(LOS ANGELES) — The western U.S. is facing a historic heat wave with alerts issued even for coastal cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, and normally cooler places, like Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
The heat wave could break all-time records.
Las Vegas could hit or even break its all-time hottest temperature of 117 degrees on Sunday. Death Valley could hit 129 degrees, just 5 degrees shy of all-time hottest temperature recorded on Earth.
Portland could hit 100 degrees and Seattle could be in the 90s this weekend.
The record heat will not stop this weekend, with more expected next week.
In the South and East, heat alerts have been issued Friday from Miami to Atlanta to Philadelphia and up to Newark, New Jersey, where the heat index will have it feeling like 100 to 110 degrees in some areas.
Another scorcher is forecast for the East Coast on Saturday before a cold front brings some relief in the form of showers and thunderstorms.
The Deep South stays oppressively hot through the weekend with the heat index climbing into the 100s.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden faces mounting calls from within the Democratic Party to step aside as its nominee in the wake of his debate performance, the campaign on Friday announced a strategy for the rest of this month that will include visits to key battleground states and a $50 million paid media blitz.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentlemen Doug Emhoff will all be on the trail this month with an aggressive travel schedule, a memo on the strategy said.
“All in all, over the course of July, the four principals will travel to every battleground state,” the Biden campaign memo said.
The July-only $50 million paid media blitz is on top of the already $50 million spent on a June-only media campaign launched ahead of last Thursday’s debate.
The ads will air online as well as on television and radio and will have heavy play during highly watched programming including the Olympics Games and the Republican National Convention, the campaign said. The ads will look to leverage “high-impact” moments on key issues including: abortion, the economy and the “threat” former President Donald Trump “poses to our democracy,” according to the campaign.
Notably, with Biden under pressure to answer questions and make unscripted remarks, the memo announcing the ad buy said Biden is “expected to engage in frequent off-the-cuff moments over the course of the month, as he has consistently throughout this campaign.”
And with some Democrats calling on Biden to publicly prove his mental and physical fitness, he has a sit-down interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday. The first excerpts will air on “World News Tonight” and then the interview will be broadcast in its entirety in a prime-time ABC network special on Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET.
Following Biden’s poor debate performance, the president — who prior to the debate was neck-and-neck with Trump in polls — is lagging behind Trump in what is the largest gap between the two since 538’s national polling average began early this year. Biden trails Trump 39% to 42%, according to the 538 polling average.
Sources told ABC News on Wednesday that Biden has privately acknowledged that the next few days are critical to determining whether he can stay in the race for a second term — something the White House denied. The White House has repeated this week that Biden is not considering stepping down.
In response to pressure from some in his own party to step aside, Biden called an all-staff campaign meeting on Wednesday and met with more than 20 Democratic governors in an effort to quell fears about his ability to lead the ticket come November.
The campaign memo also detailed plans for a $17 million investment in a canvassing program that aims to knock on more than 3 million doors in July and August.
Former President Donald Trump stands with Sen. Marco Rubio during a rally at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition in Miami, FL, Nov. 6, 2022. — Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is said to be among the top candidates former President Donald Trump is considering as his pick for vice president, but there’s a major obstacle standing in his way: his Florida address.
Rubio is viewed as an individual who could help Trump attract Hispanic voters and has substantial experience in foreign policy as vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence and the senior member of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
However, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution states that presidential and vice presidential candidates running on the same ticket “shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.” Currently, both Trump and Rubio claim residency in Florida.
It boils down to electors — the party loyalists nominated by a state’s political party to pledge support to the nominee. The Electoral College is made up of 538 of these electors, and 270 electoral votes are needed for a candidate to clinch the White House. The number of electors apportioned to states is based on population — and Florida has a crucial 30 electoral votes.
The 12th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1804 to modify the Electoral College process — specifically how the president and vice president are selected at once.
If Trump selected Rubio as his running mate, electors from Florida could not vote for both Trump and Rubio under the 12th Amendment. But it would be perfectly fine for electors from the other 49 states to vote for both. Most states give all their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins that state’s popular vote.
