Free Republic

Last night’s debate made clear what DSA and the hundreds of thousands of voters who supported Uncommitted in the primaries have been saying for months: Biden must drop out. Biden was elected in 2020 because young people, people of color, and the working class rejected Donald Trump’s far-right politics. It was these voters who prevented a second Trump term with the highest turnout in an election in decades. Yesterday, these same voters witnessed a man who is unfit to lead. During the debate, both candidates repeatedly fought to appear the most pro-cop, pro-war, and anti-immigration, and ignored questions on issues...

..But here is a broader thematic reality for the president: Bad vibes have been the persistent feature of his campaign. No matter the obstacles Trump creates for himself, Biden remains a comprehensively weak incumbent, weighed down by the same liabilities that burdened him from the start, beginning with the largest, and completely unfixable, one: At 81, he is much too old to run for president. Durable supermajorities of voters still do not want any part of Biden at this age. His bullheaded insistence on doing something no one has ever done (Ronald Reagan, then the oldest president in American history,...

President Biden says, “I know I’m not a young man” in a new campaign ad released Monday, attempting to dispel worry about his ghastly debate performance that left many wondering if he will end his re-election bid. The 60-second ad, titled “I know,” will run in battleground states, according to his campaign, and specifically target younger audiences — a demographic that polling shows has been ditching its support of the 81-year-old prez. “Folks, I know I’m not a young man. But I know how to do this job. I know right from wrong. I know how to tell the truth,”...

Donald Trump told lies and mangled his sentences in a presidential debate that was like a reality show, according to international media. The verdicts of pundits from around the globe to Thursday night’s televised clash in Atlanta, Georgia, between the two White House rivals was damning. From Beijing to New Delhi and beyond, the reviews were most scathing of President Biden’s performance at the CNN forum, but his Republican challenger did not escape criticism. Russian media brand Biden 'total failure' Even before last night's debate, the main evening news shows on Russian TV on Thursday were speculating that Mr Biden...

President Joe Biden was supposed to put the nation’s mind at ease over his physical and mental capacity with his debate showing Thursday night. But from the onset of the debate, the 81-year-old seemingly struggled even to talk, mostly summoning a weak, raspy voice. In the opening minutes, the president repeatedly tripped over his words, misspoke and lost his train of thought. In one of the most notable moments, Biden ended a rambling statement that lacked focus by saying, “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators cut him off and transitioned back to Trump. … Trump also pounced on Biden, saying...

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates has given Democratic incumbent Joe Biden her first ever presidential endorsement, citing his support for reproductive rights among other issues. Gates this year left the charitable foundation she co-founded with her former husband, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with $12.5 billion for her own charity work. She said the contrast between Biden and former President Donald Trump, his Republican rival in the Nov. 5 election, “couldn’t be greater, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.” Women deserve a leader who cares about the issues they face and is committed to protecting their safety, their health, their economic power,...

President Joe Biden's campaign tried to play pot, meet kettle on Thursday by highlighting some of former President Donald Trump's more awkward moments. The @BidenHQ X account shared a nearly 2.5 minute-long video to counter a trio of 'cheap fake' videos where 81-year-old Biden appears to 'freeze' or wander away from world leaders. At recent campaign stops, Trump, 78, has had a field day with these viral videos, knocking Biden for 'not knowing where the hell he is.' 'Here is a montage of Donald Trump getting confused, lost, wandering off, and waving to nobody,' the Biden campaign countered. The clips...

… Biden’s allies believe that journalists are failing to meet the moment; that they’re falling back on horse-race coverage and ignoring the knock of fascism at America’s door. Many Biden supporters and campaign staffers have fashioned this argument into a shield against any critical coverage of the president. Like a previous White House occupant raving about “fake” stories, they sometimes behave as if they are the arbiters of what’s newsworthy at all. Sounding a bit like Donald Trump isn’t the only problem with this strategy, though; it’s also highly unlikely to advance the campaign’s larger goal of actually winning the...

President Joe Biden arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday morning, touching down at LAX as the sun rose, later to be surrounded by stars. Wearing a black baseball cap bearing the presidential seal, sneakers and a dark blazer with no tie, Biden hustled down Air Force One’s ramp and into his motorcade as dawn broke. Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, accompanied him. With former President Barack Obama rolling in to help buoy the glitzy fund-raiser, Biden was scheduled to share a Downtown L.A. stage with Jimmy Kimmel, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, a big-money Hollywood-style event aiming to reel millions for...

The Republican National Committee on Friday launched a swing state initiative to mobilize thousands of polling place monitors, poll workers and attorneys to serve as “election integrity” watchdogs in November — an effort that immediately drew concerns that it could lead to harassment of election workers and undermine trust in the vote. The RNC says its plan will help voters have faith in the electoral process and ensure their votes matter. Yet, as former President Donald Trump and his allies continue to spread false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud, the effort also sets the stage...

