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Post by Webster on Apr 3, 2024 14:55:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Another poll released today from Gallup shows that about a third of Americans each think only Donald Trump, or only Joe Biden, would perform well as president. As for the remaining third, they believe neither man will do a good job, Gallup finds. As you can see from the precise breakdown, Trump has the slight edge in this survey, with 35% preferring only him, compared with 30% for Biden. The group that likes neither man comes in at 29%. Perhaps most relevant to Biden’s re-election prospects is the poll’s finding that those who say only Biden would make a good president is six percentage points lower than it was in 2020, while the other metrics are about the same.
Americans may not be able to agree on who they want as president, but an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released today shows they generally agree on what it means to be a citizen of the country. The major area of disagreement is over the right to bear arms, the survey finds. It also shows a worryingly small number of people believe the country’s democracy is functioning well. But the rest of the findings are comparatively reassuring. Here’s more, from the AP: The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 9 in 10 U.S. adults say the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy are extremely important or very important to the United States’ identity as a nation. The survey also found that 84% feel the same way about the freedom of religion.
The results, which included perspectives on a number of different freedoms and rights, have only small variances between Republicans and Democrats except on the right to bear arms, which Republicans are more likely to see as core to the nation’s identity. The overall findings are striking because they come at a time of extreme partisanship when political agreements seem rare and concerns are heightened over the potential for violence during a volatile presidential election year.
“If you get a bunch of normal people at random and put them in a room together and chat about issues, there’s a lot more convergence than you might imagine,” said Michael Albertus, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
A more pessimistic assessment of the country was reflected in another finding — that only about 3 in 10 Americans believe the nation’s democracy is functioning well. About half say the U.S. is a poorly functioning democracy, while 14% say the U.S. is not a democracy.
The tension between the broad consensus on the country’s fundamental values and discontent with how well its form of government is working is not a surprise, experts say. “Part of it is really our leaders are not reflecting the electorate, and they behave in a way that’s much more polarized than what the electorate is,” said Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University.
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Post by Webster on Apr 4, 2024 16:50:15 GMT -5
(The Guardian) No Labels drops bid for third-party election ticket after spending millionsThe centrist political group No Labels will not run a third-party campaign for the presidency in the 2024 election, after the group spent millions trying to recruit a candidate. It emerged on Thursday afternoon that the group plans to announce it won’t field a so-called “unity ticket” that even if it was a long shot for the White House threaten to undermine Donald Trump or Joe Biden’s campaigns. The story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and then reported by the Associated Press. Democrats were particularly concerned that it would drain enough support from the president that he could lose his re-election bid, handing the White House back to former president Trump, who is signaling an even more extremist hard-right agenda if he wins a second term. Conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Nikki Haley, a Republican candidate for the nomination who lost out to Trump in the primaries, including losing her home state of South Carolina, where she had been a governor, were just two names floated for a No Labels ticket who reportedly turned the opportunity down. No Labels was founded in 2009 by Nancy Jacobson, a prominent Washington political fundraiser.
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Post by Webster on Apr 5, 2024 13:30:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden to again attempt mass student debt forgiveness after supreme court blocked earlier effort – reportThe Biden administration will try again to implement a large-scale student debt relief plan, a year after a previous attempt was blocked by the supreme court’s conservative justices, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan, which Joe Biden will announce on Monday during a visit to swing state Wisconsin, comes as opinion polls show the president struggling to maintain support among younger voters ahead of his expected November election rematch against Donald Trump. The new plan takes advantage of the complicated federal rulemaking process to target relief at borrowers facing financial hardship, who have been in debt for a long time, or must repay more in interest than the principal of their loans, the Journal reports. The Biden administration also expects it to face a court challenge, but believes this plan is more sound than the original, which was overturned by justices who found that the administration interpreted federal law too broadly. Here’s more on what we know about the plan, from the Journal: The president’s advisers hope to use the rules to begin canceling waves of student debt in the run-up to the November election, but the exact timing of the effort will depend on how quickly the administration can finalize the regulations. The debt forgiveness push could give Biden a political boost, especially among young people, amid polls that show him trailing former President Donald Trump, his GOP opponent, in several key states. But the proposal, once it is completed, is likely to face legal action from Republican attorneys general, who will again try to convince the courts to block it.
Just hours after the Supreme Court in June 2023 killed his first student loan forgiveness plan, Biden pledged to try again using different legal authority. That kicked off a lengthy and bureaucratic process led by the Education Department to craft regulations that define under what circumstances the federal government can “waive,” or eliminate, federal student debt. The administration is basing the regulations on a 1965 law called the Higher Education Act.
The proposed regulation is expected to outline several categories that would qualify borrowers for debt relief, including financial hardship, the people said. For example, borrowers with high debt loads and low incomes could see their loan balances reduced or eliminated under the plan. It could also outline a path to relief for borrowers who have carried their debt for decades; who now owe more than their initial loan amount because interest has piled up; or who are eligible for relief through other federal programs, but haven’t applied.