“So, it is not prohibited to have both candidates from the same state; it just sacrifices their chances of winning a full slate of electoral votes from their home state,” Thomas Berry, a legal fellow at the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and the editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, told ABC News.
Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, told ABC News that in “concrete terms” this means that “none of Florida’s 30 electoral votes may be cast this December for both Trump and Rubio unless Rubio or Trump ‘ceases to be an inhabitant’ of Florida before Dec. 17, 2024,” which is when the electoral college votes.
It’s doubtful that Trump would change his residency from Florida, having made it his primary residence in 2019, changing it from New York. So, it would fall on Rubio to change his residency.
“Thus, it follows that Trump can’t select Rubio as his running mate without sacrificing those crucial 30 votes toward his needed 270, which he of course wouldn’t do unless Rubio abandons his Florida residence before the election,” Tribe said.
There is a precedent of a vice presidential pick changing their residency to secure their state’s electoral vote. In the 2000 presidential election, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney changed his residency from Texas to Wyoming to be on the ticket with former President George W. Bush.
Tribe also says that there is a possibility that Rubio could still maintain his Senate seat even if he does change his Florida residency.
“Article I, Section 3 merely requires that a senator ‘when elected’ be ‘an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen,’ and Rubio was indeed an inhabitant of Florida when elected to his current term, his third, in November 2022,” Tribe said.
“Despite the constitutional anomaly of someone serving as a senator of a state that he no longer inhabits, if Rubio could convince people that he no longer is a Florida resident, then Trump could legally pick him.”
Due to his ties to Nevada, that state has been rumored as a possible residency for Rubio to select. The Florida senator spent time in Nevada as a child when his family lived there for several years between 1979 and 1985.
The Trump campaign is also making a play for the state, a crucial battleground that went for the former president in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020.
In June, while campaigning in Las Vegas, Trump called for eliminating taxes on workers’ tips, a crucial source of income for those working in Nevada’s tourism industry.
However, Rubio has remained mum on changing his residency to secure a spot on Trump’s presidential ticket. Following the first presidential debate, ABC News asked Rubio if he would change his residency.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats are bracing for a painful waiting game in the next few weeks as the party continues to reconcile its future after President Joe Biden’s devastating debate last week.
Democratic insiders told ABC News they anticipate the questions over Biden’s candidacy won’t be answered for at least another week — and possibly longer — as the campaign, lawmakers and strategists wait to see polling conducted with the debate at least a few weeks in the rearview mirror.
The Biden campaign, in the meantime, is rolling out a more aggressive strategy, having the president meet with Democratic governors, dispatching him to Wisconsin and Philadelphia and allowing an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an attempt to show voters he is equipped for another four years in office. While that pans out, however, Democrats described the uncertainty of the ensuing weeks as nothing short of excruciating.
John Morgan, a major Democratic donor, told ABC News that he anticipated the chorus of calls for a replacement on the 2024 ticket to quiet with “each successful” event Biden does. But Morgan said he suspended raising money for a fundraiser later this year “because I want to make sure that he’s going to be there.”
“It’s very painful. Uncertainty is painful,” he said. “Fear is painful.”
Already, the fear has put cracks in Biden’s dam of support among Democrats.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first congressional Democrat to outright call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was prepared to call on the president to step aside after his debate performance last week — only to be talked out of it by senior Democrats, two people familiar with the discussions told ABC News.
And South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Democratic kingmaker who revived Biden’s 2020 campaign with a key endorsement before his state’s primary and who after the debate vociferously defended the president, said he would support Vice President Kamala Harris if there were a vacancy atop the ticket — a comment that one informal Biden campaign adviser considered a “signal.”
Signs are becoming clear that Biden is hearing the criticism. The president has privately told at least two people close to him that he recognizes how difficult of a spot he’s in, and that he signaled to one ally that he is keeping an “open mind” about his path forward, sources familiar with conversations told ABC News. The White House has denied the report.
