sector investments in clean
energy and advanced manufacturing creating tens of thousands of jobs here in
America!
Thanks to
our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced
across your communities—modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports,
and public transit systems.
Removing
poisonous lead pipes so every child can
drink clean water without risk of getting brain
damage.
Providing affordable high
speed internet for every American no matter where you
live.
Urban,
suburban, and rural communities—in red states and blue.
Record
investments in tribal communities.
Because of
my investments, family farms are better be able to stay in the family and
children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living.
It’s
transformative.
A great
comeback story is Belvidere, Illinois. Home to an auto plant for nearly 60
years.
Before I
came to office the plant was on its way to shutting down.
Thousands
of workers feared for their livelihoods. Hope was fading.
Then I was
elected to office and we raised Belvidere repeatedly with the auto company
knowing unions make all the difference.
The UAW
worked like hell to keep the plant open and get those jobs back. And together,
we succeeded!
Instead of
an auto factory shutting down an auto factory is re-opening and a new
state-of-the art battery factory is being built to power those cars.
Instead of
a town being left behind it’s a community moving forward again!
Because
instead of watching auto jobs of the future go overseas 4,000 union workers
with higher wages will be building that future, in Belvidere, here in
America!
Here
tonight is UAW President, Shawn Fain, a great friend, and
a great labor leader.
And Dawn
Simms, a third generation UAW worker in Belvidere.
Shawn, I was
proud to be the first President in American history to walk a picket
line.
And today
Dawn has a job in her hometown providing stability for her family and pride and
dignity.
Showing once
again, Wall Street didn’t build this country!
The middle
class built this country! And unions built the middle class!
When
Americans get knocked down, we get back up!
We keep
going!
That’s America! That’s
you, the American people!
It’s
because of you America is coming back!
It’s because
of you, our future is brighter!
And it’s
because of you that tonight we can proudly say the State of our Union is strong
and getting stronger!
Tonight I
want to talk about the future of possibilities that we can build
together.
A future
where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and
biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks.
I grew up
in a home where not a lot trickled down on my Dad’s kitchen table.
That’s why
I’m determined to turn things around so the middle class does
well the poor have a way up and the wealthy still does well.
We all do
well.
And
there’s more to do to make sure you’re feeling the benefits of all
we’re doing.
Americans
pay more for prescription
drugs than anywhere else.
It’s
wrong and I’m ending it.
With a law
I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big
Pharma!
Instead of
paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a
month!
And now I want
to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs
it!
For years
people have talked about it but I finally got it done and gave Medicare the
power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs just like the VA does
for our veterans.
That’s not
just saving seniors money.
It’s
saving taxpayers money cutting the federal deficit by $160 Billion because
Medicare will no longer have to pay exorbitant prices to Big
Pharma.
This
year Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the
costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart
disease to arthritis.
Now it’s
time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower
prices for 500 drugs over the next decade.
That will
not only save lives it will save taxpayers another $200 Billion!
Starting
next year that same law caps total prescription drug costs for seniors on
Medicare at $2,000 a year even for expensive cancer drugs that can
cost $10,000, $12,000, $15,000 a year.
Now I want
to cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for everyone!
Folks
Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act is still a very big
deal.
Over one
hundred million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of
pre-existing conditions.
But my
predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by
repealing the Affordable Care Act.
I won’t
let that happen!
We
stopped you 50 times before and we will stop
you again!
In
fact I am protecting it and expanding it.
I enacted
tax credits that save $800 per person per year reducing health care
premiums for millions of working families.
Those tax
credits expire next year.
I want to
make those savings permanent!
Women are
more than half of our population but research on women’s health has always been
underfunded.
That’s why
we’re launching the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health
Research, led by Jill who is doing an incredible job as First Lady.
Pass my
plan for $12 Billion to transform women’s health
research and benefit millions of lives across America!
I know the
cost of housing is so important to you.
If
inflation keeps coming down mortgage rates will come down as well.
But I’m
not waiting.
I want to
provide an annual tax credit that will give Americans $400 a month for the next
two years as mortgage rates come down to put toward their mortgage when they
buy a first home or trade up for a little more space.
My
Administration is also eliminating title insurance fees for federally
backed mortgages.
When
you refinance your home this can save you $1,000 or
more.
For
millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who break antitrust
laws by price-fixing and driving up rents.
I’ve cut
red tape so more builders can get federal financing, which is already helping
build a record 1.7 million housing units nationwide.
Now pass
my plan to build and renovate 2 million affordable homes and bring those rents
down!
To remain
the strongest economy in the world we need the best education system in the
world.
I want to give
every child a good start by providing access to pre-school for 3- and
4-year-olds.
Studies
show that children who go to pre-school are nearly 50% more likely to
finish high school and go on to earn a 2- or 4-year degree no
matter their background.
I want to
expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning time and see to it that every
child learns to read by third grade.
I’m also
connecting businesses and high schools so students get hands-on
experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they
go to college.
And I want
to make college more affordable.
Let’s
continue increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families and
increase our record investments in HBCUs and Hispanic and Minority-serving
Institutions
I fixed
student loan programs to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4 Million
Americans including nurses firefighters and others in public service like
Keenan Jones a public-school educator in Minnesota who’s here with us tonight.
He’s
educated hundreds of students so they can go to college now he can help his own
daughter pay for college.
Such
relief is good for the economy because folks are now able
to buy a home start a business even start a
family.
While
we’re at it I want to give public school teachers a raise!
Now let me
speak to a question of fundamental fairness for all Americans.
I’ve been
delivering real results in a fiscally
responsible way.
I’ve
already cut the federal deficit by over one
trillion dollars.
I signed
a bipartisan budget deal that will cut another trillion
dollars over the next decade.
And now
it’s my goal to cut the federal deficit $3 trillion more by making big
corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their fair .
Look, I’m
a capitalist.
If you want
to make a million bucks—great!
Just pay
your fair in taxes.
A fair tax
code is how we invest in the things that make a country great—health care,
education, defense, and more.
But here’s
the deal.
The last administration
enacted a $2 Trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very
wealthy and
the biggest corporations and exploded the
federal deficit.
They added
more to the national debt than in any presidential
term in American history.
For folks
at home does anybody really think the tax code is
fair?
Do you
really think the wealthy and big corporations need another
$2 trillion in tax breaks?
I sure
don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it
fair!
Under my
plan nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an
additional penny in federal taxes.
Nobody.
Not one penny.
In
fact the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes
for millions of working families and cut child poverty
in HALF.
Restore
the Child Tax Credit because no child should go hungry in this
country!
The way to
make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very
wealthy finally pay their .
In 2020 55
of the biggest companies in America made $40 Billion in profits and paid zero
in federal income taxes.
Not any
more!
Thanks to
the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%.
But that’s still
less than working people pay in federal taxes.
It’s time
to raise the corporate minimum tax to at
least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to
pay their fair .
I also want
to end the tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil, private jets, and
massive executive pay!
End it
now!
There are
1,000 billionaires in America.
You know
what the average federal tax rate for these billionaires is? 8.2
percent!
That’s far
less than the vast majority of Americans pay.
No billionaire
should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker, a nurse!
That’s why
I’ve proposed a minimum tax of 25%
for billionaires. Just 25%.
That would
raise $500 Billion over the next 10 years.
Imagine
what that could do for America. Imagine a future with affordable
child care so millions of families can get the care they need and still go
to work and help grow the economy.
Imagine a future
with paid leave because no one should have to choose between working and taking
care of yourself or a sick family member.
Imagine a
future with home care and elder care so seniors and people
living with disabilities can stay in their homes and family caregivers get paid
what they deserve!
Tonight, let’s
all agree once again to stand up for seniors!
Many of my
Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block.
If anyone
here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the
retirement age I will stop them!
Working
people who built this country pay more into Social
Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not
fair.
We
have two ways to go on Social Security.
Republicans
will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the
wealthy.
I
will protect and strengthen Social Security and make the
wealthy pay their fair !
Too many
corporations raise their prices to pad their
profits charging you more and more for less and less.
That’s why
we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price
gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to
housing.
In fact,
snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as much for
the same size bag but with fewer chips in it.
Pass
Senator Bob Casey’s bill to put a stop to shrinkflation!
I’m also
getting rid of junk fees those hidden fees added at the end
of your bills without your knowledge. My administration just announced we’re
cutting credit card late fees from $32 to just $8.
The banks
and credit card companies don’t like it.
Why?
I’m saving
American families $20 billion a year with all of the junk
fees I’m eliminating.
And I’m
not stopping there.
My
Administration has proposed rules to make cable travel
utilities and online ticket sellers tell you the total
price upfront so there are no surprises.
It
matters.
And so
does this.
In
November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of
Senators.
The result
was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve
ever seen in this country.
That
bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers.
100 more
immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases.
4,300 more
asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6 months instead
of 6 years.
100 more
high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to
screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl into America.
This bill
would save lives and bring order to the border.
It would
also give me as President new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the
border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming.
The Border
Patrol Union endorsed the bill.
The Chamber
of Commerce endorsed the bill.
I believe
that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would
endorse it as well.
But
unfortunately, politics have derailed it so far.
I’m told
my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the
bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser
for him.
It’s not
about him or me.
It’d be a
winner for America!
My
Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done.
We need to
act.
And if my
predecessor is watching instead of playing politics and pressuring members of
Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it!
We can do
it together. But here’s what I will not do.
I
will not demonize immigrants saying they “poison the blood of our
country” as he said in his own words.
I
will not separate families.
I
will not ban people from America because of their faith.
Unlike my
predecessor, on my first day in office I introduced a comprehensive plan to fix
our immigration system, secure the border, and provide a pathway to citizenship
for Dreamers and so much more.
Because
unlike my predecessor, I know who we are as Americans.
We are
the only nation in the world with
a heart and soul that draws
from old and new.
Home to
Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years. Home to
people from every place on Earth.
Some
came freely.
Some
chained by force.
Some when
famine struck, like my ancestral family in Ireland.
Some to
flee persecution.
Some to chase
dreams that are impossible anywhere but here in America.
That’s
America, where we all come from somewhere, but we are all
Americans.
We can
fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it.
Send me
the border bill now!
A
transformational moment in our history happened 59 years
ago today in Selma, Alabama.
Hundreds
of foot soldiers for justice marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named
after a Grand Dragon of the KKK, to claim their fundamental right to vote.
They
were beaten bloodied and left for dead.
Our late
friend and former colleague John Lewis was at the march.
We miss
him.
Joining us
tonight are other marchers who were there including Betty May Fikes, known as
the “Voice of Selma.”
A daughter
of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and protest on that
Bloody Sunday, to help shake the nation’s conscience. Five months later, the
Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
But 59
years later, there are forces taking us back in time.
Voter
suppression. Election subversion. Unlimited dark money. Extreme gerrymandering.
John Lewis
was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to honor
him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time for more
than just talk.
Pass and
send me the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights
Act!
And stop
denying another core value of America our diversity across American life.
Banning books.
It’s
wrong!
Instead of
erasing history, let’s make history!
I want to
protect other fundamental rights!
Pass
the Equality Act, and my message to transgender
Americans: I have your back!
Pass the
PRO Act for workers rights! And raise the federal minimum wage because
every worker has the right to earn a decent living!
We are
also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying
it.
I’m taking
the most significant action on climate ever in the history of the
world.
I am
cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030.
Creating
tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the IBEW workers building and
installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.
Conserving
30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030.
Taking
historic action on environmental justice for fence-line communities smothered
by the legacy of pollution.
And
patterned after the Peace Corps and Ameri Corps, I’ve launched a
Climate Corps to put 20,000 young people to work at the forefront of our
clean energy future.
I’ll triple that
number this decade.
All
Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America is safer today than when
I took office.
The year
before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest increase
in history.
That
was then.
Now,
through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted
against, I’ve made the largest investment in public safety ever.
Last year,
the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to
one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years.
But we
have more to do.
Help
cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental health
workers, and more community violence intervention.
Give
communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail
crime, and carjacking.
Keep
building public trust, as I’ve been doing by taking executive action on police
reform, and calling for it to be the law of the land, directing my Cabinet to
review the federal classification of marijuana, and expunging thousands of
convictions for mere possession, because no one should be jailed for using or
possessing marijuana!
To take on
crimes of domestic violence, I am ramping up federal enforcement of the
Violence Against Women Act, that I proudly wrote, so we can finally end the
scourge of violence against women in America!
And
there’s another kind of violence I want to stop.
With us
tonight is Jasmine, whose 9-year-old sister Jackie was
murdered with 21 classmates and teachers at her elementary school in
Uvalde, Texas.
Soon after
it happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde and spent hours with the
families.
We heard
their message, and so should everyone in this chamber do something.
I did do
something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in
the White House that Vice President Harris is leading.
Meanwhile, my
predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was President.
After
another school shooting in Iowa he said we should just “get over
it.”
I say we
must stop it.
I’m proud
we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30
years!
Now we
must beat the NRA again!
I’m
demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines!
Pass universal
background checks!
None of
this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun
owners.
As we
manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad including in
the Middle East.
I know the
last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli
people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America.
This
crisis began on October 7th with a massacre by the terrorist group
Hamas.
1,200
innocent people women and girls men and boys slaughtered, many enduring
sexual violence.
The
deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
250 hostages
taken.
Here in
the chamber tonight are American families whose loved ones are still
being held by Hamas.
I pledge
to all the families that we will not rest until we bring
their loved ones home.
We will
also work around the clock to bring
home Evan and Paul, Americans being unjustly detained all
around the world.
Israel has
a right to go after Hamas.
Hamas
could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages, laying down
arms, and surrendering those responsible for October 7th.
Israel has
an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian
population. But Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect
innocent civilians in Gaza.
This
war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all
previous wars in Gaza combined.
More
than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Most of
whom are not Hamas.
Thousands and thousands are innocent women and children.
Girls and
boys also orphaned.
Nearly 2
million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced.
Homes
destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin.
Families
without food, water, medicine.
It’s
heartbreaking.
We’ve been
working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that
would last for at least six weeks.
It would
get the hostages home, ease the intolerable humanitarian crisis, and
build toward something more enduring.
The United
States has been leading international efforts to get
more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Tonight, I’m
directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a
temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large
ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary
shelters.
No U.S.
boots will be on the ground.
This
temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian
assistance getting into Gaza every day.
But Israel
must also do its part.
Israel
must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian
workers aren’t caught in the cross fire.
To
the leadership of Israel I say this.
Humanitarian
assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining
chip.
Protecting and saving innocent
lives has to be a priority.
As we look
to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution.
I say this
as a lifelong supporter of Israel and the only American president to visit
Israel in wartime.
There
is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy.
There
is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live
with peace and dignity.
There is
no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab
neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
Creating stability
in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran.
That’s why
I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend
international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
I’ve
ordered strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities and defend U.S.
Forces in the region.
As
Commander in Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect
our people and military personnel.
For
years, all I’ve heard from my Republican friends and so many others is
China’s on the rise and America is falling behind.
They’ve
got it backward.
America is
rising.
We have
the best economy in the world.
Since I’ve
come to office, our GDP is up.
And
our trade deficit with China is down to the lowest point in
over a decade.
We’re standing
up against China’s unfair economic practices.
And
standing up for peace and stability across
the Taiwan Strait.
I’ve
revitalized our partnerships and alliances in the
Pacific.
I’ve made
sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China’s
weapons.
Frankly
for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do
that.
We want
competition with China, but not conflict.
And we’re
in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st Century against
China or anyone else for that matter.
Here at
home I’ve signed over 400 bipartisan bills.
But
there’s more to do to pass my Unity Agenda.
Strengthen penalties
on fentanyl trafficking.
Pass
bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online.
Harness the
promise of A.I. and protect us from its peril.
Ban A.I.
voice impersonation and more!
And keep
our one truly sacred obligation, to train and equip those we send into harm’s
way and care for them and their families when they come home, and when they don’t.
That’s why
I signed the PACT Act, one of the most significant laws ever, helping
millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and who now
are battling more than 100 cancers.
Many of
them didn’t come home.
We owe
them and their families.
And we owe
it to ourselves to keep supporting our new health research agency
called ARPA-H and remind us that we can do big things like end cancer as
we know it!
Let me
close with this.
I know I
may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while.
And when
you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever
before.
I know the
American story.
Again and again I’ve
seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul
of our nation.
Between
those who want to pull America back to the past and those
who want to move America into the future.
My
lifetime has taught me
to embrace freedom and democracy.
A future
based on the core values that have defined America.
Honesty. Decency. Dignity.
Equality.
To respect
everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.
Now some
other people my age see a different story.
An
American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution.
That’s not
me.
I was born
amid World War II when America stood for freedom in the world.
I grew up
in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, among working people who
built this country.
I watched
in horror as two of my heroes, Dr. King and Bobby
Kennedy, were assassinated and their
legacies inspired me to pursue a career in service.
A public defender, county
councilman, elected United States Senator at 29, then Vice President,
to our first Black President, now President, with our first woman Vice
President.
In my
career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old.
Whether
young or old, I’ve always known what endures.
Our North
Star.
The very
idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to
be treated equally throughout our lives.
We’ve
never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it
either.
And I won’t
walk away from it now.
My fellow
Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our
ideas are.
Hate,
anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas.
But you
can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.
To lead
America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for
the future of what America can and should be.
Tonight
you’ve heard mine.
I see a
future where we defend democracy not diminish it.
I see a
future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take
them away.
I see a
future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the
wealthy finally have to pay their fair in taxes.
I see a
future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from
gun violence.
Above all,
I see a future for all Americans!
I see
a country for all Americans!
And I will
always be a president for all Americans!
Because
I believe in America!
I believe in you the
American people.
You’re the
reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future!
So let’s
build that future together!
Let’s
remember who we are!
We are
the United States of America.
There is
nothing beyond our capacity when we act together!
May God
bless you all.
May God protect
our troops.
the DON JONES INDEX… |
|||
|
GAINS
POSTED in GREEN LOSSES
POSTED in RED 3/11/24... 14,922.81 3/4/24... 14,984.46 |
||
6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
|||
(THE DOW JONES INDEX:
3/11/24... 38,722.69; 3/4/24... 39,087.38; 6/27/13… 15,000.00) |
|||
LESSON for MARCH ELEVENTH, 2024:
“DON’S DEMONIC, DYNAMIC DAYS!”
That’s Don
Jones, that is… although Donald Trump
will be especially busy between all week too... Super Tuesday to Ramadan (as of
today)... as will Joe Biden taking stage Thursday and numerous bad and good
actors, musicians, celebrities, politicians, wnnnabees, dreamers and schemers
of varied partisanship and demographics… even the clockwatchers.
GOPs will
be hopping all week long as the New Trump Order consolidates its dominion -
cops bopping Spring Breakers, fops on Oscar red carpets, Red State courts on
the march to bring back God... spring breaking out all over with bedsprings
squeaking in mansions or motels, overlords in the former extending their
dominion o’er the underclasses. From
Georgia to Gaza – for the rest of March, Miami residents and visitors and New York
subway riders alike will quake and be shaken down under coplights by marching
military call-ups; celebrities baking under spotlights and publicity pies; bit
parters biting into celebrity’s leftover cake and case histories swelling. By the end of Daylignt Savings, commencement
of Ramadan and imminent ending of Lent, a swell time will have been had by all
with - only a few billion exceptions; the Chinese, Ukrainians, MidEasterners,
retirees living off investments, neglected (if not necessarily bad) actors,
passéngers on perilous airplanes and Phillies’ fans mourning Jacon Kelcy’s
retirement, RINOs courted by Old White Joe whilst forced to kiss their master’s
ass... aside from that, as the other Kelcy brother and get-out-the-vote vixen
display... kismet.
If Don
Jones was an early sleeper or just tired after his four-day-week-before-last,
last week began in the wan, wee hours Sunday night to Monday morning (as Grammy
winners celebrated looked forward to EGOT pieces, losers drowned their sorrows
in substance and substantial borrowed cash having changed hands), he looked
forward to losing another hour Saturday with horror or aplomb; secure in the
insecurity of democracy in these DisUnited States and the world (or perhaps
welcoming the chaos of all that would intervene between).
PRELUDE:
THE GRAMMYS
Fleet feet competed to the beat of the Grammys; the heat was on all
February and Hollywood was soaked by a bomb cyclone after firehose after
Pineapple Express as opposed stifling, jaw-crunching heat East of the Rockies
as temperatures fifteen to twenty degrees above normal sprung spring flowers
from the ground and upon trees; blooms soon to be slaughtered by winter’s
return... and between the early spring and atmospheric rivers of the West. the
in-between American heartland, wildfires and tornadoes that tracked as far
north as Minnesota.
See some previews as Attachments
One through Three... Washington Post: Grammys 2024
Performances, Ranked from Best (Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs) to Worst (U2);
and Attachment Three – a roundup of
performances from Pitchfork... and a list of winners as
Attachment A.
SUPER
TUESDAY
And then, after back-to-work Monday, redeyed and perhaps hungover from too
much celebration or disappointment, Don Jones trekked out to vote in sixteen
states and one colony on Super Tuesday – doing exactly what he had been told he
ought to do, pulling the levers for Djonald and Joe (or snarling while writing
in “Uncommitted”), pulling the plug on Sweet Nikki and Mean Dean. Both would be gone by Wednesday morning - but
Haley’s voters would not be foregotten, at least by the media, who touted their
RINO revulsion at some of Trump’s latest tropes (the giveaway of deadbeat NATO
countries to Russia, the mocking of Haley’s soldier husband, the ninety one indictments).
That Donald, on the other hand, didn’t
give a damn about those traitors... or did a good job pretending not to.
Doubling down
on his reputation as a sore winner, Trump reveled
Wednesday at the news that his last Republican rival was suspending her campaign and
took some parting shots at former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on the heels
of her Super Tuesday drubbing. (New York
Post, March 6th, Attachment Four)
“Nikki Haley got
TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion, despite the fact that
Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont, and various
other Republican Primaries,” the 77-year-old ranted on Truth Social minutes before Haley officially bowed out.
Trump now has
995 of the 1,215 delegates needed to secure the party nod compared to Haley’s
89. His team expects to officially cross the 1,215 threshold later this month.
“At this point, I
hope she stays in the ‘race’ and fights it out until end! I’d like thank my
family, friends, and the Great Republican Party for helping me to produce, by
far, the most successful Super Tuesday in HISTORY,” Trump went on before
needling Haley further by saying that “much of her money came from Radical Left
Democrats, as did many of her voters.”
Perhaps he
already knew that these RINOs would defect to Sleepy Joe. Or he didn’t care. “Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want
Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my
campaign,” Biden said in a statement.
What speculation
remains among the RINOs, MAGA and the multiverse now centers around Trump’s
selection of a running mate – given the... uh... problems experienced by Mike Pence.
Back on February 21st, Djonald UnDecided
floated a few names, mostly comprised of defeated challengers who have bowed,
kissed the ring and the nether orifices (Washington Times, Attachment Five) –
all of whom he now refers to as “good people”.
On the list were Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, South
Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
He especially lauded Mr. Scott, who was sitting in
the audience of the town hall in Greenville, South Carolina.
“A lot of people are talking about that gentleman
right over there,” Mr. Trump said. “And he’s been so great. He’s been
such a great advocate.
“I have to say, this is in a very positive way, Tim
Scott, he has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his
campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk
about Trump.”
There is reason to believe that... strictly on
demographical grounds, the Once and Future might be well served by pairing off
with a minority veep, black like Scott or maybe a Latino. (His border policies might deter some
aspirants, but there’s always Cuba... and Little Marco has been trying his
darndest to prove his loyalty.) Or, to
poach some votes, a female... that may have been justification for the RNC
choosing Sen. Katie Britt to give the SOU response, but Nancy Mace (R-SC) has
also waved the MAGA flag in public in shutting down George Stephanopolous. And there is always the failed Arizonan Kari
Lake.
MTG? Not
likely.
Sunday last before the voting, the WashPost ran a
Q&A piece on the sixteen primaries (Attachment Six) reporting that: “There
are 865 Republican delegates up for grabs in 15 states that vote on Super
Tuesday... more than one-third of the 2,429 total delegates” needed to
nominate.
Fishing for
fermentation, the Post posted “warning signs”... about the general election and
whether Haley (and Christie and DeSantis - even Doug Burgam) voters would
kowtow, defect to the Democrats or stay home.
They found Haleyquins like Joe Neal, 28, who said: “I’m not going to
support a seditionist. I’m not going to support someone who supported
terrorism...” but then reported that Americans for Prosperity, the dark money
PAC backed by the Koch brothers, “announced it would stop spending on her
behalf after she lost her home state of South Carolina.”
Earlier that morning, GUK’s David Smith groused and
grumbled that Super Tuesday “is looking less than super this year,” and that, “(w)ith the presidential nominees all but assured, the
celebrated ritual lacks suspense” and could even be ‘the worst in modern
history’. (At least for the media and
any advertisers careless enough to lay their money down on hygienic creams or
movie promos during the night.)
Smith jumped the
monkey and quoted Charlie Sykes, a contributor and columnist for the MSNBC network,
who opined that: “Part of the reason that so many people take crazy pills is
you look at Donald Trump and he has become more extreme, more
deranged and more unhinged and yet nothing seems to matter. His authoritarian
agenda couldn’t be clearer and yet Republicans who once thought of themselves
as the party of liberty and the constitutional order are just falling into line
behind him.” (Attachment Seven)
No
resistence. No excitement.
Even the liberal
Guardian U.K. reported (in the wolf hours of America, but morning in London – Attachment
Eight) that not only are the candidates worried about voter boredom, but the
Democratic Socialists of America, whom GUK call “a force with young
progressives,” endorse a push for Super Tuesday voters to choose
“uncommitted”, to register disapproval for US support for Israel and in
Michigan, more than 100,000 do so.
Frank Luntz, a Republican-aligned pollster, tells the Guardian
that in terms of a presidential election, Super Tuesday “never mattered less”
than this year.
“I don’t know any
political event that’s got more attention for being less relevant,” Luntz said. “The decision has been made. The choice is
clear... (y)ou know who the two nominees are and 70% of Americans would rather
it not be so,” Luntz said.
‘Super Tuesday’ Won’t Live
Up to Its Name This Year,” wrote Time’s Will Weissert (March 5th,
Attachment Nine) because, as according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found, a majority of Americans didn't think either Biden or Trump had the
necessary mental acuity for the job.
“Both of them failed, in my opinion, to unify this
country,” said Brian Hadley, 66, of Raleigh, North Carolina one of the “men on
the street” whom Time surveyed.
At least, according
to the liberal Slate, there were a few surprises to break the tedium; for
example Sweet Nikki’s one victory in Ben, Jerry and Bernie’s Vermont/ (Attachment Ten)
And in an even more counfounding moment, Biden won
every state primary by substantial, incumbent-sized margins
but did not win every contest, however. He lost the American Samoa
caucus 51 to 40. (That’s not percentage; those are raw vote numbers.)
Biden was bested there by a
fella named Jason Palmer, a self-described “entrepreneur, impact investor and
philanthropist” from Baltimore who appears to have told American Samoans
that he’s very popular in
the mainland.
“How nice
for him,” Slate excused the anomaly.
Palmer (see below) will now get allowed into the convention and might
even crash a debate or two.
There were
also more than a few down-ballot races of note... the most important of which
found Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey advancing to
November’s election. The Trump-hating Schiff had spent “significant money and
messaging trying to elevate Garvey as his main opponent, recognizing that it’s
not especially hard to defeat a Republican in a California general election.
You can call this a cynical strategy, and one
that might help Republican turnout down-ballot in November. But what’s
important to Schiff is that you’ll soon call him a senator.”
Trump’s
triumph gets him another step closer to reclaiming the presidency, according to Time’s Eric
Cortellessa and pursuing a “draconian policy agenda unlike any the nation has ever
seen.” (Attachment Eleven)
Trump has vowed to
“round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants; reimpose his travel
ban on Muslim-majority countries; purge the federal bureaucracy of civil
servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists; force homeless Americans off the
streets and into tent cities; and commandeer the Justice Department to exact
revenge on his political enemies.”
But will the tents be
free, and FEMA quality? If so, not a bad
deal!
Retribution and retaliation were on the back burner
after Trump won every SOU primary state (or colony) on Super Tuesday; his victory
speech focused, instead, on the last man standing in the way of his return to
power. "We've watched our country take a great beating over the last three
years," Trump said. “We’re gonna take back our country."
The MAGAverse skipped
past Vermont and took their victory lap.
"Man I knew Trump would have a good night but this is a
rout," Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance posted on X as
Trump continued to stack up victories in state after state on Tuesday night.
"For voters, we have the next six months to convince them that DJT
deserves another term."
"But for donors and political professionals, it's time
to unite behind our nominee,” he waxed serious, financially serious owing to
the hemorrhaging of cash from the campaign as it is diverted to his legal
bills. “Please stop wasting time and
money," J. D. recommended. (Fox
News, Attachment Twelve)
"It is LONG past time for us to rally around President
Trump as our Republican nominee who will defeat Joe Biden this November,"
GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, thought by some to be in consideration for
Trump’s running mate, also posted on X as did Tim Scott, another beaten
challenger now vyping for Veeptistic consideration. "Voters across our country have spoken —
this race is about the American people.”
California
polling that predicted Schiff’s victory indicated that the most pressing issue
for voters would be the cost of living, according to CBS News exit
polls. (CBS – Attachment Thirteen... see charts and graphs on site) Axios contended that, at least in some
states, student protests in favor of Hamas (which the older demographic
castigated as “left wing anti-Semitism) led to an ominous “uncommitted” tally
in half the primary states... over 100,000 of them in Michigan. (Attachment Fourteen)
President Biden’s critics included the Washington Times (which raised the senility question, stating that
Old White Joe “fell into a lengthy thousand-yard stare while dodging the media
this week, saying he would “get in trouble” if he took any questions from
reporters.
The Daily Mail reported that: “Biden then put the
microphone down and froze like a deer in headlights for about 15 seconds as
reporters shouted questions at him.” (Attachment Fifteen)
In stark contrast, this far-right Times opined, former
President Donald Trump, aged 77, exhibited “vigor” in a 20-minute address after
sweeping the majority of the Super Tuesday primaries.
They almost called him “feisty”!
GUK, like many liberals, were at the brink of calling in the
Woke Police months, now, before the election so as to avert disster. “We have every reason to believe that the
hole Biden is in is real, as unfair as it might seem to his supporters,” the
lefty Brits admitted.
As flawed as they might be, GUK parsed, general election
polls are our surest guide to how the general electorate is feeling about the
general election. (Attachment Sixteen).
“In fact, as the political scientist David Faris noted recently,
the leader at this point of the year in Real Clear Politics’ average of polls
has gone on to win the election in every race since 2004 other than 2004 itself,
with only a few points worth of difference between the margin and the final
result.”
Biden will have to do substantially better than that to get
his campaign right side up,” GUK poured the Kool-Aid. “Plainly, he’s become a symbol of our
political system’s decrepitude: a stand-in for all the old men in Washington
who voters believe, rightfully, can’t or won’t do much to dramatically improve
their lives.”
The age issue, at least, seems to have been
buried with the Haley campaign as Al Jazeera (Attachment Seventeen) announced
that, on Wednesday morning, just hours after the Super Tuesday
results trickled in, Haley “suspended”
her campaign for the White House.
Ordinarily, there’s little suspence in political suspensions other than
that it’s a polite way to avoid the shame of “quitting” but, in Nikki’s case,
there is a cure for zombification at the end of some tunnel... not only Trump’s
health but his many legal cases. With a
little assist from Fani’s libido, the dangerous Federal prosecution in Atlanta
is probably off the table for months, if not ever, but there remains Stormy –
and while conviction would be self-pardonable, the blowback on Djonald’s
blow... uh... would come from both leftists (i.e. moderate, even Reagan
conservatives in the Haley camp) and a handful of sincere and committed
Christian rightists who might now hesitate at re-electing a convicted sinner (as well as a
Republican who would give the abortionists sixteen weeks, as opposed to six)
before locking up the mothers and their doctors as well as workers in fertility
clinics and contraceptive pill pushers.
Haley’s victory in Vermont and suspension was the first of
the Jazzies’ “five takeaways”, the others were...
The “uncommitted” protest vote against Biden;
Adam Schiff’s California “blow” to
progressives (if hardly to the Never Trumpers);
A referendum on Trump’s grip over Republicans... firmer then ever and around the throat of
RINOs, as in the sabotaging of Texas’s
Speaker of the House Dade Phelan by MAGA; and
The Trump/Biden rematch from Hell confirmed.
“He’s the
worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said of Biden, blaming
the Democratic incumbent for inflation, the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico
border and conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. “We’ve watched our country take a
great beating over the last three years.”
Biden
likewise returned warned that Trump represented an existential threat to US
democracy.
“My message to the country is this: Every generation of
Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy,” Biden said in a
Super Tuesday statement.
And, atop GUK’s
categorization of Old White Joe as a symbol of “decrepitude”, they’d repored
that Trump Youth are growing in ranks, influence, finances and fanaticism with
Turning Point USA founded in 2012 by then 18-year-old Charlie
Kirk now raising “tens of millions of dollars (from leading rightwing donors
including the Bradley Impact Fund, which chipped in $7.8m in 2022, the Ed
Uihlein Family Foundation and dark-money behemoth Donors Trust) and is hiring hundreds of full-time employees
in the three states, according to its spokesperson, Andrew Kolvet.”
Concentrating on the swing states of Arizona, Georgia
and Wisconsin, TPUSA has hooked up with MAGAnoids like “Moms for
America” and some Stormy-denialist evangelicals despite losses in 2022 when it
backed loony-toons “pushing conspiracies about election fraud, Covid-19 and other
issues” and has disparaged the likes of Martin Luther King as well as blacks in
general and brown and yellow citizens and immigrants alike as, in the words of
MAGArajah, “poisoners of the blood.”
(Attachment Eighteen)
“Kirk (whose day job is as a radio host on the evangelical
Salem Radio Network) chases conspiracies that animate his followers and
generate funds,” the long-time GOP consultant Tyler Montague said. “Kirk has
used this method to push conspiracies about election fraud, Christian nationalism,
anti-immigrant xenophobia, and now he’s opened a new front in racism with his
Martin Luther King attacks.”
“TPUSA has a radicalized worldview that they use as a litmus
test” in backing candidates, said Kathy Petsas, a GOP district leader in
Phoenix. “When it comes to the general elections that matter, their ROI is
lousy.”
Notably, four top Arizona candidates in 2022 who were backed
by TP Action lost to Democrats, including ex-Fox News anchor Kari Lake in her
race for governor, and Mark Finchem in his bid to become secretary of state.
“Virtually every major race they touched they lost in the
general election in Arizona,” the former Arizona congressman Matt Salmon said.
“Everyone Trump endorses they get behind. It’s not clear if it’s the tail
wagging the dog, or vice versa.”
Aside from the marquee match in November, TPUSA is planning
a purge of downballot RINOs in July’s Arizona primaries, with Austin Smith, a
state legislator and TP Action’s enterprise director tweeting that “[we] need
to clean house in Maricopa county” and cited, among other officers, the county
recorder, the Republican lawyer Stephen Richer, who rejected unsubstantiated
claims of voting fraud in 2020 and 2022.
Their Queen Wasp is Trump loyalist, failed
gubernatorial candidate and short-list Veepster Kari Lake who has been gifted
with more rolls of TP cash – as has Donald Trump Junior, giving away $333,000
worth of his books at rallies which also featured Steve Bannon and My Pillow’s
Mike Lindell.
Frank Luntz (see above and Attachment Nine)
now says that, with every passing week, Joe Biden “gets weaker and
weaker as more and more voters come to decide that he’s simply too darn old.
And so you see this gap between Trump and Biden widening.
“The gap is widening because Biden is collapsing.”
THURSDAY, 9:00 PM EST: STATE of the UNION STATED
The President was summoned by Constitutional duty to
outline future goals and defend past policies responsible (in his words...
Attachment “C”... for "record job creation, the strongest economy in the
world, increased wages and household wealth, and lower prescription drug and
energy costs,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in a
statement to the scriveners, scribblers and pixels of America (and, admittedly,
the world.
That's in contrast, LaBolt continued, to Trump's
“Make America Great Again” movement, which consists of “rewarding billionaires
and corporations with tax breaks, taking away rights and freedoms, and
undermining our democracy.”
Even before cranking out his SOU, Biden’s campaign
called extra attention to Trump’s most provocative utterances on the campaign
trail, like when he evoked Adolf Hitler in suggesting that immigrants were “poisoning the
blood” of the U.S. and said he’d seek to serve as a dictator during his first day back in the White House.
See the full text above as this week’s
Lesson
SUNDAY MORNING 2:00 AM: DAYLIGHT
SAVINGS TIME BEGINS
The work of advisers and consultants to Survivors Joey B. and Donny T.
began in earnest Friday... and will only escalate and exponate until November, but Don Jones welcomed the end of his crowded workweek to greet the coming
forty seven hours of respite with
mixed blessings. On the one hand,
daylight now extends past the dinner hour and even into the gloaming, on the
other, he and the family lost an hour’s sleep and faced what doctors were
calling an annual medical catastrophe.
Lawmakers
in more than two dozen states are attempting to keep daylight saving time
permanent as part of a growing movement for brighter afternoons but others are
fighting for the status quo or even to enact a universal Eastern Standard.
State lawmakers
have been torn for years on whether to transition to permanent daylight saving
time—which would provide an extra hour of afternoon daylight—or pivot instead
to year-round standard time, a move two states have already done, though one
point state lawmakers agree on is ending the practice of changing the clocks.
Federal law
under the Uniform Time Act allows states to observe year-round standard time,
as Arizona and Hawaii have done, though it prohibits states from switching to
permanent daylight saving time. (Forbes,
March 6, 2024, Attachment Fifty Eight)
Florida
Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have used the upcoming time change to
remind Americans about the bipartisan Sunshine Protection
Act the U.S. Senate unanimously passed in 2022 to make daylight
saving time permanent but which has been stalled in the House.
"It’s
time for Congress to act and I’m proud to be leading the bipartisan Sunshine
Protection Act with Senator Rubio to get this done," Scott told USA
Today (Attachment Fifty Nine).
"We’re
‘springing forward’ but should have never ‘fallen back.’ My Sunshine Protection
Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and
forth," Rubio concurred.
USA Today and Forbes more or less
agree on the history of the changing times; Forbes attributing DST to World War
One in 1918, as “an initiative to save energy in the afternoons
and evenings and give Americans extra shopping time after work...” reversed at
the national leval once the war ended.
USA
Today’s Krystal Nurse and Jeanine Santucci wrote that the biannual time change
next manifested as another war began.
“From
February 1942 until September 1945, the U.S. took on what became known as
"War Time," when Congress voted to make daylight saving time
year-round during the war in an effort to conserve fuel. When it ended, states
were able to establish their own standard time until 1966 when Congress finally
passed the Uniform Time Act, standardizing national time and establishing
current-day daylight saving time.”
Amid
the energy crisis in 1973, former President Richard Nixon signed a bill
restoring a permanent daylight saving time. starting in January 1974. While the
American public at first liked the idea, Nurse and Santucci wrote, "the
experiment “soon ran afoul of public opinion." Sunrises that
could be as late as 9:30 a.m. some places in parts of winter became
increasingly unpopular. It didn't take long for Congress to reverse course in
October 1974.
“Researchers
have shown in recent years that the twice-annual changing of the clocks might
not just be a nuisance,” wrote Brian Bushard of Forbes, “it could also
be harmful to Americans wellbeing.”
In
addition to losing the roughly 40 minutes of sleep on the night after clocks
“spring forward” (a loss that is not fully recovered when clocks “fall back”
later in the year), recent studies have also shown the changing of
the clocks “coincides with a spike in fatal car crashes and emergency room
visits, on top of missed medical appointments, a greater chance of workplace
injuries and even an increase in heart attacks and strokes. In the long-term,
that transition can also accelerate mood disorders tied to sleep disruption,
including depression and anxiety, studies have found.”
According to experts
solicited by the Fox on Thursday, “darker mornings and lighter evenings can
disrupt the body’s internal clock and cause sleep trouble for weeks or even
longer.” (Attachment Sixty)
The American Heart
Association points to studies that suggest an uptick in heart attacks on the
Monday after daylight saving time begins, and in strokes for two days
afterward.
In addition, fatal
car crashes temporarily jump the first few days after the spring time change,
according to a study of U.S. traffic fatalities. The risk was highest in the
morning, and researchers attributed it to sleep deprivation.
Dr. Hitendra Patel,
medical director of the Sleep Program at Wellstar Health System in Georgia,
told FOX 5 Atlanta that Americans should brace themselves because
suddenly losing an hour of sleep can be risky.
"Heart attacks
increase, literally, in the day after the time change, and also the risk of car
accidents as well," Patel explained. "So, people's health is at risk.
While
the politicians scuffle over EST and DST, Dr. Patel advises the usual: stop
drinking, using social media or watching television, eat only healthy
(foul-tasting) foods, exercise under bright sunlight (presumably without
sunscreen or a hat)... etcetera.
And
be grateful, at least, that you chaotic and confused life is not as bad as that
of the Lebanese... where religious objections to the changing clocks resultws
in people waking up to find themselves “torn between two time zones” after the
government made a last-minute decision to postpone the switch to Daylight
Saving Time (DST). “Clocks in the
country had been set to spring forward one hour on Sunday, but the speaker of
Lebanon's parliament, Nabih Berri, asked the country's caretaker Prime Minister
Najib Mikati late last week to postpone the move until after the Muslim fasting
month of Ramadan.
"It's just between now and the end of Ramadan," Berri was heard saying in a video leaked online showing the two leaders discuss the matter. "Once Ramadan is over, let them have what they want." (CBS, Attachment Sixty One)
Politics
in America stands to become as polarized and chaotic as in Lebanon after Sen.
Tommy Tuberville joined the mob clamouring for DST... and let the run over kids
at the bus stops and the Health Nazis be damned.
"Most of us in Alabama view that we need, we'd love
an extra hour of daylight," said Tuberville... apparently not realizing
that no legislation could add or detract from the solar order, DST would just
take away in the dawnings what it extended to the dusk.
Appearing on television (November 2, 2023, Attachment
Sixty Two) the football coach turned Senator lamented that full-time Daylight Saving Time is not currently allowed
by federal law and would require an act of Congress to make a change before the
time change could take effect in Alabama.
Who’s to blame for the furor?
Fingers at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch pointed to none other
than Mister Kite (otherwise known as Ben Franklin) who suggested
the practice in a satirical essay published in 1784. “He peddled the
idea to Parisians so they could change their sleep schedules and ultimately
save money on candles and lamp oil....” so, because much of what lit the lamps
of the 18th century came from Moby Dick, one might call DST the
original “Seve the Whales” proposition.
If
not old Ben, the Dispatch otherwise proposed, it was the railroad bosses who,
by the late 19th century, had to deal with “more than 144 local
times in North America,” leading to scheduling chaos worse, even, than in
Beirut.
Summing
up, Time’s Jeffrey Kluger declared that “Daylight Saving Time Is the Worst!” last Wednesday as Don Jones was
enjoying a breather between Super Tuesday and the SOU: “...(i)t’s bad for
health, bad for safety, bad for your mood, and just plain unpopular.” Senators Rubio, Tubio and Scott may not
agree, “...(b)ut that doesn’t stop us from changing the clocks, pointlessly,
twice a year.” (Attachment Sixty Four)
Further,
Mr. Kluger harped and carped upon...
The ridiculous history of Daylight
Saving Time
If Mister Franklin’s “save the whales” proposal didn’t gain traction,
Kluger advanced his Time-line to 1907, when a British business man William
Willett penned a pamphlet titled “A Waste of Daylight,” in which he
proposed setting clocks forward one hour. “The sun shines upon the land for
several hours each day while we are asleep,” he wrote, and yet there “remains
only a brief spell of declining daylight in which to spend the short period of
leisure at our disposal.”
Parliament
eventually agreed as War Number One began, the colonials hopped on board and
DST and EST then dueled over a century with one, sometimes, on top, and then ther
other.
Daylight Saving Time is not even
effective
“According
to Stanford University, one meta-analysis of 44 studies found that it
essentially does not, leading to just a 0.34% reduction in electricity
consumption. A 2008 study from
the National Bureau of Economic Research found that nationwide, added daylight
can actually increase energy consumption by about 1%, due partly
to greater use of air conditioning when the sun is out later in the
evening.”
It’s lousy for your health
Mr. Kluger concurs with words from
the Men of Medicine.
“Sleep expert Adam Spira, professor of mental health at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, cites a range of problems that
can occur when we trade an hour of sleep for an extra hour of sun—as we do with
Daylight Saving Time—including daylight-induced sleeplessness when bedtime
arrives and morning drowsiness when we wake up in the dark.” Studies have
linked such circadian disruption to an increased risk of heart
attack, stroke, inflammatory markers, and even suicide... not to
mention traffic accidents caused by sleep deprivation.
Setting the clocks back also harms infants; more doctors
have produced more researches stating that interrupted infant sleep will cause
the young ‘uns to grow up and become... well, fill in your deepest, darkest
fears.
Dr. Beth
Malow, professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt
Sleep Division at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “We need morning light to
reset our clocks. Teenagers are going through puberty and their melatonin
levels are delayed, and it just cuts into their sleep when they get too much
light too late in the day and not enough light in the morning.” DST, then, can be blamed for adolescents
having too much sex... or maybe too little.
Cocks follow the tickings of the clocks.
And pollsters say 56% of Joneses prefer the extra hour of sunshine at
the end of the day, while only 26% preferred the “darker, winter way of doing
things.”
SUNDAY NIGHT, 7:00 PM to EARLY
MONDAY: THE OSCARS
Not only did clocks spring forward all across America at 2AM March 17th
(except in Arizona and a few of the remaining American colonial possessions),
the start of Sunday’s march of little golden eunuchs into the sweaty palms of
the deserving or not commenced another
hour earlier beginning at seven PM EST and giving celebrants another hour of
importance and indulgence at the post-show parties.
The usually sober and judgmental Guardian U.K. apparently went gaga over the
little gold American eunuchs, with gushing celebrity gawkings, predictions
(some of which come true, some of which did not) and outrage.
Not over Russian advances in Ukraine, nor innocent Palestinians bombed,
strafed and starved by evil Jews... not even about the depradatons of the
global plutocracy but...
The nominator oraters snubbed snubbed “Barbie”... 2023’s
biggest hit arrives with eight nominations, “but Greta Gerwig was passed
over entirely in the directing category.”
(Friday March 8, Attachment Sixty Six – chock fulla interviews,
speculations and trivia)
The
horror! The horror!
The
Academy gave “65 Kens to frug alongside Ryan Gosling as he warbled
“I’m Just Ken” (nominated for best song), while Billie Eilish (also nominated,
and the doll people’s only winner) sang her hit song “What Was I Made For?”
Oscar.org’s Q&A website included links to all of the winners dating
back to 1927 (Attachment Sixty Five) and disclosed more of the more popular
nominations.. GUK’s Stuart Heritage
wandered out of the corral and ventured his own predictions – snidely
asidely rousting the rest of the unwoke
media as “cartoonishly catty and vindictive, and it’s nuts to hear
them indiscriminately badmouth everyone in sight.” (Attachment Sixty Seven)
Mister Heritage broke with the pack and suggested that Ruffalo would win
out over Iron Man and, so, mount the soapbox and decry the state of the world
until the music drowned him out.
He cited “sources” who despised “Poor Things” and its star (and eventually
winner) Emma Stone, cursed out Bradley Cooper in “Maestro” and lifted thumbs up
for “Godzilla”.
Lance Bakaro (Attachment Sixty Eight) adjudicated that “Barbie” scored a
moral victory in the Academy’s over-the-top, Kensational presentation of
Gosling’s performance.
“The Oscars’ executive producers Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan,
and Molly McNearney (had) pledged they are “going big” this
year and in truth, their event sorely need(ed)) some of Barbie’s star wattage.
This year, Heritage reported before the really bid show,
“producers say they’re moving away from the “big, pre-produced, celebrity-heavy comedy bits”
involving Kimmel and a cast of guests. “We can only plant the seeds and hope
things will happen naturally and spontaneously,” pledged Kapoor. It’s safe to
say last year’s laboured exchanges between Kimmel and the donkey from The Banshees of Inisherin won’t
be repeated.
“In their place will come starry celebrity hosts announcing
the winners. Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Regina
King, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate McKinnon, Rita Moreno, John Mulaney, Catherine
O’Hara, Octavia Spencer, Ramy Youssef, Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee
Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Ke
Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya are all confirmed. Michelle
Pfeiffer and Al Pacino will also both appear, leading to speculation of a
Scarface reunion.
The Guardian staff polled itself (Attachment Sixty Nine) and, excepting
the trashing of Native American Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone selected
most of the winners – as follows...
Best picture Oppenheimer
Best actor Cillian Murphy
Best actress Lily Gladstone
Best supporting actor Robert
Downey Jr
Best supporting actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Best director Christopher
Nolan
Best song What
Was I Made For?
Best adapted screenplay American Fiction
Best original screenplay Anatomy of a Fall
Best documentary 20 Days in Mariupol
Best animated film The Boy and the Heron
Best international film The Zone of Interest
The BBC (attachment seventy) had mostly nice things to say about all the
nominees, and provided some nice capsule reviews of the leading prospects but,
in the end, went with the Oppenheimer blowout tabbing the film, director Nolan, star Murphy, supporting actor Downey –
cratering only, like GUK on Gladstone.
They also encapsulated some of the mid-tier awards for the foreign films
and writing and technical Oscars.
And Variety also predicted an Oppensweep... as well as missing on Emma
Stone’s upset of Gladstone. They also
failed on Barbie’s second award for costume design... that went to “Poor
Things”.
While the reel world was celebrating 1945, the real world outside... and,
in particular, Los Angeles... was bracing for protests or even terror from the
Palestinians, Hamas and some left-wing anti-Semites.
Police
said they would be ready for any protest that could unfold outside the Dolby
Theatre in Hollywood, where the 96th Academy Awards will take place. “The LAPD
is preparing for all potential protests, including protests regarding the
Israel-Hamas conflict,” the department said in a statement to the L.A. Times
(Attachment Seventy Two) while also stating (wink, nod!) that the LAPD would “attempt
to communicate” with protesters out in the street.
They rolled back the flying carpet of time to Vanessa in 1978 for her
pro-Palestinian speech, and to the chorus of boos greeting Michael Moore when
he (Bowling for Columbine – 2003) criticized
then-President George W. Bush for the Iraq war, which had started just days
before the ceremony. He called Bush a “fictitious president” and added, “Shame
on you!”
Who cudda known all those now-left-wing celebs were secret RINOs?
GUK (Attachment Sixty Six above) expressed its resignation on the
prospective lack of political protest... “given the
activity at the Grammys, the Independent Spirit awards and elsewhere.”
Security
around the venue was been “beefed up”, but the Oscars said they won’t interfere
with winners’ speeches –
(“unless Mark Ruffalo manages to get past Robert Downey Jr for best supporting
actor... and he didn’t..., it’s hard to see where an incendiary Vanessa
Redgrave-type speech is going to come from”).
Within, wrote Heritage (above), “will
anyone mention the Israel-Gaza war?
Historically, Hollywood has had no problem ignoring geopolitical
events on
its biggest night, but the scale of protest in the US and around the world,
plus the subject matter of the films, might make that difficult on Sunday.
“”There have been protests such as the ones which disturbed
the Independent Spirit awards and there could be more on Sunday that could
force a conversation that few in Hollywood seem to want to have. “It’s too
fraught,” one studio executive told the New York Times after the Independent
Spirit protest. “People are worried about their careers.”
Only “Zone of Interest”
filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (below and Attachment Seventy Six) waxed political.
As the Oscars closed and red carpeteers scattered to their various
after-show parties to get raw and rowdy, GUK’s Benjamin Lee observed that the
extent of Gaza protesting was the little red pins worn by “various celebrities, including Billie Eilish and Ramsey
Youssef”. (Attachment Seventy Three)
Nobody protested Jimmy Kimmel’s Trump jokes or the inclusion of a tribute
to Alexei Navalny.
GUK’s Alaina Demopoulos,
corresponding at the stroke of midnight, accorded Messi, the
“seriously impressive canine actor from Anatomy of a Fall” his due (Attachment
Seventy Four). (Rumors had swirled that
the pup would not attend, but
Messi showed up in a dashing bow-tie to prove the haters wrong.)
As far as protests went, Kimmel went old school and trotted
out the union bosses who supported the actors’ and writers’ strikes last year,
and Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy dedicated his performance to those that he
“vaguely called the peacemakers”.
“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb,
and for better or worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d like to
dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” Murphy said.
And GUK’s Jenna Amamili (Attachment Seventy
Five) reported that “just ahead of the last award of the
night – best picture –
getting doled out to Oppenheimer, Kimmel addressed the crowd at the 96th
Academy Awards to share a review he had received about his performance as host
of the ceremony.”
Said review was none other than former President Trump, who
opined on his Truth Social platform that...
“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at
The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard
to be something which he is not, and never can be,” Kimmel read aloud from his
phone.
“Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another
washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos. He would make
everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous… blah, blah, blah.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Kimmel, holding the floor, thanked Trump for watching before
asking: “Isn’t it past your jail time?” eliciting support from almost all in
attendance.
Time (Attachment Seventy Six) called the show a night of
“feel good moments” including Gosling’s KenSpectable, rassler John Cena’s nude
cakewalk and, again, Messi the Dog.
“(F)ive
past acting winners presented the award in their respective categories for Best
Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, and Best Actor. The
revival brought luminaries like Jamie Lee Curtis, Lupita N'yongo, Christoph
Waltz, and Mahershala Ali to the stage, and added a sentimental and personal
touch to the night's proceedings.”
The
evenings political touches came from the two documentarians.
Glazer
drew connections between his movie—which centers on the family of a German
commandant living in luxury right next door to the atrocities he's overseeing
at the Auschwitz concentration camp—to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
"Our
film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst," he said. "Right
now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being
hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent
people."
Silence
ensued... understandable in that many of those in attendance were unrefuted
Jews.
But
appleause greeted 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov
gave an impassioned speech about the war in Ukraine.
“I wish I
could exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our
cities,” he said while accepting the award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
“I cannot change history. I cannot change the past. But all together—among you,
some of the most talented people in the world—we can make sure the record is
set straight, and the truth will prevail…Cinema forms memories, and memories
form history.”
As for
those little red pins, Time (Attachment Seventy Seven) reported that not only
Youssef and Eilish but defeated nominee Ruffalo war the pins, featuring an
orange hand with a black heart inside, surrounded by a red circle.
“The pin
symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the
release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid
to civilians in Gaza," Artists4Ceasefire said in a
press release.
And then it
was off to party hearty with Elton John or, perhaps Madonna.
As they bopped and bangled, nearer came the Fear (for most Americans -
joy for the few and the many more across the world) as Islamists... nice or
naughty... celebrated (or, in the occupied territories) endured Ramadan.
SUNDAY at the CRESCENT MOON:
RAMADAN BEGINS
(See Ramadan Q and A’s from Islamic Network Group (ING) as Attachment
“F”)
Palestinians displaced
by Gaza war prepare for Ramadan
“Palestinian
Islamic Jihad is calling for Ramadan to be
a “month of terror” and seeks to escalate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza. In
a recent speech, Abu Hamza, the spokesman for PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades, said he
wants Arab countries in the region and pro-Iranian groups to continue to
“unify” various arenas and fronts against Israel,”
reported the Jerusalem Post last Saturday, Attachment Seventy Eight, as well as
all of those disinclined to bring back and universalize the Holocaust.
Especially
Americans, the West and Christians... aka “Crusaders”. . Hamza’s remarks were published by
Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel, which is pro-Iranian and frequently
highlights Hamas and Hezbollah attacks.
The
Palistinian Islamic Jihad... Muslim terrorists eschewing the pork-implicative
Palestinian Islamic Group as...
well... unclean is considered a proxy of Iran. “It has armed men in Gaza and
the West Bank, and its leaders often reside in Damascus, where they sometimes
leave to meet with their Iranian handlers in Tehran or to coordinate with Hamas
and Hezbollah.”
“Iran has
sought to surround Israel with threats that now exist along an arc of 5,000
miles, from Lebanon via Syria and Iraq to the Red Sea and then back to Gaza,”
the JP stated.
There are
at least seven different “fronts,” according to Iran. Israeli officials have
also mentioned these fronts. Iran wants to “unify” them. This means using the
Hamas massacre on October 7 to increase attacks from Hezbollah and
Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq.
“PIJ is one of the smallest of Iran’s proxies,” wrote JP’s Seth J.
Frantzman, but is still considered a menace - calling on groups in Arab
countries to not “lag in the battle led by the heroes of the resistance in the
Gaza Strip, on behalf of the Islamic nation, especially those who possess
armies, planes, and cannons.”
It’s not
clear what countries Hamza thinks would now join and back Hamas. However, he is
trying to shame the neighboring states.“Isn’t it time for you to raise your
guns like the free people in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq?” Hamza asked. “Isn’t it
time for you to take off the garment of slavery and humiliation to America, the
Great Satan, and follow the example of the honorable?”
The first
day of Ramadan should become an international day to support Gaza and
“mobilize” in “all the arenas,” Hamza said... a warning that Iran is plotting
to escalate during Ramadan. The Post
further explosed Hamas’ “sexual criminality” in an editorial, and has
flatly denied that there is famine in
Gaza... a source of tension between PM Netanyahu and President Biden.
So, at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, Ramadan
“brings uncertainty and fear” warned two reporters for the WashPost (March 9,
Attachment Seventy Nine).
Jews
revere the site they call the Temple Mount as the location of the first and
second temples and worship at the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient complex.
Muslims know it as the Noble Sanctuary, where the prophet Muhammad is said to
have ascended to heaven.
It’s the
holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam.
The
WashPost thumbnail history of Arab-Israeli fighting in and around the Temple/Mosque
most recently includes a 2021 escalation of the war in Gaza and
reports of police v. Muslim conflict on the
Mount itself with hard-liners in the Israeli government striving to limit the
number, age and gender of Palestinians allowed on the plateau where stands Al
Aqsa, “prompting warnings from both sides that restrictions could lead to
violence,” which some of either faith would welcome.
Official
Israel is prepping for the worst. “Police officials said they will keep about
1,000 officers deployed around the Old City on weekdays and 2,500 or more on
Fridays, the Muslim holy day of Jumu’ah. The heavy presence was already evident
outside of the Old City’s Damascus Gate, where police (have a history of)
clash(ings) with younger Palestinians on Ramadan evenings.”
The most
conservative members of the government want to cut off access to al-Aqsa for
most Palestinians as long as more than 100 Israelis continue to be held hostage in
Gaza.” In recent years, extremist Jewish
groups have increasingly sent activists to the al-Aqsa compound to pray,
sometimes openly, “which Palestinians view as a provocation,” and Itamar Ben Gvir,
the firebrand national security minister who controls Israeli police,
has pushed plans to largely ban (Islamic) worshipers from the site.
“The army
and the intelligence professionals are telling everyone that it does not do us
any good to pour fuel on the fire right now,” said a former military official
familiar with discussions inside the cabinet. “The fire is burning very hot as
it is.”
As of
today, the prime minister’s office announced that Israel will not impose any
restrictions at the start of Ramadan “but will evaluate conditions on a weekly
basis.” Israelis, Palestinian and other
Muslims, Americans and the world have responded to the crisis in the WashPost
Peanut Gallery – emphasizing the religious division and ancient hatreds.
An
Islamist nut compared “Isaeli apartheid” to the “old South African Bantustans”
while an Israeli partisan countered that “...the palestinians are not israeli
citizens and do not have the same rights as israeli citizens.”
“If Gazans
would really want to develop themselves, elevate their quality of life and live
peacefully along Israel - they would be in a much better place right now!”
voiced another Jewish-sympathizing peanut.
“Instead they invested in Jihad war, making weapons, missiles and
fighting tunnels!”
“The
willingness of "Israel" to announce a siege - a war crime- back in October
that now brings bodies of children dead from starvation and dehydration, should
cause fear,” posted I.D., adding that “(t)he fanaticism of settlers and
Likudniks should cause fear.”
And
a semi- sort-of middle grounder posted an American perspective, inasmuch as:
“Firing Ben Gvir and deploying the IDF to keep settler-provocateurs away would
help. Might be a sign that Biden's tone-it-down pleas are serious and are
getting through. Something to watch for...”
While DA
suggested the most unlikely of all outcomes:
“How about free the hostages AND feed the starving?”
As for President Joe, he was concerned about violence
breaking out in East Jerusalem due to the failure of any temporary ceasefire
agreement in the Gaza war before the start of Ramadan.
This year’s Ramadan, set to begin on Sunday, reported the
Times of Israel before the collapse of talks, “...comes amid tinderbox tensions
stemming from the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the
group’s shock October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through
southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, mostly
civilians.” (Attachment Eighty)
Various terrorist groups, including Hamas have vowed to
punish Israel, even exterminate all Jews... whether in Tel Aviv, Timisoara or
Tennessee... while Netanyahu was determined to continue the hunt for Hamas, no
matter what consequences to the civilians and their children – which, of
course, means that the next generation of Gazans will grow up to perpetuate the
terror.
“Israel has said any ceasefire must be temporary and that
its goal remains the destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages.,”
reported the ToI The terror group says it will release the hostages it has been
holding since October 7 only as part of a deal that ends the war.
It is believed that 130 hostages abducted by Hamas on
October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive.
The premier’s office said that a “situational assessment
around security and safety” will be made every week and that “a decision will
be made accordingly” as to expelling Muslims from the Temple Mount and closing
the site to both the Shiite (Iranian backed) or Sunni (Saudi-led)
factions. Whether this would affect
Christian residents or tourists (including Americans) remains to be seen.
The Qatari
(Sunni) based Al Jazeera reported that the failed ceasefire-for-hostages deal
collapsed when Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that his group wants a
permanent ceasefire, rather than a six-week pause, and a “complete withdrawal”
of Jews from the region – a demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu called “delusional” and pledged again to continue the war until Hamas
is dismantled and all the captives are returned.
“The
Israelis say they are waiting for Hamas’s response, while Hamas says they are
awaiting for Israel’s response,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting
from occupied East Jerusalem.
The Jewish
Chronicle (Attachment Eighty Two) predicted that Hamas would likely try to
stress religious fundamentalist themes to call on Palestinian masses “to take
part in violent actions, and rally under the banner of the “Al-Aqsa
Flood” (the name Hamas gave its October 7 attack).”
In the
West Bank, the JC reported that Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the IDF and
Border Police “have been busy conducting large numbers of security raids to
disrupt terror cells before they mature into deadly attacks.”
For their
part, “a terrorist stabbed an Israeli at the Yitzhar Junction, before being
shot dead by soldiers on the scene.”
And the JC
reported that a surge of weapons has flooded the West Bank, entering mostly
from the Jordanian border, but also some stolen from IDF bases or produced in
local Palestinian workshops.
“Iran is
investing money to get weapons into the hands of terrorists as well and tries
to help direct and carry out attacks, alongside Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” they
accused. According to an anomyous
defence source, “weapons that originated from the radical Shi’ite axis have been
seized in Judea and Samaria.”
American
negotiators say that the terror and hostage problems are compounded by the
diversity of the infamous “bad actors” including factions within Hamas like the
Lions' Den group in Nablus or, in Jenin, The Camp’s Sons, or the Jenin Brigade.
Domestically,
foes of Joe have linked the Texas and Mexican border issue with MidEast
terrorism – with NewsMax (March 8th, Attachment Eighty Three)
asking: “Are Ramadan Jihad Cells Already
In (the) U.S.?”
According
to the Trump-friendly Newsmax... hell yes!
Two of its
recent interviews — one with former Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik
Prince and one with Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., —“pointed to the gathering
threat of terror violence inside the country this year.”
This year,
Newsmax has predicted that Ramadan likely will be the occasion for even more
renewed calls for attacks against Jews in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, the rest of
Israel, and the United States (U.S.) homeland as well. “Indeed, U.S. imams already have begun calling for the killing of Jews on
a genocidal scale.”
At the
turn of the year, “a group of former senior FBI officials sent a letter to
congressional leaders warning of a “new and imminent danger."
“That
danger, they wrote, arises from the ongoing mass invasion of military-age men
from all over the world, among whom surely are not only Chinese Jungle Tigers but
also Islamic terrorists seeking vengeance against Jews and for U.S. support of
Israel.”
Epoch
Times show host and reporter Roman Balmakov interviewed the
Blackwater Prince at the March 2024 CPAC (Conservative Political Action
Conference. During the interview,
entitled "Terrorist Sleeper Cells Are Already in the U.S.," Prince
told Balmakov that one reason he believes the Biden administration is so
reluctant to strike back in any meaningful way against Iranian terror
proxies — much
less any Iranian target itself — “is that the Iranian regime has already surged unknown
numbers of military fighters across our wide-open southern border.”
Prince
suggested that such fighters — whether Iran’s own IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps),
Quds Force, or proxy jihadis from HAMAS, Hizballah, or Houthis — could be
flown on Iran’s Mahan Air from Iran to Venezuela then walked north to the
border.
On March
3, 2024 Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.,
joined FOX News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program with Maria
Bartiromo and warned that Chinese triads, supported by President Xi, are in
cahoots with Islamist terror cells to, among other atrocities, open “a
proliferation of massage parlors in Kansas as well as other states” which,
along with “other Chinese fronts like hair or nail salons,” which employ
enslaved Chinese women who launder money for the cause, spy on Americans and,
perhaps, form a dangerous fifth column of saboteurs and assassins waiting for
their orders from Beijing (or Caracas, Rafah or Tehran) to strike at the naïve
Americans... perhaps also in collusion with fentanyl dealers from Mexico... and
maybe even “China” Joe Biden
The Washington Examiner and
other news outlets reported in early March 2024 that the Biden administration
has flown some 320,000 illegal aliens directly from unknown Latin American
countries into the U.S. to unsuspecting American communities that Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) refuses to identify.
The secret
airlift was kept secret from the American public “to minimize the numbers of
illegals being processed through U.S. southern ports of entry via the CBP One
cell phone app.”
NewsMax
also reported... see Attachment... that American golfers were being endangered
by trannie Davidson, that a so-called ‘Hair
Fertilizer’ was being marched in order to grow Crazy amounts
of hair and that ‘Global Elites” (see here to find
out whom... and where they are filling up their mansion moats with crocodiles.)
http://donjonesindex.com/dji.240311.htm
THE WEEK’S NEWS |
Our Lesson: March Fouth through March Tenth, 2024 |
The Don Jones Index for the week of March 4th through March 10th, 2024 was DOWN 61.65 points
February 4, 2024
See how they did in comparison to the results (Attachment
A)...
Two
beloved songwriters, almost half a century apart in age, are set to be stars of
tonight’s Grammy Awards.
Joni
Mitchell, who nearly died from an aneurysm several years ago, will give her
first Grammys performance at the age of 80. And Taylor Swift has a shot to win
her fourth album of the year award, something no other artist has done.
But Swift,
who has six nominations, faces tough competition. SZA leads the field with nine
nominations for her acclaimed “SOS” album and hit single “Kill Bill.” The pop
and R&B singer Victoria Monét received seven nods; Olivia Rodrigo, Billie
Eilish, Miley Cyrus, Jon Batiste, and the indie-rock trio boygenius have six
apiece. (Here are all the nominees.)
We asked
three Times music critics — Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz —
to their thoughts on who might win
tonight’s awards.
Let’s
start with the big one, album of the year. Who do you expect will win?
Lindsay Zoladz: Taylor Swift looks like the front-runner here, less on
the merits of “Midnights” than on the massive monocultural impact of her Eras
Tour. But I’m going to bet the Grammy voters are experiencing a little Swift
fatigue, so I’m predicting a slight upset: I think boygenius will win for “The
Record,” a gently forward-thinking folk-rock album with a nonetheless
traditional, Grammy-approved sound. Personally, though, I’m rooting for Olivia
Rodrigo’s spunky “Guts” or Lana Del Rey’s weird, sprawling “Did You Know That
There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.”
Jon Pareles: I’d be delighted for SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, boygenius or
Janelle Monáe to win — they were all among my picks for the year’s best albums
— and I wouldn’t be too unhappy with a win by Lana Del Rey or Taylor Swift,
either. If Swift wins, she will be the first musician with four album of the
year awards, surpassing Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.
Jon Caramanica: Taylor Swift will win, I think. Grammy voters have
awarded this prize to her three times already, and they like familiarity. SZA’s
album was better, though. Olivia Rodrigo’s and Lana Del Rey’s too.
How about
record of the year? (For readers who are unfamiliar, this is the award for the
best single.)
Jon Pareles: To be calculating about it as a longtime Grammy
observer, I’d guess that “What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish’s song for the
“Barbie” movie, has an edge. Grammy voters love ballads (check), soundtrack
songs (check) and previous Grammy winners (check).
Jon Caramanica: I think Jon Batiste will win this, and it brings me no
joy to say so. The Grammys tend to reward conspicuous musicianship, and
Batiste, even though the music he makes is not popular, plays well to the
Grammy voters who fancy themselves too sophisticated to acknowledge the
craftsmanship that goes into the creation of pop music.
Lindsay Zoladz: I’d love to see Olivia Rodrigo take this award for
“Vampire,” a sonically adventurous rock-operatic ballad produced with flair by
Rodrigo’s trusted collaborator Daniel Nigro. But I fear that the voters are
going to play it safe here and go with Miley Cyrus’s sleek, sturdily assembled
“Flowers.”
Even if
you don’t care about the winners, the Grammys usually have a live performance
or two that are worth tuning in for. Are there any you’re looking forward to
this year?
Jon Pareles: I can’t imagine missing the performance by Joni
Mitchell. Her recovery from a life-threatening brain aneurysm in 2015 has been
beyond heartening. An entire musical community rallied around her as she
applied a lifetime of artistic instincts to the voice she has now. Her surprise
comeback performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, and her preternatural version of “Summertime” when she accepted the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song,
showed surpassing musicianship and an indomitable will.
Jon Caramanica: A couple of days ago, whispers began circulating that
the Grammys might successfully pull off the seemingly unthinkable. No, not the
debut Grammy performance of Joni Mitchell (at 80!), but instead the coaxing of
Tracy Chapman out of post-music-industry invisibility to duet with Luke Combs,
whose cover of her indelible 1988 hit “Fast Car” was one of last
year’s most impactful releases. Should that actually happen, it would be more
than a coup.
So much
great music comes out every year, and only a few artists at the top seem to win
the big awards. If you were in charge, what unheralded artist would win a
Grammy this year?
Jon Caramanica: The pop act with the highest batting average of the
last two years is, indisputably, the K-pop girl group NewJeans. “Super Shy,”
“OMG,” “Ditto” — they simply do not miss.
Jon Pareles: Not completely unheralded, but there is a glaring
omission from the best new artist nominees: Peso Pluma, who spearheaded a
blockbuster international year for regional Mexican music. His songs have racked
up more than a billion plays on Spotify. His 2023 album, “Genésis,” did get
nominated way down in category 59, música Mexicana, but he deserved some notice
in prime time.
Lindsay Zoladz: I would give at least one Grammy to the absurdist pop
group 100 gecs, just to see them accept it in their signature neon wizard
robes.
|
WASHINGTON
POST
GRAMMYS 2024 PERFORMANCES, RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tracy
Chapman and Luke Combs’s duet of ‘Fast Car’ was the highlight of the night,
along with Joni Mitchell’s and Annie Lennox’s moving ballads
By Emily
Yahr, Chris Richards, Shane O’Neill
Taylor
Swift made history at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, winning album of the
year (“Midnights”) for the fourth time — the most any artist has received in
that category. (Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon each won three
times.) Swift also won pop vocal album and used her speech to tell the
world she’s releasing a new album in April, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Female
artists dominated the 66th Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, with a record-breaking
album of the year win by Taylor Swift.
The other
major wins were spread out: Miley Cyrus took home record of the year for the
triumphant “Flowers,” while Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell,
won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” the mournful track from the “Barbie” movie. Victoria
Monét was crowned best new artist.
But
everyone knows that you tune in to the Grammys for the performances — so we
ranked them from best to worst. (See a full rundown of the show here.)
The
big winners at the 2024 Grammy Awards
1
Tracy
Chapman and Luke Combs
Luke Combs
has always said that Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is one of his favorite songs of all time, which is why he decided to cover it — he
had no idea it would become one of his biggest hits. As the camera focused on
Chapman (who rarely performs in public) during her duet with Combs, the
audience cheered wildly. You could feel the glee radiating off Combs as he
stared at Chapman in awe as they sang; Chapman strummed her guitar, looking
happy and serene. The collaboration resulted in a huge standing ovation.
2
Joni
Mitchell
We’re
still fixated on Joni Mitchell’s final, artfully sour discordant note on “Both
Sides Now” followed by her sweet, wide grin. “Both Sides Now” indeed.
3
Annie
Lennox
Taking the
baton from Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox sang the second portion of the “In
Memoriam” segment, delivering a stark rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U” in
tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor. Flanked by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince’s
legendary Revolution, Lennox concluded the ballad by raising her fist in
solidarity with Gaza: “Artists for cease-fire!”
The 2024
Grammy Awards had an historic list of winners. We ranked the Grammys 2024 performances from best to worst and picked our favorite Grammys Red Carpet looks.
4
Fantasia
Barrino
The “In
Memoriam” segment concluded in honor of Tina Turner (who else?). Fantasia Barrino nailed her
interpretation of “Proud Mary” as a line of dancers shimmied in beaded dresses
reminiscent of Turner’s famed Bob Mackie numbers, as was the dress worn during
Cyrus’s own nod to Turner earlier in the night.