Administration officials are developing estimates for how many borrowers could see relief through the plan. Outside experts said the proposal could lower or eliminate student debt balances for millions of people if the administration opts to embrace the most ambitious version of the regulations that have been discussed.
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Post by Webster on Apr 8, 2024 12:49:07 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Defending Democracy Together, a conservative anti-Trump group, is mounting a new effort to stave off a change to Nebraska presidential election rules which pro-Trumpers hope will take a potentially crucial electoral college vote away from Joe Biden. With Maine, Nebraska is one of two US states which splits its electoral college vote. Under Nebraska law, two of five electoral college votes go to the candidate with most votes statewide, the others to the winners of three electoral districts. That means that though Nebraska skews heavily Republican, it can split its vote. It did so in 2008 and 2020, Democrats taking one electoral vote in the district centered on Omaha, the biggest city in the state. In 2024, as Biden and Donald Trump square off in a tightly fought rematch, there is a scenario in which that one Nebraska vote could decide the whole election. Exhorted by the hard-right podcaster Charlie Kirk, therefore, Trump supporters are trying to switch to a winner-takes-all model. The push failed to clear one legislative hurdle last week but it could be revived by Jim Pillen, the Republican Nebraska governor, in time to affect the November election. Defending Democracy Together, which has strong links to the Bulwark, a never-Trump conservative news site, will therefore this week launch the first tranche of an ad campaign meant to persuade Nebraskans to oppose the change. Targeting Nebraska Republican lawmakers, the ads say: Lawmakers in Lincoln want to change Nebraska’s independent electoral college vote and destroy your ability to decide the next president.Viewers are then encouraged to call their local Republican and voice their opposition. Gunner Ramer, national spokesperson for Defending Democracy Together, said: “Nebraskans take pride in their ability to exercise their voting power to make their congressional district’s voice heard. When voters feel that their presidential vote truly matters, our democracy is better for it. That’s what makes Nebraska’s current system so powerful. Lawmakers in Lincoln need to uphold that pro-democratic principle.”
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Post by Webster on Apr 8, 2024 13:55:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Jean-Pierre had choice words for Trump and Senate Republicans about abortion following Trump clarifying his position. Jean-Pierre blamed Republicans for “extreme abortion bans” happening in GOP-led states, during Monday’s gaggle. “The only reason that extreme abortion bans are now in effect all over the country is because of the judges the previous president and Senate republicans put in the court,” Jean-Pierre said. “The only reason that women are being [denied] life saving and even unrelated procedures and turned away from emergency rooms…is because of the judges the previous president and Senate republicans put in the court,” she added. Jean-Pierre added that bans on IVF, a consequence of the Alabama state supreme court ruling, are because of judges selected by Trump. “We need to be clear eyed here,” Jean-Pierre added, regarding the potential impact on reproductive rights if Trump is elected.
Ahead of Biden’s speech on student loans, Jean-Pierre said that Biden will continue to pursue student loan forgiveness despite pushback from “Republican officials”. “While we can’t prevent them from filing lawsuits against this plan, the president will never stop fighting on behalf of borrowers,” Jean-Pierre said. Republican states have previously tried to fight Biden’s attempts to wipe student loan debt, even falsely claiming that they would be financially impacted by the loan forgiveness scheme.
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Post by Webster on Apr 10, 2024 18:28:37 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Cornel West announces running mate for independent presidential bidThe independent presidential candidate Cornel West announced on Wednesday that Melina Abdullah would serve as his running mate, joining the former Harvard professor’s long-shot bid in the US presidential race. Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, helped to form the LA chapter of the group Black Lives Matter, and West praised her as “one of the great freedom fighters of her generation”. West told the talkshow host Tavis Smiley on Wednesday": I wanted somebody whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working peoples of all colors. And Melina has a history of longevity, of putting her heart, mind, soul and body in the struggle.Abdullah told Smiley that West’s offer took her by surprise, but she quickly accepted because of her belief in his “platform of truth, love and justice”. “How can you not get behind that platform?” Abdullah said. -- So I’ve been following him and had been really enthusiastic about his candidacy and just was excited to be able to share space with him.