But Biden and his team also appear to be buying time. Another source told ABC News that the Biden team’s timeline for assessing the situation is a “week” or more, and in an internal memo obtained by ABC News and sent to campaign staffers appeared to brace for polling showing a dip for Biden.
“Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race,” the memo read.
“The president is not dropping out,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added in her briefing Wednesday.
The exact length until either Biden or his critics back down, barring a sudden withdrawal, is the source of speculation. One source familiar with the Biden team’s strategy guessed it would be “a couple weeks” until one side blinks, while the informal adviser estimated it could take a week to 10 days.
“People want to have data to back it up, back up what they already know,” the informal campaign adviser told ABC News, adding that the waiting game would be “very” painful.
“He’s only going to go downhill, not uphill. So, we can’t do it with him,” the person said. “We love him. We appreciate him. He’s been one of the most consequential presidents in history, but he can’t be the guy. I had prayed that this day would not come, but unfortunately, it has.”
In the interim, Democrats are figuring out what to do.
Parlor games abound over who would be best suited to replace Biden and conversations are heating up over the logistics of an open convention.
James Zogby, a longtime Democratic National Committee member, said he sent a memo to DNC Chair Jaime Harrison outlining a replacement strategy, starting with Biden’s voluntary withdrawal and then a sprint by theoretical replacements to lock up support from DNC members — needing 40 in total, including four from each of the party’s four regions to be considered. A final vote would be held at the August convention.
“This is the Armageddon election. The outcome of this is critical for our future, and we need all hands on deck to win it. And the person at the foul line taking the shots in the closing seconds has to be a person in tip-top shape, ready to do it,” Zogby told ABC News. “We got to get them off the bench.”
The furor has Democrats scrambling for historical comparisons, with Morgan saying “what’s happening here is Watergate-ish,” but other Democrats are seeing a silver lining.
Despite the widespread disagreement over what Biden should do and the pain that comes along with it, every Democrat who spoke to ABC News agreed on the importance of beating former President Donald Trump. And with so much on the line, some Democrats who advocate for Biden’s replacement are adopting a so-be-it attitude if the turmoil is what it takes to have who they view as an electable candidate on the ticket.
“I think you are seeing, obviously, a lot of depression in those first few days, kind of reconciling the real rising reality of a potential Trump presidency to now seeing maybe the clouds starting to part and some real hope for a change and a new direction,” said the source familiar with the Biden campaign’s strategy. “This situation, to me, seems unsustainable.”
Other Democrats, however, are disturbed by the hullabaloo, arguing the Biden team’s plan deserved a chance to work and their compatriots shouldn’t get out over their skis.
“I think reassuring people is going to take a couple of weeks … We have to see what the polls say, but also, what impact, if any, does the interview have? He’s got events next week, what else are they going to be doing over the next couple of weeks that may shift the dynamic?” asked one senior party strategist. “As someone who’s worked in party politics for quite some time, people need to take a beat here, seriously.”
When asked if Democrats would follow that advice, the person chuckled, responding, “Have you met my party?”
ABC News’ Rick Klein, Rachel Scott and Selina Wang contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden told Democratic governors during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that he needs to get more rest, and in order to get more sleep, he wants to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m., according to one person in the room and two others briefed on the discussion.
The meeting with governors was intended to ease concerns about the president’s age and mental fitness.
During the meeting, the 81-year-old president responded to a question from Hawaii Gov. Josh Green about his health by stating he was fine, but he added, “it’s just my brain,” according to one person in the room and another familiar with the discussion.
Both people said they took that comment, which was first reported by The New York Times, as a joke.
In a statement to ABC News, Biden’s campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, who was in the room during the conversation, stated, “He was clearly making a joke and then said ‘all kidding aside.’”
The White House declined to comment.
As ABC News also reported, Biden told governors he had a medical checkup following the 9 p.m. debate last week and is in good health, according to two people with direct knowledge of conversation during the meeting.
After telling reporters on the record on Wednesday that the president has not gotten any medical exams since suffering from just a cold at the time of the debate, the White House is now acknowledging that President Biden was seen by his doctor several days afterward.