5
SZA
SZA didn’t
disappoint. She performed “Snooze” while standing in front of dumpster fires in
an outfit that closely resembled the Undertaker’s. That segued into “Kill
Bill,” which brought a sword-slashing dancer to the crowd and red lights to the
room.
6
Miley
Cyrus
Cyrus
joyfully took the stage for “Flowers” and chided the audience for pretending
like they didn’t know the upbeat track that has been absolutely inescapable for
the past year. (The camera zoomed in on both Swift and Oprah Winfrey singing
along.) She took breaks from the microphone to shake and shimmy around the
stage in a sparkly bodysuit, improvising a few lines throughout the song and
stopping to remind everyone that she just won her first Grammy.
Miley
Cyrus. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
7
Billie
Eilish
Billie
Eilish reportedly agonized over the recording of “What Was I Made For?” so it
was a quiet thrill hearing her breeze through it in one breathy swoop alongside
brother Finneas.
this article
8
Jon
Batiste
The
epic-length “In Memoriam” segment included Jon Batiste sitting down at a piano
for a medley of “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me” and then switching up the
mood and dancing for a rousing rendition of “Optimistic” by Sounds of
Blackness.
9
Dua
Lipa
Dua Lipa
kicked things off trapped in a jungle gym/cage, performing all sorts of tricks
during a medley that included “Training Season” and “Houdini,” as well as a
snippet of her “Barbie” song “Dance the Night.” The spectacle briefly became an
audience-participation situation as she walked through the crowd to the main
stage, where she cavorted with an impressive array of backup dancers.
10
Billy
Joel
Did the
world need a new ballad from Billy Joel? Probably not — but he seemed pretty
psyched to be performing his first new song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On,” as he settled into his piano.
And the crowd loved him.
11
Travis
Scott
Travis Scott started his performance a little slower with the
sultry “My Eyes” from his 2023 album, “Utopia.” He soon picked up the pace with
“Fein,” bringing lightning strikes and flames to the stage — not to mention the
flickering strobe light and the voice-cracking scream. It was the first of just
two rap performances, almost as if the criticism Jay-Z delivered in his speech
a few minutes earlier was playing out in real time.
12
Olivia
Rodrigo
Has the
Grammy electorate ever met a piano ballad they didn’t like? Olivia Rodrigo’s
“Vampire” has always sounded as if it were engineered for Grammy night — and
she finally got to perform it there in a flowing red ball gown, images of blood
trickling down behind her. As for the song’s naughtier lyrics, Rodrigo did her
own self-censoring.
13
Burna
Boy
Nigerian
superstar Burna Boy has a complicated relationship with his place in the
Afrobeats genre, but he was introduced as an ambassador of the sound before his
onstage collaboration with R&B hero Brandy and Atlanta rap star 21 Savage.
14
Stevie
Wonder and Tony Bennett
Stevie
Wonder opened the “In Memoriam” performance with a speech honoring Tony
Bennett’s dedication to civil rights before “duetting” with a recording of
Bennett on “For Once in My Life.”
15
U2
U2 made a
very specific type of history as the first act to perform at the Grammys from
the Sphere, Las Vegas’s LED-covered monstrosity/fever dream. The cameras zoomed
in and out and around, and if you weren’t careful, it all made you extremely
nauseous as the band performed “Atomic City” and lights flashed in the
background — sorry, we got dizzy just describing this.
ATTACHMENT THREE – FROM PITCHFORK
GRAMMYS 2024: ALL OF THE PERFORMANCES
Watch SZA, Billie Eilish, Billy Joel, Dua Lipa, Tracy Champan, and
others take the stage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena
By Jazz Monroe and Eric Torres
February 5, 2024
The 2024 Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, took place on
February 4 in Los Angeles, with performances from the likes of SZA, Billie
Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Tracy Chapman with Luke Combs. Watch footage of them
below, along with Joni Mitchell, Olivia Rodrigo, Travis Scott, Burna Boy, Billy
Joel, U2, and many more.
The 16 Best and Worst Moments of the 2024 Grammys
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox paid tribute to the late Sinead O’Connor, covering
the singer’s Prince cover “Nothing Compares 2 U” during the in memoriam
segment.
Billie Eilish and Finneas
Eilish added two more Grammys to her haul this year, earning Song
of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media for “What Was I Made For?,”
from Barbie. She performed the track with Finneas while wearing a green dress,
tweed jacket, and pink head scarf—a nod to a vintage Barbie doll from the mid-1960s.
Billy Joel
Billy Joel returned to the Grammys stage to play his new song
“Turn the Lights Back On” before closing the ceremony with the 1980 cut “You
May Be Right.”
Brandy Clark
Brandy Clark was in the running for six awards, ultimately winning
her first-ever Grammy, in the Best Americana Performance category, for “Dear
Insecurity.” She performed the song with SistaStrings.
Burna Boy
Burna Boy performed a medley at the ceremony, breezing through “On
Form” and “City Boys” before bringing out 21 Savage and Brandy for “Sittin’ on
Top of the World.” In the end, he was shut out of the four categories in which
he was nominated.
Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa opened the ceremony with a medley of new song “Training
Season,” Barbie hit “Dance the Night,” and the Tame Impala–produced “Houdini.”
Her seemingly high-risk performance involved crawling around a metal jungle gym
clad in black leather. The two categories in which she was nominated—Song of
the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media—eventually went to her Barbie
comrade Billie Eilish.
Fantasia Barrino
Multi-Grammy-winner Fantasia Barrino took the stage for a lively
cover of Tina Turner’s “Rolling on the River” as part of the in memoriam
segment. At one point, she stalked into the crowd in search of a “pretty lady
who doesn’t mind moving her hips,” before picking out Dua Lipa for an impromptu
dance.
Gaby Moreno and El David Aguilar
Gaby Moreno, who wound up winning Best Latin Pop Album, performed
with singer-songwriter El David Aguilar at the Premiere Ceremony.
Jon Batiste
After sweeping the 2022 Grammys, Jon Batiste returned for the in
memoriam segment, performing with Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Ann Nesby, and Cory
Henry on a medley.
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell won Best Folk Album at this year’s Grammys for Joni
Mitchell at Newport (Live). She also made her Grammys live debut playing “Both
Sides Now” with a band comprising Brandi Carlile, Blake Mills, Allison Russell,
Lucius, and Jacob Collier. (Longer recordings have surfaced on YouTube.)
Kirk Franklin
During the Premiere Ceremony, 19-time winner Franklin performed
his Best Gospel Performance/Song–nominated “All Things.”
Laufey
Before picking up her first-ever Grammy, for Bewitched in the Best
Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, Icelandic singer Laufey performed “From
the Start” during the Premiere Ceremony.
Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman
Luke Combs, who also performed at last year’s ceremony, played his
Best Country Solo Performance–nominated cover of “Fast Car” with the creator
herself, Tracy Chapman, in a performance that captivated viewers.
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus won both Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo
Performance for “Flowers,” and celebrated with an ad lib–heavy rendition of the
track.
Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo played a suitably theatrical “Vampire” to mark her
six nominations, wearing a red satin dress and lashings of fake blood. The song
and Guts were eventually shut out of all six of their categories.
Pentatonix, J. Ivy, Larkin Poe, Sheila E., and Jordin Sparks
Pentatonix opened the Premiere Ceremony with a little help from
Ivy, Poe, Sheila E., and Jordin Sparks.
Robert Glasper, Adam Blackstone, Bob James, Terrace Martin, and
Harvey Mason Sr.
Glasper was up for two awards this year: Best R&B Song and
Best R&B Performance, both for “Back to Love.” At the premiere ceremony, he
performed alongside Harvey Mason Sr., and fellow 2024 nominees Adam Blackstone,
Terrace Martin, and Bob James.
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder was announced at the last minute, along with the
other in memoriam performers. He opened the segment with a version of Tony
Bennett’s “The Best Is Yet to Come.”
SZA
SZA led the pack at this year’s Grammys and converted three of her
nine nods. She performed “Snooze” and “Kill Bill” from SOS during the ceremony,
in a performance that featured sword-dodging and a literal onstage dumpster
fire.
Travis Scott
Travis Scott performed his Utopia tracks “My Eyes,” “I Know ?,”
and “Fe!n.” He was also thwarted by Killer Mike in the Best Rap Album category.
U2
U2 performed “Atomic City” live from the Sphere in Las Vegas in
the first-ever broadcast performance from the new venue.
ATTACHMENT FOUR – FROM THE NEW YORK POST
TRUMP GLOATS OVER NIKKI HALEY
DROPPING OUT POST-SUPER TUESDAY: ‘GOT TROUNCED LAST NIGHT’
By Ryan King
Published March 6, 2024, 11:44 a.m. ET
Donald Trump reveled
Wednesday at the news that his last Republican rival was suspending her campaign and took some parting shots at former
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on the heels of her Super Tuesday drubbing.
“Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting
fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to
vote in Vermont, and various other Republican Primaries,” the 77-year-old ranted on Truth Social minutes before Haley officially
bowed out.
Haley, 52, scored just two primary wins against the former
president, in Washington, DC, and Vermont, making her the first woman to win a
Republican presidential nominating contest.
Trump now has 995 of the 1,215 delegates needed to secure
the party nod compared to Haley’s 89. His team expects to officially cross the
1,215 threshold later this month.
“At this point, I hope she stays in the ‘race’ and fights it
out until end! I’d like thank my family, friends, and the Great Republican
Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful Super Tuesday in
HISTORY,” Trump went on before needling Haley further by saying that “much of
her money came from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters.”
The 45th president then extended an olive branch to Haley’s
supporters, with polls indicating that many of them harbor some significant acrimony toward him.
“[I] would further like to invite all of the Haley
supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation,” he
wrote.
President Biden, in sharp contrast to Trump, congratulated
Haley on her campaign and invited her backers to get behind his re-election
bid.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s
supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,”
Biden said in a statement.
In a terse exit speech, Haley said she had “no regret” about
running and declined to endorse her rival right away.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican
nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish
him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president,” she said.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him and I hope he does that,” she continued. “At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away.”
Almost all of the other former 2024 Republican presidential
contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), have
thrown their weight behind Trump.
By contrast, Haley — along with former New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie and Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence — have not.
Trump is now pivoting to his near-certain general election
rematch with Biden.
“BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE
AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump declared in his Wednesday morning message.
During a victory speech out of Mar-a-Lago Tuesday evening,
Trump made no mention of Haley and pined for unity.
“[Success], that’s
what’s ultimately going to unify this country and unify this party,” he said.
“We have a great Republican Party with tremendous talent.
And we want to have unity, and we’re going to have unity, and it’s going to
happen very quickly.”
ATTACHMENT FIVE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES
TRUMP CONFIRMS NAMES ON VP SHORTLIST
By Mallory
Wilson - The
Washington Times - Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Former
President Donald
Trump on Tuesday
confirmed a few people he’s considering for vice president, but didn’t say when
he’ll make a formal announcement.
When asked
by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham about individuals who have been floated,
Mr. Trump attested they’re on his shortlist.
On the
list are Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim
Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
He said
all of those people are “good and solid.”
He
especially lauded Mr. Scott, who was sitting in the audience of the town hall
in Greenville, South Carolina.
“A lot of
people are talking about that gentleman right over there,”
Mr. Trump said. “And he’s been so great. He’s been such a great
advocate.
“I have to
say, this is in a very positive way, Tim Scott, he has been much better for me
than he was for himself. I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking
about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”
ATTACHMENT SIX – FROM From washpost
How many delegates are at stake on Super Tuesday?
By Nick
Mourtoupalas March 4, 2024 at 10:17 a.m.
EST
There are
865 Republican delegates up for grabs in 15 states that vote on Super Tuesday
on March 5. That represents more than one-third of the 2,429 total delegates in the nomination
contest that
began in mid-January and concludes with the Republican National Convention in
July.
Former
president Donald Trump, the party’s front-runner, has already secured 244
delegates. While there are not enough delegates available to clinch the
nomination on Super Tuesday, Trump is likely to make significant progress toward the 1,215 threshold.
California
and Texas offer the largest delegate hauls on Super Tuesday, representing
roughly 14 percent of all Republican delegates.
.
Who is running? The top contenders for the GOP nomination are former
president Donald Trump and
former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. For the
Democrats, President Biden is running for reelection in 2024.
Republican delegate count: GOP candidates for president compete
to earn enough delegates to secure their party’s nomination. We’re tracking
the Republican 2024 delegate count.
Key issues: Compare where the candidates stand on such issues as abortion, climate and the economy.
Key dates and events: From January to June, voters in all states and U.S.
territories will pick their party’s nominee for president ahead of the summer
conventions. Here are key dates and events on the 2024 election calendar.
ATTACHMENT SEVEN – FROM THE
GUARDIAN U.K.
It never mattered less’: Super
Tuesday is looking less than super this year
With the presidential nominees all but assured, the
celebrated ritual lacks suspense – but election could be ‘the worst in modern
history’
David Smith in Washington Mon 4 Mar
2024 05.00 EST
Mirophone in hand, Nikki Haley was delivering a well-rehearsed stump speech when a
primal cry came from the audience. “He cannot win a general election!” yelled a
man, referring to Donald Trump and the ex-president’s chance against Joe Biden.
“It is madness!”
Haley supporters at a campaign
rally in a
tiny Washington hotel on Friday signaled their agreement. But they are in a
distinct minority within the Republican party as the biggest day of this year’s
primary election campaign approaches.
Fifteen states and one territory will vote in contests known
as Super
Tuesday, when
more than a third of delegates will be assigned to July’s Republican national
convention in Milwaukee. Past results and opinion polls suggest that, by
Tuesday night, Trump will have in effect wrapped up the Republican nomination
against Haley, his sole remaining challenger.
On the Democratic side, incumbent Biden has swept
aside token
challenges by Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota and the self-help author
Marianne Williamson and is cruising to the nomination. The lopsided contests
and lack of suspense are making Super Tuesday, one of the most celebrated
rituals of the American election season, look not so super this time.
Frank
Luntz, a
political consultant and pollster, said: “It never mattered less. I don’t know
any political event that’s got more attention for being less relevant. The
decision has been made. The choice is clear. You know who the two nominees are
and 70% of Americans would rather it not be so.”
Trump is poised to take the latest giant stride in a dramatic
political comeback. He was written off by many after his 2020 election defeat,
the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol and the barrage of 91
criminal charges against him. Yet he has seen off a dozen challengers and
easily won the first
eight Republican nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the US
Virgin Islands, South Carolina, Michigan, Missouri and Idaho.
The former Republican president has done it despite – or
perhaps because of – a campaign based on retribution against his enemies and
the promise of
a second term even
more radically rightwing than his first. Trump’s scattergun rhetoric, promising
to be a dictator on “day one” and claiming that immigrants are “poisoning the
blood of our country”, has been rewarded with primary win after primary win.
Charlie
Sykes, a
contributor and columnist for the MSNBC network, said: “We’ve learned once
again that the Republican party just can’t quit Donald Trump, that there is no
red line, that there’s no going back. Nikki Haley and earlier Chris Christie
gave speeches that would have been well within the mainstream of the Republican
party as recently as 2015 but now they sound like they’re being beamed in from
another country.
“Part of the reason that so many people take crazy pills is
you look at Donald Trump and he has become more extreme, more
deranged and more unhinged and yet nothing seems to matter. His authoritarian
agenda couldn’t be clearer and yet Republicans who once thought of themselves
as the party of liberty and the constitutional order are just falling into line
behind him.”
Still, there have also been warning signs for Trump. The
77-year-old has repeatedly won less convincingly than opinion polls suggested
he would. In the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, the Associated
Press’s AP
VoteCast found
that college graduates backed former South Carolina governor Haley over Trump.
She has been running him close in the suburbs, a perennial weakness for the
former president.
Rick
Wilson, a
co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “Trump is supposed
to win all these races, is supposed to be the dominant figure in the party. The
fact that, depending on the state and the day, there’s still 20, 30, 40%
Republicans who are saying no, I’m going to pass on this, and independent
voters who are coming out to cast a vote against him, is not the
unified-Republican-party theory of the case that there will be absolute fealty
to him.
“I’m not saying that any of them in the race could have put
together a sufficient coalition against him but, if you don’t go after him,
you’ll never get it. If you don’t speak truth about him, you’ll never defeat
him.”
Anti-Trump sentiment was palpable at Haley’s rally of more
than a hundred people in Washington, the capital, an overwhelmingly Democratic
city where there are only about 23,000 registered Republicans. The former South
Carolina governor argued for a return to normality after the Trump and Biden
years, which she asserted had emboldened foreign foes, run up trillions of
dollars in debt and left the American dream in jeopardy.
Wearing a grey Nike tracksuit sweater with I Pick Nikki and
I Voted stickers, Joe Neal, 28, said: “I’m not going to support a seditionist.
I’m not going to support someone who supported terrorism, as far as I’m
concerned. I certainly agree with some of the former president’s policies but
he cannot get my vote this time around.”
Asked whether Haley is likely to drop out after Super
Tuesday, Neal, an e-commerce business owner, added: “Typically, yes, but this
is not a typical year. You’re running against someone who, quite frankly, could
be in prison one day and that’s just the reality.”
Haley has taken in significant campaign money, including
$12m last month, and vowed to fight on. But she has seen some of her financial
support waver recently. The organisation Americans for Prosperity, backed by
the Koch brothers, announced it would stop spending on her behalf after she
lost her home state of South Carolina.
ATTACHMENT EIGHT – FROM GUK
Super Tuesday: Trump all but certain
of Republican nomination as 16 states vote
Primary contests represent last chance for Nikki Haley to
deny Trump, while Biden glides towards being Democratic nominee
Martin Pengelly in Washington Tue 5 Mar
2024 03.00 EST
Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican nomination for
president is all but certain to be confirmed on Tuesday, as 16 US states and
one territory hold primary votes. From Alabama to Alaska and from Arkansas to
American Samoa, “Super
Tuesday”
represents Nikki Haley’s last chance to deny Trump a third nomination.
But the former South Carolina governor and United Nations
ambassador is way off
the pace, her only
win in Washington DC, and in need of a political miracle if she is not to be
forced to finally end her campaign.
Furthermore, the US supreme court on Monday ruled
unanimously that
judges in one Super Tuesday state, Colorado, erred when they said Trump should
be kept off the ballot for inciting the January 6 insurrection. Maine, which
will also vote on Tuesday, also attempted to stop Trump running. The third
state to do so, Illinois, will hold its primary later in March.
On the Democratic side of the Super Tuesday ballot, Joe
Biden is all but sure to defeat his also-ran challengers, the Minnesota
congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne
Williamson, a
self-help author who last week “un-suspended” her campaign.
Amid deepening concern about the president’s age and fitness
for office, as well as his record on the Israel-Hamas war, aides to Biden will
be chiefly concerned with turnout and protest vote totals.
The Democratic Socialists of America, a force with young
progressives, has endorsed a push for Super Tuesday voters to choose
“uncommitted”, to register disapproval for US support for Israel. In Michigan
last week, more than 100,000 did so.
Still, Frank
Luntz, a
Republican-aligned pollster, previously told the Guardian that in terms of a
presidential election, Super Tuesday “never mattered less” than this year.
“I don’t know any political event that’s got more attention
for being less relevant,” Luntz said. “The decision has been made. The choice is clear.”
Polling shows clear majorities of voters in both parties
dissatisfied with the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch, amid concerns over
their ages (Biden is 81, Trump 77) and fitness for office, in Trump’s case also
over his 91 criminal charges (for election subversion, retention of classified
information and hush-money payments) and multimillion-dollar civil defeats.
“You know who the two nominees are and 70% of Americans would
rather it not be so,” Luntz said.
There are also down-ballot contests to watch.
In California, in an open primary, voters will decide which
two candidates for US Senate will advance to the November general election.
Adam Schiff, a Democratic former chair of the House intelligence committee, and
Steve Garvey, a Republican former baseball star, lead a crowded field.
In Texas, a Republican-run state forever the subject of
Democratic hopes and dreams, Democrats will choose a candidate to challenge the high-profile,
hard-right, Trump-supporting senator Ted Cruz. Colin Allred, a congressman and
former NFL player, leads polling.
In North Carolina, the Democratic attorney general, Josh
Stein, and Republican lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, are expected to advance to an election for governor in November.
That race will decide who succeeds Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, in what
is increasingly a swing state, vital to presidential elections and control of
Congress.
Robinson, a rare Black Republican in elected office, has
attracted widespread criticism for harsh rightwing rhetoric. At a rally last
week, Trump called him “Martin Luther King on steroids”.
ATTACHMENT
NINE – FROM TIME
Why ‘Super Tuesday’ Won’t Live Up to
Its Name This Year
BY WILL WEISSERT / AP MARCH 5,
2024 5:48 AM EST
WASHINGTON
— President Joe
Biden and
former President Donald Trump are poised to move much closer to winning their party's
nominations during the biggest day of the primary campaign on Tuesday, setting
up a historic rematch that many voters would rather not endure.
Super
Tuesday elections
are being held in 16 states and one territory — from Alaska and California to
Vermont and Virginia. Hundreds of delegates are at stake, the biggest haul for
either party on any single day.
While much
of the focus is on the presidential race, there are also important down-ballot
contests. California voters will choose candidates who will
compete to fill the Senate seat long
held by Dianne
Feinstein.
The governor’s
race will take shape in North Carolina, a state that both parties are fiercely
contesting ahead
of November. And in Los Angeles, a progressive
prosecutor is
attempting to fend off an intense reelection challenge in a race that could
serve as a barometer of the politics
of crime.
But the
premier races center on Biden and Trump. And in a dramatic departure from past
Super Tuesdays, both the Democratic and Republican contests are effectively
sealed this year.
The two
men have easily repelled challengers in the opening rounds of the campaign and
are in full command of their bids — despite polls making it clear that voters
don’t want this year’s general election to be identical to the 2020 race. A new
AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a
majority of Americans don't think either Biden or Trump has the necessary mental acuity for the job.
“Both of
them failed, in my opinion, to unify this country,” said Brian Hadley, 66, of
Raleigh, North Carolina.
Neither
Trump nor Biden will be able to formally clinch their party's nominations on
Super Tuesday. The earliest either can become his party's presumptive nominee
is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden.
The final
days before Tuesday demonstrated the unique nature of this year’s campaign. Rather
than barnstorming the states holding primaries, Biden and Trump held rival
events last week along the U.S.-Mexico
border, each
seeking to gain an advantage in the increasingly fraught immigration debate.
After the
Supreme Court ruled
9-0 on
Monday to restore Trump to primary ballots following attempts to ban him for
his role in helping spark the Capitol riot, Trump pointed to the 91
criminal counts against
him to accuse Biden of weaponizing the courts.
“Fight
your fight yourself,” Trump said. “Don’t use prosecutors and judges to go after
your opponent.”
Biden
delivers the State of the Union address on Thursday, then will campaign in the
key swing states of Pennsylvania and Georgia.
The
president will defend policies responsible for "record job creation, the
strongest economy in the world, increased wages and household wealth, and lower
prescription drug and energy costs,” White House communications director Ben
LaBolt said in a statement.
That's in
contrast, LaBolt continued, to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement,
which consists of “rewarding billionaires and corporations with tax breaks,
taking away rights and freedoms, and undermining our democracy.”
Biden’s campaign
called extra attention to Trump’s most provocative utterances on the campaign
trail, like when he evoked
Adolf Hitler in
suggesting that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. and said he’d
seek to serve
as a dictator during
his first day back in the White House.
Trump
recently told a gala for Black conservatives that he believed African
Americans empathized
with his four criminal indictments, drawing
a sharp rebuke from the Biden campaign and top Democrats around the country for
comparing personal legal struggles to the historical injustices Black people
have faced in the U.S.
Trump has
nonetheless already vanquished more than a dozen major Republican challengers
and now has only one left: Nikki
Haley, the
former president’s onetime U.N. ambassador who was also twice elected governor
of her home state of South Carolina.
Haley has
hopscotched across the country, visiting at least one Super Tuesday state
almost daily for more than a week and arguing that her base of support — while
far smaller than Trump’s — suggests the former president will lose to Biden.
“We can do
better than two 80-year-old candidates for president,” Haley said at a rally
Monday in the Houston suburbs.
Haley has
maintained strong
fundraising and
notched her first
primary victory over the weekend in Washington, D.C., a Democrat-run city with few registered Republicans. Trump
tried to turn that victory into a loss for the overall campaign, scoffing that
she had been “crowned queen of the swamp.”
Though
Trump has dominated the early Republican primary calendar, his victories have
shown vulnerabilities with some influential voter blocs, especially in college
towns like Hanover, New Hampshire, home to Dartmouth College, or Ann Arbor,
where the University of Michigan is located, as well as in some areas with high
concentrations of independents.
Still,
Haley winning any of Super Tuesday's contests would take an upset. And a Trump
sweep would only intensify pressure on her to leave the race.
Biden has
his own problems, including low
approval ratings and polls
suggesting that
many Americans, even a majority of Democrats, don’t want to see the 81-year-old
running again. The president’s easy
Michigan primary win last
week was spoiled slightly by an “uncommitted” campaign organized by activists
who disapprove of the president’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Allies of
the “uncommitted” vote are pushing similar protest votes elsewhere. One to
watch is Minnesota, which has a significant population of Muslims, including in
its Somali American community, and liberals disaffected with Biden. Gov. Tim Walz,
a Biden ally, told The Associated Press last week that he expected some votes
for “uncommitted” on Tuesday.
While
Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, his reelection campaign argues
that skeptics will come around once it is clear it’ll be him or Trump in
November. Trump is 77 and faces his own questions about age that have been
exacerbated by flubs like over the weekend when he mistakenly suggested
he was
running against Barack Obama.
That
hasn’t shaken Trump’s ardent supporters’ faith in him.
“Trump
would eat him up,” Ken Ballos, a retired police officer who attended a weekend
Trump rally in Virginia, said of a November rematch, adding that Biden “would
look like a fool up there.”
.
ATTACHMENT TEN – FROM SLATE
Trump and Biden Crushed Super Tuesday. But There Were
Still Some Genuine Surprises.
For
example, the winner of the American Samoa caucus was entirely unexpected.
BY JIM NEWELL
MARCH 06,
202412:53 AM
The Slate
Decision Desk tabulated votes and worked campaign insiders all night Super
Tuesday, and to a person, we reached a conclusion: Donald Trump and Joe Biden
are in excellent shape to win their respective parties’ presidential
nominations. Sorry, Nikki-Pickies and neo-Deaniacs. The data is singing to us
loud and clear.
In other
words, there weren’t many surprises in the presidential primary results this
week as more than a dozen states cast ballots for presidential nominees. (There
was a surprise, though.)
Donald
Trump won all but one Republican contest over Nikki Haley, and his wins were all
by double-digit margins. The one state in which Haley took a victory—her second of the cycle, after winning the District of Columbia over the
weekend—was Vermont, which is not a delegate-rich state.
Biden,
meanwhile, won every state primary by substantial,
incumbent-sized margins. He did not win every contest, however. He
lost the American Samoa caucus 51 to 40. (That’s not percentage; those are raw
vote numbers.) Biden was bested there by a fella named Jason Palmer, a self-described
“entrepreneur, impact investor and philanthropist” from Baltimore who appears
to have told American Samoans that he’s very popular in the mainland. How nice for him.
While
Haley didn’t speak on Tuesday night, her next speech could be a suspension of
her campaign, now that Trump is on the verge of capturing a majority of total
delegates.
Vermont
aside, her best chances for wins were in moderate or blue states, with high
percentages of college-educated voters and open primaries for non-Republicans
to infiltrate. But Haley didn’t come close to winning states that matched this profile, like
Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado, or Massachusetts; her margins among her targeted
voters weren’t nearly what Trump’s were among his. In Virginia, for
example, exit polls—which are subject to revision—showed Haley winning college
graduates, who made up about half the primary electorate, by a few points.
Trump won non-college voters there, meanwhile, by a 4-to-1 margin. Yes, Trump
will have issues with suburban voters in the fall. What else is new? But right
now he has the group that matters in Republican primary season: Republicans. By
a lot.
Among the
weaknesses within Joe Biden’s coalition, “uncommitted” appears to have made
noise again after winning 100,000 protest votes in the Michigan primary last week. In Minnesota, which
has substantial Muslim and progressive communities, nearly 20 percent of
Democratic primary voters had chosen “uncommitted” with most of the vote
counted. “Uncommitted” in Minnesota was trouncing actual, human Democratic
primary challenger Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota. This
prompted Phillips to post one of the better tweets of this sleepy primary
season, although he failed to mention Jason Palmer.
In the
marquee down-ballot race of the night—winners for which were called surprising
quickly—Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey will advance to
November’s election. Schiff had spent significant money and messaging trying to
elevate Garvey as his main opponent, recognizing that it’s not especially hard
to defeat a Republican in a California general election. You can call
this a cynical strategy, and one that might help Republican turnout down-ballot in
November. But what’s important to Schiff is that you’ll soon call him a
senator. Other California races were too early to call at publication time, but
both Democrats and Republicans appeared likely to get their preferred candidates onto the November ballot in
the 22nd District, one of the most competitive swing seats in the country.
In Texas,
Dallas-area Democratic Rep. Colin Allred will face Sen. Ted Cruz in one of the
only even marginal Senate pickup opportunities for Democrats this fall. GOP
Rep. Tony Gonzales, who attracted a slew of primary opponents for occasional
maverick stands such as supporting a bipartisan gun safety measure, is poised
for a May runoff against Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber who goes by the moniker
“the AK Guy” and who … really loves guns. In the Texas state House, meanwhile,
Speaker Dade Phelan appeared headed to a runoff against his Trump-backed challenger, David Covey.
Attorney General Ken Paxton had made Phelan a target following the Phelan-led
impeachment of him last year, which Paxton survived.
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The first
member-on-member primary of the cycle, between Reps. Jerry Carl and Barry Moore on a redistricted Alabama map, was running
exceptionally close late into the night, with Moore (the one who likes Rep.
Matt Gaetz) and Carl (the one who doesn’t care for Mr. Gaetz) going back and
forth. In the end, though, Moore narrowly finished off Carl, 52 to 48.
In North
Carolina’s 6th District, the current Trump endorsee, lobbyist
Addison McDowell, was narrowly leading a loaded field of competitors that
included ex-Rep. Mark Walker and former Trump endorsee Bo Hines. Hines was
in a distant fourth.
Overall,
the night confirmed that which so many Americans still find too mystifying to
accept as reality: Trump and Biden will be heading to a rematch in November,
carrying with them all of the lumps that this primary season has exposed. That
is locked in. But down-ballot races are only beginning, with meaningful races
across the country still to come.
Presidential
primary season is effectively over. But the next few months can be seen like a
midterms season, with most House, Senate, state, and local races yet to
be determined
ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – FROM TIME
How Trump Steamrolled His Way to the
GOP Nomination
BY ERIC CORTELLESSA UPDATED: MARCH
6, 2024 10:38 AM EST | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH 5, 2024 11:22 PM
EST
Super
Tuesday confirmed what’s seemed clear for months: The Republican presidential
primary is all but over. With a series of smashing victories, Donald Trump has
effectively clinched the nomination. Before all the polls had even closed, the
Associated Press called most of the 15 states in his favor.
While it
will take at least another week for Trump to officially assume the mantle of
presumptive GOP nominee, his ascent is a foregone conclusion. His last
remaining opponent, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, suspended her
campaign on Wednesday. All that's left is for the rest of the party to fall in
line behind Trump, and for his operation to join forces with the Republican National
Committee, a process already well underway.
“They call
it Super Tuesday for a reason,” Trump said to a crowd of supporters at
Mar-a-Lago. “This is a big one.”
Trump’s
triumph gets him another step closer to reclaiming the presidency and pursuing a draconian policy agenda unlike any the nation has ever
seen. He has vowed to round up and deport millions of undocumented
immigrants; reimpose his travel ban on Muslim-majority countries; purge the
federal bureaucracy of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists;
force homeless Americans off the streets and into tent cities; and commandeer
the Justice Department to exact revenge on his political enemies. Free tents???
It also
gets him closer to squashing two of the four
criminal prosecutions; as President,
he could shut down his federal indictments against him, one for election
interference and another for mishandling the nation’s secrets.
When Trump
left office in January 2021, after unleashing a mob on the U.S. Capitol, few
foresaw him engineering a one-sided victory three years later, in one of the
least competitive open primaries
in U.S. history. But Trump and his allies did. They had a plan, from the start,
to kneecap GOP heretics and scare off potential challengers.
Their success
was never inevitable. When Trump launched his candidacy in November 2022, he
was under a dark cloud. Republicans had just suffered a disappointing midterm
cycle, with many of his handpicked candidates losing critical races across the
country. The party’s own top brass saw it as a sign to move on from the former
President. Not a single member of Congress attended the Trump campaign kickoff
at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s
foremost priority was to neuter the man who many presumed his most formidable
intra-party threat: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who had just won a landslide
reelection. Trump quickly went to work—debasing him with nicknames such as
“Meatball Ron” and “Tiny D”; unleashing a brigade of online trolls to mock his
campaign missteps; and racking up
endorsements from his state’s congressional delegation. The attacks not only
undermined DeSantis’s attempt to pitch himself as a more competent version of
Trump. They sent a message to would-be rivals: be prepared to face the
career-destroying wrath of a MAGA onslaught.
Then came
the indictments. Trump found a way to benefit from his legal peril by framing
his prosecutions as an attack on his supporters. The maneuver enabled him to rise in the polls and raise millions with
each new charge. At the same time, he cunningly used his ordeal to box in his
GOP adversaries with a Catch-22: If they claimed he couldn’t win the White
House because of his legal woes, he characterized them as part of a conspiracy
to derail his candidacy. Yet if they defended him, as most did, they only
amplified and corroborated his central argument with Republican voters.
From then
on, Trump barely had to make an effort. He faced a weak field of rivals who
were too timid to attack his greatest vulnerabilities. When Trump skipped every
primary debate, he made the events seem like little more than auditions to be
his running mate. That
created an aura of invincibility and inevitability around Trump, leading to
endorsements from party leaders such as Montana Senator Steve Daines, who runs
the Senate GOP’s fundraising arm, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
By the
time Haley took the gloves off, she had already lost Iowa and New Hampshire and
seemed to be mounting more of a symbolic anti-Trump mission than a serious
presidential bid. But
as she stayed defiantly in the race, she incurred the virulence of America
First adherents. Deploying a similar playbook they used against DeSantis, Trump
and his allies branded her as war-mongering neocon—even though her main foreign
policy experience was serving as Trump’s envoy to the United Nations—and set
out to humiliate her. In her home state of South Carolina, Trump won the
primary by 20 points. After securing her first primary contest, in Washington,
D.C., the Trump campaign called her “the queen of the Swamp.”
Haley’s
minor victory came as Trump had already signaled a turn to the general
election. He proposed a revamp of the RNC, installing new loyalists to lead the organization, including his
daughter-in-law Lara Trump and senior adviser Chris LaCivita. Last week, he and
Biden visited separate border towns in Texas at the same time, creating a rare
split-screen moment that previewed the coming matchup.
Trump
could not mathematically win the nomination on Tuesday; he needs 1,215
delegates, and fewer than that have yet been afforded. The earliest he could
cross that threshold is on March 12, when Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and
Washington will vote. But with Haley out of the race, the math no longer
matters. The only remaining question is whether she will work to unite her
supporters around Trump. Over the weekend, she seemed to renege on a
previous pledge to
back the eventual nominee, and sources say she doesn't plan to endorse her
former boss.
None of
that seemed to be on Trump’s mind Tuesday night. Or at least, he wasn’t showing
it. He never mentioned Haley's name once. His victory speech focused instead on
the last man standing in the way of his return to power. "We've watched
our country take a great beating over the last three years," Trump said.
“We’re gonna take back our country."
ATTACHMENT TWELVE – FROM FOX NEWS
Top Republicans rally behind Trump,
call for unity after dominant Super Tuesday showing: 'Primary is over'
Former President Trump is projected to win 14 out of the 15
states where Republicans voted on Super Tuesday.
By Andrew Mark Miller Fox News
Published March
6, 2024 7:00am EST
Reactions poured in from prominent conservatives on social
media as former
President Trump cruised
to victory in nearly every contest in Super Tuesday’s primaries, most of whom
called on the party to unite behind him.
"Man I knew Trump would have a good night but this is a
rout," Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance posted
on X as
Trump continued to stack up victories in state after state on Tuesday night.
"For voters, we have the next six months to convince them that DJT
deserves another term."
"But for donors and political professionals, it's time
to unite behind our nominee. Please stop wasting time and money."
"Admit it," Texas Republican Gov. Greg
Abbott posted on X. "The primary is over."
TRUMP REACTS TO
SUPER TUESDAY VICTORIES: 'RARELY HAS POLITICS SEEN ANYTHING QUITE LIKE THIS'
"Time for Republicans to unite and restore sanity at
the border."
"It is LONG past time for us to rally around President
Trump as our Republican nominee who will defeat Joe Biden this November," GOP
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, thought by some to be in consideration for
Trump’s running mate, posted on X.
"The GOP presidential primary is over," Ohio GOP
Chair Alex Triantafilou posted on X. "President Trump’s resounding Super Tuesday victories
have solidified it. It is time to listen to our voters and unite the Republican
Party."
"Voters across our country have spoken — this race is
about the American people," South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, also
rumored to be a potential pick for vice president, posted on X. "It's about safe streets, quality education, and a
secure border. Donald J. Trump is the one candidate to unite our country around
success and WIN in November."
Trump made no mention of Haley in his victory
speech on
Tuesday night but said that "success will bring unity to our
country."
"We’re honored to have received the support of millions
of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became
the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests,"
Haley’s campaign said in a statement on Tuesday as she appeared to finish Super
Tuesday with only Vermont in the win column.
"Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re
united.’ Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican
primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not
the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will
make the Republican Party and America better."
ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – FROM CBS
Super Tuesday exit polls and
analysis for the 2024 California Senate primary
California
voters who chose Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey in
the 2024
Senate primary on Super Tuesday said the most pressing issue for them is the cost of
living, according to CBS News exit polls.
Schiff was
viewed as the front-runner in the primary, defeating several Democrats, among
them, Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Garvey is a former professional
baseball star who jumped
into the Senate race in
October. Schiff and Garvey are competing to fill the seat of the
late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Here are some
of the issues that were on the minds of California voters as they cast their
ballots for their new senator.
Super
Tuesday exit polls in California and the race for the Senate
People voting
in the Senate primary in California have financial concerns, picking "cost
of living" as the top issue facing California.
On a
national level, over half of voters rate the national economy as not so good or
poor. And seven in 10 are unhappy with the way things are going in the
country.
This is
similar to the sentiment that we see among
the public nationwide.
Voters who
chose cost of living as the most important issue facing the state voted for
Schiff, followed by Porter, and then Garvey, a former professional baseball
star.
Fewer
voters pick immigration as their top issue, but those who do voted
overwhelmingly for Garvey.
Ideology
Four in 10
of those casting their votes in the California primary Senate race call
themselves liberals.
Race
Compared
to the Republican primary electorate for president, there are more people of
color casting ballots in the California Senate race. Roughly four in 10 voters
are non-white.
Melissa
Quinn contrbuted to this report.
ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – FROM AXIOS
"Uncommitted" vs. Biden: How the protest
vote fared on Super Tuesday
• Sareen
Habeshian,
• Emma
Hurt
Note: Colorado lists the option as
"non-committed delegate"; Alaska is only holding a GOP caucus; Map:
Axios Visuals
While President Biden swept Democratic primaries on
Super Tuesday, he faced an unusual contender: the "uncommitted" vote.
Why it matters: The movement came after over 100,000
Michigan Democratic primary voters in February cast ballots for
"uncommitted" in protest of the Biden administration's support for
Israel's government in its war with Hamas.
At least half of the 16 Super Tuesday states had an
"uncommitted" line, no preference option or write-in slot on their
Democratic presidential primary ballot, including Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Alabama.
What we're watching: The movement's existence
remains an alarm to the Biden campaign about how the war in Gaza may have hurt
him with some supporters.
• Sareen
Habeshian
Mar 5, 2024 -Politics & Policy
Biden's "uncommitted" vote problem ahead
of Super Tuesday
President Biden is facing an unexpected contender
ahead of Super Tuesday this week — the "uncommitted" vote.
Why it matters: The movement is building momentum
after over 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters cast ballots for
"uncommitted" in protest of the Biden administration's support for
Israel's government in its war with Hamas.
• John
Frank
, author of
Axios Denver
Mar 4, 2024
-
Axios Denver
Colorado's independent voters are wild card in GOP
race
Colorado voters who are not affiliated with a
political party are the wild card in Tuesday's 2024 presidential primary
election.
State of play: About 45% of them have participated
in the Republican primary, more than double the number who voted in the
Democratic primary, an Axios analysis of new state data through Sunday shows.
• Torey
Van Oot
, author of
Axios Twin Cities
Mar 4, 2024
How to vote in Minnesota's Super Tuesday
presidential primary
Minnesotans head to the polls on Tuesday to vote in
the state's presidential primary.
Why it matters: The results will determine how many
of the Minnesota delegates are allocated at each party's nominating convention
this summer.
ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – FROM THE WASHINGTON
TIMES
Biden freezes for 15 seconds, tells reporters he’ll
‘get in trouble’ for taking questions
By Staff - The
Washington Times - Wednesday, March 6, 2024
President Biden fell
into a lengthy thousand-yard stare while dodging the media this week, saying he
would “get in trouble” if he took any questions from reporters.
The
president was finishing up a photo-op on Tuesday while announcing a task force
to lower the cost of living when reporters tried to launch some queries.
“I have a
lot of questions. I better not start the questions. I’ll get in trouble,”
Mr. Biden, 81, said after picking up the microphone halfway through
his statement.
The Daily
Mail reported, “Biden then put the microphone down and froze like a deer
in headlights for about 15 seconds as reporters shouted questions at him. The
president then muttered something that was inaudible without amplification as
everyone left the room.”
The
episode came amid renewed questions about Mr. Biden‘s mental acuity.
In stark
contrast, former President Donald Trump, aged 77, exhibited vigor in a 20-minute
address after sweeping the majority of the Super Tuesday primaries.
Mr. Biden has
long dodged reporters. During past events like the G7 summit press conference
in 2021, Mr. Biden alluded to the guidance of his staff members as he
moderated the amount and type of press engagement.
·
COMMENTARY The despicable case of Catherine Herridge and her sources
·
COMMENTARY Yes, they really want Donald Trump behind bars
·
Democrat Dean Phillips suspends long shot bid for White House
After taking a question from the Associated Press related to
interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Biden moved
on to Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg for a second question, but then cut it off
saying, “I’m sorry, I’m going to get in trouble with staff if I don’t do this
the right way.”
• Staff
can be reached at 202-636-3000.
ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – FROM GUK
Biden and the Democrats are sleepwalking
into a potential Trump win
Unless Biden pivots, we have every reason to believe that
his falling poll numbers could be signs of coming electoral defeat
Wed 6 Mar 2024
06.08 EST
Barring an act from a God, who has seemingly forsaken the
American electorate, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will, again, be the Republican and
Democratic candidates for president. Tuesday’s results all but assure that, and
they can’t really have been a surprise to anyone who has paid close attention
to the campaign thus far.
Michigan Democrats have sent Biden a flashing warning
sign about the election
In fairness, most Americans still haven’t tuned in, nor many
Democrats, who have spent much of the last year hoping against hope that one or
more verdicts against Trump in the courts might hand them the election –
and perhaps even put Trump behind bars before November. That was always a risky
bet, but now the supreme court has put the trial over his attempted coup in
2020 on hold, while the other cases against him have uncertain
timelines.
Meanwhile, Biden’s team and Democratic officials have been
telling the press that Biden’s replacement on the ticket isn’t any likelier.
The race, they insist, is already on.
Who’s ahead? All but a handful of high-quality
national polls taken
since January say it’s Trump. A New York Times poll fairly representative of the rest that drew a
significant amount of media attention over the weekend put Trump ahead by five
points, 48-43%, among registered voters. That’s the largest lead Trump has held
in a Times poll since he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015.
Meanwhile, Biden, more unpopular than ever, sits at an
approval rating of 38%. Ten per cent of those who voted for him in 2020 now say
they will vote for Trump. And the demographic picture the poll paints is dire –
not only for Biden but perhaps for the Democratic party as a whole.
Biden led strongly with women in 2020 and is now evidently
tied with Trump among them; Biden won an estimated 72% of minorities without
college degrees last time around and now leads by a mere six points, 47-41%.
And while making broad demographic pronouncements on the basis of one poll is
unwise, these results are roughly in keeping with some other data.
In Michigan for instance, where much of the focus last week was on
the uncommitted vote against Biden in that state’s primary, Biden has generally
been polling under 70% with that state’s crucial Black electorate, which he won
with over 90% of the vote, according to exit polls, in 2020. Deficits like that
with previously strong Democratic constituencies go some way towards explaining
why Biden, at present, seems to be losing in every
swing state given
current polling.
We have every reason to believe that the hole Biden is in is
real, as unfair as it might seem to his supporters
The Biden campaign’s response to these numbers has been
simple: all of the polls are wrong. “Polling continues to be at odds with how
Americans vote, and consistently overestimates Donald Trump while
underestimating President Biden,” Biden’s communications director, Michael
Tyler, said over the weekend in a statement. “Whether it’s in
special elections or in the presidential primaries, actual voter behavior tells
us a lot more than any poll does and it tells a very clear story: Joe Biden and
Democrats continue to outperform while Donald Trump and the party he leads are
weak, cash-strapped and deeply divided.”
As Tyler and his colleagues surely know, though, the point
about “actual voter behavior” is wrong. Primary election results are not very
indicative of how strong candidates will be in a general election; if they
were, Trump, who didn’t even win a majority of the Republican primary vote in
2016, never would have been president. And there’s basically zero
relationship between
results in special elections like the one Democrats just won in New York –
which involve small, unrepresentative electorates in small, unrepresentative
places – and presidential election results.
As flawed as they might be, general election polls are our
surest guide to how the general electorate is feeling about the general
election. In fact, as the political scientist David Faris noted recently, the leader at this point of the year in Real
Clear Politics’ average of polls has gone on to win the election in every race
since 2004 other than 2004 itself, with only a few points worth of difference
between the margin and the final result.
In 2004, the exception, Kerry and Bush were virtually tied
in early March, around 44-44%, while Bush went on to win the popular vote by
just over two points. And even that exception is reflective of a trend that
can’t be of much comfort to Democrats – in every race since 2004 save 2008’s
post-crash election, the Democratic candidate has performed slightly worse in
November than polls at this point in the year have suggested.
The longer Biden enables Netanyahu, the more his
presidency is at risk
All told, we have every reason to believe that the hole
Biden is in is real, as unfair as it might seem to his supporters. As rosily as
they might evaluate his record in office so far, it looks substantially more
mixed now than it did six months ago. It’s true that the economy is roaring by
all available macroeconomic metrics and that Democrats under Biden have managed
to pass the most expansive domestic policy agenda of any president since at
least Lyndon Johnson.
But it’s also true that voters have been stung by high
prices and interest rates, as well as the expiration of pandemic relief
programs. Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was brave and laudable –
both morally and strategically overdue. But he was hammered for it in the press
and now faces a progressive insurrection over the US’s support for Israel’s
inhumane offensive in Gaza so severe that the campaign is reportedly reducing large in-person events to avoid protesters.
And on immigration, still at the front of mind for many
voters, Biden has functionally conceded that Trump has been right about the
state of the border; while immigrants are less prone to crime than the
native-born population and substantially
responsible for
the economic boom we’re experiencing, Democrats are trying their best to
outflank the right on border security and asylum, to little effect thus far,
rather than countering the racist myths Trump has propagated directly and
focusing on a positive immigration reform agenda.
Most voters haven’t plugged into these policy debates; Biden
wears his greatest liability to them on his face. According to the New York
Times’ poll, 73% of registered voters, including 61% of voters who backed Biden
in 2020, say he’s too old to effectively serve as president.
And as much as Democrats might want to blame the media for
that perception in the wake of the Robert Hur
report, this is
a problem many of them foresaw themselves during the last campaign. “If Biden
is elected he’s going to be 82 years old in four years and he won’t be running
for reelection,” one campaign adviser told Politico’s Ryan Lizza flatly in 2019; according to
Lizza, four sources close to Biden at the time told him that it was “virtually
inconceivable” that he would mount another campaign.
Stop fantasizing and deal with reality: it’s going to
be Biden against Trump
Yet here we are – sitting between a Super Tuesday
that Biden swept and what could be the most consequential State of the Union
address in some time, given the opportunity it presents for the president both
to demonstrate his lucidity and to outline, at long last, an actual plan for
his next term. Previews of the speech suggest it will feature now familiar language
about protecting democracy and “making the wealthy and corporations pay their
fair ”, along with some proposals on the opioid epidemic and veteran care.
But Biden will have to do substantially better than that to
get his campaign right side up. Plainly, he’s become a symbol of our political
system’s decrepitude – a stand-in for all the old men in Washington who
voters believe, rightfully, can’t or won’t do much to dramatically improve
their lives. He’ll have to prove to voters that he’s capable of both dreaming
and doing – to sell an ambitious vision of further material progress
over the next four years, not woolly rhetoric about ending polarization and
bringing serenity back to politics that will leave him looking dishonest and
even more ineffectual when the tenor of political life remains the same, as it
surely will.
Whether or not Democrats control Congress will naturally
constrain whether Biden makes good on that policy agenda; but having a compelling
agenda in the offing to begin with might lift the candidates he’ll depend upon
in his next term to victory. All that aside, faith in Biden’s capacity to lead
and accomplish will rest in some part on whether and when the situation in Gaza
comes to a peaceable resolution – getting a handle on the situation and
pressuring Netanyahu into ending the war would be a significant turning point
in his presidency.
There and elsewhere, Biden needs to find a new course.
Otherwise, the election may be over before he realizes it.
·
Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US
columnist
ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN – FROM AL JAZEERA
Five takeaways from the US Super Tuesday primary races
Published
On 6 Mar 20246 Mar 2024
Save
articles to read later and create your own reading list.
Donald
Trump and Joe Biden continue to march towards November’s United States
presidential election, securing major primary victories on Super
Tuesday, one of
the busiest days in the country’s election calendar.
Republican
presidential hopeful Nikki
Haley,
meanwhile, got a glimmer of hope when she beat former President Trump in the
small northeastern state of Vermont on Tuesday.
ist of 3
itemslist 1 of 3
Haley
makes history as she hands Trump first Republican primary defeat
list 2 of
3
‘Uncommitted’:
US voters protest Biden’s policy on Gaza
list 3 of
3
What
is Super Tuesday and why is it important? All you need to know
end of
list
But it
wasn’t enough to keep the former South Carolina governor and United Nations
ambassador in the race. On Wednesday morning, just hours after the Super
Tuesday results trickled in, Haley suspended
her campaign for
the White House.
Haley’s
departure from the race, and President Biden’s overwhelming success on Super
Tuesday – his only loss was in the US territory of American Samoa – mean a
rematch of the 2020 presidential campaign is virtually guaranteed.
Super
Tuesday marks the most pivotal date on the primary calendar, as the day when
the most states vote. They included the two most populous, California and Texas, as well as battleground states like Minnesota and
Virginia.
As a
result, nearly a third of all party delegates for both Democrats and
Republicans were up for grabs. While the night’s results were not enough for
Trump or Biden to clinch their party’s nominations, they have both made
significant strides in reaching the delegate threshold needed. A rematch of
their match-up in the 2020
presidential race appears
all but certain.
Here are
five takeaways from the 2024 Super Tuesday results.
Haley wins big in Vermont but suspends campaign
Super
Tuesday had long been the bullseye that the Haley campaign was aiming for.
“That’s as
far as I’ve thought, in terms of going forward,” she said during the South
Carolina primary, a race
in her home state that she ultimately
lost.
On Super
Tuesday, she managed to squeeze out a symbolic victory in Vermont, a state in
the left-leaning New England region.
But the inevitability
of Trump’s nomination was beginning to discourage her donors with deep pockets.
As one example, the Americans for Prosperity super PAC stepped away from her
presidential bid following her defeat in South
Carolina.
Haley also
had only compiled 89 delegates, far behind Trump’s total of 995, and the 1,215
overall delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.
“I
congratulate him [Trump] and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be
America’s president,” Haley said on Wednesday morning as she announced she was
suspending her campaign. “Our country is too precious to let our differences
divide us.”
Michael
Fauntroy, a political science professor at George Mason University, told Al
Jazeera that Haley’s Super Tuesday performance might be less significant as a
reflection of her success – and more indicative of the weaknesses Trump faces
going into the general election.
“If you
look at many of the closely contested swing states that we’ve seen so far,
including some tonight, there are roughly 20 percent to maybe even a third of
Republican voters in those states who are voting for Nikki Haley,” he said.
“And in a
closely contested state like Michigan or Wisconsin, perhaps even North
Carolina, if those voters stay home in November or just can’t bring themselves
to vote for former President Trump, then former President Trump cannot win
those states. And if he can’t win those states, he can’t win the election.”
Protest vote against Biden spreads
Super
Tuesday has likewise forced Biden to confront the vulnerabilities in his
campaign. A protest campaign that started largely in Michigan continued to exert
influence over the day’s races.
In last
month’s Michigan primary, grassroots movements called on voters to choose
the “uncommitted” option on
their ballot instead of Biden, as a rebuke to his stance on Israel’s war in
Gaza.
Biden has
long touted his “rock-solid” support for Israel, even as its military offensive
in the Palestinian enclave elicited concerns about the risk of genocide and
famine. More than 30,000 Palestinians have died in Israel’s military campaign
so far.
The
“uncommitted” movement ultimately pulled an estimated 101,000 votes in the
Michigan primary – or approximately 13 percent of the total ballots cast.
The push
to vote “uncommitted” remained strong on Super Tuesday. That was particularly
apparent in Minnesota, a key swing state in the Midwest. Early results showed
that “uncommitted” was in second place in that state’s Democratic primary, with
nearly 20 percent of the vote.
That could
spell trouble for Biden in the general elections, as he faces drooping poll
numbers – and a tight race against his likely opponent Trump.
Senate race in California deals blow to progressives
One of the
biggest down-ballot primaries was the race to replace the late Senator Dianne
Feinstein, who passed away last year after more than 30 years representing
California.
To decide
which two candidates would proceed to the general elections in November,
California held a “jungle primary”, where Senate hopefuls from any party could
participate. It proved to be a fatal contest for the race’s two most prominent
progressives, Representatives Barbara
Lee and Katie
Porter.
Both women
had decided against running for re-election to the House of Representatives in
order to compete in the Senate race. It was a high-stakes gamble. The two
representatives had developed national profiles, Lee as an antiwar figure and
Porter as a champion against corporate overreach.
Their
fellow US representative, centrist Democrat Adam
Schiff, handily
emerged as the frontrunner on Super Tuesday, despite criticism for his
pro-Israel stance amid the Gaza war. But Lee and Porter were ultimately edged
out by a Republican with no previous political experience: former baseball
player Steve Garvey.
The result
has left their political careers in question – and Porter’s congressional
district vulnerable to being flipped. Control of both the House and the Senate
are up in the air this November.
A referendum on Trump’s grip over Republicans
Other
hotly anticipated races revolved around gauging just how strong Trump’s
sway over
the Republican Party is.
In the
Republican stronghold of Texas, for instance, one state-level race showed how
fierce the internal power struggle has become.
Two-term
state Representative Dade Phelan had gained a relatively high profile as
Texas’s Speaker of the House – a powerful figure in the state’s politics – and
this year, he was up for re-election.
But he had
spurred the ire of the far-right flank of his party by overseeing the recent
impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican provocateur known for
challenging the Biden administration in the courts. Paxton had also previously
petitioned the US Supreme Court to reject Biden’s victory in the 2020
presidential election, in support of Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.
In the
Super Tuesday primary, Phelan came to represent the more establishment branch
of the Republican Party, while his adversary David Covey enjoyed the
endorsements of Trump and Paxton.
The
Republican race was so close, however, that it is set to go to a runoff in May,
teeing up another battle for the soul of the party.
Biden and Trump look ahead to November showdown
Despite a
wobble for Biden in American
Samoa and
a loss for Trump in Vermont, the two frontrunners seem destined for a rematch
in November’s general elections.
They each
offered a glimpse of their campaign strategies moving forward, with comments
released amid the Super Tuesday results.
Trump took
the stage in person at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, greeting a
ballroom full of supporters for an election night watch party.
As he
spoke, though, Trump revisited familiar themes: the United States was in
decline, he said, and only he could reverse the slide. He made no mentions of
Haley, his only major Republican rival left standing, focusing instead on
Biden.
“He’s the
worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said of Biden, blaming
the Democratic incumbent for inflation, the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico
border and conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. “We’ve watched our country take a
great beating over the last three years.”
Biden
likewise returned to his familiar playbook, warning that Trump represented an
existential threat to US democracy.
“My
message to the country is this: Every generation of Americans will face a
moment when it has to defend democracy,” Biden said in a Super Tuesday
statement. A centrist, he framed himself as the candidate of unity, offering a
preview of his appeal to voters in November.
“To every
Democrat, Republican and independent who believes in a free and fair America:
this is our moment. This is our fight.”
ATTACHMENT
EIGHTEEN – FROM GUK
A far-right US youth group is
ramping up its movement to back election deniers
Turning Point USA and co-founder Charlie Kirk are raising $108m
to mobilize Trump voters and ‘clean house’ of election officials
By Peter Stone Sat 2 Mar
2024 07.00 EST
Turning
Point USA, a far-right youth group known for its fundraising prowess and for
promoting election-conspiracy theories, is mounting a multimillion-dollar
mobilization drive via its advocacy arm in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia
and Wisconsin.
Arizona-based TPUSA, a non-profit co-founded in 2012 by then
18-year-old Charlie Kirk that’s become a key ally in Donald Trump’s Maga
ecosystem, has launched the drive through Turning Point Action, which has
raised tens of millions of dollars and is hiring hundreds of full-time
employees in the three states, according to its spokesperson, Andrew Kolvet.
While its current fundraising drive is to support the
voter-outreach efforts, TP Action is likely to help finance other political
advocacy initiatives, including ousting some key Arizona election officials who disputed claims of election
fraud in 2020.
Dubbed “chase the vote”, the drive is being supplemented by
another get-out-the-vote campaign that TP Action is starting with the Christian
nationalist and televangelist Lance Wallnau.
Together with Wallnau and some other Maga allies like Moms
for America, TP Action is planning a “courage tour” in the same three swing
states to enlist pastors and their churches in the voter-mobilization drive,
which will include booths in churches to register voters.
TP Action’s fledgling campaign is aimed at identifying and
registering “patriotic” voters, encouraging early voting and getting voters to
the polls in November, according to its website. Billed as the “first and most
robust conservative ballot-chasing operation”, TP Action’s drive could benefit
Trump and Maga-allied candidates in the three states.
The new
political advocacy drives come after TPUSA and TP Action sparked strong
criticism from veteran Republicans, watchdog groups and analysts for backing several
hard-right candidates in Arizona who were defeated in 2022, and pushing
conspiracies about election fraud, Covid-19 and other issues.
“TPUSA has a radicalized worldview that they use as a litmus
test” in backing candidates, said Kathy Petsas, a GOP district leader in
Phoenix. “When it comes to the general elections that matter, their ROI is
lousy.”
Notably, four top Arizona candidates in 2022 who were backed
by TP Action lost to Democrats, including ex-Fox News anchor Kari Lake in her
race for governor, and Mark Finchem in his bid to become secretary of state.
“Virtually every major race they touched they lost in the
general election in Arizona,” the former Arizona congressman Matt Salmon said.
“Everyone Trump endorses they get behind. It’s not clear if it’s the tail
wagging the dog, or vice versa.”
Kolvet pushed back on criticism of the group’s 2022 results,
noting that TP Action only spent $500,000 in total in several states in 2022,
but that this year it intends to mount a much better-financed and robust
effort, hiring hundreds of full-time employees for its “chase the vote” drive
and seeking to raise an eye-popping $108m dollars.
TP Action’s aggressive fundraising could prove useful in
other election-related projects this year that the group is likely to get
involved with.
Austin Smith, a state legislator and TP Action’s enterprise
director, in a tweet this week signaled an effort to oust several key election
officials in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, in primaries this July.
Smith said “[we] need to clean house in Maricopa county” and
cited, among other officers, the county recorder, the Republican lawyer Stephen
Richer, who rejected unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud in 2020 and 2022.
Kolvet said TP Action to date hasn’t joined the effort, but
added that “it’s more likely than not we’ll get involved in some of these
races. We’re going to get behind conservative candidates.”
One key example: TP Action in February endorsed Trump
loyalist Kari Lake’s 2024 Arizona senate campaign.
Kirk and
TPUSA’s strong fundraising talents could prove helpful to TP Action’s current
drive. TPUSA’s annual revenues have soared in recent years with help from
leading rightwing donors including the Bradley Impact Fund, which chipped in
$7.8m in 2022, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation and dark-money behemoth Donors
Trust.
TPUSA has also benefited mightily from hosting several gaudy
gatherings at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and in tony Arizona venues that have
drawn some big donors and conservative stars like the representatives Marjorie
Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz, and Don Trump Jr.
These events and mega-donor checks have helped make TPUSA a
fundraising goliath: the group’s revenues soared from $39.8m dollars in 2020 to
$55.8m in 2021 and $80.6m in 2022, according to public records.
TPUSA now employs 450 people and has broadened its focus
from fighting left and “woke” influence on campuses to other culture war fronts
by setting up a Turning Point Faith unit that’s hosted large gatherings at
churches featuring Wallnau and other Christian nationalist figures.
Notwithstanding
TPUSA’s fundraising successes, the organization and Kirk have been buffeted by
criticism on multiple fronts. Late last year, Kirk ignited a political
firestorm in mainstream GOP circles by using his eponymous radio show and an
Arizona bash to make incendiary attacks on the late civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr, which recycled old and unverified slurs about King, and
disparaged Black airline pilots.
During a major TPUSA event in Arizona in December, Kirk
opined that “MLK was awful. He’s not a good person. He said one good thing he
actually didn’t believe.”
“Kirk’s cheapening of Martin Luther King’s legacy and
disparaging remarks about Black pilots hurt our cause, and don’t help it,”
Salmon of Arizona said, adding that Kirk is “one of the strongest voices for
factionalism in the party”.
Other GOP veterans also voiced harsh critiques.
“Kirk chases conspiracies that animate his followers and
generate funds,” the long-time GOP consultant Tyler Montague said. “Kirk has
used this method to push conspiracies about election fraud, Christian
nationalism, anti-immigrant xenophobia, and now he’s opened a new front in
racism with his Martin Luther King attacks.”
Montague’s comments are in keeping with earlier criticism of
Kirk for promoting Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in 2020.
Kirk and TP Action collaborated with about a dozen other
groups to bring busloads of Trump allies to DC to attend Trump’s 6 January
March to Save America rally that preceded the mob attack on the Capitol.
From left, Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly
Guilfoyle in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 21 December 2019. Photograph:
Leah Millis/Reuters
Prior to the rally, Kirk predicted in a tweet it “would
likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history”, but
he quickly deleted the tweet after the day’s violence.
Independent analysts who study misinformation criticize
Kirk’s penchant for pushing conspiracies and false narratives on the Charlie
Kirk Show, which runs daily on the evangelical Salem Radio Network.
“The Charlie Kirk Show consistently ranks high in the top
100 shows on Apple podcasts, and has been a leader in spreading false and
unverified claims,” said Valerie Wirtschafter, a Brookings Institution fellow
in AI and emerging technologies.
Kirk’s dubious claims range “from the idea that the Covid-19
vaccine was poison, to the belief that the election was stolen in 2020 with
fraudulent ballots, to claims that purported Ukrainian bioweapons facilities
are somehow linked to Anthony Fauci,” she added.
Kirk had company
in backing Trump’s election fraud claims, which could pose legal risks to a top
TP Action official: Tyler Bowyer, the COO, who also had that title with TPUSA,
and who was one of Arizona’s 11 fake
electors for Trump in 2020. He and the other fake electors are facing a state
attorney general probe.
The 11 fake electors filmed themselves signing documents
stating they were legitimate electors, even though the then GOP governor, Doug
Ducey, had certified Biden’s win by more than 10,000 votes.
Bowyer, an Arizona GOP national committeeman who signed
paperwork falsely claiming that Trump had won, introduced a resolution at a
Republican National Committee meeting that began in late January seeking to get
the RNC to indemnify RNC members in multiple states who had been fake electors
and who face legal bills due to state probes.
Bowyer justified his resolution by writing on X that “we
need to send a clear signal that the RNC will defend those who serve as
electors against Democratic radicals trying to criminalize civic engagement and
process”.
The resolution didn’t pass, but to appease Trump backers the
RNC pledged to “vocally” back individuals who “lawfully” served as Trump
electors in states that Biden actually won.
Missouri Republicans disown Ku Klux Klan-linked
candidate for governor
Prosecutors in three states have brought charges against fake
electors for sending certificates to Congress falsely stating Trump had won
their states, and the justice department has probed fake elector schemes in
multiple states in its wide-ranging inquiry into efforts by Trump and his
allies to thwart Biden’s election.
Serendipitously, right before the RNC meeting, TP Action
hosted a two-day summit dubbed Restoring National Confidence, which drew
several big-name election deniers including My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell,
ex-Trump senior White House strategist Steve Bannon and Don Jr.
In a tweet, Don Jr wrote: “It was great speaking to all my
friends at the Turning Point Restoring National Confidence Summit earlier this
week.”
The tight ties between TPUSA and Don Jr were underscored in
2020 when TPUSA paid a company owned by Don Jr $333,000 to buy copies of one of
his books, which TPUSA gave away as part of a fundraising drive, according to
the Associated Press.
But watchdog groups are alarmed by TPUSA and TP Action’s
record of promoting the ex-president’s bogus claims of election fraud, and
candidates in Arizona in 2022 who espoused similar election falsehoods. They’re
bracing for more in another heated election year.
“They’ve backed conspiracy theorists for high office,
mobilized activists around the ‘big lie’ and hired one of Arizona’s fake
electors to help run their campaign arm,” said Heather Sawyer, the president of
the watchdog group American Oversight.
“Since January 6, TPUSA has become an animating force behind
the election-denial movement.”
Donors could be tempted to pull the plug after Super
Tuesday, where the map heavily favours Trump. Polls show him to be an
overwhelming favourite in California and Texas, as well as in states such as
Alabama, Maine and Minnesota. His campaign projects that he will win at least
773 delegates on the night and formally clinch the nomination a week or two
later.
Biden, for his part, is assured of the Democratic nomination
when party loyalists vote for delegates to August’s Democratic national
convention in Chicago. But the 81-year-old also has plenty of political
headaches. Polls show deep voter concerns about his
age as
well as rising prices and an influx of people crossing the southern border.
Some Democrats are unhappy with his steadfast support of
Israel in its conflict with Hamas in Gaza. An organised attempt to vote
“uncommitted” in the Michigan primary to protest Biden’s handling of the war
garnered more than 100,000 votes, a significant protest, although the 13% was only slightly higher than that option got
in the last primary under a Democratic president.
Last week, a Bloomberg News/Morning
Consult poll found
Biden trailing Trump in seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania,
Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin – when voters were asked who
they would support in a hypothetical general election. On average, Trump was
leading by 48% to 43%. On Saturday, a New York
Times/Siena College poll
found that the of voters who strongly
disapprove of Biden was at its highest in his presidency, at 47%.
Luntz, who had a long track record of advising Republican
campaigns before Trump seized control of the party, said: “With every passing
week, Joe Biden gets weaker and weaker as more and more voters come to
decide that he’s simply too darn old. And so you see this gap between Trump and
Biden widening.
“The gap is widening because Biden is collapsing. With the
economy getting stronger and conditions on the ground getting better, Joe Biden
is still getting weaker. That’s a three-alarm fire in America. The lights are
flashing, the people are screaming but Joe Biden doesn’t hear them.”
Super Tuesday is not only about the presidential election.
Among the most notable down-ballot races is the one in California to succeed
the late Democratic senator Dianne
Feinstein. Vying to
replace her are Democratic representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam
Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball star.
Most pundits will be studying the results for clues about a
presidential race that is sure to be close and decided in a handful of swing
states.
Asked what he had learned from the primaries so far, Luntz
said: “That Donald Trump has lost suburban women that used to vote
Republican, that Joe Biden has lost Latinos and a fair number of union members
that used to vote Democrat, that there is going to be some serious and
significant shifting of certain demographic and geographic voters. And that
this election is going to be the worst in modern history.”
SUPER TUESDAY
ATTACHMENTS... (19 to 57)
ELEVATED to MARCH 18th
ATTACHMENTS to DAYLIGHT SAVINGS,
the OSCARS and RAMADAN... (58-OUT)
ATTACHMENT FIFTY EIGHT – FROM FORBES
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME: HERE ARE THE STATES TRYING TO
MAKE IT PERMANENT—OR MOVE ON
By Brian Bushard Mar 5, 2024, 03:59pm EST Updated
Mar 6, 2024, 09:44am EST
With
Americans gearing up to change their clocks forward on Sunday, lawmakers in
more than two dozen states are attempting to keep daylight saving time
permanent as part of a growing movement for brighter afternoons, though that
switch is contingent on congressional action that has so far been unsuccessful.
Lawmakers in 10 states have pushed for
year-round standard time, which is already observed in Hawaii ... [+]
KEY FACTS
State
lawmakers have been torn for years on whether to transition to permanent daylight
saving time—which would provide an extra hour of afternoon daylight—or pivot
instead to year-round standard time, a move two states have already done,
though one point state lawmakers agree on is ending the practice of changing
the clocks.
Federal
law under the Uniform Time Act allows states to observe year-round standard
time, as Arizona and Hawaii have done, though it prohibits states from
switching to permanent daylight saving time.
A
separate bipartisan bill would enable states to permanently switch to daylight
saving time, though that bill is held up in committee.
If
Congress passes that bill, a switch to permanent daylight saving time could
take effect in more than two dozen states that have passed measures or have
pending legislation contingent on congressional action, including Alabama,
Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Nearly
a dozen states have legislation in the works to switch to year-round standard
time: Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Oregon, whose Senate voted Monday in
favor of a bill that would end daylight saving time.
Voters
in California approved a resolution in 2018 allowing the state legislature to
put the state on permanent daylight saving time, though lawmakers have not acted
on the measure, while a bill in New York would establish a daylight saving time
task force to study the effects of switching to year-round daylight saving
time.
More
than 500. That’s how many bills and resolutions state legislatures have
considered to address time changes between 2014 and 2023, according
to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
CHIEF CRITICS
Researchers
have shown in recent years that the twice-annual changing of the clocks might
not just be a nuisance, it could also be harmful to Americans
wellbeing. U.S. adults, on average, lose roughly 40 minutes of sleep on the
night after clocks “spring forward,” a loss that is not fully recovered when
clocks “fall back” later in the year. Recent studies have also
shown the changing of the clocks coincides with a spike in fatal car crashes
and emergency room visits, on top of missed medical appointments, a greater
chance of workplace injuries and even an increase in heart attacks and strokes.
In the long-term, that transition can also accelerate mood disorders tied to
sleep disruption, including depression and anxiety, studies have
found.
KEY BACKGROUND
Daylight
saving time began in 1918 as an initiative to save energy in the afternoons and
evenings and give Americans extra shopping time after work, though initially
the practice was a patchwork of nonuniform time changes, left up to each state
to decide. Congress standardized the practice in 1966 with the Uniform Time
Act, and amended that act in 1996 to extend daylight saving time by one month
in the spring and another month in the fall.
CONTRA
Lawmakers
on Capitol Hill have attempted for years to do away with the twice-annual
practice, introducing—and reintroducing—the so-called Sunshine Protection
Act. If approved, the bipartisan legislation would shift the clocks forward
into daylight saving time for the entire year, doing away with standard time
altogether, meaning later sunrises and sunsets, darker mornings and more
daylight in the late afternoon. A bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed for the
legislation for the fourth consecutive congressional session last year, though
the bill has been stagnant in recent attempts, passing the Senate in 2021 but
not coming up for a House vote.
FURTHER READING
Daylight
Saving: How America’s Annual ‘Spring Forward’ Is Bad For Your
Health (Forbes)
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Daylight
Savings Ends Tonight: Here’s Where Legislation Stands On Changing
It (Forbes)
Rubio
Proposes Permanent Daylight Saving Bill—Here’s Why It’s Likely To Fail,
Again (Forbes)
ATTACHMENT FIFTY NINE – FROM USA TODAY
Permanent daylight saving time? Politicians keep trying to make it a
reality.
By Krystal Nurse and Jeanine Santucci
Americans
are yet again preparing for the twice-yearly ritual of adjusting the clocks by
an hour, and a group of politicians are sick of it.
Florida
Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have used the upcoming time change to
remind Americans about the bipartisan Sunshine Protection
Act the U.S. Senate unanimously passed in 2022 to make daylight
saving time permanent. The bill was reintroduced in the U.S. House of
Representatives in 2023. Scott said in Friday a release the bill is
supported by both lawmakers and Americans.
"It’s
time for Congress to act and I’m proud to be leading the
bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act with Senator Rubio to get this
done," Scott said.
Most
Americans - 62% - are in favor of ending the time change, according to
an Economist/YouGov poll from last year.
To Change or Not to Change:Do Americans like daylight saving time?