Cornel West’s announcement that Melina Abdullah would serve as his running mate comes as West, an author and leftwing activist, continues his efforts to get on the ballot in every US state. West’s campaign said he had already secured ballot access in Alaska, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah, but some states require a running mate for independent candidates to get on the ballot. As part of his 50-state campaign, West announced in January that he would launch a new political party, called the Justice for All party, to help ease his path to ballot access in some states. West has no path to victory, as national polls show his support languishing in the low single digits. A survey conducted last month by the Marquette Law School found that just 4% of likely US voters named West as their preferred candidate. But West’s presence on the ballot in key battleground states could draw support away from Joe Biden, raising concerns among Democrats that the independent candidate might serve as a spoiler for the incumbent president. According to a Quinnipiac University poll of US voters conducted last month, Biden leads Donald Trump by three points, 48% to 45%, in a head-to-head match-up, but the president’s support dipped down to 38% (compared with Trump’s 39%) when third-party candidates such as West, Robert F Kennedy Jr and Jill Stein of the Green party were listed as options.
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Post by Webster on Apr 11, 2024 11:07:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden knows Netanyahu ‘played’ him in early months of Gaza war, says Tim KaineSenator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”. In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence. Biden embraced Netanyahu early in the conflict but had little to show for it as Israel continued to rain bombs on Gaza, causing mass displacement, threats of famine and disease and, last week, the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. Protesters have condemned Biden for miscalculating the extent of his sway over Netanyahu. Kaine reflected: I do believe he felt like that relationship and the true compassion that he had for Israel over his career would lead him to be listened to by the Israeli leadership. I think he is enormously frustrated that he’s been trying to give advice, not like a foe would give it – ‘I think this is better for you if you listen to me. I’m not just saying this is better for me; I’m saying this will be better for you.’
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Post by Webster on Apr 11, 2024 13:38:38 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump campaign calls for more presidential debatesDonald Trump’s campaign wrote to the commission on presidential debates asking for this year’s general election debates between him and Joe Biden to take place “much earlier” and calling for more to be added to the schedule. In a letter to the commission, Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote: The Commission must move up the timetable of its proposed 2024 debates to ensure more Americans have a full chance to see the candidates before they start voting, and we would argue for adding more debates in addition to those on the currently proposed schedule.The first presidential debate is scheduled to take place on 16 September in San Marcos, Texas. There are three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate scheduled. Wiles and LaCivita noted that by the date of the first proposed debate, more than a million Americans are likely to have already voted, and three million may have cast their ballot by 1 October, when the second proposed debate is scheduled. They added: We have already indicated President Trump is willing to debate anytime, anyplace, and anywhere – and the time to start these debates is now.Trump, who did not participate in any of the Republican primary debates, made similar requests during the 2020 election.
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Post by Webster on Apr 15, 2024 10:04:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden and Donald Trump are targeting Pennsylvania intensively this election cycle and are visiting the crucial swing state within days of each other. Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by less than 1.5% of the vote, or approximately 80,000 votes, while Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the same state in 2016 by less than 45,000 votes. Biden is set to kick off an election campaign blitz on Tuesday, his fifth visit to Pennsylvania this year. Democrats and Republicans due to vote in the state’s general primary on 23 April. When the US president kicks off his Keystone State blitz on Tuesday it will be his fifth visit this year. The plan for this trip was hatched before the Biden rushed back to the White House on Saturday afternoon from a weekend trip to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after he was informed by his team that an attack on Israel by Iran appeared imminent, with tension in the region ramping up following the killing of a top Iranian general in Damascus in a Israeli strike earlier this month. If the original plan holds, he’ll visit Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia this week.
As Joe Biden plans to hit Pennsylvania in a campaign blitz this week, Donald Trump was there on Saturday, holding a rally on north-east Lehigh county, where he turned up an hour late in bitter cold after running late at a fundraiser in Bucks county, areas of the Philadelphia suburbs where Biden won four years ago. It was Trump’s first 2024 general election campaign in Pennsylvania with public radio station WHYY reporting that the former Republican president got busy “hitting several of his regular talking points, including energy independence, immigration and his innocence in the several ongoing trials he is party to”. During the rally in Lehigh county, Trump endorsed Republican David McCormick for the US Senate seat held by three-term Democrat Bob Casey. -- He’s a smart guy. He was a very successful guy. He’s given up a lot to do this,” Trump said and WHYY reported.The outlet further reported that the Trump endorsement was a bit of a surprise as McCormick had run for the Senate before but in that race Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz, not McCormick. Democrat John Fetterman actually won that seat.
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Post by Webster on Apr 17, 2024 14:21:09 GMT -5
(The Guardian) It’s a day off in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York, but the Republican presumptive presidential nominee is keeping busy. He’s meeting Poland’s president Andrzej Duda, who once proposed naming a military base in his country Fort Trump, according to the Associated Press. The pair will meet over dinner, the AP says, citing “a person familiar with the matter”. The agency states European leaders are preparing for the possibility of Trump’s return to the White House, with Nato leaders especially concerned given his support of Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin. Some in Poland fear the get-together could hurt the country’s relationship with the Biden administration, the AP says, while others welcome the prospect of Duda leveraging ties with Trump to make the case for backing Ukraine. Trump’s trial for covering up a payment to an adult film star resumes on Thursday, with seven jurors already seated, and five more, plus six alternates, still needed. Judge Juan Merchan has said opening arguments could begin as early as Monday.
