Archives for September 18, 2023 at 11:07 pm EDT

“The ordained big-money outside group supporting President Biden’s reelection has hired two veterans of his 2020 campaign to lead a new Latino advertising effort, as it blankets early states with television spots that echo the Biden campaign’s own fall television strategy,” the Washington Post reports.

“A growing number of polls are showing voters concerned about President Biden’s age and energy. Democratic lawmakers have hesitated to offer full-throated endorsements of his running mate. Prominent commentators have ruminated on whether he should drop out of the presidential race,” the Washington Post reports.

“This series of political vulnerabilities — along with House Republicans announcing an impeachment inquiry and the Justice Department indicting Biden’s son on gun charges — is now sending waves of anxiety through parts of the Democratic Party, as some fret about whether the man who helped oust Donald Trump from the White House may not have the vitality, at 80, to successfully prevent a return.”

“Many in the party continue to voice confidence in Biden. But his allies are frustrated by the hand-wringing from an anxious faction of the party, and even as campaign officials point to the president’s record of defying skeptics, they are strategizing internally about how to best combat the unmistakable nervousness.”

“Former President Donald Trump is planning to travel to Detroit on the day of the next Republican primary debate, injecting himself into the labor dispute between striking autoworkers and the nation’s leading auto manufacturers,” the New York Times reports.

“The trip, which will include a prime-time speech before current and former union members, is the second consecutive primary debate that Mr. Trump is skipping to instead hold his own counterprogramming.”

Vivek Ramaswamy said he regrets taking the two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine he’s received, NBC News reports.

“I’m a pariah. Nobody in the Democratic Party talks to me.”

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in Harper’s Magazine.

Politico: “Nine California lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta over the weekend, arguing that Trump isn’t eligible to be on the ballot for inciting an insurrection when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

“The move, which comes amid several lawsuits to keep Trump off state ballots across the county, is unique because Bonta could use his standing as California’s top law enforcement officer to expedite a state court ruling on the matter. Should the effort succeed, California could be the first state to bump Trump off its ballot, even if the ruling is ultimately overturned.”

“About 800 Maine voters have rescinded their enrollment in an aspiring national political party after signing what they mistakenly believed was a standard citizen petition,” the Portland Press Herald reports.

“But despite the exodus, No Labels still appears to have enough signatures to qualify for the Maine ballot in next year’s presidential election.”