According to White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, “Several days later, the President was seen to check on his cold and was recovering well.”
Separately, some Democrats who wanted the president to start having conversations with governors and lawmakers are concerned that reported comments like these coming out of his discussions are not helping the party turn the page and could only be making the situation worse.
President Joe Biden speaks during a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — During his private meeting with Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday night, President Joe Biden said he had a medical checkup following the debate last week and is in good health, according to two people with direct knowledge of the conversation during the meeting.
One source familiar with the president’s schedule tells ABC News the president had a checkup with a White House physician a “few days” after the debate because of a cold. That person said it was a “brief” exam that did not include any major tests.
Another person with knowledge of the conversation during the meeting said the president conveyed to Democratic governors that he was in good health.
ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
This news was first reported by Politico.
Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the president had undergone any medical exams since his last physical in February.
“We were able to talk to his doctor about that, and that is a no,” she said.
When asked again if he had “any kind of medical exams,” she responded, “No.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is “all in” on his presidential campaign, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of more than 20 Democratic governors who met with the president Wednesday evening at the White House.
“I heard three words from the President – he’s all in. And so am I. Joe Biden’s had our back. Now it’s time to have his,” Newsom said in a statement.
At the meeting, governors had hoped to hear candidly from Biden about the path forward for his reelection campaign and to get a sense of how he plans to speak about himself and his campaign to the American public. Leaving the meeting, New York’s Kathy Hochul said the Democratic governors are behind Biden.
“And all of us said we pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher,” she told reporters.
Hochul added that with former president Donald Trump in the Oval Office, the U.S. risks “descending back” into “monarchy and tyranny.”
“We will stand with the president as he fights that force, that force being Donald Trump,” she said.
Hochul was joined by Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Wes Moore of Maryland, who described the meeting as “candid.”
Moore said the governors shared with the president the concerns they had heard from members of the public after Biden’s poor debate performance.
“We know that as we’re standing right here, we’re behind,” Moore later added. “But we also know that that path to be able to make sure that we can pull ahead in November is real, and it’s going to take all of us in order to make it happen and to make it work, and we’re grateful to hear the level of excitement and the focus that the president the vice president have about being victorious in November.”
He added, “Come November, we’ve got a binary choice and the binary choice [is] between someone who [has] continually delivered for us and our states and the people of our states, and, frankly, someone whose vision for the future of this country is downright dangerous.”
Walz, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, also expressed his support for the president.
“The governors have his back, and we’re working together just to make very, very clear on that; a path to victory in November is the number one priority and that’s the number one priority of the president,” Walz said.
In the wake of Biden’s much-criticized performance in Thursday’s presidential debate, a rising number of Democratic governors were calling for better communication, and in a twist, some of those who planned to attend had been talked about as possible replacements if Biden had decided to drop out.
ABC News previously confirmed that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Hochul, Walz, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, Moore and Delaware Gov. John Carney were among the governors set to attend in-person.
Others were expected virtually, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers did not attend, although Evers has plans to appear with Biden at an event in Wisconsin on Friday.
A spokesperson for Evers wrote on X that the governor “didn’t attend the meeting because he’s focused on moving forward and winning Wisconsin.”
Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback says the governor looks forward to hitting the trail alongside Biden this Friday.
“He supports President Biden – his comments in support of the president over the last week speak for themselves, and he looks forward to campaigning with the President on Friday,” Cudaback said.
Following Wednesday’s meeting, the Biden campaign released a statement summarizing the discussions.
The Biden campaign said the president sought Democratic governors’ “advice and expertice” as he doubled down on staying in the race to defeat Donald Trump in the fall.
“Tonight President Biden and Vice President Harris met with Democratic governors from across the country at the White House to discuss their continued partnership in this reelection campaign. The president reiterated his determination to defeat the existential threat of Donald Trump at the ballot box in November and sought the advice and expertise of Democratic governors,” the campaign said in a statement.
“In addition to defeating Donald Trump, the meeting also focused on the importance of electing Democrats up and down the ballot to deliver more Democratic governors and more Democratic majorities in Congress and statehouses across the country,” the statement continued. “All participants reiterated their shared commitment to do everything possible to make sure President Biden and Vice President Harris beat Donald Trump in November.”