6 in 10 want to stop changing their clocks. Do you?
Only
Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), Hawaii and the U.S. territories follow
standard time yearound. In the rest of the country, standard time runs from the
first Sunday of November until the second Sunday of March. But clocks spring
forward an hour from March to November to allow for more daylight during
summer evenings.
Federal
law prevents states from following daylight saving time permanently.
Rubio's
bill failed to make it to President Joe Biden's desk in 2022. Florida Rep. Vern
Buchanan, R- Brandon, introduced the act in the House last March for the
current congressional session.
"We’re
‘springing forward’ but should have never ‘fallen back.’ My Sunshine Protection
Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and
forth," Rubio said in a Tuesday release.
Time change bills
across America
According
to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 bills have been introduced
this year regarding daylight saving time and 36 carried over from the previous
legislative session.
About
two dozen states are considering enacting permanent daylight saving time if
Congress allowed such a change. Twenty other states have legislation under
consideration to have permanent standard time.
Several
states, NCSL said, have legislation dependent on their neighbors following the
same time change.
We've tried this
before, and it didn't go well
Daylight
saving time was made official in 1918 when the Standard Time Act became law,
but it was quickly reversed at the national level after World War I ended, only
coming up again when World War II began. Since then, Americans have tried
eliminating the biannual time change, but it didn't last long.
From
February 1942 until September 1945, the U.S. took on what became known as
"War Time," when Congress voted to make daylight saving time
year-round during the war in an effort to conserve fuel. When it ended, states
were able to establish their own standard time until 1966 when Congress finally
passed the Uniform Time Act, standardizing national time and establishing
current-day daylight saving time.
Most
recently, amid an energy crisis in 1973, former President Richard Nixon signed
a bill putting the U.S. on daylight saving time starting in January 1974. While
the American public at first liked the idea, soon "the experiment ...
ran afoul of public opinion," The New York Times reported in
October 1974. Sunrises that could be as late as 9:30 a.m. some places in
parts of winter became increasingly unpopular. It didn't take long for Congress
to reverse course in October 1974.
Today,
the public seems ready for another change, fed up with disruptions to
sleep and routines, which research has suggested can contribute to health
issues and even safety problems. For now, prepare to reset your
clocks, and your sleep schedules, once again this Sunday.
ATTACHMENT SIXTY – FROM FOX
Daylight saving time: How springing forward could
affect your health
By Stephanie Weaver Published March
8, 2024 2:05PM
Most of the United
States will "spring forward" Sunday for daylight saving
time and lose an extra hour of sleep.
This can leave many
Americans tired and even cranky the next day. But, it could also negatively impact
a person’s health.
According to
experts, darker mornings and lighter evenings can disrupt the body’s internal
clock and cause sleep trouble for weeks or even longer.
"Not unlike
when one travels across many time zones, how long it can take is very different
for different people," Dr. Eduardo Sanchez of the American Heart
Association told the Associated Press. "Understand that your body is
transitioning."
Heart attacks, car
crashes increase after daylight saving time
Previous studies
have even found an uptick in heart attacks and strokes after the March time
change. The American Heart Association points to studies that suggest an uptick
in heart attacks on the Monday after daylight saving time begins, and in
strokes for two days afterward.
In addition, fatal
car crashes temporarily jump the first few days after the spring time change,
according to a study of U.S. traffic fatalities. The risk was highest in the
morning, and researchers attributed it to sleep deprivation.
Dr. Hitendra Patel,
medical director of the Sleep Program at Wellstar Health System in Georgia,
told FOX 5 Atlanta that Americans should brace themselves because
suddenly losing an hour of sleep can be risky.
"Heart attacks
increase, literally, in the day after the time change, and also the risk of car
accidents as well," Patel explained. "So, people's health is at risk.
Primarily, it is sleepiness, really."
How to prepare for
daylight saving time
Some health groups,
including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep
Medicine, have said it's time to do away with time switches and that sticking
with standard time year-round aligns better with the sun — and human biology.
But until this
happens, experts suggest getting to bed a little earlier in the days leading up
to Daylight Saving Time to help gradually adjust to the time change.
"Stay active,
maintain a regular exercise pattern or routine," Patel added. "Try to
avoid exercise late at night. Especially if a person is having difficulty
sleeping, exercise earlier in the day."
Patel also suggested
cutting back on excessive drinking.
"Alcohol in
general destroys sleep, especially if you drink it closer to bedtime," he
said. "You really decimate your sleep quality." If you want a drink, he
said, have it earlier in the evening.
And then, when it is
time to sleep, and you need to wind down, turn down the lights. Evening light
from phones and other electronic devices can make adjusting to an earlier
bedtime even harder.
RELATED: Daylight
saving time 2024: When is it and what to know about springing forward
"Avoid bright
light exposure, gadgets, screens," Patel said. "Limit screen time.
Wind-down time, that's the thing I would recommend.
And when you wake
up, experts recommend going outside.
"Every day,
when you wake up, make sure you get out into the bright sunlight for 20 to 30
minutes," Patel continued. "Morning sun is critical to our biological
clock, from the sleep-wake perspective."
When is Daylight
saving time 2024?
The transition to daylight
saving time is official at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 10, across much of the
country.
RELATED: Sleep
specialist s tips to ease the 'spring forward' time change
Then on March 19,
winter sunsets and the spring season begins.
Which states don’t observe
Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight Saving Time
happens in the vast majority of the United States, but not everywhere.
No time change is
observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
This story was
reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press, FOX 5 Atlanta contributed.
ATTACHMENT SIXTY ONE – FROM CBS
Lebanon left in time zone chaos by government's 11th-hour decision to
postpone Daylight Saving Time
The people
of Lebanon woke up at the beginning of this week to find themselves torn
between two time zones after the government made a last-minute decision to
postpone the switch to Daylight Saving Time (DST). Clocks in the country had
been set to spring forward one hour on Sunday, but the speaker of Lebanon's
parliament, Nabih Berri, asked the country's caretaker Prime Minister Najib
Mikati late last week to postpone the move until after the Muslim fasting month
of Ramadan.
"It's
just between now and the end of Ramadan," Berri is heard saying in
a video leaked online showing the two leaders discuss the matter.
"Once Ramadan is over, let them have what they want."
The two
leaders — both Muslims — appeared to be in favor of the idea, which means
Muslims in the country can break their Ramadan fast an hour earlier. Despite
admitting the sudden change could "create all sorts of problems," the
prime minister decided to delay the transition to DST, and the move was
announced Thursday.
As he
predicted, the move created all sorts of problems. Airline companies struggled
to amend their flight schedules, cloud-based digital servers used by cell phone
operators couldn't be synchronized, and hospitals and banking systems that
platforms with other institutions outside Lebanon were badly impacted.
The
American University in Beirut announced that while classes and instructional
activities on campus would be held on DST, appointments and inpatient
procedures at its medical center would continue to be scheduled on winter time,
at least until the university's IT teams were able to reconfigure the systems.
Apart from
the actual glitches, the last-minute change in plans also brought a flood of
angry criticism, especially from Lebanon's Christian communities.
"The
hasty decision… issued by the caretaker Prime Minister, Mr. Najib Mikati,
without consulting with other Lebanese components, without any regard for
international standards, causes confusion and damage at home and abroad,"
the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronite Church in
Lebanon said in a statement, stressing that the church would not abide by
it.
Lebanese
people took to social media to mock the decision, which many said was taken by
two men alone who had completely failed to consider the consequences of their
action.
Video
posted online by one Twitter user showed two sides of the same digital clock at
Beirut Airport displaying two different times, with a message ridiculing both
leaders apparently behind the chaos and a hashtag lamenting country's
collective "shame."
Another
Twitter user showed screenshots from search engines Google and Bing reflecting
different times in the country. Microsoft appeared to be heeding the
government's decision to delay the clock change, while Google was still telling
people on Monday that Lebanon was on winter time.
"Making
appointments in Lebanon for the next month: 'See you tomorrow at 2 pm Muslim
time, 3 pm Christian time," joked another user.
Amid the
chaos and criticism, Mikati announced later Monday that he was reversing his decision,
and that the shift to summertime would be implemented Wednesday night.
"That
is to give a few days to undo some of the changes that occurred" as a
result of the postponement of Daylight Saving Time, he said.
"But
let's be clear," the prime minister told reporters, "the problem is
not with winter or summer time, but rather with the vacuum caused by the
absence of a president, and from my position as prime minister, I bear no
responsibility for this vacuum."
Lebanon
has been mired by political and economic chaos since outgoing
President Michel Aoun's election mandate expired in October 2022, leaving the
country without a president and in the hands of a caretaker cabinet with
limited powers and a parliament deeply divided along sectarian lines.
The country's
economy is in ruins, with an inflation rate exceeding 125% and a local currency
that's lost 80% of its value against the dollar since last year.
ATTACHMENT SIXTY TWO – FROM WVTM
Sen. Tuberville "working toward
a solution to making 'falling back' a thing of the past"
Ian Reitz Updated:
8:09 AM CDT Nov 2, 2023
Bottom of Form
WASHINGTON —
As
we near the end of Daylight Saving Time, Sen. Tommy Tuberville says the process
of changing the clocks each fall and spring needs to end.
"Most
of us in Alabama view that we need, we'd love an extra hour of daylight,"
said Tuberville.
The
daylight saving time period begins each year on the second Sunday in March when
clocks are set forward by one hour. They are turned back again to standard time
on the first Sunday in November as Daylight Saving Time ends.
"Over
the past two years, I have received countless, I mean countless calls from the
people of Alabama to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Parents, senior
citizens, farmers, mental health professionals have all reached out to my
office in support of days with more sunshine in evening. They are tired of
switching clocks twice a year," said Tuberville during a weekly press
call.
In
February 2022, Tuberville cosponsored the Sunshine Protection Act, which would
ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. The
Senate unanimously approved the measure, but the House of Representatives did
not act on the measure. In March of 2023, Tuberville once again expressed his
support for the bill.
"I
helped reintroduce the bill again earlier this year. I am going to continue
working toward a solution to making falling back a thing of the past,"
said Tuberville.
Sen.
Tuberville is hopeful that this legislation may be able to move ahead, adding,
"I think if it gets to the House with a new Speaker, I think it will have
the opportunity to come to a floor for a vote."
In
2021, Alabama lawmakers
voted to permanently switch the state to Daylight Saving Time, and
Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law. But full-time Daylight Saving Time is
not currently allowed by federal law and would require an act of Congress to
make a change before the time change could take effect in Alabama. Several
other states, including Georgia and Florida, have enacted similar legislation
or passed resolutions to move to year-round Daylight Saving Time.
Hawaii,
American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of Arizona
do not observe Daylight Saving Time.
ATTACHMENT SIXTY THREE –
FROM
the COLUMBUS
OH DISPATCH
When does daylight saving time 2024 start and bring back an hour of sun?
By Nathan Hart
You
may want to go to bed a bit earlier this weekend as it's almost time to set
your clocks forward as daylight saving time begins on Sunday, March
10.
Clocks
will spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, taking an hour of the
night with it. In exchange, the sun will start setting around 7:34 p.m., giving
you an extra hour of daylight.
But
why do the clocks change twice a year? What is daylight saving time anyway?
Here's
what you need to know.
Daylight saving
time: The spring forward
As
railroads and trains began to expand across the United States in the late 19th
century, railroad operators and passengers encountered a problem; there were
more than 144 local times in North America.
According
to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, this resulted in passengers
arriving earlier than they left and missing their connections. The wacky time
zones also resulted in train collisions as railroad companies struggled to
coordinate.
In
1883, railroad companies began operating on a four-time zone system. In 1918,
the Interstate Commerce Commission created the five time zones we know today:
Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific and Alaskan.
In
the latter half of the 20th century, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of
1966, which codified standard time within the existing time zones and created
daylight saving time.
Originally,
daylight saving was set to start on the last Sunday of April and end on the
last Sunday in October. Congress continued to tinker with it in the 70s,
setting its start back to January 6 in 1974 and February 23 in 1975. After
those years, its start went back to the last Sunday in April.
The
start and end of daylight saving remained the same until the 21st century when
Congress passed The Energy Policy Act of 2005. This moved the start date to the
second Sunday in March and the end to the first Sunday in November, the system
we still have today.
Federal
law allows states to exempt themselves from daylight saving and stay on
standard time year-round.
Whose idea was it?
While
daylight saving time wasn't formally established until 1966, Benjamin Franklin
suggested the practice in a satirical essay published in 1784. He
peddled the idea to Parisians so they could change their sleep schedules and
ultimately save money on candles and lamp oil.
Then,
in 1907, an Englishman named William Willett penned a pamphlet titled "The
Waste of Daylight" that advocated for advancing clocks in the spring and
turning them back in the fall. He also encouraged people to get out of bed
earlier during the summer.
How long does
daylight saving last?
Since
it runs from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, it
lasts under eight months. If you're a night owl counting down the days until
daylight saving ends, it's 238 days from start to finish.
Do all states and
territories observe daylight saving time?
Hawaii
and Arizona are the only two states that don't observe daylight saving
time. The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the North Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands also don't fiddle with their clocks
twice a year.
In
Arizona's case, state legislators decided they didn't want an extra hour of
sunshine beating down on the state during its hottest months in the desert.
As
for Hawaii and the territories, their proximity to the equator makes daylight
saving irrelevant.
Is it
"saving" or "savings"?
Many
people refer to the practice as "daylight savings" with an
"s," but the official term is "daylight saving" as in
"to save daylight."
Columbus
Dispatch reporter Shahid Meighan contributed to this story.
ATTACHMENT SIXTY FOUR –
FROM
TIME
Daylight Saving Time Is the Worst
BY JEFFREY KLUGER
MARCH 7, 2024
10:16 AM EST
On Sunday,
March 10 at 2 a.m., the U.S. and about a third of the world’s other
countries will set their clocks forward by one hour, which will make the
sun seem to rise later in the morning and hang in the sky longer in the
evening. I am not alone in dreading it. Plenty of people want nothing to
do with the whole hoary practice.
It’s bad
for health, bad for safety, bad for your mood, and just plain unpopular. But that
doesn’t stop us from changing the clocks, pointlessly, twice a year.
The ridiculous history of Daylight
Saving Time
The first
push for changing the clocks took place in 1907, when British builder William
Willett penned a pamphlet titled “A Waste of Daylight,” in which he
proposed setting clocks forward one hour. “The sun shines upon the land for
several hours each day while we are asleep,” he wrote, and yet there “remains
only a brief spell of declining daylight in which to spend the short period of leisure
at our disposal.”
For years,
Willett lobbied Parliament for legislation mandating the change—then died just
a year before it was adopted, when the U.K. followed Germany in making the move
to conserve daylight, and thus fuel, during World War I. In 1918, the U.S.,
which was by then one of the combatants too, got on board with the time change.
The clocks returned to their pre-war settings after the fighting ended, only to
resume the Daylight Saving Time tradition in the U.S. for the duration of World
War II. Finally, in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, dividing
the year into two: six months of Daylight Saving Time and six months of
Standard Time. In 2005, lawmakers mandated eight months of Daylight Saving
Time.
Daylight Saving Time is not even
effective
But does
changing the clocks really conserve fuel? According to Stanford
University, one meta-analysis of 44 studies found that it essentially does not,
leading to just a 0.34% reduction in electricity consumption. Some research
shows it even backfires. A 2008 study from the National Bureau of
Economic Research found that nationwide, added daylight can actually increase
energy consumption by about 1%, due partly to greater use of air
conditioning when the sun is out later in the evening.
It’s lousy for your health
The
downsides are even clearer in terms of health. Sleep expert Adam Spira,
professor of mental health at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, cites a range of problems that can occur when we trade an
hour of sleep for an extra hour of sun—as we do with Daylight Saving
Time—including daylight-induced sleeplessness when bedtime arrives and morning
drowsiness when we wake up in the dark. Studies have linked such circadian
disruption to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, inflammatory
markers, and even suicide. Spira also cites a 2020 study which
found that moving clocks forward one hour carries an alarming 6% increased risk
of fatal traffic accidents, due to similar circadian scrambling and sleep
deprivation.
Young
children and teens suffer too. Establishing a fixed and predictable sleep cycle
for infants and babies can be a challenge, and once things are set, even small
disruptions can cause headaches for parents and fitful slumber for babies.
A 2019 study in the journal Sleep found that
springing ahead one hour into Daylight Saving Time leads to broken sleep during
the night and earlier awakenings in the morning for babies in the
newborn-to-24-month age group. In 2022, research conducted by the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine revealed that teens lose an average of 32
minutes of sleep a night after the switch to Daylight Saving Time—a seemingly
small difference that can lead to not-so-small consequences, with increased
sleepiness, slower reaction times, lack of attentiveness, and sluggish
psychomotor reactions resulting.
“We’re
affected by this not just one day of the year, but really eight months of the
year,” says Dr. Beth Malow, professor of neurology and pediatrics and director
of the Vanderbilt Sleep Division at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “We
need morning light to reset our clocks. Teenagers are going through puberty and
their melatonin levels are delayed, and it just cuts into their sleep when they
get too much light too late in the day and not enough light in the morning.”
No one can agree how to lock the
clock
All of
this is exasperating to Americans who are broadly in favor of eliminating the
practice of changing the clocks twice a year. In a YouGov poll of
1,000 U.S. adults conducted last year, 62% said that toggling between Daylight
Saving Time and Standard Time should be eliminated, with just one fixed time
established year-round. Daylight Saving Time actually proved more popular than
Standard Time: 56% of respondents said they preferred the extra hour of sunshine
at the end of the day and 26% preferred the darker, winter way of doing
things.
State
legislatures are trying to respond to this sentiment, with 29 considering
laws last year that would establish permanent Daylight Saving Time, but
those efforts are going nowhere. One problem, as The Hill reports, is
that federal law allows states to establish permanent Standard Time,
but not permanent Daylight Saving Time. The rule goes back to 1966, when the
Uniform Time Act sought to forestall some states from rushing pell-mell to grab
that extra hour of evening sunlight while others resisted.
To change
those rules requires Congressional action. The Sunshine Protection Act of
2023 is trying to establish permanent Daylight Saving Time and eliminate
further time changes after this one. So far, it hasn’t been successful. Some
groups, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, oppose it—instead
favoring permanent standard time. In a January position statement, the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine wrote that permanent standard time “aligns
best with human circadian biology.” Daylight Saving Time was made permanent in
the U.S. once before, in 1974, then repealed eight months later after
concerns for children’s safety going to school in the dark.
The one thing
everyone seems to agree on, though, is that the clock should not switch twice a
year. Not that it’s likely to stop anytime soon.“I think a lot of this is
inertia,” says Malow. “People don’t want to change.”
For now, the best Americans can do is resign themselves to the fact that this spring, as in so many springs past, we will be selling an hour in the morning to buy an hour at night—and in the fall we’ll do things the other way all over again.
OSCARS
ATTACHMENT SIXTY FIVE – FROM OSCARS.ORG
EXPERIENCE OVER NINE DECADES OF THE OSCARS FROM 1927 TO 2024
(Click on your decade of preference to view
websites)
·
1920s
·
1930s
·
1940s
·
1950s
·
1960s
·
1970s
·
1980s
·
1990s
·
2000s
·
2010s
·
2020s
THE 96TH ACADEMY AWARDS | 2024
Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood
Sunday, March 10, 2024
ACTOR IN A LEADING
ROLE
NOMINEES
BRADLEY COOPER
Maestro
COLMAN DOMINGO
Rustin
PAUL GIAMATTI
The Holdovers
CILLIAN MURPHY
Oppenheimer
JEFFREY WRIGHT
American Fiction
ACTOR IN A
SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
STERLING K. BROWN
American Fiction
ROBERT DE NIRO
Killers of the Flower Moon
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
Oppenheimer
RYAN GOSLING
Barbie
MARK RUFFALO
Poor Things
ACTRESS IN A LEADING
ROLE
NOMINEES
ANNETTE BENING
Nyad
LILY GLADSTONE
Killers of the Flower Moon
SANDRA HÜLLER
Anatomy of a Fall
CAREY MULLIGAN
Maestro
EMMA STONE
Poor Things
ACTRESS IN A
SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
EMILY BLUNT
Oppenheimer
DANIELLE BROOKS
The Color Purple
AMERICA FERRERA
Barbie
JODIE FOSTER
Nyad
DA'VINE JOY RANDOLPH
The Holdovers
ANIMATED FEATURE
FILM
NOMINEES
THE BOY AND THE HERON
Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
ELEMENTAL
Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
NIMONA
Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
ROBOT DREAMS
Pablo Berger, Ibon
Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS
THE SPIDER-VERSE
Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher
Miller and Amy Pascal
CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINEES
EL CONDE
Edward Lachman
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Rodrigo Prieto
MAESTRO
Matthew Libatique
OPPENHEIMER
Hoyte van Hoytema
POOR THINGS
Robbie Ryan
COSTUME DESIGN
NOMINEES
BARBIE
Jacqueline Durran
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Jacqueline West
NAPOLEON
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
OPPENHEIMER
Ellen Mirojnick
POOR THINGS
Holly Waddington
DIRECTING
NOMINEES
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Justine Triet
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER
MOON
Martin Scorsese
OPPENHEIMER
Christopher Nolan
POOR THINGS
Yorgos Lanthimos
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Jonathan Glazer
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
FILM
NOMINEES
BOBI WINE: THE
PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT
Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Maite Alberdi
FOUR DAUGHTERS
Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
TO KILL A TIGER
Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
FILM
NOMINEES
THE ABCS OF BOOK
BANNING
Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
THE BARBER OF LITTLE
ROCK
John Hoffman and Christine Turner
ISLAND IN BETWEEN
S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
THE LAST REPAIR SHOP
Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
NǍI NAI &
WÀI PÓ
Sean Wang and Sam Davis
FILM EDITING
NOMINEES
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Laurent Sénéchal
THE HOLDOVERS
Kevin Tent
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Thelma Schoonmaker
OPPENHEIMER
Jennifer Lame
POOR THINGS
Yorgos Mavropsaridis
INTERNATIONAL
FEATURE FILM
NOMINEES
IO CAPITANO
Italy
PERFECT DAYS
Japan
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
Spain
THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE
Germany
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
United Kingdom
MAKEUP AND
HAIRSTYLING
NOMINEES
GOLDA
Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
MAESTRO
Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
OPPENHEIMER
Luisa Abel
POOR THINGS
Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé
MUSIC (ORIGINAL
SCORE)
NOMINEES
AMERICAN FICTION
Laura Karpman
INDIANA JONES AND
THE DIAL OF DESTINY
John Williams
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Robbie Robertson
OPPENHEIMER
Ludwig Göransson
POOR THINGS
Jerskin Fendrix
MUSIC (ORIGINAL
SONG)
NOMINEES
THE FIRE INSIDE
from Flamin' Hot; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
I'M JUST KEN
from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew
Wyatt
IT NEVER WENT AWAY
from American Symphony; Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste
and Dan Wilson
WAHZHAZHE (A SONG
FOR MY PEOPLE)
from Killers of the Flower Moon; Music and Lyric by Scott
George
WHAT WAS I MADE FOR?
from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas
O'Connell
BEST PICTURE
NOMINEES
AMERICAN FICTION
Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and
Jermaine Johnson, Producers
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Producers
BARBIE
David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie
Brenner, Producers
THE HOLDOVERS
Mark Johnson, Producer
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi,
Producers
MAESTRO
Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy
Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
OPPENHEIMER
Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan,
Producers
PAST LIVES
David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler,
Producers
POOR THINGS
Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone,
Producers
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
James Wilson, Producer
PRODUCTION DESIGN
NOMINEES
BARBIE
Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie
Spencer
KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis
NAPOLEON
Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Elli Griff
OPPENHEIMER
Production Design: Ruth De Jong; Set Decoration: Claire
Kaufman
POOR THINGS
Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set
Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
NOMINEES
LETTER TO A PIG
Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
NINETY-FIVE SENSES
Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
OUR UNIFORM
Yegane Moghaddam
PACHYDERME
Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius
WAR IS OVER!
INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC OF JOHN & YOKO
Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
LIVE ACTION SHORT
FILM
NOMINEES
THE AFTER
Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
INVINCIBLE
Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
KNIGHT OF FORTUNE
Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
THE WONDERFUL STORY
OF HENRY SUGAR
Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
SOUND
NOMINEES
THE CREATOR
Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich
and Dean Zupancic
MAESTRO
Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich
and Dean Zupancic
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
- DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark
Taylor
OPPENHEIMER
Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin
O'Connell
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
VISUAL EFFECTS
NOMINEES
THE CREATOR
Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and
Tatsuji Nojima
GUARDIANS OF THE
GALAXY VOL. 3
Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo
Bialek
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
- DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil
Corbould
NAPOLEON
Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco
and Neil Corbould
WRITING (ADAPTED
SCREENPLAY)
NOMINEES
AMERICAN FICTION
Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
BARBIE
Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach
OPPENHEIMER
Written for the screen by Christopher Nolan
POOR THINGS
Screenplay by Tony McNamara
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Written by Jonathan Glazer
WRITING (ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAY)
NOMINEES
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Screenplay - Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
THE HOLDOVERS
Written by David Hemingson
MAESTRO
Written by Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer
MAY DECEMBER
Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch & Alex
Mechanik
PAST LIVES
Written by Celine Song
ATTACHMENT SIXTY SIX –
FROM
GUK
Oscars 2024: how to watch,
nominations, predictions, and timetable
The 96th Academy
Awards are almost upon us – here’s our guide to tuning in at home on Sunday and
who we reckon will win the top prizes
·
Oscars 2024: best picture nominees – reviews, awards
and where to watch
Guardian
film
Fri 8 Mar
2024 04.26 EST
The run-up to this year’s Oscars has
been smoother than in recent years: no major turmoil to report other than
the “snub” for Barbie – 2023’s biggest hit arrives with eight nominations,
but Greta Gerwig was passed over entirely in the directing category.
Well, this is a democracy, and the votes don’t just go with money. (No one is
getting in a huff about The Super Mario Bros Movie, last year’s number two, not
coming to the big show.)
The Oscars
are fully aware that the bigger the movies they reward, the better the audience
figures are for the TV broadcast (their main money-spinner), so they plan to
rinse Barbie for everything they can. They will be giving 65 Kens to frug
alongside Ryan Gosling as
he warbles I’m Just Ken (nominated for best song), while Billie Eilish (also
nominated, a much more likely winner) will sing her hit song What Was I Made
For?
Another
element of Oscar “news” is the nudge to the start time: the ceremony is getting
underway an hour earlier and is aiming for a snappy three and a half hour
running time. Host Jimmy Kimmel – the universally acknowledged safe pair of hands –
will have to do a lot of shooing, but unless they give the playoff orchestra
leader an electric cattle prod, the chances of keeping things that trim are
slim to bupkis.
What not
many people are talking about, though, is the likelihood of significant
political protest, given the activity at the Grammys, the Independent Spirit
awards and elsewhere. Security around the venue has been “beefed up”, but the
Oscars have said they won’t interfere with winners’ speeches – though, unless Mark Ruffalo manages to get past Robert
Downey Jr for best supporting actor, it’s hard to see where an incendiary Vanessa Redgrave-type speech is going to come from. James Wilson, producer of The Zone of Interest, has a bit of form in the area though.
How to watch
In the US:
The E! channel gets things under way with Brunch at the Oscars at 12:00 PT/15:00 ET, then moves to Live from the Red
Carpet show at 14:00 PT/17:00 ET. ABC starts its coverage with The Oscars Red
Carpet Show at 15:30 PT/18:30 ET, before the ceremony begins at 16:00 PT/19:00
ET. It is due to finish at 19:30 PT/22:30 ET.
In the UK:
ITV has nabbed the rights this year, with its streaming platform ITVX starting
up at 21:30 GMT and its broadcast channel ITV1 stepping in with Oscars Live at 22:15 GMT.
In
Australia: 7Bravo is carrying E!’s red carpet coverage from 08:00 AEDT. Channel
7 is picking up Red Carpet Live at 09:30 AEDT, with the ceremony show getting
under way at 10:00 AEDT.
Preparation
There’s a
lot to read about the Oscars. Here’s the best of it
What’s in those goodie bags?
Guardian writers step up for their favourite best picture nominee
The Oscar short films reviewed.
Stuart Heritage assesses what the “brutally honest” Oscar voter interviews can
tell us.
Argue over which Christopher Nolan film is the best.
The art of a memorable Oscar speech.
Emma Stone would do anything for an Oscar win – and we mean anything.
The awards-bait movies that got away.
Interviews with all the key players: Greta Gerwig, Jeffrey Wright, Justine Triet, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone, Cillian Murphy, Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonathan Glazer.
Final predictions
Some of
these have been dead certs for weeks; others less so. Everyone’s had their
say, including our own Peter Bradshaw, so here’s a last roll of the dice.
Best
picture Oppenheimer
Best actor Cillian Murphy
Best actress Lily Gladstone
Best supporting actor Robert Downey Jr
Best supporting actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Best director Christopher Nolan
Best song What Was I Made For?
Best adapted screenplay American Fiction
Best original screenplay Anatomy of a Fall
Best documentary 20 Days in Mariupol
Best animated film The Boy and the Heron
Best international film The Zone of Interest
ATTACHMENT SIXTY SEVEN –
FROM
GUK
What can we learn from
2024’s brutally honest Oscar ballots?
Once again, the annual batch of bitchy
anonymous ballots gives us an idea of where this year’s big awards might go
By Stuart Heritage Fri 8 Mar 2024
04.06 EST
Forget the actual Oscars. Increasingly, the highlight of awards season
is the sudden influx of Anonymous Oscar Ballots, in which actual Oscar voters scurry
away to various industry publications to explain why they voted the way they
did.
To be clear, the fun of these pieces isn’t
getting to hear film-making veterans, who intrinsically have more insight into
the production of feature films than a member of the public, laud the work that
most impressed them this year. No, the fun of it is that these people are
cartoonishly catty and vindictive, and it’s nuts to hear them indiscriminately
badmouth everyone in sight.
Although a lot of the nominated films this
year have (unusually for the Oscars) managed to combine critical acclaim with
commercial success, this does mean that many of Sunday’s awards are already a
foregone conclusion. Or are they? Let’s parse this year’s flurry of anonymous
Oscar ballots to see what the big trends are.
Oppenheimer will definitely win a lot
There is no getting away from the fact that
this will be Oppenheimer’s year. Of the four voters who spoke to Entertainment Weekly, half voted for the film to win best picture
and three picked Christopher Nolan for best director. One of Indiewire’s anonymous sources went to Oppenheimer for picture, actor,
cinematography, directing, editing and score, although it’s worth pointing out
that its other voter didn’t throw a single vote Oppenheimer’s way. Impressively,
Variety’s clutch of voters voted for Oppenheimer almost 40 times. Barbie might
have won the battle, but it looks as if Oppenheimer is going to win the war.
But it might not win everything
Not so long ago, it seemed as if Oppenheimer’s
most certain win would come courtesy of Robert Downey Jr, thanks to a
combination of talent, goodwill and the fact that he has won basically every
other award in his category. So is an Oscar locked down? Don’t be so sure.
Of Next Best Picture’s anonymous ballots, two went with Ryan Gosling while only one
plumped for Downey Jr. Indiewire’s two ballots were split between Gosling and
Downey Jr too. Of EW’s four ballots, two went to Mark Ruffalo, one went to
Sterling K Brown and just one went to Downey Jr. In Variety’s slightly
unsatisfactory data dump of ballots, the vote was split equally between Downey
Jr, Gosling, Sterling K Brown and Mark Ruffalo. But let’s not rule RDJ out
completely. As the Hollywood Reporter’s voter said: “I’ll be real with you: I met Downey at an
awards season party, we had an interaction that I did not initiate, and it tipped
the scales for me.”
Poor Things is the most divisive film of the
year
For every person who loved Poor Things (a
Next Best Picture voter said of its cinematography: “The whole visual style of
the film was just so overwhelming and creative”) it seems as though several
others absolutely couldn’t stand it. “Nobody was more excited to see Poor
Things than me,” says the anonymous director on EW’s panel, “And then I hated
it! I was so shocked. I love this director, I love all these actors, how could
I hate this movie so much? … It felt like it was trying to make this comment on
misogyny, but it ended up doing misogyny, for like, three hours.” Meanwhile, an
Indiewire voter said of the film: “I couldn’t sit through it. We went to see it
in a theater and left after 40 minutes.” Emma Stone is currently the
frontrunner to win best actress, but perhaps this is undone by the fact that
lots of people can’t stand the movie she’s in.
Godzilla might win something
The VFX category currently seems to be a
two-way split between The Creator and Godzilla Minus One. Interestingly, the
split seems to be separated between those who saw Godzilla’s official Oscar VFX
“bake-off” presentation and those who didn’t. The first category tended to be
blown away by what the film did with such a minuscule budget, and the fact that
the film’s director was also head of VFX. Did enough people see the
presentation to tip the Oscar in the film’s favour? Unsure. But would it be
cool if Godzilla got to win its first ever Oscar? Undoubtedly.
Bradley Cooper should maybe stay at home
You already know that Maestro isn’t the best
film around, because you’ve seen it. But your opinions pale into insignificance
next to the fury the film inspired in actual Oscar voters. The EW director
said: “I hated Maestro, absolutely hated it ... If you’re going to go so far
with the makeup and prosthetics, God forbid Bradley Cooper cover up his
piercing beautiful blue eyes to be accurate. That was such an actor’s vanity
show.” Meanwhile, EW’s writer voter said: “I did not like Maestro … ALSO
[Bradley Cooper was] terrible. He didn’t take his cigarette out of his mouth
the whole time, I could hardly hear him. He was mumbling all the time. I
thought it was a terrible performance.” Indiewire’s voter said: “Maestro was
such an ego trip of Bradley Cooper,” while one of Next Best Picture’s voters
said: “I did not bother to see Maestro. Two people I trust in the industry told
me very strongly, ‘Don’t waste your time,’ so I didn’t.” Better luck next time,
Bradley.
Read more about the 2024 Oscars:
·
Here’s how and where to watch the Oscars.
·
The full list of nominations, the all-time biggest snubs and Oscarbait titles that missed the mark.
·
Read our guide to
the best picture movies – along with predictions from Peter Bradshaw.
·
Read interviews and
profiles of Cillian Murphy, Jeffrey Wright, Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, Lily Gladstone, Sandra Hüller, Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone.
·
More Oscar questions:
What’s Greta Gerwig’s best film? Or Ryan Gosling’s finest performance? Do those anonymous Oscar ballots tell us anything?
ATTACHMENT SIXTY EIGHT –
FROM
GUK
Oscars 2024 aiming for a bigger audience, but that may be beyond Ken
An earlier time, an embarrassment of superstars
and Ryan Gosling’s live turn will, it’s hoped, boost viewers. But it’s not
clear the audience is coming back
By Lanre
Bakare Fri 8 Mar 2024 09.25 EST
On Sunday night in Los Angeles at the Dolby
theatre one name from Hollywood’s recent past will ring out louder than any
other: not Cillian or Emma but Ken.
There will be 65 of them
to be precise,
joining Ryan Gosling on stage as he performs I’m Just
Ken from Barbie whose
cast has been all over the Oscars’ pastel pink promotional videos alongside
fourth time host Jimmy Kimmel.
Despite the fact Barbie isn’t
expected to win beyond Billie Eilish for best original song and another for
best costume design (Gosling is an outside bet for best supporting male), Greta
Gerwig’s film has been placed at the centre of an award’s show that is
desperately trying to reconnect with its audience.
The Oscars’ executive producers Raj Kapoor,
Katy Mullan, and Molly McNearney have pledged they are “going big” this year and in truth, their event sorely
needs some of Barbie’s star wattage.
Ratings for the Oscars have been unimpressive
since the turn of the decade. Last year 18.7
million viewers tuned in to
watch Jimmy Kimmel host, the third worst performance ever, after 2022’s dismal
15.4 million and 2021’s nadir of 10.4 million viewers.
That trend has forced the Academy and ABC (the
American broadcaster with rights to the Oscars) to change tack in a bid to
revive an event, which at its peak commanded an audience of more than 50
million.
Part of the solution has been practical – the producers
have brought the start time forward an hour to try and make it more primetime.
But they are relying heavily on the appeal of Barbie to create an evening
refocused on a broad, family audience.
Arguably part of the downturn in fortunes and
viewing figures has been because fewer people are interested in films the
Oscars has embraced and championed.
Parasite, 2020’s surprise best picture winner
took $262m at the global box office, while 2021’s
best picture Nomadland, took just shy of $40m. Last year’s best picture, the all-action
genre-defining Everything
Everywhere All at Once,
hauled in $143m, an amount dwarfed by Barbie’s
$1.5bn and
Oppenheimer’s global box office, which stands just shy of $1bn.
The cultural
phenomenon of Barbieheimer gives
producers a gift as they attempt to reinvigorate Hollywood’s biggest night: a
chance to embrace both the low and high culture of cinema, which millions of
people have actually seen.
Christopher Nolan’s awards
season juggernaut Oppenheimer looks
nailed on to dominate the evening awards-wise, while Barbie can provide the
softer cultural cut-through to a younger audience. The other thing Gosling’s
performance could engineer is the holy grail for producers: viral moments that
travel way beyond the boundaries of the broadcast into the wider culture and
give them the much coveted social media “reach”.
This year producers say they’re moving away
from the “big,
pre-produced, celebrity-heavy comedy bits” involving Kimmel and a cast of guests. “We
can only plant the seeds and hope things will happen naturally and
spontaneously,” pledged Kapoor. It’s safe to say last year’s laboured exchanges
between Kimmel and
the donkey from The Banshees of Inisherin won’t be repeated.
In their place will come starry celebrity
hosts announcing the winners. Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson,
Michael Keaton, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate McKinnon, Rita Moreno,
John Mulaney, Catherine O’Hara, Octavia Spencer, Ramy Youssef, Mahershala Ali,
Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew
McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and
Zendaya are all confirmed. Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino will also both
appear, leading to speculation of a Scarface reunion.
The other question hanging over the awards is
will anyone mention the Israel-Gaza
war?
Historically, Hollywood
has had no problem ignoring geopolitical events on its biggest night, but the scale of
protest in the US and around the world, plus the subject matter of the films,
might make that difficult on Sunday.
There have been protests such as the ones
which disturbed the Independent Spirit awards and there could be more on Sunday
that could force a conversation that few in Hollywood seem to want to have.
“It’s too fraught,” one studio executive told the New York Times after the
Independent Spirit protest. “People are worried about their careers.”
The Zone of Interest producer James Wilson is
one of the few nominees who has drawn attention to the conflict during awards
season, while picking up an award at the Baftas. If Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust
drama is successful again will Wilson repeat his speech? And if he does, will
others follow?
ATTACHMENT SIXTY NINE –
and
again, FROM GUK (those lefties luv lumies)
OSCARS 2024: HOW TO
WATCH, NOMINATIONS, PREDICTIONS, AND TIMETABLE
The 96th Academy Awards are almost upon us –
here’s our guide to tuning in at home on Sunday and who we reckon will win the
top prizes
·
Oscars 2024: best picture nominees – reviews, awards
and where to watch
Guardian
film
Fri 8 Mar
2024 04.26 EST
The
run-up to this year’s Oscars has
been smoother than in recent years: no major turmoil to report other than
the “snub” for Barbie – 2023’s biggest hit arrives with eight
nominations, but Greta Gerwig was
passed over entirely in the directing category. Well, this is a democracy, and the
votes don’t just go with money. (No one is getting in a huff about The Super
Mario Bros Movie, last year’s number two, not coming to the big show.)
The Oscars are fully aware that the bigger the
movies they reward, the better the audience figures are for the TV broadcast
(their main money-spinner), so they plan to rinse Barbie for everything they
can. They will be giving 65 Kens to frug alongside Ryan Gosling as
he warbles I’m Just Ken (nominated for best song), while Billie
Eilish (also nominated, a much more likely winner) will sing her hit song What
Was I Made For?
Another element of Oscar “news” is the nudge
to the start time: the ceremony is getting underway an hour earlier and is
aiming for a snappy three and a half hour running time. Host Jimmy Kimmel – the universally acknowledged safe pair
of hands – will have to do a lot of shooing, but unless they give the playoff
orchestra leader an electric cattle prod, the chances of keeping things that
trim are slim to bupkis.
What not many people are talking about,
though, is the likelihood of significant political protest, given the activity
at the Grammys, the Independent Spirit awards and elsewhere. Security around
the venue has been “beefed up”, but the Oscars have said they won’t interfere
with winners’ speeches – though, unless Mark Ruffalo manages to
get past Robert Downey Jr for best supporting actor, it’s hard to see where an
incendiary Vanessa Redgrave-type speech is going to come from. James Wilson,
producer of The Zone of Interest, has a bit of form in the area though.
How to watch
In the US: The E! channel gets things under
way with Brunch at the Oscars at 12:00 PT/15:00 ET, then moves to Live
from the Red Carpet show at 14:00 PT/17:00 ET. ABC starts its coverage with The
Oscars Red Carpet Show at 15:30 PT/18:30 ET, before the ceremony begins at
16:00 PT/19:00 ET. It is due to finish at 19:30 PT/22:30 ET.
In the UK: ITV has nabbed the rights this
year, with its streaming platform ITVX starting up at 21:30 GMT and its
broadcast channel ITV1 stepping in with Oscars Live at 22:15 GMT.
In Australia: 7Bravo is carrying E!’s red
carpet coverage from 08:00 AEDT. Channel 7 is picking up Red Carpet Live at
09:30 AEDT, with the ceremony show getting under way at 10:00 AEDT.
Preparation
There’s a lot to read about the Oscars. Here’s
the best of it
What’s in those goodie bags?
Guardian writers step up for their favourite best picture nominee
The Oscar short films reviewed.
Stuart Heritage assesses what the “brutally honest” Oscar voter interviews can
tell us.
Argue over which Christopher Nolan film is the best.
The art of a memorable Oscar speech.
Emma Stone would do anything for an Oscar win – and we mean anything.
The awards-bait movies that got away.
Interviews with all the key players: Greta Gerwig, Jeffrey Wright, Justine Triet, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone, Cillian Murphy, Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonathan Glazer.
Final predictions
Some of these have been dead certs for weeks;
others less so. Everyone’s had their say, including our own Peter Bradshaw, so here’s a last roll of the dice.
Best picture Oppenheimer
Best actor Cillian Murphy
Best actress Lily Gladstone
Best supporting actor Robert Downey Jr
Best supporting actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Best director Christopher Nolan
Best song What Was I Made For?
Best adapted screenplay American Fiction
Best original screenplay Anatomy of a Fall
Best documentary 20 Days in Mariupol
Best animated film The Boy and the Heron
Best international film The Zone of Interest
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY – FROM BBC
Oscars
2024 predictions: Who will win - and who should?
5 hours
ago
By Nicholas Barber and Caryn James,Features
correspondent
Serenity Strull/BBC
(Credit:
Serenity Strull/BBC)
Oppenheimer is the favourite for several awards – but
there are bound to be a few surprises. BBC Culture's film critics give their
predictions for the big categories.
Universal
Cillian
Murphy and Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan (Credit: Universal)
1. Best picture
You can never be quite sure which film will win the top
prize at the Oscars: in recent years, both The Power of the Dog and La La Land seemed to have it
in the bag, but both of them were beaten. All the same, it would be a major
upset if Oppenheimer wasn't named best picture
this year. It's a film with a heavyweight subject and a stellar cast, but it's
also technically dazzling: Christopher Nolan's biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer
is far more intricate than the average Hollywood "based on a true
story" drama. There are also the little matters of how phenomenally
successful it's been at the global box office, how thoroughly it has dominated
awards season, and how commandingly it leads the field in terms of Oscar
nominations – 13 in total. I can't honestly say that Oppenheimer is my own
favourite of the best picture contenders, but it would (and will) be a worthy
winner. (Nicholas Barber)
When the best picture category expanded from five to 10
nominated films in 2009, the change was spurred by backlash to the way
Christopher Nolan's blockbuster The Dark Knight was snubbed the previous year.
Now it's full-circle time. Nolan's explosive yet character-driven epic
Oppenheimer, with a perfect balance of art and commerce, is poised to win best
picture. Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things are also great in
their different ways, but Oppenheimer's ambition and invention make it,
deservedly, this year's best. (Caryn James)
2. Best director
Every film Christopher Nolan has made has deserved to
put him in a best director race. OK, maybe not Insomnia or Interstellar,
but almost every one, from Memento to Inception and this year's likely best picture winner
Oppenheimer, which he also wrote. He has never won, but this is his year, and
not only because he should win. He recently picked up the Directors Guild
Award, usually a good predictor of how the Oscar will go. More than any other
film this year, Oppenheimer is shaped by a singular director's vision. (CJ)
Christopher Nolan will win for directing Oppenheimer, of
course. He directed Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and a Batman trilogy,
and yet he's never won an Oscar, so it's undoubtedly his turn to take home a
golden statuette or three. (He could also take home one for writing the film,
and another for producing it.) Besides, you don't have to know much about
directing to recognise that overseeing an enterprise as complicated as
Oppenheimer is a colossal achievement. It gives you the sense that Nolan took
every lesson he learnt from his other films and applied them to this, his most
ambitious project to date. Mind you, all of the other best director nominees
did terrific jobs, too. It wouldn't be unjust if Jonathan Glazer, Yorgos
Lanthimos, Martin Scorsese or Justine Triet
was handed the Oscar. But this is Nolan's moment. (NB)
3. Best actor
This category isn't done and dusted. Cillian Murphy has
to be the favourite for his riveting performance in Oppenheimer, because he's
just won the lead actor prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. But voters
might prefer not to give every single Oscar to Oppenheimer, especially as there
are a couple of well-loved American actors in contention. Neither Paul Giamatti
nor Jeffrey Wright has ever won an Academy Award, as illustrious as their
careers have been, so either one of them could be rewarded for their rich, humane
characterisations in The Holdovers and American Fiction, respectively. Murphy
would be my choice for a role that required him to cover so many different
moods in so many different time periods, but I wouldn't be too upset if
Giamatti won instead. (NB)
Cillian Murphy is likely to win this award, as he
should. His restrained yet stirring performance makes his character the
tortured soul of Oppenheimer. There's still an outside chance Paul Giamatti
might win for his wry, touching performance in The Holdovers. After all, Giamatti's
role as a cranky teacher is flashier, the kind Oscar voters often go for over
more nuanced performances. But Murphy's recent win over Giamatti at the Screen
Actors Guild Awards – with actors the largest block of Oscar voters – gives him
the edge. (CJ)
4. Best actress
This was always a race between Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone,
two extraordinary and extraordinarily different performances, but it seems that
Gladstone has pulled ahead, winning the SAG award. She deserves to win for her
beautiful, subtle performance as Molly Burkhart, the heart of Killers of the
Flower Moon. As with the best actor race, this isn't entirely a sure thing,
because Stone's flamboyant turn as the Frankensteinian feminist Bella Baxter is
more conspicuous "Acting". But Stone has won before, for La La Land,
and Gladstone's win would be historic, making her the first Native American to
win best actress, so the Oscar should go her way. (CJ)
Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Emma
Stone for Poor Things are neck and neck. To me, Gladstone is in more of a
supporting role than a lead role, and the campaign to position her as the
film's heroine has been slightly dishonest. (If the story of Killers of the
Flower Moon had indeed been told from her character's perspective, it would
have been a better film.) But Gladstone has spoken eloquently about the
importance of seeing Native Americans on screen, and Stone has already won an
Oscar, so voters might well feel that picking Gladstone would be the right
thing to do. My own choice would be Carey Mulligan, who was magnificent as
Leonard Bernstein's wife in Maestro, but Bradley Cooper's film doesn't seem to
be turning its nominations into wins this awards season. (NB)
Universal
5. Best supporting actor
This is another category that is beginning to feel like
a foregone conclusion. Robert Downey Jr brings all of his
usual intensity and charisma to the role of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, but
there's subtlety and depth there, too. Rather than just being a spiteful
antagonist, Strauss seethes with fear and insecurity. Besides, when Downey Jr
played Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was one of Hollywood's
most valuable assets: just look at how Marvel has wobbled since he left the
team. An Academy Award would be a thank-you for all the billions of dollars he
has helped to generate, as well as an acknowledgement that there is more to him
than Tony Stark's fast-talking bravado. Personally, I'd be tempted to give the
prize to Ryan Gosling, who is so hilarious in Barbie – although, as I've said
before, he's really the film's co-lead, so by rights he shouldn't be in this
category at all. (NB)
This category is loaded with strong performances, but
it's also one of the easiest to call. Robert Downey Jr, who has been picking up
awards all season as Oppenheimer's antagonist, will win. It's hard to argue
against that when his performance is so unflinching and strong. But Robert De Niro
does some of his best work in years in Killers of the Flower Moon, and deserves
it just as much. And Ryan Gosling is as funny as
they come in Barbie, but comedy has a hard
time competing with drama. Gosling will sing I'm Just Ken in
the show, though, which is all I've really wanted from this year's Oscars. (CJ)
Focus
6. Best supporting
actress
This category is the easiest to
call. Da'Vine Joy Randolph has won every
major award so far – the prestigious Bafta, the less prestigious Golden Globe,
the SAG Award. Every. Single. One. And she should win. Her performance in The
Holdovers as Mary, a grieving mother who works as a cook at a private school,
is heartfelt yet unsentimental, laced with comedy as her character tangles with
Paul Giamatti's. The film wouldn't be the same without her. It doesn't hurt her
chances that she has given some modest and inspiring acceptance speeches. (CJ)
Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, America Ferrara and Jodie
Foster can all relax and enjoy their champagne on Oscar night, because they
won't have to worry about making a speech. Throughout awards season, one thing
that everyone has agreed on is that the Oscar for best supporting actress
belongs to Da'Vine Joy Randolph for her tender performance as the bereaved
school cook in The Holdovers. She has already won countless prizes for the
role, including a Golden Globe, a Bafta and a Screen Actors Guild award, and
she has managed to make a moving and funny speech every time. I wouldn't be
surprised if her name was engraved on the trophy weeks ago. (NB)
7. Best adapted
screenplay
The five contenders for best adapted screenplay are
Oppenheimer, Barbie, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest and American Fiction –
and the least impressive of them all will probably win. American Fiction is an
enjoyable, grown-up adaptation of Erasure, a novel by Percival Everett. But the
film's writer-director, Cord Jefferson, made the satire broad and obvious, and
he didn't intertwine that satire with the main character's various family
troubles. Meanwhile, all four of the other screenplays on the shortlist did
astoundingly bold and difficult things with their source material, assuming
that they used the source material at all: Barbie counts as "adapted"
for no other reason than that Barbie and Ken dolls already existed, while
Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest took nothing from Martin Amis's novel
except the title. I'd be delighted if Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach won for
their bravely bonkers Barbie script, because, despite being last year's biggest
film, it doesn't look as if it's going to do too
well at the Oscars. (NB)
The Baftas rarely predict the Oscars, but Cord
Jefferson's win for adapted screenplay there, along with his Independent Spirit
Award, suggests the kind of momentum that puts him in the lead. Voters obviously
like American Fiction, which earned nominations for best Picture, best actor
for Jeffrey Wright and an unexpected best supporting actor for Sterling K
Brown. It won't win in those categories, so rewarding Jefferson's screenplay is
a way of recognising the film. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach also deserve an
Oscar for their creative and triumphant take on Barbie, but I'm guessing that
the sheer lunacy of the Academy putting that screenplay in the adapted category
will work against it. (CJ)
8. Best original
screenplay
Anatomy of a Fall is almost certain
to win this one easily. As in the adapted category, it has strong voter support
– a best picture nomination and best director for Justine Triet – that will
trickle down from the categories the film won't win, and give it a boost here.
Celine Song's delicate Past Lives is also a wonder of a screenplay, and if
there's an upset, that would be it. But between these two gem-like screenplays,
without a single extraneous scene, the bracing Anatomy of a Fall will come
through. (CJ)
Anatomy of a Fall was the winner of the Palme d'Or at
the Cannes Film Festival last May, and since then it's won numerous prizes in
numerous categories, but its screenplay has been especially well received. No
wonder. The film is both a gripping mystery and a searing portrait of an ailing
marriage, with dialogue that crackles in the domestic scenes and the courtroom
scenes alike. What's more, it crackles in three different languages. Another
frontrunner in this category is David Hemingson's screenplay for The Holdovers,
a highly polished, life-affirming work that glitters with colourful details.
Either of them could win – and Celine Song's spellbinding screenplay for Past
Lives is in with a chance – but the warmth of The Holdovers might just give it
the edge. Or maybe that's wishful thinking as I'm so fond of it myself. (NB)
9. Best international
film
Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is an
extraordinary work of art that approaches the horrors of the Holocaust from a
startlingly original angle. It's my own film of the year, and I'd be pleased if
it somehow won the best picture prize, but I know that's not very likely. What
is likely, though, is that it will win the Oscar for best international film;
none of the other contenders has generated the same buzz. The quirk here is
that each country chooses which film to enter in this category, and France went
for The Taste of Things – a film that, ultimately, didn't make it on to the
Academy's shortlist. If France had entered Anatomy of a Fall instead, it might
well have beaten The Zone of Interest; after all, it has five Oscar
nominations, including one for best picture. But as it is, Glazer's film is
sure to triumph. I certainly hope so, anyway. (NB)
By now, the French committee that submitted The Taste of
Things instead of Anatomy of a Fall must realise what a mistake that was. The
Taste of Things didn't even get nominated, and Anatomy of a Fall might have
won, or at least given The Zone of Interest some real competition. As it is,
Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama, which takes us inside the banal evil of a
Nazi family, is the sure winner here. If I were a voter, though, I'd choose Matteo
Garrone's Io Capitano, the piercingly beautiful and timely migrant story of a
teenager trying desperately to make his way from Senegal to Italy. (CJ)
10. Best animated
feature
Hayao Miyazaki's glorious The Boy and the Heron or the popular,
creative Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse? That's what this race
comes down to, and it could go either way. Both are wonderfully inventive and
beautifully made. I think Miyazaki should win and probably will, if only to
honour his long career and a film that may or may not be his last. (He has been
cagey about that.) And there's always another Spiderman. (CJ)
Elemental wasn't the greatest of Pixar's cartoons, and
neither Nimona nor Robot Dreams made a deep impression, as wonderful as they
both are, so that leaves Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and
the Heron. My assumption is that Spidey will swing away with the Oscar. And
fair enough – the way it crams a wealth of animation styles and techniques into
one kinetic pop-art extravaganza is awe-inspiring. But the same could be said
of the first film in the series, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and that
won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2019. Should the Academy really be
honouring a sequel that is doing more of the same? I don't believe so, but they
gave Toy Story 4 an Oscar, so the voters obviously see things differently. I'd
prefer if they plumped for Hiyao Miyazaki's mind-boggling The Boy and the
Heron. The 83-year-old Studio Ghibli legend last won an Oscar in this category
for Spirited Away back in 2003, so it would be lovely if he won another before
he finally retires. (NB)
11. Best documentary
feature
Last year's winner of the Oscar for best documentary
was Navalny, a film about the
Russian opposition leader who campaigned against the invasion of Ukraine (and
who has since died in a Russian prison). The chances are that the Academy will
get behind a critique of Vladimir Putin's regime this year, too. 20 Days in Mariupol, written and directed
by the Pulitzer prize-winning Mstyslav Chernov, is a harrowing first-hand
account of his experiences in a Ukrainian port city which was besieged by
Russian forces in 2022. The film is already a Bafta winner, and will probably
be an Oscar winner, too. Rightly so. (NB)
Some documentaries have big artistic goals, and others
work primarily because of their subject, like last year's winner, Navalny, more
relevant than ever after Alexei Navalny's death. This year's likely and
deserving winner, 20 Days in Mariupol, is another political, subject-driven
film. Its reporting from a city in Ukraine in the midst of war is visceral,
eye-opening and tough, and may also gain votes thanks to wide support for
Ukraine in the US and Europe. Kaouther Ben Hania's Four Daughters is also political
and more artful, blending actors with real people in documenting the story of a
mother who saw two of her daughters recruited to the Islamic State group. But
the unforgettable Mariupol is even more compelling. (CJ)
12. Best original score
I know it's getting repetitive, but: Oppenheimer. Ludwig
Goransson's eloquent score is spot-on, reflecting the intensity of the main
character when it should, and the drama of the bomb at other times. It is elegant
orchestral music with an eerie soundscape of effects that deserves its likely
win. The late Robbie Robertson, who worked with Martin Scorsese for decades, is
nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon, his final score. That may exert some
emotional pull, but I suspect Robertson will turn up in the In Memorium segment
instead. (CJ)
This is another category that feels like a dead cert.
Ludwig Göransson has already won a Bafta and a Golden Globe for his Oppenheimer
score, and so it would be amazing if he didn't nab an Oscar for it, too. It
helps that the Swede is now a Hollywood mainstay, having composed the music for
Black Panther and The Mandalorian, but even if you put aside his other work,
his mighty Oppenheimer score stands out as a masterpiece that conveys the
story's mathematical complexity and spine-tingling, stomach-churning unease.
Göransson deserves to win, and he will. That said, there is tough competition
from Jerskin Fendrix, an experimental British pop musician who was hired to
score Poor Things after he'd made just one album. Every bit as off-kilter and
beguiling as the film's heroine, Fendrix's music has the air of someone playing
around with toy instruments and stumbling on their own unique sound. (NB)
13. Best cinematography
Oppenheimer is a film that revolves around "people
talking about science", in the words of its cinematographer, Hoyte van
Hoytema. "You are working with faces and dialogue, [so] on paper it's not
a very obvious cinematic experience." Nonetheless, von Hoytema made the intimate
close-ups seem just as worthy of a vast iMax screen as the film's desert vistas
and atomic blasts. This is only his second Oscar nomination, even though he
shot Spectre, Ad Astra and Nope, as well as several of Nolan's previous films,
but he's bound to be one of the many Oppenheimer craftspeople who will win next
Sunday. If he doesn't, the incredibly versatile Robbie Ryan would deserve the
Oscar for helping Poor Things strike its balance between reality and
picture-book artifice. (NB)
These nominees comprise an all-star line-up, including
the legendary Ed Lachman for his exquisite black and white photography in El
Conde and Rodrigo Prieto for the vivid colours and epic scope of Killers of the
Flower Moon. But the Oscar can and should go to Hoyte van Hoytema for
Oppenheimer, a film that takes us into intimate scenes as well as expansive
desert views of the bomb's test site, and squiggles on screen that represent
the physics of it all. In both black and white and colour, van Hoytema's camera
creates a film with a dazzling, coherent mix of views. (CJ)
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY ONE –
FROM
VARIETY
FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS: WHO WILL WIN AND SHOULD WIN
AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS
(SEE who DID as Attachment E)
By Clayton Davis
Mar 7, 2024 10:40am PT
Awards Circuit
Column: (Updated March 5, 2024): As Frodo famously whispered to Samwise after
casting the One Ring into the fiery abyss in the epic finale of “The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King”: “It is done.”
The curtains have closed on final Oscar voting, and
the air is thick with anticipation as the envelopes are primed to reveal the
chosen ones in 23 categories. But first, let’s delve into what we already
know.
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” which
recounts the saga of the father of the atomic bomb, is poised to sweep the
night. Having clinched every major guild and industry accolade — Golden Globes,
Critics Choice, DGA, BAFTA, SAG and PGA — it’s the first movie to have a
“perfect season” since “Argo” (2012). The Universal Pictures biopic might match
the record set by 1961’s “West Side Story,” which claimed a breathtaking 10
awards, the second most in history.
Locked and loaded are the supporting acting
categories: Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)
have stolen hearts with their captivating performances, and they lead the pack
with critical acclaim and endearing speeches.
Yet, amid the certainty, the lead acting races offer
a twist or two. The realm of lead actor has long been ruled by Cillian Murphy’s
magnetic portrayal of the conflicted scientist in Nolan’s magnum opus. However,
the final stretch of voting has seen two seasoned stalwarts — Paul Giamatti
from “The Holdovers” and Jeffrey Wright from “American Fiction” — make
formidable strides. Murphy maintains a firm grip, but the allure of a career
actor getting his due might sway voters.
In best actress, the competition is as fierce as it
gets. Emma Stone’s transformation into a woman with a child’s brain in Yorgos
Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” has garnered substantial support. Yet Lily Gladstone’s
groundbreaking win at the SAG Awards for her riveting performance in Martin
Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” may bring enough momentum to clinch
victory in the heat of voting. Furthermore, Sandra Hüller’s ferocious turn in
French legal thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” could split votes with Stone among
international members, paving the way for Gladstone’s ascent.
Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” drew a lukewarm reception at
the guild awards, though it appears to be the frontrunner in the original song
category, with the Grammy-winning “What Was I Made For?” positioned to claim
the prize. But that could be it for 2023’s box office leader. The film does
stand on the precipice in adapted screenplay and might snag a tech award or
two, which could add further glitter to its night.
Based on the forecast, only two films are projected
to win two or more stauettes: “Oppenheimer” with eight, and “Barbie” with two.
This would be the first time of such an occurrence since “The English Patient”
and “Fargo” (1997), which won nine and two respectively.
Variety’s final Oscar predictions are below.
The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10,
2024.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars
predictions in all categories.
*** = PREDICTED WINNER
Best Picture
“American
Fiction” (MGM)
Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and
Jermaine Johnson
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie
Brenner
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Mark Johnson
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and
Daniel Lupi
“Maestro“ (Netflix)
Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy
Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan
“Past Lives” (A24)
David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma
Stone
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
James Wilson
Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
and Christopher Nolan)
Could Win: “The Zone of Interest” (James Wilson)
Should Win: “American Fiction” (Ben LeClair, Nikos
Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson)
Should have been here: “Spider-Man: Across the
Spider-Verse” (Avi Arad, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, Christina
Steinberg) and “Origin” (Ava DuVernay and Paul Garnes)
Oscars category page with rankings>>>
Director
Jonathan Glazer
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Yorgos Lanthimos
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Christopher Nolan ***
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Martin Scorsese
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Justine Triet
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
Will Win: Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”)
Could Win: Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”)
Should Win: Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”)
Should have been here: Cord Jefferson (“American
Fiction”) and Ava DuVernay (“Origin”)
Oscars category page with rankings>>>
Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper
“Maestro”
(Netflix)
Colman Domingo
“Rustin”
(Netflix)
Paul Giamatti
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Cillian Murphy ***
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Jeffrey Wright
“American Fiction” (MGM)
Will Win: Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”)
Could Win: Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”)
Should Win: Colman Domingo (“Rustin”)
Should have been here: Andrew Scott (“All of Us
Strangers”) and Glenn Howerton (“BlackBerry”)
Oscars category page with rankings>>>
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening
“Nyad” (Netflix)
Lily Gladstone ***
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount
Pictures)
Sandra Hüller
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
Carey Mulligan
“Maestro” (Netflix)
Emma Stone
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Will Win: Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower
Moon”)
Could Win: Emma Stone (“Poor Things”)
Should Win: Lily Gladstone
Should have been here: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
(“Origin”) and Teyana Taylor (“A Thousand and One”)
Actor in a Supporting Role
Sterling K. Brown
“American Fiction” (MGM)
Robert DeNiro
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Robert Downey Jr. ***
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Ryan Gosling
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
Mark Ruffalo
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Will Win: Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)
Could Win: Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”)
Should Win: Ryan Gosling
Should have been here: John Magaro (“Past Lives”)
and Milo Machado Graner (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
Actress in a Supporting Role
Emily Blunt
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Danielle Brooks
“The Color Purple” (Warner Bros.)
America Ferrera
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
Jodie Foster
“Nyad” (Netflix)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph ***
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Will Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)
Could Win: Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”)
Should Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Should have been here: Laurie Metcalf (“Somewhere in
Queens”) and Audra McDonald (“Origin”)
Original Screenplay
Photo : Courtesy Everett Collection
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) ***
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
David Hemingson
“Maestro” (Netflix)
Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer
“May December” (Netflix)
Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik
“Past Lives” (A24)
Celine Song
Will Win: “Anatomy of a Fall” (Justine Triet, Arthur
Harari)
Could Win: “Past Lives” (Celine Song)
Should Win: “Anatomy of a Fall”
Should have been here: “Monster” (Yuji Sakamoto) and
“The Boy and the Heron” (Hayao Miyazaki)
Adapted Screenplay
“American
Fiction” (MGM) ***
Cord Jefferson
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Christopher Nolan
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Tony McNamara
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Jonathan Glazer
Will Win: “American Fiction” (Cord Jefferson)
Could Win: “Oppenheimer” (Christopher Nolan)
Should Win: “American Fiction”
Should have been here: “Origin” (Ava DuVernay) and
“Robot Dreams” (Pablo Berger)
Animated Feature
“The Boy and
the Heron” (GKids/Toho)
Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
“Elemental” (Pixar)
Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
“Nimona” (Netflix)
Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
“Robot Dreams”
(Neon)
Pablo Berger,
Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony
Pictures) ***
Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord,
Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal
Will Win: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
(Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal)
Could Win: “The Boy and the Heron” (Hayao Miyazaki
and Toshio Suzuki)
Should Win: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Should have been here: “Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” ( Jeff Rowe, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kevin Eastman)
Production Design
“Barbie”
(Warner Bros.)
Sarah Greenwood (production designer), Katie Spencer
(set decorator)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Jack Fisk (production designer), Adam Willis (set
decorator)
“Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
Arthur Max (production designer), Elli Griff (set
decorator)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Ruth De Jong (production designer), Claire Kaufman
(set decorator)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures) ***
Shona Heath, James Price (production designer),
Szusza Mihalek (set decorator)
Will Win: “Poor Things” (Shona Heath, James Price, Szusza
Mihalek)
Could Win: “Barbie” (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)
Should Win: “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Jack Fisk,
Adam Willis)
Should have been here: “The Taste of Things” (Toma
Baqueni) and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Patrick O’Keefe)
Cinematography
“El Conde”
(Netflix)
Edward Lachman
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Rodrigo Prieto
“Maestro”
(Netflix)
Matthew
Libatique
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Hoyte van Hoytema
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Robbie Ryan
Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Could Win: “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Rodrigo
Prieto)
Should Win: “Oppenheimer”
Should have been here: “Ferrari” (Erik
Messerschmidt) and “Saltburn” (Linus Sandgren)
Costume Design
“Barbie”
(Warner Bros.) ***
Jacqueline Durran
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Jacqueline West
“Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
David Crossman, Janty Yates
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Ellen Mirojnick
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Holly Waddington
Will Win: “Barbie” (Jacqueline Durran)
Could Win: “Poor Things” (Holly Waddington)
Should Win: “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Jacqueline
West)
Should have been here: “Blue Beetle” (Mayes Rubeo)
and “The Taste of Things” (Nu Yên-Khê Tran)
Film Editing
“Anatomy of a
Fall” (Neon)
Laurent Sénéchal
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Kevin Tent
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original
Films/Paramount Pictures)
Thelma Schoonmaker
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Jennifer Lame
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Jennifer Lame)
Could Win: “Anatomy of a Fall” (Laurent Sénéchal)
Should Win: “Anatomy of a Fall”
Should have been here: “Air” (William Goldenberg)
and “The Iron Claw” (Matthew Hannam)
Makeup and Hairstyling
“Golda”
(Bleecker Street)
Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra
Kelly-Blue
“Maestro” (Netflix) ***
Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Luisa Abel
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
“Society of the Snow” (Netflix)
Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé
Will Win: “Maestro” (Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and
Lori McCoy-Bell)
Could Win: “Poor Things” (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier
and Josh Weston)
Should Win: “Maestro”
Should have been here: “BlackBerry” (Dylan Twigg,
Ashley Vieira) and “The Iron Claw” (Natalie Shea Rose, Elle Favorule)
Sound
“The Creator” (20th Century Studios)
Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom
Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Maestro” (Netflix)
Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom
Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount
Pictures)
Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark
Taylor
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin
O’Connell
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Willie Burton, Richard
King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell)
Could Win: “The Zone of Interest” (Tarn Willers and
Johnnie Burn)
Should Win: “Oppenheimer”
Should have been here: “Robot Dreams” (Steven
Ghouti, Fabiola Ordoyo, Laia Picón) and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
(Michael Semanick, Juan Peralta, Geoffrey G. Rubay)
Visual Effects
“The Creator”
(20th Century Studios) ***
Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil
Corbould
“Godzilla: Minus One” (Toho)
Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi
and Tatsuji Nojima
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Marvel Studios)
Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and
Theo Bialek
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
(Paramount Pictures)
Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil
Corbould
“Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone
Coco and Neil Corbould
Will Win: “The Creator” (Jay Cooper, Ian Comley,
Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould)
Could Win: “Godzilla Minus One” (Takashi Yamazaki,
Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima)
Should Win: “The Creator”
Should have been here: “Elemental” (Sanjay Bakshi,
Stephen Marshall, Jon Reisch, Junyi Ling) and “Spider-Man: Across the
Spider-Verse” (Michael Lasker, Alan Hawkins, Bret St. Clair, Pav Grochola)
Original Score
“American
Fiction” (MGM)
Laura Karpman
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (Walt Disney
Pictures)
John Williams
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount
Pictures)
Robbie Robertson
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Ludwig Göransson
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Jerskin Fendrix
Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Ludwig Göransson)
Could Win: “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Robbie
Robertson)
Should Win: “Oppenheimer”
Should have been here: “Saltburn” (Anthony Willis)
and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Daniel Pemberton)
Original Song
“American
Symphony” (Netflix)
“It Never Went Away” by Jon Batiste, Dan Wilson
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.) ***
“What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, Finneas
O’Connell
“Flamin’ Hot” (Hulu/Searchlight Pictures)
“The Fire Inside” by Diane Warren
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount
Pictures)
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” by Scott George
Will Win: “Barbie” (“What Was I Made For?” by Billie
Eilish, Finneas O’Connell)
Could Win: “Barbie” (“I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson
and Andrew Wyatt)
Should Win: “I’m Just Ken”
Should have been here: “The Iron Claw” (“Live That
Way Forever” by Laurel Sprengelmeyer and Richard Reed Parry, Little Scream) and
“The Color Purple” (“Workin’” by Blitz Bazawule and Nick Baxter)
Documentary Feature
“Bobi Wine:
The People’s President” (National Geographic)
Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
“The Eternal Memory” (MTV Documentary Films)
Nominees to be determined
“Four Daughters” (Kino Lorber)
Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
“To Kill a Tiger” (National Film Board of Canada,
NFB)
Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
“20 Days in Mariupol” (PBS) ***
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney
Aronson-Rath
Will Win: “20 Days in Mariupol” (Mstyslav Chernov,
Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath)
Could Win: “To Kill a Tiger” (Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia
Principe and David Oppenheim)
Should Win: “20 Days in Mariupol”
Should have been here: “American Symphony” (Matthew
Heineman, Lauren Domino, Joedan Okun) and “Beyond Utopia” (Madeleine Gavin,
Rachel Cohen, Jana Edelbaum, Sue Mi Terry)
International Feature
“Io Capitano”
from Italy (01 Distribution)
dir. Matteo Garrone
“Perfect Days” from Japan (Neon)
dir. Wim Wenders
“Society of the Snow” from Spain (Netflix)
dir. J.A. Bayona
“The Teachers’ Lounge” from Germany (Sony Pictures
Classics)
dir. İlker Çatak
“The Zone of Interest” from United Kingdom (A24) ***
dir. Jonathan Glazer
Will Win: “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
Could Win: “Perfect Days” (Japan)
Should Win: “The Zone of Interest”
Should have been here: “Do Not Expect Too Much from
the End of the World” (Romania) and “The Taste of Things” (France)
Animated Short
“Letter to a
Pig” (Miyu Distribution)
Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
“Ninety-Five Senses” (Documentary+)
Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
“Our Uniform” (Distributor TBA)
Yegane Moghaddam
“Pachyderme” (Miyu Distribution)
Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius
“War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John &
Yoko” (ElectroLeague) ***
Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
Will Win: “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of
John & Yoko” (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)
Could Win: “Letter to a Pig” (Tal Kantor and Amit R.
Gicelter)
Should Win: “Pachyderme” (Stéphanie Clément and Marc
Rius)
Should have been here: “Once Upon a Studio” (Dan
Abraham, Trent Correy)
Documentary Short
“The ABCs of
Book Banning” (MTV Documentary Films/Paramount+) ***
Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
“The Barber of Little Rock” (Story Syndicate)
John Hoffman and Christine Turner
“Island in Between” (The New York Times Op-Docs)
S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
“The Last Repair Shop” (L.A. Times
Studios/Searchlight Pictures)
Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó” (Walt Disney Pictures)
Sean Wang and Sam Davis
Will Win: “The ABCs of Book Banning” (Sheila Nevins
and Trish Adlesic)
Could Win: “The Last Repair Shop” (Ben Proudfoot and
Kris Bowers)
Should Win: “The Last Repair Shop”
Should have been here: “Relighting Candles: The Tim
Sullivan Story” (Zeberiah Newman, Michiel Thomas)
Live Action Short
“The After”
(Netflix) ***
Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
“Invincible” (H264 Distribution)
Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
“Knight of Fortune” (Jalabert Production)
Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
“Red, White and Blue” (Brandy Rivers/Industry
Entertainment)
Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (Netflix)
Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
Will win: “The After” (Misan Harriman and Nicky
Bentham)
Could win: “Red, White and Blue” (Nazrin Choudhury
and Sara McFarlane)
Should win: “Red, White and Blue”
Should have been here: “Strange Way of Life” (Pedro
Almodóvar)
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY TWO –
FROM
L.A. TIMES
Will political protests disrupt
the Academy Awards? The LAPD is prepared to prevent that
Final
preparations continue for the Academy Awards ceremony in and around Dolby
Theater. The LAPD is preparing to prevent any protests that may take place
Sunday night.