Some Americans are questioning whether elderly people like Joe Biden and Donald Trump are cognitively competent to be president amid reports of the candidates mixing up names while speaking and having trouble recalling details of past personal events.I believe these reports are clearly concerning. However, it’s problematic to evaluate the candidates’ cognition based only on the critiques that have gained traction in the popular press.I’m a cognitive psychologist who studies decision-making and causal reasoning. I argue that it’s just as important to assess candidates on the cognitive capacities that are actually required for performing a complex leadership job such as...

More than half of President Biden’s supporters said they are mainly backing the incumbent in 2024 to oppose former President Trump, according to a new poll. A new CBS News/YouGov poll, released Sunday, found 54 percent of likely Biden voters are planning to choose him on November’s ballot, a 7-point increase from March. The second-highest reason for choosing Biden was that they liked him, with 27 percent selecting the option. This is down 4 points from when the poll was taken in March. Nearly a fifth, or 19 percent, said they are going with Biden because he is the presumptive...

The Donald Trump campaign has raised a staggering $200 million since the former president was found guilty of 34 felonies last Thursday, his son Eric Trump said Sunday. Eric, who is married to The Republican National Committee (RNC) Co-Chair Lara Trump, said she told him the figure was comprised of over $70 million in small donor fundraising in the three days since his father was found guilty of 34 felonies related to falsifying business records. 'This might be a little inside information, but as I was leaving my house about 37 seconds ago, I asked my wife, what are we...

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) has announced that President Donald J. Trump will address NRA members as the keynote speaker at the 2024 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits on Saturday, May 18, in Dallas, Texas. This marks President Trump's ninth address on NRA’s stage, reaffirming his strong commitment to the NRA, the Second Amendment, and the rich American tradition of firearm ownership. President Trump first addressed the NRA in Nashville in 2015. Since then, he has been a steadfast advocate for the NRA, the Second Amendment, and self-defense rights—including his promise in 2016 to never let NRA members...

WEST PALM BEACH — Susie Wiles, the people who know her the best believe, is a force more sensed than seen. Her influence on political events, to many who know what they’re watching, is as obvious as it is invisible. The prints leave not so much as a smudge. It’s a shock when she shows up in pictures. Even then it is almost always in the background. She speaks on the record hardly ever, and she speaks about herself even less. … Wiles is not just one of Trump’s senior advisers. She’s his most important adviser. She’s his de facto...

Kéthévane Gorjestani spent time as president of the White House Foreign Press Group, meaning she helped spearhead efforts to get more access to Joe Biden. While Trump was at the White House press podium “all the time,” Gorjestani says there was a feeling among the media corps that Biden’s handlers were more reluctant to engage. The France 24 journalist thinks this has been to Biden’s detriment. Gorjestani argues that the president’s blunders or moments of brain fog appear worse when he is on-script. “Let Joe be Joe,” she says, turning to a phrase she has heard in Washington D.C. Gorjestani...

A group of Colorado voters contends that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits for- mer President Donald J. Trump, who seeks the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party in this year’s election, from becoming President again. The Colorado Supreme Court agreed with that contention. It ordered the Colorado secretary of state to exclude the former President from the Republican primary ballot in the State and to disregard any write-in votes that Colorado voters might cast for him. Former President Trump challenges that decision on sev- eral grounds. Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States,...

…A New York Times-Siena College poll from October revealed that 22% of all Black voters in six battleground states ― including my native Michigan ― would support Trump in a general election if it were held at that time. Black men seem to be leading this charge: Trump secured 12% of our vote in 2020, up from 8% in 2016. Considering that the Trump supporter archetype is that of an American-flag-shirt-wearing, far-right white wingnut from Middle America, it’s both frightening and sobering that, even with the information we have about Trump, nearly 1 in 4 Black folks would vote for...

…While Swift has made no presidential endorsements, the story sparked ire among right-wing figures, who are now spreading baseless claims about the pop star being a “psyop” — psychological operation — meant to draw voters to the Democratic Party. Some Republican figures, such as Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, warned that a Swift endorsement of Biden could result in a “tsunami” that “will be very difficult to thwart.” Meanwhile, conservative pundits on Fox News, One America Network and Newsmax spent a lot of airtime discussing Swift this week. Staring directly into the camera on Monday, Fox News host Jeanine...

In the decade before the great financial crisis of 2008, the chair of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, became a virtual demigod in Washington. As U.S. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, famously advised, “If he’s alive or dead it doesn’t matter. If he’s dead, just prop him up and put some dark glasses on him.” During Greenspan’s two decades as chair, from 1987 to 2006, the Fed played a central role in a period of accelerated growth in the U.S. economy. Among the sources of Greenspan’s fame was what financial markets called the “Fed put.” (A “put” is a...