Wednesday’s meeting comes after Democratic governors held a call on Monday to discuss Biden’s debate performance, a national Democratic official familiar with the call confirmed to ABC News. The call was not out of concern over Biden’s performance, but simply to “touch base” on the debate, multiple sources told ABC News.
Some governors have since framed it as a general meeting where they also spoke about the debate.
“Democratic governors are some of the President and Vice President’s most proactive and vocal supporters because they’ve seen how the Biden-Harris Administration’s accomplishments are directly benefiting their residents. The Biden/Harris team is in constant communication with the governors and their teams, including about yesterday’s meeting,” the Democratic official said in a statement.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Constitutional Convention of the UNITE HERE hospitality union in New York City, June 21, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met for lunch on Wednesday — likely their first one-on-one interaction since the president’s lackluster debate performance. However, unlike previous meetings, this one comes as momentum builds for Harris to replace Biden at the top of the ticket with new polling showing her outperforming Biden in a hypothetical matchup with former President Donald Trump.
While most prominent Democrats kept mum in the immediate aftermath of the debate or issued short statements of support, early this week, several current and former party elected officials called on the president to withdraw from the race. Some of Biden’s allies even pushed him to make unscripted appearances and answer tough questions from reporters to show his fitness for office.
Sources told ABC News on Wednesday that Biden has privately acknowledged that the next few days are critical to determining whether he can stay in the race for a second term — something the White House denied.
Harris has pledged her full support for Biden since the president’s first debate this cycle with Trump.
On ABC News Live the night of the debate, Harris defended Biden’s performance, saying “the bottom line is this, let us not decide who is going to be the president of the United States based on the 90-minute debate. Let’s measure that decision against the last three and a half years.” And in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, she didn’t mince words: “Look, Joe Biden is our nominee.”
Harris joined Biden on an all-staff campaign call on Wednesday, during which Biden was “unequivocal” that he was staying in the race, several sources familiar confirmed to ABC News.
Yet despite Harris’ repeated defenses of Biden, pressure on the president is building — and the vice president has earned the support of many Democrats who see her as a logical successor if Biden were to withdraw.
Former Ohio congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan wrote in an opinion piece published Monday night in Newsweek that Biden should step aside so that Harris can become the Democratic nominee. Biden “promised to be a bridge President to the next generation,” wrote Ryan, but “that bridge collapsed last week.”
Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn — a former House whip and co-chair of the Biden campaign — said on MSNBC on Tuesday that he would support Harris taking over the top spot on the ticket if Biden were to “step aside.”
“No, this party should not in any way do anything to work around Ms. Harris,” said Clyburn, in response to speculation that the party could choose a different replacement. “We should do everything we can to bolster her — whether it’s in second place or at the top of the ticket.”
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro on Tuesday called for the president to withdraw and pointed to Harris as a strong option. He also noted that “we have a stable of folks that I think could do a better job” than Biden.
A new CNN poll is fueling some of the Harris hype. It shows the vice president just two points behind Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup — within the margin of error. Biden, by contrast, trails by six points, and no other Democratic replacement polled fares as well as Harris.
Harris’ lead in the CNN poll compared with other rumored Biden alternatives such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom underscores one key advantage the vice president has over other Democrats: national exposure. In the event of a late switch, Harris would likely have less work to do to define herself to the broader American public. And she has already been subject to painstaking vetting by the national press and her opponents.
More concretely, because the vice president already shares the presidential ticket, she can directly inherit most of the campaign’s war chest — more than $91 million the Biden campaign has in cash-on-hand. Other candidates, by contrast, would face difficulties claiming the funds. The funds give her a major advantage over any other potential replacements.
The newfound momentum behind Harris comes despite months of poor polling. In 538’s polling average, just 37.4% of Americans approved of the vice president’s performance at the start of the year — roughly 2% fewer than approved of Biden’s performance, according to 538’s polling averages.
