A Travesty, Still: Leonard Peltier Denied "Last Chance" Parole
On a day to celebrate our purported liberty and equality before the law - in a time when that precept is daily profaned - we grieve yet another bitter wrong: Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier has again been denied parole after almost 50 years in prison for a killing he very likely didn't commit. Peltier's harrowing saga, a testament to the historic abuses endured by America's native people, was and remains pure "retribution," says his lawyer: "It serves no purpose toward any idea of justice. They got their pound of flesh."
This week's denial of freedom to America's longest serving political prisoner - an act he himself terms "a death sentence" - came after his first parole hearing in 15 years at the federal penitentiary in Coleman, Florida where Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents during a standoff on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. The refusal, like all that came before, serves as a brutal reminder that Peltier remains "a casualty of this country's cruel and lawless war against American Indians," argues Robert Gifford, a criminal defense attorney, former federal prosecutor and tribal court judge, and member of the Cherokee nation who calls Peltier "America's Mandela" and cites as proof decades of U.S. government betrayal, theft, repression and state-sanctioned violence of him and his people. "To understand the case is to know history."
Peltier, 79, grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation; one of 13 children, he is of Dakota, Lakota and French descent, and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa. He was born on North Dakota's six-by-12-mile Turtle Mountain Reservation, all that remains of millions of acres the feds extracted from the Chippewa through executive order, coercion and fraud. Raised mostly by his grandparents, his happy childhood of hunting and fishing ended abruptly when, at 9, he was forcibly removed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and sent to a so-called Indian Boarding School hundreds of miles away to strip him of his Native culture. On the area's reservations, meanwhile, life through the 1960s became ever harsher: Children were often hungry, adults often became addicted, poverty and violence were endemic, unemployment often reached 70%, and adult life expectancy was 44 years.
In 1968, a group of activists founded the American Indian Movement (AIM), an indigenous civil rights organization in Minneapolis that worked to end police brutality and discrimination and support Native communities. It swiftly spread to the Dakotas, and by the early 1970s, an FBI and BIA threatened by their activism had undertaken a covert suppression campaign through surveillance, infiltration, legal intimidation and escalating violence by both them and local militia groups. "The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota," said one former prosecutor, "is to put a gun to AIM leaders’ heads and pull the trigger." In 1973, AIM grabbed headlines by occupying Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, leading to a 71-day stand-off with federal agents; AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means were prosecuted, but charges were dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct.
By 1975, Peltier had joined AIM and gone to South Dakota, where tensions were high amidst rampant BIA abuses Natives called a "Reign of Terror." On June 26, 1975, armed FBI operatives descended on Pine Ridge reportedly to arrest a native on a warrant for the theft of cowboy boots; things quickly escalated, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams radioed they'd come under fire, and when the dust settled both men had been shot dead, along with one Native. Though over 30 people took part in the gun battle, Peltier was identified as the only one with a gun that could have shot the fatal bullets; after he fled to Canada, he was extradited and charged with both murders. Two co-defendants were tried and acquitted on claims of self-defense. Peltier was tried separately in 1977; though there was no testimony or witness tying him to the crime, he was found guilty and given two life sentences.
It didn't take long for rights advocates to uncover egregious federal abuses in the trial: Prosecutors had coerced witnesses, withheld evidence, elicited fake affadavits, ignored racist comments from jurors, and above all hidden a ballistics report finding the bullets had not come from Peltier's gun. The offenses all reflected what former ND Rep. Ruth Buffalo calls "the government's single-minded mission to find a Native scapegoat for the deaths, no matter the cost." "It's telling (Natives) who represent everything we stand for, 'You will pay a price for your political activism,'" she says of a racism likewise aimed at other black or brown people, though those in power are "nowhere to be found when our men, women and children go missing and murdered...It's a testament to these longstanding systems that are working overtime to make sure the first people of these lands seek no justice."
