If this becomes law, it is possibly a massive deal for November
Because it means that if Biden can’t get the one electoral vote from the Omaha area, and he loses all the swing states except for WI, MI, PA - he would only get 269
His easiest path to 270 would be gone
Another poll out this morning suggests that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump
Yet moments like this keep happening with more frequency:
A PAC controlled by former President Donald Trump that has devoted tens of millions of dollars to his and his allies’ legal bills could be running out of cash after spending nearly $3.7 million on legal fees in March.
“But there were also warning signs for Trump as hundreds of thousands of Republicans — particularly in suburban areas where the GOP has struggled in the Trump era — chose Haley or DeSantis, despite the fact that neither is an active candidate anymore”
NEW: President Joe Biden will consider conditioning military aid to Israel if the country moves forward with a large-scale invasion of Rafah
Biden’s fresh openness to taking this step reflects the extreme strains in his relationship with Netanyahu
“Donald Trump could have hastened the arrival of National Guard troops to quell the Capitol riot if he’d called Pentagon leaders on Jan. 6, 2021, according to recent closed-door congressional testimony by two former leaders of the D.C. guard”
“Biden directed his senior aides to employ a two-pronged strategy: privately make clear to Johnson the stakes for Europe and the rest of the world if Vladimir Putin claims Ukraine, leaning heavily on intelligence — and lay off attacking the new speaker”
There are some serious reasons for concern in a general election:
Trump lost moderate and liberal voters to Haley by a wide margin
And a bit over 1 in 5 GOP primary voters said they would not vote for Trump in November if he was the party’s nominee
New from White House:
President Joe Biden is cutting short a weekend trip to his Delaware beach home to return to Washington to monitor events in the Middle East
U.S. officials have theorized that Iran would feel it needed to strike back at Israel to save face but also desperately wants to avoid a regional and escalated war
That sentiment might be behind this statement
This is really fascinating. Send slow moving, highly telegraphed, but massive drone attack. Cause a major impromptu coalition to cooperate in defense of Israel. Then say, in effect, “this is all we’re going to do.” Of course, Iran could be lying. But weird strategy.
“I’m the only one who has ever beat him. And I’ll beat him again.”
“If you thought you were best positioned to beat someone who, if they won, would change the nature of America, what would you do?”
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
NEW: President Biden deliberately kept a low public profile following Iran’s attacks on Israel, hoping that his absence from the spotlight would help deescalate the situation
He’s urging restraint from Israel - while navigating tricky domestic politics
NEW: President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his Delaware beach home to return to the White House where he will monitor events in the Middle East
“Speaker Mike Johnson’s sudden bid to deliver aid to Ukraine came days after fresh intelligence described the U.S. ally at a true make-or-break moment in its war with Russia”
NEW: 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 foreign transactions — previously unseen in scale and speed for a former White House adviser — are bringing fresh scrutiny as Mr. Kushner’s father-in-law again seeks the White House and control over American foreign policy”
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling jeopardizing access to in vitro fertilization has provided President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign with what it sees as a freighter-size political opening to pin much of the blame squarely on Donald Trump
President Joe Biden said Saturday that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza.
NEW: Aides to President Joe Biden have been privately working behind the scenes to ensure House Speaker Mike Johnson can put a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine up for a vote — and also survive it politically
“The tone 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”
In wake of the SCOTUS delay, re-upping our recent reporting:
“Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded”
NEW: President Joe Biden on Friday announced more than 500 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine
It’s the largest tranche of penalties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine almost exactly two years ago. And it comes a week after Navalny’s death
“There is no evidence that any NYC students have been left without a school seat due to the arrival of new migrants, and an Education Department spokesperson said Trump’s claims were false”
NEW: The State of the Union didn’t change the polls much
But the strong speech - and blitz of travel - accomplished something else key for Biden: it has eased the worries of Democrats who felt he wasn’t up for the campaign
Inside BidenWorld’s moment:
Trump has struggled to articulate a position on Israel, nor has he offered details on how he’d handle the war
But there’s little doubt Trump would be permissive toward Netanyahu — likely at the cost of further deteriorating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
President Biden deliberately kept a low public profile following Iran’s attacks on Israel, hoping that his absence from the spotlight would help deescalate the situation
He’s urging restraint from Israel - while navigating tricky domestic politics
“Haley outpaced Trump among college-educated voters, a relative weakness for him that could matter in November as people with college degrees are a growing share of the overall electorate”
Trump easily won the Michigan primary continuing his march toward the GOP nomination.