Harris’ approval rating remains lower than Biden’s in the latest CNN poll, 29% to 34%, respectively.
Republicans, who have previously attacked Harris as “woke,” have already trained their sights on the vice president as the election approaches.
A new digital ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee out Wednesday attacked Harris over the administration’s border policy, framing her as Biden’s “border czar.” Another recent Trump ad shows a montage of Biden’s gaffes and stumbles — and warns that Harris is poised to take over: “Vote Joe Biden today, get Kamala Harris tomorrow.”
While the administration initially tasked her with the politically difficult issue of immigration, Harris — the first Black vice president and the first woman vice president — has more recently served as the lead messenger on racial justice and the central campaign theme of abortion rights.
Whether Harris will move to the top of the ticket largely depends on Biden. Only he can decide whether to release his pledged delegates — or throw his support behind his vice president — ahead of the Democratic convention in August.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris wave to members of the audience after speaking at a campaign rally at Girard College, May 29, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — As questions grow about President Joe Biden’s future as the Democratic nominee in November’s election, some voters already have indicated their preferences for potential successors on the ticket.
Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris is seen as a likely top contender, according to polling after Thursday’s debate, where Biden gave a poor performance.
In a potential matchup between Harris and former President Donald Trump, Harris and Trump were nearly tied with 42% supporting her and 43% supporting the former president, according to a Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
The same poll, which interviewed 1,070 registered voters nationwide and had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%, found that Biden and Trump each had 40% support.
Another poll released by CNN Tuesday found that a matchup between the vice president and Trump resulted in a 45-47% split between Harris and Trump compared to the 43%-49% split between Biden and Trump.
The CNN poll sampled 1,274 registered voters and had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.
Harris has been on the campaign trail touting Biden’s accomplishments and has backed the president since his debate.
“Look, Joe Biden is our nominee. We beat Trump once, and we’re going to be him again,” she told CBS News Tuesday evening.
Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who won reelection in 2022, has been seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. She has pushed back against Republican critics including Trump, particularly ones who criticized her pandemic policies.
The Ipsos poll had Whitmer trailing Trump 36% to 41% in a 2024 race while the CNN poll had her 42% to Trump’s 47%.
Whitmer, who was scheduled to attend a meeting at the White House with the president and other Democratic governors Wednesday, defended Biden’s debate performance in a statement Friday.
“Joe Biden is running to serve the American people. Donald Trump is running to serve Donald Trump. The difference between Joe Biden’s vision for making sure everyone in America has a fair shot and Donald Trump’s dangerous, self-serving plans will only get sharper as we head toward November,” she said.
Gavin Newsom
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a staunch Democrat on several national issues including women’s rights, immigration and the economy. He successfully won a recall election last year.
In the Ipsos poll, Newsom fared 39% to Trump’s 42% and in the CNN poll he received 43% to the former president’s 48%.
Newsom pushed back against calls from Democrats for Biden to step down in an interview with MSNBC shortly after Thursday’s debate.
“I think it’s unhelpful and unnecessary,” he said. “We have to have the back of this president. You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What party does that?”
Andy Beshear
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has been viewed as a rising star in the south after he won reelection in the deep red state last year.
The Ipsos poll showed a Beshear-Trump match-up would result in a 36%-40% split between him and the former president. The CNN poll did not survey respondents about Beshear being a potential successor.
Beshear said he did not want to talk about the speculation during an interview on CNN Tuesday.
“My name coming up, it’s flattering as a person to hear, but I think it’s more about the good things going on in Kentucky,” he said. “And so while it’s nice to hear your name and things like that, I’m just proud of what we have done as a state. And the president and the vice president have been very helpful in making a lot of that happen.”
J.B. Pritzker
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been a vocal Biden surrogate from the beginning of the 2024 campaign and has constantly criticized Trump over his far-right policies, rhetoric and his criminal conviction.
The Ipsos poll found that 34% of voters would choose Pritzker if he were on the ticket versus 40% for Trump. Pritzker’s name wasn’t floated by CNN’s pollsters, however, he told the network Tuesday that Biden will be the Democratic nominee “unless he makes some other decision.”
