Seth Masket: “It is a longstanding tradition among those covering politics that you’re not supposed to appear biased toward a candidate or incumbent. Particularly with presidential candidates, you’re supposed to provide negative coverage…”

“But it also means that when there’s not enough obvious things to criticize, political journalists will try to find some. That is, they have a negative coverage bucket to fill. Now, Trump makes it easy on them, involving himself in countless scandals, lawsuits, and criminal investigations and making multiple statements throughout each day that defy political norms, offend large portions of the country, and threaten the rule of law…”

“But there’s something of a curse if you’re successful at avoiding scandal. Biden’s was hardly an error-free administration, but he did the basic parts of governing well and without major scandals… And for political reporters, that makes filling the negative coverage bucket more challenging. So they ended up focusing on a small number of things that seemed problematic. For Biden, that was a) the pullout from Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers; and b) being old.”

Julia Azari: “The simplest difference is that the Democratic coalition is younger on balance – Democratic presidential candidates have won with younger voters (usually defined as 18-29) since 2004, and the party has an edge with this group.”

“Data bear out the stereotypes: the Republicans do better with older voters, even if this age gap didn’t play out exactly as expected in the 2024 election. Biden’s age was one more thing placing him at odds with the diverse party he was trying to lead, and Democrats seem to have had a uncomfortable relationship with this state of affairs. Watching Biden show signs of age did not help.”

“Former President Joe Biden is in an uphill battle to try to stop the Justice Department from sharing recordings it collected of him speaking to his ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017, during which his speech and memory faltered,” CNN reports.

“Court decisions on Friday and into next month are poised to revive questions over Biden’s mental acuity during his presidency — and even in the years before.”

“A federal judge on Friday rejected former President Biden’s attempt to block the Trump administration from releasing to a conservative group the recordings that Biden made with a ghostwriter,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

ABC News: Judge says DOJ can provide Biden conversations with ghostwriter to Heritage Foundation.

“Hunter Biden has challenged Donald Trump Jr. to a cage fight in an unhinged social media rant attacking the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn,” the New York Post reports.

Helen Lewis: “How much grace should we extend to people who screw up—like, really screw up? After many years as an addict and a general failson, Hunter Biden’s history includes felony gun convictions, tax evasion, smoking crack, and smoking Parmesan cheese that he thought was crack. But in the past few weeks, the son of the former president has launched a new career as—a sober counselor? A life coach?”

“Since reviving his dormant X account on May 19, the younger Biden has fully embraced a persona he soft-launched last year, when the Gen Z influencer Andrew Callaghan interviewed him about his past drug addiction. His strategy is not to deny his past transgressions, but to flagellate himself so thoroughly for them that no one else can land a hit.”

“I don’t want to reopen the old wounds either. I mean, the debate was one chapter of 35 chapters… And could you imagine if I left that out? How I’d be criticized? Of course I had to include it. But do I want to relive it again and again and again? No. And I think the Democrats are going to do great in the midterms, and we’ll go on and move past this time in history.”

— Jill Biden, quoted by Time, on the Democratic backlash to her memoir.

“It’s not my call of course but would suggest a Sunday midnight Hawaii time informal deadline for all Biden discourse.”

— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), on X.

New York Times: “A year and a half has passed since that freezing cold day in Washington when Joe and Jill Biden climbed into a helicopter outside the front steps of the Capitol as Donald and Melania Trump and JD and Usha Vance stood together and waved goodbye. Their legacy and standing within their party blown to smithereens, the Biden clan stayed pretty quiet until now.”

“The publication of Jill Biden’s book this week and her subsequent publicity tour reopened deep wounds in the party as she presented her Rashomon version of how her husband’s presidency came to its painful end. The discourse turned messy as former Biden staff members contradicted her online and in media reports and she hit back.”

“Former First Lady Jill Biden was confident her husband could serve another four years as president, when he was running for reelection. But on Tuesday morning, she admitted that, based on what she knows now, he couldn’t have,” The Wrap reports. 

Said Biden: “Well, not from what I know now. I mean, my god, who knew? It was so shocking to get a cancer diagnosis. I mean, we had — you know, here I was, I’m looking through travel magazines like ‘Oh, where are we gonna go, what are we gonna do?’ And then we get this cancer diagnosis, and I think ‘What am I doing?!’ Like, our whole life is changed now.”

“Had he grown too old for the job and I hadn’t noticed? I didn’t think so, but could I be objective enough to be sure?”

— Jill Biden, quoted in a Wall Street Journal review of her new book, View from the East Wing.

“Democrats want to move on from 2024. The Bidens won’t let them,” Politico reports. 

“Former first lady Jill Biden put a glaring spotlight back on the debate that ended her husband’s political career while promoting her new memoir. Former President Joe Biden is drawing attention again to his audio interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur as he sues the Justice Department to prevent their release.”

“And his scandal-ridden son Hunter Biden, whose past Republicans repeatedly weaponized on the campaign trail, is making headlines again — this time for appearing on a podcast with flame-throwing conspiracy theorist Candace Owens.”

President Trump commented on former first lady Jill Biden’s remarks that she feared her husband was having a stroke or was drugged during his 2024 debate with Trump.

Said Trump: “Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards.”

He added: “She said that she thought he was having a ‘stroke,’ and various other really bad things, and yet never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do… The only thing she failed to mention was how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse.”

Former first lady Jill Biden denied in a CBS News interview that she saw signs her husband Joe Biden was in cognitive decline when he was president.

Said Mrs. Biden: “He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden, but yeah, he was slowing down.”

Jill Biden has a book coming out next week but this is the last thing Democrats need in the headlines right now.