BY NATHAN SOLISSTAFF WRITER MARCH 8,
2024 2:07 PM PT
The Los
Angeles Police Department said Friday it would increase security outside the Academy Awards on Sunday in expectation of protests, blockades and other attempts to
disrupt the ceremony.
Police
said they would be ready for any protest that could unfold outside the Dolby
Theatre in Hollywood, where the 96th Academy Awards will take place. “The LAPD
is preparing for all potential protests, including protests regarding the
Israel-Hamas conflict,” the department said in a statement.
The
Academy Awards will have roughly 2,000 security officers on hand, and LAPD
officers will also step up their presence to “prevent disruptions by
demonstrators, ensuring a focus on the celebration of cinematic achievements,”
the department said in a statement.
The LAPD
will attempt to communicate with protesters to make sure activists can exercise
their 1st Amendment rights without disrupting the awards ceremony, according to
a statement from LAPD Cmdr. Randy Goddard, who is leading the department’s
security around the event. The LAPD will also manage any potential blockades
around the venue to make sure that guests can safely enter the venue.
“Officers
are working closely with event organizers and security agencies, implementing
comprehensive measures to ensure a safe Oscars experience for all,” Goddard
said in his statement.
How to watch the 2024 Oscars
ceremony and red carpet
March 7,
2024
Over the
years, the Oscars have seen several moments that
veered toward political protest, but
rarely resulted in any acts that disrupted the ceremony.
In 1978,
Vanessa Redgrave won an Oscar in the supporting actress category for her
portrayal of an anti-Nazi activist in “Julia.” She produced a pro-Palestinian
TV documentary that she defended during her acceptance speech, which drew
audible boos from the audience.
In 2003,
documentarian Michael Moore also elicited boos when he accepted the Oscar for
his film “Bowling for Columbine” in the feature documentary category. Moore
criticized then-President George W. Bush for the Iraq war, which had started
just days before the ceremony. He called Bush a “fictitious president” and
added, “Shame on you!”
In the
past few months, protests surrounding the war in Gaza have spilled out into the
streets and onto
freeways. Large
crowds have
marched across Los Angeles —
and the globe —-following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
Rowdy
protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza ended Rep. Adam
B. Schiff’s victory speech on election night in Hollywood. Activists covered in fake blood have wailed during city
council meetings in Ojai in recent months, and many more have followed President
Biden during his campaign stops across the country.
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY THREE –
FROM guk
Oppenheimer wins best
picture Oscar as Emma Stone pulls surprise win
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster picked up
seven awards while Poor Things star won over Lily Gladstone for best actress
·
The
night’s real winners and losers
Sun 10 Mar
2024 22.25 EDT
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer has triumphed at this year’s Oscars
taking home seven awards including best picture, best actor and best director.
The drama, telling the story of the “father of
the atomic bomb”, lost the box office battle to Barbie during last summer’s Barbenheimer showdown but has now won the awards war
with Greta Gerwig’s Mattel comedy winning just one Oscar for best
original song.
Cillian
Murphy was
named best actor for his performance, beating out Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey
Wright, and Robert
Downey Jr was
named best supporting actor, up against Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling.
Murphy, winning his first Oscar from his first
nomination, is also the first ever Irish-born winner in his category. “I’m a
little overwhelmed,” he said before dedicating his award “to the peacemakers
everywhere”.
Downey Jr won his first Oscar after being
nominated twice before for Chaplin and Tropic Thunder. “I’d like to thank my
terrible childhood and the Academy in that order,” he said before later adding:
“I needed this job more than it needed me.”
Nolan picked up his first best
director Oscar,
after being nominated previously for Dunkirk, beating out Martin Scorsese and
Jonathan Glazer. When speaking about cinema in his speech he said: “We don’t
know where this incredible journey is going from here but to know that you
think I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
The film also won for editing, cinematography
and score.
Emma Stone pulled a surprise, beating out favourite
Lily Gladstone to be named best actress for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos’s
offbeat period comedy Poor
Things.
It’s the actor’s second best actress Oscar after previously winning for La La
Land. “It’s not about me, it’s about a team that came together to make
something greater than the sum of its parts,” she said during an emotional
speech.
The film also picked up awards for production
design, hairstyling and makeup and costume design.
Jonathan Glazer’s German and Polish-language
Holocaust drama The Zone
of Interest was
named best international feature, the first ever British film to win in this
category. The film also won for sound.
The writer-director’s speech addressed the
Israel-Palestine conflict, calling out the “dehumanisation” shown both in his
film and in reality. “Right now we stand here as men who refute their
Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has lead to
conflict for so many innocent people,” he said, “whether the victims of October
7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza.”
Da’Vine
Joy Randolph won
the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in 70s-set drama The Holdovers
after winning every major precursor award on her way to the stage. “For so
long, I’ve always wanted to be different and now I realise I just need to be
myself,” a tearful Randolph said in her speech.
Barbie won just one award from its eight
nominations, taking home the best original song Oscar for Billie
Eilish’s What Was I Made For?.
Eilish, winning with brother and collaborator Finneas, received a standing
ovation earlier in the evening after performing the song on stage. The pair
previously won for No Time to Die.
Ryan
Gosling also performed his nominated song I’m Just Ken in a diamond-studded pink suit
surrounded by dancing Kens, including stars from the film, as well as a guitar
cameo from Slash.
Justine Triet and partner Arthur Harari also
won best original screenplay for marital drama Anatomy of
a Fall.
Triet is the first French woman to win in this category. “It will help me in my
midlife crisis, I think,” she joked in her speech.
Best adapted screenplay went to Cord
Jefferson for
American Fiction, his first big screen script. The literary comedy is an
adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure.
20 Days in
Mariupol,
which tells of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was named best documentary
feature, the country’s first ever Oscar. “I wish to be able to exchange this
for Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities,” war reporter
turned director Mstyslav Chernov said. He added: “Cinema forms memories and
memories form history.”
It was also a strong night for Japanese cinema
with The Boy
and the Heron named
best animated feature and Godzilla
Minus One beating
out big-budget blockbusters to win best visual effects.
Wes Anderson also won his first ever Oscar for
his Roald Dahl adaptation The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which was named
best live-action short. He wasn’t in attendance to accept the award.
The ceremony was briefly delayed with reports
of security issues for attendees as a result of a pro-Palestine protest
disrupting traffic with hundreds of protesters marching with signs reading “No
Awards for Genocide”.
Various celebrities, including Billie Eilish
and Ramy Youssef, also wore
red pins in
support of a ceasefire in Gaza. “We really want lasting justice and peace for
the Palestinian people,” the Poor Things star said on the red carpet.
Host Jimmy
Kimmel kicked off the show by
welcoming “these beautiful human actors” in attendance after a hard year of
strikes. He called out Academy members for not nominating Greta Gerwig for best
director, made a joke about Downey Jr’s troubled history, calling the night
“one of his highest points”, the length of Killers of the Flower Moon and
Bradley Cooper’s habit of taking his mother to awards shows.
After paying tribute to the writers and actors
on strike in the last year, he then brought out teamsters and below-the-line
members on stage. “In your upcoming negotiations, we will stand with you,” he
said. Discussions are currently underway between union IATSE and AMPTP, the
alliance representing studios, with threats of a possible strike looming.
Later in the night, Kimmel read a Truth Social
post from Donald Trump attacking his role as host and asking ABC to replace
him. “Isn’t it past your jail time,” he joked.
The ceremony brought back an old practice
where a group of previous winners present acting Oscars which
allowed for actors such as Lupita Nyong’o, Sam Rockwell, Ben Kingsley and
Jennifer Lawrence to pay tribute to friends and co-workers.
Before the annual
in memoriam segment,
featuring stars such as Tom Wilkinson, Tina Turner, Matthew Perry and Glenda
Jackson, a clip was played of the late Alexei Navalny from Oscar-winning
documentary Navalny. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good people to do nothing,” he said in the clip.
Oppenheimer has become the highest-grossing
best picture winner since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2004. It is
also the first film to win best picture, actor and supporting actor since Ben
Hur in 1960.
Nominated films that ended up empty-handed
included Killers of
the Flower Moon,
Past Lives, Maestro, Nyad and Society of the Snow.
Last year saw Everything Everywhere All at
Once win seven major awards, including best picture.
Read more about the 2024 Oscars:
Here’s our news wrap and full list
of winners –
now read Peter
Bradshaw’s verdict
Al Pacino, British mothers and a codpiece envelope: the
real winners and losers of the night
Relive how the ceremony unfolded with our liveblog and get up to speed with the top viral
moments and
the best
quotes of the night
Have a gander at how the stars looked on the red
carpet and at the show
This article was amended on 11 March
2024 to an incorrect statement that two women of colour won acting awards at
this year’s Oscars.
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY FOUR –
FROM
guk
Oscars 2024 viral
moments: John Cena in the buff, Emma Stone’s eye-roll and Paul Giamatti’s tears
The poignant and the playful punctuated
proceedings at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater
·
Oscars 2024:
full list of winners
·
Full
report: Oppenheimer wins best picture
Mon 11 Mar
2024 00.04 EDT
The Oscars served
drama from the moment the telecast began … which was five minutes late, due to
pro-Palestine protesters blocking roads and delaying some of the biggest stars’
arrivals at the Dolby Theater.
Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the night with a
monologue that included jokes about Robert Downey Jr’s drug use, the disaster
that is Marvel’s Madame Web, and Killers of the Flower Moon’s
three-and-a-half hour runtime. Messi, the seriously impressive canine actor
from Anatomy of a Fall, made a cameo. (Rumors swirled that the pup would not
attend,
but Messi showed up in a dashing bow-tie to prove the haters wrong.)
Not all of Kimmel’s jokes were a hit. A
cutaway camera caught Emma Stone rolling her eyes when the host poked fun at
the nudity in Poor Things.
A poignant moment punctuated the jokes: Kimmel
brought out members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Workers
(IATSE), which refused to cross picket lines during the duelling actors’ and
writers’ strikes of last year.
“We were able to make deals because of the
people who rallied besides us,” Kimmel said, promising that the people in the
room would return the favor when IATSE came to the bargaining table.
The first award of the night, best supporting
actress, went to a glowing Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who thanked both God and her
publicist – the latter prompting Kimmel to quip that she shouldn’t have to pay
a retainer for the rest of the year. Randolph’s emotional speech brought her
The Holdovers co-star Paul Giamatti to tears.
When it came time for a spate of non-celebby
awards such as best production design, best makeup and hairstyling, and best
costume design, Kimmel called in John Cena for a bit that called back the
infamous streaking incident of 1974. Wearing nothing but an awards envelope,
Cena deadpanned that “costumes are so important” before announcing the winner
(Holly Waddington for Poor Things).
Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling paired up to celebrate
the contributions of stunt performers throughout Hollywood history. They also
took it as a chance to play up the supposed rivalry of their dueling summer
blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer. “I’m glad we can put this whole rivalry
behind us,” Blunt said. “Even though, the way this awards season has turned
out, it wasn’t actually much of a rivalry after all.”
Robert Downey Jr won best supporting actor –
and, perhaps, also the line of the night, when he thanked his “terrible
childhood and the Academy, in that order”.
Later, Twins co-stars Danny DeVito and Arnold
Schwarzenegger reunited to present best visual effects, which went to Godzilla
Minus One. The editing team brought Godzilla figurines on stage – because why
not? – and wore matching shoes with heels that looked like the monster’s claws.
Ryan Gosling’s performance of I’m Just Ken
from Barbie was bound to be a crowd-pleaser, and it did not disappoint. Slash
from Guns N’ Roses made an appearance, as did Barbie co-stars Margot Robbie and
Simu Liu. Eagle-eyed viewers said the mis-en-scene reminded them of Marilyn
Monroe’s performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes.
Gosling wore a hot-pink sequined suit, which
Kimmel later tried to auction off to the crowd. Bradley Cooper’s mother, Gloria
Campano, seemed interested. Though the song did not win, another one from
Barbie did: What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish.
When it finally came down to the big four
awards – best actor, actress, director and picture – Kimmel quipped that
dolling out the statues “shouldn’t take too long, but it will”. Oppenheimer
fans delighted in Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan’s wins, with Murphy
dedicating his performance to those that he vaguely called “the peacemakers”.
“We made a film about the man who created the
atomic bomb, and for better or worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,
so I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” Murphy said.
Emma Stone won for best actress – in
a broken
dress –
though her loviest moment of the night may have been the way she
celebrated when
her hair and makeup artist, Nadia Stacey, won. A video showed Stone in the
Dolby lobby literally running away from a conversation to watch Stacey’s speech
on a nearby television. After her speech, Kimmel read a negative review that
Donald Trump left of his hosting duties on Truth Social.
Perhaps more than the actual ceremony, social
media kept its eyes peeled for backstage snaps. Whether it was a Taxi
Driver reunion between
Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst and Jessie Plemmons taking a
cig break with
Justine Triet (the Oscars still have a smoking section?) or Billie Eilish crashing Academy president Janet Yang’s segment,
these off-the-cuff moments reminded me why we watch the Oscars. It’s not for
the endless run time, overdone speeches or comedy bits, but rather than chance
to see stars together in their element.
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY FIVE –
FROM
guk
‘Isn’t it past your jail time?’: Jimmy Kimmel wins cheers at Oscars with Trump
jibe
Oscars host makes comment onstage after
ex-president writes scathing review of Kimmel on his Truth Social platform
·
Oscars
2024: full list of winners
·
Full
report: Oppenheimer wins best picture
Sun 10 Mar
2024 22.53 EDT
Jimmy
Kimmel threw
a jab at Donald Trump while onstage at the Oscars less than an hour after the ex-president
penned a scathing Truth Social post about the talkshow host.
On Sunday, just ahead of the last award of the
night – best
picture –
getting doled out to Oppenheimer, Kimmel addressed the crowd at the 96th
Academy Awards to a review he had received about his performance as host of the
ceremony.
“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy
Kimmel at
The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard
to be something which he is not, and never can be,” Kimmel read aloud from his
phone.
“Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him
with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos. He would
make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous… blah, blah,
blah. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Kimmel then quipped: “See if you can guess
which former president just posted that on Truth Social.”
Per Trump’s Truth Social page, nearly all of what Kimmel read aloud had
been posted verbatim to Trump’s page at 9.39pm ET.
Kimmel then thanked Trump for watching before
asking: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”
The crowd loudly hollered in response to the
comment, which was a clear reference to the four
criminal cases Trump
has been charged in.
Oscars 2024: John Cena in the buff, Emma
Stone’s dress and Ryan Gosling as Ken – video highlights
He currently faces four felony counts for his
attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington DC, 13 felony counts for
his election interference in Georgia, 34 felony counts in connection with
hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in New York, and 40
felony counts for hoarding classified documents in the wake of his presidency
and interfering with the government’s efforts to retrieve them in Florida.
Read more about the 2024 Oscars:
Here’s our news wrap and full list
of winners –
now read Peter
Bradshaw’s verdict
Al Pacino, British mothers and a codpiece envelope: the
real winners and losers of the night
Relive how the ceremony unfolded with our liveblog and get up to speed with the top viral
moments and
the best
quotes of the night
Have a gander at how the stars looked on the red
carpet and at the
show
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ATTACHMENT SEVENTY SIX –
FROM
time
The Best, Worst, and Most Memorable
Moments of the 2024 Oscars
UPDATED: MARCH 10, 2024 10:52 PM EDT |
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH 10, 2024 9:03 PM EDT
Beginning
an hour earlier than usual, at 7 p.m. ET, the 96th Academy Awards kicked off
with an opening
monologue from
four-time host Jimmy Kimmel that set the tone for the evening ahead:
celebratory, politely humorous, and glam as usual. The show took off from
there, with The Holdovers' Da'Vine
Joy Randolph securing the first win of the night for Best Supporting Actress.
With 13
nominations, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer went into the
night with the potential to break the record of 11 wins by a single film held
by 1959's Ben Hur, 1997's Titanic, and 2003's The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. But after losing out on Best
Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay (which went to American
Fiction) early on, its chances of even tying the record dropped
significantly. It still ended the night with an impressive seven awards,
including the last prize of the night, Best Picture.
The night
was filled with feel-good moments, from an appearance by Anatomy of a
Fall's canine star Messi to Randolph's emotional acceptance speech
(accompanied by a cutaway to her co-star Paul
Giamatti weeping with joy). There
was also a completely
nude John Cena and
a Kentastic Ryan Gosling performance.
Here were
the best and worst moments of the 2024 Oscars.
Most Acceptable Opening Monologue
After acknowledging
that the show was already running five minutes behind, Kimmel wasted no time
diving into his lineup of prepared jokes. He began by calling out the
controversy surrounding Greta Gerwig's perceived Best Director snub.
"Thanks to Greta Gerwig, who many believe deserved to be nominated for
Best Director tonight," he said as many in the room applauded. "Hold
on a second. I know you’re clapping, but you’re the ones who didn’t vote for
her, by the way."
He then
launched into roasting a number of the night's biggest attendees, including
Robert Downey Jr., Bradley Cooper, and Christopher Nolan. On X, the general
buzz surrounding Kimmel's monologue was that it was somewhat "annoying."
But he
struck a chord by praising the IATSE members who refused to cross the picket
lines during last year's SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. "We were able to make
the deals because of the people who rallied beside us," he said.
Most Heartfelt Speech
After being
introduced by Lupita Nyong’o, an emotional Da’Vine Joy Randolph took the stage
to claim the first trophy of the night for Best Supporting Actress for her
powerful breakout performance in The Holdovers. The win marked
Randolph’s first Oscar, and prompted a teary speech about how far she had come
and how hard she had worked to get there.
Randolph
gave particular thanks to one of her drama teachers, Ron Van Lue. "When I
was the only Black girl in that class. When you saw me and you told me I was
enough, and when I told you, ‘I don’t see myself.’ You said, ‘That’s fine.
We’re going to forge our own path. You are going to lay a trail for yourself,’”
she said.
Best Music Supervision for an Award
When Anatomy
of a Fall secured an early win for Best Original Screenplay, director
and co-writer Justine Triet's walk to the stage to accept the award was
accompanied by Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's now-infamous cover of 50
Cent's P.I.M.P, which plays a major role in the movie. Talk about a
needle drop.
Best Tradition Revived
For the
first time since 2009, five past acting winners presented the award in their
respective categories for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best
Actress, and Best Actor. The revival brought luminaries like Jamie Lee Curtis,
Lupita N'yongo, Christoph Waltz, and Mahershala Ali to the stage, and added a
sentimental and personal touch to the night's proceedings.
Most Passionate Plea
While
accepting the Oscar for Best International Film, Zone of Interest filmmaker
Jonathan Glazer drew connections between his movie—which centers on the family
of a German commandant living in luxury right next door to the atrocities he's
overseeing at the Auschwitz concentration camp—to Israel’s ongoing bombardment
of Gaza.
"Our
film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst," he said. "Right
now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being
hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent
people."
Read
more: The
Zone of Interest Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer Said What No One Else
Dared to Say
Other Most Passionate Plea
Stating
that he might be the first person on the Oscars stage to ever say, “I wish I’d
never made this film,” 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav
Chernov gave an impassioned speech about the war in Ukraine.
“I wish I
could exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our
cities,” he said while accepting the award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
“I cannot change history. I cannot change the past. But all together—among you,
some of the most talented people in the world—we can make sure the record is
set straight, and the truth will prevail…Cinema forms memories, and memories
form history.”
Most Kenergy
Ryan
Gosling delivered a much anticipated performance of “I’m Just Ken” that saw the actor, adorned a
glittering pink suit, belting out his hit song from Barbie alongside
the song's co-writer Mark Ronson, with his fellow Ken co-stars dancing around
him. Gosling didn’t hold back—and the high-energy act brought the house down.
Most Genuinely Shocked Winner
After
hearing Michelle Yeoh announce her name as the winner of the Oscar for Best
Actress, Emma Stone appeared to be totally stunned. The Poor
Things star took to the stage to accept the award for her acclaimed
leading role as Bella Baxter, and seemed to be a bit flustered as she delivered
a speech in which she credited all her fellow nominees.
Read
more: Emma
Stone’s Best Actress Oscar Win Brings Mixed Feelings About Lily Gladstone’s
Loss
Stone’s win
may have come as a surprise to some, as Lily Gladstone had emerged as a
favorite in the category for her performance in Killers of the Flower
Moon. Gladstone also would have been the first
Native American actress to
win the award.
Most Bizarre Award Presentation
While
presenting the final award of the night, the legendary Al Pacino gave a brief,
somewhat chaotic spiel about the category of Best Picture before declaring the
winner with little to no preamble. Although clips from the nominated films had
played throughout the night, Pacino declined to remind viewers about which 10
movies were in contention.
“Best
Picture…uh, I have to go to the envelope for that, “ he said while unsealing
the card. “And I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see Oppenheimer?”
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY SEVEN –
FROM
time
Stars Wear Red Pins to the Oscars to
Call for Ceasefire in Gaza
MARCH 10, 2024 11:02 PM EDT
The red
carpet wasn't the only eye-catching red item at the 96th Academy Awards on
Sunday night.
Several
stars including Grammy winner Billie Eilish and Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo wore
red pins representing Artists4Ceasefire, five months into the Israel-Hamas war. More than 30,000
people have been killed since the war in Gaza began in October.
The pins
feature an orange hand with a black heart inside, surrounded by a red circle.
“The pin
symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the
release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid
to civilians in Gaza," the group said in a press release.
And other symbols
representing the same cause have been spotted on red carpets throughout awards
season. At the 2024 Golden Globes, J. Smith-Cameron from the show Succession wore
a yellow ribbon to support the release of the 136 hostages taken by Hamas Oct.
7, 2023. About 30 are presumed to be dead, according
to a
recent Israel intelligence assessment reviewed by the New York Times.
RAMADAN
See Attachment “F” for Qs and As
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY EIGHT – FROM AXIOS
HOSTAGE TALKS INTENSIFY AS
FEARS RISE OF VIOLENCE DURING RAMADAN
By Barak Ravid
U.S., Egyptian and Qatari
mediators are intensifying their efforts to reach a hostage deal and temporary ceasefire
between Israel and Hamas amid growing concerns of a violent escalation in the
occupied West Bank and Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan, three U.S.
and Israeli officials told Axios.
Why it matters: The raging
war and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza add to a backdrop of violent
confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinians in recent years during
Ramadan, which is expected to begin Monday.
• Tensions center around the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a
holy site for Muslims and Jews that is administered by Jordan but access to it
is controlled by Israeli security forces.
Driving the news: CIA
director Bill Burns secretly met Israeli Mossad director David Barnea in Jordan
on Friday to discuss efforts to reach a hostage deal in Gaza, an Israeli source
told Axios.
• "Hamas is striving to set fire to the area during
Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip,"
the Israeli Mossad said in a rare statement that confirmed the meeting between
Burns and Barnea.
• "Hamas is refusing to make concessions and signals it is
not interested in the deal," the statement said.
The other side: The
spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Ubaida, called on Friday for the month
of Ramadan to be an escalation of the "flood of Al-Aqsa," the name
Hamas gave the October 7 attack on Israel.
• He called for "confrontation and demonstration, on all
fronts inside and outside Palestine" and for Palestinians to
"mobilize towards al-Aqsa mosque," during Ramadan.
• The spokesman also said the group is engaging constructively
with mediators about the hostage deal and stressed Hamas demands an end to the
war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Behind the scenes: Burns
updated Barnea in their meeting about the talks he had in Egypt and Qatar
earlier this week, an Israeli official said.
• Burns arrived in Egypt on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian
intelligence chief Abbas Kamel on the hostage deal and then traveled to Doha on
Thursday for similar talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman al-Thani, a U.S. official said.
Catch up quick: The
hostage deal being negotiated could lead to a six-week ceasefire in Gaza and
include the release of about 40 Israeli hostages in return for about 400
Palestinian prisoners, including several dozen who killed Israelis.
• The return of Palestinian civilians to northern Gaza is a top
priority for Hamas in the negotiations and one of the main sticking points in
the talks, according to sources with direct knowledge.
The big picture: The
hostage deal is the most important pillar in the U.S. strategy around the war
in Gaza and in the broader region, and the Biden administration says it is
making huge efforts to not let it slip away.
• U.S. ambassador to Israel Jack Lew stressed during a conference
at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Thursday that if
a hostage deal is not reached, it won't be possible to realize the broader U.S.
strategy, including a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
• "A pause in the fighting will increase the likelihood of
a calm in the north and increase the likelihood of normalization with Saudi
Arabia. At every level the hostage crisis has to be brought to
conclusion," the U.S. ambassador said.
• Lew added the Biden administration is doing everything it can
"to keep the conversation going" around the hostage deal and stressed
the talks haven't broken down.
• "Can I guarantee success? No. While the goal of getting
a deal by Ramadan is very important — getting it done is what we have to focus
on," he said.
State of play: A U.S.
official told Axios the Biden administration continues its efforts to bring
about a breakthrough in the negotiations, but said the U.S. does not set a
deadline for talks.
• White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told the
families of the American hostages held by Hamas during a meeting at the White
House on Wednesday that the U.S. intends to continue pushing for a deal even
after the beginning of the month of Ramadan, per three sources familiar.
• The Qatari prime minister told U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken when they met in Washington earlier this week that Qatar will continue
to push for a deal during Ramadan.
What they're saying:
President Biden told reporters on Friday that it is going to be tough to get a
deal by Ramadan and stressed he is concerned about violence erupting in
Jerusalem without a ceasefire during the holy month.
• "Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called publicly for
violence in Ramadan — we know that this may be something they will want to do.
This hostage deal is the way to reach a ceasefire. We know that extremists may
use Ramadan to try and set the area on fire," a U.S. official told
reporters on Thursday.
What to watch: The Israeli
government ordered police to allow the same worship conditions at the al-Aqsa
Mosque as in previous years and to limit the number of worshipers only on the
basis of public safety considerations to avoid a stampede.
• But U.S. officials told Axios the administration is concerned
that because the Israeli police are under the authority of the ultranationalist
minister Itamar Ben Gvir provocative steps could be taken on the ground under
his orders. Ben Gvir advocated last month to largely ban worshippers from the
mosque during Ramadan.
• Lew has been in constant talks in recent days with senior
Israeli officials and conveyed the administration's concerns about the prayers
at the mosque during Ramadan, a U.S. official said.
ATTACHMENT SEVENTY NINE – FROM WASHPOST
AT JERUSALEM’S AL-AQSA
MOSQUE, RAMADAN BRINGS UNCERTAINTY AND FEAR
By Steve Hendrix Sufian
Taha March 9, 2024 at 5:24 a.m. EST
JERUSALEM — Just days before the start of Ramadan — the busiest and often
most volatile month in Jerusalem’s Old City — the offices of al-Aqsa Mosque were
bustling with preparations and uncertainty.
Even in quieter years, al-Aqsa is a Ramadan tinderbox. Hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians come to worship at this mosque that has sat for more
than a millennium on a site that both Muslims and Jews claim as sacred ground.
It’s administered by Jordan, but access is controlled by Israeli security.
Jews revere the site they call the Temple Mount as the location of the
first and second temples and worship at the Western Wall, a remnant of the
ancient complex. Muslims know it as the Noble Sanctuary, where the prophet
Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven.
It’s the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam. The
competing claims are one of the most challenging elements of the decades-long
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Clashes here have been a repeated flash point for war. In 2021, fighting
between police and Palestinians during Ramadan sparked a two-week
escalation with Hamas 50 miles away in Gaza. An Israeli police raid last
spring to clear protesters who had locked themselves inside ignited a second round of
fighting.
Hamas regularly cites protecting al-Aqsa as a justification for its
attacks, including the Oct. 7 raid on Israeli towns, where
fighters killed around 1,200 people, Israeli authorities say, and kidnapped 253
others. The militants called it Operation al-Aqsa Flood.
Now, in the wake of those attacks, an even more devastating Gaza war rages. The Israeli campaign
against Hamas has killed more than 30,000 Gazans, health officials there say,
and with Ramadan only days away, tensions around al-Aqsa are soaring.
Hard-liners in the Israeli government have pushed to limit the number, age and
gender of Palestinians allowed on the plateau, prompting warnings from both
sides that restrictions could lead to violence.
This past week, the dozens of workers who were racing to prepare the
mosque still had no idea what to expect.
In a crowded office overlooking the compound, Azzam al-Khatib, the head
of the Jordanian-appointed Islamic organization that manages al-Aqsa, read the
latest rumors aloud from his phone.
“Now I’m seeing that only 10,000 to 15,000 will be allowed for the whole
month,” he said.
If that report proves true, it would be fraction of the normal Ramadan
crowd, which last year totaled about 1.4 million. On one peak Friday, the
compound hosted more than 300,000 worshipers.
The rumors surprised surrounding staffers. Those limits would contradict
public assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that Israel
had decided not to significantly curtail access to the mosque.
Part of the problem, staffers said, is that Israeli officials don’t talk
to them directly, leaving them at the mercy of contradictory media reports.
“There is no communication between them and us,” said Mohammed al-Sharif.
“We still do not know what is going to happen.”
Islam’s holiest month begins with the sighting of the first crescent
after the new moon. This year, that’s expected to come on Sunday or Monday
evening. For now, the staff that runs al-Aqsa from this maze of arched stone
offices is preparing for normal crowds. That means setting up a dozen medical
tents on the plaza and organizing iftar dinners after sunset to celebrate the
end of the daily fast for tens of thousands of worshipers.
More than 300 volunteers, many of them Palestinian boy scouts, are set to
direct men toward al-Aqsa and women toward the gold-leafed Dome of the Rock,
day after day. Ambulances will be stationed near the Old City gates to respond
to routine emergencies or violence.
Israel is prepping for the worst. Police officials said they will keep
about 1,000 officers deployed around the Old City on weekdays and 2,500 or more
on Fridays, the Muslim holy day of Jumu’ah. The heavy presence was already
evident outside of the Old City’s Damascus Gate, where police often clash with
younger Palestinians on Ramadan evenings.
The lead-up to this wartime Ramadan has exposed divisions in Israel’s
government and security establishment. The most conservative members of the
government want to cut off access to al-Aqsa for most Palestinians as long
as more than 100
Israelis continue to be held hostage in Gaza.
Itamar Ben Gvir, the firebrand national
security minister who controls Israeli police, pushed plans to largely ban worshipers
from the site, citing security risks and the hostages, Israeli media reported
last month. Elderly Palestinians would be allowed, according to the reports,
but younger residents of the West Bank and Israel would be barred.
“It can’t be that women and children are hostages in Gaza and we allow
Hamas victory celebrations on the Temple Mount,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.
Long-standing agreements with Jordan allow visits to the plaza but
prohibit anyone except Muslims from worshiping. Jews pray at the Western Wall.
But in recent years, extremist Jewish groups have increasingly sent activists
to the al-Aqsa compound to pray, sometimes openly, which Palestinians view as a
provocation.
Ben Gvir, who began his career in the radical settler movement that seeks
more control over the Temple Mount, has made at least three visits to the plaza
since taking charge of the police. Some Israeli officials have accused him of
“reckless” rhetoric that could further inflame Palestinians and the wider Arab
world at a dangerous time.
“The army and the intelligence professionals are telling everyone that it
does not do us any good to pour fuel on the fire right now,” said a former
military official familiar with discussions inside the cabinet. “The fire is
burning very hot as it is.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
the sensitive issue.
Netanyahu declined for several weeks to take a stand on Ben Gvir’s
proposals. But on Tuesday, following a security cabinet meeting in which
security leaders reportedly advised caution, the prime minister’s office
announced that Israel will not impose any restrictions at the start of Ramadan
but will evaluate conditions on a weekly basis.
“Ramadan is holy for Muslims, and the sanctity of the holiday will be
preserved this year, as it is every year,” his office said in a statement.
Khatib, the mosque director, said his team will be ready to adjust as the
month progresses.
“Inshallah, it will remain peaceful and Muslims from anywhere will be
allowed to come worship,” he said, using the Arabic phrase for “God willing.”
Whatever happens, this Ramadan promises to be a somber one here.
Normally, the area around the al-Aqsa plaza would be strung with lights and the
narrow lanes would be crowded with families buying clothes for the month and
food for the nightly iftar banquets.
But on Friday, the Old City remained quiet and undecorated, the mood
dampened by the ongoing tragedy in Gaza.
Ammar Sidr, 47, works with one of the youth groups that normally festoons
the entrance to al-Aqsa with 60 Ramadan lamps and thousands of yards of
electric lights.
“This year we did nothing,” he said. “Ramadan this year is sad.”
Israel-Gaza war
Israel-Gaza war: Amid dimming hopes that an Israel-Hamas cease-fire and
hostage-release deal will be reached before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Biden has ordered the
U.S. military to construct a temporary port and
pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to open a new route for providing humanitarian aid.
Middle East conflict: Tensions in the region continue to rise. As
Israeli troops aim to take control of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, officials in Cairo
warn that the move would undermine the 1979 peace treaty. Meanwhile, there’s a
diplomatic scramble to avert full-scale war between
Israel and Lebanon.
U.S. involvement: U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed dozens of Iranian-linked
militants, according to Iraqi officials. The strikes were the first round of
retaliatory action by the Biden administration for an attack in Jordan that killed three
U.S. service members.
POST PEANUT GALLERY
Bluejays4me
30 minutes ago
From what I have read, Mohammad never visited Jerusalem. He dreamed that he
arrived there on a white horse and accended to heaven. Please correct me if I
am wrong.
TheophaniaPrimavolta
58 minutes ago
This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.
Tuzzzzz
3 hours ago
"Israel is prepping for the worst".
Actually, Israel is prepping to harass and oppress Palestinians during
the Holy month of Ramadan, as they do every year. What craven
journalism yet again from WaPo. Disgraceful Western media.
Tuzzzzz
3 hours ago
Who is this deplorable Zionist Hendrix, speaking for the Palestinian
people. WaPo is a disgrace.
kdburg
4 hours ago
Excellent report. We have been forewarned. Absent a cease-fire in Gaza,
we can probably expect that al-Aqsa will again become a flashpoint igniting
large scale violence throughout the other occupied territories. Firing Ben Gvir
and deploying the IDF to keep settler-provocateurs away would help. Might be a
sign that Biden's tone-it-down pleas are serious and are getting through.
Something to watch for.
David22
4 hours ago
Here’s a good example why the Palestinians are mad.
Equal rights for all people, to get rid of apartheid from the Zionists.
dc_hiker
3 hours ago
The Gazans were controlled by their own people since 2005. Is their life
got better?
Araucaria
3 hours ago
Oh? Do Gazans control their borders with Israel and Egypt? Do Gazans
control their coastline. Do Gazans control their airspace? Did Gazans destroy
their airport - opened by President Bill Clinton?
If the answer is no then Gazans were never in control.
dc_hiker
3 hours ago
If Gazans would really want to develop themselves, elevate their quality
of life and live peacefully along Israel - they would be in a much better place
right now!
Instead they invested in Jihad war, making weapons, missiles and fighting
tunnels!
JohnB ChevyChase
3 hours ago
(Edited)
Like the old South African Bantustans
Israeli apartheid
BeanBot
1 hour ago
the palestinians are not israeli citizens and do not have the same rights
as israeli citizens.
Diotema 1
5 hours ago
The history of "Israel" and its incapacity to respect what is
sacred for others should cause fear.
The willingness of "Israel" to announce a siege - a war crime-
back in October that now brings bodies of children dead from starvation and
dehydration, should cause fear.
The fanaticism of settlers and Likudniks should cause fear.
And the Unknowable G-d of the Cosmos should give hope and trust that even
the unimaginable - the abomination of deliberate starvation of children -
cannot overcome Love.
pdWidow
4 hours ago
Islam is imperial by its very nature.
an intolerant, extremist religion.
MONA46
4 hours ago
(Edited)
Anti-Semitism is bad. Islamophobia is cool? BTW how tolerant are the
violent terrorist settlers and their "extremist" views?
MyKingdomForAHorse
4 hours ago
Right now, someone is starving children to death in northern gaza and
that someone is not muslim.
dc_hiker
4 hours ago
(Edited)
It is knew for me that Hamas, the governor of Gaza, is NOT Muslim.
If Hamas has any feeling towards the people it has the responsibility of,
the Gazans, it should release ALL the live hostages alive and the dead bodies
it has abducted and surrender!
dc_hiker
3 hours ago
It is new for me that Hamas, the governor of Gaza, is NOT Muslim.
If Hamas has any feeling towards the people it has the responsibility of,
the Gazans, it should release ALL the live hostages alive and the dead bodies
it has abducted and surrender!
dc_hiker
3 hours ago
(Edited)
It is new for me that Hamas, the governor of Gaza, is NOT Muslim.
If Hamas has any feeling towards the people it has the responsibility of,
the Gazans, it should release ALL the live hostages alive and the dead bodies
it has abducted and surrender!
MyKingdomForAHorse
3 hours ago
There is no Hamas anymore in norther gaza. Israel announced it has
defeated the last battalion there in January.
And yet it is there, in a part of Gaza which is 100% under Israel's
control, that children are being starved to death. How is Hamas responsible for
that precisely ?
nightsky2022
5 hours ago
Free the hostages.
Diotema 1
5 hours ago
Sure, sure, sure.
MONA46
4 hours ago
The starving children aren't holding them.
A Dimick
2 hours ago
How about free the hostages AND feed the starving?
Papa_Zed
5 hours ago
(Edited)
Once again Israel will stir up violence and then will play the victim.
Look at these savages throwing rocks at IDF soldiers because they were
arresting military age (4 - 90) men praying. Of course we had to shoot all the
women and children.
pdWidow
4 hours ago
sure, that's what's happening
tic toc, almost March 10
going to be digging for Hamas soon
dc_hiker
3 hours ago
Oh, now is Israel who is stirring violence, but not the terrorists who throw
stones and rocks from the mosque.
yodawg
5 hours ago
Another month of extreme fasting. Thank goodness hundreds of millions of
Muslims ignore Ramadan or modify it, just as those in other religions ignore or
modify unhealthy practices.
JohnR-Montana
6 hours ago
Will the IDF send in a helicopter gunship and show those “Arabs” whose
boss?
MBpost
7 hours ago
When Omar the second khalif gained control of Jerusalem in the 7th
century he declined to pray at the church of the holy sepulchre when invited to,
lest it becomes a mosque. He instead prayed at a nearby hill that eventually
turned into a mosque. Today the keys of the church are still with a Muslim
family and throughout the Muslim centuries the church remained protected.
ATTACHMENT EIGHTY – FROM the TIMES OF ISRAEL
BIDEN
WORRIED ABOUT POTENTIAL EAST JERUSALEM VIOLENCE IF NO GAZA DEAL BEFORE RAMADAN
US president says prospects of temporary truce before this week’s start of
Muslim holy month ‘looking tough,’ though Blinken insists ball is in Hamas’s
court
By TOI STAFF, AGENCIES and JACOB MAGID
FOLLOW
Today, 2:04 pm
US President Joe
Biden told reporters on Friday he was concerned about violence breaking out in East
Jerusalem if a temporary ceasefire agreement in the Gaza war is not agreed upon
by the start of Ramadan.
Asked by reporters
outside a campaign event if he was worried about violence in East Jerusalem
without such a deal, he said, “I sure am.”
This year’s Ramadan,
set to begin on Sunday, comes amid tinderbox tensions stemming from the ongoing
war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the group’s shock October 7
attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing
some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, mostly civilians.
Preparations for the
holy month have made headlines in Israel and abroad.
Israeli officials
were split in recent weeks on security arrangements for access to
the Temple Mount, where hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers are expected
to attend prayers, but the government ultimately decided not to impose sweeping
restrictions on worshipers. The US, Egypt and Qatar have been pushing to close a hostage release deal before the
holy month begins, but Hamas has conditioned it on Israel pledging to
permanently end its campaign to destroy the terror group, a demand Israel
dismissed as “delusional.”
Biden told reporters
on Friday that the prospects of coming to an agreement before Ramadan were
“looking tough,” though US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated Washington’s
assertion that an Israeli-approved proposal remains on the table, and it is now
up to Hamas to accept it.
“The issue is Hamas.
The issue is whether Hamas will decide or not to have a ceasefire that would
benefit everyone,” Blinken said. “The ball is in their court. We’re working
intensely on it, and we’ll see what they do.”
The apparent outline
of a six-week truce deal, thus far rejected by Hamas, would see 40 children,
women, elderly and sick hostages released in a first phase, in exchange for
some 400 Palestinian security prisoners, with the possibility of further releases
to be negotiated.
Israel has said any
ceasefire must be temporary and that its goal remains the destruction of Hamas
and the return of all hostages. The terror group says it will release the
hostages it has been holding since October 7 only as part of a deal that ends
the war.
It is believed that
130 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them
alive.
Officials have
expressed worries that Ramadan could amplify tensions stemming from the war in
Gaza, which has ignited worldwide Muslim anger toward Israel. Iran or Saudi?
Israel will not
reduce the number of worshipers allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in the
first week of Ramadan from the levels in previous years, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Tuesday amid serious concerns over
efforts by Hamas and its backer Iran to stir up violence at the flashpoint site
and in Jerusalem in general during the Muslim holy month.
The premier’s office
said that a “situational assessment around security and safety” will be made
every week and that “a decision will be made accordingly.”
“Ramadan is holy for
Muslims, and the sanctity of the holiday will be preserved this year, as it is
every year,” Netanyahu’s office pledged, effectively dismissing restrictions sought
by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, including on Arab
Israelis’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound atop the mount.
The Temple Mount is
the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood. It is
known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Holy Sanctuary, and is the
third-holiest site in Islam, making the area a central flashpoint of the
Israeli-Arab conflict.
Hundreds of
thousands of Muslims crowd the site for prayers each Ramadan. While Israel has
imposed restrictions on Palestinian access during times of heightened security
tensions, it has refrained from imposing those rules on the country’s Muslim
minority.
Last week, Hamas
chief Ismail Haniyeh urged supporters to mobilize toward the Al-Aqsa
Mosque, a flashpoint for violence during Ramadan in past years.
ATTACHMENT EIGHTY ONE – FROM AL JAZEERA
GAZA CEASEFIRE TALKS FAIL TO
MAKE BREAKTHROUGH WITH RAMADAN APPROACHING
Three days of negotiations end at an impasse, as
Hamas and Israel insist the other give in to their demands.
Published On 5 Mar 20245 Mar 2024
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Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza have
failed to achieve a breakthrough, less than a week before the start of the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan – the informal deadline for a deal.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an
agreement in which Hamas would release Israeli captives in return for a
six-week ceasefire, the release of some Palestinian
prisoners and more aid to Gaza.
The Israelis who want a ceasefire in their country’s
war on Gaza
Is Gantz really a danger to Netanyahu’s power in
Israel?
‘Uncommitted’: US voters protest Biden’s policy on
Gaza
Photos: Israeli air raid hit mosque in Gaza and
sheltering families nearby
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said on Tuesday that the latest round of talks
in Cairo, Egypt, has “ended with a standstill” and that it was unclear what
would happen next.
“The Israelis say they are waiting for Hamas’s response, while Hamas says
they are awaiting for Israel’s response,” she said, reporting from occupied
East Jerusalem
“Mediators in the middle are trying to bridge these gaps trying to find a
solution between both sides, but it seems that there are sticking points that
just can’t seem to be resolved.” 39 seconds06:39
Hamas has refused to release all of the estimated 100 hostages it holds,
and the remains of about 30 more, unless Israel ends its offensive, withdraws
from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including
fighters serving life sentences.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday that his group wants a
permanent ceasefire, rather than a six-week pause, and a “complete withdrawal”
of
“The security and safety of our people will be achieved only by a
permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression and the withdrawal from every
inch of the Gaza Strip,” Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected those
demands and repeatedly pledged to continue the war until Hamas is dismantled
and all the captives are returned. Israel did not send a delegation to the
latest round of talks.
Meanwhile, Israel wants Hamas to hand over a list of captives who are
alive, as well as the captive-to-prisoner ratio it seeks in any release deal.
Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told the AFP news agency on Monday that
the group did not know “who among [the captives] are alive or dead, killed
because of strikes or hunger”, and that the captives were being held by
numerous groups in multiple places.
“So there are two completely different perspectives and two different
sticking points here on what the other side is not willing to compromise on,”
Salhut said.
At US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue talks on Tuesday, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept the ceasefire plan.
“It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage
in that ceasefire,” the top US diplomat said as he met Qatari Prime Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Washington, DC, in the US.
“Qatar, the United States and our partners will be always persistent to
make sure that this deal happens,” said Al Thani, standing next to Blinken.
With the latest round of discussions having come to an end, Hamas has
presented a proposal that mediators will discuss with Israel in the coming
days, two Egyptian officials said, according to The Associated Press news
agency.
At least 1,139 people were killed and about 250 captives were taken in
Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7. More than 100 captives were
released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 30,000
people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The nearly five months of fighting have left much of Gaza in ruins and
created a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with many, especially in the
devastated northern region, scrambling for food to survive.
ATTACHMENT EIGHTY TWO – FROM THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
RAMADAN AN OPPORTUNITY FOR HAMAS TO
IGNITE SECOND OCTOBER 7 IN WEST BANK
The Israeli defence establishment and police are preparing for a range of
security scenarios
BY JC REPORTER MARCH 08, 2024
09:42
Palestinian students supporting the Islamic Hamas movement wave the
movement's flag as they celebrate a victory in student elections at Birzeit
University on the outskirts of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on May 19,
2022. - Hamas's Al Wafaa Islamic bloc won 28 of the 51 seats on the student
council at Birzeit University, marking the first time Islamist-aligned
candidates have gained control of the body.
(JNS) The Israeli defence establishment and police
are preparing for a range of security scenarios during the traditionally tense
Ramadan month, which begins on the evening of March 10, give or take a day, as
the war against Hamas in Gaza rages on.
So far, Hamas has failed to ignite the West Bank
with violence, and it views Ramadan as a new opportunity to do that – both
in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.
It will likely try to stress religious
fundamentalist themes to call on Palestinian masses to take part in violent
actions, and rally under the banner of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” (the name Hamas
gave its October 7 attack).
Hamas hopes to get hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians on the streets to take part in rioting.
The Israel Defence Forces is well aware of this
intention and is preparing accordingly, with stepped-up numbers of battalions
operating in the West Bank.
In the West Bank, the Israel Security Agency (Shin
Bet), the IDF and Border Police have been busy conducting large numbers of
security raids to disrupt terror cells before they mature into deadly attacks.
For example, on Tuesday, security forces apprehended
a high-ranking terrorist in Balata near Nablus, following intelligence that he
was planning an imminent attack with fellow suspects, the IDF said.
On the same day, a terrorist stabbed an Israeli at
the Yitzhar Junction, before being shot dead by soldiers on the scene.
The IDF Central Command, which has jurisdiction over
the West Bank, has been busy with a severe wave of terror attacks that long
preceded October 7.
The wave of terrorism stretches back to March 2022
and includes a spate of attacks within the West Bank and Israel.
A defence source told JNS in recent days that
security forces in the West Bank are in the midst of an intense effort to
combat terrorism, including raids and arrests.
The long-lasting wave of terror, the source said, is
being fuelled by the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, with some areas in
West Bank being no-go zones for its security forces, such as Jenin and the
Balata camp.
The defence source also pointed to a new, young
Palestinian generation, who feel alienated from “everything,” he said
– both Israel and the PA.
According to the source, this is a generation that
did not experience 2002's "Operation Defensive Shield," carried out
by the IDF in the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide
bombings that claimed hundreds of lives. It is a generation that has not seen
tanks in the streets of Palestinian cities in West Bank or large-scale
destruction of homes.
Meanwhile, a surge of weapons has flooded the West
Bank, entering mostly from the Jordanian border, but also some stolen from IDF
bases, and some produced in local Palestinian workshops.
On top of this combustible mix, terrorist
organisations remain highly motivated to conduct attacks. Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad are attempting to orchestrate terrorism from abroad, though this
effort has been significantly hampered by the IDF’s operations in Gaza, the
source stated.
Iran is investing money to get weapons into the
hands of terrorists as well and tries to help direct and carry out attacks,
alongside Hamas and Islamic Jihad. According to the defence source, in the past
six months, weapons that originated from the radical Shi’ite axis have been
seized in Judea and Samaria.
If this were not enough, the source described
large-scale incitement to violence underway amoung the Palestinian public,
fuelled further by scenes from Gaza, and tensions that date back to before the
current war. These influences can produce "lone wolf" terrorists who
attack with knives or other weapons, while the threat of organised cells exists
as well.
The IDF describes organised cells as part of “terrorist
infrastructure" and is engaged in nightly raids to thwart it, whether in
Hebron, Bethlehem or anywhere else in Judea and Samaria. The cells usually
receive instructions, weapons and money from outside of West Bank.
Since October 2023, the IDF and Shin Bet have
thwarted around 250 terror cells in West Bank.
A third kind of threat also exists – armed
groups of localised terrorists, who receive assistance from established terror
factions, and from Iran, but who operate on their own. These usually spring up
where the PA is especially weak, the source said, turning camps into
terrorist hornet’s nests.
They build observation command rooms and plant
explosives under roads, which the IDF routinely neutralises during security raids.
These areas are filled to the brim with weapons and explosives. In such places,
a hierarchy often emerges, with a commander taking charge and building greater
capabilities. Such groups are responsible for many attacks, the source said.
The Lions' Den group in Nablus is a well-known
example of this kind of threat. In Jenin, the group there calls itself The
Camp’s Sons, or the Jenin Brigade.
In effect, the war in Gaza has significantly enabled
the IDF to step up its security raids, since the Central Command no longer has
to alert the Southern Command, which is responsible for Gaza, about potential
terrorist casualties in raids – casualties that, before the war, could have
sparked a subsequent rocket escalation from Gaza.
This means that the IDF in the West Bank conducts
more raids, more robustly, particularly in the camps against organised armed
groups.
ATTACHMENT EIGHTY THREE – FROM THE JERUSALEM POST
PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD
CALLS FOR RAMADAN TO BE 'MONTH OF TERROR’ - ANALYSIS
The PIJ comments are also linked to
those made by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who has called for escalation during
Ramadan.
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN MARCH 3, 2024 10:28Updated: MARCH 3, 2024
18:48
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is calling for Ramadan to be a “month of terror”
and seeks to escalate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza. In a recent speech,
Abu Hamza, the spokesman for PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades, said he wants Arab
countries in the region and pro-Iranian groups to continue to “unify” various
arenas and fronts against Israel.
This is the latest indication that terrorist groups plan to seek an escalation in hostilities over the next month. Hamza’s remarks were published
by Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel, which is pro-Iranian and frequently
highlights Hamas and Hezbollah attacks.
This comes amid some hope for a hostage, prisoner, and ceasefire deal
between Israel and Hamas. The US is pushing for such a deal. But Hamas has
continued to make it difficult by refusing to hand over a list of names of the
living hostages.
The surprising reason I'm a settler
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a proxy of Iran. It has armed men in Gaza
and the West Bank, and its leaders often reside in Damascus, where they
sometimes leave to meet with their Iranian handlers in Tehran or to coordinate
with Hamas and Hezbollah.
'Unity of the battlefields'
The terminology used by PIJ ahead of Ramadan is part of the terminology
Iran has used over the years to describe its strategy against Israel. This
includes references to “unity of the battlefields,” which is a term for “unity
of the arenas” or “unity of the fronts.”
These arenas include Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and
Yemen. Iran has sought to surround Israel with threats that now exist along an
arc of 5,000 miles, from Lebanon via Syria and Iraq to the Red Sea and then
back to Gaza.
There are at least seven different “fronts,” according to Iran. Israeli
officials have also mentioned these fronts. Iran wants to “unify” them. This
means using the Hamas massacre on October 7 to increase attacks from Hezbollah
and Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq.
Although PIJ is one of the smallest of Iran’s proxies, it is still a
menace. It has carried out attacks in Gaza and during the pause in fighting in
late November. It has held hostages in Gaza, and its members played a role in
the hostage releases.The group has stockpiled thousands of rockets in the Gaza
Strip. In the West Bank, PIJ stockpiles M-16-style rifles, with many of them
stolen and trafficked in recent years.
PIJ is now calling on groups in Arab countries to not “lag in the battle
led by the heroes of the resistance in the Gaza Strip, on behalf of the Islamic
nation, especially those who possess armies, planes, and cannons.”
It’s not clear what countries Hamza thinks would now join and back Hamas.
However, he is trying to shame the neighboring states.“Isn’t it time for you to
raise your guns like the free people in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq?” Hamza asked.
“Isn’t it time for you to take off the garment of slavery and humiliation to
America, the Great Satan, and follow the example of the honorable?” Saudis? PIJ has
praised the Palestinian terrorists continuing to fight in Gaza. In recent days,
the group’s members have carried out attacks in the Zeitoun neighborhood near
Gaza City, Hamza said. The IDF has been operating in that area over the last
two weeks, seeking to clear it of terrorists. Hamza also called for attacks on
“the occupation’s military checkpoints” and to “cut off the road to the
settlers.” The first day of Ramadan should become an international day to
support Gaza and “mobilize” in “all the arenas,” he said.This appears to
indicate that Iran is plotting to escalate during Ramadan. The West wants a
ceasefire during Ramadan, but it has historically been the month used by
terrorists and extremists as an excuse to increase attacks.“We are certain that
the single body of the nation will do the impossible and will make the month of
Ramadan historic days to wash away shame and threaten the existence of the
Israeli enemy entity and global arrogance,” Hamza said.
The terrorist group’s comments are also linked to those made by Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh, who has called for an escalation of hostilities during
Ramadan.
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ATTACHMENT EIGHTY FOUR – FROM NEWSMAX
ARE RAMADAN
JIHAD CELLS ALREADY IN U.S.?
By Clare M. Lopez Friday, 08 March 2024 01:16 PM
Two recent interviews — one with former Navy
SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince and one with Sen. Roger Marshall,
R-Kan., — pointed to the gathering threat of terror violence inside the
country this year.
Aside from these two and a few more, though, there
seems to be scant attention being paid to the likelihood that a confluence of
threat indicators will erupt into street violence on a scale we’ve not seen
since the summer of 2020.
This year, the Islamic month of Ramadan begins on
March 10.
It runs until sundown on April 10.
Against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing Swords of
Iron military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a month that even in
less tumultuous years often sees an accelerated pace of jihad attacks globally,
this year’s Ramadan likely will be the occasion for even more renewed calls for
attacks against Jews in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, the rest of Israel, and the
United States (U.S.) homeland as well. Indeed, U.S. imams already have begun
calling for the killing of Jews on a genocidal scale.
Intelligence officials warned in January
2024 that Hezbollah may be plotting terror attacks inside the homeland this
year.
Also in January, a group of former senior FBI
officials sent a letter to congressional leaders warning of a “new and imminent danger."
That danger, they wrote, arises from the ongoing
mass invasion of military-age men from all over the world, among whom surely
are not only Chinese Jungle Tigers but also
Islamic terrorists seeking vengeance against Jews and for U.S. support of
Israel.
Epoch Times show host and reporter Roman
Balmakov interviewed Erik Prince at the March
2024 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference. During the interview,
entitled "Terrorist Sleeper Cells Are Already in the U.S.," Prince
told Balmakov that one reason he believes the Biden administration is so
reluctant to strike back in any meaningful way against Iranian terror
proxies — much less any Iranian target itself — is that the
Iranian regime has already surged unknown numbers of military fighters across
our wide-open southern border.
Prince suggested that such
fighters — whether Iran’s own IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps), Quds Force, or proxy jihadis from HAMAS, Hizballah, or Houthis
— could be flown on Iran’s Mahan Air from Iran to Venezuela.
Then from there, they could head north through the
Darien Gap that lies between Colombia and Panama, and then on up to and across
the U.S. southern border.
Combined with other hostile military forces already
certainly here, to include Chinese Jungle Tigers and Hezbollah
cadres, these forces are likely forming cells, conducting pre-attack casing,
surveillance, and training, and getting ready to launch combined attacks inside
the homeland later in 2024, or should the U.S. do anything to upset Iran’s
mullahs.
On March 3, 2024 Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., joined FOX
News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program with Maria Bartiromo.
Sen. Marshall warned about Chinese triads operating
across America.
Triads are transnational organized crime syndicates
based in Communist China, but operating globally, including the U.S.
It must be understood that these triads operate with
the full knowledge and at least tacit acquiescence of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP).
Sen. Marshall noted that in Kansas and the U.S. more
broadly, there has been "an explosion of human trafficking."
Specifically, he was talking about a proliferation
of massage parlors in Kansas as well as other states.
Those massage parlors, plus other Chinese fronts
like hair or nail salons, are evidence not only of human smuggling and the
enslaved Chinese women who work there, but also of a sophisticated money
laundering operation.
Sen. Marshall spoke also about the flood of fentanyl
trafficking across that southern border, a drug trade that he pointed out dates
back to the era of Mao Zedong, when methamphetamine precursors were first sent
into the U.S. in collaboration with the Mexican cartels.
Now, in addition to that early Chemical Warfare
(CW), the CCP in collusion with the Mexican cartels, are smuggling fentanyl
chemical precursors into Mexico, with American users the ultimate intended
target.
With over 100,000 drug deaths in the U.S. every
year, and most of those due to fentanyl (sometimes laced into other counterfeit
drugs often bought online), there is no question that the CCP is waging
Chemical Warfare against the U.S.
Sen. Marshall called out the Biden administration
for permitting the drug and human trafficking across the U.S. southern border
with Mexico, despite the clear national security implications that put our
entire nation in danger.
On a final note, the Washington Examiner and other news
outlets reported in early March 2024 that the Biden administration has flown
some 320,000 illegal aliens directly from unknown Latin American countries into
the U.S. to unsuspecting American communities that Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) refuses to identify.
The secret airlift was kept secret from the American
public to minimize the numbers of illegals being processed through U.S.
southern ports of entry via the CBP One cell phone app.
America’s friends, allies, and enemies alike all see
this happening. They all know that those with malign intent have a free pass
into the U.S. under the Biden administration.
As the FBI officials wrote in their letter to
Congress, "the warning lights are blinking."
Clare M. Lopez is the Founder/President of Lopez
Liberty LLC, with a mission to alert Americans to national security threats,
both international and from the Islamic Movement/Muslim Brotherhood and their
Marxist/communist collaborators in the U.S. From 2014-2020, she served as vice
president for research and analysis at the Center for Security Policy. Read
Reports by Clare M. Lopez — More Here.
Posts by Clare M. Lopez
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China's Multi-Pronged Presence Overrunning US
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Perilously Little Known About CCP-Mideast Terror
Connection
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2024 GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominees
List
Music's Biggest Night saw history-making wins,
exciting new Categories, and an incredible amount of talent. Check out the
complete list of winners and nominees from the 2024 GRAMMYs.
MORGAN ENOS
|GRAMMYS/NOV 10, 2023 - 11:16 AM
Editor’s Note: Updated Sunday, Feb. 4, to reflect
the winners at the 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards.
The Recording Academy has officially revealed the
winners of the 2024 GRAMMYs, which took place Sunday, Feb. 4, at Crypto.com
Arena in Los Angeles.
Artists made history and made memorable moments
at the 2024 GRAMMYs: women won several of the major GRAMMY categories and
general dominated the night; several artists won their first-ever GRAMMY,
including Miley Cyrus; and Taylor Swift became the artist with the most GRAMMY
wins for Album Of The Year. Elsewhere, the Recording Academy debuted three new
GRAMMY categories at the 2024 GRAMMYs: Best African Music Performance, Best
Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.
These history-making category additions were part
of a larger set of updates and amendments, which went into effect at the 2024
GRAMMYs, aimed at making the GRAMMY Awards process "more fair, transparent
and accurate", according to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr.
The GRAMMYs voting process begins with members
and record companies submitting entries, which are then screened for
eligibility and category placement. The Online Entry Process (OEP) Access
Period took place from July 17, 2023 – Aug. 31, 2023. First Round Voting
occurred from Oct. 11 to Oct. 20, 2023. Lastly, Final Round Voting took place
Dec. 14, 2023 to Jan. 4, 2024. The Recording Academy's voting members, all
involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, then participate
in the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category
and the final voting process, which determines the GRAMMY winners.
For more information, view the GRAMMY Awards
Journey, an interactive, engaging online resource about the complete GRAMMY
Awards process, from Online Entry and Eligibility Screening to Peer Voting and
Nominations.
Read More: 10 Must-See Moments From The 2024
GRAMMYs: Taylor Swift Makes History, Billy Joel & Tracy Chapman Return,
Boygenius Manifest Childhood Dreams
________________________________________
2024 GRAMMYs: Performances & Highlights
2024 GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominees
List
10 Must-See Moments From The 2024 GRAMMYs: Taylor
Swift Makes History, Billy Joel & Tracy Chapman Return, Boygenius Manifest
Childhood Dreams
Watch All The Performances From The 2024 GRAMMYs:
Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo & More
2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Celebrates
"Flowers" GRAMMY Win With Jubilant Performance
2024 GRAMMYs: Dua Lipa Debuts "Training
Season" & Slays "Houdini" In Mesmerizing Opening Performance
2024 GRAMMYs: Taylor Swift Makes GRAMMY History
With Fourth Album Of The Year Win For 'Midnights'
2024 GRAMMYs: Billie Eilish Performs An Ethereal
Rendition Of "What Was I Made For?"
2024 GRAMMYs: Watch Olivia Rodrigo Bleed Her Soul
Dry With Dramatic "Vampire" Performance
SZA Wakes Up The 2024 GRAMMYs With A Performance
Of "Snooze" & "Kill Bill"
2024 GRAMMYs: Luke Combs & Tracy Chapman Team
Up For A Surprise Duet Version Of "Fast Car"
2024 GRAMMYs: Burna Boy's Fantastic Afro-Fusion
Lights Up The Stage
2024 GRAMMYs: Travis Scott Turns Music's Biggest
Night Into A Heated Utopia
2024 GRAMMYs: Joni Mitchell's First GRAMMY
Performance
U2 Performs "Atomic City" &
Transports The 2024 GRAMMYs To Las Vegas
2024 GRAMMYs In Memoriam: Stevie Wonder, Lenny
Kravitz & More Pay Tribute To Late Icons
2024 GRAMMYs: Billie Eilish Wins GRAMMY For Song
Of The Year For "What Was I Made For?" From The 'Barbie' Soundtrack
2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Wins The GRAMMY For
Record Of The Year for "Flowers"
2024 GRAMMYs: Victoria Monét Wins The GRAMMY For
Best New Artist
2024 GRAMMYs: Jack Antonoff Wins GRAMMY For
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical For The Third Year In A Row
Theron Thomas Wins Songwriter Of The Year,
Non-Classical | 2024 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech
Watch Taylor Swift Walk The 2024 GRAMMYs Red
Carpet
2024 GRAMMYs: Jay-Z Receives Dr. Dre Global
Impact Award
Relive The 2024 GRAMMYs Red Carpet: Interviews
With Dua Lipa, Ice Spice & More
10 Acceptance Speeches That Made Us Laugh, Cry,
& Smile At The 2024 GRAMMYs
Big First Wins At The 2024 GRAMMYs: Karol G,
Lainey Wilson, Victoria Monét & More
13 Moments From The 2024 GRAMMYs You Might Have
Missed
2024 GRAMMYs Red Carpet Fashion Highlights:
Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, boygenius & More
9 Ways Women Dominated The 2024 GRAMMYs
Overheard Backstage At The 2024 GRAMMYs: What Jack
Antonoff, Laufey & Other GRAMMY Winners Said
How The 2024 GRAMMYs Saw The Return Of Music
Heroes & Birthed New Icons
Taylor Swift Announces New Album After 13th
GRAMMY Win At The 2024 GRAMMYs
2024 GRAMMYs: Miley Cyrus Wins First-Ever GRAMMY
For "Flowers"
Billie Eilish Wins Best Song Written For Visual
Media For "What Was I Made For?" (From 'Barbie The Album') | 2024
GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech
2024 GRAMMYs: Karol G Wins The First GRAMMY Award
Of Her Career For Best Música Urbana Album
Watch Ice Spice’s 2024 GRAMMYs Red Carpet
Interview
boygenius Celebrate Their Three GRAMMY Wins At
The CNB "First Look" Cam At The 2024 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony
In Memoriam (2023): The Recording Academy
Remembers The Music People We Lost
Killer Mike Wins Best Rap Album For 'MICHAEL' |
2024 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech
2024 GRAMMYs: Tyla Wins First-Ever GRAMMY Award
For Best African Music Performance
Watch Billie Eilish & FINNEAS’ 2024 GRAMMYs
Red Carpet Interview
Boygenius Wins Best Rock Song For "Not
Strong Enough" | 2024 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech
Burna Boy, Tyla And Africa's Moment At The 2024
GRAMMYs
General Field
1. Record Of The Year
Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s),
Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s) and mastering engineer(s), if other than
the artist.
Worship
Jon Batiste
Jon Batiste, Jon Bellion, Pete Nappi &
Tenroc, producers; John Arbuckle, Bryce Bordone, Serban Ghenea & Pete
Nappi, engineers/mixers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer
Not Strong Enough
boygenius
boygenius & Catherine Marks, producers; Owen
Lantz, Catherine Marks, Mike Mogis, Bobby Mota, Kaushlesh "Garry"
Purohit & Sarah Tudzin, engineers/mixers; Pat Sullivan, mastering engineer
Flowers - WINNER
Miley Cyrus
Kid Harpoon & Tyler Johnson, producers;
Michael Pollack, Brian Rajaratnam & Mark "Spike" Stent,
engineers/mixers; Joe LaPorta, mastering engineer
What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture
"Barbie"]
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish & FINNEAS, producers; Billie
Eilish, Rob Kinelski & FINNEAS, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering
engineer
On My Mama
Victoria Monét
Deputy, Dernst Emile II, Jeff Gitelman &
Victoria Monét, producers; Patrizio Pigliapoco, Victoria Monét & Todd
Robinson, engineers/mixers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer
Vampire
Olivia Rodrigo
Dan Nigro, producer; Bryce Bordone, Serban
Ghenea, Michael Harris, Chris Kasych, Daniel Nigro & Dan Viafore,
engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, producers; Jack
Antonoff, Bryce Bordone, Serban Ghenea, Laura Sisk & Lorenzo Wolff,
engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer
Kill Bill
SZA
Rob Bisel & Carter Lang, producers; Rob
Bisel, engineer/mixer; Dale Becker, mastering engineer
2. Album Of The Year
Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s),
Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and
Mastering Engineer(s) credited with 20% or more playing time of the album.
World Music Radio
Jon Batiste
Jon Batiste, Jon Bellion, Nick Cooper, Pete Nappi
& Tenroc, producers; Jon Batiste, Pete Nappi, Kaleb Rollins, Laura Sisk
& Marc Whitmore, engineers/mixers; Jon Batiste, Jon Bellion, Jason Cornet
& Pete Nappi, songwriters; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer
the record
boygenius
boygenius & Catherine Marks, producers; Owen
Lantz, Will Maclellan, Catherine Marks, Mike Mogis, Bobby Mota, Kaushlesh
"Garry" Purohit & Sarah Tudzin, engineers/mixers; Julien Baker,
Phoebe Bridgers & Lucy Dacus, songwriters; Pat Sullivan, mastering engineer
Endless Summer Vacation
Miley Cyrus
Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson & Mike Will
Made-It, producers; Pièce Eatah, Craig Frank, Paul David Hager, Stacy Jones,
Brian Rajaratnam & Mark "Spike" Stent, engineers/mixers; Miley
Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein, Thomas Hull, Tyler Johnson, Michael Len Williams II
& Michael Pollack, songwriters; Joe LaPorta, mastering engineer
Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean
Blvd
Lana Del Rey
Jack Antonoff, Zach Dawes, Lana Del Rey &
Drew Erickson, producers; Jack Antonoff, Michael Harris, Dean Reid & Laura
Sisk, engineers/mixers; Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey & Mike Hermosa,
songwriters; Ruairi O'Flaherty, mastering engineer
The Age Of Pleasure
Janelle Monáe
Sensei Bueno, Nate "Rocket" Wonder
& Nana Kwabena, producers; Mick Guzauski, Nate "Rocket" Wonder,
Jayda Love, Janelle Monáe & Yáng Tan, engineers/mixers; Jarrett Goodly,
Nathaniel Irvin III, Janelle Monáe Robinson & Nana Kwabena Tuffuor,
songwriters; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer
GUTS
Olivia Rodrigo
Daniel Nigro, producer; Bryce Bordone, Serban
Ghenea, Chris Kasych, Sterling Laws, Ryan Linvill, Mitch McCarthy, Daniel
Nigro, Dave Schiffman, Mark "Spike" Stent, Sam Stewart & Dan
Viafore, engineers/mixers; Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters;
Randy Merrill, mastering engineer
Midnights - WINNER
Taylor Swift
Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, producers; Jack
Antonoff, Zem Audu, Bryce Bordone, Serban Ghenea, David Hart, Mikey Freedom
Hart, Sean Hutchinson, Ken Lewis, Michael Riddleberger, Laura Sisk & Evan
Smith, engineers/mixers; Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, songwriters; Randy
Merrill, mastering engineer
SOS
SZA
Rob Bisel, ThankGod4Cody & Carter Lang, producers;
Rob Bisel, engineer/mixer; Rob Bisel, Cody Fayne, Carter Lang & Solána
Rowe, songwriters; Dale Becker, mastering engineer
3. Song Of The Year
A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it
was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility
Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
A&W
Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey & Sam Dew,
songwriters (Lana Del Rey)
Anti-Hero
Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, songwriters
(Taylor Swift)
Butterfly
Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson, songwriters (Jon
Batiste)
Dance The Night (From Barbie The Album)
Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson &
Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Dua Lipa)
Flowers
Miley Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein & Michael
Pollack, songwriters (Miley Cyrus)
Kill Bill
Rob Bisel, Carter Lang & Solána Rowe,
songwriters (SZA)
Vampire
Daniel
Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Olivia Rodrigo)
What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture
"Barbie"] - WINNER
Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell,
songwriters (Billie Eilish)
4. Best New Artist
This category recognizes an artist whose
eligibility-year release(s) achieved a breakthrough into the public
consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.
Gracie Abrams
Fred again..
Ice Spice
Jelly Roll
Coco Jones
Noah Kahan
Victoria Monét - WINNER
The War And Treaty
5. Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical
A Producer's Award. (Artists names appear in
parentheses.)
Jack Antonoff - WINNER
•
Being Funny In A Foreign Language (The 1975) (A)
• Did
You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Lana Del Rey) (A)
•
Midnights (Taylor Swift) (A)
Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II
•
JAGUAR II (Victoria Monét) (A)
Hit-Boy
• Bus
Stop (Don Toliver Featuring Brent Faiyaz) (T)
•
Just Face It (Dreamville With Blxst) (T)
•
Kings Disease III (Nas) (A)
•
Magic 3 (Nas) (A)
•
Magic 2 (Nas) (A)
•
Slipping Into Darkness (Hit-Boy & The Alchemist) (S)
•
Surf Or Drown Vol. 1 (Hit-Boy) (A)
•
Surf Or Drown Vol. 2 (Hit-Boy) (A)
•
Victims & Villains (Musiq Soulchild & Hit-Boy) (A)
• Metro Boomin
• Am
I Dreaming (Metro Boomin Featuring Roisee & A$AP Rocky) (S)
•
Calling (Metro Boomin Featuring NAV, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie & Swae Lee) (S)
•
Creepin' (Metro Boomin Featuring 21 Savage & The Weeknd) (S)
•
More M's (Drake & 21 Savage) (S)
• Oh
U Went (Young Thug Featuring Drake) (S)
•
Superhero (Heroes & Villains) (Metro Boomin, Future & Chris Brown) (S)
• Til
Further Notice (Travis Scott Featuring James Blake & 21 Savage) (S)
•
Trance (Metro Boomin Featuring Travis Scott & Young Thug) (S)
• War
Bout It (Lil Durk Featuring 21 Savage) (S)
• Daniel Nigro
•
Casual (Chappell Roan) (S)
•
Divide (Dermot Kennedy) (S)
•
Guts (Olivia Rodrigo) (A)
• Hot
To Go! (Chappell Roan) (S)
•
Kaleidoscope (Chappell Roan) (S)
• Red
Wine Supernova (Chappell Roan) (S)
•
Welcome To My Island (Caroline Polachek) (S)
6. Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical
A Songwriter's Award. (Artists names appear in
parentheses.)