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Over the decades, advocates for Peltier's release have ranged from an International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama to dozens of members of the U.S. Congress. But a vengeful FBI continues to oppose the release of "an unremorseful murderer" - probably in part because Peltier continues to maintain his innocence - in the name of "justice for our fallen colleagues and their families." "Obviously, they deserve justice," notes Justin Mazzola of Amnesty International. But keeping Leonard in prison "is not justice, (it's) a human rights travesty." "The way they have treated Leonard is the way they have treated Indigenous people historically throughout this country," says Nick Tilsen, president of the Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective. "That is why Indigenous people and oppressed people everywhere see a little bit of ourselves in Leonard Peltier."
Strikingly, scores of legal experts, including former members of the prosecution team and the judge who sentenced him, are among those calling for Peltier's release and arguing his case "would not stand today." "With time and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized (his) prosecution and continued incarceration was and is unjust," wrote James Reynolds, a former U.S. attorney who supervised Peltier's post-trial appeal, as he joined a 2021 call for executive clemency from Joe Biden in the name of "mercy and justice." Conceding "we were not able to prove that Mr Peltier personally committed any offense," Reynolds condemned his imprisonment as "testament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society...It is too late for Leonard to reclaim the life he might have had, but it is not too late to end a miscarriage of justice nearly fifty years in the making."
When Peltier lost his bid for freedom after his June 10 hearing - cruelly, the Parole Commission do not explain their decisions - supporters vowing to keep fighting called it "a sad day, but not unexpected" after so many betrayals, injustices, broken promises. Activist musician Stevie Van Zandt was scheduled to testify at the hearing but got cut for time; he'd posited a denial would be "the final terrible chapter in one of (the) most terrible chapters of American history." Peltier's attorney Kevin Sharp plans to appeal, but acknowledges, barring clemency, this was likely Peltier's "last chance" to be frees. His next parole hearing is set for 2039, when he'd be 94; he survived COVID but he has diabetes, high blood pressure, the effects of an earlier stroke, a potentially fatal aortic aneurysm in his abdomen and uses a walker. "Any additional incarceration is just retribution," says Sharp. "It's time to end this."
"My life is an extended agony," Peltier wrote in 1999's Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance. "My people’s struggle to survive inspires my own struggle to survive." Before June's parole ruling, the NDN Collective bought Leonard a house on Turtle Mountain Reservation in hopes he could return "to be with his family, to be with his people," to be with the grandchildren he's only seen in a prison waiting room. His younger sister Betty Ann Peltier Solano hoped "to spend our last years together." Three years ago, in his bid for clemency, he wrote Biden he hoped "to feel the sun on my skin." Last year on his 79th birthday, as supporters rallied outside the White House to again urge clemency, he wrote, "I hope to breathe free air before I die." "Hope is a hard thing to hold, but no one is strong enough to take it from me,” he wrote. "There is a lot of work left to do. I would like to get out and join you in doing it."
'Historic' Category 5 Hurricane Beryl Offers Terrifying View of Future
As Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica on Tuesday after killing at least four people in the Caribbean's Windward Islands, climate scientists warned the record-breaking Category 5 storm is a present-tense example of what's to come on a rapidly heating planet.
Even before the Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an 85% chance of above-normal activity and 17-25 total named storms this year. Matthew Cappucci, a meteorologist for The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang, highlighted some records Beryl has already broken.
"There is a strong, well-documented link between the effects of human-induced climate change and the development of stronger, wetter storms that are more prone to rapidly intensify," he wrote Tuesday. "Beryl sprung from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours, the fastest any storm on record has strengthened before the month of September."
Beryl is also the earliest Category 4 and 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic, Cappucci pointed out. Previously, the earliest storm to reach the top level of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was Emily, in mid-July of 2005.
The Capital Weather Gang reported that Beryl "strengthened more Monday night, its peak winds climbing to 165 mph. It has surpassed Emily (2005) as strongest July hurricane on record. It's early July but Atlantic is acting like late August."
Certified consulting meteorologist Chris Gloninger emphasized that "the climate crisis has led to well-above-average ocean water temperatures and helped this storm explode."
As Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Potsdam University explained: "The heat in the upper ocean is the energy source for tropical cyclones. This heat is at record level, mainly caused by emissions from burning fossil fuel. That's why an extreme hurricane season has been predicted for this year. It's off to a bad start!"
Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach on Monday shared graphics showing that "Caribbean ocean heat content today is normally what we get in the middle of September."
While some expressed disbelief over the storm, CNN extreme weather editor Eric Zerkel stressed that "Beryl isn't 'unbelievable' or 'defying all logic,' it's what happens when you heat up the planet with fossil fuel pollution for decades. The oceans store roughly 90% of that excess heat. The ocean is as warm as it typically is... when Category 4 storms form. June is now August."
Acknowledging Beryl's strength, Steve Bowen, a meteorologist who serves as chief science officer at the global reinsurance firm Gallagher Re, concluded that "this is a massive warning sign for the rest of the season."
Looking beyond this hurricane season, which ends in November, University of Hawaii at Mānoa professor and [C]Worthy co-founder David Ho said, "Let's remember that things are just going to get [worse] as we continue to consume nearly 100 million barrels of oil every day."
The "historic" storm is sparking calls for action to phase out fossil fuels across the globe. Noting how Beryl "is breaking records and leaving a trail of destruction throughout the Caribbean," the U.S.-based Sunrise Movement argued that "we must prosecute Big Oil for their role in causing devastation like this."
In response to a climate scientist who shared a photo of some damage Beryl has already caused, Rahmstorf expressed hope that people around the world won't "wait with voting for climate stabilization until extremes hit their homes."
Beryl made landfall Monday as a Category 4 hurricane on Carriacou, a Grenada island, and also affected St. Vincent and Grenadines. According toThe Associated Press, at least four people were killed.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon that on its current path, "the center of Beryl will move quickly across the central Caribbean Sea today and is forecast to pass near Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on Thursday. The center is forecast to approach the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico on Thursday night."
Bowman, Sanders Propose 95% Tax on Corporations Exploiting Inflation to Jack Up Prices
Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday led a group of progressive lawmakers in announcing legislation that would penalize large corporations with a 95% windfall profits tax for using elevated inflation as a pretext to hike prices and pad their bottom lines.
The
Ending Corporate Greed Act would "establish a 95% windfall profits tax on a company's profits that are in excess of their average profit level from 2015-2019, adjusted for inflation," according to a summary of the measure.
The bill would keep intact the 21% statutory corporate tax rate for profits equal to or lower than they were prior to the coronavirus pandemic. The 95% tax on windfall profits would be limited to companies with $500 million or more in annual revenue and would be temporary, running only through 2026.
Bowman (D-N.Y.), whose primary contest against AIPAC-backed George Latimer is in on Tuesday, introduced the bill in the House on Friday alongside several original cosponsors. Sanders and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are expected to introduce companion legislation in the Senate in the near future.
"The American people are sick and tired of being ripped off by large corporations that continue to make record-breaking profits by charging outrageously high prices for gas, rent, food, and prescription drugs, " Sanders said in a statement.
"Enough is enough," he continued. "We cannot continue to allow large corporations to make obscene profits by price gouging Americans in virtually every sector of our economy. If corporate CEOs and their masters on Wall Street will not end their greed, we must end it for them. It is time for Congress to enact a windfall profits tax."
The bill's authors estimate that had the proposed 95% windfall tax been in place last year—when U.S. corporate profits surged to a record high—the federal government would have raised $300 billion in additional revenue from 10 large companies alone.
"Since the pandemic, corporations have remained incredibly selfish in their business practices, squeezing their consumers who rely on them for essential goods and services, including gas, food, prescription drugs, banking, and more," Bowman said Friday. "Congress must do its part to check corporate greed before it completely robs people in America of their ability to live a life in pursuit of liberty, justice, and happiness."
2023 Profits Above Pre-Pandemic Average:
⬆️444%: Amazon
⬆️325%: Marathon Petroleum
⬆️289%: Chevron
⬆️202%: Berkshire Hathaway
⬆️195%: Google
⬆️193%: Centene
⬆️190%: Microsoft
⬆️165%: Exxon Mobil
⬆️165%: Facebook
⬆️111%: Lowe's
⬆️108%: UnitedHealth
We need a windfall profits tax. pic.twitter.com/E4ocyfzdRT
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) June 21, 2024
Companies haven't been shy about using elevated prices across the U.S. economy as a justification for hiking prices on their products.
As Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, noted in a New York Timesop-ed in 2022: "Executives on their earnings calls crowed to investors about their blockbuster quarterly profits. One credited his company’s 'successful pricing strategies.' Another patted his team on the back for a 'marvelous job in driving price.' These executives weren't just passing along their rising costs; they were going for more. Or as one CFO put it, they were 'not leaving any pricing on the table.'"
A recent Groundwork analysis estimated that between April and September 2023, corporate profits fueled more than half of U.S. inflation. Economists with the International Monetary Fund came to a similar conclusion last year about price increases in Europe, blaming "rising corporate profits" for "almost half the increase in Europe's inflation over the past two years."
The new bill's sponsors pointed to examples of major corporations across a range of sectors reaping massive windfall profits last year amid high inflation, including Amazon, which reported $37.6 billion in 2023 profits—a staggering 444% increase compared to the company's average profit between 2015 and 2019.
Amazon, a notorious tax avoider, would have paid an estimated $19.1 billion in windfall taxes if the Ending Corporate Greed Act was in place last year.
"Corporate greed and unconscionable price gouging have resulted in Americans paying more for basic necessities such as gas and groceries," Markey said Friday. "The Ending Corporate Greed Act penalizes large corporations raking in record profits while everyday Americans and workers pay the price."
'Only One Path': Naomi Klein Says French Must Rally Around Left Coalition to Avert Fascism
Renowned Canadian author, activist, and filmmaker Noami Klein on Wednesday implored French President Emmanuel Macron to "get out of the way" while urging voters in France to rally behind the left-of-center New Popular Front coalition that analysts say represents the last hope to stop Marine Le Pen's fascist National Rally from taking power.
"There is only one path for French voters to stop the extreme racist right, whose rise has been aided and abetted at every stage by corporatist centrists led by Macron," Klein said on social media. "That path is to support the New Popular Front, running a close second in the polls."
Le Pen's viciously xenophobic National Rally (RN) triumphed in the first round of last week's French elections, winning 33.2% of the vote. New Popular Front (NFP)—an alliance of center-left parties formed last month to thwart a fascist takeover after Macron called snap elections—came in second, with 28%.
Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition finished third with 22.4% of the vote. Critics accused the embattled president of grossly miscalculating support for the far-right.
Leaders of Macron's coalition and the NFP have been scrambling to stymie an RN victory in Sunday's final runoff round, saying they would withdraw candidates from races in districts where other RN opponents have better chances of winning. However, some centrists are more comfortable with far-right rule than they are with progressive left policies, and that worries Klein.
"History tells us that fascism wins when anti-fascist forces refuse to come together to defeat it, with the center fearing a strong left committed to redistribution more than the cruelties of the extreme right," she said. "The NPF has shown that it understands this terrible lesson of European history. It deserves the support of French voters."
"Macron, who created this crisis with years of uninterrupted arrogance, needs to get out of the way," she added.
Justice Jackson Warns New Ruling Could 'Devastate' Federal Regulators
As the U.S. Supreme Court dealt yet another blow to the federal government's regulatory authority, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday stressed that "the ball is in Congress' court" to enact legislation to "forestall the coming chaos" wrought by the right-wing supermajority's decision.
The justices ruled 6-3 in Corner Post Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System that the Administrative Procedures Act's (APA) statute of limitations period does not begin until a plaintiff is adversely affected by a regulation. The ruling reverses a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Corner Post—a North Dakota truck stop that challenged a U.S. Federal Reserve rule capping debit card swipe fees—because the six-year statute of limitations on such challenges had passed.
Monday's ruling makes it much easier to sue government agencies. As Sydney Bryant and Devon Ombres at the Center for American Progress explained, the decision "is intended to allow a swarm of legal challenges to rules that have protected the American people from bad actors and corporate malfeasance for decades."
"Corner Post is not the story of David versus Goliath but rather the Trojan Horse, where moneyed interests attempt to sneak in their anti-regulation politics under the guise of altruism."