“For me anyway, my word is my bond. I honor my commitments. Joe Biden is going to be our nominee unless he decides otherwise,” Pritzker said. “I think that there’s a healthy conversation that will happen with the president, I hope, expressing what he intends to do going forward in the campaign and reassuring everybody that this is the right course.”
Pete Buttigieg
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was one of the rising stars of the 2020 Democratic primary season both on the campaign trail and in debates.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor was a major surrogate for Biden in 2020 after he bowed out of the race, going on several media appearances to tout Biden’s record and call out Trump’s performance.
In the CNN poll, 43% of respondents picked Buttigieg compared to 47% for Trump. Ipsos did not float Buttigieg as a potential candidate in their poll.
He dismissed calls to remove Biden from the ticket during an interview with MSNBC Friday.
“Joe Biden is our candidate and our president because he is the best person to lead this country forward,” he said.
Michelle Obama
Former first lady Michelle Obama has repeatedly said she has no interest entering the presidential race for years. Her name, however, keeps coming up as potential candidate.
“At no point have I ever said, ‘I think I want to run.’ Ever,” Michelle Obama said in a 2023 interview with Oprah Winfrey. “Politics is hard. And the people who get into it, it’s just like marriage, it’s just like kids, you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”
However, in the Ipsos poll, the former first lady appeared to strike a chord with some voters.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have immunity for “official acts” goes against all of the principles the nation’s founders pushed for as they drew up the Constitution, historians and legal experts argued.
Fifteen constitutional historians, represented by the liberal non-profit policy institute the Brennan Center for Justice, filed a friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court In April, challenging former President Donald Trump’s claims that current and former presidents enjoyed “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution.
“Advocates for the new Constitution sought to assure state ratifying conventions that the new President would not be an elected king,” the brief said.
Holly Brewer, an associate professor at the University of Maryland and the brief’s main author, told ABC News that historical writings from key figures, including Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and others as well as the records from the states as they ratified the Constitution explicitly show they were against “another runaway monarchy” after suffering under Great Britain’s King George III.
“It was remarkable. There were so many issues where the founders disagreed, but this was not one of them,” she said.
Brewer said the founders all looked at history in order to not repeat the same mistakes they thought had led to the absolute rule by king they opposed, holding to the concept that “no man is above the law.”
“The Framers came to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 determined not to replicate the British monarchy they had defeated. They argued among themselves about the appropriate balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, and the specific powers attached to each. But at no point did they seek to endow the President with prerogatives that would make him an ‘elective King,'” the brief said, citing James Madison’s “Notes on the Constitutional Convention.”
Thomas Wolf, director of democracy initiatives at the Brennan Center who co-authored the brief, told ABC News that the anti-monarchal spirit among the founders was so strong that even those who pushed for a stronger executive branch, such as Hamilton, argued that a president could be prosecuted.
For example, during the convention, Hamilton argued for an elective executive to serve for a lifetime but only “during good behaviour” and be subject to prosecution and removal.
While the founders were debating the immunities for Congress, James Madison suggested a similar discussion for the president, however, no one else wanted to take up the discussion, Wolf said.
“He brought it to the floor and everyone decided they should go home instead,” he said.
Wolf and Brewer said the Constitution’s ratification among the states hung on the idea that the president could be held accountable for abuses and crimes.
“In advocating for ratification, the Founders sought to reassure the ratifying conventions that “Our President is not a King, nor is our Senate a house of Lords.” the brief said citing speeches in state conventions during the ratification process.
“At every state ratification convention, this was an issue and the states were reassured [the Constitution] would not result in another runaway monarchy,” Brewer said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor also invoked this idea in her dissent arguing that under the conservative majority’s ruling the president “is now a king above the law.”
“The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding,” she wrote.
Wolf said that the Supreme Court’s majority ignored fundamental and well-documented facts from the nation’s history in its ruling.
“The framers already considered granting criminal immunity and rejected it which means they concluded an energetic executive could still be considered for criminal prosecution,” he said.
