Jerry Roberts
Joe Biden’s unforced error, of engineering an unprecedented, early debate with Donald Trump will rank as “one of the greatest political miscalculations of modern times.”
That’s the take of Mark Z. Barabak, graybeard political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, who returns to Newsmakers TV this week to survey and traverse the treacherous political landscape the president configured with his faltering performance at the June 26 presidential fiasco.
Barabak said that Biden’s epic fizzer was by far the worst showing he’s seen from any candidate in covering every presidential and vice-presidential debate since 1980.
In our conversation, the political beat veteran and the genial host break down the pros, cons, and probabilities of the three basic scenarios that the president and his party now confront, at a time when Trump and his MAGA allies openly vow to transform the federal government into an engine of white Christian nationalist authoritarianism:
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Retain the 81-year old Biden at the head of the party’s ticket, despite record-high disapproval, and widespread public opinion surveys that show a large majority of voters — including a majority of Democrats – say he is too old and frail to serve a second term.
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Pivot to Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee, in hopes her relative youthfulness, energy and connection to the Democratic base overcome Trump’s current lead in six crucial swing states, despite her own considerable political deficiencies.
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Concoct a novel process to open up the nomination, not only to Harris, but also to other, younger Democratic pols, like governors Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro of Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, at or before the party’s convention, starting on Aug. 19.
All of these options carry considerable risk, particularly with Republicans already favored to win back control of the Senate, and Democrats needing to win a host of swing districts in California and New York to re-capture the House of Representatives; the latter may become their best, if not only, chance to cling to power in Washington, with the U.S. Supreme Court now dominated by a conservative super-majority.
Barabak also discusses the salience of the abortion rights issue in the election; Trump’s dodgy effort to distance himself from the radical “Project 2025” plan for a right-wing government, as well as his attempt to appear more moderate on abortion; and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s calculated actions amid the uncertainty of the Democrats’ future.
All this and more, right here, right now, on Newsmakers TV.
You can read Barabak’s columns here, and subscribe to his newsletter here,
Biden is running period. The other side supports their deeply flawed candidate. Time for Democrats to unite and win. Record high disapproval? Nothing new there when the polls are often behind the Republican until right before an election. Personally it is getting boring with this sack Biden talk. How about sack Trump? Who wants a dictator with limitless powers?
YES. Thank you.
Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin during a NATO summit in Washington, D.C. Thursday.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before starting to leave the podium.
I agree, keep Biden he’s fine . … lol.
And Trump rants and raves about electric boats, sharks and covefe.
I agree, vote for Trump he’s fine. …. lol.
The majority of Americans will be voting for Trump, not for diminished Joe.
But, you already know that .. . lol.
“The majority of Americans will be voting for Trump” – LOL no, never happened, never will. Cool fantasy though!
Is anyone watching his press conference who’d care to make comments?
Sure. Would vote for him or his corpse over Trump.
Shasta, do you care to make comments about Trump’s mental state?
Biden knows what he is talking about. His brain is not broken. Ask the other guy details of the various international situations and how the US is involved, and you’d get some boastful quip that conveys nothing but bravado. But Biden still has to convince us that he can win the election. Alas, all too many Americans do not care about knowledge and substance, and look no farther than style and boasts.
Most Americans watched the debate, and clearly Biden is not well.
Has nothing to do with bravado, and suggesting he has the “knowledge or substance” to be the leader of the free world is disturbing.
He is diminished, but you and the left simply will not accept it – It’s a win-win for the RIGHT.
At least Biden isn’t insane, like the orange moron.
Actually, a lot of “the left” fully recognizes that Biden is diminished. But he’s still many times more trustworthy, decent, and capable than Trump. And though his ego seems to be getting in the way, he is not a would-be dictator.
Most Americans watched? No.
How many people watched the first presidential debate of 2024?
CNN drew 9.53 million television viewers to its flagship channel, including 3.379 million in the 25-54 demographic, the network said Friday. Fox News drew 9.276 million viewers, ABC News had 9.21 million and MSNBC drew 4.122 million viewers, according to the network.
The first presidential debate of 2024 generated more than 30 million views on CNN’s digital properties and on YouTube. “Across CNN’s digital platforms, the debate was CNN’s biggest debate ever and tied with our biggest live stream event ever with 2.3 million concurrent live views at 9:47 p.m,” CNN stated.
While the network’s biggest TV audience of the year, the count of those who watched Thursday night’s debate on TV marks a 30% decline from 2020, when more than 73 million people watched the first debate between Biden and Trump across all TV networks. In 2016, a record 84 million people watched the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
The previous most-watched program in CNN’s history came in 2015, when a Republican debate featuring Trump and GOP competitors averaged 23.1 million viewers, the network relayed.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/first-debate-ratings-2024/
“I beat Medicare”
At least those are words in a sentence. What about “covfefe”?
Oh, you misinterpreted what I said. I was actually complimenting Biden. I think he won Medicare. He did a great job during that debate. I don’t know what people were talking about. I thought he was perfectly clear and coherent. Biden should stay in the race.
That’s what your leader says, alright. Could it be that he’s afraid of Kamala Harris?