In a dissent joined by fellow liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Jackson wrote that "today, the majority throws... caution to the wind and engages in the same kind of misguided reasoning about statutory limitations periods that we have previously admonished."
"The court's baseless conclusion means that there is effectively no longer any limitations period for lawsuits that challenge agency regulations on their face," she continued. "Allowing every new commercial entity to bring fresh facial challenges to long-existing regulations is profoundly destabilizing for both government and businesses. It also allows well-heeled litigants to game the system by creating new entities or finding new plaintiffs whenever they blow past the statutory deadline."
"At the end of a momentous term, this much is clear: The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the court's holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the federal government," Jackson added, referring to last week's 6-3 overturning of the so-called Chevron doctrine, the legal principle under which courts deferred to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous laws passed by Congress.
While numerous business advocates welcomed Monday's ruling, a broad range of consumer, labor, and other groups echoed the alarm in Jackson's dissent.
"Americans expect that safeguards will protect us and our families from unsafe food, products, polluted air and water, and dangerous and unfair working conditions. This decision provides special interests, opposed to the safeguards that people rely upon, with more opportunities to challenge and seek to overturn these important protections," said Rachel Weintraub, executive director of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards.
Weintraub added that the ruling "undermines federal agencies' ability to use administrative courts to impose civil penalties for violating regulatory protections" and "starkly impedes agencies' ability to protect the public."
Bryant and Ombres wrote that "Corner Post is not the story of David versus Goliath but rather the Trojan Horse, where moneyed interests attempt to sneak in their anti-regulation politics under the guise of altruism."
Jackson's dissent states that "Congress still has a chance to address this absurdity and forestall the coming chaos" by "clarifying that the statutes it enacts are designed to facilitate the functioning of agencies, not to hobble them."
"In particular, Congress can amend §2401(a)," Jackson offered, referring to the default six-year statute of limitations, "or enact a specific review provision for APA claims, to state explicitly what any such rule must mean if it is to operate as a limitations period in this context: Regulated entities have six years from the date of the agency action to bring a lawsuit seeking to have it changed or invalidated; after that, facial challenges must end."
"By doing this," she added, "Congress can make clear that lawsuits bringing facial claims against agencies are not personal attack vehicles for new entities created just for that purpose."
Israeli Bombings Kill More Palestinians as 250,000 Ordered to Evacuate Khan Younis
Hearing once again from the Israel Defense Forces that they must evacuate to a so-called "humanitarian zone," hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday were forced to search for safety ahead of a likely ground offensive in the city.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that roughly 250,000 people are living and seeking shelter in the evacuation zone—more than 10% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million.
The evacuation order, which was posted on social media on Monday, also includes nearby localities including al-Qarara and Bani Suhaila.
The IDF said after the order was announced that patients and healthcare providers at European Hospital, the largest operating medical facility in Gaza, were not required to evacuate, but the hospital director told the Associated Press that most had already been relocated.
"The hospital staff and the patients decided to already evacuate themselves," said Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, in a press briefing. "We plea the European Gaza hospital will be spared, will be non-damaged."
Peeperkorn said three patients remained at the hospital.
Since Israel began its assault on Gaza and its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack in October, the IDF has attacked hospitals across the enclave, even as they have served as shelters for forcibly displaced people.
The IDF has ordered evacuations from places including northern Gaza and the southern city of Rafah—only to bomb so-called "safe" zones after displacing people.
In late May, at least 46 people were killed when Israel bombed a tent encampment in a "humanitarian area" in Rafah after beginning a full-scale ground invasion of the city, where more than a million people had been displaced. At least 25 people were killed in another attack on an encampment in the area last month.
Sam Rose, a planning director for UNRWA, toldAl Jazeera that the latest evacuation order put a quarter of a million people in a "harrowing, horrific, and incredibly difficult" situation.
"It means yet another day, week, chapter of misery for these hundreds of thousands of people," said Rose. "Most of them have been displaced several times. Some had just returned from Rafah where they were displaced a few weeks ago... They go without knowing precisely where they will end up because this evacuation order told people to go urgently—they know that if they don't go out within 24 hours the worst is to come."