But Nikki Haley continued to score a significant enough percentage of the vote so as to raise questions about the former president’s standing in the general election
There were no immediate plans for Biden to address an American audience on the conflict in the Middle East
Advisers assessed that a major presidential event, such as a televised address, would likely escalate the tensions and may provoke Tehran
“It’s also a sign that, should Trump once again attempt to overturn the election, he will already have in place tens of thousands of workers who could help with that effort”
White House officials didn’t know Johnson when he became speaker
They reached out to Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike to see what they thought of Johnson - only to find that, for the most part, the members of Congress didn’t know him either
NEW: President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that the U.S will not join an offensive counter-strike on Iran should Israel choose that road after Tehran’s attacked this weekend
U.S. officials are urging Israelis to be measured in any response
Biden’s fiery State of the Union and aggressive campaign travel has calmed some anxious Democrats
And it presents a contrast with Trump, who has had a light schedule to conserve resources - showcasing Biden’s significant financial edge
The Biden campaign quietly reached out to Nebraska Democrats as the state considered changing how it allocates its electoral college votes
The GOP effort was defeated - for now
But if it later succeeds, it makes Biden’s path to 270 much more complicated
It’s either a sign of a massive electoral realignment, or that the polls are wrong again:
But many show that Trump is ascendant with the youngest bloc of the electorate
Meanwhile, Biden is stronger with seniors than he was four years ago
The State of the Union only changed the polls a little
But the strong speech - and blitz of travel - accomplished something else key for Biden: it has eased the worries of Democrats who felt he wasn’t up for the campaign
Inside BidenWorld’s moment:
There is a belief in the West Wing that Johnson’s foremost allegiance is to not get on the wrong side of Donald Trump
That has disappointed but not surprised the White House team. Yet it has frustrated them when Johnson blocked Ukraine and border deals
NEW: In notably blunt terms, top U.S. officials made a series of warnings to the Israeli government that they were nearly out of patience with its conduct of the war in Gaza
Most strikingly, Biden issued something of an ultimatum to Netanyahu to change
Biden essentially told Netanyahu to “take the win” given that Israel escaped the attack largely unscathed
But while Biden said Washington won’t join in a strike on Iran, his stance does not mean the U.S. will not rhetorically defend or outright oppose it
NEW: President Joe Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson have no relationship
The two men have rarely talked, are decades apart in experience and miles apart in political philosophy
Ahead of White House meeting, Biden aides aren’t sure Johnson can get a deal
Biden invoked FDR and compared that moment to the nation’s current threats at home and abroad - notably urgung the GOP to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia — and repeatedly previewed what he believed was in the balance amid his looming rematch with Trump
The overtly political tone underscored the stakes of the night for President Biden
The speech was a clear opening salvo in what seemed certain to be a historically long and unprecedentedly ugly rematch between him and Trump
NEW: Democrats have long worried that Biden’s support for Israel has hurt him with young and progressives
But as the horrors of war show no sign of ending, there is fear that Biden’s inability to control Netanyahu undermines his standing as global leader
“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”
FBI Director Wray:
“We are increasingly concerned [about] the potential for some kind of coordinated attack here in the homeland, which may be not that different from what you saw against the concert hall in Russia a few weeks ago from ISIS-K”
In notably blunt terms, top U.S. officials made a series of warnings to the Israeli government that they were nearly out of patience with its conduct of the war in Gaza
Most strikingly, Biden issued something of an ultimatum to Netanyahu to change
Tune in tomorrow as I host
@Morning_Joe
with
@KattyKay_
We’ll have the latest fallout from Navalny’s death, the Trump civil case ruling, 2024, great guests, and more
See you at 6 am EST as we mark Presidents’ Day - the day a nation’s thoughts turn to Chester A. Arthur
Our SCOOP: President Biden will consider conditioning military aid to Israel if it moves forward with a large-scale invasion of Rafah
Biden’s openness to taking this step reflects the strains in his relations with Netanyahu
(w/
@alexbward
)
Early in the war, Biden pursued a hug-in-public-push-in-private strategy with Israel, hoping that would allow the U.S. to maintain sway with Netanyahu and his far-right government
But Israel continuously rejected the White House’s advice
President Biden has nearly erased Donald Trump’s early polling advantage, amid signs that the Democratic base has begun to coalesce behind the president
Biden’s tick upward appears to stem from his improved standing among traditional Democratic voters
“Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain openly questioned President Joe Biden’s political strategy Tuesday night, arguing he was too focused on long-term infrastructure projects and not enough on immediate economic needs as he runs for reelection”
President Joe Biden will consider conditioning military aid to Israel if the country moves forward with a large-scale invasion of Rafah
Biden’s fresh openness to taking this step reflects the extreme strains in his relationship with Netanyahu
Democrats and Republicans alike are forcefully pushing back against an effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson over his move to bring Ukraine aid to the House floor, predicting there will be bipartisan support to stop an effort to dislodge him
“The already-slim likelihood that Donald Trump will face a criminal trial brought by special counsel Jack Smith before the 2024 election appeared to dwindle further Thursday in the face of withering scrutiny from the Supreme Court’s conservative majority”
Footage showed the bodies of the five dead at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah
Several of them wore protective gear with the charity’s logo. Staff showed the passports of three of the dead – British, Australian and Polish
VP Kamala Harris finds herself, often, a half step further than President Biden on Israel
That has helped create space for Biden to work quietly behind the scenes to push Netanyahu. And it’s done with an eye toward domestic political audiences
NEW from White House official on Baltimore bridge collapse:
"There is no indication of nefarious intent" in the ship striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to crumble into the water
“I have been saying for several months to the campaign, ‘Please, let him be Joe Biden’”
“It is good for him and it’s good for the country when Joe Biden gets a chance to get out from behind the podium and be less President Joe Biden and more Joe.”
“That warning to Netanyahu was a shift in posture driven by months of frustration with the prime minister’s routine defiance of the administration’s counsel, as well as Biden’s own personal fury over a mounting death toll that now includes an American”