Everyone needs to calm down. People are being unfair to President Biden. He is clearly in command of all his faculties, and just as capable as he’s always been. Although, I’m a conservative, and I disagree with all his policies, it’s completely unfair to judge this honorable man based on a couple clips. I believe in democracy, and the people have voted for Joe Biden to be the nominee. We need to honor democracy and trust that Biden’s supporters have full faith in his cognitive abilities. The people have spoken. If we don’t honor their choice, we will betray our sacred democracy. Joe Biden did a great job last night, and his debate performance was greatly exaggerated; it wasn’t much different than previous debates. So everyone just calm down and accept the outcome of the democratic primary.
I WILL be voting for Biden. Period. Full Stop. In ANY condition….
*Live Biden
*Comatose Biden
*Hologram Biden
*Behind the Wizard of Oz Curtain Biden
*Head floating in a jar of blue liquid Biden
*Dead Biden
The alternative is amoral and unconscionable.
@AQUA- I feel bad that it appears you are afficked with a severe case of TDS. Trump is a polorizing personality, no doubt, but his (and his Adminstration) have policies that are sound and proven. The Biden Administration and the current Military Industrial Complex, REFUSE to even open negotiations with Russia regarding the Ukraine War, that has cost the lives of 100’s of thousands of Ukrainian men (as well as Russians). Additionally, the Biden Administration continues to “Rattle Sabres” by WAR rhetoric and spending over $220 BILLION of our taxpayer funds that could otherwised be used to improve lives in our country…. I’m not even mentioning the insane border / immigration situation, more regulations on our U.S. Industries, Piss-poor economy, MANDATED social programs that are proven FAILURES (Woke/DEI) and the fact that Biden’s (Democrats) believe that Department heads can mandate and change laws and regulations that effect us all ecomonically as well as our standards of living and working…I know it’s impossible to change minds, but if you think this Country is being run successfully these last 3.5 years, you are unable to grasp common sense and are therefore unreachable… Only Rich white liberals and feel the way you do.
CW lives in a fantasy bubble of crazed extremist social media.
Just one of his most blatant lies of the many he’s just spit out is that the economy is poor right now, when in fact the economic data show it’s the best it has been since 1960.
COAST -“have policies that are sound and proven.”
Name one.
utter nonsense, Coast. Truly reality-denying nonsense.
By EVERy measure, and with the agreement of all other countries our economy has rebounded from the covid pandemic to be the envy of the world. That’s right: the envy of the world.
The war in Ukraine is 100% a creation of V. Putin and is an attack on a democratic nation. There are zero negotiable compromises available to Russia, other than stopping and leaving Ukraine. ZERO
Trump isn’t just a “polarizing personality”, and if that’s really your view of him then you either haven’t been paying attention (most likely, given your other assertions), or you’re part of the MAGA cult that would literally prefer to live under a dictatorship. Trump has shown how many parts of the US Democratic Experiment were dependent on personal integrity and a desire to maintain democratic institutions, because he has no integrity and no interest in Democracy. Maybe someday we can be grateful for that and fix those loopholes, but not until we permanently remove him personally from power and demonstrate how dangerous his followers have become. Calling this recognition “TDS” is an unimaginative and juvenile “I’m rubber and you’re glue” response that you should be ashamed to repeat.
Finally, your claim about “only rich white liberals” is truly ignorant of the overwhelming support Black and Hispanic Americans are quite vocally showing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It seems that only education-deprived conservatives feel the way you do about the racist, narcissistic, felon/rapist/fraudster that you somehow admire.
@Coast
Please, I don’t require your sad ‘feelings’, nor do I need to be ‘sold’ on your insane level of delusion.
You are right about one thing, you won’t be changing my mind with your litany of nonsense.
The vast majority of people I see loyal to tRUMP are very rich folks of many stripes, and/or the defiantly stupid.
Trump has policies? Since when? The GOP dropped having a platform because he didn’t have any. This year he has Project 2025; should we assume that those are his “policies”? I guess you’re right – Hitler proved them. But are they really sound?
When the Democrats nominate a dementia patient as their nominee will they support that?
And later when the Democrats remove Biden with the 25th and put Kamala first will they accept that?
Just saying, you have to be blind or ignorant to think Joe will be on the November Ballot.
Will True Blue support the lies and manipulation?
SBLETSGET – “Joe is a proven habitual liar”
Ok, prove it. Where’s your source?
Did you watch the entire press conference?
You think the Russians will be running our country? Maybe so, if Trump gets in. He admires Putin, trusts him more than our own military.
Put Kamala in there so we can see “what can be , unburdened by what has been ”
i’m dying to find out exactly what that is.
She needs to stop saying that woo-woo phrase. But can you really not understand what she means?. Is jabber about Hannibal Lecter more enlightening?
BASIC – when are you going to take your own advice?
Boy, there are sure a lot of people out there with serious anger issues. Don’t stop – it’s very amusing. In fact, please keep it up. Roll around in your hatred, absorb it, and by all means, keep spilling it out on local social media sites like this one. I love how you work so hard to be so clever and mean in attacking those who disagree. Yes, keep it up. And while you’re seething in your anger, I’ll be smiling knowing that for all of your raving, Trump will lose in California – and your hate-filled diatribes won’t affect that one iota. Thanks to that wonderful electoral college system, your vote here doesn’t mean squat. Sadly, though, that’s true for most of us; the only ones whose votes actually mean anything are those few undecided voters in a handful of key states. So, yeah, keep up the hate, but be aware: absolutely no one is listening!
Good summary.