Soon after the evacuation order, at least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike on a home near European Hospital in Khan Younis.
Rose noted that the coastal area of al-Mawasi, where many people will likely go, is "already so overcrowded. There is no room to pitch a tent, there is no water, no infrastructure, no sanitary services. Many spend the night in vehicles or they sleep on their donkey carts."
Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told The Washington Post that the forced displacement is taking place amid temperatures over 86°F "every day."
"Even the healthiest people will struggle to make a move in this heat with lack of food, with lack of water," she said. "And then where do they go? That's the next question."
Ahmed al-Najjar, a 26-year-old resident of the Bani Suhaila neighborhood, toldAgence France Presse that with nowhere to flee, his family has been forced to stay in the area after first attempting to leave.
"We did not know where we would go and we do not have enough money to buy a new tent," he said. "We had to spend the night on the street and that has increased our stress. This morning we decided to go home again. There is nowhere else... Whatever happens, happens. We have nothing to lose now."
The IDF's apparent plan to expand its assault on Khan Younis came as The New York Timesreported that security leaders in Israel are pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, objecting to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to continue the assault until Hamas is eliminated—an objective even some top Israeli military officials believe is impossible—and all Israeli hostages are released.
The Times reported that senior military officials believe a cease-fire is the "swiftest way" to free captives remaining in Gaza.
As New Campaign Implores Him to 'Pass the Torch,' Biden Rejects Calls to Drop Out
"I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me," the incumbent declared in a televised interview.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday delivered a defiant response to those within the Democratic Party urging him to drop out of the 2024 race, characterizing his abysmal debate performance against Donald Trump as a "bad episode" rather than validation of longstanding concerns about his age and cognitive health.
At a rally in Wisconsin and in a later sit-down interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden acknowledged his poor debate showing but said emphatically that he's staying in the race, a message that came as Democratic activists and organizers launched a campaign imploring the president to step aside in the interest of ensuring Trump's defeat in November.
"I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me," Biden declared Friday, downplaying recent polling data showing him faring worse against Trump than potential Democratic alternatives, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
Asked how he would feel if he stayed in the race and Trump—a would-be authoritarian who's plotting a devastating attack on basic freedoms and the planet—won another four years in the White House, Biden suggested he would be at peace "as long as I gave it my all."
"That's what this is all about," the president said.
Stephanopoulos: If you stay in, and Trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?
Biden: I'll feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did as good a job as I know I can do, that's what this is about. pic.twitter.com/79HSyGcOI2
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) July 6, 2024
Hours before the ABC News interview, a network of Democratic organizers, activists, and voters teamed up to launch the "Pass the Torch" campaign in a coordinated attempt to push Biden to "make good" on his 2020 pledge to be a "transition" president.
"President Joe Biden has achieved great things. His administration led us out of the pandemic and has been rebuilding our economy, standing up to corporate greed, taking urgent climate action, and so much more—domestically, he is arguably the most accomplished progressive Democratic president in generations," the campaign's website states.
"All of that—and much, much more—will be lost if Donald Trump takes back the presidency," the website continues. "Democrats need the strongest possible ticket to maximize our chances of winning in November. It has become very clear, based on both long-term polling and the recent debate, that Democrats' current ticket is not the strongest one we can put forward."
The campaign includes a petition urging Democratic members of Congress and delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to join calls for the president to step aside.
Today Democrats across the country are launching a grassroots campaign to call on Biden to #PassTheTorch, step aside as the nominee and support the candidate best able to beat Trump. Follow the campaign at @PassTheTorch24 and sign our petition at https://t.co/2dftntqMR3
— Aaron Regunberg (@AaronRegunberg) July 5, 2024
Thus far, five sitting Democratic lawmakers—Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and Angie Craig (D-Minn.)—have urged Biden to drop out of the race, but more are expected to do so in the coming days as the party's August convention approaches.
The Washington Postreported Friday that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is "attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race." Earlier in the week, Reutersreported that "there are 25 Democratic members of the House of Representatives preparing to call for Biden to step aside if he seems shaky in coming days."
