Month: June 2024

(NewsNation) — President Biden’s family Sunday urged him to stay in the race for reelection, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NewsNation.

The source said that First Lady Jill Biden and son Hunter were the strongest in pushing the president not to withdraw.

There is also a lot of anger by the family directed at the campaign staff who were deeply involved in the debate preparation, the source confirmed. “They did him a disservice,” is how the source summarized the family’s feelings.

But the source added that the president doesn’t share the belief that his people let him down.

There are also talks about Biden doing some type of press event later this week to answer the criticism of his performance, the source said.

The news from the Camp David family gathering comes amid a flood of calls for Biden to leave the race, and equally vocal calls for him to stay the course.

In a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, 45 percent of Democratic registered voters surveyed said Biden should step aside, while 55 percent said he should continue running.

The survey of 1,130 registered voters taken last Friday and Saturday has a 4.2% margin of error.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — On Friday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that puts a pause on House Bill 4156, a controversial law enabling Oklahoma law enforcement to arrest individuals on the basis of immigration status.

The new law, which was scheduled to go into effect on July 1, has been met with opposition from many different organizations, including The Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police and Metro Law Enforcement Agency Leaders, and state legislators.

On May 15, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Governor Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Gentner Drummond, threatening legal action if HB 4156 was enforced.

Drummond sent a letter in response, reaffirming the state’s intention to enforce the immigration law. As a result, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the state on May 21.

“Oklahoma may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration…but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.’ Arizona, 567 U.S. at 416. Should more explicit guidance foreclose that conclusion, this Court will listen,” the conclusion of the preliminary injunction order says.

Drummond issued a statement on Friday afternoon expressing his disappointment in the ruling.

“While today’s court ruling is disappointing, I will not stop fighting for Oklahoma and our right to protect our borders,” Drummond said. “The Biden Administration’s complete failure to enforce federal immigration laws made House Bill 4156 a necessity. We intend to appeal today’s decision and defend one of the most powerful tools we have to fight the criminal activity largely being fueled by illegal aliens in Oklahoma.”

A majority of voters want Joe Biden to stand down following his dismal debate performance, yet aren’t convinced there is a suitable alternative Democratic candidate, new polls have found.

In a Morning Consult poll, 60% of respondents, Republicans and Democrats, said the president should be replaced by his party for November’s election, while another 11% were unsure.

But the same poll also found that Biden’s popularity, initially at least, appeared to be unaffected by his stumbles and gaffes during Thursday night’s debate with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

He retained a one-point advantage, 45-44% over Trump, the same margin as Morning Consult found the day after the former president was convicted in May on 34 charges of falsifying business records to try to influence the 2016 election.

Another apparent glimmer of hope for the incumbent came in a separate Data for Progress post-debate poll that found no indication any other Democrat would perform better against Trump in November.

While Biden trails Trump 48-45 among respondents, all other leading Democratic figures would perform the same or worse in a head-to-head match-up. Prominent names that voters were asked about included vice-president Kamala Harris (45-48), transport secretary Pere Buttigieg (44-47), California governor Gavin Newsom (44-47) and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (44-46).

A YouGov poll, meanwhile, found respondents overwhelmingly thought Trump won the debate, and that 30% of Democrats believed somebody other than Biden would give the party the best chance of winning in November.

The figure rises to 49% among all US voters, including Republicans and independents. Conversely, only 13% of Republicans believe their party’s best chance of victory would come by nominating somebody other than Trump.

One of the most devastating polls for Biden, however, was a Democracy Corps survey of Democratic-leaning voters, who used words such as “confused”, “frail”, and “dementia” to describe the president’s debate performance, Politico reported.

Voters were surveyed before and after the debate. While 65% said they would vote for Biden before the debate, only 54% said he won the debate once it ended, according to the survey.

Harris, 59, is the obvious choice to replace Biden, if he stands down, and has been the subject of increasing speculation in the days since the debate.

But Biden allies have insisted the president is standing firm and will contest and win the election, despite anguished calls from senior party officials and media heavyweights, including the New York Times, for him to step aside.

According to the Data for Progress poll, most voters consider Biden, who will be 82 at the start of a second term, too old to run again. 53% said they were concerned about his age, and physical and mental health, while 42% said they were more concerned by Trump’s criminal conviction, other upcoming trials and threats to democracy.

A CBS poll released Sunday, recorded in the two days following the debate, appears to echo the findings of the other surveys. It found 72% of registered voters did not believe Biden possessed the mental or cognitive health necessary to be able to fulfil the obligations of office, up from 65% at the beginning of the month.

A breakdown of the Morning Consult poll, meanwhile, shows that almost half of Democrats, 47%, want Biden out of the race, compared to 59% of independents, and 74% of Republicans. The figure among Democrats rises to 50% when limited to those who actually watched the debate.

That poll also suggests there is no clear replacement for Biden. Harris leads the field, but with only 30% support of Democratic voters, with Newsom the only other potential candidate in double figures, at 20%.

Others listed include Buttigieg at 9% and Whitmer at 5%, with a string of other Democratic state governors, Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, JB Pritzker and Wes Moore at 3% or below.

Since the debate, Newsom has forcefully defended Biden and insisted he will not challenge the president. Harris has also expressed confidence in Biden, stating after the debate that the November presidential election “will not be decided by one night in June”.