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Post by Webster on Apr 17, 2024 15:02:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden floats ramping up tariffs on Chinese steelJoe Biden just confirmed what had been flagged before his trip – that he is considering tripling tariffs on Chinese steel, with indications that he wants to go to 25%. “China is cheating, not competing on steel,” the US president said, at an event at the United Steelworkers union headquarters in Pittsburgh. He protested that “for too long, the Chinese state has poured money into their steel industry” and that it was not fair competition. He also said that Donald Trump “and the Maga” Republicans want to impose tariffs across the board on all imports, which the president said will hurt American consumers. He referred to the Make America Great Again slogan of Trump’s election campaign, which has come to signify the hard right of the Republican party. “Trump simply does not get it,” he said.
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Post by Webster on Apr 22, 2024 12:04:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A busy legal week ahead for TrumpDonald Trump is leaning forward in his chair as he listens to Judge Merchan read preliminary jury instructions. It’s going to be an exceptionally busy legal week for Trump: --On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Trump must sit in New York state criminal court for this trial about falsification of business records to influence the 2016 presidential election; --Also on Monday, a New York civil judge is set to hold a hearing to decide whether to cancel Trump’s $175m bond in his civil fraud case; --On Thursday, Trump’s legal team will argue before the US supreme court that Trump has presidential immunity and cannot be prosecuted over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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Post by Webster on Apr 29, 2024 12:47:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden and Mexican president pledge to 'significantly reduce irregular border crossings'Joe Biden and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador have released a joint statement in which they pledged to search for new ways to decrease border crossings by undocumented migrants, as the US president faces pressure to crack down on the issue of immigration ahead of the November elections. Polls have indicated that Americans are markedly concerned about migrants entering the country from Mexico, which have surged under Biden’s presidency. The president has called for Congress to change immigration policy to give him the power to turn back more arrivals, but the Senate rejected a recent bipartisan deal to do so in part due to the opposition of Donald Trump. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee allowed the separation of migrant families during his first four years in office, and is reportedly planning mass deportations of undocumented people if returned to the White House. The statement from Biden and López Obrador did not specify what new measures the countries would together take, but could set the stage for the US president to use his powers to unilaterally attempt to deter migrants. Here’s what they said: In the short term, the two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights. President Biden and President López Obrador also pledged to advance initiatives to address the root causes of migration throughout the Western Hemisphere, noting that increasing shared prosperity and security will be of critical importance in effectively addressing the migration challenge over the longer term.
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Post by Webster on Apr 29, 2024 12:48:03 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Last week, Joe Biden vowed to take another stab at convincing Congress to pass legislation that would allow him to tighten immigration policy and deter new migrants from entering the United States. But Politico reports that nothing significant appears to be in the works – a consequences of the opposition from Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress that would likely kill any compromise reached on the highly divisive issue: Talks around resuscitating the bipartisan border compromise that senators struck in February have been nonexistent in Washington. And despite the president’s proclamation, administration officials and immigration policy experts both say it’s highly unlikely any legislative momentum for border security materializes between now and November.
“They pulled a rabbit out of a hat on Ukraine, but there’s no chance they’re getting anything out of Mike Johnson’s House on border security,” said an immigration advocate familiar with the White House’s thinking, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations with administration officials. “They’ve known that since December, when they realized they had to count votes in the House. There’s no chance of legislation on this, and they know that. It’s rhetorical posturing.”
Biden’s comments last week underscored the administration’s desire to try and turn the politics of the border — long an albatross for Democrats — into something more advantageous. After former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers tanked the compromise bill, the White House moved to put blame for the crisis at their feet. The president has openly weighed the possibility of taking executive action and, as he did upon signing the foreign aid bill, talked up the need to revisit the legislation. “I proposed and negotiated and agreed to the strongest border security bill this country has ever, ever, ever seen,” he said last week, speaking about its exclusion from the foreign aid package. “It was bipartisan. It should have been included in this bill, and I’m determined to get it done for the American people.”
But, in reality, there’s been no behind-the-scenes jockeying from the White House to restart talks, in part because the White House believes that the migration crisis has temporarily stabilized, with illegal border crossings dipping again in March to 137,000.
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Post by Webster on Apr 29, 2024 14:04:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) White House announces opposition to slew of House GOP bills targeting environmental regulationsThe Biden administration announced that it “strongly opposes” a group of Republican-backed bills expected to be considered by the House this week that will target its environmental regulations. The White House office of management and budgeted targeted six bills proposed by Republicans, including measures to remove gray wolves from the list of endangered species, open up land in Alaska to oil production, and allow mining in a federal wilderness area in Minnesota. Even if they clear the House, the bills are unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-led Senate.
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