Major Democratic donors, meanwhile, have "undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure" Biden to drop out of the race, according toThe New York Times.
"A group of them is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund, called the Next Generation PAC, that would be used to support a replacement candidate," the Times reported. "If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down-ballot candidates, according to people close to the effort."
But Biden still has the support of top congressional Democrats, with both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) backing the president in the wake of the debate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the upper chamber's leading progressive, has also declined to join calls for Biden to end his reelection bid.
"He's not a great debater, he’s not necessarily a great speaker," Sanders toldSemafor. "People are just gonna have to say: Okay, you know what? Yeah, he's old. Yeah, he's not as articulate as he should be. But you're voting for somebody whose policies will impact your life."
"Biden is the candidate," the senator added. "I suspect he will be the candidate. I'll do my best to get him elected."
House progressives, too, have thus far not backed the push for Biden to drop out and pave the way for an alternative candidate.
"There has been not a peep from the Squad or the other members of Congress known for barnstorming progressive activism," Slate's Alexander Sammon noted Saturday. "The reason is that the question of whether Biden should run again is an internecine fight within the centrist wing of the party. Joe Biden has, for his lengthy, decadeslong career, always been the man in the middle, if not slightly to the right, of the Democratic continuum."
"Now many of the same centrists who previously pushed for Biden are freaking out about his ability to win the election," Sammon wrote. "There's no real upside for Squad members to put themselves in the line of fire during an already bitter public deliberation."
The Timesreported late Friday that Biden's interview with Stephanopoulos appears to have done little to change the minds of people on either side of the question.
"A handful of current and former Democratic officials who had called on Mr. Biden to end his reelection campaign said the interview had done little, or even nothing, to address their concerns," the Times observed. "Reliable supporters of the president's reelection campaign similarly fanned out to television networks, declaring once more that they were sticking with Mr. Biden."
"Other Democrats who had raised concerns about the president's performance, but had not gone as far as to call for Mr. Biden to drop out, said the interview did not significantly change their views of his candidacy," the newspaper continued.
Doggett, who was the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to step aside, toldCNN following Biden's Friday interview that "the need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday."
The Texas Democrat warned that "every day he delays" dropping out "makes it more difficult for a new person to come on board who can defeat Donald Trump."
Biden, Doggett added, "does not want his legacy to be that he's the one who turned our country over to a tyrant."
This story has been updated to include additional House Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside.
As Other Governors Boost Biden, Maura Healey Says 'Listen to the American People'
"Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump," the Massachusetts Democrat said.
While other Democratic governors across the United States reiterate their support for President Joe Biden amid calls for him to be replaced as the party's nominee for the November election, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Friday suggested that he should consider some of the criticism.
"President Biden saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years," Healey said in a statement, recalling his previous win over former President Donald Trump, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee.
"I am deeply grateful for his leadership. And I know he agrees this is the most important election of our lifetimes," Healey continued. "The best way forward right now is a decision for the president to make. Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump."
Despite mounting calls for Biden to step aside—and "pass the torch" to Vice President Kamala Harris or another top Democrat—since his poor performance in a CNN-hosted debate against Trump last week, the president has remained defiant, declaring at a campaign event in Wisconsin on Friday that "I am running and going to win again."
"I am running and going to win again."
President Joe Biden addressed the pressure to end his campaign during a rally in Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/N1y6Pidkqp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 5, 2024
After a Wednesday gathering with Democratic governors—including Healey—at the White House, the Biden-Harris reelection campaign sent out an email that said, "Coming out of the meeting, the message was clear: Joe Biden has governors' backs, and they are proud to have his."
The email highlighted recent supportive statements from Govs. John Carney of Delaware, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Josh Green of Hawaii, Kathy Hochul of New York, Dan McKee of Rhode Island, Wes Moore of Maryland, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gavin Newsom of California, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
The president told governors at the meeting that "he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8:00 pm," The New York Timesreported. "Biden also told the governors that he had been examined by his physician at some point in the days after the debate because of the cold he was suffering from and that he was fine."
On Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) "is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race," The Washington Postreported Friday. The newspaper noted that "Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen would neither confirm nor deny that the senator thinks Biden needs to drop out of the race."
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to call on Biden to withdraw from the race on Tuesday. The following day, Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona became the second.
Biden is also facing pressure to drop out from some major donors. In a lengthy statement to CNBC on Thursday, Abigail Disney said: "I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high."
Democrats and other critics urging Biden to reconsider his run have pointed to growing concerns about a second Trump term considering a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling giving the president king-like powers, the Republican's desire to be a dictator on "day one," and fears that Trump will work to impose the far-right's Project 2025 policy agenda.
In an effort to reassure voters, Biden's team has set up a televised interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, which is set to air Friday at 8:00 pm ET. Viewers will also be able to watch the interview on the ABC application for smartphones or tablets, or online at ABC.com.
'Bullsh*t': Trump Slammed for Trying to Distance Himself From Project 2025
"Trump is now desperately trying to run from his deep ties to Project 2025... MAGA extremists' radical wish list for a second Trump term," President Joe Biden's campaign said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday attempted to distance himself from a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right takeover of the federal government, prompting derision from observers who underscored close ties between the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee and the blueprint's authors.
Trump took to his Truth social media platform to claim the knows "nothing about Project 2025," a sweeping initiative spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to boost the power of the presidency and purge career federal civil servants, who would be replaced with Trump loyalists.
"I have no idea who is behind it," Trump added, a claim that numerous observers quickly countered.
In an email entitled, "Donald Trump & Project 2025: One and the Same," Democratic President Joe Biden's reelection campaign said that "Trump is now desperately trying to run from his deep ties to Project 2025—the Heritage Foundation's 900-page deeply unpopular manifesto drafted by former Trump officials that offers Americans a preview of MAGA extremists' radical wish list for a second Trump term."
"Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump's second term that should scare the hell out of the American people," Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. "Project 2025 staff and leadership routinely tout their connections to Trump's team, and are the same people leading the [Republican National Committee policy platform, Trump's debate prep, campaign, and inner circle."
"Trump's Supreme Court and Project 2025 have designed the playbook for Trump to achieve his dream of being a dictator on day one, with unchecked, imperial power," Moussa added. "Allowing a self-absorbed convicted felon that kind of power would be devastating for our democracy and middle-class families. This November, voters must stop Trump from turning the Oval Office into his throne room."
As CNNdetailed Friday:
Paul Dans, the head of Project 2025, was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration, and the group's roadmap for the next administration includes contributions from others who have worked for the former president, including his former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn. John McEntee, Trump's former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and one of his closest aides while in office, is also a senior adviser for the project.
Mother Jones Washington, D.C. bureau chief David Corn said: "This is B.S. Christian nationalist Russell Vought, who is one of the Trump allies in charge of the GOP platform effort, is a coordinator of Project 2025. Trump is gaslighting once again."
Others noted that Trump's own Make America Great Again, Inc. super PAC is running ads highlighting Project 2025.
Critics have called Project 2025 a "blueprint for autocracy"—an assessment bolstered by last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling bestowing the president with what experts described as king-like powers, which Trump's advisers have reportedly vowed to exploit if he wins November's election.
The Associated Pressreported last month that a right-wing group allied with the presumptive GOP nominee was drafting a list of federal employees who are disloyal or insufficiently dutiful to Trump, an undertaking compared with the McCarthyite anti-communist crusade during the second Red Scare in the 1950s.
Kevin Roberts, who heads the Heritage Foundation, raised eyebrows earlier this week after he said that the coming right-wing "revolution" will "remain bloodless if the left allows it to be," which some observers took as a thinly veiled threat of violence.
In his Friday Truth post, Trump said that he disagrees with some of Project 2025's agenda and that "some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."
"Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them," he reiterated.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan responded to Trump's claim in a social media post saying, "What's revealing about Donald Trump loudly disavowing Project 2025 and falsely denying any knowledge of it is that clearly he knows how damaging it can be to his election bid."
"So why on earth did neither Biden nor the CNN moderators bring it up at the debate last week?" he asked.