Edgar
Barrera
• Cuestion De Tiempo (Don Omar) (T)
• Falsa Alarma (En Vivo) (Grupo Firme)
(T)
• Gucci Los Paños (Karol G) (T)
• La Despedida (Christian Nodal) (T)
• Mi Ex Tenía Razón (Karol G) (T)
• Que Vuelvas (Various Artists) (T)
• Un Cumbión Dolido (Christian Nodal) (T)
•
un x100to (Grupo Frontera & Bad Bunny) (T)
• Yo
Pr1mero (Rels B) (S)
Jessie Jo Dillon
•
Buried (Brandy Clark) (T)
•
Girl In The Mirror (Megan Moroney) (T)
•
Halfway To Hell (Jelly Roll) (T)
• I
Just Killed A Man (Catie Offerman) (S)
•
Memory Lane (Old Dominion) (S)
•
Neon Cowgirl (Dan + Shay) (T)
• screen
(HARDY) (T)
• The
Town In Your Heart (Lori McKenna) (T)
• Up
Above The Clouds (Cecilia's Song) (Brandy Clark) (T)
Shane McAnally
•
Come Back To Me (Brandy Clark) (S)
•
Good With Me (Walker Hayes) (S)
•
He's Never Gunna Change (Lauren Daigle) (S)
• I
Should Have Married You (Old Dominion) (S)
•
Independently Owned (Alex Newell & Original Broadway Cast of Shucked) (S)
•
Never Grow Up (Niall Horan) (S)
•
Start Nowhere (Sam Hunt) (S)
•
Walmart (Sam Hunt) (S)
• We
Don't Fight Anymore (Carly Pearce & Chris Stapleton) (S)
Theron Thomas - WINNER
• All
My Life (Lil Durk Featuring J. Cole) (S)
•
Been Thinking (Tyla) (S)
•
Cheatback (Chlöe & Future) (T)
• How
We Roll (Ciara & Chris Brown) (S)
•
Make Up Your Mind (Cordae) (S)
•
Pretty Girls Walk (Big Boss Vette) (S)
•
Seven (Jung Kook & Latto) (S)
•
Told Ya (Chlöe & Missy Elliot) (T)
• You
And I (Sekou) (T)
Justin Tranter
• Gemini
Moon (Reneé Rapp) (T)
•
Honey! (Are U Coming?) (Måneskin) (S)
• I
Want More (Marisa Davila & Cast Of Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies) (S)
•
Jersey (Baby Tate) (S)
• A
Little Bit Happy (TALK) (S)
•
Pretty Girls (Reneé Rapp) (S)
•
River (Miley Cyrus) (S)
Field 1: Pop & Dance/Electronic Music
7. Best Pop Solo Performance
For new vocal or instrumental pop recordings.
Singles or Tracks only.
Flowers - WINNER
Miley Cyrus
Paint The Town Red
Doja Cat
What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture
"Barbie"]
Billie
Eilish
Vampire
Olivia
Rodrigo
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
8. Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
For new vocal or instrumental duo/group or
collaborative pop recordings. Singles or Tracks only.
Thousand Miles
Miley Cyrus Featuring Brandi Carlile
Candy Necklace
Lana Del Rey Featuring Jon Batiste
Never Felt So Alone
Labrinth Featuring Billie Eilish
Karma
Taylor Swift Featuring Ice Spice
Ghost In The Machine - WINNER
SZA Featuring Phoebe Bridgers
9. Best Pop Vocal Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new pop vocal recordings.
Chemistry
Kelly Clarkson
Endless Summer Vacation
Miley
Cyrus
GUTS
Olivia
Rodrigo
-
(Subtract)
Ed Sheeran
Midnights - WINNER
Taylor Swift
10. Best Dance/Electronic Recording
For solo, duo, group or collaborative
performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.
Blackbox Life Recorder 21F
Aphex Twin
Richard D James, producer; Richard D James, mixer
Loading
James Blake
James Blake & Dom Maker, producers; James
Blake, mixer
Higher Than Ever Before
Disclosure
Cirkut, Guy Lawrence & Howard Lawrence,
producers; Guy Lawrence, mixer
Strong
Romy & Fred again..
Fred again.., Stuart Price & Romy, producers;
Fred again.. & Stuart Price, mixers
Rumble - WINNER
Skrillex, Fred again.. & Flowdan
BEAM, Elley Duhé, Fred again.. & Skrillex,
producers; Skrillex, mixer
11. Best Pop Dance Recording
For solo, duo, group or collaborative
performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.
Baby Don't Hurt Me
David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray
Johnny Goldstein, Toby Green, David Guetta &
Mike Hawkins, producers; Serban
Ghenea, mixer
Miracle
Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding
Burns & Calvin Harris, producers; Calvin
Harris, mixer
Padam Padam - WINNER
Kylie Minogue
Lostboy, producer; Guy Massey, mixer
One In A Million
Bebe Rexha & David Guetta
Burns & David Guetta, producers; Serban
Ghenea, mixer
Rush
Troye
Sivan
Styalz
Fuego, Novodor & Zhone, producers; Alex Ghenea, mixer
12. Best Dance/Electronic Music Album
For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only.
Playing Robots Into Heaven
James Blake
For That Beautiful Feeling
The Chemical Brothers
Actual Life 3 (January 1 - September 9 2022) -
WINNER
Fred again..
Kx5
Kx5
Quest For Fire
Skrillex
Field 2: Rock, Metal & Alternative Music
13. Best Rock Performance
For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or
collaborative rock recordings.
Sculptures Of Anything Goes
Arctic Monkeys
More Than A Love Song
Black Pumas
Not Strong Enough - WINNER
Boygenius
Rescued
Foo Fighters
Lux Æterna
Metallica
14. Best Metal Performance
For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or
collaborative metal recordings.
Bad Man
Disturbed
Phantom Of The Opera
Ghost
72 Seasons - WINNER
Metallica
Hive Mind
Slipknot
Jaded
Spiritbox
15. Best Rock Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Rock, Hard Rock
and Metal songs. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first
achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in
parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
Angry
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & Andrew Watt,
songwriters (The Rolling Stones)
Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl
Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters
(Olivia Rodrigo)
Emotion Sickness
Dean Fertita, Joshua Homme, Michael Shuman, Jon
Theodore & Troy Van Leeuwen, songwriters (Queens Of The Stone Age)
Not Strong Enough - WINNER
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers & Lucy Dacus,
songwriters (boygenius)
Rescued
Dave Grohl, Rami Jaffee, Nate Mendel, Chris
Shiflett & Pat Smear, songwriters (Foo Fighters)
16. Best Rock Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new rock, hard rock or metal recordings.
But Here We Are
Foo Fighters
Starcatcher
Greta Van Fleet
72 Seasons
Metallica
This Is Why - WINNER
Paramore
In Times New Roman...
Queens Of The Stone Age
17. Best Alternative Music Performance
For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or
collaborative Alternative music recordings.
Belinda Says
Alvvays
Body Paint
Arctic Monkeys
Cool About It
boygenius
A&W
Lana Del Rey
This Is Why - WINNER
Paramore
18. Best Alternative Music Album
Vocal or Instrumental.
The Car
Arctic Monkeys
The Record - WINNER
boygenius
Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean
Blvd
Lana Del Rey
Cracker Island
Gorillaz
I Inside The Old Year Dying
PJ Harvey
Field 3: R&B, Rap & Spoken Word Poetry
19. Best R&B Performance
For new vocal or instrumental R&B recordings.
Summer Too Hot
Chris Brown
Back To Love
Robert Glasper Featuring SiR & Alex Isley
ICU - WINNER
Coco Jones
How Does It Make You Feel
Victoria Monét
Kill Bill
SZA
20. Best Traditional R&B Performance
For new vocal or instrumental traditional R&B
recordings.
Simple
Babyface Featuring Coco Jones
Lucky
Kenyon Dixon
Hollywood
Victoria Monét Featuring Earth, Wind & Fire
& Hazel Monét
Good Morning - WINNER
PJ Morton Featuring Susan Carol
Love Language
SZA
21. Best R&B Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it
was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility
Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
Angel
Halle Bailey, Theron Feemster & Coleridge
Tillman, songwriters (Halle)
Back To Love
Darryl Andrew Farris, Riley Glasper, Robert
Glasper & Alexandra Isley, songwriters (Robert Glasper Featuring SiR &
Alex Isley)
ICU
Darhyl Camper Jr., Courtney Jones, Raymond Komba
& Roy Keisha Rockette, songwriters (Coco Jones)
On My Mama
Dernst Emile II, Jeff Gitelman, Victoria Monét,
Kyla Moscovich, Jamil Pierre & Charles Williams, songwriters (Victoria
Monét)
Snooze - WINNER
Kenny B. Edmonds, Blair Ferguson, Khris
Riddick-Tynes, Solána Rowe & Leon Thomas, songwriters (SZA)
22. Best Progressive R&B Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of newly recorded progressive vocal tracks derivative of R&B.
Since I Have A Lover
6LACK
The Love Album: Off The Grid
Diddy
Nova
Terrace Martin And James Fauntleroy
The Age Of Pleasure
Janelle Monáe
SOS - WINNER
SZA
23. Best R&B Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new R&B recordings.
Girls Night Out
Babyface
What I Didn't Tell You (Deluxe)
Coco Jones
Special Occasion
Emily King
JAGUAR II - WINNER
Victoria Monét
CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE EP
Summer Walker
24. Best Rap Performance
For a Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.
The Hillbillies
Baby Keem Featuring Kendrick Lamar
Love Letter
Black Thought
Rich Flex
Drake & 21 Savage
SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS - WINNER
Killer Mike Featuring André 3000, Future And Eryn
Allen Kane
Players
Coi Leray
25. Best Melodic Rap Performance
For a solo or collaborative performance
containing both elements of R&B melodies and Rap.
Sittin' On Top Of The World
Burna Boy Featuring 21 Savage
Attention
Doja Cat
Spin Bout U
Drake & 21 Savage
All My Life - WINNER
Lil Durk Featuring J. Cole
Low
SZA
26. Best Rap Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it
was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility
Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
Attention
Rogét Chahayed, Amala Zandile Dlamini & Ari Starace,
songwriters (Doja Cat)
Barbie World [From Barbie The Album]
Isis Naija Gaston, Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr. &
Onika Maraj, songwriters (Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice Featuring Aqua)
Just Wanna Rock
Mohamad Camara, Symere Woods & Javier
Mercado, songwriters (Lil Uzi Vert)
Rich Flex
Brytavious Chambers, Isaac "Zac" De
Boni, Aubrey Graham, J. Gwin, Anderson Hernandez, Michael "Finatik"
Mule & Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, songwriters (Drake & 21 Savage)
SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS - WINNER
Andre Benjamin, Paul Beauregard, James Blake,
Michael Render, Tim Moore & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Killer Mike Featuring
André 3000, Future And Eryn Allen Kane)
27. Best Rap Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new rap recordings.
Her Loss
Drake & 21 Savage
MICHAEL - WINNER
Killer Mike
HEROES & VILLIANS
Metro Boomin
King's Disease III
Nas
UTOPIA
Travis Scott
28. Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
For albums containing greater than 50% playing
time of new spoken word poetry recordings.
A-You're Not Wrong B-They're Not Either: The
Fukc-It Pill Revisited
Queen Sheba
For Your Consideration'24 -The Album
Prentice Powell and Shawn William
Grocery Shopping With My Mother
Kevin Powell
The Light Inside - WINNER
J. Ivy
When The Poems Do What They Do
Aja Monet
Field 4: Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary
Instrumental & Musical Theater
29. Best Jazz Performance
For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or
collaborative jazz recordings.
Movement 18' (Heroes)
Jon Batiste
Basquiat
Lakecia Benjamin
Vulnerable (Live)
Adam Blackstone Featuring The Baylor Project
& Russell Ferranté
But Not For Me
Fred Hersch & Esperanza Spalding
Tight - WINNER
Samara Joy
30. Best Jazz Vocal Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal jazz recordings.
For Ella 2
Patti Austin Featuring Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat
Band
Alive At The Village Vanguard
Fred Hersch & Esperanza Spalding
Lean In
Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke
Mélusine
Cécile McLorin Salvant
How Love Begins - WINNER
Nicole Zuraitis
31. Best Jazz Instrumental Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new instrumental jazz recordings.
The Source
Kenny Barron
Phoenix
Lakecia Benjamin
Legacy: The Instrumental Jawn
Adam Blackstone
The Winds Of Change - WINNER
Billy Childs
Dream Box
Pat Metheny
32. Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new ensemble jazz recordings.
The Chick Corea Symphony Tribute - Ritmo
ADDA
Simfònica, Josep Vicent, Emilio Solla
Dynamic Maximum Tension
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
Basie Swings The Blues - WINNER
The Count Basie Orchestra Directed By Scotty
Barnhart
Olympians
Vince Mendoza & Metropole Orkest
The Charles Mingus Centennial Sessions
Mingus Big Band
33. Best Latin Jazz Album
For vocal or instrumental albums containing
greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this
category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with
Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.
Quietude
Eliane Elias
My Heart Speaks
Ivan Lins With The Tblisi Symphony Orchestra
Vox Humana
Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
Cometa
Luciana
Souza & Trio Corrente
El
Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2 - WINNER
Miguel
Zenón & Luis Perdomo
34.
Best Alternative Jazz Album
For vocal or instrumental albums containing
greater than 75% playing time of new Alternative jazz recordings.
Love In Exile
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily
Quality Over Opinion
Louis Cole
SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree
Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, SuperBlue
Live At The Piano
Cory Henry
The Omnichord Real Book - WINNER
Meshell Ndegeocello
35. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new traditional pop recordings.
To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates
Sondheim
Liz Callaway
Pieces Of Treasure
Rickie Lee Jones
Bewitched - WINNER
Laufey
Holidays Around The World
Pentatonix
Only The Strong Survive
Bruce Springsteen
Sondheim Unplugged (The NYC Sessions), Vol. 3
(Various Artists)
36. Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new contemporary instrumental recordings.
As We Speak - WINNER
Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Featuring
Rakesh Chaurasia
On Becoming
House Of Waters
Jazz Hands
Bob James
The Layers
Julian Lage
All One
Ben Wendel
37. Best Musical Theater Album
For albums containing greater than 51% playing
time of new recordings. Award to the principal vocalist(s), and the album
producer(s) of 50% or more playing time of the album. The lyricist(s) and
composer(s) of 50 % or more of a score of a new recording are eligible for an
Award if any previous recording of said score has not been nominated in this
category.
Kimberly Akimbo
Victoria Clark, principal vocalist; John Clancy,
David Stone & Jeanine Tesori, producers; Jeanine Tesori, composer; David
Lindsay-Abaire, lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)
Parade
Micaela Diamond, Alex Joseph Grayson, Jake
Pedersen & Ben Platt, principal vocalists; Jason Robert Brown & Jeffrey
Lesser, producers; Jason Robert Brown, composer & lyricist (2023 Broadway
Cast)
Shucked
John Behlmann, Andrew Durand, Caroline
Innerbichler & Alex Newell, principal vocalists; Brandy Clark, Jason
Howland, Shane McAnally & Billy Jay Stein, producers; Brandy Clark &
Shane McAnally, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast)
Some Like It Hot - WINNER
Christian Borle, J. Harrison Ghee, Adrianna Hicks
& NaTasha Yvette Williams, principal vocalists; Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Bryan
Carter, Scott M. Riesett, Charlie Rosen & Marc Shaiman, producers; Scott
Wittman, lyricist; Marc Shaiman, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway
Cast)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Annaleigh Ashford & Josh Groban, principal
vocalists; Thomas Kail & Alex Lacamoire, producers (Stephen Sondheim,
composer & lyricist) (2023 Broadway Cast)
Field 5: Country & American Roots Music
38. Best Country Solo Performance
For new vocal or instrumental solo country
recordings.
In Your Love
Tyler Childers
Buried
Brandy Clark
Fast Car
Luke Combs
The Last Thing On My Mind
Dolly Parton
White Horse - WINNER
Chris Stapleton
39. Best Country Duo/Group Performance
For new vocal or instrumental duo/group or
collaborative country recordings.
High Note
Dierks Bentley Featuring Billy Strings
Nobody's Nobody
Brothers Osborne
I Remember Everything - WINNER
Zach Bryan Featuring Kacey Musgraves
Kissing Your Picture (Is So Cold)
Vince Gill & Paul Franklin
Save Me
Jelly Roll With Lainey Wilson
We Don't Fight Anymore
Carly Pearce Featuring Chris Stapleton
40. Best Country Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it
was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility
Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
Buried
Brandy Clark & Jessie Jo Dillon, songwriters
(Brandy Clark)
I Remember Everything
Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves, songwriters
(Zach Bryan Featuring Kacey Musgraves)
In Your Love
Tyler Childers & Geno Seale, songwriters
(Tyler Childers)
Last Night
John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher Hindlin
& Ryan Vojtesak, songwriters (Morgan Wallen)
White Horse - WINNER
Chris Stapleton & Dan Wilson, songwriters
(Chris Stapleton)
41. Best Country Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new country recordings.
Rolling Up The Welcome Mat
Kelsea Ballerini
Brothers Osborne
Brothers Osborne
Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan
Rustin' In The Rain
Tyler Childers
Bell Bottom Country - WINNER
Lainey Wilson
42. Best American Roots Performance
For new vocal or instrumental American Roots
recordings. This is for performances in
the style of any of the subgenres encompassed in the American Roots Music field
including bluegrass, blues, folk or regional roots. Award to the artist(s).
Butterfly
Jon Batiste
Heaven Help Us All
The Blind Boys Of Alabama
Inventing The Wheel
Madison Cunningham
You Louisiana Man
Rhiannon Giddens
Eve Was Black - WINNER
Allison Russell
43. Best Americana Performance
For new vocal or instrumental Americana
performance. Award to the artist(s).
Friendship
The Blind Boys Of Alabama
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Tyler Childers
Dear Insecurity - WINNER
Brandy Clark Featuring Brandi Carlile
King Of Oklahoma
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
The Returner
Allison Russell
44. Best American Roots Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Americana,
bluegrass, traditional blues, contemporary blues, folk or regional roots songs.
A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence
during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or
Tracks only.
Blank Page
Michael Trotter Jr. & Tanya Trotter,
songwriters (The War And Treaty)
California Sober
Aaron Allen, William Apostol & Jon
Weisberger, songwriters (Billy Strings Featuring Willie Nelson)
Cast Iron Skillet - WINNER
Jason Isbell, songwriter (Jason Isbell And The
400 Unit)
Dear Insecurity
Brandy Clark & Michael Pollack, songwriters
(Brandy Clark Featuring Brandi Carlile)
The Returner
Drew Lindsay, JT Nero & Allison Russell,
songwriters (Allison Russell)
45. Best Americana Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental Americana recordings.
Brandy Clark
Brandy Clark
The Chicago Sessions
Rodney Crowell
You're The One
Rhiannon Giddens
Weathervanes - WINNER
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
The Returner
Allison Russell
46. Best Bluegrass Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental bluegrass recordings.
Radio John: Songs of John Hartford
Sam Bush
Lovin' Of The Game
Michael Cleveland
Mighty Poplar
Mighty Poplar
Bluegrass
Willie Nelson
Me/And/Dad
Billy Strings
City Of Gold - WINNER
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
47. Best Traditional Blues Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing time
of new vocal or instrumental traditional blues recordings.
Ridin'
Eric Bibb
The Soul Side Of Sipp
Mr. Sipp
Life Don't Miss Nobody
Tracy Nelson
Teardrops For Magic Slim Live At Rosa's Lounge
John Primer
All My Love For You - WINNER
Bobby Rush
48. Best Contemporary Blues Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental contemporary blues recordings.
Death Wish Blues
Samantha Fish And Jesse Dayton
Healing Time
Ruthie Foster
Live In London
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
Blood Harmony - WINNER
Larkin Poe
LaVette!
Bettye LaVette
49. Best Folk Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental folk recordings.
Traveling Wildfire
Dom Flemons
I Only See The Moon
The Milk Carton Kids
Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live] - WINNER
Joni Mitchell
Celebrants
Nickel Creek
Jubilee
Old Crow Medicine Show
Seven Psalms
Paul Simon
Folkocracy
Rufus Wainwright
50. Best Regional Roots Music Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental regional roots music recordings.
New Beginnings - WINNER
Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. & The Legendary Ils Sont
Partis Band
Live At The 2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival
Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers
Live: Orpheum Theater Nola - WINNER
Lost Bayou Ramblers & Louisiana Philharmonic
Orchestra
Made In New Orleans
New Breed Brass Band
Too Much To Hold
New Orleans Nightcrawlers
Live At The Maple Leaf
The Rumble Featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.
Field 6: Gospel & Contemporary Christian
Music
51. Best Gospel Performance/Song
This award is given to the artist(s) and
songwriter(s) (for new compositions) for the best traditional Christian, roots
gospel or contemporary gospel single or track.
God Is Good
Stanley Brown Featuring Hezekiah Walker, Kierra
Sheard & Karen Clark Sheard; Stanley Brown, Karen V Clark Sheard, Kaylah
Jiavanni Harvey, Rodney Jerkins, Elyse Victoria Johnson, J Drew Sheard II,
Kierra Valencia Sheard & Hezekiah Walker, songwriters
Feel Alright (Blessed)
Erica Campbell; Erica Campbell, Warryn Campbell,
Juan Winans & Marvin L. Winans, songwriters
Lord Do It For Me (Live)
Zacardi Cortez; Marcus Calyen, Zacardi Cortez
& Kerry Douglas, songwriters
God Is
Melvin Crispell III
All Things - WINNER
Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin, songwriter
52. Best Contemporary Christian Music
Performance/Song
This award is given to the artist(s) and
songwriter(s) (for new compositions) for the best contemporary Christian music
single or track, (including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin, or rock.)
Believe
Blessing Offor; Hank Bentley & Blessing
Offor, songwriters
Firm Foundation (He Won't) [Live]
Cody Carnes
Thank God I Do
Lauren Daigle; Lauren Daigle & Jason Ingram,
songwriters
Love Me Like I Am
for KING & COUNTRY Featuring Jordin Sparks
Your Power - WINNER
Lecrae & Tasha Cobbs Leonard; Alexandria
Dollar, Jordan Dollar, Antonio Gardener, Micheal Girgenti, Lasanna “Ace”
Harris, David Hein, Deandre Hunter, Dylan Hyde, Christian Louisana, Patrick
Darius Mix Jr., Lecrae Moore, Justin Pelham, Jeffrey Lawrence Shannon, Allen
Swoope, songwriters
God Problems
Maverick City Music, Chandler Moore & Naomi
Raine; Daniel Bashta, Chris Davenport, Ryan Ellis & Naomi Raine,
songwriters
53. Best Gospel Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing time
of newly recorded, vocal, traditional or contemporary/R&B gospel music
recordings.
I Love You
Erica Campbell
Hymns (Live)
Tasha Cobbs Leonard
The Maverick Way
Maverick City Music
My Truth
Jonathan McReynolds
All Things New: Live In Orlando - WINNER
Tye Tribbett
54. Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of newly recorded, vocal, contemporary Christian music, including pop,
rap/hip hop, Latin, or rock recordings.
My Tribe
Blessing Offor
Emanuel
Da' T.R.U.T.H.
Lauren Daigle
Lauren Daigle
Church Clothes 4 - WINNER
Lecrae
I Believe
Phil Wickham
55. Best Roots Gospel Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of newly recorded, vocal, traditional/roots gospel music, including
country, Southern gospel, bluegrass, and Americana recordings.
Tribute To The King
The Blackwood Brothers Quartet
Echoes Of The South - WINNER
Blind Boys Of Alabama
Songs That Pulled Me Through The Tough Times
Becky Isaacs Bowman
Meet Me At The Cross
Brian Free & Assurance
Shine: The Darker The Night The Brighter The
Light
Gaither Vocal Band
Field 7: Latin, Global, Reggae & New Age,
Ambient, or Chant
56. Best Latin Pop Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new Latin pop recordings.
La
Cuarta Hoja
Pablo
Alborán
Beautiful
Humans, Vol. 1
AleMor
A
Ciegas
Paula
Arenas
La
Neta
Pedro
Capó
Don
Juan
Maluma
X
Mí (Vol. 1) - WINNER
Gaby
Moreno
57.
Best Música Urbana Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new Música Urbana recordings.
SATURNO
Rauw
Alejandro
MAÑANA
SERÁ BONITO - WINNER
Karol G
DATA
Tainy
58. Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new Latin rock or alternative recordings.
MARTÍNEZ
Cabra
Leche
De Tigre
Diamante
Eléctrico
Vida
Cotidiana - WINNER
Juanes
De
Todas Las Flores - WINNER
Natalia
Lafourcade
EADDA9223
Fito
Paez
59.
Best Música Mexicana Album (Including Tejano)
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new regional Mexican (banda, norteño, corridos, gruperos, mariachi,
ranchera and Tejano) recordings.
Bordado
A Mano
Ana
Bárbara
La
Sánchez
Lila Downs
Motherflower
Flor De Toloache
Amor
Como En Las Películas De Antes
Lupita
Infante
GÉNESIS
- WINNER
Peso
Pluma
60. Best Tropical Latin Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new tropical Latin recordings.
Siembra:
45º Aniversario (En Vivo en el Coliseo de Puerto Rico, 14 de Mayo 2022) -
WINNER
Rubén
Blades Con Roberto Delgado & Orquesta
Voy
A Ti
Luis
Figueroa
Niche
Sinfónico
Grupo
Niche Y Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia
VIDA
Omara
Portuondo
MIMY
& TONY
Tony
Succar, Mimy Succar
Escalona
Nunca Se Había Grabado Así
Carlos Vives
61. Best Global Music Performance
For new vocal or instrumental Global music
recordings.
Shadow Forces
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily
Alone
Burna
Boy
FEEL
Davido
Milagro
Y Desastre
Silvana
Estrada
Abundance In Millets
Falu & Gaurav Shah (Featuring PM Narendra
Modi)
Pashto - WINNER
Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain Featuring
Rakesh Chaurasia
Todo Colores
Ibrahim Maalouf Featuring Cimafunk & Tank And
The Bangas
62. Best African Music Performance
Amapiano
ASAKE & Olamide
City Boys
Burna Boy
UNAVAILABLE
Davido Featuring Musa Keys
Rush
Ayra Starr
Water - WINNER
Tyla
63. Best Global Music Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental Global Music recordings.
Epifanías
Susana Baca
History
Bokanté
I Told Them...
Burna Boy
Timeless
Davido
This Moment - WINNER
Shakti
64. Best Reggae Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new reggae recordings.
Born For Greatness
Buju Banton
Simma
Beenie Man
Cali Roots Riddim 2023
Collie Buddz
No Destroyer
Burning Spear
Colors Of Royal - WINNER
Julian Marley & Antaeus
65. Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new vocal or instrumental new age recordings.
Aquamarine
Kirsten Agresta-Copely
Moments Of Beauty
Omar Akram
Some Kind Of Peace (Piano Reworks)
Ólafur Arnalds
Ocean Dreaming Ocean
David Darling & Hans Christian
So She Howls - WINNER
Carla Patullo Featuring Tonality And The Scorchio
Quartet
Field 8: Children's, Comedy, Audio Books, Visual
Media & Music Video/Film
66. Best Children's Music Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new musical or spoken word recordings that are created and intended
specifically for children.
Ahhhhh!
Andrew & Polly
Ancestars
Pierce Freelon & Nnenna Freelon
Hip Hope For Kids!
DJ Willy Wow!
Taste The Sky
Uncle Jumbo
We Grow Together Preschool Songs - WINNER
123 Andrés
67. Best Comedy Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing
time of new recordings.
I Wish You Would
Trevor Noah
I'm An Entertainer
Wanda Sykes
Selective Outrage
Chris Rock
Someone You Love
Sarah Silverman
What's In A Name? - WINNER
Dave Chappelle
68. Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling
Recording
Big Tree
Meryl Streep
Boldly Go: Reflections On A Life Of Awe And
Wonder
William Shatner
The Creative Act: A Way Of Being
Rick Rubin
It's Ok To Be Angry About Capitalism
Senator Bernie Sanders
The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times
- WINNER
Michelle Obama
69. Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media
Award to the principal artist(s) and/or 'in studio'
producer(s) of a majority of the tracks on the album. In the absence of both, award to the one or
two individuals proactively responsible for the concept and musical direction
of the album and for the selection of artists, songs and producers, as applicable.
Award also goes to appropriately credited music supervisor(s).
AURORA
Brandon Davis, Pete Ganbarg, Joseph Khoury &
Blake Mills, compilation producers; Frankie Pine, music supervisor
(Daisy Jones & The Six)
Barbie The Album - WINNER
Brandon Davis, Mark Ronson & Kevin Weaver,
compilation producers; George Drakoulias, music supervisor
(Various Artists)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Music From And
Inspired By
Ryan Coogler, Archie Davis & Ludwig
Göransson, compilation producers; Dave Jordan, music supervisor
(Various Artists)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix,
Vol. 3
Kevin Feige, James Gunn & Dave Jordan,
compilation producers; Dave Jordan, music supervisor
(Various Artists)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson & Al Yankovic,
compilation producers; Suzanne Coffman, music supervisor
Weird Al Yankovic
70. Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media
(Includes Film And Television)
Award to Composer(s) for an original score
created specifically for, or as a companion to, a current legitimate motion
picture, television show or series, or other visual media.
Barbie
Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, composers
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Ludwig Göransson, composer
The Fabelmans
John Williams, composer
Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny
John Williams, composer
Oppenheimer - WINNER
Ludwig Göransson, composer
71. Best
Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media
Award to Composer(s) for an original score created
specifically for, or as a companion to, video games and other interactive
media.
Call Of Duty®: Modern Warfare II
Sarah Schachner, composer
God Of War Ragnarök
Bear McCreary, composer
Hogwarts Legacy
Peter Murray, J Scott Rakozy & Chuck E. Myers
"Sea", composers
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - WINNER
Stephen Barton & Gordy Haab, composers
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
Montaigne, Tripod & Austin Wintory, composers
72. Best Song Written For Visual Media
A Songwriter(s) award. For a song (melody &
lyrics) written specifically for a motion picture, television, video games or
other visual media, and released for the first time during the Eligibility
Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.)
Barbie World [From "Barbie The Album"]
Naija Gaston, Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr. & Onika
Maraj, songwriters (Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice Featuring Aqua)
Dance The Night [From "Barbie The
Album"]
Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson &
Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Dua Lipa)
I'm Just Ken [From "Barbie The Album"]
Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Ryan
Gosling)
Lift Me Up [From "Black Panther: Wakanda
Forever - Music From And Inspired By"]
Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson, Robyn Fenty &
Temilade Openiyi, songwriters (Rihanna)
What Was I Made For? [From "Barbie The
Album"] - WINNER
Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell,
songwriters (Billie Eilish)
73. Best Music Video
Award to the artist, video director, and video
producer.
I'm Only Sleeping - WINNER
(The Beatles)
Em Cooper, video director; Jonathan Clyde, Sophie
Hilton, Sue Loughlin & Laura Thomas, video producers
In Your Love
Tyler Childers
Bryan Schlam, video director; Kacie Barton, Silas
House, Nicholas Robespierre, Ian Thornton & Whitney Wolanin, video producers
What Was I Made For
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish, video director; Michelle An,
Chelsea Dodson & David Moore, video producers
Count Me Out
Kendrick Lamar
Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar, video directors;
Jason Baum & Jamie Rabineau, video producers
Rush
Troye Sivan
Gordon Von Steiner, video director; Kelly McGee,
video producer
74. Best Music Film
For concert/performance films or music
documentaries. Award to the artist, video director, and video producer.
Moonage Daydream - WINNER
(David Bowie)
Brett Morgen, video director; Brett Morgen, video
producer
How I'm Feeling Now
(Lewis Capaldi)
Joe Pearlman, video director; Sam Bridger, Isabel
Davis & Alice Rhodes, video producers
Live From Paris, The Big Steppers Tour
(Kendrick Lamar)
Mike Carson, Dave Free & Mark Ritchie, video
directors; Cornell Brown, Debra Davis, Jared Heinke, Hank Neuberger & Jamie
Rabineau, video producers
I Am Everything
(Little Richard)
Lisa
Cortés, video director; Caryn Capotosto, Lisa Cortés, Robert Friedman & Liz
Yale Marsh, video producers
Dear Mama
(Tupac Shakur)
Allen Hughes, video director; Steve Berman, Jody
Gerson, Allen Hughes, John Janick, Lasse Jarvi & Charles King, video
producers
Field 9: Package, Notes & Historical
75. Best Recording Package
The Art Of Forgetting
Caroline Rose, art director (Caroline Rose)
Cadenza 21'
Hsing-Hui Cheng, art director (Ensemble Cadenza
21')
Electrophonic Chronic
Perry Shall, art director (The Arcs)
Gravity Falls
Iam8bit, art director (Brad Breeck)
Migration
Chang Yu Chung, Li Jheng Han & Yu Wei, art director
(Leaf Yeh)
Stumpwork - WINNER
Rottingdean Bazaar & Annie Collinge, art
directors (Dry Cleaning)
76. Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package
The Collected Works Of Neutral Milk Hotel
Jeff Mangum, Daniel Murphy & Mark Ohe, art
directors (Neutral Milk Hotel)
For The Birds: The Birdsong Project - WINNER
Jeri Heiden & John Heiden, art directors
(Various Artists)
Gieo
Duy Dao, art director (Ngot)
Inside: Deluxe Box Set
Bo Burnham & Daniel Calderwood, art directors
(Bo Burnham)
Words & Music, May 1965 - Deluxe Edition
Masaki Koike, art director (Lou Reed)
77. Best Album Notes
Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With
Eric Dolphy (Live)
Ashley Kahn, album notes writer (John Coltrane
& Eric Dolphy)
I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy
Glenn
Scott B. Bomar, album notes writer (Howdy Glenn)
Mogadishu's Finest: The Al Uruba Sessions
Vik Sohonie, album notes writer (Iftin Band)
Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings
From The Collection Of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971
Jeff Place & John Troutman, album notes
writers (Various Artists)
Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
- WINNER
Robert Gordon & Deanie Parker, album notes
writers (Various Artists)
78. Best Historical Album
Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997):
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17
Steve Berkowitz & Jeff Rosen, compilation
producers; Steve Addabbo, Greg Calbi, Steve Fallone, Chris Shaw & Mark
Wilder, mastering engineers; Michael H. Brauer, restoration engineer (Bob
Dylan)
The Moaninest Moan Of Them All: The Jazz
Saxophone of Loren McMurray, 1920-1922 Colin Hancock, Meagan Hennessey &
Richard Martin, compilation producers; Richard Martin, mastering engineer;
Richard Martin, restoration engineer (Various Artists)
Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings
From The Collection Of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971
Jeff Place & John Troutman, compilation
producers; Randy LeRoy & Charlie Pilzer, mastering engineers; Mike Petillo
& Charlie Pilzer, restoration engineers (Various Artists)
Words & Music, May 1965 - Deluxe Edition
Laurie Anderson, Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Matt
Sulllivan & Hal Willner, compilation producers; John Baldwin, mastering
engineer; John Baldwin & Steve Rosenthal, restoration engineers (Lou Reed)
Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
- WINNER
Robert Gordon, Deanie Parker, Cheryl Pawelski,
Michele Smith & Mason Williams, compilation producers; Michael Graves,
mastering engineer; Michael Graves, restoration engineer (Various Artists)
Field 10: Production, Engineering, Composition
& Arrangement
79. Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
An Engineer's Award. (Artists names appear in
parentheses.)
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Daniel Harle, Caroline Polachek & Geoff Swan,
engineers; Mike Bozzi & Chris Gehringer, mastering engineers (Caroline
Polachek)
History
Nic Hard, engineer; Dave McNair, mastering
engineer (Bokanté)
JAGUAR II - WINNER
John Kercy, Kyle Mann, Victoria Monét, Patrizio
"Teezio" Pigliapoco, Neal H Pogue & Todd Robinson, engineers; Colin
Leonard, mastering engineer (Victoria Monét)
Multitudes
Michael Harris, Robbie Lackritz, Joseph Lorge
& Blake Mills, engineers; Patricia Sullivan, mastering engineer (Feist)
The Record
Owen Lantz, Will Maclellan, Catherine Marks, Mike
Mogis, Bobby Mota, Kaushlesh "Garry" Purohit & Sarah Tudzin,
engineers; Pat Sullivan, mastering engineer (boygenius)
80. Best Engineered Album, Classical
An Engineer's Award. (Artist names appear in
parentheses.)
The Blue Hour
Patrick Dillett, Mitchell Graham, Jesse Lewis,
Kyle Pyke, Andrew Scheps & John Weston, engineers; Helge Sten, mastering
engineer (Shara Nova & A Far Cry)
Contemporary American Composers - WINNER
David Frost & Charlie Post, engineers; Silas
Brown, mastering engineer (Riccardo Muti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
Fandango
Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, engineers;
Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (Gustavo Dudamel, Anne
Akiko Meyers, Gustavo Castillo & Los Angeles Philharmonic)
Sanlikol: A Gentleman Of Istanbul - Symphony For
Strings, Percussion, Piano, Oud, Ney & Tenor
Christopher Moretti & John Weston, engineers;
Shauna Barravecchio & Jesse Lewis, mastering engineers (Mehmet Ali
Sanlikol, George Lernis & A Far Cry)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five
Pieces
Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering
engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
81. Producer Of The Year, Classical
A Producer's Award. (Artist names appear in
parentheses.)
David Frost
The American Project (Yuja Wang, Teddy Abrams,
Louisville Orchestra) (A)
Arc II - Ravel, Brahms, Shostakovich (Orion
Weiss) (A)
Blanchard: Champion (Yannick Nézet-Séguin,
Latonia Moore, Ryan Speedo Green, Eric Owens, Stephanie Blythe, Metropolitan
Opera Chorus & Orchestra) (A)
Contemporary American Composers (Riccardo Muti
& Chicago Symphony Orchestra) (A)
The Guitar Player (Mattias Schulstad) (A)
Mysterium (Anne Akiko Meyers, Grant Gershon &
Los Angeles Master Chorale) (A)
Verdi: Rigoletto (Daniele Rustioni, Piotr Beczala,
Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Andrea Mastroni, The Metropolitan
Opera Chorus & Orchestra) (A)
Morten Lindberg
An Old Hall Ladymass (Catalina Vicens & Trio
Mediæval) (A)
Thoresen: Lyden Av Arktis - La Terra Meravigliosa
(Christian Kluxen & Arktisk Filharmoni) (A)
The Trondheim Concertos (Sigurd Imsen &
Baroque Ensemble Of The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra) (A)
Yggdrasil
(Tove Ramlo-Ystad & Cantus) (A)
Dmitriy
Lipay
Adès:
Dante (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic) (A) Fandango (Gustavo
Dudamel, Anne Akiko Meyers & Los Angeles Philharmonic) (A)
Price: Symphony No. 4; Dawson: Negro Folk
Symphony (Yannick Nézet-Séguin & Philadelphia Orchestra) (A)
Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini
Rhapsody (Yuja Wang, Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic) (A)
Walker: Lyric For Strings; Folksongs For
Orchestra; Lilacs For Voice & Orchestra; Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony (Asher
Fisch & Seattle Symphony) (A)
Elaine Martone - WINNER
Ascenso (Santiago Cañón-Valencia) (A)
Berg: Three Pieces From Lyric Suite; Strauss:
Suite From Der Rosenkavalier (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra)
(A)
Between Breaths (Third Coast Percussion) (A)
Difficult Grace (Seth Parker Woods) (A)
Man Up / Man Down (Constellation Men's Ensemble)
(A)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 (Franz Welser-Möst
& The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)
Rachmaninoff & Gershwin: Transcriptions By
Earl Wild (John Wilson) (A)
Sirventés - Music From The Iranian Female
Composers Association (Brian Thornton, Katherine Bormann, Alicia Koelz, Eleisha
Nelson, Amahl Arulanadam & Nathan Petipas) (A)
Walker: Antifonys; Lilacs; Sinfonias Nos. 4 &
5 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)
Brian Pidgeon
Fuchs: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (John Wilson
& Sinfonia Of London) (A)
Music For Strings (John Wilson & Sinfonia Of
London) (A)
Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4 (James
Ehnes, Edward Gardner & Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) (A)
Pierre Sancan - A Musical Tribute (Jean-Efflam
Bavouzet, Yan Pascal Tortelier & BBC Philharmonic) (A)
Poulenc: Orchestral Works (Bramwell Tovey &
BBC Concert Orchestra) (A)
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3; Voclaise; The Isle
Of The Dead (John Wilson & Sinfonia Of London) (A)
Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 3 (Edward Gardner
& City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) (A)
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 12 & 15 (John
Storgårds & BBC Philharmonic) (A)
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works (Alpesh Chauhan
& BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) (A)
82. Best Remixed Recording
(A Remixer's Award. (Artists names appear in
parentheses for identification.) Singles or Tracks only.)
Alien Love Call
BADBADNOTGOOD, remixers (Turnstile &
BADBADNOTGOOD Featuring Blood Orange)
New Gold (Dom Dolla Remix)
Dom Dolla, remixer (Gorillaz Featuring Tame
Impala & Bootie Brown)
Reviver (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Remix)
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, remixer (Lane
8)
Wagging Tongue (Wet Leg Remix) - WINNER
Wet Leg, remixers (Depeche Mode)
Workin' Hard (Terry Hunter Remix)
Terry Hunter, remixer (Mariah Carey)
83. Best Immersive Audio Album
For vocal or instrumental albums in any
genre. Must be commercially released for
physical sale or on an eligible streaming or download service and must provide
a new immersive mix of four or more channels.
Award to the immersive mix engineer, immersive producer (if any) and
immersive mastering engineer (if any).
Act 3 (Immersive Edition)
Ryan Ulyate, immersive mix engineer; Michael
Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Ryan Ulyate, immersive producer (Ryan
Ulyate)
Blue Clear Sky
Chuck Ainlay, immersive mix engineer; Michael
Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Chuck Ainlay, immersive producer
(George Strait)
The Diary Of Alicia Keys - WINNER
George Massenburg & Eric Schilling, immersive
mix engineers; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Alicia Keys
& Ann Mincieli, immersive producers (Alicia Keys)
God Of War Ragnarök (Original Soundtrack)
Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; Michael
Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Kellogg Boynton, Anthony Caruso,
Peter Scaturro & Herbert Waltl, Immersive producers (Bear McCreary)
Silence Between Songs
Sean Brennan & Mike Piacentini, immersive mix
engineers; Aaron Short, immersive mastering engineer; Madison Beer & Leroy
Clampitt, immersive producers (Madison Beer)
84. Best Instrumental Composition
A Composer's Award for an original composition
(not an adaptation) first released during the Eligibility Year. Singles or
Tracks only.
Amerikkan Skin
Lakecia Benjamin, composer (Lakecia Benjamin
Featuring Angela Davis)
Can You Hear The Music
Ludwig Göransson, composer (Ludwig Göransson)
Cutey And The Dragon
Gordon Goodwin & Raymond Scott, composers
(Quartet San Francisco Featuring Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band)
Helena's Theme - WINNER
John Williams, composer (John Williams)
Motion
Edgar Meyer, composer (Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer
& Zakir Hussain Featuring Rakesh Chaurasia)
85. Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
An Arranger's Award. (Artist names appear in
parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
Angels We Have Heard On High
Nkosilathi Emmanuel Sibanda, arranger (Just 6)
Can You Hear The Music
Ludwig Göransson, arranger (Ludwig Göransson)
Folsom Prison Blues - WINNER
John Carter Cash, Tommy Emmanuel, Markus Illko,
Janet Robin & Roberto Luis Rodriguez, arrangers (The String Revolution
Featuring Tommy Emmanuel)
I Remember Mingus
Hilario Duran, arranger (Hilario Duran And His
Latin Jazz Big Band Featuring Paquito D'Rivera)
Paint It Black
Esin Aydingoz, Chris Bacon, Alana Da Fonseca,
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, arrangers (Wednesday Addams)
86. Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
An Arranger's Award. (Artist names appear in
parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
April In Paris
Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Patti Austin Featuring
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band)
Com Que Voz (Live)
John Beasley & Maria Mendes, arrangers (Maria
Mendes Featuring John Beasley & Metropole Orkest)
Fenestra
Godwin Louis, arranger (Cécile McLorin Salvant)
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning - WINNER
Erin Bentlage, Jacob Collier, Sara Gazarek,
Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje Featuring Jacob Collier)
Lush Life
Kendric McCallister, arranger (Samara Joy)
Field 11: Classical
87. Best Orchestral Performance
Award to the Conductor and to the Orchestra.
Adès:
Dante - WINNER
Gustavo
Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
Bartók: Concerto For Orchestra; Four Pieces
Karina Canellakis, conductor (Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic Orchestra)
Price: Symphony No. 4; Dawson: Negro Folk
Symphony
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor (The Philadelphia
Orchestra)
Scriabin: Symphony No. 2; The Poem Of Ecstasy
JoAnn Falletta, conductor (Buffalo Philharmonic
Orchestra)
Stravinsky: The Rite Of Spring
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco
Symphony)
88. Best Opera Recording
Award to the Conductor, Album Producer(s) and
Principal Soloists, and to the Composer and Librettist (if applicable) of a
world premiere Opera recording only.
Blanchard: Champion - WINNER
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Ryan Speedo
Green, Latonia Moore & Eric Owens; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera
Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
Corigliano: The Lord Of Cries
Gil Rose, conductor; Anthony Roth Costanzo,
Kathryn Henry, Jarrett Ott & David Portillo; Gil Rose, producer (Boston
Modern Orchestra Project & Odyssey Opera Chorus)
Little: Black Lodge
Timur; Andrew McKenna Lee & David T. Little,
producers (The Dime Museum; Isaura String Quartet)
89. Best Choral Performance
Award to the Conductor, and to the Choral
Director and/or Chorus Master where applicable and to the Choral Organization/Ensemble.
Carols After A Plague
Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)
The House Of Belonging
Craig Hella Johnson, conductor (Miró Quartet;
Conspirare)
Ligeti: Lux Aeterna
Ragnar Bohlin, conductor (San Francisco Symphony
Chorus)
Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil
Steven Fox, conductor (The Clarion Choir)
Saariaho: Reconnaissance - WINNER
Nils Schweckendiek, conductor (Uusinta Ensemble;
Helsinki Chamber Choir)
90. Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
For new recordings of works with chamber or small
ensemble (twenty-four or fewer members, not including the conductor). One Award
to the ensemble and one Award to the conductor, if applicable.
American Stories
Anthony McGill & Pacifica Quartet
Beethoven For Three: Symphony No. 6, 'Pastorale'
And Op. 1, No. 3
Yo-Yo
Ma, Emanuel Ax & Leonidas Kavakos
Between Breaths
Third Coast Percussion
Rough Magic - WINNER
Roomful Of Teeth
Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson,
William Grant Still & George Walker
Catalyst Quartet
Field 11: Classical
91. Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Award to the Instrumental Soloist(s) and to the
Conductor when applicable.
Adams, John Luther: Darkness And Scattered Light
Robert Black
Akiho: Cylinders
Andy Akiho
The American Project - WINNER
Yuja Wang; Teddy Abrams, conductor (Louisville
Orchestra)
Difficult Grace
Seth Parker Woods
Of Love
Curtis Stewart
92. Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
Award to: Vocalist(s), Collaborative Artist(s)
(Ex: pianists, conductors, chamber groups) Producer(s), Recording
Engineers/Mixers with greater than 50% playing time of new material.
Because
Reginald Mobley, soloist; Baptiste Trotignon,
pianist
Broken Branches
Karim Sulayman, soloist; Sean Shibe, accompanist
40@40
Laura Strickling, soloist; Daniel Schlosberg, pianist
Rising
Lawrence Brownlee, soloist; Kevin J. Miller,
pianist
Walking In The Dark - WINNER
Julia Bullock, soloist; Christian Reif, conductor
(Philharmonia Orchestra)
93. Best Classical Compendium
Award to the Artist(s) and to the Album
Producer(s) and Engineer(s) of over 50% playing time of the album, and to the
Composer and Librettist (if applicable) with over 50% playing time of a world
premiere recording only.
Fandango
Anne Akiko Meyers; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor;
Dmitriy Lipay, producer
Julius Eastman, Vol. 3: If You're So Smart, Why
Aren't You Rich?
Christopher Rountree, conductor; Lewis Pesacov,
producer
Mazzoli: Dark With Excessive Bright
Peter Herresthal; Tim Weiss, conductor; Hans
Kipfer, producer
Passion For Bach And Coltrane - WINNER
Alex Brown, Harlem Quartet, Imani Winds, Edward
Perez, Neal Smith & A.B. Spellman; Silas Brown & Mark Dover, producers
Sardinia
Chick Corea; Chick Corea & Bernie Kirsh,
producers
Sculptures
Andy Akiho; Andy Akiho & Sean Dixon,
producers
Zodiac Suite
Aaron Diehl Trio & The Knights; Eric
Jacobsen, conductor; Aaron Diehl & Eric Jacobsen, producers
94. Best Contemporary Classical Composition
A Composer's Award. (For a contemporary classical
composition composed within the last 25 years, and released for the first time
during the Eligibility Year.) Award to the librettist, if applicable.
Adès: Dante
Thomas Adès, composer (Gustavo Dudamel & Los
Angeles Philharmonic)
Akiho: In That Space, At That Time
Andy Akiho, composer (Andy Akiho, Ankush Kumar
Bahl & Omaha Symphony)
Brittelle: Psychedelics
William Brittelle, composer (Roomful Of Teeth)
Mazzoli: Dark With Excessive Bright
Missy Mazzoli, composer (Peter Herresthal, James
Gaffigan & Bergen Philharmonic)
Montgomery: Rounds - WINNER
Jessie Montgomery, composer (Awadagin Pratt, A
Far Cry & Roomful Of Teeth)
CNN
191 Posts
13 min ago
In Arizona, Democrats look to drive up turnout in key county
From CNN's
Miguel Marquez in Tucson, Arizona
Arizona Democrats
are facing a dilemma in Pima County. Home to Tucson, the blue county boasts a
deep well of Democratic voters, but many with deep uncertainty about President
Joe Biden's age and his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Read
more about that here.
But state
and county Democrats say they have a strategy to target these unenthused
voters: Focus on local and state issues to drive up turnout and reap the
benefits at the top of the ticket.
Advocates
are gathering signatures to place a state constitutional amendment enshrining
abortion rights on the November ballot. They’re hoping to replicate the success
of similar efforts across the country since the fall of Roe v. Wade by turning out
Democrats, independents and even some supportive Republicans.
“A lot of
people have been extremely shocked to see women's rights reversed after all of
these years,” said Corinne Cooper, who has been volunteering since September to
get Arizonans to sign the petition.
Democrats
here point to competitive US Senate and House races as a draw for centrist and
progressive voters alike, along with the possibility that the party could flip
both chambers of the state Legislature – a duopoly they haven’t enjoyed since
1966.
“When
people realize that voting rights, women’s rights, public schools, all these
things are settled at the state Legislature, the light bulb goes on,” said John
McClean, a Democratic state Senate candidate. “These are issues important
to their everyday lives.”
Democrats
are also counting on another factor: fear about what a second Trump presidency
would look like. Becky Richards, a 37-year-old Realtor, moved to Arizona from
much more Democratic Illinois a few years ago.
“It's
terrifying to see that Trump is basically doing nothing, and still gaining momentum,”
she said. “In Arizona, that scares me, in a way, because I see the Trump
flags and the MAGA hats and things as you drive through the state.”
If it
comes down to a rematch between Biden and Trump, Richards said that despite her
hope for a younger candidate, she’ll vote for Biden “no question.”
41 min ago
McConnell defends Trump endorsement despite blaming him for
Jan. 6 insurrection
From
Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju and Melanie Zanona
Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell defended his endorsement of former President Donald
Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, despite Trump’s barrage of attacks
against him and his wife and McConnell's harsh criticism of the former
president after the January 6 insurrection.
“February
25th, 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, I was asked a similar
question, and I said I would support the nominee for president even if it were
the former president,” he told CNN.
Pressed again, he said, “I don’t have anything to add to what I just said. I
said in February of 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, that I would
support President Trump if he were the nominee of our party, and he obviously
is going to be the nominee of our party.”
Earlier
Wednesday, Trump thanked McConnell for the endorsement. The pair have had a
rocky relationship over the past few years, but Trump says he’s willing to work
with him.
“Thank
you, Mitch,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I look forward to working with you
and a Republican Senate MAJORITY to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
1 hr 1 min
ago
Trump calls for debates with Biden hours after Haley
suspends campaign
From CNN's
Kate Sullivan
Former
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for debates with President Joe Biden
hours after Nikki Haley suspended
her presidential campaign.
Trump, who
did not participate in any GOP primary debates, has previously said he wanted
to debate Biden in the general election.
"It
is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that
are so vital to America, and the American People. Therefore, I am calling for
Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE! The Debates can be run by the Corrupt
DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). I look
forward to receiving a response. Thank you for your attention to this
matter!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
12 min ago
In Arizona, Biden has a problem where he can least afford it
From CNN's
Miguel Marquez in Tucson, Arizona
President
Joe Biden has a problem where he can least afford it: with Democratic voters in
Pima County, Arizona. The county, home to Tucson, boasts a deep well of
Democratic voters, but many with deep uncertainty about the president’s age and
his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Just how
critical is Pima County? Biden won Arizona in 2020 by about 10,000 votes out of more than 3 million
cast. He bested Trump by nearly 100,000 votes in Pima County. He’ll need
every one of those votes, and maybe more, if he hopes to keep Arizona — and his
job — come November.
Tucson
business owner Jenna Majchrzak, a self-described “reluctant Democrat,” sums up
the expected November choice between Biden and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump this way: “It's hard to vote for someone
with multiple felony charges,” she says, “and it's also very hard to vote for
someone that is pro-genocide.”
It’s an
opinion d by many Democratic voters whom CNN talked to in this diverse county
of just over a million residents, with Mexico on its southern border and the
Tohono O’odham Nation to the west.
Grady
Campbell, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Arizona, is looking
forward to voting in his first presidential election. But — and it’s a big
one — he’s so put off by the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s
offensive in Gaza that he’s voting for Marianne Williamson in the March 19
Democratic primary.
“I think
that just by voting against him in the primary, we can send a message to
hopefully help him change his viewpoints a little bit more progressively into
the general election,” Campbell said.
Another
concern for some Pima County Democrats: Biden’s age.
“It's not
even so much even the mental acuity as it is just kind of being out of touch,”
Amanda Bruno, 31, said of the 81-year-old president. “I'd love to see somebody
a little bit younger, who's whose impact will be felt by their generation.”
How are
state and county Democrats responding to the challenge of unenthused voters?
Read more about that here.
1 hr 55
min ago
White House implies Biden does not want Trump to receive
classified briefings as presumptive GOP nominee
From CNN's
Nikki Carvajal
The White
House implied that President Joe Biden still does not want to see former
President Donald Trump receive classified intelligence briefings — even as
Trump is set to officially become the Republican nominee for president.
“I think
the president's words stand today,” White House press secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. “I don't think his mind has changed on that.”
It’s
tradition for past presidents to be allowed to request and receive intelligence
briefings. In 2021, Biden said he didn’t
believe Trump
should receive the briefings due to his “erratic behavior unrelated to the
insurrection.”
“I’d
rather not speculate out loud,” Biden previously said when asked what he fears
could happen if Trump continued to receive the briefings. “I just think that
there is no need for him to have the — the intelligence briefings. What value
is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other
than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Asked if
Biden would do anything to try to block Trump from receiving the briefings,
Jean-Pierre declined to answer on Wednesday.
“I don't
have anything to add,” she said, “but the president was very clear about how he
felt about that, and I would say those comments certainly do stand
today.”
The
nominees of the two major parties have received classified
intelligence briefings from
top government officials for more than 60 years, a decision aimed at
facilitating a smooth transition from candidate to commander in chief.
2 hr 37
min ago
Supreme Court sets April 25 argument date in Trump immunity
case
From CNN’s
John Fritze
The
Supreme Court will hear arguments on
April 25 in
the blockbuster case dealing with whether former President Donald Trump may
claim immunity from prosecution in the federal election subversion case.
The court
previously said it would hear arguments in the case during the week of April
22. On Wednesday, it announced that it would hear the case during a rare
Thursday session.
The timing
of the case has drawn considerable scrutiny as it could help determine whether
Trump faces trial over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election before the
November 2024 election.
Special
counsel Jack Smith, who brought the criminal charges, has sought to speed up
the proceedings over Trump’s immunity claim so that he can bring the matter to
trial as quickly as possible.
An
original trial date that had been set for early March already has been postponed.
3 hr 24
min ago
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips ends his presidential campaign
and endorses Biden
Minnesota
Rep. Dean Phillips is ending his long-shot Democratic primary challenge to
President Joe Biden.
The
Democrat announced his decision in a post on X and endorsed President Joe Biden, saying it is
"clear that Joe Biden is OUR candidate and OUR opportunity to demonstrate
what type of country America is and intends to be."
He thanked
his supporters, and urged them to do everything they can "to help
keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That's Joe Biden."
3 hr 50
min ago
Analysis: Why Donald Trump is so different from traditional
candidates
From
CNN's Stephen CollinsonFormer president Donald Trump steps out to deliver remarks
at a campaign rally at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January
20. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Donald Trump has put America on notice – his second term would be even more disruptive and
turbulent than his first.
The new
presumptive Republican nominee booked his place in a general election
rematch with President Joe Biden when his distant, last-remaining rival Nikki Haley conceded to reality and suspended her campaign on
Wednesday.
The
triumph of the once and possibly future president – an incredible comeback
given his attempt to steal the 2020 election and a crush of criminal and civil
trials threatening his liberty and fortune – sets up one of the most fateful
elections in American history. His demonstrated record of contempt for
democratic institutions means that the country’s political, legal and
constitutional guardrails are facing a severe new test from a GOP candidate who
could be a convicted felon by Election Day and who may see restored executive
power as a tool to thwart federal prosecutions.
And
Trump’s return to the threshold of the presidency will send shockwaves around a
world still recovering from his volatile leadership and affinity for autocrats
and send a warning to Ukraine, a nation fighting for its survival.
The reason
Trump is so different from a traditional candidate is that he’s not campaigning
as a fresh new voice pulsating with optimism for the future or brimming with
policy ideas to bring the nation together. He’s portraying America as a
dystopian, failed state overwhelmed by lawlessness, urban blight and slipping
toward World War III abroad. In a classic trope of dictators, he’s promising to
flush out enemies within, vowing revenge on political foes and posing as a
strongman while conflating his own personal, political interests with the
nation’s.
4 hr 48
min ago
Haley’s lone House GOP supporter urges her to unify behind
Trump
From CNN's
Sam Fossum and Manu Raju
Nikki Haley’s
lone House Republican supporter, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, is urging
her to help unite the party after she announced she will withdraw from the
presidential race, telling CNN that he is speaking with former President Donald
Trump later today.
“It’s time
to unite. I’ll be supporting President Trump 100%. We got a country (to) save,”
he told CNN’s Manu Raju.
When asked
if he thinks Haley should do more to urge her supporters to get behind Trump,
Norman said, “We’ll see. I hope she will. I mean, I hope she’ll 100% get behind
him. I mean, what’s the other option?”
Norman,
who did not speak to Haley this morning, said he hopes that she will ultimately
support Trump.
“We’ll
see. Hopefully she will,” he said, adding: “It’s not about Democrat and
Republican, it’s about getting this country back on track.”
Norman
added that Haley “did a good job" in her campaign, "but the people
chose Donald Trump. That’s a good thing that it played out like
this."
4 hr 54
min ago
Is Nikki Haley the future – or the past – of the Republican
Party?
From CNN’s
Jeff Zeleny
Former
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has emerged from the presidential primary like
few losing candidates manage to do – in a far more elevated position than when
announcing her candidacy a year ago.
Haley,
whose political career spans from the Tea Party to
the Trump era, offered a
warning about the isolationist movement that is growing inside the Republican
Party.
“Our world
is on fire because of America’s retreat,” Haley said Wednesday as she announced
the suspension of her campaign. “Standing by our allies in Ukraine, Israel and
Taiwan is a moral imperative. But it’s also more than that. If we retreat
further, there will be more war, not less.”
The
question of Haley’s next steps will be answered in the months and years to
come. But it speaks to a far larger question about whether her views are the
future – or the past – of the GOP.
5 hr 12
min ago
Congressional Republicans set aside past concerns over Trump
and rally behind him as nominee
From CNN's
Sam Fossum and Manu Raju
Some
congressional Republicans are putting aside concerns over former President
Donald Trump as the party’s nominee and uniting around him following a dominant
Super Tuesday showing that led to his last primary challenger dropping
out.
Senate GOP Whip John Thune, who has been vocal in the past about his concerns over how
Trump will fare with suburban voters, told CNN that he believes the Republican
ticket will deliver a unified message.
“We’ll all
go out and all help aggressively win those people in suburban areas (and)
independent voters. It's now a ... straight up one-on-one,” he told CNN’s Manu
Raju.
And Rep. John Duarte, a California Republican who represents a district
President Joe Biden won last cycle, told CNN that he’s focused on who he is
running against and that he plans to endorse Trump.
“I think
Biden’s the opponent and that’s good for me. It’s easy to run against Joe Biden
these days, and that’s what we’ll be doing,” he told Raju when asked if Trump
at the top of the ticket could have implications for tough races
down-ballot.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who also represents a Biden-won Pennsylvania district,
declined to say whether he would be endorsing Trump.
5 hr 20
min ago
Biden teams look to foreign affairs in hopes of peeling off
Haley voters
From CNN's
Kevin Liptak
As
President Joe Biden's advisers look for ways to appeal to Nikki Haley
supporters, one area of potential overlap is emerging: foreign policy and world
affairs.
It's not
an issue traditionally at the center of presidential elections, which usually
revolve around domestic matters and the economy. But for the president and his
team, America's role in the world has become a key point of contrast with
Donald Trump – fertile ground, they believe, for picking off disillusioned
Republicans.
In his
statement making a direct appeal to bring Haley's voters into the fold, Biden
made specific mention of her attempts to call out Donald Trump for
"cowering before Vladimir Putin" and for her support of NATO.
Likewise,
in her speech announcing the suspension of her campaign, Haley spent time during
the brief remarks describing the "moral imperative" of standing with
traditional American allies like Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
To be
sure, she wasn't endorsing Biden's approach — she said "our world is on
fire because of America's retreat." But in voicing support for
longstanding American alliances and a muscular role abroad, she found herself
more aligned with Biden than with Trump, who has questioned NATO's role and
said he would encourage Russia to
invade NATO members
who don't meet defense spending targets.
There is
little expectation among Biden's team that world affairs will drive many votes
in November, but in the abstract, they think issues like the war in Ukraine and
support for NATO provide a clear point of contrast with Trump. It's also an
issue they believe will resonate with donors – potentially those who
contributed to Haley's campaign – as they look to peel off support.
However,
even as he looks to appeal to her supporters on foreign policy, he faces
discontent within his own party for his handling of Israel's war in Gaza – an
indication that the issue will remain a
political flashpoint going
forward.
Recommended
for you
5 hr 36
min ago
"A tale of two statements": Haley aide reacts to
the difference in Biden and Trump responses to Haley's exit
Nikki
Haley’s campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas described the statements from President Joe Biden and former
President Donald Trump on Haley's exit from the race as "a tale of two
statements."
Biden’s statement
said there is a place for Haley voters in his campaign. In contrast, Trump
invited Haley supporters to join him while saying the former South Carolina
governor was “trounced” on Super Tuesday and that most of her donations came
from Democrats.
5 hr 50
min ago
Trump campaign fundraises off Haley's exit from the race
From CNN's
Alayna Treene
The Trump
campaign blasted out a fundraising text to supporters on Wednesday shortly after
former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced she was suspending her
campaign, telling them, "It was a hard-fought race, but now it's time for
us to unite as a party and defeat Joe Biden!"
"Nikki
Haley ends her campaign!" the appeal read in all caps. "If we're
going to win back the White House, it will be all because of what you do right
here, right now."
The text
said former President Donald Trump is calling on one million supporters to
donate following the news.
5 hr 53
min ago
RNC acknowledges Trump is the presumptive nominee
From CNN's
Daniel Strauss
The
Republican National Committee formally acknowledged former President Trump as
the 2024 presumptive Republican nominee for president on Wednesday, shortly
after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley officially dropped out of the
Republican primary.
“Congratulations
to President Donald J. Trump on his huge primary victory!” RNC chairwoman Ronna
McDaniel said in the statement. “I’d also like to congratulate Nikki Haley for
running a hard-fought campaign and becoming the first woman to win a Republican
presidential contest.”
The
statement comes just days before an expected leadership change at the RNC
where McDaniel is likely to
step down from
her post and Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican
Party, is expected to succeed her. Trump had endorsed Whatley to lead the RNC
and has also said he would install key lieutenants at the organization once he
became the presumptive nominee.
Once a
party has a presumptive or formal nominee that party’s national committee
normally melds closely with the nominee’s campaign. In this case, the RNC is
set to align closely with the Trump campaign going forward.
5 hr 54
min ago
Elon Musk says he's not donating in presidential race
From CNN's
Steve Contorno
Billionaire
Elon Musk on Wednesday shot down speculation that he may provide financial
support to former President Donald Trump's campaign.
"Just
to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US
President," he posted on X, the social media website he owns.
The public
declaration comes after the New York Times reported this week that Musk met
with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in recent days. CNN confirmed the meeting with Musk, one of several Trump held with
donors in Palm Beach last weekend as he seeks to raise more money for his
financially strained campaign.
This isn't
the first time this cycle Musk has flirted with supporting a presidential
candidate only to pull back. Musk once praised Ron DeSantis' White House bid
and infamously hosted the Florida governor's
glitchy presidential campaign launch on X. However, Musk ultimately backed away from
DeSantis.
5 hr 58
min ago
Biden campaign makes an appeal to Haley supporters
From CNN's
Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak
President
Joe Biden made a clear appeal to Nikki Haley’s supporters in the aftermath of
her exit from the race, praising her “courage” in standing up to former
President Donald Trump.
“Donald
Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be
clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement
moments after Haley suspended her campaign.
Biden
heralded Haley for her role in her party: “It takes a lot of courage to run for
President – that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few
dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump. Nikki Haley was willing to speak
the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his
inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin.”
The Biden
campaign is setting out to earn the votes of moderate Republican voters turned
off by Trump. Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said
Wednesday there is a “home” for Haley voters with the Biden team in the moments
before Haley ended her candidacy.
Haley
voters “agreed with Nikki Haley when she stood up to Trump for the chaos, the
division, the extremism that he represents,” Tyler told CNN’s John Berman
Wednesday morning. Haley voters, he added, “rejected MAGA extremism” in 2020
and 2022, and “are now rejecting Donald Trump and MAGA extremism moving
forward."
6 hr 3 min
ago
Republicans spent more than $303 million on ads during the
presidential primary
From CNN's
David Wright
Nikki
Haley suspended her presidential campaign this morning, ending a costly fight
for the Republican nomination that drew a total of over $303 million in ad
spending from the combined field of GOP candidates and outside groups, and saw
the top candidates devote tens of millions to attacking each other.
Haley’s
network spent about $82 million on ads, with about $17.9 million coming from
her campaign and $64.4 million from SFA Fund, the lead super PAC supporting her
bid. In addition, Americans For Prosperity Action, the Koch-aligned super PAC
backing Haley, spent about $8 million on ads supporting Haley.
Overall,
comparing the lead candidates and their main allied PACs, Haley’s network spent
the most on ads in the GOP presidential primary, about $82.3 million. Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his super PACs spent the second most, about $60.4
million, while former President Donald Trump and his PACs spent the third most,
about $60.8 million.
According
to the Haley campaign’s most recent fundraising reports and public statements,
it likely ended with some untapped resources. Haley’s campaign reported nearly
$13 million in cash on hand as of the end of 2023, and had recently announced
it raised $12 million in the month of February.
6 hr 17
min ago
Trump goes after Haley as she drops out and invites Haley supporters
to join his movement
From CNN's
Alayna Treene
As Nikki
Haley suspended her campaign Wednesday morning, former President Donald Trump
posted on social media that the former South Carolina governor got
"trounced" on Super Tuesday and invited her supporters to join his
political movement.
“Nikki
Haley got trounced last night, in record setting fashion, despite the fact that
Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont, and various
other Republican Primaries. Much of her money came from Radical Left Democrats,
as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according to the polls,” Trump posted.
He
continued, “At this point, I hope she stays in the “race” and fights it out
until the end! I’d like to thank my family, friends, and the Great Republican
Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful Super Tuesday in
history, and would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join
the greatest movement in the history of our Nation."
Reminder: Vermont does not have party registration. All voters can
choose which primary to vote in.
6 hr 27
min ago
Nikki Haley congratulates Trump without endorsing him as she
exits race
From CNN's
Shania Shelton
Nikki
Haley congratulated former President Donald Trump during her announcement
ending her presidential campaign but stopped short of endorsing him.
"In
all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee
when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him
and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be
America's president. Our country is too precious to let our
differences divide us," Haley said.
Haley
added, "it is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those
in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he
does that."
6 hr 21
min ago
Nikki Haley: "The time has now come to suspend my
campaign"
From CNN's
Aditi Sangal
"I am
filled with gratitude for the outpouring of support we've received
from all across our great country. But the time has now come
to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have
their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets," she
said Wednesday in South Carolina.
She warned
Americans about the plethora of problems that lie ahead, saying, "the
world is on fire." The former South Carolina governor emphasized some of
the issues she ran on: the threat of national debt to the American economy, the
need for small government and the importance of standing by Ukraine, Taiwan and
Israel.
Haley also
congratulated Donald Trump who, she said, is going to be the likely
presidential nominee of the Republican Party.
"It
is now up to Donald Trump to earn the vote those in our party and
beyond it, who did not support him. And I hope he does that,"
she added.
Reflecting
back on her campaign, she remarked that her mother, “a
first-generation immigrant, got to vote for her daughter for
president — only in America.”
6 hr 25
min ago
Haley delivers remarks in South Carolina
Nikki
Haley, who is expected to exit the presidential race, is speaking from
Charleston, South Carolina, where she is poised to renew her call for a return
to conservative principles and warn against an isolationist foreign policy that
has taken hold inside the Republican Party, an adviser said.
She is
expected to mention Trump, the adviser said, but will not offer an endorsement.
6 hr 42
min ago
Hillary Clinton weighs in on the age issue, says Trump and
Biden are "effectively the same age"
From CNN's
Betsy Klein
Hillary
Clinton downplayed concerns about President Joe Biden’s age on Wednesday amid
persistent polling reflecting Democratic anxiety on the issue in notable
comments, making the case to her followers that Biden and former President
Donald Trump are “effectively the same age.”
“When
you're lucky to live into your seventies or eighties, the difference of a few
years doesn't matter all that much. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are effectively
the same age. Let's use that as a baseline,” Clinton said in an Instagram post.
The
morning after Trump swept a slate of states on Super Tuesday, Clinton echoed
the Biden campaign, which has widely viewed this week as a crystallizing moment
in the rematch between Trump and Biden.
Trump,
Clinton said, “tried to overthrow our democracy, has been indicted 91 times,
and says he wants to be a ‘day one’ dictator if elected again. I'm choosing
Biden. How about you?”
7 hr 1 min
ago
Haley’s team told donors that Super Tuesday was the day to
watch
From CNN's
Kylie Atwood
Top
officials on Nikki Haley’s campaign told major donors in recent weeks that
Super Tuesday would dictate whether or not Haley stayed in the race, according
to two sources familiar with the discussions.
They made
a persuasive case in these private conversations: Staying in the race through
Super Tuesday would give Haley’s team more data about the GOP electorate, the
sources said. Haley’s team wanted that data before making the call to suspend
her campaign, instead of pulling the plug after only a few states had
voted.
As a
result, most donors are not surprised by Nikki Haley’s move to drop out today,
particularly because they didn’t expect the outcome in the Super Tuesday states
to be better than Haley’s performance in the other early states.
Haley
herself engaged in outreach to some top donors very late last night, one source
said. Members of Haley’s team also made outreach to top donors, sources added.
It is too early to tell where the donors go from here, they said.
7 hr 17
min ago
Super PAC congratulates Trump on Haley's decision to exit
the race
From CNN's
Kristen Holmes
The Donald
Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA, Inc., congratulated the former president after
news broke that his lone GOP rival, Nikki Haley, would soon announce she plans
to drop out of the race.
“Congratulations
to President Donald Trump for vanquishing his opponents in record time. The
same movement that powered President Trump to a primary victory will power him
to a general election victory. Voters are eager to have the prosperity and
safety of the Trump presidency restored,” Taylor Budowich, CEO of Make America
Great Again Inc.
Haley will
announce that she is withdrawing from the Republican presidential race today, according
to sources familiar with her plans. She is speaking in Charleston, South
Carolina, at 10 a.m. ET.
8 hr 50
min ago
Haley decided to suspend campaign after "benchmark for
staying in" was not reached, adviser says
From CNN's
Jeff Zeleny
Nikki Haley
reached the decision to suspend her presidential campaign late Tuesday, an
adviser said, but did not her plans outside of an extraordinarily tight circle
of senior aides that guided her candidacy.
Even as
her team watched a victory in Vermont and a strong showing in the
Virginia suburbs on
Super Tuesday, “the benchmark for staying in the race was not reached,” an
adviser said. Going into the biggest day of voting, the adviser said, Haley’s
team had set a loose threshold of winning about 40% of the vote in several
states to credibly stay in the race.
What she's expected to say today: Haley will
speak from Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday, where she is poised to
renew her call for a return to conservative principles and warn against an
isolationist foreign policy that has taken hold inside the Republican Party,
the adviser said. She is expected to mention Trump, the adviser said, but will
not offer an endorsement.
9 hr 47
min ago
Haley won't endorse Trump — for now
From CNN's
Kylie Atwood
Nikki
Haley will not announce today that she is endorsing former President Donald
Trump, sources familiar with her plans tell CNN.
Instead,
Haley will call on Trump to earn the support of voters who backed
her. That plan appears to leave the room for her to endorse Trump ahead of
the general election in November.
Haley will
announce that she is withdrawing from the Republican presidential race today
according to sources familiar with her plans. She is speaking in Charleston,
South Carolina, at 10 a.m. ET.
10 hr 4
min ago
Nikki Haley will exit GOP presidential race, clearing path
for Donald Trump
From CNN's
Kylie Atwood
Former
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will announce Wednesday that she is exiting the
Republican presidential race, according to sources familiar with her plans,
clearing the path for former President Donald Trump.
Haley had
emerged as former President Donald Trump’s sole rival in the Republican
presidential primary campaign, and while he rolled to victory in 14 of the 15
GOP contests on Super Tuesday, she foiled a possible clean sweep by winning in
Vermont.
