DNC plans to troll RNC with branded buses during convention
The Democratic National Committee will roll out 57 buses that will be driven around Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention in the city next week.
The buses are set to feature slogans aimed at promoting Biden’s re-election campaign and casting Trump as a threat to Americans’ livelihoods.
“Ahead of the Republican National Convention, Democrats are making sure that Wisconsinites and all Americans understand that if Trump wins, America loses,” DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement. “This year, the survival of our democracy is on the ballot, along with protections for fundamental freedoms, health care, affordable prescription drugs, and good-paying jobs.”
“There’s just one candidate who will protect them: President Joe Biden,” she continued. “While Trump, a convicted felon, selfishly campaigns to benefit himself, President Biden is looking out for us. President Biden has Americans’ backs, and we’ll have his when we send him back to the Oval Office for four more years this November.”
Kari Lake ties Ruben Gallego to Biden in ad highlighting debate
Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake released a digital ad today that highlighted Biden's debate performance and linked her likely Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, to the president.
The ad starts out with Vice President Kamala Harris saying, “I hope you were able to tune into Joe’s debate,” before it cuts to Biden struggling on the debate stage in Atlanta.
The 30-second digital spot also features a mash-up of political commentators saying "that was painful” and “he is very old and was lost frequently.”
A narrator then adds: “Joe Biden is 100% gone and Ruben Gallego votes with Biden 100% of the time. Sleepy Joe and radical Ruben. Arizonans deserve better than this train wreck.”
A FiveThirtyEight analysis of Gallego’s voting record shows he was fully aligned with Biden during congressional votes in 2021 and 2022.
Lake and Gallego are running to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, in Arizona, a critical battleground state.
Biden set as key speaker at NAACP convention in Las Vegas
The NAACP announced today that Biden will be the key speaker at its convention in Las Vegas next week.
"The rights of Black Americans are under rampant attack," Derrick Johnson, CEO and president of the NAACP, said in a statement.
"There is no better time than now for our presidential candidates to reassure our community that our voices are heard and our concerns are a priority."
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says he still supports Biden
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said tonight that he supports Biden's re-election bid.
“I made clear publicly the day after the debate that I support President Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket. My position has not changed,” Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Jeffries’ comments come a day after he convened a call with several House Democrats, some of whom said Biden should step aside.
A day after the June 27 presidential debate, Jefffries told reporters: "I support the ticket. I support the Senate Democratic majority. We’re going to do everything possible to take back the House in November."
He later acknowledged Biden's dismal performance, calling it "a setback."
"But of course, I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback,” he said in an MSNBC interview in late June.
What the polls show 11 days after the Biden-Trump debate
Biden was trailing Trump — albeit within the margin of error — in many national and battleground polls before Biden’s debate debacle.
Now Biden is trailing by 1 to 2 points more in some surveys, but the movement is still within the margin of error, and few of the results reflect a radically altered race — though in our polarized and tightly divided politics, the campaign could very well hinge on such margins.
That’s the polling takeaway 11 days after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, as a handful of Democrats have called for him to exit the race and a defiant Biden insists he’s remaining in the campaign. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Biden: 'I support him'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that she spoke with Biden over the weekend and that she supports his continuing his re-election bid.
"He made clear then, and he has made clear since, that he is in this race," Ocasio-Cortez told NBC News.
"The matter is closed. Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is in this race, and I support him. Now what I think is critically important right now, is that we focus on what it takes to win in November."
Biden campaign launches ad hammering Trump on abortion rights
The Biden campaign launched an ad today that zeroes in on the overturning of Roe v. Wade during Trump’s presidency.
The ad, titled “Her Own,” alludes to Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, which later overturned the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion.
The spot features a sound bite of Trump on the debate stage last month touting his appointments to the high court who “happened to vote in favor of killing” Roe, which he described as a “great thing.”
A narrator then says: “Ask yourself, who do you want in the White House: the man proud to overturn Roe v. Wade, or the president fighting for your rights?”
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich: Biden needs to show debate was 'just a bad night'
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said today that Biden needs to keep showing that his poor debate performance "was just a bad night" and that he can clearly defeat Trump in November.
“I love Joe Biden. He’s the most accomplished President of my lifetime and he’s a genuinely wonderful human being. However, what I care most about is the preservation of our democracy," Heinrich, who is up for re-election in November, said in a statement.
"President Biden needs to continue to demonstrate that his debate performance was just a bad night, and that he has a clear path to defeating Donald Trump. Our democracy hangs in the balance."
Closing arguments began this afternoon in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., after nearly two months of testimony. Closing arguments could last through most of tomorrow. If convicted, Menendez could face decades in prison. NBC News correspondent Rehema Ellis reports.
House and Senate races draw renewed focus for Democrats after Biden’s bad debate
Biden’s shaky debate performance has turned more attention in the Democratic Party to races further down the ballot, with donors, candidates and strategists looking for ways to shore up a congressional firewall against the chance of another Trump presidency.
One major liberal fundraising group said it has seen a big uptick in donor interest in its down-ballot efforts. Battleground candidates are largely keeping their heads down amid intraparty handwringing about whether Biden should stay in the race. And Democratic strategists involved in House and Senate races note that their candidates have long been running far ahead of Biden in public and private polling as he has struggled to consolidate the party’s base, including Black voters and young voters.
The big concern now is that those voters, unenthusiastic about their choices at the top of the ticket and perhaps newly concerned about Biden after the debate, decide not to show up in November, depriving other Democrats of their votes.