Across the
Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, Haley won just 43 of the Republican
delegates while Trump won 764.
Ahead of
the South Carolina primary in February, Haley vowed to stay in the
race through to Super Tuesday on March
5, saying
she would continue to compete in the primary “until the last person votes,
because I believe in a better America and a brighter future for our kids.”
Haley, who
was Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations, was the last of a dozen major
candidates the former president vanquished in a GOP primary that he dominated
from start to finish, even as he skipped the party’s debates and maintained a
much lighter schedule of early-state travel than all of his rivals.
Haley is
expected to deliver remarks in Charleston, South Carolina at 10 a.m. ET.
11 hr 7
min ago
Biden campaign casts Trump as "wounded, dangerous, and
unpopular” in new Super Tuesday memo
From CNN's
Donald Judd and Ji Min Lee
“We have a
clear path to victory.”
The memo,
signed by Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie
Chavez Rodriguez, said Nikki Haley’s resilience in the GOP primary to date is
clear evidence that Trump faces a hard ceiling in terms of support from
traditionally GOP voters.
“A
significant of moderate and Haley voters across the country are saying that Trump
cannot count on their votes in a general election,” the memo says.
O’Malley
Dillon and Chavez Rodriguez said in the memo that as the general election ramps
up, those are precisely the voters that the Biden campaign will “aggressively
engage.”
The memo
also downplays a slew of concerning poll numbers for the incumbent president.
A new poll
from the New York Times over the weekend found Biden trailing Trump, 48%-43%,
but also found 10% were undecided—a figure the campaign says shows promise for
Biden.
The
November election, the memo says, “will be a very close general election
contest like all modern presidential elections are… but, we have a clear path
to victory.”
11 hr 14
min ago
Biden and Trump picked up a large number of delegates on
Super Tuesday. Here's the latest delegate estimate
From CNN
staff
Both
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump picked up a large
number of delegates in their
dominating wins on Super Tuesday.
More than
a dozen states held primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, the biggest day of the
nominating races so far as the 2024 presidential campaign accelerates.
Trump's
GOP rival Nikki Haley also picked up some delegates, winning the Vermont GOP
presidential primary, but she remains far behind Trump. Meanwhile, in American
Samoa — where 91 votes were cast in the Democratic caucuses — Biden lost to
Democratic candidate Jason Palmer.
Here's the
latest estimate of delegates won on Super Tuesday:
Republicans:
·
Trump: 764
·
Haley: 43
47
delegates from tonight’s contests are still to be allocated.
Democrats:
·
Biden: 1,366
·
Uncommitted: 8
·
Palmer: 3
43
delegates from tonight’s contests are still to be allocated.
These
are the estimated delegates won to date:
Republicans:
·
Trump: 1,040
·
Nikki Haley: 86
Democrats:
·
Biden: 1,572
·
Uncommitted: 10
·
Palmer: 3
Remember: It takes 1,215 of 2,429 delegates to win the
Republican nomination and 1,968 of 3,934 delegates to win the Democratic
nomination.
This post
has been updated with the latest delegate estimates.
12 hr 14
min ago
Here are some of the key takeaways from Super Tuesday
From CNN's
Eric Bradner, Gregory Krieg and Simone Pathe
More than
a dozen states held primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, the biggest day of the nominating
races so far as the 2024 presidential campaign accelerates and leaves the
one-by-one march through early-voting states behind.
Both Biden
and Trump saw familiar signs of potential general election weaknesses:
progressives casting ballots for “uncommitted” rather than Biden,
college-educated suburbanites choosing Haley over Trump.
Here are
some of the key takeaways:
·
Trump wins
big: The former president continued his run of dominance in the
Republican nominating contest, despite losing one state, Vermont, to Nikki
Haley. Though the 15 states that voted Tuesday didn’t have enough delegates for
Trump to clinch the party’s nomination, he moved much closer and demonstrated
that the door for Haley is all but shut.
·
Biden
dominates: Biden has faced difficult headlines over the last few
months. His approval ratings remain low and the general election horse race
polling is worrisome for Democrats. But on Super Tuesday, like every other
primary day, he dominated his few rivals — typically winning around 80% of the
vote. Trump, meanwhile, has rarely hit that mark. The other stark political
reality is that come November, Trump is more likely to be the one facing the
same headwinds he is now. Biden did lose one primary
contest on
Tuesday, in American Samoa.
·
Haley's
silence speaks volumes: On election nights so far, even when a loss was coming,
Haley’s campaign has attempted to shape the narrative. But, on Tuesday night,
none of that happened. Haley watched returns in her home state of South
Carolina as the contests that likely represented her last hopes of a dramatic
shakeup slipped by, Trump win after Trump win.
·
North
Carolina in the spotlight: North Carolina is Biden's best chance to flip a state from
the 2020 map, and it's also home to the highest-stakes governor's race of the
year. The contest is between GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic state
Attorney General Josh Stein, and the policy debate could be dominated by
abortion rights in the Tarheel State, where the Republican legislative
supermajority passed a 12-week ban over the objection of outgoing Democratic
Gov. Roy Cooper.
12 hr 50
min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win the Utah GOP caucuses
From CNN’s
Daniel Strauss
Former
President Donald Trump will win the Utah Republican caucuses, CNN
projects.
There were
40 delegates at stake in the state’s GOP contest.
11 hr 55
min ago
What we know about Jason Palmer, the candidate who delivered
Biden his first defeat in a Democratic primary
From CNN's
Veronica Stracqualursi
President
Joe Biden was handed his first defeat thus far in the Democratic primary by a
man who very few knew before Tuesday night: Venture capitalist Jason Palmer, who CNN projected will win the American Samoa Democratic nominating contest.
While
Palmer won in the tiny US territory – where fewer than 100 people participate
in the caucus – it will not slow Biden’s commanding march to the Democratic
nomination after the president dominated Super Tuesday races across the
country.
Palmer,
who’s never held political office, launched his ambitious bid for the White
House in November. He’s from Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently a partner at
New Markets Venture Partners. He previously worked at the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, Microsoft and Kaplan, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Palmer, 52,
acknowledges on his campaign website that his candidacy is a longshot bid “with
very little chance of winning,” and claims his campaign is more focused on
“ideas, solutions and changing the conversation.”
In a video
announcing his candidacy, Palmer vowed to be a champion for young Americans and
touted his plan for a “talent economy powered by mission driven entrepreneurs
and conscious capitalism.”
More context: American Samoa has been a US territory since 1900. The
island is a part of Oceania— about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand in
the Pacific Ocean.
Since
American Samoa is a territory and not a US state, its citizens do not vote in the federal election. But,
they do get to have a say in who becomes their candidates for
president, by
voting in the primaries.
12 hr 2
min ago
Exit polls of Republican primaries show how Trump has
transformed the party
From CNN's
Ariel Edwards-Levy and Tami Luhby
With Super
Tuesday in the rearview mirror, CNN’s entrance and exit polls of the Republican
presidential contests so far highlight the extent to which the GOP electorate
has been reshaped in former President Donald Trump’s image.
Across six
states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and
California – most GOP primary voters said they’d consider Trump fit for the
presidency even if he’s convicted of a crime.
In none of
those states has a majority of the GOP electorate been willing to acknowledge
the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Exit polls
are a valuable tool to help understand primary voters’ demographic profile and
political views. Like all surveys, however, exit polls are estimates, not
precise measurements of the electorate.
That’s
particularly true for the preliminary set of exit poll numbers in Super Tuesday
states, which haven’t yet been weighted to match the final results of the
primaries.
That means
that the numbers may continue to update in those states. But the results in
these six states – which are the only ones where entrance or exit polls
were conducted this year – provide a glimpse of the type of voters turning
out.
Read more about what the exit polls show here.
13 hr 43
min ago
March 12 will bring another round of contests in multiple
states
From CNN
staff
While 16
US states and one US territory participated in primary contests on Super Tuesday, there are still several significant primaries to come this
month.
CNN
reported earlier today that former President Donald Trump’s team is aware he
won’t cross the delegate threshold on Super Tuesday to become the presumptive
Republican nominee, but they hope he secures enough delegates as early as next
Tuesday, March 12, when another round of multistate primaries take place. It
takes 1,215 of 2,429 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
Here's a
look at the upcoming primary dates:
·
March 6: Hawaiian
Democratic presidential caucuses
·
March 8: American
Samoa GOP presidential caucuses
·
March 12:
·
Georgia
·
Hawaii Republican presidential
caucuses
·
Mississippi
·
Northern Mariana Islands Democratic
primary (party-run)
·
Washington
·
Democrats abroad presidential
primary
Access the full election calendar.
14 hr 24
min ago
Analysis: The general election is here — and it's Trump v.
Biden
From CNN's
Stephen Collinson
Donald Trump left the White House a loser. But now, only one man
– President Joe Biden – can thwart his predecessor’s return in what would be
the most astonishing political comeback in history.
Only three
years after Trump slunk out of Washington in disgrace – days after the mob he
told to “fight like hell” ransacked the US Capitol – and even as he faces four
looming criminal trials, he has already engineered a bounce back for the ages
in the Republican primary.
Trump went
on a roll on Super Tuesday. He won the Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Maine, Texas, Alaska, Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and
California Republican primaries. Every big state called in his favor brought
the ex-president ever closer to a general election campaign against his 2020
vanquisher that polls show he’s got at least an even chance of winning.
As the
results rolled in, Biden and Trump took aim at each other, setting the stage
for what is sure to be a bitter clash in November certain to cleave even deeper
national political divides.
Biden
reacted to Trump’s Super Tuesday victories by immediately cranking up his
general election attack on the former president – previewing an argument that
will be at the center of his own campaign for a second term.
“Tonight’s
results leave the American people with a clear choice: Are we going to keep
moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the
chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?” Biden said in a
statement.
14 hr 25
min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Alaska GOP primary
From CNN’s
Eric Bradner
Donald Trump
will win the Alaska Republican primary, CNN projects, as the former president
takes another step toward cementing the 2024 GOP presidential
nomination.
Trump
defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in a contest in which 29
delegates were at stake.
The Alaska
Republican party-run primary consisted of a presidential preference poll held
at various locations around the state.
Alaska and
its three electoral college votes have gone to Republicans all but once since the
state’s admission to the union in 1959 — with Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 being
Democrats’ only victory.
However,
the state has shown an independent streak. It elected Democratic Rep. Mary
Peltola to the House in a 2022 special election and reelected her again later
that year. Trump won Alaska by 10 percentage points in 2020.
Longshot Democratic candidate Jason Palmer says he was
surprised by win in American Samoa
From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
CNN
Longshot presidential candidate Jason Palmer told CNN he was
surprised by his Tuesday win in the American Samoa Democratic caucuses over
President Joe Biden and credited his local staff and virtual campaign events
for the victory.
The first-time candidate argued that the “most important
thing we can do as Democrats is defeat” former President Donald Trump, who has
dominated the Super Tuesday contests.
Palmer said that part of why he entered the 2024 race was
“to make sure that Biden campaigns vigorously.”
“When people say we're going to be sleepwalking into a Trump
election. It's for real,” he told CNN in an interview early Wednesday.
“So I'm running to energize young voters and also
center-left, center-right people with a positive vision of what we can do in
the next four years. If Joe Biden's just talking about Donald Trump and he's
just talking about foreign policy and foreign wars, that's not going to win in
November. You got to have a clear, positive agenda,” Palmer added.
While he lauded Biden for his “tremendous service,” Palmer
called on Biden to “pass the torch to the next generation of Americans.”
Palmer said he’ll continue his presidential campaign,
focusing on the Arizona primary and releasing a 12-page proposal on reforming
the US immigration system.
14 hr 46 min ago
CNN Projections: House primaries outside California that
will likely determine their next member of Congress
From CNN staff
Brandon Gill. From
Brandon Gill campaign
Many of the primaries for open seats on Tuesday are in seats
that are safe for one party or the other. That means the winner of those
contests – or the eventual runoffs – will very likely be coming to Congress
next year. Here are some of those projected winners from Tuesday’s elections:
• North
Carolina’s 10th District: Pat Harrigan will win the Republican primary, CNN
projects, in the race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry in the
deep-red seat. McHenry briefly drew national attention last fall when he served
as House speaker pro tempore following Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.
Harrigan, a retired Green Beret and the owner of a firearm manufacturing
company, unsuccessfully ran for the US House from a Charlotte-area seat in
2022.
• Texas’ 12th
District: Texas state Rep. Craig Goldman and real estate developer John O’Shea will
advance to a runoff in the Republican primary, CNN projects, after neither
candidate secured over 50% of the vote Tuesday. The deep-red seat in the Fort
Worth area became vacant after longtime GOP Rep. Kay Granger opted against
reelection after 14 terms in Congress. Granger backed Goldman as her successor,
while O’Shea secured a high-profile endorsement from Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton.
• Texas’ 26th
District: Brandon Gill will win the Republican primary, CNN projects, in the
race to fill the deep-red North Texas seat of retiring GOP Rep. Michael
Burgess. Gill was involved in the film “2,000 Mules,” which was directed by his
father-in-law, conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, and pushes conspiracy
theories about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Gill received the endorsements
of former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
This post has been updated with additional projections.
‘I Was Surprised.’ Talking to Jason Palmer, the Man Who Beat
Joe Biden in American Samoa
5 MINUTE READ
Democratic presidential candidate Jason Palmer speaks during
an interview at a hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 2024.Pablo Martinez
Monsivais—AP
BY SIMMONE SHAH
MARCH 6, 2024 1:28 PM EST
Jason Palmer, a Baltimore-based entrepreneur and largely
unknown Democratic candidate, beat out President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s
Democratic caucus in American Samoa.
Just 91 votes were cast in the U.S. territory that delivered
Biden his first loss of the primary and his only loss on Super Tuesday, with 51
votes going to Palmer and 40 to Biden.
Watch more from TIME
Click to unmute
The win was as much a surprise to Palmer as it was to anyone
else when his phone started buzzing with hundreds of messages Tuesday night.
TIME talked to Palmer by phone on Wednesday about what lessons he took from his
win, what he plans to do next, and whether Biden’s age will be a problem in the
general election.
The following conversation has been lightly edited and
condensed.
PAID CONTENTGeorgia Drivers With No DUI's Getting A Pay Day
On ThursdayBY COMPARISONS.ORG
TIME: How did you find out about the win? What was your
reaction?
Palmer: I knew we were getting a lot of support in American
Samoa because we had a great team on the ground and we did multiple virtual
meetings. But I was surprised to get the announcement. My phone burned up with
hundreds of text messages and people all trying to call me at the same time to
let me know that we had won in American Samoa.
I thought we would get one or two delegates because I knew
we had all that support on the island, but to be the first Democratic
challenger to an incumbent president to win a primary since 1980—I didn't think
we would break a record like that.
What are the main points that you’re running on?
The main reasons I'm running are because we need to move our
economy to conscious capitalism, we need to implement policies that generate
millions of “new collar” economy jobs, and thirdly, we need to modernize our
government to bring it up to technological 21st century standards.
What helped me win [American Samoa] was focusing on
education, health care, and climate change, which are also important issues on
my website and are [the issues] that resonated the most with the American
Samoan people.
Why do you think American Samoa was the only place to buck
Biden on Super Tuesday?
It's the first time that our advertising budget was probably
about the same as Joe Biden's. The American Samoan people got to meet me and it
was the first time there's been an equal matchup where he didn't outspend me
200 to one.
What do you think this says about how Democrats are feeling
about Biden heading into the general election?
It seems like every three days the New York Times headline
says that two thirds of Democratic voters want a younger alternative. To me,
this is the first time that voters have been able to recognize that I am a
younger alternative with great ideas and leadership experience.
Read More: Young Progressive Activists Lay Out ‘Roadmap’ For
Biden To Win Back Gen Z
What do you hope people take from your surprise victory?
It's a real lesson to always pay attention to those whose
voices most need to be amplified. And then the second thing is that there are
other candidates in this race, including myself, and people really should take
a look at who those other names are on the ballot and see if maybe they stand
for your values more than Joe Biden does. And also that they might be younger
and more energetic and be better able to beat Donald Trump in the fall.
On your campaign website, you call yourself “a longshot
candidate.” Why run if you don't think you can win?
At the beginning, I did think I could win. I'm a venture
capitalist, so I invest in long shots for a living. When I entered this race, I
knew there was a less than 10% chance of me winning. Very few people beat
incumbent presidents, but there was a 90% chance of actually changing the
conversation, making sure that we were talking more about education as a key
priority for our country, talking about conscious capitalism as a way to make
our economy more equitable for all Americans, and talking about the new collar
economy as a way to help more and more working class Americans get to $50,000
to $100,000 a year jobs.
What do you plan to do next?
I’m focusing on the next states in line, Hawaii and
Arizona. I want to go to Arizona and
meet with people locally on the ground there. My team and I have created a
12-page white paper on how to reform and improve and upgrade our immigration
system, which we'll be releasing in the next few weeks.
We will also be launching a new organization that aims to
elect 20 people to Congress this fall, who are problem solvers who also believe
in conscious capitalism, the “new collar” economy, and have entrepreneurship or
technology experience to carry the mantle forward.
What do you plan to do with your delegates?
Those delegates will be selected by the American Samoan
people and we're going to go to the convention together and I'm going to represent
American Samoa to the best of my ability. There are many more states to come,
so we're hopefully going to get more delegates. The goal is to grow that number
of delegates so that we show up to the convention with the largest possible
number. I would love a convention speaking slot.
Any plans to visit American Samoa now?
Yes, it is a beautiful place. And I look forward to visiting
at some time during this campaign season to celebrate with all 51 people who
voted for me.
15 hr 14 min ago
CNN Projections: House incumbents facing primary challengers
From CNN staff
Rep. Steve Womack
talks to reporters after a House Republican Conference meeting in the US
Capitol on the speaker of the house nomination on Thursday, October 12,
2023. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty
Images
Several incumbents in safe seats are facing threats from
within their parties on Tuesday – and while those internecine contests might
not necessarily affect partisan control, they can reveal a lot about where the
base stands.
Here are the projected winners of those races:
• Arkansas’ 3rd
District: Rep. Steve Womack will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects,
beating back a challenge from his party’s right. Womack, the former chair of
the House Budget Committee, faced a primary challenge from state Sen. Clint
Penzo, who said he entered the race after Womack voted against Rep. Jim Jordan
for speaker last fall.
• Texas’ 7th
District: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher will win the Democratic primary, CNN projects,
as the incumbent looks to secure a fourth term. Fletcher faced a challenge from
the left by engineer Pervez Agwan in the safely Democratic Houston-area
district.
• Texas’ 18th
District: Longtime Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee will win the Democratic primary, CNN
projects, likely paving the way to a smooth reelection in the deep-blue
district that she’s represented since 1995. Jackson Lee defeated former Houston
City Council Member Amanda Edwards, her onetime congressional intern, who chose
to stay in the primary after Jackson Lee announced for reelection after an
unsuccessful – and bumpy – run for Houston mayor last year.
• Texas’ 23rd
District: Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales will be forced into a runoff, CNN
projects, after he failed to clear 50% of the vote in the primary. Gonzales and
Brandon Herrera will face off in May for the Republican-leaning seat along the
US-Mexico border. Gonzales was censured by the Texas Republican Party last year
in part over his support for legislation to protect same-sex marriage and a
bipartisan gun safety bill following the Uvalde mass shooting in his district.
This post was updated with additional projections.
15 hr 38 min ago
CNN Projection: GOP Rep. Barry Moore defeats fellow
Republican Rep. Jerry Carl in Alabama primary
From CNN’s Clare Foran
Barry Moore. Leah
Herman/US House of Representatives
GOP Rep. Barry Moore will defeat fellow Republican Rep.
Jerry Carl in an Alabama primary for the state’s newly redrawn 1st
Congressional District, CNN projects.
It is rare to see two incumbents run against one another,
and the member-on-member matchup comes as House Republicans oversee a
historically narrow majority and face a tough fight to retain control of the
chamber in the 2024 elections.
15 hr 45 min ago
CNN Projection: Schiff and Garvey will face off in
California Senate general election
From CNN’s Arit John
Republican Steve
Garvey and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. Getty Images
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey have
advanced to the general election in the open primary for California’s open
Senate seat, CNN projects, setting up an uphill battle for the state’s
beleaguered GOP.
Schiff and Garvey were competing in two Senate contests
Tuesday: one to fill the remainder of the late Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein’s term, from November until January; and another for a full six-year
term beginning January 2025.
The incumbent senator, Democrat Laphonza Butler, was
appointed to the seat last fall after Feinstein’s death. Butler announced
shortly after that she would not seek a full term.
Under California’s open primary system, all candidates run
on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on
to the general election. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans
nearly 2-to-1, the seat is heavily favored to stay blue in November.
Garvey beat two Democratic congresswomen – Reps. Katie
Porter and Barbara Lee – to secure a place on the general election ballot,
despite raising a fraction of what his opponents did and airing no TV ads.
14 hr 52 min ago
CNN Projections: Seats in districts that have been vastly
reshaped by redistricting
From CNN staff
Brad Knott. From Brad
Knott for Congress
Some voters in North Carolina and Alabama are selecting US
House candidates Tuesday in contests dramatically reshaped by congressional
redistricting in recent months.
In North Carolina – where members of the
Republican-controlled General Assembly drew a congressional map last fall that
heavily favors their party – the GOP is poised to win at least 10 of 14 House
seats this year, up from the current 7-7 partisan split. Flipping several seats
now held by Democrats could help Republicans retain their threadbare majority
in the chamber after November’s elections.
In Alabama, meanwhile, new lines have triggered an
incumbent-versus-incumbent primary Tuesday for one House seat and could set up
a history-making outcome this fall if Alabamians choose, for the first time, to
send two Black lawmakers to the US House. Here are the projected winners of
those races so far:
• Alabama's 1st
District: GOP Rep. Barry Moore will defeat fellow Republican Rep. Jerry Carl in
this newly redrawn district, CNN projects.
• Alabama’s 2nd
District: The Democratic primary will head to a runoff, CNN projects, with no
candidate taking more than 50% of the vote Tuesday. Shomari Figures, a former
US Justice Department official, and state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels
will finish ahead of a crowded field of candidates to advance.
• North
Carolina’s 6th District: The Republican primary could be heading for a runoff,
CNN projects, after none of the candidates secured more than 30% of the vote.
Addison McDowell, a former lobbyist, and former Rep. Mark Walker finished first
and second, respectively, in Tuesday’s primary. Under state law, the
second-place winner must request a runoff or the candidate with the most votes
will be declared the winner. Democratic incumbent Kathy Manning is not running
for reelection after state Republicans redrew the seat last year to heavily
favor the GOP. No Democrat is running for the seat.
• North
Carolina’s 13th District: The Republican primary could be heading to a runoff,
CNN projects, after none of the candidates secured over 30% of the vote.
Attorney Kelly Daughtry, who ran for an earlier version of this seat in 2022,
and Brad Knott, a former federal prosecutor, finished first and second,
respectively, in Tuesday’s primary. Under state law, the second-place winner
must request a runoff or the candidate with the most votes will be declared the
winner. Democratic incumbent Wiley Nickel is not running for reelection after
state Republicans redrew the seat last year to heavily favor the GOP.
• North
Carolina’s 14th District: North Carolina state House Speaker Tim Moore will win
the Republican primary, CNN projects. Democratic incumbent Jeff Jackson opted
not to run for reelection after state Republicans redrew the Charlotte-area
seat last year to heavily favor the GOP. Jackson is instead running for state
attorney general. Moore had the endorsement of former President Donald
Trump.
This post has been updated with additional projections.
15 hr 40 min ago
House Speaker Mike Johnson congratulates Trump as "our
nominee" after projected Super Tuesday wins
From CNN's Melanie Zanona
House Speaker Mike Johnson
speaks during a news conference with House Republican leadership on February 29
in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson – who recently met with Donald
Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida– congratulated the former president on his
projected Super Tuesday wins, declaring him “our nominee.”
“I look forward to working together to retake the White
House and grow our majority in Congress,” the Republican from Louisiana said in
a statement.
Remember: Trump has not yet won the GOP nomination. He needs
to win at least 1,215 delegates to clinch his party's nomination.
16 hr 3 min ago
Get caught up: Biden and Trump cruise through Super Tuesday
as they head toward potential rematch
From CNN staff
President Joe Biden
and former President Donald Trump. Getty Images
Both party’s presidential frontrunners racked up a
formidable series of victories on Super Tuesday.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won
their respective primaries in California and Texas — the states with the most
delegates up for grabs in Tuesday's races.
In a surprising victory, GOP presidential candidate Nikki
Haley will win Vermont, CNN projects, picking up her first state win. Still,
she remains far behind Trump in the delegate count.
Alaska was the last Super Tuesday poll to close at midnight
ET.
Projected winners:
• Biden: Iowa
Democratic mail-in caucus, Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota,
Utah and California Democratic primaries
• Trump:
Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Maine, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama,
Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and California Republican primaries
• Haley: Vermont
Republican primary
• Jason Palmer:
The Democratic candidate will win the American Samoa Democratic presidential
caucuses, CNN projects, handing Biden his only defeat so far this primary
season.
• Other key
races: Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh
Stein will face each other in the North Carolina governor's race, CNN projects.
Sen. Ted Cruz is also projected to win the Texas Senate GOP primary.
Estimated delegates won to date: Remember, it takes 1,215 of
2,429 delegates to win the Republican nomination and 1,968 of 3,934 delegates to
win the Democratic nomination.
Republican:
• Trump: 936
• Nikki Haley:
85
Democrat:
• Biden: 1,312
• Uncommitted: 2
Haley on her future: One donor said that they were told by
the campaign that Haley would "make plans and next steps tomorrow."
Her campaign said in a statement it was “honored” to win Vermont and emphasized
that there are voters who have an appetite for an alternative to Trump.
Biden campaign on American Samoa loss: The campaign shrugged
off the president's projected loss in the territory with one official calling
it “silly news.” Campaign officials said that a very small number of votes is
expected in American Samoa.
Dean Phillips considers campaign: The Democratic candidate
said he will make a decision in the coming days about his political future
after Super Tuesday’s results. Phillips announced late last month he was laying
off staff after not being able to raise the funds to run his campaign as he had
hoped.
16 hr 8 min ago
CNN Projections: House races in California that will be
pivotal in determining which party holds majority
From CNN staff
Stockton Mayor Kevin
Lincoln addresses the media of the arrest of Wesley Brownlee, 43, a suspect in
relation to a string of killings in Stockton and Oakland, during a press conference
in Stockton, California, on October 15, 2022. Rahul Lal/Sipa USA/AP
Among all the races on the ballot Tuesday, it’s the
primaries for the US House of Representatives – where Republicans are defending
a razor-thin majority – that are by far the most important for the balance of
power in Washington.
The outcomes of several House primaries Tuesday will shape
just how competitive these key races will be in the general election. Most of
them are in California, where candidates run on the same primary ballot, with
the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advancing to November. Here are
the projected winners of those races so far:
• California’s
3rd District: Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley and Democrat Jessica Morse will
advance to the general election, CNN projects.
• California’s
9th District: Democratic Rep. Josh Harder and Republican Kevin Lincoln, the
mayor of Stockton, will advance to the general election, CNN projects.
• California’s
27th District: Republican Rep. Mike Garcia and Democrat George Whitesides will
advance to the general election, CNN projects. Garcia was first elected to the
northern Los Angeles County seat in 2020. Whitesides, who served as chief of
staff for NASA during the Obama administration, is on the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue list for promising recruits.
• California’s
40th District: Republican Rep. Young Kim and Democrat Joseph Kerr, a former
firefighter and labor leader, will advance to the general election, CNN
projects. Democrats are targeting this seat, which President Joe Biden would
have narrowly won in 2020 under current district lines.
• California’s
41st District: Republican Rep. Ken Calvert and Democrat Will Rollins, a former
federal prosecutor, will advance to the general election, CNN projects, setting
up a rematch of their 2022 race. Calvert has served in the House since 1993.
Democrats are targeting this seat, which Donald Trump would have narrowly won
in 2020 under its current lines.
• California’s
49th District: Democratic Rep. Mike Levin and Republican Matt Gunderson will
advance to the general election, CNN projects. Republicans are targeting the
seat, which Biden would have won in 2020 under its current lines.
This post has been updated with additional projections.
16 hr ago
Wisconsin voters in CNN focus group are split on who they'd
vote for in presidential election
If the presidential election were today, a group of voters
in Wales, Wisconsin, who participated in a CNN focus group would be split on
who they would vote for.
Four voters out of the group of 11 told CNN's Gary Tuchman
that they would vote for Donald Trump and four others said they would cast
their ballots for Joe Biden. Three voters said they'd still vote for Trump's
GOP rival, Nikki Haley.
Asked for their predictions of who would win in November,
six voters said they thought Trump would win while four predicted a Biden
victory.
One voter, who said she would write-in Haley on the ballot,
said she would do so because she is "very concerned about what a second
term would mean" for Trump.
"I feel like we have to vote between the lesser of two
bad choices. I mean really bad choices," the voter said.
Another voter who said she is backing Trump said she's doing
so because "he's the man for the country right now." She commended
Trump's economic growth policy and his stance on border security.
As for Biden, one voter said he would vote for the president
because they aren't "worried that he's not going to leave office."
"I think that Trump may want to stay in the office or
may make changes that precludes his leaving," the voter said.
Wisconsin's primary is on April 2.
16 hr 45 min ago
It's midnight ET and polls are closing in Alaska. Here's
what you should know
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
As the clock strikes midnight ET, voting is ending in
Alaska's Republican primary. There are 29 GOP delegates at stake.
The Alaska Republican party-run primary consists of a
presidential preference poll held at various locations around the state. Alaska
Democrats will hold a party-run mail primary ending on April 6.
In presidential politics, Alaska is a safe state for
Republicans. It's voted for the Democratic presidential candidate only once
since gaining statehood in 1959.
16 hr 38 min ago
Haley campaign says Vermont win shows voters are open to
Trump alternative
From CNN's Ebony Davis, Kylie Atwood and Jamie Gangel
Haley waves as she
hosts a campaign event in South Burlington, Vermont, on March 3. Brian
Snyder/Reuters
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign said
Tuesday that it was "honored" by her projected win in Vermont's GOP
presidential primary and that it showed that there are voters who want an
alternative to former President Donald Trump.
"We’re honored to have received the support of millions
of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became
the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests,"
Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement. "Unity is not
achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united.'"
While Trump has dominated GOP races on Super Tuesday — CNN
has projected that he will win at least 12 states — Haley's campaign said there
remains a “large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep
concerns” about the former president.
“That is not the unity our party needs for success.
Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America
better,” Perez-Cubas said.
Trump has a formidable delegate lead with 893 delegates,
while Haley has 66.
A donor told CNN that they were told by Haley's campaign
that she would not get out of the race tonight but the campaign would
"make plans and next steps tomorrow."
16 hr 12 min ago
CNN Projection: Schiff will advance to general election in
California’s open Senate primary
From CNN’s Arit John
Rep. Adam Schiff
waves to supporters outside the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees Union Hall, at the kickoff rally for his two-week ‘California for All
Tour’, on February 11, 2023 in Burbank, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will advance in California's
Senate race for Dianne Feinstein's seat, CNN projects. It is too soon to
project who he'll face.
Under California’s open primary system, all candidates run
on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on
to the general election.
16 hr 56 min ago
Fact Check: Trump repeated many of his usual falsehoods
during Super Tuesday victory speech
From CNN’s Kate Grise
Former President Donald Trump repeated many of his usual
falsehoods Tuesday night as he addressed a crowd of supporters. His claims
touched on a range of topics from how much border wall was built during his
administration to the country’s energy independence.
CNN has fact-checked many of these claims before. Here are
some of those previous fact-checks:
• Trump falsely
claimed his administration “built 571 miles of wall.”
• Trump falsely
claimed that the United States was “energy independent” even though the country
never stopped importing foreign oil.
• In an apparent
reference to the multiple court cases he faces, Trump claimed, without
evidence, that “we have a country that a political person uses weaponization
against his political opponent never happened here.”
• While talking
about the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump also falsely said,
“We left $85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful equipment behind — jets and
tanks and everything you can think of — googles, night goggles.”
• Trump touted
the economy during his administration, saying it was “the best economy our
country’s ever had.”
16 hr 56 min ago
Biden campaign co-chair responds to Trump remarks:
"Most, if not all, of what he said was factually incorrect"
From CNN's Donald Judd
President Joe Biden's campaign fired back at former
President Donald Trump after the GOP front-runner delivered remarks from his
Mar-a-Lago resort Tuesday, telling CNN “most, if not all, of what he said was
factually incorrect, and is provably incorrect — and to the point where you
would think that if his lips are moving, he's lying or he's delusional, one of
the two.”
Mitch Landrieu, who serves as a co-chair for the Biden
campaign, sought to cast Tuesday’s election results as troubling for the Trump
campaign, telling CNN that stronger-than-expected returns for former UN
Ambassador Nikki Haley are promising for Biden’s reelection bid.
“She's winning in places where presidential elections are
decided, and in that group of people, those folks are tired of Donald Trump
taking the Republican Party as they once knew it,” he said. “The party with the
Cheneys and the Bushes and the Reagans and the Romneys and all of those
folks—and eviscerate it, and it's one of the reasons that we think that we've
have a really good chance, and that's where we're going to spend a lot of time,
as well as securing our base.”
CNN reported earlier Tuesday that the Biden campaign sees
those Haley voters as “gettable,” during the general election in November,
while Biden made a direct appeal “[t]o every Democrat, Republican, and
independent who believes in a free and fair America,” in a Super Tuesday
statement.
Still, Landrieu acknowledged, some work remains to convince
voters, including progressive voters who’ve expressed concerns over the
administration’s support for Israel in Gaza.
17 hr 8 min ago
CNN Projection: Allred will win Democratic nomination in
Texas Senate race
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
Rep Colin Allred speaks
during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in 2020. Manuel
Balce Ceneta/AP/File
US Rep. Colin Allred will win the Texas Democratic
nomination for US Senate and face Republican Ted Cruz in November, CNN
projects.
Allred defeated state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and seven other
contenders in the Democratic primary Tuesday. And by crossing the 50%
threshold, he avoids an automatic primary runoff in May.
16 hr 53 min ago
Harris calls Super Tuesday's election results "an
energizing moment for our campaign"
From CNN's Donald Judd
Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated Tuesday’s primary
election results, calling it “an energizing moment for our campaign."
“Americans of all backgrounds are showing that they sense
the urgency of this election, and that they are ready to stand with President
(Joe) Biden and me in this fight to protect our fundamental freedoms,” Harris
wrote in a statement.
CNN has projected that Biden will win nominating contests in
all but one of the Democratic contests Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump
also has had a successful night, with CNN projecting that he will win at least
12 Super Tuesday states.
The vice president warned in her statement that Trump “poses
a fundamental threat to our democracy, and he must be stopped.”
Harris said that Biden will the administration's victories
and its vision "of what more we can accomplish" during his State of
the Union address Thursday. She added that she will travel to the swing states
of Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona in the coming days.
“The president and I know reelection must be earned, and we
will continue to put in the work to reach every possible voter,” she said.
“Winning the fight to protect our fundamental freedoms will require nothing
less.”
13 hr 25 min ago
Democratic candidate Phillips says he's assessing results
and will make decision about future in "coming days"
From CNN's Ali Main and Manu Raju
Rep. Dean Phillips
speaks during the South Carolina's First in the Nation Dinner at the South
Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 27. Kent
Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images
Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips is assessing
Tuesday night's results and said he will make a decision in the coming days
about his political future.
"While Democratic Party loyalists are clearly,
consistently, and overwhelmingly registering their preference for Joe Biden, it
doesn’t alter the reality which compelled me to enter the race in the first
place; Donald Trump is increasingly likely to defeat him in November," he
said in a statement to CNN.
"I’ll be assessing tonight’s results and all available
data over the coming days before making a decision about how I can best help
prevent that tragedy," Phillips said.
The Minnesota Democrat had previously set March 5 as a
benchmark for determining the viability of his candidacy.
However, as his campaign progressed, Phillips said he wanted
to look to polling data this summer comparing his electability versus that of
President Joe Biden in hypothetical matchups against former President Donald
Trump.
Phillips announced late last month he was laying off staff
after not being able to raise the funds to run his campaign as he had hoped.
17 hr 11 min ago
Vermont voters anticipated Haley would do well in the state
From CNN's Eva McKend
Haley greets
supporters following a speech at a campaign event at the DoubleTree Hotel on
March 3 in South Burlington, Vermont.
John Tully/Getty Images
Nikki Haley’s Vermont supporters projected confidence during
her visit to the state Sunday at a rally that commanded an overflow crowd
outside of a hotel ballroom in South Burlington. Voters proudly described
themselves as “independent minded” and wanted to support a candidate they
viewed as reasonable and unifying, even if some of them historically have voted
for Democrats.
CNN projected Haley will win Vermont's GOP primary. The
state’s Republican Party Chair Paul Dame, who stayed neutral in the contest,
tonight said he was expecting a close race between Haley and former President
Donald Trump.
“In Vermont, we have a lot of the old school Rockefeller
Republicans. And obviously, Gov. Phil Scott remains one of the most popular
governors in the country and he came out and endorsed Nikki Haley pretty early.
He was very involved in the event that she had here on Sunday and pretty much
whenever a presidential candidate comes to Vermont, they're usually at least
getting delegates out of them,” Dame said when reached by phone Tuesday
evening.
“I think it says that Vermonters are looking for a different
direction. Trump's style of personality that he's injected into politics hasn't
really been popular in Vermont,” Dame added.
Matthew Dickinson, a political science professor at
Middlebury College, said he “underestimated the crossover vote.”
“I'm wondering how much of that was not simply a vote
against Trump, among Democrats and independents, but I wonder how much was sort
of a protest vote against Biden as well,” said Dickinson who described
Vermont’s Republicans as “more liberal than Republicans in other states.”
Republican State Rep. James Harrison who attended Haley’s
rally Sunday described her win as a “positive development.” He said that
“Vermont often marches to a different drummer." Harrison says Haley is a
“breath of fresh air” but is clear eyed that the race ultimately will come down
to Biden and Trump. He hasn’t made up his mind who he will support.
17 hr 34 min ago
Biden campaign official calls American Samoa loss
"silly news"
From CNN's MJ Lee and Kyle Blaine
The Biden campaign is shrugging off projections tonight that
showed President Joe Biden losing the American Samoa Democratic primary to
venture capitalist Jason Palmer, with one campaign official calling it
"silly news."
Campaign officials explained to reporters that a very small
number of votes is expected in American Samoa and pointed to former New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Democratic primary victory there in 2020.
Pressed for more details, the Biden campaign official said
Palmer had a “platform of being an advocate for American Samoa.”
A Palmer campaign official told CNN the candidate had three
full time campaign staffers on the ground but did not visit the island himself,
instead appearing virtually at events.
17 hr 44 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win California GOP primary
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
Former President Donald Trump will win the California
Republican presidential primary, CNN projects, as he closes in on his third
straight GOP nomination.
There were 169 delegates at stake in California tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Trump won both primaries.
17 hr 41 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win California Democratic primary
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
President Joe Biden speaks
at the Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, California, on
Wednesday, February 21. Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
President Joe Biden will win the California Democratic
primary, CNN projects, as he cruises to his party’s nomination for a second
term.
There were 424 pledged delegates at stake in California
tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016; Biden beat Sanders and others in 2020.
17 hr 42 min ago
CNN Projection: Nikki Haley will win the Vermont GOP primary
From CNN staff
Nikki Haley arrives
to speak at a campaign event in South Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday. Michael
Dwyer/AP
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will win Vermont's
Republican primary, CNN projects.
There were 17 delegates at stake in the state.
16 hr 47 min ago
CNN Projections: Competitive House races outside California
From CNN staff
Michelle Vallejo
talks to people in McAllen, Texas, in 2022. Veronica G. Cardenas/Reuters/File
On the ballot Tuesday are primaries for US Senate and
governor, but it’s the primaries for the US House – where Republicans are
defending a razor-thin majority – that are by far the most important for the
balance of power in Washington.
The outcomes of several House primaries Tuesday will shape
just how competitive these key races will be in the general election. Many of
those seats are in California. Here are the projected winners of those races
outside the Golden State:
• North
Carolina’s 1st District: Laurie Buckhout will win the Republican primary to
take on Democratic Rep. Don Davis, CNN projects. The 1st District, which was
redrawn last year to become friendlier toward Republicans, is North Carolina’s
sole competitive seat after redistricting. Republicans are targeting the seat
heading into the fall, and the GOP primary served as a test of the party’s
ideological direction. Buckhout, a retired US Army colonel, had the backing of
the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC tied to House GOP leadership.
• Texas’ 15th
District: Michelle Vallejo will win the Democratic primary, CNN projects,
putting her on track for a rematch against GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz.
Democrats are targeting this South Texas seat, which Trump would have narrowly
carried in 2020 under the current lines. Vallejo ran as a progressive last
cycle but lost to De La Cruz by 9 points.
• Texas’ 34th
District: Former Rep. Mayra Flores will win the Republican nomination, CNN
projects, setting herself up for a rematch with Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.
Flores was elected to Congress in a special election in June 2022 but lost to
Gonzalez in the general election held under new district lines that fall.
Flores has received some high-profile endorsements, including from House
Speaker Mike Johnson, in her comeback bid in South Texas.
17 hr 44 min ago
Haley leads Trump in tight race in Vermont
In Vermont, the race between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley
has been close all night.
With 88% of the vote counted, Haley currently holds a small
lead with 50.3% of the vote to Trump's 45.7.
CNN's John King said that there is a possibility that Haley
could get a win tonight on a Super Tuesday dominated by Trump.
17 hr 45 min ago
Polls are closing in California and voting is ending in Utah's
GOP caucuses. Here's what you should know
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
It's 11 p.m. ET and polls are closing in California and
voting is ending in Utah's GOP caucuses.
• There are 169
Republican delegates and 424 Democratic delegates on the line in California.
After holding a June primary in 2012 and 2016, the Golden State moved its
primary to the first Tuesday in March for the 2020 cycle. Democrats dominate
California’s urban and coastal areas, while interior and rural areas are more competitive.
Coastal California is more populated, which means statewide races trend blue.
• And in Utah,
there are 40 Republican delegates at stake in the GOP caucuses. Utah
Republicans opted to have party-run caucuses to allocate delegates rather than
participate in the state-run party. Democrats held a primary. Utah is generally
one of the most Republican states in the nation. Utah has not elected a
Democratic governor since 1980, a Democratic senator since 1970 or voted for a
Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
17 hr 58 min ago
Trump and Biden are dominating Super Tuesday. Here’s what to
know
From CNN staff
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have
secured a large chunk of delegates after their projected wins in the Texas
primaries. The two frontrunners have nearly swept all of the races so far.
In remarks, Trump said that it has been “an amazing night”
and vowed to unify what he called a “divided country.” Meantime, Biden touted
the work his administration has accomplished and issued a stark warning that a
second Trump term would mean a return to "chaos, division, and
darkness," according to a statement.
Get up to speed:
Polls closed in most states: A majority of Super Tuesday
states are releasing results after polls closed earlier in the night. That
includes Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts,
Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. In Utah,
Democrats held a primary and the polls closed at 10 p.m. ET.
Still ahead: Utah Republicans have opted to have a party-run
caucus. Voters can drop off ballots at caucus sites until 11 p.m. ET. Polls in
California — where there is another large amount of delegates up for grabs —
will also close at 11 p.m. ET and in Alaska at midnight ET.
Projected winners:
• Biden: Iowa
Democratic mail-in caucus, Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota
and Utah Democratic primaries
• Trump:
Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Maine, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama,
Colorado, Minnesota and Massachusetts Republican primaries
• Jason Palmer:
The Democratic candidate will win the American Samoa Democratic presidential
caucuses, CNN projects, handing Biden his only defeat so far this primary
season.
• Other key
races: Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh
Stein will face each other in the North Carolina governor's race, CNN projects.
Sen. Ted Cruz is also projected to win the Texas Senate GOP primary.
Estimated delegates won to date: Remember, it takes 1,215 of
2,429 delegates to win the Republican nomination and 1,968 of 3,934 delegates
to win the Democratic nomination.
Republican:
• Trump: 724
• Nikki Haley:
57
Democrat:
• Biden: 946
• Uncommitted: 2
Pressure on Haley to drop out: The GOP candidate is watching
the returns with her political team in South Carolina as some of her fellow
Republicans in the state ramp up calls for her to drop out and unite behind
Trump. Haley's team has made clear they were focused on tonight and declined to
say what's ahead for her campaign.
17 hr 59 min ago
Trump celebrates dominating GOP races on Super Tuesday
From CNN's Kate Sullivan and Tori B. Powell
Former President Donald
Trump arrives to speak at a Super Tuesday election night party at Mar-a-Lago in
Palm Beach, Florida. Evan Vucci/AP
Former President Donald Trump celebrated dominating the
Republican races on Super Tuesday and bashed President Joe Biden during his election
night victory remarks that did not mention his GOP primary rival Nikki Haley.
“This was an amazing night and an amazing day, it’s been an
incredible period of time in our country’s history,” Trump said at his election
night watch party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
CNN projected he will win primary contests in at least 11
Super Tuesday states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota,
Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Trump thanked his family, his campaign managers Susie Wiles
and Chris LaCivita as well as his campaign staff. He claimed that "we have
a very divided country," and vowed to unify it soon.
"We have a great Republican party with tremendous
talent and we want to have unity and we're going to have unity and it's going
to happen very quickly," Trump said.
Trump went on to bash Biden in his speech and said
"we're going to win this election because we have no choice."
CNN reported earlier this evening that Trump’s team is aware
he won’t cross the delegate threshold tonight to become the presumptive
Republican nominee, but the hope is that he secures enough delegates to ensure
he does meet that milestone as early as next Tuesday, March 12. The campaign is
also hoping that a definitive win tonight will effectively force his lone GOP
rival, Nikki Haley, to drop out of the race.
18 hr 23 min ago
Biden warns a second Trump term would mean a return to
"chaos, division, and darkness"
From CNN's Donald Judd
President Joe Biden speaks
during a meeting with his Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the
White House on March 5 in Washington, DC. Nathan Howard/Getty Images
President Joe Biden touted the work his administration has
accomplished in its first term in office while issuing a stark warning that a
second Donald Trump term would mean a return to "chaos, division, and
darkness," in a statement released Tuesday.
"Four years ago, I ran because of the existential
threat Donald Trump posed to the America we all believe in," Biden wrote
in a statement, highlighting progress under his administration on jobs,
inflation, prescription drug prices, and gun control.
He then warned that if Trump returns to the White House, the
progress his administration as made will be at risk.
"(Trump) is driven by grievance and grift, focused on
his own revenge and retribution, not the American people," Biden noted.
Earlier Tuesday, CNN reported that the Biden campaign was
closely watching GOP primary results for Nikki Haley voters they considered
“gettable” in a general election matchup against Trump in November.
18 hr 23 min ago
Haley is receiving feedback from allies about her decision
to endorse Trump, sources say
From CNN's Kylie Atwood
Haley makes comments
at a campaign event in Forth Worth, Texas, on Monday. Tony Gutierrez/AP
GOP candidate Nikki Haley says she has not made a final
decision as to whether or not she would endorse former President Donald Trump
if she ends her presidential bid, but her campaign is receiving a lot of
feedback on the subject, sources familiar with recent discussions tell CNN.
People who are close with Haley have different opinions.
Some believe that it would be good for her to back Trump because she would be
viewed as a team player. Others ardently oppose her endorsing him because that
would give Haley the freedom to be critical of Trump and build her own
movement. They have d those opinions with Haley and her campaign in recent days
and weeks, sources said.
Haley herself has recently said she is not focused on
endorsing anyone because she is focused on winning herself.
"When you're in the middle of a fight, you don't think
about what you're going to do," Haley said Tuesday.
But she has also indicated in recent days that she no longer
feels bound by the pledge she made last year to support the eventual GOP
nominee. Her rationale is twofold: she has said that the Republican National
Convention today is different than it was when she made that pledge, and she
has pointed out that Trump did not make the pledge himself.
Her comments mark an about-face for the former South
Carolina governor after she initially made the pledge to get on the debate
stage, and said she would honor that commitment as recently as a few weeks ago.
18 hr 23 min ago
Trump says Haley is angry because "she’s just getting
nowhere"
From CNN's Kate Sullivan
Former President Donald Trump bashed his GOP primary rival
Nikki Haley, saying in an interview Tuesday the former South Carolina governor
was angry because her campaign is “just getting nowhere."
“She’s gone crazy, and I’ve never seen anything like it,”
Trump said on the Mark Levin Show.
Trump said Haley was bitter, and had “gone haywire,” and
described her as a “very angry person.”
"She’s become really angry, and I think it’s that she’s
just getting nowhere,” Trump said. "We'll see if she straightens out,
maybe she will."
Remember: Haley has so far only won the GOP primary contest
in Washington, DC. Trump has dominated every other early nominating contest and
CNN has projected that he will win the primary in at least 11 more states
Tuesday.
18 hr 28 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win the Utah Democratic primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
An election worker
starts the process of curing a defective ballot at Utah County Election
Headquarters during the presidential primary in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday. George
Frey/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden will win the Democratic primary in Utah,
CNN projects.
There were 30 pledged delegates at stake in the primary.
In 2020, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic
contest. Biden came in second place.
18 hr 38 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win the Massachusetts GOP primary
From CNN’s Arit John
Former President Donald Trump will win the Massachusetts
Republican primary, CNN projects.
There were 40 delegates at stake in Massachusetts tonight.
18 hr 35 min ago
Widespread disbelief among GOP primary voters that Biden won
the presidency in 2020, exit polls show
From CNN's Tami Luhby and Ariel Edwards-Levy
Many Republican primary and caucus voters baselessly claim
that Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 presidential election, CNN’s
exit and entrance polls in six states over the past two months show.
None of the states had a majority of the GOP electorate
willing to acknowledge that Biden legitimately won the election. There is no
evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Two-thirds of Iowa caucusgoers in January said Biden didn’t
legitimately win, according to entrance polls. About six in 10 primary voters
in North Carolina on Tuesday and in South Carolina last month felt this way,
exit polls showed.
Just shy of six in 10 California primary voters and about
half of Virginia voters on Tuesday, as well as in New Hampshire in January,
said Biden was not the legitimate winner, according to exit polls.
18 hr 28 min ago
Key race alert: Haley leads Trump in Vermont
Donald Trump has lost his lead in Vermont, where it's been a
seesaw between him and Nikki Haley this evening. So far, 81% of votes have been
counted there, with Haley having 49.3% of the vote and Trump trailing behind
with 46.8%.
Remember: Whoever wins the GOP nomination needs to win at
least 1,215 delegates. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination needs to win
1,968 delegates.
17 hr 2 min ago
CNN Projection: Jason Palmer will win the American Samoa
Democratic presidential caucuses
From CNN staff
This screengrab from
video shows Democratic presidential candidate Jason Palmer. From Jason Palmer/X
Democratic candidate Jason Palmer will win the American
Samoa Democratic presidential caucuses, CNN projects, handing President Joe
Biden his only defeat so far this primary season.
Palmer is a business executive from Baltimore, Maryland, who
previously worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to his
campaign website.
He launched his extremely long-shot bid for president in
November.
Palmer celebrated his win on a post on X, formerly known as
Twitter.
CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi contributed reporting to this
post.
18 hr 45 min ago
It's 10 p.m. ET, which means polls are closing in Utah's
Democratic primary
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
As the clock strikes 10 p.m. ET, polls are beginning to close
in Utah's Democratic primary, where there are 30 delegates at stake for the
party.
Utah Republicans have opted to have party-run caucuses to
allocate delegates rather than participate in the state-run party.
While the parties have used different processes in recent
cycles amid shifting approaches from the state, in 2020 both parties
participated in the state-run primary.
18 hr 52 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Minnesota GOP primary
From CNN’s Arit John
Former President Donald Trump will win the Minnesota
Republican primary, CNN projects.
There were 39 delegates at stake in Minnesota tonight.
18 hr 47 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Minnesota Democratic primary
From CNN’s Arit John
President Joe Biden
during an event at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin, on Thursday,
January 25. Nicole Neri/Bloomberg/Getty Images
President Joe Biden will win the Minnesota Democratic
primary, CNN projects.
There were 75 pledged delegates at stake in Minnesota
tonight.
Who won in 2020: Biden won the Democratic primary.
18 hr 46 min ago
There is no pathway left for Haley, Sen. Graham says
From CNN's Kit Maher
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said there is no path forward for
Nikki Haley and that it’s time for the Republican Party to coalesce around
former President Donald Trump for their nominee.
"I think it’s pretty clear that people have spoken. I
voted for Trump, not against Nikki. And at the end of the day, there's really
no pathway left. The sooner we can come together, the better. I think Nikki
Haley can make a case why Trump is better than Biden on a lot of issues better
than most Republicans," Graham told CNN’s Dana Bash.
Even though Haley has signaled that she may not honor the
Republican National Committee pledge to back the nominee, Graham said he
believes she will eventually throw her support behind Trump.
"I’m pretty confident, I’ve known her most of my
political life, that she’ll be a team player. That there will come a time where
she realizes, and I hope this will come sooner, rather than later, that this is
not her moment and there’s a lot at stake. I’d find it difficult to imagine
that Nikki Haley would not support President Trump when it’s all said and
done," he added.
Fellow South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is Graham’s favored
choice for Trump’s potential running mate.
"We play golf, and we talk about a lot of things. He’s
just really impressed with Tim’s enthusiasm, the way that Tim sells Donald
Trump," Graham said.
“There are a lot of good choices. I just feel like Tim
Scott’s ready to be president on day one,” Graham said.
18 hr 45 min ago
The House GOP’s lonely Haley supporter says he will stick
with her as long as she's in the race
From CNN's Melanie Zanona
Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina is the lone House
Republican backing GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
In an interview with CNN, Norman acknowledged he is on an
island in the GOP — which he called “an interesting” experience — and said he
has faced some pressure to fall in line behind Donald Trump. But Norman said he
will stick with Haley as long as she is in the race.
“People endorse for different reasons. I didn't endorse
because I want something,” Norman said. “I don't put my finger in the air and
see who’s gonna go with me. I'm perfectly willing to go alone. I just do what I
know in my mind was right.”
Norman did get some recent company across the Capitol from
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who both
endorsed Haley ahead of Super Tuesday.
Asked about Trump’s growing irritation over Haley not
dropping out, Norman said: “I don't quite understand. This is March.”
Norman also expressed concern about Trump’s viability as a
general election candidate — something few in the GOP have been willing to say,
at least publicly, as Trump marches his way toward the nomination. However, he
will back Trump if he ultimately becomes the nominee.
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18 hr 51 min ago
The path to the House majority may run through California
From CNN's Melanie Zanona
Republican and Democratic leaders in the House agree on at
least one thing: the path to the majority may run — at least in part — through
California, where there are several competitive races this fall.
That’s why both parties invested heavy resources to ensure
their favored candidate gets over the finish line tonight, in hopes of giving
them their best chance at victory this November.
Among the races party leaders are watching closely: the
swing seat represented by Rep. David Valadao, one of the Republicans who voted
to impeach Donald Trump.
Valadao is facing a far-right challenger in Chris Mathys,
while Democratic party leaders have sought to boost their preferred pick,
former Assembly member Rudy Salas, over Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hurtado.
The way the race shakes out tonight could have major
implications for the fall.
“We're looking for a good night for our candidates. We are
watching a few of those states closely,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN,
specifically naming California and Texas. “But I think it's gonna work out well
for us.”
Elsewhere, party leaders are keeping tabs on some key
down-ballot races in states like North Carolina.
GOP leaders are paying especially close attention to the
Republican contest to take on Democratic Rep. Don Davis. The Congressional
Leadership Fund (CLF), which is aligned with Johnson, is boosting Laurie
Buckhout over repeat candidate Sandy Smith.
CLF spent against Smith in the previous election cycle and
she won the primary but went on to lose the general election. And Republicans
worry Smith could cost them the seat this November if she wins the primary
again.
19 hr 7 min ago
Jeff Jackson's win in Democratic primary sets up
high-profile race for North Carolina attorney general
From CNN's Kaanita Iyer
Jeff Jackson speaks
to students while campaigning at North Carolina State University in Raleigh,
North Carolina, in 2021. Gerry Broome/AP/File
North Carolina Rep. Jeff Jackson will win the state’s
Democratic primary for attorney general, CNN projects.
Jackson, known for his active presence on TikTok, represents
the state’s 13th Congressional District but decided not to run for reelection
after state Republicans redrew the seat to heavily favor the GOP.
Jackson will next face off against a fellow congressman, Dan
Bishop, who was unopposed in the Republican primary. North Carolina hasn’t
elected a GOP attorney general in more than a century, though a few have been
appointed by Republican governors.
The state's current attorney general, Josh Stein, will win
the Democratic nomination for governor, CNN projected earlier Tuesday.
19 hr 19 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump wins Colorado GOP primary
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
Former President Donald Trump will win the Colorado
Republican presidential primary, CNN projects, continuing his march toward the
GOP nomination.
There were 37 delegates at stake in Colorado tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won in 2016;
Trump in 2020.
19 hr 7 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden wins Colorado Democratic primary
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
President Joe Biden
speaks about Bidenomics at CS Wind on November 29, 2023 in Pueblo, Colorado.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
President Joe Biden will win the Colorado Democratic
primary, CNN projects, as he moves closer to clinching the party’s nomination.
There were 72 pledged delegates at stake in Colorado
tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won
both of Colorado’s last two nominating contests.
19 hr 10 min ago
Analysis: Donald Trump dominates — but not like an incumbent
From CNN's Zachary Wolf
How, exactly, are we supposed to view Donald Trump's
candidacy?
He's not an incumbent, since he's not currently president.
But he is certainly incumbent adjacent — people know what kind of president he
was and he enjoys near-universal name recognition. He could be the first person
since Grover Cleveland to lose the White House and then come back for a redo
four years later.
Viewed as a non-incumbent, Trump is performing historically
well in the Republican presidential primary. He has won every primary and
caucus so far except for one, in Washington, DC and there's no reason to
believe he will lose any states on Super Tuesday.
It is a far better primary record so far than every
non-incumbent Republican presidential candidate in the modern primary era. But,
as discussed, Trump isn't entirely non-incumbent. His margins in primary
contests are worse than incumbent presidential candidates of the modern primary
era, including when he was an actual incumbent in 2020.
His only remaining rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki
Haley continues to win a not insubstantial portion of the vote – 20% to 30% —
in some states. In Vermont, obviously not a hotbed of support for Trump, the
former president has only a slim lead over Haley as early returns rolled in.
There are places in Virginia and North Carolina, around cities and college campuses,
where Haley is actually beating Trump in early returns. It doesn't mean his
position as frontrunner is in danger. It does suggest there is a kernel of the
GOP that will continue to resist him.
A major question of the coming general election campaign
will be what happens to those anti-Trump Republican voters in November? If Joe
Biden were losing that much of the Democratic vote to his two rivals, Rep. Dean
Phillips and Marianne Williamson, it's safe to assume the angst among Democrats
about his candidacy would become much more pronounced. Biden faced scrutiny
after "uncommitted" got a little more than 13% of the primary vote in
Michigan, part of an organized protest to his policy on Israel.
19 hr 31 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Alabama Democratic primary
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
President Joe Biden will win the Alabama Democratic primary,
CNN projects, continuing his march to the party’s 2024 presidential
nomination.
There were 52 pledged delegates to the Democratic National
Convention at stake in Alabama’s primary.
The state’s nine electoral college votes are a near-lock for
Republicans in November. But Alabama’s Democratic primary played a role in
helping Biden effectively cement the party’s nomination in 2020, when he
defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders there by 47 percentage points.
19 hr 29 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Alabama GOP primary
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
Former President
Donald Trump looks on during the Alabama Republican Party’s 2023 Summer meeting
at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel on August 4, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama.
Julie Bennett/Getty Images
Donald Trump will win Alabama’s Republican primary, CNN
projects, taking another step toward locking down the party’s presidential
nomination for the third consecutive election.
The former president defeated former South Carolina Gov.
Nikki Haley, his lone remaining challenger.
There were 50 delegates to the Republican National
Convention at stake in Alabama’s GOP primary.
The state’s nine electoral college votes are a near-lock for
Republicans in November. Trump defeated President Joe Biden there by more than
25 percentage points in 2020.
19 hr 20 min ago
RNC resolutions that would have potentially slowed Trump
takeover are dead
From CNN's Kit Maher
Two resolutions circulating within the Republican National
Committee that aimed to ensure the committee maintained neutrality and would
have barred it from paying former President Donald Trump’s personal legal bills
are dead, the bills' sponsor confirmed to CNN.
“For us to bring the legal bill resolution before the full
RNC committee, we had to have two of the three RNC members from 10 states as
cosponsors,” Henry Barbour, Republican national committeeman from Mississippi,
said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We only had eight states cosponsoring the
resolution, so we missed the deadline.” The deadline was today.
Barbour added that the neutrality resolution was given up
about a week ago. It would have ensured that the RNC and its leadership
maintain neutrality "and not take on additional staff from any of the
Presidential campaigns until a nominee is clearly determined by reaching 1,215
delegates," according to drafts previously obtained by CNN.
"We’ve made our point," Barbour said. "The
RNC has to be neutral in primaries according to longstanding party rules. In
essence, we were saying that the Trump campaign was trying to change the rules
in the middle of the game by declaring the primary was over after only two
states voted."
The second resolution would have barred the RNC from paying
the legal bills of “either former president Donald Trump or former Ambassador
Nikki Haley unrelated to this 2024 Presidential election," per the drafts.
Remember: Trump has been hit with more than half a billion
dollars in legal penalties in recent weeks in two civil cases. He also faces 91
charges in four other criminal cases.
19 hr 43 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Arkansas Democratic primary
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
President Joe Biden will win the Arkansas Democratic primary,
CNN projects, moving closer to clinching the party’s 2024 presidential
nod.
There were 31 delegates at stake in Arkansas’ primary.
Republicans are strongly favored to carry Arkansas’ 6
electoral college votes in November — something every GOP presidential nominee
has done since home-state former Democratic governor Bill Clinton was last on
the ballot in 1996.
But Arkansas was part of Biden’s big Super Tuesday in 2020,
when he won the state by 18 percentage points and took a big step toward
winning the Democratic nomination.
19 hr 43 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Arkansas GOP primary
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
Former President Donald Trump will win the Arkansas Republican
primary, CNN projects, carrying a state where his former White House press
secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is now governor.
Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in a
state where 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention were on the
line.
It was another win in a contested Arkansas GOP presidential
primary for Trump, who in 2016 narrowly defeated Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by just
2.3 percentage points.
Republicans are strongly favored to carry Arkansas’ 6
electoral college votes in November — something every GOP presidential nominee
has done since home-state former Democratic governor Bill Clinton was last on
the ballot in 1996.
19 hr 44 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Maine GOP primary
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
Donald Trump will win the Maine Republican presidential
primary, CNN projects, again defeating Nikki Haley as he nears clinching the
GOP nomination.
There were 20 delegates at stake in Maine tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won in 2016;
Trump in 2020.
19 hr 44 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Texas Democratic primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
President Joe Biden will win the Texas Democratic primary,
CNN projects.
There were 244 pledged delegates at stake in the
primary.
In 2020, Biden also won the state’s Democratic primary.
19 hr 44 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Texas GOP primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
Former President
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Trendsetter Engineering Inc. on
November 2, 2023 in Houston, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump will win the Texas Republican
primary, CNN projects, as he moves toward clinching his party’s nomination for
the third presidential cycle in a row.
There were 161 delegates at stake in the primary.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ted Cruz won their
respective primaries in Texas.
19 hr 44 min ago
CNN Projection: Sen. Cruz will win Texas GOP primary
From CNN staff
Sen. Ted Cruz speaks
during a news conference on the US Southern Border at the US Capitol on
February 6 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. Ted Cruz will win the Texas Senate GOP primary, CNN
projects.
19 hr 43 min ago
It's 9 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Colorado, Minnesota
and Texas
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
It's 9 p.m. ET, which means polls are beginning to close
across Colorado, Texas and Minnesota.
• In Colorado, there
are 37 Republican delegates and 72 Democratic delegates at stake. Long known as
a swing state, Colorado has settled into the blue column for the past four
presidential elections. The Denver and Boulder areas in central Colorado are
the biggest Democratic strongholds in the state. Republicans perform better
south of Denver in the area around Colorado Springs.The eastern and western
borders of the state are also generally more Republican, with some liberal
areas like some ski resort towns in the west.
• And in Texas,
there are 161 Republican delegates and 244 Democratic delegates on the line.
Republicans have carried Texas in each of the last 11 presidential elections.
However, the state has gotten more competitive in recent years. Democrats
perform well in the state’s urban centers and have historically done well in
the heavily Hispanic areas along the Mexican border, but that area has moved to
the right in recent years and as the state diversifies, Republicans hope to win
more support from Hispanics.
• As for
Minnesota, there are 39 Republican delegates and 75 Democratic delegates at
stake. Democratic support in Minnesota is generally based around the state’s
biggest urban areas: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth. The Iron Range
in the northeast corner of the state is also historically Democratic, but
Republicans have had more success there in recent years. Most of the other
rural areas of the state garner more Republican support.
19 hr 48 min ago
Haley is behind closed doors tonight as Trump urges
surrogates to amp up pressure on her to drop out
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Kylie Atwood
Nikki Haley is watching the returns with her political team
in the Charleston, South Carolina area, as some of her fellow Republicans in the
state ramp up calls for her to drop out and unite behind Donald Trump. The
former president has urged surrogates to say as much in television appearances
and on X, one person familiar tells CNN.
The former South Carolina governor has no planned public
appearances tonight, a stark contrast to her schedule on every other election
night when she has delivered public remarks. Haley's team has made clear they
were focused on tonight and declined to say what's ahead for her campaign.
When Haley was asked earlier today on Fox whether she would
exit the race and back Trump if she continues to trail him in Tuesday’s
contests, Haley said, "If I were to get out of the race, it would still be
the longest presidential general election in history...I don't know why everybody
is so adamant that they have to follow Trump's lead to get me out of this
race."
19 hr 55 min ago
A flurry of polls closed in the last hour. Get up to speed
on where things stand
From CNN staff
A voter enters a
polling site for the presidential primary election at the town office on
Tuesday evening in Elmore, Vermont. David Goldman/AP
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are
projected to win in battleground states as they both aim to pick up delegates
on Super Tuesday and clinch their party’s nomination.
Catch up on what is going on:
Polls that are now closed: Vermont, Virginia, North
Carolina, Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Coming up next: Polls in Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas are
the next to close at 9 p.m. ET. After that, California and Utah polls will
close at 11 p.m. ET and in Alaska at 12 a.m. ET.
Projected winners:
• Biden: Iowa
Democratic mail-in caucus, Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Maine and Massachusetts Democratic primaries
• Trump:
Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee Republican primaries
• Other key
races: Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh
Stein will face each other in the North Carolina governor's race, CNN projects.
Estimated delegates won to date: Remember, it takes 1,215 of
2,429 delegates to win the Republican nomination and 1,968 of 3,934 delegates
to win the Democratic nomination.
Republican:
• Trump: 411
• Nikki Haley:
46
Democrat:
• Biden: 558
• Uncommitted: 2
Frontrunners are looking to November: Biden and Trump agree
that the general election campaign is finally underway and dramatically
accelerating this week. For Biden and the White House, “it can’t come soon
enough,” in the words of one top adviser. Meantime, the Trump campaign intends
to keep making this race “all about Biden,” an adviser said
What about Nikki Haley: The GOP candidate is not planning to
make any public remarks tonight and she has not promised to keep her campaign
alive after today’s results have been tallied. Haley has repeatedly said she
has not thought beyond Super Tuesday, citing the importance of allowing voters
in more than a dozen states that vote today to have their voices heard.
19 hr 55 min ago
Key race alert: Trump leads Vermont by only one vote
Donald Trump maintains his lead in Vermont, but only by one
vote.
With 33% of the vote counted so far in the state, the former
president currently has 10,992 votes, while his GOP challenger Nikki Haley has
10,991.
19 hr 42 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Massachusetts Democratic
primary
From CNN’s Arit John
President Joe Biden will win the Massachusetts Democratic
primary, CNN projects.
There were 92 pledged delegates at stake in Massachusetts
tonight.
Who won in 2020: Biden won the Democratic primary.
20 hr 2 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Maine Democratic primary
President Joe Biden
speaks about "Bidenomics" at Auburn Manufacturing Inc., in Auburn,
Maine, on July 28, 2023. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden will win Maine’s Democratic primary, CNN
projects, as he closes in on a general election race with former President
Donald Trump.
There were 24 pledged delegates at stake in Maine tonight.
Who won in 2016 and 2020: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won in
2016; Biden in 2020.
19 hr 48 min ago
There have only been 5 Black governors in US history. Not
everyone is celebrating the man who could be 6th
Analysis from CNN's Zachary Wolf
Something historic could be brewing in North Carolina, where
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is projected to win the GOP gubernatorial primary.
Robinson, if he wins in November, would be the first Black
Republican elected as governor in the United States — and one of only a handful
of Black governors in US history.
Two of the Black governors were not elected. Gov. David
Paterson, who served from 2008 to 2010 in New York, and Gov. Pinckney
Pinchback, who served for a little over a month as governor of Louisiana in 1872
and 1873, were elevated to office after their predecessors resigned or were
driven out
Just three Black men have ever been elected governor. The
first of those was Gov. Douglas Wilder, elected in Virginia in 1990. Decades
later, there was Gov. Deval Patrick, who served two terms in Massachusetts from
2007 until 2015. Finally, Gov. Wes Moore was elected in Maryland in 2022.
Pinchback, who assumed the office in Louisiana during Reconstruction, was a
Republican, but the four Black governors in the last three decades have been
Democrats.
Robinson's campaign is controversial, however, since he has
a history of saying controversial things, such as last year when he mocked
survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, or when he referred to
"homosexuality" as "filth." He has also compared abortion
to slavery, although when it was revealed that he paid for his girlfriend, now
wife, to have an abortion, he said that experience informed his current
anti-abortion stance. CNN's Gregory Krieg has a more in-depth story about
Robinson's controversial comments.
People who would normally be applauding the idea of another
Black governor are opposed to Robinson.
"The idea you could have another elected Black
governor, the first one for the Republican party... should have me excited, but
I am depressed and distress and sad because he says horrifically bad
stuff," CNN political commentator Van Jones, responding to Robinson's
primary win.
19 hr 22 min ago
Trump dominates the GOP primaries, despite being the
non-incumbent candidate
Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican primaries
in every state, despite being the non-incumbent, CNN's Jake Tapper noted
Tuesday night, which has not happened in modern presidential politics.
CNN projects Trump will win North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee and Virginia, so far this Super Tuesday.
"People did jump into the race to run against him.
There was a whole field. You might remember Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida,
people thought he was going to dominate. No, the dominant politician on the
Republican side is Donald Trump and to give the man his due: He has won — with
the exception of Washington, DC — he's won every contest," Tapper said.
Tapper also said that the ratio of delegates Trump winning
tonight is 99 delegates to every one delegate Nikki Haley is winning.
CNN projects Trump will win North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee and Virginia, so far this Super Tuesday.
19 hr 58 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Tennessee GOP primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
Fmer President Donald Trump will win Tennessee, CNN
projects, as he marches toward clinching the GOP nomination.
There were 58 delegates at stake in the Republican
primary.
In 2016, Trump and Hillary Clinton won their respective
primaries in the state.
20 hr 14 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Tennessee Democratic primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
President Joe Biden will win the Tennessee Democratic
primary, CNN projects, as he glides toward securing his party’s 2024
nomination.
There were 63 delegates at stake in the primary tonight.
In 2020, Biden also won the state's Democratic primary.
20 hr 15 min ago
It's 8:30 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Arkansas. Here's
what you should know
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
A voter heads into the
Central Methodist Church to cast their ballot on Tuesday in Fayetteville,
Arkansas. Michael Woods/AP
It's 8:30 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Arkansas, where
there are 40 Republican delegates and 31 Democratic delegates at stake.
In the 30 years since former President Bill Clinton’s last
term as governor, Arkansas has become a thoroughly Republican state.
Republicans have complete control of state government and make up the entirety
of the state’s congressional delegation.
However, the state used to have a bipartisan streak in its
federal representation. Prior to 2015, Arkansas hadn’t been represented by two
Republican senators since the 1870s.
20 hr 16 min ago
House Democrats split over contentious California Senate
race
From CNN's Melanie Zanona, Haley Talbot and Sam Fossum
Rep. Nancy Pelosi and
Rep. Adam Schiff ride during the 53rd Annual San Francisco Pride Parade and
Celebration at San Francisco Civic Center on June 25, 2023 in San Francisco.
Miikka Skaffari/WireImage/Getty Images
House Democrats are divided over California’s Senate race —
which has pitted several congressional Democrats against one another.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN she was out
campaigning for her close ally Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff this weekend and has
been making calls today on his behalf trying to get out the vote. Schiff has
secured endorsements from a number of California Democrats, including Reps.
Eric Swalwell and Pete Aguilar.
"Congress overwhelming is for him. He’s a great person.
And with all due respect to the other candidates they are lovely — they’re
talented and fabulous — but he is the one,” Pelosi said.
But Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the co-chair of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus (CPC), is backing fellow CPC member Barbara Lee, who is the
only black candidate in the race. California Reps. Maxine Waters and Ro Khanna
have also endorsed Lee.
Meanwhile, Rep. Katie Porter – also a CPC member — has picked up endorsements from Sen.
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Robert Garcia of California.
More on the race: In California, the top two vote getters,
regardless of party, will advance. That means that if the Republican candidate
Steve Garvey finishes in the top two, it would box out two of the Democrat
candidates this fall. Schiff has heavily attacked his GOP opponent in his
campaign, which some Democrats have complained has effectively elevated Garvey.
20 hr 21 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Oklahoma GOP primary
From CNN’s Arit John
Former President Donald Trump will win the Oklahoma
Republican primary, CNN projects.
There were 43 delegates at stake in Oklahoma tonight.
20 hr 21 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win Oklahoma Democratic primary
From CNN’s Arit John
President Joe Biden will win the Oklahoma Democratic
primary, CNN projects.
There were 36 pledged delegates at stake in Oklahoma
tonight.
Who won in 2020: Biden won the Democratic primary.
20 hr 21 min ago
CNN Projection: Democrat Stein and Republican Robinson will
face off in North Carolina governor’s race
From CNN’s Greg Krieg
Republican Lt. Gov.
Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. AP
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic Attorney
General Josh Stein will face each other in North Carolina governor's race, CNN
projects.
More context: Despite their total control of the state
legislature, Republicans have been locked out of the governor’s office since
Roy Cooper was elected to the first of two terms in 2016, on the same day that
Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president. Cooper
cannot run again due to term limits, paving the way for Stein – his predecessor
as state attorney general – to seek North Carolina’s highest office.
20 hr 31 min ago
Biden's campaign is watching "gettable" Haley
voters tonight
From CNN's MJ Lee
One thing the Biden campaign is watching very closely
tonight: The “gettable” Nikki Haley voters.
Biden campaign officials told CNN that they are very
interested in data points coming in from various states that show significant
portions of Haley supporters who say that either that they would not vote for
Trump in November, or are at the very least unwilling to say they’ll support
whoever the GOP nominee is in the fall.
Those voters, the Biden campaign said, are their “gettable”
and “turned off by Trump” voters.
Trump is not doing himself any favors, the Biden campaign
believes, by continuing to be divisive and corrosive in his rhetoric –
something the Biden campaign has been eager to highlight at every opportunity.
As CNN has reported, the president himself has directly
ordered his top campaign aides to be much more aggressive in highlighting
Trump’s most unhinged and erratic comments.
20 hr 44 min ago
It's 8 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Alabama, Maine,
Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
Gregory Hackler votes
at a polling station at Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy in Knoxville,
Tennessee. Caitie McMekin/Knoxville News-Sentinel/USA Today Network
It's now 8 p.m. ET and polls are closing in five states:
Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
• In Alabama, 50
Republican delegates and 52 Democratic delegates are at stake. Once part of the
solid Democratic South, Alabama has not voted for a Democratic presidential
candidate since 1976. Democrats had a lock on the Alabama governorship for more
than 100 years – from the 1870s to 1987. Republicans have held the governorship
since 2003.
• Then in Maine,
there are 20 Republican delegates and 24 Democratic delegates on the line.
Maine was once a Republican stronghold but now has a strong independent streak.
Democrats run best in the more heavily populated, urban areas in the state’s
southern region. Republican candidates tend to run up large margins in the more
sparsely-populated northern part of the state.
• In
Massachusetts, there are 40 Republican delegates and 92 Democratic delegates at
stake. No Republican has carried Massachusetts in a presidential election since
1984, and Democrats occupy all the seats in the state’s congressional
delegation.
• In Oklahoma,
there are 43 Republican delegates and 36 Democratic delegates up for grabs.
Oklahoma City is the least Republican area of Oklahoma. Even though Donald
Trump was able to win Oklahoma County, where the capital is located, his margin
in 2020 was incredibly small: less than 3,400 votes.
• Tennessee has
58 Republican delegates and 63 Democratic delegates at stake. The Volunteer
State only has Joe Biden as a candidate on the Democratic presidential primary
ballot. Despite a deep history of political divide that dates back to the Civil
War, Tennessee has begun to mirror other deep red southern states with
Democratic strength limited almost exclusively to major cities: especially
Memphis and Nashville, which is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas
in the country. Republicans perform better in the suburbs and then run up the
score in more rural areas. Democrats also have some strength in the smaller
cities of Knoxville, home to the University of Tennessee, and Chattanooga.
20 hr 36 min ago
Why North Carolina will remain a key state for both Biden
and Trump well past Super Tuesday
From CNN's Steve Contorno and Jeff Zeleny
Republican
presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally
Saturday, March 2, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Chris Carlson/AP
Of all the states that voted Tuesday, North Carolina stands
out as the one most likely to remain a hotbed for political activity long after
tonight.
For Donald Trump, already looking ahead to a potential
rematch with President Joe Biden, his weekend visit ahead of Super Tuesday was
likely the first of many visits to North Carolina as he seeks a third
consecutive win in this key battleground. Both candidates were projected to win
their respective primaries in the state tonight.
North Carolina, which Trump narrowly won in 2020, is
emerging as a critical piece of Biden’s reelection strategy. The president’s
advisers view its 16 electoral votes as not only attainable, considering the
state’s changing demographics, but also as something of an insurance policy,
given challenges in Michigan and other battleground states.
"North Carolina is going to be very competitive for
both sides, and no one will be able to take it for granted," said Paul
Shumaker, a veteran operative behind many of the GOP’s statewide victories in
recent years. "It’s going to be in a constant state of flux."
Leading into Super Tuesday, the weekend visits from the
former president, Haley and Vice President Kamala Harris underscore the
increasing importance of North Carolina on the electoral map.
It has been 16 years since Barack Obama delivered a North Carolina
surprise in 2008. That lonely victory — the first and only time a Democratic
presidential candidate has carried the state in nearly five decades — offers
less of a nostalgic enticement for Biden’s campaign than the potential for true
opportunity because of fast-growing suburban areas in Wake County around
Raleigh, Mecklenburg County outside Charlotte, and a handful of other cities.
Read more about why North Carolina is critical in the 2024
election cycle.
20 hr 42 min ago
Results continue to roll in from Super Tuesday states. Catch
up on where things stand
From CNN staff
A Super Tuesday voter
takes an "I Voted" sticker at Alexandria City Hall on Tuesday 5 in
Alexandria, Virginia. Kevin Wolf/AP
Results continue to come in as polls close in some states
across the country. More than one-third of the total delegates in both the GOP
and Democratic primaries are at stake in contests in more than a dozen states.
Polls have already closed in Vermont, Virginia and North
Carolina.
Here are the projected winners so far:
• President Joe
Biden: Iowa Democratic mail-in caucus, Vermont, Virginia and North Carolina
Democratic primaries
• Former
President Donald Trump: Virginia and North Carolina Republican primaries
• Other key
races: Republican Mark Robinson is projected to win North Carolina’s GOP
governor primary. It is the nation’s most closely watched gubernatorial race.
Democrat Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general, is the other party’s
front-runner to advance to November, though that race has not been projected
yet.
What’s coming next: More results are expected as Super
Tuesday heads into its busiest hour of the night.
• 8 p.m. ET:
Final polls in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee
• 8:30 p.m. ET: Polls
close in Arkansas and Democratic caucuses end in American Samoa
• 9 p.m. ET:
Polls close in Colorado, Minnesota and Texas
What the exit polls are saying: Nearly two-thirds of North
Carolina primary voters say that they’d consider former President Donald Trump
fit for the presidency if he’s convicted of a crime, according to the initial
results of CNN’s exit poll of Republican primary voters. Slightly over half of
GOP primary voters in Virginia said the same.
Big picture: As Donald Trump’s team expects him to cruise
through Super Tuesday, the former president is hoping to extinguish any hope
for GOP challenger Nikki Haley’s campaign. Biden isn’t facing any major
competition, but he's looking for a strong showing as he gears up for a
possible rematch with Trump in November. His campaign announced the strongest
month of grassroots fundraising in February.
This post has been updated with additional poll closing
times.
21 hr 3 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win the Vermont Democratic
primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
President Joe Biden will win the Democratic primary in
Vermont, CNN projects.
There were 16 pledged delegates at stake in the
primary.
In 2020, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic
contest. Biden came in second place.
20 hr 36 min ago
Trump meets with Elon Musk amid fundraising concerns
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins
Elon Musk arrives for
the “AI Insight Forum” outside the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate
Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is watching the returns
Tuesday night with his political team after spending the weekend hosting donors
at Mar-a-Lago in Florida as he seeks to raise more money and is deeply
concerned about his finances.
He also met with Elon Musk in recent days, a source familiar
tells CNN, though it's not clear whether the Tesla CEO plans to donate to
Trump.
The meeting with Musk was first reported by the New York
Times.
Nikki Haley has no public appearances tonight while Trump
has invited hundreds of his supporters, donors and elected officials to his
Mar-a-Lago club — a Super Tuesday of contrasts for the remaining GOP
presidential contenders.
21 hr 1 min ago
Biden campaign sends out fundraising push as polls begin to
close in some states
From CNN's Donald Judd
Attendees hold signs
during a reproductive freedom campaign rally with US President Joe Biden and
Vice President Kamala Harris at George Mason University in Manassas, Virginia,
on Tuesday, January 23. Julia Nikhinson/Bloomberg/Getty Images
As primary polls begin to close in some states, President
Joe Biden's campaign is already looking to the general election and asking
donors to chip in to help fight against an “onslaught of attacks,” from former
President Donald Trump’s campaign.
“This month, thousands and thousands of people from across
the country have contributed to help reelect Joe Biden and keep Donald Trump
out of the White House,” the campaign wrote in an appeal to supporters Tuesday evening.
“But here’s the thing: Today is Super Tuesday, and Trump is now closer than
ever to securing the official nomination.”
The email, which the campaign blasted out just minutes after
polls in Virginia and Vermont closed at 7 p.m. ET, warns that “Trump and his
MAGA extremism is a threat to our democracy, and we must do everything we can
to defeat him.”
But it also offers a glimpse into how the Biden campaign has
largely approached the GOP field since January’s New Hampshire GOP primary,
when campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez announced Trump “has all but
locked up the GOP nomination,” before turning the campaign’s attention to the
former president and the general election in November.
20 hr 41 min ago
CNN Projection: Robinson will win North Carolina GOP
gubernatorial nomination
From CNN’s Greg Krieg
North Carolina Lt.
Gov. Mark Robinson speaks before Republican presidential candidate former
President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday in Greensboro, North
Carolina. Chris Carlson/AP
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will win the
Republican nomination for governor, CNN projects, setting up a general election
campaign in the Tar Heel State that could mirror the anticipated presidential
matchup in a crucial 2024 battleground.
Robinson defeated two other candidates to get the party’s
nod.
Endorsed by former President Donald Trump on the eve of the
primary, Robinson has been the state’s second-ranked executive since 2021,
serving under (and in opposition to) term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Robinson will slide comfortably onto a ticket with Trump in November. A fierce
supporter of gun rights and abortion bans, he has also faced accusations of
dabbling in antisemitic, misogynist and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
Read more about the North Carolina governor's race.
20 hr 48 min ago
CNN Projection: Biden will win North Carolina Democratic
primary
From CNN’s Arit John
President Joe Biden
speaks on his economic plan for the country at Abbot's Creek Community Center
on January 18 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Eros Hoagland/Getty Images
Former President Joe Biden will win the North Carolina
Democratic primary, CNN projects.
There were 116 pledged delegates at stake in North Carolina
tonight.
Who won in 2020: Biden won the Democratic primary.
21 hr 15 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win North Carolina GOP primary
From CNN’s Arit John
Former President
Donald Trump arrives during a "Get Out The Vote" rally in Greensboro,
North Carolina, on Saturday, March 2. Al
Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump will win the North Carolina
GOP primary, CNN projects.
There were 74 delegates at stake in North Carolina tonight.
21 hr 14 min ago
It is 7:30 p.m. ET and polls are closing across North
Carolina
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
Super Tuesday voters
leave a polling location Tuesday, March 5, in Mount Holly, North Carolina.
Chris Carlson/AP
It is 7:30 p.m. ET and polls are closing across North
Carolina. There are 74 GOP delegates and 116 Democratic delegates at stake.
Unaffiliated voters can vote in either primary. Voters
affiliated with a party can only vote in that primary.
The state's political landscape: Republicans have carried
North Carolina in 10 of the last 12 presidential elections. Former President
Donald Trump eked out a victory in North Carolina in 2020, winning the state
with 49.9% of the vote to Joe Biden’s 48.6%.
Democrats generally run best in the Piedmont urban counties,
which have sizable Black voting blocs and large numbers of young professionals,
especially in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle. The state’s
rural counties are largely Republican, besides some northeastern counties with
large Black populations. The western mountains also support Republicans – although
Buncombe County, home to Asheville, stands out as a dot of blue. Mecklenburg
County, home to Charlotte, the state’s largest city, has undergone a political
shift.
17 hr 14 min ago
Election will come down to comparison between Trump and
Biden's presidential records, Sen. Warren says
From CNN's Kit Maher
Sen. Elizabeth
Warren. CNN
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the general election
will ultimately come down to “a comparison” between President Joe Biden and
former President Donald Trump’s records as president.
Even though Nikki Haley is still battling former President
Donald Trump in the Republican primary, Super Tuesday is expected to bring him
closer to locking down the nomination.
“It’s gonna just be a comparison. We're already there, and
we're going to have two people who both have been president and who will have
records to run on,” Warren said.
Warren said she hopes Biden takes the State of the Union on
Thursday as an opportunity to communicate directly with the American people
about what he has achieved in the last three years.
Asked about the warning signs facing Biden’s reelection
campaign when it comes to rebuilding the progressive coalition and those voting
“uncommitted” in Michigan's presidential primary due to his role in Israel’s war
in Gaza, Warren said there are things that must be done right now to move
toward permanent peace in the region.
“We need those hostages returned. We need a ceasefire. We
need to open up, so that there is plenty of humanitarian aid flowing in and we
need to push leadership so that it's moving toward a permanent peace. That is a
two-state solution,” Warren said.
21 hr 11 min ago
Trump and Biden have their eyes on North Carolina — and
Haley voters
From CNN's Jeff Zeleny
The campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden have their
sights set on a similar target: Nikki Haley supporters.
And fewer places are being studied closer than the
fast-growing suburbs around Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.
The votes for Haley hold important lessons — perhaps less so
for her candidacy than for Trump, Biden — or even a third-party candidate. Can
Trump win back those supporters?
The Biden campaign has already sent a team to North
Carolina. An office is opening soon in Raleigh, with others to open in the coming
weeks and months.
It’s been 16 years since Barack Obama won the state — the
last Democrat to do so — but Trump’s margin narrowed to just over 1 point in
2020 from more than 3 points in 2016.
The Biden campaign dismisses the notion that North Carolina
is an insurance policy — if Michigan or other battlegrounds become more
challenging — but the 16 electoral votes may be at the center of election night
in November.
21 hr 14 min ago
How Virginia's political landscape has favored Democrats in
recent years
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
Virginia is among the several states that held elections on
Super Tuesday. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are
projected to win their respective primaries in the state and pick up more
delegates in their quest for their party's nomination.
Both candidates will also be looking for clues about how the
general election could shape up in November.
Here's a look at the state's political landscape:
• Democrats have
won every presidential election in Virginia since Barack Obama became the first
Democrat in 2008 to carry the state since 1964.
• Democratic
victories in the state usually rely on strong support from the northern
Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, and the Tidewater region around Norfolk and
Newport News.
• Democrats also
rely on support from Richmond’s sizable Black population. Overall, Black voters
made up 28% of the electorate in the 2020 Virginia Democratic primary, and 69%
of them supported Biden.
• Of the GOP
electorate, 32% in 2016 identified as “very conservative” and 40% identified as
“somewhat conservative.” Trump won both groups with 36% and 39%, respectively.
Virginia has an open primary, which means registered voters
can participate in either party's election.
14 hr 33 min ago
CNN Projection: Trump will win Virginia GOP primary
From CNN’s Daniel Strauss
Former President
Donald Trump reacts to supporters as he arrives on stage during a Get Out the
Vote Rally March 2 in Richmond, Virginia.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump will win the Virginia
Republican primary, CNN projects.
There were 48 delegates at stake in this primary.
In 2016, Trump and Hillary Clinton won their respective
contests in the Virginia primary.
21 hr 15 min ago
Republicans will host a Trump fundraiser in DC tomorrow as
he looms large on Capitol Hill
From CNN's Melanie Zanona
Over 100 Republican lawmakers are co-hosting a fundraiser
for former President Donald Trump in Washington DC tomorrow night – a day after
Super Tuesday and on the eve of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union
address.
It’s the latest example of how Trump has loomed over just
about everything inside the GOP on Capitol Hill.
On the legislative front, Trump effectively killed a
bipartisan border deal and has encouraged Republicans to reject a foreign aid
package.
On internal leadership races, Trump helped tank Majority
Whip Tom Emmer’s speakership bid and may have some influence in the race to
replace GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump has encouraged Sen. Steve Daines to
run for the job, while others have given Trump a heads up before announcing
leadership bids: Sen. John Cornyn said he called Trump before announcing his
plans to run for leader, and Sen. John Barrasso told CNN he called Trump this
morning ahead of announcing his run for Republican whip.
And on congressional races, the heads of both the Senate and
House campaign arms have sought to ensure alignment between Trump and some of
their candidates. Speaker Mike Johnson and NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson
recently trekked to Mar-a-Lago to lobby Trump to endorse some Republicans in
key primaries.
“He’s gonna be the next president of the United States. I
need to have a good relationship with him,” Hudson told CNN.
21 hr 27 min ago
Alabama and North Carolina are holding key down-ballot races
after dramatic redistricting in recent months
From CNN's Fredreka Schouten
Some voters in North Carolina and Alabama are selecting US
House candidates Tuesday in contests dramatically reshaped by congressional
redistricting in recent months.
Here's what to know about the contests:
Legal confrontations lead to new Alabama lines: In a legal
confrontation that drew national attention to Alabama, a federal court approved
a new congressional map last year that gives the state’s African American
residents – who make up about 27% of the population – the opportunity to elect
a candidate of their choice in a second House district.
The contest has drawn 18 candidates — 11 Democrats and seven
Republicans. Given racial voting patterns in the state, political observers say
a Democrat is likely to prevail in the fall and a Black candidate could emerge
as the victor. Most of the Democrats seeking the nomination are African
American, as are several of the Republican contenders.
The court-ordered redistricting has also thrown two
Republican incumbents – Reps. Jerry Carl and Barry Moore – into the first
member-versus-member primary of the 2024 election. Moore currently represents
the 2nd District. Both men were first elected to Congress in 2020 and have
sought to position themselves as the true conservative in the contest.
Reps. Jerry Carl and
Barry Moore. US House of Representatives
North Carolina’s open seats draw multiple contenders: The
five open seats in the Tar Heel State have attracted a raft of Republican
contenders. Fourteen candidates, for instance, are running in the GOP primary
for exiting Rep. Wiley Nickel’s redrawn 13th District seat. Multiple candidates
also are vying for the open seats now held by exiting Democratic Reps. Kathy
Manning and Jeff Jackson, who is running for state attorney general.
Read more about the primaries in Alabama and North Carolina.
21 hr 18 min ago
As Utah prepares to caucus — some factors could help Haley
From CNN's Brian Todd
The caucus sites in Utah are getting ready to open — on a
night, and in a state, where Nikki Haley could see one of her best showings to
date.
It’s still an uphill battle for her to win the Utah Caucuses,
but there are some factors that are helping. The Republican governor, Spencer
Cox, has said he likes Haley as a candidate — though he’s not formally endorsed
her.
Meanwhile, the governor's wife, Abby Cox, and Utah’s Lt.
Gov. Deidre Henderson, have endorsed Haley.
The years-long animus between Donald Trump and Sen. Mitt
Romney could also pull Utah voters away from the former president. And Trump
has previously received less support in Utah than he has in other red states.
He lost the 2016 Utah Caucuses, handily, to Ted Cruz.
Another interesting dynamic tonight will be the physical
turnout at the caucus sites. A former Republican state chair told CNN, the
state Republican Party opted to return to a caucus format this year, in order
to spark more in-person voter turnout.
In 2020, the Republicans held it as a primary, with only
mail-in voting.
At the caucus site at Alta High School in Sandy, 32
precincts will be holding caucuses in 32 different rooms. People arrive and
check in at 6 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. ET). The caucusing starts at 7 p.m.
local (9 p.m. ET). The vote counting starts at 8 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET).
21 hr 29 min ago
Trump's influence on down ballot races in Texas remains a
question
From CNN's Ed Lavandera
At one of the busiest polling sites in East El Paso, Texas,
a vast majority of Republicans are saying they are sticking with former
President Donald Trump.
This Super Tuesday's primary comes as the Texas Republican
Party finds itself in a civil war. Trump has injected himself into a number of
state legislative races. There are tense divisions between the Bush-era
Republicans, which Nikki Haley represents, and the Trump MAGA wing.
So, the question tonight will be just how much influence
does Trump have over down ballot Texas Republicans.
Immigration is also a key issue Republican voters keep
bringing up. It will be interesting to see how Republicans perform with Latino
voters in border communities and how Trump performs with suburban voters in the
biggest urban areas.
Finally, El Paso is a heavily Democratic stronghold where a
large number of Democratic voters are casting ballots for President Joe Biden,
but the enthusiasm level is way down.
In fact, early voting turnout is down almost 3% statewide
and that is almost entirely on the Democratic side of the vote.
FROM FOX NEWS – TIMELINE
Trump, Biden sweep Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley suspends
campaign
Super Tuesday's results solidified Trump's hold on the
Republican presidential nomination, and Nikki Haley announced Wednesday that
she is suspending her campaign. That sets up a rematch between Biden and Trump.
Covered by: Paul Steinhauser, Brandon Gillespie, Kyle
Morris, Andrew Mark Miller, Emily Robertson, Aubrie Spady, Matteo Cina,
Gabriele Regalbuto, Anders Hagstrom, Michael Lee, Adam Shaw, Elizabeth
Pritchett, Fox News Decision Desk and Chris Pandolfo
•
•
•
•
FAST FACTS:
• This year, 15
states voted on Super Tuesday: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont and Virginia. One territory, American Samoa, will also vote in
Democratic caucuses.
• President
Biden and former President Trump are the resounding frontrunners after Super Tuesday
for a November 2024 rematch. Trump lost the Vermont primary to Nikki Haley, and
Biden lost one contest (American Samoa caucuses) to a virtually unknown
contender, Jason Palmer.
• The results of
the Democratic contest in Iowa, which was being held by mail over several
weeks, were also released. (Iowa Republicans held their caucuses in
mid-January).
• All states are
the same except for Alaska (GOP only), and Iowa (results from Dem mail-in vote
only). American Samoa will only hold Democratic caucuses on Tuesday.
• Total
delegates at stake on Super Tuesday is now 854 for the GOP (or about 35% of the
total delegates on offer) and 1,420 for Dems.
• While most
polls will close around 7 or 8 p.m., the official primary and caucus results
won't be announced immediately for most states.
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Coverage for this event has ended.
5 hour(s) ago
Super Tuesday is over, what's next?
TOPSHOT - (COMBO) This combination of pictures created on
November 04, 2020 shows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (L) in
Wilmington, Delaware, and US President Donald Trump (R) in Washington, DC both
pumping their fist during an election night speech early November 4, 2020.
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS,MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The 2024 presidential election is all but set with Democrat
President Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump emerging from
Super Tuesday as the presumptive nominees of their respective parties.
Republican candidate Nikki Haley dropped out of the GOP
primary on Wednesday morning after winning just one state, Vermont, out of the
15 primary contests that took place Tuesday. She was the last remaining serious
primary challenger to Trump. Biden has repeatedly trounced his primary
challengers and does not face a serious threat to re-nomination on the
Democratic side.
Barring withdrawal for reasons of health or age, Biden, 81,
and Trump, 77, will be formally nominated at the Republican and Democratic
national conventions this summer.
The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee
from July 15-18, 2024. The Democratic National Convention will take place a
month later in Chicago, from August 19-22.
After convention delegates select each party's nominee, the
general election campaign will begin in earnest as Trump and Biden face off in
a 2020 rematch. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail,
exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
5 hour(s) ago
Super Tuesday is over, what's next?
TOPSHOT - (COMBO) This combination of pictures created on
November 04, 2020 shows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (L) in
Wilmington, Delaware, and US President Donald Trump (R) in Washington, DC both
pumping their fist during an election night speech early November 4, 2020.
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS,MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The 2024 presidential election is all but set with Democrat
President Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump emerging from
Super Tuesday as the presumptive nominees of their respective parties.
Republican candidate Nikki Haley dropped out of the GOP
primary on Wednesday morning after winning just one state, Vermont, out of the
15 primary contests that took place Tuesday. She was the last remaining serious
primary challenger to Trump. Biden has repeatedly trounced his primary
challengers and does not face a serious threat to re-nomination on the
Democratic side.
Barring withdrawal for reasons of health or age, Biden, 81,
and Trump, 77, will be formally nominated at the Republican and Democratic
national conventions this summer.
The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee
from July 15-18, 2024. The Democratic National Convention will take place a
month later in Chicago, from August 19-22.
After convention delegates select each party's nominee, the
general election campaign will begin in earnest as Trump and Biden face off in
a 2020 rematch. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail,
exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
5 hour(s) ago
Marianne Williamson surprises by coming in second in
multiple states, leapfrogging Dean Phillips
Marianne Williamson surprised Democratic insiders by coming
in second behind President Biden in multiple states.
Williamson unsuspended her Democratic primary campaign on
Wednesday after coming in second ahead of Biden challenger Rep. Dean Phillips
in Michigan.
She managed to score second place in multiple states on Super
Tuesday, including Arkansas, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia and
Vermont.
While Williamson failed to scoop up any delegates — and
Biden dominated every election except American Samoa — her performance shows a
notable base of support compared to Phillips.
Williamson made the announcement in a video statement on X,
the platform formerly known as Twitter. Williamson said she returned to the
race because she believes Biden is a vulnerable candidate to put up against
former President Donald Trump.
Williamson has amassed an enthusiastic following on social
media, something she believes can translate into real votes as she seeks to
unseat Biden in the party's primary.
"American politics is very unpredictable,"
Williamson told Fox News Digital. "That's part of what makes it exciting
and what makes it kind of challenging at times. If you're running, you run to
win. You run to get your ideas out in front of the voters."
Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this
update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
6 hour(s) ago
'Uncommitted' protest vote against Biden draws tens of
thousands on Super Tuesday
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 5: President Joe Biden speaks during
a meeting with his Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the White
House on March 5, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden announced new economic measures
during the meeting. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Tens of thousands of Super Tuesday voters sent a message to
President Biden, after they chose to mark "uncommitted" on their ballots
over voting for him.
With 99% of the expected votes counted in Minnesota, nearly
1 in 3 voters backed someone other than the president, with nearly 46,000
voters, or nearly 19% of Democrats, marking their ballots
"uncommitted," or willfully deciding not to back any named candidate,
to protest his support for Israel.
The sizable protest vote in Minnesota extended to six other
states — Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Tennessee —
where tens of thousands of voters also refused to support Biden, undoubtedly
raising questions for his re-election campaign.
The votes come just a week after Arab American and Muslim community
leaders in Michigan, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the U.S.,
urged voters not to support Biden.
Progressive groups have backed the "uncommitted"
vote to protest Biden's support for Israel and its continued war against the
Hamas terror group in Gaza, which has resulted in millions of Palestinians
becoming displaced from their homes and the deaths of tens of thousands of
civilians.
The "uncommitted" option appeared on the
Democratic ballot in six other Super Tuesday states, and each took a chunk of
support away from the president.
In Alabama, over 11,000 voters, or roughly 6%, voted for
"uncommitted." The option collected the second-most votes in the
state.
In Colorado, over 43,000 voters, or roughly 8% of the vote,
marked "Noncommitted Delegate" on the ballot.
In Iowa, 4% of the total vote backed
"Uncommitted."
In Massachusetts, over 54,000 voters, or just under 10%,
backed "No Preference."
In North Carolina, a whopping 88,000 voters, or nearly 13%,
backed "No Preference."
Finally, in Tennessee, approximately 10,450 voters, or
nearly 8%, voted "Uncommitted."
Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard contributed to this
update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
BREAKING NEWS6 hour(s) ago
McConnell endorses Trump for president
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is seen outside the
Senate Chamber in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on February 28,
2024. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell, R-Ky., endorsed
former President Donald Trump for president Wednesday after Nikki Haley dropped
out of the Republican primary.
In a statement, McConnell acknowledged that Trump is the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee and said "it should come as no
surprise" that he will support Trump to win in November.
"It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has
earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for
President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee,
he will have my support," McConnell said.
"During his Presidency, we worked together to
accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that
supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary —
most importantly, the Supreme Court. I look forward to the opportunity of
switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden
administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real
difference in improving the lives of the American people."
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
BREAKING NEWS6 hour(s) ago
Biden salutes Haley as she exits GOP primary, invites her
supporters to join his campaign
President Biden said Republican Nikki Haley ran a courageous
primary campaign against former President Donald Trump and invited her
supporters to join him after Haley dropped out on Wednesday.
“It takes a lot of courage to run for President – that’s
especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the
truth about Donald Trump. Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about
Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see
right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin," Biden said in
a statement.
"Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki
Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my
campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental
issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on
treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO
and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common
ground," he continued.
"We all know this is no ordinary election. And the
stakes for America couldn’t be higher. I know that Democrats and Republicans
and Independents disagree on many issues and hold strong convictions. That’s a
good thing. That’s what America stands for. But I also know this: what unites
Democrats and Republicans and Independents is a love for America.”
Although Haley came out on top in just one contest on
Tuesday, recent polls suggest large portions of voters supporting her say they
were motivated by their opposition to Trump, and that they might not shift
their support to him as the Republican nominee in November.
Biden is making an active play for those supporters, hoping
that if Trump will be unable to form a coalition that can deliver 270 Electoral
College votes in November.
Fox News Digital's Brandon Gillespie contributed to this
update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
BREAKING NEWS6 hour(s) ago
Nikki Haley does not endorse Trump, says he needs to earn
support of her voters
Nikki Haley speaks as she announces she is suspending her
campaign, in Charleston, South Carolina, March 6, 2024. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Nikki Haley congratulated former President Donald Trump on
his Super Tuesday victories and announced she would suspend her bid for the
Republican presidential nomination in a speech in Charleston, South Carolina on
Wednesday.
"I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of
support we've received from all across our great country," Haley said.
"But the time has now come just suspend my campaign."
In brief remarks to a crowd of supporters, Haley did not
endorse Trump but called on the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee to earn
votes from those who did not back him in the Republican primary.
"It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of
those in our party and beyond it who did not support him," Haley said.
"And I hope he does that. At its best, politics is about bringing people
into your cause, not turning them away."
Trump kicked Haley on her way out of the primary in a post
on Truth Social shortly after her remarks began.
"Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting
fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to
vote in Vermont, and various other Republican Primaries. Much of her money came
from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according
to the polls," Trump wrote.
"At this point, I hope she stays in the 'race' and
fights it out until the end! I’d like to thank my family, friends, and the
Great Republican Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful
Super Tuesday in HISTORY, and would further like to invite all of the Haley
supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation. BIDEN IS
THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
6 hour(s) ago
Top Republicans rally behind Trump, call for unity after dominant
Super Tuesday showing
Reactions poured in from prominent conservatives on social
media as former President Trump cruised to victory in nearly every contest in
Super Tuesday’s primaries, most of whom called on the party to unite behind
him.
"Man I knew Trump would have a good night but this is a
rout," Ohio GOP Senator JD Vance posted on X as Trump continued to stack
up victories in state after state on Tuesday night. "For voters, we have
the next six months to convince them that DJT deserves another term."
"But for donors and political professionals, it's time
to unite behind our nominee. Please stop wasting time and money."
"Admit it," Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott
posted on X. "The primary is over."
"Time for Republicans to unite and restore sanity at
the border."
"It is LONG past time for us to rally around President
Trump as our Republican nominee who will defeat Joe Biden this November,"
GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, thought by some to be in consideration for Trump’s
running mate, posted on X.
"The GOP presidential primary is over," Ohio GOP
Chair Alex Triantafilou posted on X. "President Trump’s resounding Super
Tuesday victories have solidified it. It is time to listen to our voters and
unite the Republican Party."
"Voters across our country have spoken — this race is
about the American people," South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, also
rumored to be a potential pick for vice president, posted on X. "It's
about safe streets, quality education, and a secure border. Donald J. Trump is
the one candidate to unite our country around success and WIN in
November."
Posted by Andrew Mark Miller
7 hour(s) ago
MSNBC's Psaki, Maddow laugh at and mock Virginia voters for
caring about border crisis
An MSNBC panel led by Rachel Maddow laughed at and mocked
Virginia Republican voters who listed the border and immigration as a top
priority during coverage of Super Tuesday.
Far-left anchor Joy Reid assailed White working-class
Republican voters as only making their decisions based on race and not thanking
President Biden, a "White working-class guy himself," for the
"benefits they're getting economically" from him.
"They're voting on race," she said. "They're
voting on this idea of an invasion of Brown people over the border."
Jen Psaki, Biden's former White House press secretary,
concurred, adding, "Look at some of these exit polls. I live in Virginia.
Immigration was the number one issue," as Reid laughed.
Maddow added, "Well, Virginia does have a border with
West Virginia," as others on the panel laughed.
Former President Trump carried Virginia easily Tuesday night
as part of a string of primary victories over Nikki Haley, cementing his status
as the GOP frontrunner. The panel referred to exit polls that showed
immigration as a top priority for Republican voters.
"You're thinking like, what?" Psaki said.
"Trump has indoctrinated people with this fear of people who do not look
like them being a threat to them."
Maddow complained that every election cycle, especially when
a Democrat is in office, "we get reminded about the borders,"
although Republicans have blasted Biden's border policies for years as
record-breaking numbers of migrants have crossed into the United States under
his administration.
"You make these things an issue, you make them into
boogeymen… as long as there's a Democratic incumbent to blame on it," she
said. The panel was critical of Trump's role in torpedoing bipartisan border
legislation this year, saying he didn't want a solution to the problem.
Fox News Digital's David Rutz and Jeffrey Clark contributed
to this update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
7 hour(s) ago
Haley campaign surrogate predicts she will ultimately
endorse Trump
Nikki Haley campaign surrogate Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.,
reacted to the news that the former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador
would suspend her presidential campaign on Wednesday morning.
Norman told "Fox & Friends" the timing was
"right" for Haley to drop out after she lost 14 of 15 Super Tuesday
primary contests to Trump, only winning Vermont by a narrow margin.
"The democratic process played out. And, you know, the
people have spoken," Norman said. "I do think she will fully endorse
President Trump. If not, you know, today, she will because we've got a country
to save. This is bigger than anything we have ever seen. This isn't about
personalities. This is really about saving America."
With Haley to bow out of the race at 10:00 a.m. ET in a
speech delivered in Charleston, Norman said he will endorse Trump and support
him in the November general election.
"Donald Trump can save this country," Norman said.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
7 hour(s) ago
American Samoa snubs Biden 2 caucuses in a row
President Biden overwhelmingly won the Democratic contests on
Super Tuesday, with one notable exception — American Samoa.
The American territory, an island located in the South
Pacific Ocean, voted for an unlikely Democratic candidate named Jason Palmer, a
52-year-old businessman from Baltimore.
Out of 91 ballots cast in the territory's caucus, Palmer won
51 and Biden won 40, according to the local party. The upset will not derail
Biden’s march toward his party’s nomination, but it marks the second time the
American territory has rejected Biden.
During the 2020 Democratic primaries, billionaire Michael
Bloomberg’s only win came in American Samoa. He garnered 175 votes in the
contest with Tulsi Gabbard coming second with 103 votes. Bernie Sanders earned
37 votes and Biden came fourth with 31.
After Tuesday’s caucus, Palmer thanked American Samoa in a
message on X.
"Honored to announce my victory in the American Samoa
presidential primary. Thank you to the incredible community for your support.
This win is a testament to the power of our voices. Together, we can rebuild
the American Dream and shape a brighter future for all."
Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard contributed to this
update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
8 hour(s) ago
Biden campaign plans to bury Trump in cash, boasts $130
million war chest
President Biden's campaign has amassed a $130 million war
chest and is ready to bury presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in
spending to win in November, the campaign says.
A memo released after Super Tuesday argues that only Biden
has the resources and infrastructure needed to reach voters and run a modern
presidential campaign.
"Since its launch, Team Biden-Harris has raised nearly
$280 million, and finished January with a historic $130 million in cash on
hand, the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this
point in the cycle," Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon and Campaign
Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote.
"Groups allied with Biden are flush with resources and
have already committed to spending more than $700 million to help him beat
Donald Trump again," the memo states.
The memo outlines the Biden campaign's view of the state of
the 2024 presidential election. Trump secured his place as the presumptive
Republican nominee after winning 14 of the 15 Super Tuesday states, with the
lone exception of Vermont. His last remaining challenger, former South Carolina
Gov. Nikki Haley, will suspend her presidential campaign at 10:00 a.m. ET on
Wednesday.
Biden's team argues Trump is weakened by the primary fight
and strapped for cash as Republicans pivot to the general election.
"In January, Trump’s campaign raised $8.8 million while
spending around $11.5 million, ending the month $2.6 million in the hole. His
super PAC is further in the hole: in the entire month of January, it spent more
than it raised. If it couldn’t get any worse, the national Republican Party
that will serve as the backbone of his general election campaign is in complete
disarray: 2023 was the RNC’s worst fundraising year in almost a decade,"
the memo states.
"And we’ve yet to mention what appears to be an issue
that will not go away this cycle: Trump’s political operation has had to shell
out several million per month on legal costs — an amount that accounted for
approximately one-third of their total spending last year with that number
expected to get even worse."
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
8 hour(s) ago
Biden campaign labels Trump 'beleaguered and ill-equipped'
to win the White House
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 29: U.S. President Joe Biden walks
across the South Lawn before boarding the Marine One presidential helicopter
and departing the White House on February 29, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Biden's campaign argues that former President
Trump enters the general election "beleaguered and ill-equipped" to
win the White House after his dominant showing in the Republican primary on
Super Tuesday.
A memo with takeaways from Tuesday's primary contests was
released to the media Wednesday morning. Biden Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley
Dillon and Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez authored the document, which
outlined the campaign's view of the state of the race.
"The results of last night’s Super Tuesday contests
cemented what we have known for some time now: Donald Trump limps into the
general election as a wounded, dangerous and unpopular candidate," the
memo states. "The Republican nominee is cash-strapped, beleaguered by a
host of external issues, and is running on an extreme agenda that is already
proving to be a significant liability for key voting blocs that are critical to
the pathway to 270 electoral votes."
The Biden campaign asserts that the primaries have
demonstrated how Trump is struggling to unify a coalition needed to win 270
Electoral College votes. Though Trump won all the Super Tuesday primaries
except for Vermont, the memo points to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's
significant of the GOP primary vote in several states. Dillon and Rodriguez
argue that even though Haley has no path to the nomination, a significant
number of Republicans are still refusing to back Trump.
"A significant of moderate and Haley voters across the
country are saying that Trump cannot count on their votes in a general election,"
the memo states.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris campaign "heads into the
general election coming off of consistent wins up and down the ballot,
maintains a historic and growing grassroots-powered war chest, and now adds a
strong Super Tuesday showing last night to enter the general election
well-prepared and well-positioned to win this November."
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
8 hour(s) ago
Texas GOP challengers defeat House incumbents by remaining
'laser focused' on border
Insurgent Republicans won big victories in the Texas
primaries on Tuesday, unseating six incumbent state House lawmakers who had
opposed Gov. Greg Abbott's school choice agenda.
Three primary winners, Janice Holt, Marc LaHood and Helen
Kerwin, spoke to Fox News about their wins and what they plan to do if they go
on to win election to the state legislature in November.
"The open border is one of the major issues in our
district," said Holt, who defeated Republican state Rep. Ernest Bailes.
"Our district is home to one of the largest, if not the largest illegal
immigrant population in the country. And it is ground zero here and the open
border is terrible here ... the people that live in our district were fed up
with our incumbent not doing anything. He's been in office for eight years and they
were tired and scared and they wanted change."
LaHood agreed that the border was the "number one"
for voters in his primary. Kerwin, who will advance to a runoff, said voters in
her district were looking for more conservative leadership.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
9 hour(s) ago
Hume warns 'the country sees' that Biden is 'palpably
senile' as State of the Union approaches
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume is not surprised
by the growing concerns about President Biden's age and mental acuity – he believes
they have been a "ticking time bomb."
Asked on Super Tuesday whether he could have envisioned
months ago current polls showing independent voters leaning toward former
President Trump on a number of issues, Hume chalked it up at least in part to President
Biden's cognizance.
"I was saying back when it was not at all fashionable
to say it, that he is senile. And now I think he is palpably senile and the
country sees it," Hume said on "Special Report" as Super Tuesday
polls prepared to close in 15 states and American Samoa.
Hume said a major challenge for Biden lies later in the week
when he will give the annual State of the Union on Thursday, highlighting that
the president must prove to Americans that he is not too old for the job.
Biden has been dogged by several news-making gaffes in
recent weeks, including a reference to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi
as the "president of Mexico" while discussing the Israel-Gaza
conflict, and instances where he recounted talking to former German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand several years after they
died.
The president also caused a stir after a Connecticut speech
on gun control in 2023, when he closed his remarks with "God Save the
Queen, man." By that time, King Charles III had become the British monarch
upon the passing of his mother Elizabeth II the year prior.
Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz contributed to this
update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
9 hour(s) ago
No 2 Senate Republican leader John Thune endorsed Trump in
late February
Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, speaks
to members of the media at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday,
March 5, 2024. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
EXCLUSIVE: Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Senate
Republican leader, endorsed former President Trump for reelection in February.
It was a key win for Trump from the establishment wing of
the Republican Party. The South Dakota Republican is Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell’s top deputy in the Senate GOP.
"The primary results in South Carolina make clear that
Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s
pivotal presidential election. The choice before the American people is crystal
clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden," Thune told Fox News Digital in an
exclusive interview.
"I support former President Trump's campaign to win the
presidency, and I intend to do everything I can to see that he has a Republican
majority in the Senate working with him to restore American strength at home
and abroad," he continued.
Thune and Trump spoke by phone on Saturday night after
Trump’s commanding victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, a source
familiar with the call told Fox News Digital.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Elizabeth
Elkind
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
9 hour(s) ago
Ryan Binkley dropped out, endorsed Trump for president last
week
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Former Republican presidential primary candidate Ryan
Binkley dropped out of the race as a GOP candidate last week and immediately
endorsed Donald Trump for president.
"Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Presidency
of the United States of America and offering my endorsement and unwavering
support for President Trump," Binkley wrote in a post on X.
Binkley is the CEO of Equity Group, a business advisory
company based out of Texas.
"When I began this journey, it was with a message in my
heart that our country needs to awaken to the fact that the unsustainable
deficit spending and debt path we are on will undoubtedly lead us to a
generational economic disruption," Binkley wrote Tuesday. "I believe
that we can get off that path and begin a journey to balance the federal budget
by transforming and demonopolizing the healthcare system which has been
bankrupting our nation. I also felt deeply that as bad as the U.S. fiscal and
monetary policy is, the political corruption and cultural divide in our country
is an even greater threat. Throughout my campaign, I have seen our party
struggle to find a place for a new vision while weighing the corrupt
allegations and indictments against President Trump. He will need everyone’s
support, and he will have mine moving forward."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
9 hour(s) ago
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Adam Schiff's victory
speech, demand cease-fire in Gaza
Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted Rep. Adam Schiff's,
D-Calif, victory speech on Tuesday after he secured the Democratic nomination
for a U.S. Senate seat.
The seat was held for more than 30 years by former Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., until her death last year, prompting Gov. Gavin
Newsom to appoint Democrat Sen. Laphonza Butler to fill the vacancy.
As Schiff attempted to introduce his family at his watch
party following his victory, demonstrators chanted "cease-fire now"
and "Free Palestine," and the chants grew louder as the lawmaker's
remarks were drowned out.
At least one person was escorted away from the stage amid
the protest.
Schiff addressed the protest following the disruption.
"We are so lucky to live in a democracy where we all
have the right to protest," he said. "We want to make sure we keep
this kind of democracy."
The California Democrat told reporters Tuesday that he
supported the Biden administration’s call for a cease-fire in Gaza on the
condition of the release of Israeli hostages.
"My position is the same as the administration, which
is there needs to be a deal to release the hostages and have a pause in the
fighting," Schiff said.
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this update.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
10 hour(s) ago
Trump, Biden, sweep Super Tuesday contests as they move
closer to a presidential election rematch
Former President Donald Trump and President Biden are a
giant step closer on Wednesday morning to a 2024 general election rematch,
after the Republican and Democratic Party frontrunners ran the table on Super
Tuesday as 16 states from coast to coast held presidential nominating contests.
"They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big
one," Trump said in a primary night victory speech in front of a large
group of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. "This
has been a day that we've been waiting for."
And looking ahead to his all-but-certain general election
battle with Biden, Trump highlighted that "November 5th is going to go
down as the single most important day in the history of our country."
Biden, in a statement on the Super Tuesday results, said
"today, millions of voters across the country made their voices
heard—showing that they are ready to fight back against Donald Trump’s extreme
plan to take us backwards."
"Every generation of Americans will face a moment when
it has to defend democracy. This is our fight," he emphasized.
Longtime Republican strategist David Kochel, a veteran of
numerous presidential campaigns, told Fox News as the Super Tuesday votes were
being tabulated that "it's pretty clear both parties are ready to get to
the general election."
While Trump didn't clinch the 2024 Republican nomination on
Tuesday, the former president was on course to capture the vast majority of the
854 Republican delegates up for grabs, moving him significantly closer to
locking up the nomination over his last remaining rival – former U.N.
ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
And while the former president didn't mention Haley in his
speech, pointing to his primary victories over his rival, he touted that
"there's never been anything so conclusive."
Indeed, Haley will suspend her campaign for president at
10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday during a speech in Charleston, South Carolina, Fox
News Digital has learned.
Her decision to drop out comes after Trump's convincing
victories in 14 of the 15 states holding GOP nominating contests — Haley
narrowly edged the former president in Vermont.
Posted by Paul Steinhauser
BREAKING NEWS10 hour(s) ago
Nikki Haley to suspend presidential campaign, won't endorse
Trump yet
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - MARCH 4: Republican presidential
candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley poses for pictures with her
supporters following a campaign rally on March 4, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas.
(Photo by Emil Lippe/Getty Images)
Nikki Haley will suspend her Republican presidential primary
campaign in a speech Wednesday morning, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
The former South Carolina governor and United Nations
ambassador is scheduled to deliver remarks in Charleston, S.C., at 10:00 a.m. ET.
She will make the announcement official in that speech, the Wall Street Journal
first reported.
Haley will not endorse former President Trump during her
speech, a source with knowledge of her plans told Fox News Digital.
In a Republican presidential field that topped a dozen
candidates last summer, Haley was the final remaining rival to Trump, who for
months has been the commanding front-runner in the GOP race as he makes his
third straight White House bid.
Haley – who in 2021 and 2022 made numerous trips to Iowa and
New Hampshire, the two lead-off states in the Republican presidential
nominating calendar – formally launched her 2024 campaign in February of last
year.
But after a disappointing string of defeats by Trump, who
dominated his rivals in all primary contests save for Washington, D.C., and
Vermont, Haley will now put her White House ambitions on hold.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo
10 hour(s) ago
Dana Perino on 'The Five': Haley 'not going to be the nominee'
Tonight on "The Five," co-host of "America's
Newsroom" Dana Perino looked back on Trump's campaign and the former
president's suggestion that Nikki Haley can't beat Biden.
"I think you saw one Donald Trump in Iowa, in terms of
being very conciliatory, and 'Let's all get along, and everything's great', and
then in New Hampshire he was like 'She's absolutely the worst, and a total
loser," Perino said of Trump from mid to late January.
"The election is eight months from today. So, there's
time," she added. "But I do think after tonight, it is not without
question that you will likely be saying that Donald Trump is a presumptive
nominee."
Perino also responded to Trump's past remarks that Haley
could not beat Biden in the November election.
"She could," Perino said. "But she's not
going to be the nominee."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
BREAKING NEWS13 hour(s) ago
Trump declared winner of Utah Republican caucuses
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald
Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at
Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Associated Press can now project that Donald Trump will
win the Utah Republican caucuses.
The race was called for the former president at 3:39 a.m. on
Wednesday. Trump is estimated to have gathered about 58.2% of the vote with
Nikki Haley coming in at 40.7% with 65% of the ballots counted, as of 4 a.m.
With the win in Utah, Trump was declared the winner of 13 of
the 14 Republican caucuses and primaries that took place on Super Tuesday, only
losing Vermont to challenger Nikki Haley.
Posted by Elizabeth Pritchett
13 hour(s) ago
Rounding out the top moments from the Super Tuesday
elections
President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and
former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump and President Biden came out
on top on Super Tuesday as they both swept nearly every contest in the largest
primary night of the 2024 election cycle.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley hoped to find some light
at the end of the tunnel after staking her candidacy on the 15 states casting
ballots, while Biden's top challengers looked for any glimmer of success after
making their case against the president's age and ability to take on Trump in a
general election rematch.
From Haley securing her first statewide victory to Biden
suffering a shocking defeat to an obscure businessman, here are the top moments
from what many thought would be an uneventful Super Tuesday:
1. Haley secures a win in the Vermont primary
2. Biden suffers first 2024 loss to challenger Jason Palmer
3. Haley remains vague on her campaign's future
4. Concern grows over Trump's ability to win over Haley
supporters
Fox News Digital's Brandon Gillespie has more on the top
moments from Super Tuesday here.
Posted by Elizabeth Pritchett
BREAKING NEWS14 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Alaska Republican caucuses
Former President Donald Trump gestures to supporters at an
election-night watch party at Mar-a-Lago on March 5, 2024 in West Palm Beach,
Florida. Sixteen states held their primaries and caucuses today as part of
Super Tuesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The Associated Press can now project that Donald Trump will
win the Alaska Republican caucuses.
The race was called for the former president at 2:17 a.m. on
Wednesday. Trump is estimated to have gathered about 87.6% of the vote with
Nikki Haley coming in at about 12% with 99% of the ballots counted.
As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Trump has been declared the winner of
12 of the 14 Republican primaries and caucuses that took place on Super
Tuesday, only losing Vermont to Haley.
The result of the Utah Republican caucuses has not yet been
determined.
Posted by Elizabeth Pritchett
15 hour(s) ago
'Fox News Night' panelists discuss Haley campaign's
statement after Super Tuesday results
Steve Hilton and Vik Bajaj discuss a statement from Nikki
Haley's campaign following a lackluster performance in the Super Tuesday
elections on "Fox News Night" with Trace Gallagher.
With races called in all but two of the 16 states that held
presidential nominating contests on Super Tuesday, Haley only won the Vermont
primary. While she has not spoken herself as of early Wednesday morning, her
campaign issued a statement celebrating her win and claiming there is a
"large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns
about Donald Trump."
The campaign's statement was met with criticism from both
Hilton and Bajaj considering her chance at becoming the GOP nominee is unlikely
at this point in the race.
"She's lost every single state except for Bernie
Sanders' backyard. It is completely delusional every single day she continues
to stay in this race and put out divisive statements like that," Hilton
said. "There's only one person that benefits – it's not Nikki Haley, it's
Joe Biden. If she really cares about the country and its future, as she claims,
then she would stop her team putting stuff out like that and just get out of
this race and get behind an effort to get rid of this destructive Joe Biden
administration."
Posted by Elizabeth Pritchett
BREAKING NEWS17 hour(s) ago
Schiff, Garvey advance to California Senate general
election: AP
Photos of U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., at left, a U.S
Senate candidate, and his Republican opponent Steve Garvey flash on a
television screen during an election night party for Schiff, Tuesday, March 5,
2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Republican former baseball
player Steve Garvey have advanced to the general election for the California
Senate race, the Associated Press projects.
Schiff and Garvey will advance to the November election to
decide who will fill the seat previously held by the late Sen. Dianne
Feinstein.
Democrats will be expected to hold the seat comfortably. But
the state puts all candidates on the same ballot, and the two who get the most
votes moves forward to the general election.
Others in the race included Democrats Rep. Katie Porter and
Rep. Barbara Lee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted by Adam Shaw
17 hour(s) ago
Haley campaign claims 'large block' of GOP voters still have
'deep concerns' about Trump
BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA - FEBRUARY 26: Republican
presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a
campaign event at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on February 26, 2024 in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Minnesota holds its primary election on March 5. (Photo
by David Berding/Getty Images)
In a statement reacting to the results of the Super Tuesday
elections, the campaign for Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said
there remains a large amount of Republican voters who continue to have
"deep concerns" about former President Donald Trump's candidacy.
Haley defeated Trump in the Vermont GOP primary election,
but lost to the former president in nearly every one of the other elections
held Tuesday.
“We’re honored to have received the support of millions of
Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the
first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests," Haley's
campaign said in a statement.
"Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re
united.’ Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican
primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not
the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will
make the Republican Party and America better," Haley's campaign added.
Vermont appears likely to be the only state that Haley will
win on Super Tuesday.
Posted by Kyle Morris
17 hour(s) ago
Biden to win California Democratic primary
President Joe Biden arrives to board Air Force One, Tuesday,
March 5, 2024, in Hagerstown, Md. The President is traveling to Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the California Democratic primary.
The Golden State's primary was held on Super Tuesday, a day
of multi-state primary contests that historically sets the tone for the rest of
the election cycle and narrows out the candidate field.
In 2020, Biden was defeated by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,
an Independent, in the California primary race by nearly 10 points. After
winning the Democratic nomination later that year, the president bested former
President Donald Trump by almost 30 points in the 2020 general election in the
state.
California is a traditionally blue state, voting Democratic
every presidential election since 1988.
Amid growing concerns over Biden's fitness and capability to
serve another full-term, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has been
floated as an alternative candidate to put up against Trump. He has said he
will not run this election cycle if Biden stays in the race.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS17 hour(s) ago
Trump projected to win California GOP primary race
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the California Republican primary.
Trump's latest win comes on Super Tuesday, a multi-state
primary contest that allows voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory to cast
their votes for who they want to represent them as their party’s nominee in
2024. Trump's win also marks another defeat for former United Nations
Ambassador Nikki Haley, who remains in the Republican race despite losing
nearly every single primary race to the former president.
In the 2016 GOP primary, Trump won the Golden State race
against his Republican competitors by about 60 points.
California traditionally votes blue in presidential general
elections, voting Democratic in every presidential election since 1988. Trump
lost the state to his Democrat opponents in both 2016 and 2020, losing to
then-Vice President Joe Biden by about 30 percentage points in the 2020 general
election.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
17 hour(s) ago
Biden reacts to Super Tuesday election results, claims the
'choice is clear' ahead of 2024 election
President Joe Biden speaks at the Border Patrol Brownsville
station in Olmito, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024.(Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty
Images)
President Biden issued a statement Tuesday night following a
series of victories in the Super Tuesday elections that took place in different
corners of the country, claiming the "choice is clear" ahead of the
2024 presidential election.
“Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear
choice: Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to
drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term
in office?" Biden questioned.
“Four years ago, I ran because of the existential threat
Donald Trump posed to the America we all believe in. Since then, we’ve made
enormous progress: 15 million jobs, wages rising faster than inflation, taking
on Big Pharma and the gun lobby — and winning. But we have more to do."
Biden claimed the progress he has made since taking office
in 2021 will be placed "at risk" if Trump is elected later this year.
"He is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his
own revenge and retribution, not the American people. He is determined to
destroy our democracy, rip away fundamental freedoms like the ability for women
to make their own health care decisions, and pass another round of billions of
dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy — and he’ll do or say anything to put
himself in power," the president claimed.
Biden went on to claim that "millions of voters"
made clear Tuesday that they're prepared "to fight back against Donald
Trump’s extreme plan to take us backwards."
“My message to the country is this: Every generation of
Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. Stand up for our
personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. To every
Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America:
This is our moment. This is our fight. Together, we will win," he
concluded.
Posted by Kyle Morris
17 hour(s) ago
Who is Jason Palmer, the obscure presidential candidate who
delivered Biden's first 2024 loss?
POLITICS
Who is Jason Palmer, the obscure presidential candidate who
delivered Biden's first 2024 loss?
President Biden lost his first 2024 contest to an obscure
Maryland businessman named Jason Palmer in the U.S. territory of American
Samoa.
President Biden lost his first contest in the race for the
Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday to an unknown candidate in the
U.S. territory of American Samoa.
The Fox News Decision Desk projected that Jason Palmer, a
self-described entrepreneur and investor, would win American Samoa's caucuses,
taking four delegates to Biden's two.
On his campaign website, Palmer describes himself as a
52-year-old resident of Baltimore, Maryland, with leadership and executive
experience working for companies like Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, among others.
Click to read more from Fox News Digital's Brandon
Gillespie.
Posted by Andrew Mark Miller
17 hour(s) ago
California polls close and Utah Republicans finish caucusing
"I Voted" stickers are offered to Voters after
casting their ballot on Super Tuesday, at the Ranchito Elementary School
polling station in the Panorama City section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 5,
2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
It’s 11PM and polls have closed in California.
The Golden State offers more delegates than any other
tonight.
Republicans have also finished caucusing in Utah
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS18 hour(s) ago
Haley wins Vermont GOP primary
Nikki Haley and Donald Trump (Getty Images)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
Governor Nikki Haley will win the Vermont Republican primary. This is her
second primary contest win, following D.C.
Haley was widely expected to do well in Vermont which is one
of the few states that held an open primary on Tuesday night where both
Republicans and Democrats could vote.
Vermont appears likely to be the only state that Haley will
win on Super Tuesday.
Leading up to the Vermont primary, Haley held an event in
the state featuring Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott, a vocal critic of
Trump, who has endorsed Haley's White House bid.
Vermont will award 17 delegates in the primary. If Haley
hits 50% she will be awarded all of the state's delegates. If not, the
delegates will be divided up between Haley and Trump.
Vermont had been a staunch red state up until the election
of Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1992. Former President George H.W. Bush
defeated former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the state four years
prior. Democrats have easily won the state every election since.
Posted by Andrew Mark Miller
18 hour(s) ago
Rep. Colin Allred wins Texas Democratic Senate primary
Rep.-elect Colin Allred, D-Texas., arrives for orientation
for new members of Congress, Nov. 13, 2018, in Washington.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Democratic
Representative Colin Allred will win his Texas Senate primary.
Democrats hope the former Titans linebacker can oust
Republican Senator Ted Cruz in November.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
18 hour(s) ago
Trump reacts to Super Tuesday victories: 'Rarely has
politics seen anything quite like this'
POLITICS
Trump reacts to Super Tuesday victories: 'Rarely has
politics seen anything quite like this'
Former President Trump said Super Tuesday was 'great
evening,' and that it is his 'honor to represent not just the Republican Party
but our country in leading it back to health and prosperity.'
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump, reacting to Super Tuesday
primary victories, told Fox News Digital that it is a "great
evening," and that it is his "honor to represent not just the
Republican Party but our country in leading it back to health and
prosperity."
Trump, the GOP frontrunner, won Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine, Alabama, Arkansas,
and Minnesota by 9:45 p.m. ET Tuesday night.
"It is a great evening," Trump told Fox News
Digital in an exclusive interview after races were called in his favor in 11
states, and while awaiting race calls and polls closing in others.
"Rarely has politics seen anything quite like
this," he said.
Trump added: "It is my honor to represent not just the
Republican Party but our country in leading it back to health and
prosperity."
Trump's reaction came after 11 states were called. The Fox
News Decision Desk is still awaiting race calls in Vermont, and poll closures
in Alaska, Utah, and California.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Brooke
Singman
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS18 hour(s) ago
Biden to win Utah Democratic primary
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of his
Competition Council to announce new actions to lower costs for families in the
State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (AP
Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Utah Democratic primary.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
DEVELOPING STORY18 hour(s) ago
Election polls close in Utah Democratic presidential primary
Voting booth
It’s 10PM and polls have just closed in the Utah Democratic
presidential primary. Biden is expected to win this state easily.
There are 40 delegates at stake.
Republican caucusing is ongoing.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS19 hour(s) ago
Biden loses Super Tuesday Dem caucus in American Samoa
President Joe Biden meets with UAW members during a campaign
stop, Feb. 1, 2024, in Warren, Mich.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Jason
Palmer, a self-described entrepreneur and investor, will win the American Samoa
Democratic caucus.
This marks President Biden’s first loss in the 2024
primaries. Palmer takes 4 delegates, Biden takes 2.
During the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries, Biden
lost the territory against his competitors. The president captured 8% of the
vote compared to Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s 10%, Hawaiian Representative
Tulsi Gabbard’s 29%, and New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s 50%.
As a territory, Samoa does not get a vote in the general
presidential election. They are only permitted to send delegates to the
convention during the primary season.
Roughly 230 Samoans voted in the 2020 Democratic
presidential caucus.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
19 hour(s) ago
Rep. Dean Phillips reacts to Super Tuesday election results
Rep. Dean Phillips (Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips responded to
Super Tuesday's developing election results on social media by sarcastically
congratulating others on the ballot.
"Congratulations to Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne
Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party
loyalists than me," Rep. Phillips posted on X on Tuesday night.
Phillips, a long shot primary challenger to President Biden,
has struggled to gain traction so far in the Super Tuesday competitions and is
currently trailing "Uncommitted" in Alabama.
Phillips is registering around 9% in Oklahoma. The
Democratic congressman is also registering at 9% in his home state of Minnesota
but also trails "Uncommitted" which is registering 17%.
Posted by Andrew Mark Miller
BREAKING NEWS19 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Minnesota on Super Tuesday 2024
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 23: President Donald Trump and
first lady Melania Trump walk on the south lawn of the White House on December
23, 2020 in Washington, DC. The Trumps are headed to Mar-a-Lago for the
holidays with a government shutdown possible on Monday December 28. (Photo by
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Minnesota Republican primary.
In 2020, during the presidential election , Trump lost to
Biden with 45.28% to 52.4% of the vote, and did not win any delegates. Biden
won 10, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Trump won 97.7% of the votes and 39 pledged delegates during
the 2020 Republican presidential primary in Minnesota. Other candidates had
2.0% of votes with 0 delegates, according to Ballotpedia.
In general presidential elections, state has seen 20
Democratic wins, 10 republican wins and one other win between the years 1900
and 2020. The last time a Republican won the state was in 1972. Starting in
1900, the state has voted for Democrats 64.5% of the time and only 32.3% for
Republicans.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS19 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Republican Colorado primary election
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald
Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party, Tuesday, March 5, 2024,
at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Colorado Republican primary.
Trump secured a win in The Centennial State on Super
Tuesday, one of 15 states and one U.S. territory voting on who they want to
represent their party as the nominee in 2024.
When Trump was making his first bid for the presidency in
2016, Republicans canceled their presidential primary in the state. The former
president lost Colorado to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the
general election that fall.
In the 2020 general election, Trump again lost the state of
Colorado to then-Vice President Joe Biden, who received 55% of the vote.
The Colorado Supreme Court recently attempted to Trump from
the primary ballot in 2024, but the Colorado secretary of state said the former
president will be on the 2024 Colorado primary ballot after Republicans filed
an appeal with the court.
Several states have successfully d Trump from their primary
ballots, but despite his removal from the ballot in Nevada, the former president
still won the state's primary.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS19 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Minnesota on Super Tuesday 2024
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Minnesota Democratic primary.
The state of Minnesota had a population of 5.7 million as of
2021.
In 2020, during the presidential election, Biden beat Trump
with 52.4% of the votes to 45.28%, and won 10 delegates while Trump did not
receive any, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
During the primary election in 2020, Biden won 38.6% of the
vote, 38 delegates, Sen. Bernie Sanders won 29.89%, 27 delegates, Sen.
Elizabeth Warren won 15.4%, 10 delegates.
Since 2000, the state has voted in favor of the Democratic
candidates 100% of the time in presidential elections, and has voted for the
winning candidate 50% of the time, according to Ballotpedia. Minnesota has
participated in 31 presidential elections. The last time a Republican candidate
won was in 1972.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
19 hour(s) ago
President Biden wins Democratic primary election in Colorado
President Joe Biden delivers remarks to service members,
first responders, and their families on the 22nd of the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on
September 11, 2023. Getty Images.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Colorado Democratic primary.
The president's win comes on Super Tuesday, the day where
voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory vote in a multi-state primary race
for their preferred party nominee. Super Tuesday marks a significant point in
presidential primary races, winnowing out the candidate field and revealing the
Democrat and Republican frontrunners.
Biden lost the 2020 Super Tuesday Democratic primary in
Colorado to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, but after being named
the party's nominee, defeated former President Donald Trump on the general
election ballot that fall.
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller and Aubrie Spady
contributed to this report
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS19 hour(s) ago
Trump, Biden and Cruz win their Texas primary elections
Voters use umbrellas to beat the heat as they wait in line
at a polling site, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
It’s 9PM and all polls have closed in Texas.
Texas presidential primaries
In Texas, the Fox News Decision Desk can project that
President Biden will win the Democratic primary, and former President Trump
will win the Republican primary.Texas has the second highest number of
delegates at stake for both parties tonight.
Texas Senate primaries
In the Texas Senate primaries, the Fox News Decision Desk
can project that Republican Senator Ted Cruz will ‘cruise’ to the nomination.In
the Democratic race, House Representative Colin Allred has a lead.
Colorado and Minnesota
Polls have also closed in Colorado and Minnesota. At the
beginning of the night, Haley had hopes for these states, and the former
governor spent time in both. Based on the results so far this evening, that
seems like a steep climb.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
19 hour(s) ago
Trump wins GOP primary in Massachusetts
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President
Donald Trump talks reporters at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
headquarters on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. Getty Images.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Massachusetts Republican primary.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Arkansas GOP primary election
A supporter attends a Super Tuesday election night party
before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks,
Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca
Blackwell)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Arkansas Republican primary.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Biden declared winner of Arkansas Dem primary
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Arkansas Democratic primary.
Biden's victory in the state comes on Super Tuesday, a
multi-state primary night where voters across various states make their pick
for a preferred Republican and Democrat presidential nominee. The president is
currently leading the Democrat primary race, and is the likely party nominee
after winning all but one primary state of the 2024 cycle.
The president also won the state's Democrat presidential
primary in the 2020 race, but was defeated in November on the general election
ballot.
Biden was defeated by former President Trump in Arkansas in
the 2020 general election, losing the race in the Bear State by nearly 30
points.
Trump, the frontrunner of the GOP primary race, won Arkansas
in the general election in both 2016 and 2020 against his Democrat competitors.
Biden and Trump are both leading their party's primary race, inching closer to
a general election rematch in November.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Maine GOP primary election
Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Arizona.
Getty Images.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Maine Republican primary.
Maine, which uses ranked-choice voting, is allocated 20
Republican delegates.
Maine has favored Democratic presidential candidates for the
last eight elections. A Republican candidate has not won the state since 1988,
according to Ballotpedia. During the 2020 primary, Trump won 83.8% of the
votes, with 22 pledged delegates, leaving the remaining candidates with 16.2%
of the votes and 0 pledged delegates.
In the 2020 general election, Trump lost to Biden with only
44% of the votes and one electoral vote, while Biden won 53.1% and 3 electoral
votes, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Maine’s Democratic secretary of state disqualified Trump
from Maine’s presidential ballot back in December, citing the 14th Amendment,
which bars anyone from running for office who engages in an insurrection.
Earlier in January, Trump appealed the decision to the state Superior Court.
The Superior Court ruled that for the time being, Trump could remain on the
ballot until a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court was made regarding a
related Colorado case.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
DEVELOPING STORY20 hour(s) ago
Trump, Haley locked in tight primary race in Vermont
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki
Haley speaks during a campaign event Feb. 28, 2024, in Orem, Utah.
The Fox News Decision Desk believes we have a very close
race in Vermont. Nikki Haley is performing well in suburban areas.
As expected, Trump dominates rurally.
Haley has a chance to win her first state of the primaries
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
20 hour(s) ago
Election polls close in Arkansas
Donald Trump, Super Tuesday 2024
It’s 8:30PM and polls have closed in Arkansas.
Trump is expected to dominate in the state thanks to a
heavily White rural population.
Biden should also pick up an easy win.
There are 40 delegates at stake for the Republican
candidates and 31 delegates for the Democrats.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
20 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Oklahoma Democratic primary election
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Supreme Court's
decision on the Administration's student debt relief program in the Roosevelt
Room of the White House on Friday, June 30, 2023. Demetrius Freeman/The
Washington Post via Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Oklahoma Democratic primary.
Oklahoma has had 10 Democratic wins and 19 Republicans wins
from 1900-2020 during the presidential elections. Since 1968, the Republican
candidates have won the state, according to Ballotpedia.
Biden lost to Trump in the Oklahoma presidential election
with 32.2% to 65.3%
Posted by Andrew Mark Miller
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Oklahoma Republican primary
Supporters arrive before Republican presidential candidate
former President Donald Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party
Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Oklahoma Republican primary.
Former South Carolina Governor and former United Nations
Ambassador Nikki Haley will come in second place.
There were 43 delegates to be allocated to the Republican
candidates.
In 2020, Trump won 92.6% of the votes and 43 delegates,
while former Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh came in second at 3.7% with 0
delegates.
Trump won the state over then-former Vice President Biden
during the 2020 presidential election, with 65.37% to 32.29% of the votes,
according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Historically, Oklahoma has had 19 Republican wins and only 10
Democratic wins, participating in 29 presidential elections between 1900-2020,
according to Ballotpedia.
The state voted for the winning presidential candidate 72.4%
of the time, and the last time a Democratic candidate won the state was in
1964.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
20 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Maine Democratic primary
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National
Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in
Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Maine Democratic primary.
Maine, which uses ranked-choice voting, is allocated 24
Democratic delegates.
Despite Democrats winning the state in the last eight
presidential elections, there have only been 11 Democratic victories from 1900
through 2020, while Republicans have secured 20 wins, as reported by
Ballotpedia.
In the 2020 general election, Biden won with 53.1% of the
vote with three electoral votes, while Trump had 44% of the votes and one
electoral vote, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller and Emily Robertson
contributed to this report
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Massachusetts on Super Tuesday 2024
President Joe Biden speaks at the annual White House
Correspondents' Association dinner, Saturday, April 30, 2022, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Massachusetts Democratic primary.
There were 92 delegates to be won by a Democratic candidate
for the state.
Biden beat former President Donald Trump in the 2020 general
election in Massachusetts, leading with 65.6% of the votes and earning the
state’s 11 electoral votes. Trump trailed behind at 32.1% and 0 electoral
votes, according to U.S. Elections Analysis.
During the Democratic primary, Biden won 33.5% of the votes
and received 37 pledged delegates, while Sen. Bernie Sanders came in second at
26.6%, earning 30 pledged delegates. Sen. Elizabeth Warren came in third at
21.4% of the votes and 24 pledged delegates.
Between the years 1900 and 2020, the state has voted for the
winning presidential candidate 74.2% of the time, and between 2000 and 2020
they voted for the winning presidential candidate 50% of the time, according to
Ballotpedia.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Biden will win Tennessee Democratic primary
President Joe Biden arrives to board Air Force One, Tuesday,
March 5, 2024, in Hagerstown, Md. The President is traveling to Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Tennessee Democratic primary.
The win was expected, as the president has cruised to
victory against his challengers, Rep. Dean Phillips and health guru Marianne
Williamson.
In 2020, Biden swept Super Tuesday, winning ten out of
fifteen states. Tennessee was no different, with Biden capturing the state with
42% of the vote. Despite this, Tennessee remains a ruby red state with little
sign of changing. Trump won the state with 61% of the vote to Biden’s 37% in
the general election, according to state data. Biden’s only strong showing at
the time was with Black voters, capturing 88% of the vote, AP reported at the
time.
An important issue for the state in 2020 was the removal of
Confederate statues — 65% of voters opposed the measure, and Trump captured 83%
of that demographic, according to the Associated Press.
Republican strength in the state relies on White
evangelicals, with Trump in 2020 capturing 69% of a voter demographic that
makes up 84% of the state.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Tennessee GOP primary
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Tennessee Republican primary.
The victory was expected, with Trump winning all of the GOP
primary elections so far.
In 2016, Trump won a plurality of Super Tuesday states,
capturing Tennessee with 39% of the vote. In 2020, Trump won the state’s
primary handedly with 96% of the vote. During the presidential election, Trump
won the state with 61% of the vote to Biden’s 37%, according to state data. A
particularly important issue for the state was the removal of Confederate
statues — 65% of voters opposed the removals and Trump captured 83% of that
demographic, AP reported at the time.
"We’ve got an incompetent president who doesn’t know
what the hell he’s doing," Trump said during a rally in Nashville last
month. "He will not lead us to the promised land, as the expression goes.”
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
20 hour(s) ago
Stein, Robinson win North Carolina governor primaries
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Attorney
General Josh Stein will be the Democratic candidate for governor in North
Carolina.
Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson will be the Republican
candidate.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins Alabama GOP primary on Super Tuesday 2024
Republican presidential candidate and former President
Donald Trump speaks during a Get Out the Vote Rally March 2, 2024 in Richmond,
Virginia.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the Alabama Republican primary.
The GOP frontrunner's victory comes on Super Tuesday, a
vital night for presidential contenders. Republicans in 15 states and one
territory will make their pick for a preferred party nominee to represent them
on the 2024 general election ballot.
Total delegates at stake on Super Tuesday are 854 for the
GOP. In order to win the GOP presidential nomination, however, a candidate must
have 1,215 delegates or more out of the 2,429 delegates in total.
Trump won the Cotton State during his first presidential bid
eight years ago, securing 43% support in the Alabama Republican presidential
primary in 2016. At that year's general election, the former president won the
state by a whopping 50 points over former Secretary of State and then-Democrat
nominee Hillary Clinton.
In 2020, Trump also won the general election in Alabama
against President Biden, finishing the race with a lead of almost 30-percentage
points.
Trump defeated former United Nations Ambassador and GOP
candidate Nikki Haley in the Tuesday night primary.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Biden declared winner of Alabama Democrat primary election
US President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi
Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in
Washington, DC, November 15, 2021. Getty Images.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the Alabama Democratic primary.
Super Tuesday is a defining night for Republican and
Democrat presidential contenders . Democrats in 14 states and one territory
make their pick for a preferred party nominee to represent them on the general
election ballot. With no serious competition in the Democrat primary, Biden was
named the winner shortly after polls closed.
Former President Trump, the commanding frontrunner of the
Republican primary race, won Alabama in both the 2016 and 2020 general
elections against his Democrat competitors.
Biden was defeated by Trump in the Alabama general election
in 2020, losing to the former president by nearly 30 percentage points in the
Cotton State race.
Biden and Trump are currently leading their party primary
races going into Super Tuesday, and are heading towards competing in a likely
general election rematch.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
20 hour(s) ago
Election polls close in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts,
Oklahoma, Tennessee
It’s 8PM and all polls have closed in Alabama, Maine,
Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
There are 211 delegates at stake for the Republican
candidates, and 267 for the Democrats.
President Biden and former President Trump have posted
strong results so far tonight and could significantly expand their leads this hour.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS20 hour(s) ago
Trump wins North Carolina primary on Super Tuesday 2024
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President
Donald Trump points to supporters at the conclusion of a campaign rally at the
Atkinson Country Club on January 16, 2024 in Atkinson, New Hampshire. Brandon
Bell/Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win the North Carolina Republican primary.
There were 74 delegates for a Republican candidate to
receive.
Back in 2016, Trump won 40% of the GOP primary vote in North
Carolina and walked away with 29 delegates. Sen. Ted Cruz, then a candidate for
the GOP nomination, came in second with 27 delegates, but he later dropped out
of the race.
In the 2020 presidential election, Trump won 49.9% of votes
and secured all of the North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes. Biden won 48.59%
and 0 electoral votes.
Between 1900-2020, the southern state has had 18 Democratic
wins and 13 Republican wins, according to Ballotpedia. North Carolina has voted
for the Democratic candidate 58.1% of the time and for the Republican 41.9% of
the time since 1900. Since 2000, the Democratic candidate was voted for 16.7%
of the time while the Republican candidate was voted for 83.3% of the time.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
BREAKING NEWS21 hour(s) ago
Biden wins North Carolina on Super Tuesday 2024
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the North Carolina Democratic primary.
During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries ,
then-Vice President Biden won 42.95% and 68 delegates in North Carolina, Sen.
Bernie Sanders won 24.2% and 37 delegates. Michael Bloomberg won 12.95% and 3
delegates, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren won 10.5% and 2 delegates, according to
U.S. Election Atlas.
Between the years 1900 and 2020, the southern state has
voted for the winning presidential candidate 64.5% of the time and between 2000
and 2020, the state has voted for the winning presidential candidate 66.7% of
the time, according to Ballotpedia.
In presidential elections, North Carolina has had 18
Democratic wins and 13 Republican wins from 1900-2020.
The state has participated in 31 presidential elections up
to the year 2020.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
21 hour(s) ago
Trump sails to victory in Virginia Republican primary
election
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former
President Trump will win Virginia’s Republican primary.
This was former Governor Haley’s best chance to win a state
with significant delegates at stake.
During the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries, Trump
narrowly won the state against his competitors. Trump captured 35% of the vote
compared to Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s 32%, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’ 17%, and
former Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 10%.
During the general election, Biden defeated Trump, capturing
54% of the vote compared to Trump’s 44%.
The Virginia electorate has voted unpredictably over the last
few decades. Through most of its history it was a deep blue state, voting
Democrat in virtually every election until President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke
the trend in 1952. Republicans regularly won the state until 2008 when Barack
Obama returned the state to solid Democrat control.
Despite this, Republicans have had a slight resurgence in
the state, narrowly electing Republican Glenn Youngkin for Governor in 2021.
Posted by Kyle Morris
DEVELOPING STORY21 hour(s) ago
The view as polls close in North Carolina
Republican presidential candidate and former President
Donald Trump speaks during a Get Out the Vote Rally March 2, 2024
It’s 7:30 p.m. ET and polls have closed in North Carolina.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to do well in most
of the state. But North Carolina will award delegates proportionally, giving
Nikki Haley a chance to pick up in highly populated areas like Raleigh.
There are 74 delegates at stake.
North Carolina voters will also choose candidates for one of
the most watched governor’s races. The leading candidates are Democratic
Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson,
who Trump endorsed at a rally on Saturday.
Posted by Adam Shaw
BREAKING NEWS21 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Vermont Democratic primary
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of his
Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington,
D.C., on March 5, 2024. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win Vermont’s Democratic primary.
During the 2020 Democrat primary, Vermont was a landslide
defeat for the president. Biden ultimately lost the state with 22% of the vote
compared to Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s 51% of the vote and Massachusetts
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 13% of the vote.
During the 2020 Presidential Election, Democrats performed
on par with their traditional record, with 66% of the vote going to Biden
compared to Trump’s 37%, easily capturing the state.
Sanders not being on the ballot has not dampened Democrat
voter outreach in the state.
Vermont had been a staunch red state up until the election
of Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1992. Interestingly, former President
George H.W. Bush defeated former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the
state four years prior. Democrats have easily won the state every election
since.
Posted by Kyle Morris
BREAKING NEWS21 hour(s) ago
Biden cruises to Virginia Dem primary election victory
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win Virginia’s Democratic primary.
During the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries, Biden
dominated in the state against his competitors. The President captured 53% of
the vote compared to Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s 23%, Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren’s 10%, and New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s 10%.
Turnout in the Democratic primary was at an all-time high of 1.3 million.
During the general election, Biden defeated former President
Trump, capturing 54% of the vote compared to Trump’s 44%.
Biden’s recent campaigning in Virginia, hoping to take
advantage of pro-abortion sentiment, has been confronted by pro-gaza activists upset
over his perceived inaction in the region. The President was heckled at a
political event last month in Manassas.
Virginia has had a turbulent election history over the past
few decades. Through most of its history it was a deep blue state, voting Democrat
in virtually every election until President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke the
trend in 1952. Republicans then reliably won the state until Barack Obama’s
election in 2008 returned the state to solid Democrat control.
Posted by Kyle Morris
21 hour(s) ago
The view in Vermont and Virginia as first primary election
polls close
Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador
Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign rally on March 4, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Haley won her first Republican primary, besting former President Donald Trump
in Washington D.C. on Friday. Voters in 16 states, including Texas, head to the
polls tomorrow on Super Tuesday. (Photo by Emil Lippe/Getty Images)
It’s 7 p.m. ET and all polls have closed in Vermont and
Virginia.
Vermont could be Nikki Haley’s best chance to win a state
tonight, thanks to moderate northeast Republican voters and an open primary
system.
Virginia is also holding an open primary, and she could do
well in suburban areas near D.C.
Both states also host Democratic presidential primaries
tonight, where President Biden is widely expected to win.
Posted by Fox News Decision Desk
22 hour(s) ago
Democrat Jessica Tarlov: 'This will be another big night for
Donald Trump'
"The Five" co-hosts discussed the GOP showdown
between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley taking place across the U.S. today.
Election results from Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day
of the year, are expected to roll in tonight and into tomorrow.
"I certainly think that this will be another big night
for Donald Trump, we've seen that consistently," said Fox News contributor
Jessica Tarlov.
But Tarlov added that everyone is looking at what Haley
voters are going to do if Trump wins the GOP nomination.
"They exist, they're coming out in primaries, and a lot
of them are saying 'We won't be happy if Donald Trump is the nominee,'"
she added.
On Super Tuesday, 15 states are voting in primaries,
including in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Vermont and Virginia. One territory, American Samoa, is also holding primary
elections.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
22 hour(s) ago
Haley's team announced a 7-figure ad-buy before she lost in
DC last week
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Nikki Haley’s team announced a seven-figure ad-buy in
various states in the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday.
"Nikki is moving full steam ahead to Super Tuesday states
because 70 percent of Americans don’t want to see two grumpy old men duke it
out in November, and they deserve a real choice in this election," Haley
campaign spokeswoman AnnMarie Graham-Barnes told Fox News Digital in late
February. "Her message is resonating, and she’s got the resources to keep
fighting."
Haley made clear in the days ahead of the primary election
in South Carolina, her home state, that she planned to stay in no matter the
outcome of the day, saying she would "refuse to quit."
This week, Haley rallied in Houston and Fort Worth, Texas.
"We're touching as many people as we can," Haley
told Fox News' Martha MacCallum in an interview this morning. "The crowds
are passionate. They're fired up. They want a new generational leader, they want
to turn the page, and we're excited about that."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
22 hour(s) ago
'I think this is a two person race between Donald Trump and
Joe Biden': Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, joined Fox
News' Sandra Smith on "America Reports" today to discuss former
President Donald Trump and today's Super Tuesday presidential primary
elections.
"Obviously, I think this is a two person race between
Donald Trump and Joe Biden," Sanders said. "President Trump has all
of the momentum on his side, a huge and unanimous win earlier this week from
the Supreme Court, heavily in his favor. There are a number of states voting
today including Arkansas, which I know is going to deliver a big win for Donald
Trump, as well as I think the vast majority of states voting today."
In November, Sanders endorsed Trump during a Trump rally in
Hialeah, Florida.
"Our country has never needed Donald Trump more than we
do right now," she said. "We've got out-of-control inflation, violent
crime, an open border, a rising China. Biden and the left have failed over and
over again, and they know it, and you know it, and it is time for a change.
That is why tonight I am so proud to endorse my former boss, my friend, and
everybody's favorite president, Donald J. Trump."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
BREAKING NEWS22 hour(s) ago
Biden wins Democratic primary in Iowa
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with his
Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the White House on March 5,
2024 in Washington, DC. Biden announced new economic measures during the
meeting. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that President
Biden will win the mail-in Democratic primary in Iowa.
The state held its caucuses in January, but didn't release
results until today in order to comply with new Democratic National Committee
rules.
Posted by Adam Shaw
23 hour(s) ago
'Arrogant' Democrats 'massively surprised' by ex-MLB star's
surge in California Senate race: Hilton
From left to right: Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Katie Porter,
Republican Candidate Steve Garvey, and Rep. Adam Schiff. (Getty Images)
As voters head to the polls on Super Tuesday, California's
Senate race is taking center stage as an unlikely GOP candidate, former MLB
star Steve Garvey, surges in popularity against likely November opponent Adam
Schiff.
"Golden Together" founder and Fox News contributor
Steve Hilton told "America's Newsroom" that the turn of events has
Democrats "massively surprised" as California voters battle statewide
issues stemming from immigration and homelessness.
"They're massively surprised because they're incredibly
arrogant," Hilton told Dana Perino on Tuesday.
"They assume that California is just a total Democratic
one-party state. Republicans have got no chance. That was their attitude when
Steve Garvey got in the race and the assumption among the California political
press and all the Democrats was 'well, it's obviously going to be Adam Schiff
and Katie Porter,' but what it tells you is that this state, my beautiful home
state of California, is much more Republican than people think."
"Garvey has been helped by the fact that we have this
top-two system, which means that the top two finishers, regardless of party, go
through," he continued. "Because of their arrogance, because they
assume that a Republican cannot win… Adam Schiff has been spending enormous
amounts of money to try and get Steve Garvey into the general election because
he assumes that he's going to have a walkover."
California voters are casting their ballots Tuesday to fill
late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's seat, which is currently being filled
temporarily by Laphonza Butler. Four candidates are in the running for her seat
– Reps. Schiff, Porter and Barbara Lee
alongside Garvey, who is the only Republican in the race.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Bailee Hill
Posted by Kyle Morris
23 hour(s) ago
Taylor Swift has a message for Super Tuesday voters
Taylor Swift performs during "Taylor Swift | The Eras
Tour" at the National Stadium on March 02, 2024 in Singapore. (Photo by
Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Taylor Swift is urging Americans to go to the polls and vote
in their respective presidential primaries during Super Tuesday.
"Today, March 5, is the Presidential Primary in
Tennessee and 16 other states and territories. I wanted to remind you guys to
vote the people who most represent YOU into power," the 'Midnights' singer
wrote in an Instagram story. "If you haven't already, make a plan to vote
today."
"Whether you're in Tennessee or somewhere else in the
US, check your polling places and times at vote.org," she added.
Former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are competing
in the Republican primary, with President Biden running to secure the
Democratic nomination.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard and Lauryn Overhultz contributed
to this report.
Posted by Paul Steinhauser
23 hour(s) ago
Five areas could tell us a lot about the GOP on Super
Tuesday
POLITICS
Five areas could tell us a lot about the GOP on Super
Tuesday
As results pour in for the 2024 Super Tuesday, let's take a
close look at five areas in the United States that reveal something about the
Republican candidates and voters.
Fifteen states and one U.S. territory are holding
presidential primaries this evening.
President Biden only faces nominal opposition on Democratic
primary ballots, and barring any surprises, could get close to securing his
party’s nomination tonight.
On the Republican side, 35% of the total delegates at stake
will be settled.
Former President Trump comes into the race with formidable
advantages. He has six times as many delegates as Haley, and has polled well
ahead of her in recent national surveys.
Haley will be hoping for an upset to make this race
competitive, and even if she doesn’t, she is likely to walk away with some
delegates, thanks to varying rules.
But regardless of the overall result, the vote count in
certain parts of the country tonight will tell us something about Republican
voters in 2024.
Posted by Kyle Morris
23 hour(s) ago
Why did Colorado attempt to Trump from primary ballot?
Former President Donald Trump speaks in the library at
Mar-a-Lago on March 4, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida.(Alon Skuy/Getty Images)
In December, the Supreme Court in Colorado ruled to
disqualify Donald Trump from the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot.
The court found that Trump was disqualified under the 14h
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that office holders who engage
in insurrection are ineligible for federal office. The court argued that the
Trump engaged in insurrection due to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots.
"We do not reach these conclusions lightly," the
court's majority wrote. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the
questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply
the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to
the decisions that the law mandates we reach."
In early January, Trump filed an appeal and asked the court
to keep his name on the ballot. The Colorado secretary of state ultimately kept
Trump's name on the ballot pending the Supreme Court's decision.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with Trump.
The ruling of all nine justices will impact the status of efforts in several
other states, including Maine and Illinois , that had attempted to the likely
GOP nominee from their respective ballots.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Hillary Clinton on Biden's age: 'You know what, Joe Biden is
old'
Hillary Clinton speaks during the "A Special Evening
With Hillary Clinton" at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival at
Theater des Westens on February 19, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Franziska
Krug/Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton says people need to "accept the
reality" that President Biden is old, move on and focus on beating Donald
Trump.
The former Secretary of State appeared on the "Mornings
with Zerlina" radio show on SiriusXM Tuesday where she discussed what she
saw as the authoritarian threat of Trump winning the 2024 presidential
election. By contrast, she advised people to acknowledge Biden’s age and move
on to protect democracy.
"Somebody the other day said to me… 'Well, but, you know,
Joe Biden's old.' I said, 'You know what, Joe Biden is old . Let's go ahead and
accept the reality. Joe Biden is old.' So we have a contest between one
candidate who's old, but who's done an effective job and doesn't threaten our
democracy. And we have another candidate who is old, barely makes sense when he
talks, is dangerous, and threatens our democracy," Clinton said.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Lindsay
Kornick
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Michelle Obama shuts down speculation that she is planning
to run for president
Michelle Obama will not launch a bid for the White House
amid rumors that the former first lady was eyeing a presidential run, according
to her office.(Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
Michelle Obama will not launch a bid for the White House
amid rumors that the former first lady was eyeing a presidential run, according
to her office.
"As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed
several times over the years, she will not be running for president,"
Crystal Carson, the director of communications for Obama’s office, said in a
statement provided to ITK on Tuesday.
Obama supports President Biden and Vice President Kamala
Harris, her office said. Fox News Digital has reached out to Obama's
communication team.
Rumors of Obama's candidacy came as questions about Biden's
mental capacity continue to swirl. The rumors began to circulate after some
Republicans floated the idea that she could replace Biden on the November
ballot.
Some political commentators said the former first lady has
the best chance of beating former President Donald Trump , who is the leading
candidate to secure the GOP presidential nomination.
Biden is struggling with low poll numbers amid concerns from
Republicans and some Democrats about his age and ability to lead the country.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Louis
Casiano
Posted by Kyle Morris
March 5th
These GOP lawmakers endorse Trump in his 2024 run for POTUS
Many GOP lawmakers are standing in support of Trump as he
runs in the 2024 election against his Republican and Democrat opponents,
including President Biden and GOP hopeful Nikki Haley.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard
Hudson, R-N.C.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell could also endorse
former President Donald Trump in the 2024 race as one of his last major actions
before leaving leadership.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Possible VP picks for Trump
Former President Donald Trump told supporters in the days
leading up to the New Hampshire primary that he likely will not choose 2024
Republican nomination rival Nikki Haley as his running mate.
"She is not presidential timber," Trump said of
Haley as he spoke at January rally in New Hampshire's capital city. "Now,
when I say that, that probably means that she’s not going to be chosen as the
vice president."
Some potential Vice President picks are former primary
candidate and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, New York, House Rep Elise
Stefanik, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, South Carolina House Rep Nancy Mace,
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee
Sanders.
Scott, who remains popular with primary voters, is an
enticing choice but Stefanik is said to have recently impressed Trump with her
grilling of Ivy League presidents over antisemitism on campus.
With an abundance of options, few in Trump’s political orbit
have a good feel for whom Trump is leaning toward as his running mate. Veteran
Republican strategist Ryan Williams noted that "Trump prizes loyalty and
fealty above everything else when it comes to his supporters."
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
Trump reacts to House Democrats working to him from ballot:
'They're real losers'
Posted by Michael Lee
March 5th
Haley staying in the race despite loss in her home state of
South Carolina
Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images
Former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, despite her loss in her home state
of South Carolina in February, said she is staying in the GOP presidential
primary race.
Haley had pledged to stay in the race even if she lost the
Palmetto State, and she said she's sticking with that.
"I’m a woman of my word. I’m not giving up this fight
when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe
Biden," she told supporters after her loss on Feb. 24.
Former President Donald Trump won the state's GOP primary.
"We’re headed to Michigan tomorrow. And we’re headed to
the Super Tuesday states throughout all of next week," she said.
Last week, Trump beat Haley in Michigan where the remaining
39 of the state's 55 presidential delegates went to Trump.
Michigan Republicans were forced to split their primary into
two parts after Democrats who control the state government moved Michigan into
the early primary states, violating the national Republican Party’s rules.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Biden plans to 'trigger Trump' in new 'aggressive' election
strategy: Report
In a major shift of his political strategy with just months
to go before the election, President Biden wants to take every opportunity to
attack former President Trump, according to a recent report.
Biden, who has frequently refused to call Trump by name in
interviews, "is privately pushing for a much more aggressive approach to
2024: Go for Donald Trump's jugular," Axios reported Tuesday.
The report revealed that "Biden is convinced he'll
rattle Trump if he taunts him daily" and that the president has told friends
and allies that "he thinks Trump is wobbly, both intellectually and
emotionally, and will explode if Biden mercilessly gigs and goads him."
One advisor told Axios that Biden could make Trump "go
haywire in public."
"The ‘trigger Trump’ approach would be a departure from
a traditional Rose Garden re-election campaign," according to the outlet.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Jeffrey
Clark
Posted by Michael Lee
March 5th
Ramaswamy warns liberal justices 'buying political latitude'
with 9-0 ruling
Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy
praised the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling against Colorado's removal of
former President Trump from the 2024 ballot but warned of potential
foreshadowing within the written decision.
After the decision was handed down, Ramaswamy echoed Trump's
belief that it represented a "case of national unity," and that the
United States cannot essentially be united if a "patchwork" of states
can make unilateral decisions about a national candidate's eligibility beyond
the typical age and tenure statutes.
"That doesn't work if we're one nation. So that's what
this case was really about," he said. "I do think that this is not just
about President Trump, but about the future unity of our country itself. And
the Supreme Court, 9-0, came down on the right side of that question."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Charles
Creitz
Posted by Michael Lee
March 5th
Mark Cuban would vote for Biden even if 'he was being given
last rites'
Billionaire Mark Cuban reiterated his support for President
Biden over Trump, even to the point of death, in a recent comment.
The Dallas Mavericks minority owner and media personality
spoke to Bloomberg News after he visited the White House on Monday to take part
in a roundtable discussion on controlling drug prices. Cuban explained that
while he voted for Nikki Haley in the Texas GOP primary, he would vote for
Biden in the general if Trump was his opponent.
Despite ongoing and growing concerns over Biden’s age, Cuban
shrugged off the issue, claiming he would vote for the president even on his
deathbed.
"If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus
Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe
Biden," Cuban emphasized.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Lindsay
Kornick
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Kellyanne Conway on Trump: 'It's going to be another
dominant day'
Fox News contributor and former campaign manager to Donald
Trump, Kellyanne Conway, joined "Fox & Friends" Tuesday to
discuss the Supreme Court's ballot ruling on Monday in favor of the former
president.
"We should all applaud the unanimous decision by the
Supreme Court, Conway said to Fox News' Lawrence B. Jones. "You have so
many of our institutions now racked with Trump derangement syndrome,
weaponizing themselves against him, trying to stop him politically, damage him
financially."
All nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday
in a unanimous decision to side with Trump in his challenge to Colorado’s
attempt make him an ineligible candidate on the 2024 presidential primary
ballot.
"Let the voters decide," she added.
Regarding voter turnout on Super Tuesday, Conway believes
voters will support Trump today.
"I think it's going to help turnout and there's no
suspense today. It's going to be another dominant day for the former and future
President Donald Trump."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
How many delegates does Trump presently have secured?
NRA
In the nationwide Republican Presidential Primary process
there are 2,429 total delegates: 2,325 pledged and 104 unpledged. Pledged
delegates are bound to vote for the candidate they were elected to vote for and
unpledged delegates may vote for whomever they choose.
A candidate must receive 1,215 delegates, a majority, to
receive the Republican’s nomination for president. Anything less than that will
end in a contested convention where candidates will jockey for delegates live
and in person. Certain states have winner take all systems, where whoever gets
the most delegates wins them all, while most have proportional delegate
systems, candidates get a number of delegates based on the percentage of votes
they secure.
Currently, former President Donald Trump sits at 122
delegates compared to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s 24
delegates. The combined 12 delegates won by former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
and Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are considered lost and not
redistributed. 36% of the available delegates are up for grabs on Super
Tuesday.
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
Keith Olbermann calls for SCOTUS to be ‘dissolved’ for
overturning Trump Colorado ballot ban
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann called for the Supreme
Court to be "dissolved" following Monday’s unanimous ruling against
Colorado's removal of former President Trump from the 2024 ballot.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann called for the Supreme
Court to be "dissolved" following Monday’s unanimous ruling against
Colorado's removal of former President Trump from the 2024 ballot.
"The Supreme Court has betrayed democracy. Its members
including Jackson, Kagan and Sotomayor have proved themselves inept at reading
comprehension. And collectively the ‘court’ has shown itself to be corrupt and
illegitimate. It must be dissolved," Olbermann posted on X.
A follower responded, "Dissolve the separation of
powers to save democracy?" And Olberman shot back, "If the political
whores on the court are overruling quite explicit language in the constitution
to benefit one politician, your ‘separation of powers’ died long ago."
The far-left media personality also responded to a
conservative who told him to "cry more" by declaring, "Those
aren't tears, Fascist. They're urine. I'm sure you enjoy being bathed in
it."
Olbermann also said the Supreme Court is "betraying
America yet again," on a video posted to social media. All nine justices
ruled in favor of Trump in the case, which will impact the status of efforts in
several other states to GOP frontrunner from their respective ballots.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News' Brian Flood
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Trump hits back at Haley's claim that she is a better
candidate to beat Biden
Trump hits back at Haley's claim that she is a better
candidate to beat Biden
Former President Donald Trump refuted opponent Nikki Haley's
claim that she is a better general election candidate to compete against
President Biden, as voters head to the polls in a variety of states on Super
Tuesday.
"It's a lie. She knows it's a lie," Trump told
Lawrence Jones and Brian Kilmeade during a "Fox & Friends" phone
interview Tuesday, downplaying polls that have shown Haley performing better
versus Biden.
"We are winning against Biden in every single poll, and
everybody knows it, whether it's the New York Times, whether it's any of the
polls that have been taken over the last three months. So she is misrepresenting
that fact and it's fine. It's not going to matter because I think we're going
to win every state tonight."
His remarks come after Haley suggested she has a better
chance to oust Biden than Trump does during a campaign event on Monday, despite
only having one primary victory under her belt.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Bailee Hill.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
OPINION: Democrats rush to keep Trump off ballot because
election can't be left to voters
OPINION: Democrats rush to keep Trump off ballot because
election can't be left to voters
The following is an excerpt from an opinion article by
Jonathan Turley:
Calling it "one on a huge list of priorities,"
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D., Md., announced that he will be reintroducing a prior
bill with Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.,
to disqualify not just former President Donald Trump but a large number of
Republicans from taking office.
The alternative, it appears, is unthinkable: allowing the
public to choose their next president and representatives in Congress. It
appears that the last thing Democrats want is for the unanimous decision to
actually lead to an outbreak of democracy. Where the Court expressly warned of
"chaos" in elections, Raskin and others appear eager to be agents of
chaos in Congress.
Soon after the decision, Raskin went on CNN to assure people
that he and his colleagues would not stand by and allow the right to vote to be
restored to citizens in the upcoming election. He pledged to reintroduce a
prior bill that would declare Jan. 6 an "insurrection" and that those
involved "engaged in insurrection."
I previously wrote about these "ballot cleansing"
efforts because it would not just disqualify Trump but potentially dozens of
sitting Republican members of Congress. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., sought to
bar 126 members of Congress under the same theory. Similar legislation offered
by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., to disqualify members got 63 co-sponsors, all
Democrats.
Raskin's participation in this effort is crushingly ironic.
In 2016, he sought to block certification of the 2016 election under the very
same law as violent protests were occurring before the inauguration.
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
McConnell in talks to endorse Trump in 2024 presidential
race: report
McConnell is currently the highest-ranking Republican in
Congress who has yet to endorse Trump's return to the White House
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell could endorse
former President Donald Trump in the 2024 race as one of his last major actions
before leaving leadership.
McConnell's office and Trump's presidential campaign have
been in talks over a possible endorsement, as well as a strategy to unite
Republicans just eight months away from the November election, according to The
Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the situation.
McConnell is currently the highest-ranking Republican in
Congress who has yet to back the former president's bid to return to the White
House.
Any potential endorsement comes as Trump is competing with
former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to win the Republican nomination, and as
both candidates compete for a whopping 854 delegates at stake on Super Tuesday,
March 5.
Fox News Digital reached out to both the Trump campaign and
McConnell’s Senate office but did not immediately receive a response.
McConnell, who turned 82 last month, announced on Wednesday
that he would step down as Republican leader and would pursue "life's next
chapter."
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Nikki Haley on the eve of Super Tuesday: 'The crowds are
passionate'
Nikki Haley spoke with anchor and executive editor of
"The Story" Martha MacCallum on Monday ahead of Super Tuesday's
kickoff.
MacCallum asked Haley, "Is it fair to say that you will
be making some kind of decision on Wednesday?"
"What's fair to say is we've been in 10 states in the
past week," Haley replied. Last night, Haley held rallies in both Houston
and Fort Worth, Texas. As of now, Haley has yet to signify any end to her
presidential campaign trail.
"We're running through the tape," Haley said.
"We're touching as many people as we can. The crowds are passionate.
They're fired up. They want a new generational leader, they want to turn the
page, and we're excited about that."
Today, voting will take place in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas,
California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
In terms of which states Haley believes she could win
tonight, she isn't detailing them.
"We have some internal numbers that we're looking for
and that's what we're gonna focus on," Haley told MacCallum. "I'm not
gonna those today, but our goal is just to be competitive."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Hannity tells Trump he fears illegal immigrants will 'plot,
plan, scheme' the next 9/11 'or worse'
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump sat down with Sean Hannity in
late February in Eagle Pass, Texas to discuss the crisis at the southern
border, the influx of illegal immigrants migrating into the U.S. and the
possible ramifications of the less than secure border.
"We're just started to see, I call it migrant
crime," Trump said. "I really call it Biden migrant crime but it's
too long so let's just call it migrant crime and everyone's gonna know it's
because of Biden."
"You go back to New York, and you see hundreds of
thousands of people and you can see, look, the mayor is trying, he wants to do
a job, but it's just, it's impossible," Trump said of Eric Adams.
Adams was recently rebuffed by his own Democratic
supermajority city council after he signaled a willingness to slacken New York
City's "sanctuary" policies and cooperate more with ICE.
Hannity went on to mention the thousands of illegal, unvetted
immigrants coming into the country from Egypt, Afghanistan, Russia and China.
"Now, why would they make that long journey to our
southern border?" he asked Trump.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Trump hits at Nikki Haley's claim that she's a better choice
to beat Biden: 'She knows it's a lie'
Donald Trump, Nikki Haley join 'Fox & Friends' as voters
head to polls for Super Tuesday
Former President Donald Trump refuted opponent Nikki Haley's
claim that she is a better general election candidate to compete against
President Biden, as voters head to the polls in a variety of states on Super
Tuesday.
"It's a lie. She knows it's a lie," Trump told
Lawrence Jones and Brian Kilmeade during a "Fox & Friends" phone
interview Tuesday, downplaying polls that have shown Haley performing better
versus Biden.
"We are winning against Biden in every single poll, and
everybody knows it, whether it's the New York Times, whether it's any of the
polls that have been taken over the last three months. So she is
misrepresenting that fact and it's fine. It's not going to matter because I
think we're going to win every state tonight."
His remarks come after Haley suggested she has a better
chance to oust Biden than Trump does during a campaign event on Monday, despite
only having one primary victory under her belt.
"If you look at any of the general election polls, Joe
Biden and Donald Trump are even. I think there was a Fox poll today, he was up
by two. That's still margin of error," Haley said during a campaign event
in Fort Worth, Texas. "Between last week's poll. In this week's poll, I
defeat Joe Biden by up to 18 points."
Trump doubled down on Haley pivoting on her previous pledge
to not run against Trump, warning there is "no path" to victory for
her 2024 campaign.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Bailee Hill
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Colorado Republicans threaten secretary of state with recall
after Trump wins at Supreme Court
Rep Lauren Boebert told Secretary of State Jena Griswold to
'start packing your bags'
Colorado Republicans have threatened the state's top
election official with a recall effort after the Supreme Court decided 9-0 that
Colorado cannot stop former President Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., led state party officials in a
letter addressed to Secretary of State Jena Griswold Monday that accused her of
attempting to "disenfranchise millions of Coloradans" and called the
effort to bar Trump from the ballot "a stain on our Republic and an
outright embarrassment."
"With today's unanimous decision by the Supreme Court
of the United States to keep President Donald J. Trump on the Colorado primary
ballot, it is now even more clear Coloradans should have zero faith in you to
adequately protect their right to vote and oversee elections in the state of
Colorado," the letter states.
The GOP officials charge that Griswold made "a selfish
political decision to rig the primary election" against Trump and declare
that "all legal options" are on the table for payback,
"including a formal recall effort."
The letter was signed by Boebert, Colorado Republican Party
Chairman Dave Wiliams, state party Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna
Feguson.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Chris
Pandolfo
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Trump maintains grip on GOP nod with victory in North Dakota
caucuses
Trump will now look to make his commanding lead
insurmountable on 'Super Tuesday'
Former President Donald Trump inched closer to becoming the
Republican nominee for president with another primary victory Monday, this time
with a win in the North Dakota caucuses.
Trump won North Dakota's caucuses, finishing first in voting
conducted at 12 caucus sites, according to an Associated Press call of the race
shortly after polls closed Sunday, earning the former president 29 delegates.
The win continues Trump's dominant streak in this year's GOP
primary races, marking the 9th win in 10 tries for the former president as he
closes in on representing the Republican Party for a third time.
The only contest Trump has lost so far was last weekend's
primary in Washington D.C.
The win comes as Trump's campaign has largely shifted its
attention to the general election and an all-but-certain rematch of 2020's
matchup against President Biden, with the Trump campaign telling Fox News
Digital before this week's slate of contests that the primary race is
"over."
"Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for
President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over," a
spokesperson for the campaign said. "Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the
general election."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Michael Lee
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Could Super Tuesday’s weather impact voter turnout?
Voters in Iowa faced record-cold temperatures in January,
while New Hampshire residents were treated to mild conditions. Research published
in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that some voting groups’ turnout
increased by 0.14% for every 1.8-degree jump in temperature.
One of the most anticipated voting days of the primary cycle
will take place on Tuesday when 15 states and one territory will hold contests
in the races for the presidential nominations.
Contests will be held from Alaska to Maine, and voters could
face everything from snow showers to severe thunderstorms.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, three storm systems
will impact the country on Tuesday – one stretching from the Ohio and Tennessee
valleys to the Gulf Coast, one over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast and another
in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.
Neither storm system is expected to be historic regarding
the strength of impacts. However, according to political experts, even nuisance
weather could affect voter turnout, especially during caucuses.
"In states like Virginia where they’ve been voting more
than a month at this point, early voting really kind of reduces the weather
impact," said David Richards, Ph.D., an associate professor and political
chair at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia.
On Tuesday, primaries will be held in Alabama, Alaska,
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American
Samoa.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Andrew
Wulfeck
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Restoring America Editor on the must-watch California
primary election today
Restoring America Editor from the Washington Examiner Kaylee
McGhee White joined "Fox & Friends First" hosts Carley Shimkus
and Todd Piro early Tuesday morning to discuss the primary elections taking
place today.
Piro asked McGhee White what she will be watching out for
today.
"I'm really interested to see what happens in
California," she replied. "Newsom's approval ratings just dropped
below 50% to 47% for the first time since 2019. That's lower than it's ever been,
even lower than when he had that recall effort against him."
Though Newsom maintained his position as governor in
California in 2021, the recall election against him sparked in 2020 mainly over
accusations that he mishandled his state’s response to the coronavirus, the
worst pandemic to strike the globe in a century.
McGhee White went on, "There's clearly a lot of
discontent among Democratic voters in California against the state's current
policies."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Trump on the crisis at the border: 'This border makes 2016
look like baby stuff'
Donald Trump sat down with Sean Hannity on
"Hannity" in Eagle Pass, Texas in late February to discuss President
Biden and the border crisis.
"I ran on the border, and I ran on other things, but I
ran on the border largely. And we fixed the problem and in 2020 it wasn't even
a subject," Trump told Hannity. "I'd go out and I'd say 'I want to
talk about the border' they'd say 'Sir, you fixed the border. Nobody cares
about the border anymore.'"
"This border makes 2016 look like baby stuff," he
said. "It's the worst border ever in the history of the world."
"So you have 28,000 from China, all fighting age, you
don't see women and you don't see men much older than that," Trump said.
"It's from 18 to 25, 26 years old. And there's something going on. And
they're coming from Yemen that we're bombing. They're coming from the Congo,
from prisons in the Congo."
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by Fox News
in February shows that Chinese nationals are the second-largest nationality
encountered at the border in San Diego Sector since the fiscal year began in
October.
"The only good thing is, it makes our prisoners look
like very nice people," Trump continued. "These are rough people that
are coming in."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Haley’s Super Tuesday barometer: Keep your eyes on these two
states
Keep your eyes on Vermont and Virginia, where polls close at
7pm ET - the first two states to wrap up voting on the Republican side.
We should get an early indication if Nikki Haley's going to
have any success on Super Tuesday in her extreme long-shot bid for the
Republican presidential nomination against former President Donald Trump.
Keep your eyes on Vermont and Virginia, where polls close at
7pm ET - the first two states to wrap up voting on the Republican side.
Only 65 GOP delegates are up for grabs in the two states -
which is just a small slice of the overall 854 at stake in the 15 states from coast
to coast holding Republican nominating contests on Super Tuesday.
But the states may be a good barometer of how the night will
turn out for Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later
served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration.
Vermont and Virginia both hold open primaries, where
registered voters are allowed to cast a ballot in either the GOP or Democratic
presidential primaries, regardless of any party affiliation.
In the nine Republican primaries or caucuses already held so
far this year, Haley has performed best in contests where independents and even
some crossover Democrats have been able to vote.
Haley held a rally in each state in the final days leading
up to Super Tuesday. And in Vermont, she was joined by anti-Trump Republican
Gov. Phil Scott, who has endorsed her White House bid.
If Haley does well in both states, it could be a sign
there's still some life left in her challenge against Trump.
But a poor showing in Vermont and Virginia would be a strong
indicator that Trump will run the table on Super Tuesday.
Posted by Paul Steinhauser
March 5th
'She's not trying to win the Republican primary by ordinary
means': Kaylee McGhee White on Haley
Kaylee McGhee White sat down with "Fox & Friends
First" hosts Carley Shimkus and Todd Piro to analyze the highly
anticipated Republican race today between Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.
Piro outlined the question that is on much of America's mind
-- why is Haley still in the race?
"She's vowed to stay," he said. "So long as
it is competitive. She says today will be competitive. But Kaylee, will it be
competitive?"
McGhee White believes it's "set in stone" and
leaning in favor of Trump.
"The only person who seems to not be confused by Nikki
Haley's strategy here is Nikki Haley, and even she doesn't really seem to know
what she's doing anymore" she said.
"One thing is clear; she's not trying to win the
Republican primary by ordinary means," McGhee White added. "She knows
that she is not going to get enough delegates today, or any other day, to beat
Donald Trump. At best, she's hoping that something happens to Donald Trump in
the next several months, probably with one of the many court cases against him,
that would take him out of the race."
But, would Republicans rally behind Haley if this were the
case? Last week, Haley lost to Trump in her home state of South Carolina.
"I'm not quite sure why she thinks that she would just
be the back up candidate if something were to take Donald Trump out of the
race," McGhee White said. "Republican voters are going to remember
every single thing that she said about the former president over the past
several months, and they're not going to take too kindly to that."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Nikki Haley confirms she has no plans to make 3rd party run
if Trump wins GOP primary
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley confirmed that she
still has no plans to run as an independent if she fails to secure the GOP
presidential nomination.
Haley made the statement during a Tuesday morning appearance
on Fox News as voters across the country prepared to cast their ballots in
Super Tuesday primaries.
"I am a conservative Republican. I have been all my
life. And the problem is right now everybody is saying if you don't if you
don't support Donald Trump, you're a Democrat. That's terrible. And that's not
unifying and that's not going to get anyone to win a general election. What I
will tell you is I'm a conservative Republican," Haley said in an interview.
"I have said many, many times I would not run as an
independent. I would not run as no labels because I am a Republican. And that's
who I've always been. That's what I'm going to do. And so that's my focus. What
we wanted was to give people a voice. We're going to have that today. 16 states
and territories are going to vote. God bless America that we get to do that.
And and then we're going to take it from there. That's what we've always
said," she added.
Trump is expected to walk away from Super Tuesday with major
victories.
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
When was the first Super Tuesday in America?
The Super Tuesday that we recognize today has occurred every
presidential election since 1988, but the very first Super Tuesday took place
on May 25, of 1976 when Ronald Reagan was running against Gerald Ford for the
Republican nomination.
There were six primaries held on that day and each candidate
ended up gaining three states. During 1980, seven primaries and caucuses were
held in early March, according to the National Constitution Center.
The website highlights that the special day was “used to
describe the final Tuesday of the primary season in June, when a key group of
states that included California and New Jersey cast votes.” Then in 1984, nine
states participated and by 1988, the day was known as Southern Super Tuesday
due to 21 states, a majority from the South, holding elections in March that
year.
Now there are multiple “mini-Super Tuesday” events that come
after the Super Tuesday in March.
Posted by Emily Robertson
March 5th
Super Tuesday expected to boost Trump closer to clinching
GOP nomination as Haley makes last stand
Trump is hoping to push Nikki Haley out of the race on
Tuesday
Donald Trump won't clinch the 2024 Republican presidential
nomination on Tuesday.
But with the former president likely to capture the lion's
of the 854 Republican delegates up for grabs when 15 states hold GOP primaries
or caucuses on what's known as Super Tuesday, Trump is expected to move
significantly closer to locking up his party's presidential nomination over his
last remaining rival – Nikki Haley.
"It’s big stuff and it’s the single most important
primary day of the year," Trump told his supporters in a video posted on
social media ahead of Super Tuesday.
Trump has swept all but one of the first nine contests on
the GOP nominating calendar, including North Dakota's Republican presidential
caucuses on the eve of Super Tuesday.
Another strong showing by the former president in Tuesday's coast-to-coast
primaries and caucuses will help him in his mission to completely pivot from a
primary battle with Haley to a general election rematch with President Biden,
who defeated Trump four years ago to win the White House.
"If every single conservative, Republican, and Trump
supporter in these states shows up on Super Tuesday, we will be very close to
finished with this primary contest," Trump emphasized. "Republicans
will then be able to focus all of our energy, time, and resources, on defeating
crooked Joe Biden."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul
Steinhauser
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Economic woes dominate Americans' worries on Super Tuesday
Americans are frustrated with the economy headed into Super
Tuesday
Voters are headed to the polls on the biggest primary
election day of the 2024 cycle with one issue in particular at the top of their
minds: the state of the U.S. economy.
About one-third of Americans think that economic problems
are the most important issue facing the country today, according to a monthly
poll published by Gallup. That includes 12% of voters who are worried about the
economy in general and 11% who identified the high cost of living and ongoing
inflation crisis as the top problem in the country.
Another 3% expressed concern about the steep federal budget
deficit, while 2% said taxes.
By comparison, 28% of Americans said that immigration is the
No. 1 problem, while 20% said the top issue is the government and poor
leadership. Another 6% identified poverty and homelessness as the biggest
problems.
The findings come ahead of Super Tuesday, the day in the
presidential primary cycle when many states vote. More than one-third of
Republican delegates are up for grabs in the 15 states that are voting on Tuesday.
About a third of Democratic delegates will also be decided, with nominating
contests in 14 states plus American Samoa.
Former President Trump, the GOP frontrunner, is widely
expected to dominate the races, as he goes up against the last standing Republican
challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. President Biden, as the
incumbent and only major candidate for the Democrats, is also likely to sweep
the races.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox Business' Megan
Henney
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
March 5th
Kaylee McGhee White on Haley: 'She could end up being just
as despised as Hillary Clinton'
Restoring America Editor Kaylee McGhee White joined
"Fox & Friends First" hosts Carley Shimkus and Todd Piro early
Tuesday morning.
McGhee White touched on Nikki Haley's continued
participation in the presidential primary race and what it could mean for her
future with Republicans.
"Nikki Haley is not predicting victory in any single
one of the states that heads to the polls today, but she's still insisting that
she's going to stay in the race anyway," she said.
"And you know, I may be young, but I am old enough to
remember the last female politician who came along, who also belittled her
primary opponent by saying that he couldn't win a general election, that no one
liked him, and that candidate's name was Hillary Clinton," McGhee White
added. "So, Nikki Haley has a choice to make here. She could end up being
just as despised as Hillary Clinton if she continues down this road, or she could
drop out now and save some of her dignity in the Republican party."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Years of historic Super Tuesday moments from past primary
nights
Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images
Every election cycle there is one detrimental Tuesday that makes
or breaks presidential campaigns - Super Tuesday.
Since the late 1970s, Super Tuesday has worked to lock in
the nominations of presidential candidates, including former President George
H.W. Bush who won 16 out of 17 states in the 1989 primary election, as well as
former President Bill Clinton in 1992.
Super Tuesday usually sees around 10 states holding
primaries on the same night. On Super Tuesday in 2008, however, history was
made when 24 states held primaries on the same Tuesday in February.
In the weeks ahead of Super Tuesday in 2020, Sen. Bernie
Sanders, I-Vt., was seemingly leading the Democrat presidential primary
contest, however, then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign made an unexpected
comeback. The now-president had lost the Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada
primary races, but went on to win 10 Super Tuesday states. This boost in his
campaign quickly led to him securing the Democrat nomination and eventually
winning the presidency.
Posted by Aubrie Spady
March 5th
What happened to Bernie Sanders supporters on Super Tuesday
in 2020?
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., entered the 2020 presidential
race with momentum stemming from his 2016 run and early wins, but his Super
Tuesday results changed the trajectory of his entire campaign.
In 2016, while Sanders trailed former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, he secured wins in several vital states and was expected to
perform going into his 2020 campaign.
Sanders nearly tied with Pete Buttigieg for the Iowa 2020
caucus, with a 0.1% difference, the state that used to kick off of the Democrat
nomination calendar. Sanders then secured a win in both the New Hampshire and
Nevada caucuses.
In his home state of Vermont, however, where Sanders won 86%
of the vote over Hillary Clinton four years prior, the progressive only won 50%
of the vote.
While Sanders appeared to be in the run for the Democrat
nomination, he did not perform well on Super Tuesday despite major 2016
victories.
Despite Sanders carrying the Super Tuesday states over
Clinton in 2016, now-president Biden was named the victor of 10 states on the
primary night.
Sanders suspended his campaign just one month later in
April.
Posted by Aubrie Spady
March 5th
Flashback: Super Tuesday 2020 results between Trump and
Biden
As we continue to see results pour in on this Super Tuesday
for the 2024 presidential election, let’s look at the results back in 2020.
In 2020, Super Tuesday took place on March 3, and
then-former Vice President Joe Biden won 10 primaries and received 650 pledged
delegates, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., won four primaries and received
556 delegates. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., won 0 primaries and received 76 delegates.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won 0 primaries but received 2 delegates. Michael
Bloomberg won one primary, gaining 60 delegates, however he eventually dropped
out of the race and endorsed Biden, according to U.S. Election Atlas.
Around 40% of the United States held primary events on that
Super Tuesday, according to Ballotpedia.
Former President Donald Trump ran unopposed for the
Republican primary in Maine and Minnesota. A couple of his opponents were Joe
Walsh and Bill Weld. Trump ended up winning 13 states.
Posted by Emily Robertson
March 5th
What does it mean to "win" Super Tuesday?
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images
The 2024 presidential contenders are gearing up for one the
defining nights of the presidential primary election, known as Super Tuesday.
On a Tuesday, normally held in February or March, several
states hold presidential primaries or caucuses. These events help determine the
candidates who will appear on the ballot for the general election later in the
year. This cycle, 15 states and one U.S. territory will vote for their
preferred nominees in the 2024 presidential election.
A Super Tuesday "win" means one candidate from
each of the two political parties will secure a number of valuable delegates.
Whoever wins the majority of delegates is likely to become their party’s
nominee.
Historically, any remaining candidates in the field who
failed to secure enough statewide wins will bow out of the race shortly after
and the party will begin to back a single candidate as the nominee.
Alabama, Alaska (Republican only), Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and the U.S. territory of American Samoa will
all be participating in Super Tuesday primary voting.
Posted by Aubrie Spady
March 5th
South Carolina primary showed Trump’s strength in Haley’s
home state
Photographer: Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The South Carolina presidential primary took place on Saturday,
February 24, between former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina
Governor Nikki Haley on the Republican ticket. President Biden functionally ran
unopposed and captured 96% of the vote when the Democrats held their primary.
South Carolina was highly anticipated to see how Haley’s
name recognition as former governor would fare against Trump’s immense lead
among GOP voters. Ultimately, Trump won with 60% of the vote compared to
Haley’s 40%. This was comparable to Trump’s past victories in Iowa, New
Hampshire, and Nevada.
Haley remained defiant, insisting that an incumbent
president losing 40% of the vote is evidence he can’t defeat Biden in November.
"Donald Trump as, technically, the Republican incumbent
did not win 40% of the vote," Haley said to reporters during her
campaigning in Michigan. "So, what you are looking at is something is
shifting and this has been happening for a while."
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
New York Jets owner stood behind Trump during SC victory
speech in February
Joe Sargent/Getty Images
New York Jets owner and billionaire businessman Woody
Johnson stood in support behind former President Trump in South Carolina after
Trump was quickly projected the winner of the state’s primary.
Johnson, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom
during the Trump administration, was on stage alongside his wife Suzanne behind
Trump as the former president delivered a speech after his quick victory in the
Palmetto State primary on Feb. 24.
Johnson, a member of the founding family of Johnson &
Johnson, has previously expressed support for the former president during the
2024 campaign.
"Americans remember how good it was or how much better
it was on the border, and inflation, and gas prices, and grocery prices, all
that, during the Trump administration, and they want to get back there,"
Johnson told News’ Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo earlier in
February.
"So I think the most important thing is getting the
former president back in the White House, which looks like it’s
happening."
Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Dana Perino, Bill Hemmer and other Fox News hosts to break
down Super Tuesday results in real-time
Fox News
Starting at 7 p.m. ET, FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Bret Baier
and Martha MacCallum will lead live marathon coverage surrounding the results
during Democracy 2024: Super Tuesday Primaries.
Throughout the evening, the co-anchors will be joined by a
rotating team of commentators and hosts including Dana Perino, Sandra Smith and
Bill Hemmer who will break down the latest developments in real-time on the
electronic “Bill-Board.”
Chief political analyst Brit Hume, Harold Ford Jr. and
Kellyanne Conway will also contribute to the live coverage, along with
appearances from Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, Shannon Bream,
Jonathan Turley, Andy McCarthy, Jessica Tarlov, Kayleigh McEnany, Trey Gowdy
and Karl Rove who will analyze the impact of the critical primary races for the
presidential candidates.
7-11 PM/ET – Democracy 2024: Super Tuesday Primaries
anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum11 PM-1 AM/ET – Democracy 2024:
Super Tuesday Primaries anchored by Trace Gallagher1-4 AM/ET – Democracy 2024:
Super Tuesday Primaries anchored by Gillian Turner and Mike Emanuel.
Super Tuesday results are not expected to all follow closely
behind polls closing between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Haley secures first win, upping her delegate count in the
presidential primary race
Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley still pushes
through in the 2024 GOP presidential primary even after losing several states
to former President Donald Trump.
After the South Carolina primary results came in, Trump and
Haley gave speeches to their supporters.
"I said earlier this week that no matter what happens
in South Carolina, I would continue to run for President. I’m a woman of my
word. I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of
both Donald Trump and Joe Biden," Haley said.
As of the recent primary in the state of Michigan, Haley had
only 24 delegates while her opponent, Trump, had 122.
Total delegates at stake on Super Tuesday are 854 for the
GOP. In order to win the GOP
presidential nomination, however, a candidate must have 1,215 delegates or more
out of the 2,429 delegates in total.
Haley lost to Trump in Michigan having only 26.60% of votes
cast while the former president had 68.11%.
Posted by Emily Robertson
March 5th
How did Super Tuesday get its name?
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In the United States’ election system, primaries are by each
party to determine who their nominee for president will be. While the general
election has some regulation from the federal government – like mandating that
the election takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in
November – primaries are well and truly governed by the state parties.
As such, parties will often jockey to have their state vote
during strategically important times to try and maximize their influence on the
presidential nomination process.
Enter Super Tuesday.
Why the day matters is simple: over 30% of the delegates that
are available to win will be up for grabs on a single day. Primary campaigns
often live and die off of Super Tuesday.
Prior to this recent trend, “Super Tuesday” used to refer to
the last Tuesday of the election cycle, when big states like California were in
play. However, since 2008, in an effort by parties to avoid politically bloody
and costly primary elections, more and more states started frontloading their
election dates in an effort to select a nominee early.
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
President Biden won 9 states on Super Tuesday in 2020
Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty
Images
President Joe Biden won 10 out of 15 states on Super Tuesday
in 2020, ultimately securing his lead in the Democratic presidential primary race.
Ahead of Biden's night of wins, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,
an Independent, was a top contender in the Democratic presidential primary
after tying for first place at the Iowa Caucus, and then winning both New
Hampshire and Nevada.
However, Biden's slow start was given a boost when he was
declared the victor of the South Carolina primary – the state where Democrats
held their first contest this year.
Just before Super Tuesday in 2020, Minnesota Sen. Amy
Klobuchar, a Democrat, and Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat, ended their presidential
bids and backed Biden ahead of the multi-state primary event, giving his
campaign a final push to victory.
The night of Super Tuesday, Biden secured wins in Alabama,
Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Texas, and Virginia.
Sanders, Biden's last standing competition, dropped out of
the race weeks later and endorsed the now-president.
Posted by Aubrie Spady
March 5th
Flashback: Super Tuesday results from 2016
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
As more results for the 2024 Super Tuesday come in, let’s
take a look back at the 2016 primary results.
The primaries took place on March 1, involving both
Democratic and Republican candidates.
Looking at the totals for Republican candidates, Trump was
in the lead with 283 total delegates, according to U.S. Election Atlas. Around
595 delegates were reported by Ballotpedia to be allocated to Republican
candidates.
Trump won 7 primaries in the 2016 Super Tuesday. Sen. Ted
Cruz won 3 primaries and gained 245 delegates. Sen. Marco Rubio won one primary
and received 97 delegates. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich won 0 primaries and
gained 21 delegates. Ben Carson won 0 primaries and received 3 delegates.
For the Democrats, Ballotpedia reports that around 865
delegates were to be allocated by the presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton
won 8 primaries and allocated 517 delegates, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,
won 4 primaries and received 347 delegates.
Posted by Emily Robertson
March 5th
Florida Rep. Byron Donalds: 'Donald Trump is the nominee'
Florida Rep. Byron Donalds joined "Fox News
Sunday" with Shannon Bream this weekend to discuss Super Tuesday.
"Donald Trump overwhelmingly won every single
state," Donalds said. "Now we move to Super Tuesday and let me just
tell you, it's basically over already. It's going to be over Tuesday night when
Super Tuesday ballots come in because there is no path to victory for Nikki
Haley."
Donalds represents Florida's 19th Congressional District in
the United States House of Representatives.
"On our side of the aisle, we believe in choices, we
want options. The Democrats are the one who basically kicked Robert F. Kennedy
out of their primary. They basically stopped Dean Phillips from being able to
even try to mount a campaign against Joe Biden," he told Bream.
"Nikki Haley had an opportunity to run like everybody
else. They all lost. Donald Trump is the nominee. We're going to move forward
to November," he concluded.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Fox News' Bill Melugin says Tuesday could 'make or break'
Nikki Haley's campaign
Fox News' Bill Melugin joined Arthel Neville on FOX News
Live from Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend in the days leading up to Super
Tuesday.
"She told me, when I caught up with her, she has no
interest whatsoever in running on a third party, no labels ticket," he
told Neville of GOP hopeful Nikki Haley. "Why? She says she doesn't want a
Democrat as a VP and she is a Republican. She says she is Republican's best
shot at beating Joe Biden this November."
Earlier in the day, Haley held a campaign event with more
than 1,100 people.
"She says she's been seeing bigger crowds in recent
days," he said.
Haley recently received endorsements from Alaska Sen. Lisa
Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins.
"Let's face it, Super Tuesday could be a make or break
moment for her campaign," Melugin said. In speaking with Haley, he told
Neville that he asked Haley about whether she will endorse Donald Trump if Tuesday
doesn't go her way.
"First of all, I'll tell you when you're running a
race, you don't think about anything negative happening," Haley said in
response. "You only look at running through the tape. So, I am running
through the rape, I'm not thinking about anything after that."
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
Results from past Super Tuesday primary elections
AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.
Super Tuesday’s history is littered with the bones of presidential
campaigns. In an average post 2008 election year, upwards of 20% of available
delegates are up for grabs.
In 2020, Super Tuesday was instrumental in securing
President Joe Biden’s victory. Up until then, Biden had been struggling in
early-voting states. But the day before Super Tuesday, many moderate Democrats
dropped out and endorsed Biden. Biden swept 10 out of the 14 states, winning
53% of the delegates and solidifying his victory as the Democratic nominee.
In 2016 there were two days that the media deemed “Super
Tuesday I & II”. On Super Tuesday I almost half of the remaining delegates
required for victory were up for grabs, but on Super Tuesday II four states
with winner-take-all delegate distribution were up for grabs.
Former President Trump won a plurality of delegates on Super
Tuesday I and a majority on Super Tuesday II, all but locking down the
nomination for him.
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
Which primary elections are on Super Tuesday?
Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
Presidential primaries, which are entirely run by state
parties, are prone to changes based on the current political winds.
For Super Tuesday 2024, candidates face an intimidating
gauntlet of 16 states and territories including Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa,
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.
While many of these states are mainstays of Super Tuesday,
what is notable is the inclusion of delegate-rich states Texas and California
on the same election day. While most Super Tuesdays have about 20% of the
potential delegates up for grabs, the inclusion of both these states at once
rockets that number to be 30% of Democrat electors and 36% of Republican
electors available to be won.
The inclusion of these two powerful states could be
interpreted as a desire for both parties to avoid a drawn out primary and focus
on defeating the opposition in November.
Posted by Matteo Cina
March 5th
Will Super Tuesday end in a 2020 rematch between Biden and
Trump?
NRA
Voters in Michigan handed decisive victories to President
Biden and former President Trump last week, increasing the odds of a 2020
rematch as the candidates look to solidify their frontrunner positions on Super
Tuesday.
The Associated Press called Michigan for Biden and Trump
shortly after polls closed last Tuesday, leaving both candidates undefeated in
their bid to once again represent their respective parties in 2024's
presidential election.
Biden's victory in the state came despite a late push among
Arab Americans to "abandon" their support for the president over his
continued support of Israel in the War in Gaza.
A growing movement called on voters to cast an
"uncommitted" ballot instead of continuing what has typically been
overwhelming support for the president.
The movement picked up the support of Rep. Rashida Tlaib,
D-Mich., who announced her public opposition to supporting the president ahead
of her home state's primary.
"I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic
ballot and vote uncommitted. We must protect our democracy. We must make sure
that our government is about us, about the people," Tlaib said in a video
d by Listen To Michigan, a group supportive of the uprising against Biden.
Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.
Posted by Gabriele Regalbuto
March 5th
What is Super Tuesday?
Super Tuesday is a day during the U.S. presidential primary
election season when several states, typically from various regions across the
country, hold their primary elections or caucuses in early March.
New Hampshire and Iowa were the first states to hold
contests in the 2024 presidential election cycle in January.
Super Tuesday is considered a critical day in the primary
process, as the outcomes of millions of voters can significantly influence the
overall nomination for presidential candidates. This year’s Super Tuesday will
be held on March 5 with polls closing around 7 or 8 p.m. Results will not be
immediately announced for many states.
On 2024's Super Tuesday, states participating in casting
ballots include California, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Maine,
Minnesota, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah,
Vermont and Virginia.
GOP candidate Nikki Hailey’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney,
wrote in a memo early Tuesday that “despite the media narrative, there is
significant fertile ground for Nikki.”
“After Super Tuesday, we will have a very good picture of
where this race stands. At that point, millions of Americans in 26 states and
territories will have voted,” the memo read.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has picked up
several significant endorsements from key Republican senators. A growing number
of GOP lawmakers urge Hailey to withdraw, advocating for party unity behind
Trump before Super Tuesday.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham have
endorsed Trump, snubbing Hailey, despite her being a former governor of the
state from 2011-2017.
Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
DULY
ELEVATED TO MARCH 18TH, SEE ABOVE
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT HOW DAYLIGHT
SAVING TIME WORKS IN MARCH 2024
BY SIMMONE SHAH MARCH 9, 2024 3:00
AM EST
Longer
days—kickstarted by an hour less of sleep—lie ahead for most of North America as
the clocks “spring forward” this Sunday, March 10, marking the beginning
of daylight
saving time.
The
practice has spurned plenty of debate over the years, as many feel it adds
unnecessary disruption to our circadian rhythms. Most recently, the Sunshine
Protection Act aimed
to make daylight saving time permanent beginning in spring 2023, but was stalled
in the House, despite unanimously passing through the Senate. And in the
absence of nationwide movement, states are taking the matter into their own
hands—at least 29
states considered
legislation related to daylight saving time in 2023.
Here’s
what to know about the upcoming time change:
How does daylight saving time
work?
In the
spring, daylight savings begins, moving an hour of sunlight from the morning to
the evenings, allowing people to take advantage of the natural light during the
supposedly warmer months.
In
the spring, clocks
will move forward by an hour at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, making it
3 a.m. and making the day an hour shorter.
In the
fall, clocks jump back an hour at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November,
making it 1 a.m and making the day an hour longer.
Who participates in daylight
savings?
Roughly a
third of the world participates
in some form of clock changing, though the exact timeline varies by
region.
Most U.S.
states and Canada participate in daylight savings. The Uniform Time Act, passed
in 1966, allowed states in the U.S. to choose whether they would participate in
daylight savings. As a result, daylight saving time is not observed in Hawaii,
American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin
Islands, and most of Arizona, according to the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
What is the history of daylight
savings time?
The U.S.
has practiced many different versions of daylight savings over the years. The
practice began in 1918, but was repealed and re-established several times over
the decades. It finally stuck during World War I and World War II, when it was
adopted as an energy saving tactic. The Uniform Time Act standardized the practice across most of the country.
How is the day determined?
In the
United States, daylight savings lasts for eight months—starting on the second
Sunday in March and ending on the first Sunday in November. These dates
were established in 2005 by Congress.
Here’s the complete list of
winners:
Best
Picture
“American
Fiction,” Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine
Johnson, producers
“Anatomy
of a Fall,” Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, producers
“Barbie,” David
Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, producers
“The
Holdovers,” Mark Johnson, producer
“Killers
of the Flower Moon,” Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and
Daniel Lupi, producers
“Maestro,” Bradley
Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger,
producers
“Oppenheimer,” Emma
Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, producers (WINNER)
“Past
Lives,” David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, producers
“Poor
Things,” Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone,
producers
“The
Zone of Interest,” James Wilson, producer
Best
Director
Justine
Triet — “Anatomy of a Fall”
Martin
Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Christopher
Nolan — “Oppenheimer” (WINNER)
Yorgos
Lanthimos — “Poor Things”
Jonathan
Glazer — “The Zone of Interest”
Actor
in a Leading Role
Bradley
Cooper — “Maestro”
Colman
Domingo — “Rustin”
Paul
Giamatti — “The Holdovers”
Cillian
Murphy — “Oppenheimer” (WINNER)
Jeffrey
Wright — “American Fiction”
Actress
in a Leading Role
Annette
Bening — “Nyad”
Lily
Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sandra
Hüller — “Anatomy of a Fall”
Carey
Mulligan — “Maestro”
Emma
Stone — “Poor Things” (WINNER)
Actor
in a Supporting Role
Sterling
K. Brown — “American Fiction”
Robert
De Niro – “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert
Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer” (WINNER)
Ryan
Gosling — “Barbie”
Mark
Ruffalo — “Poor Things”
Actress
in a Supporting Role
Emily
Blunt — “Oppenheimer”
Danielle
Brooks — “The Color Purple”
America Ferrera – “Barbie”
Jodie Foster — “Nyad”
Da’Vine
Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers” (WINNER)
Adapted
Screenplay
“American
Fiction,” written for the screen by Cord Jefferson (WINNER)
“Barbie,” written
by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
“Oppenheimer,” written
for the screen by Christopher Nolan
“Poor
Things,” screenplay by Tony McNamara
“The
Zone of Interest,” written by Jonathan Glazer
Original
Screenplay
“Anatomy
of a Fall,” screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (WINNER)
“The
Holdovers,” written by David Hemingson
“Maestro,”
written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
“May
December,” screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
“Past
Lives,” written by Celine Song
Cinematography
“El
Conde” – Edward Lachman
“Killers
of the Flower Moon” – Rodrigo Prieto
“Maestro” –
Matthew Libatique
“Oppenheimer” –
Hoyte van Hoytema (WINNER)
“Poor
Things” – Robbie Ryan
Original
Song
“The
Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” music and lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m
Just Ken” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“It
Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” music and lyric by Jon Batiste
and Dan Wilson
“Wahzhazhe
(A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” music and lyric
by Scott George
“What
Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and
Finneas O’Connell (WINNER)
Costume
Design
“Barbie” –
Jacqueline Durran
“Killers
of the Flower Moon” – Jacqueline West
“Napoleon” –
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
“Oppenheimer” –
Ellen Mirojnick
“Poor
Things” – Holly Waddington (WINNER)
Sound
“The
Creator,” Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean
Zupancic
“Maestro,” Steven
A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Mission:
Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris
Burdon and Mark Taylor
“Oppenheimer,” Willie
Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell
“The
Zone of Interest,” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn (WINNER)
Original
Score
“American
Fiction” – Laura Karpman
“Indiana
Jones and the Dial of Destiny” John Williams
“Killers
of the Flower Moon” – Robbie Robertson
“Oppenheimer” –
Ludwig Göransson (WINNER)
“Poor
Things” – Jerskin Fendrix
Live
Action Short Film
“The
After,” Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
“Invincible,” Vincent
René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
“Knight
of Fortune,” Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
“Red,
White and Blue,” Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
“The
Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson and Steven Rales (WINNER)
Animated
Short Film
“Letter
to a Pig,” Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
“Ninety-Five
Senses,” Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
“Our
Uniform,” Yegane Moghaddam
“Pachyderme,” Stéphanie
Clément and Marc Rius
“War
Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” Dave Mullins and Brad
Booker (WINNER)
Documentary
Feature Film
“Bobi
Wine: The People’s President,” Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John
Battsek
“The
Eternal Memory”
“Four
Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
“To
Kill a Tiger,” Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
“20
Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney
Aronson-Rath (WINNER)
Documentary
Short Film
“The
ABCs of Book Banning,” Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
“The
Barber of Little Rock,” John Hoffman and Christine Turner
“Island
in Between,” S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
“The
Last Repair Shop,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers (WINNER)
“Nǎi
Nai & Wài Pó,” Sean Wang and Sam Davis
International
Feature Film
“Io
Capitano” (Italy)
“Perfect
Days” (Japan)
“Society
of the Snow” (Spain)
“The
Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany)
“The
Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom) (WINNER)
Animated
Feature Film
“The
Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki (WINNER)
“Elemental,” Peter
Sohn and Denise Ream
“Nimona,” Nick
Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
“Robot
Dreams,” Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia
Díaz
“Spider-Man:
Across the Spider-Verse,” Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord,
Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal
Makeup
and Hairstyling
“Golda,” Karen
Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
“Maestro,” Kazu
Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
“Oppenheimer,” Luisa
Abel
“Poor
Things,” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston (WINNER)
“Society
of the Snow,” Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé
Production
Design
“Barbie,” production
design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer
“Killers
of the Flower Moon,” production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam
Willis
“Napoleon,” production
design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff
“Oppenheimer,” production
design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman
“Poor
Things,” production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration:
Zsuzsa Mihalek (WINNER)
Film
Editing
“Anatomy
of a Fall” – Laurent Sénéchal
“The
Holdovers” – Kevin Tent
“Killers
of the Flower Moon” – Thelma Schoonmaker
“Oppenheimer” –
Jennifer Lame (WINNER)
“Poor
Things” – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Visual
Effects
“The
Creator,” Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
“Godzilla
Minus One,” Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji
Nojima (WINNER)
“Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and
Theo Bialek
“Mission:
Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff
Sutherland and Neil Corbould
“Napoleon,” Charley
Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould
THE ISLAMIC
NETWORK GROUP (ING)
RAMADAN INFORMATION SHEET
To learn more, check out our free public
presentations on Ramadan and Fasting and Muslim Americans and Their Faith.
For the dates of Ramadan this year, visit
our Calendar of Important Islamic Dates.
Introduction
Ramadan is considered one of the holiest months of the year
for Muslims. In Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an, and
fast from food and drink during the sunlit hours as a means of drawing closer
to God and cultivating self-control, gratitude, and compassion for those less
fortunate. Ramadan is a month of intense spiritual rejuvenation with a heightened
focus on devotion, during which Muslims spend extra time reading the Qur’an and
performing special prayers. Those unable to fast, such as pregnant or nursing
women, the sick, or elderly people & children, are exempt from fasting.
When does
Ramadan take place?
Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar, which is
based on a 12-month lunar year of approximately 354 days. Because the lunar
year is 11 days shorter than the solar year, each lunar month moves 11 days
earlier each year. It takes 33 solar years for the lunar months to complete a
full cycle and return to the same season. The month traditionally begins and
ends based on the sighting of the new moon. In recent years, however, many
Muslims follow a pre-determined date based on astronomical calculations. For
the start and end dates of Ramadan this year, see our Calendar of Important Islamic
Dates.
The Length
and Purpose of Fasting
Muslims fast from pre-dawn to sunset, a fast of between
11-16 hours depending on the time of year for a period of 29-30 days. Ramadan
entails forgoing food and drink, and if married, abstaining from sex during
sunlit hours. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time to train themselves both
physically and spiritually by avoiding any negative acts such as gossiping,
backbiting, lying, or arguing. Muslims welcome Ramadan as an opportunity for
self-reflection and spiritual improvement, and as a means to grow in moral excellence.
Ramadan is also a highly social time as Muslims invite each other to breakfast
together and meet for prayers at the mosque.
The ultimate goal of fasting is gaining greater
God-consciousness, known in Arabic as taqwa, signifying a state of
constant awareness of God. From this awareness, a person should gain
discipline, self-restraint, and a greater incentive to do good and avoid wrong.
In commemoration of the revelation the Qur’an, which began in the month of
Ramadan, Muslims attempt to read the entire book during Ramadan. The entire
Qur’an is also recited during special nightly prayers.
Who Fasts
All Muslims who have reached puberty are obligated to fast.
However, people for whom fasting would be a hardship are exempted from fasting.
This includes anyone who is sick or traveling; women who are pregnant, nursing,
or on their menses; or older people who are too weak or ill to fast. They
should make up the fast later, except for those who cannot fast due to age or
chronic illness. Instead, they can feed a poor person for every day of fasting
which they miss.
Children
While children are not required to fast until they reach
puberty, it is customary for children beginning around seven years of age to
perform limited or symbolic fasting such as fasting half days or on weekends.
This trains them gradually and helps to engender a sense of inclusion during
the month-long observance. Mosques often give special recognition to children
who are fasting their first full day or first Ramadan.
Family
Routines
A Muslim family usually rises before dawn and eats a modest,
breakfast-like meal called suhur. After the meal, the family
performs the morning prayer, and depending on the circumstances, goes back to
bed or begins the day. Particularly during the long summer months, people often
take a nap in the late afternoon after work or school. At sunset, family
members break the fast with a few dates and water, and depending on the
culture, other light foods such as soup, appetizers or fruit. This is referred
to as iftar which means “breaking the fast.” After performing
the sunset prayers, the family eats dinner. Inviting guests to break the fast
or going to someone else’s house for iftar is very common in
Ramadan. Many families then go to the mosque for the night prayer and a special
Ramadan prayer called Taraweeh. After completing their prayers,
families return home often quite late in the evening depending on the time of
year. All of these times vary depending on the time of year, with shorter days
in the winter and longer days in the summer.
Special
Activities
Many mosques host daily community dinners where Muslims can
break their fast together. This is a great service for students, the poor, and
anyone who desires a break from cooking. Many mosques also host a community dinner
on the weekends.
Special Ramadan prayers called Taraweeh are
held in most mosques after the night prayer. During Taraweeh, the prayer
leader recites at least one thirtieth of the Qur’an so that by the end of the
month the entire Qur’an will have been recited.
Since Ramadan is a time for Muslims to be especially
charitable and fasting helps Muslims feel compassion for the hungry and less
fortunate, many mosques hold food drives or fundraisers for charity during
Ramadan. Many mosques also host open houses for their friends and neighbors of
other faiths to join them for their fast-breaking dinner or iftar at
the end of the fasting day.
The Night of Power known as Lailat al-Qadr, is
believed to fall on one of the odd nights during the last ten days of Ramadan,
but is most widely observed on the 27th night of Ramadan. It is considered the
most blessed night in Ramadan because it is believed to be the night in which
the Qu’ran was first revealed. Mosques are open all night as Muslims hold
vigils in prayer, Qur’anic recitation, and contemplation.
Special
Foods
Breaking the fast with dates or water is the only strictly
traditional culinary custom associated with Ramadan. It is interesting to note
the suitability of dates for this purpose as they are a concentrated source of
energy and easily digestible. Different Muslim-populated countries have a
variety of special dishes and desserts for Ramadan.
Benefits
of Fasting
Doctors agree that fasting is extremely beneficial for
lowering cholesterol levels and for other health benefits. Fasting is a means
of purifying the body as well as the spirit, as it gives the body a rest from
the continuous task of digesting food.
Eid
ul-Fitr
At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate one of their major
holidays called Eid ul-Fitr or the “Festival of the Breaking of the Fast.” For
the date of the holiday, see our Calendar of Important Islamic
Dates. Children traditionally receive new clothes,
money, or gifts from parents, relatives, and friends. A special prayer and
sermon are held on the morning of Eid day, followed by a community celebration
usually in a park or large hall. Food, games, and presents for children are
important parts of the festivities, as friends and family spend the day
socializing, eating, and reuniting with old acquaintances. The greeting Eid
Mubarak means “blessed holiday!”