Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is not considering stepping down, the White House said Wednesday as it furiously did damage control amid Democrats’ mounting concerns about the 2024 election and Biden’s ability to carry out his campaign after his shaky debate performance.

Facing rapid-fire questions for the second day in a row, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked point blank during Wednesday’s briefing if Biden was considering that option.

“Absolutely not,” Jean-Pierre responded. “And you heard that, I believe, directly from the campaign as well.”

Jean-Pierre was also pressed on recent reports that Biden is evaluating whether to stay in the race.

“That is absolutely false,” she said. “We asked the president … the president said it is — no, it is absolutely false. That is coming directly from him.”

The White House and campaign are mounting a full-court press to try to quell concerns from last Thursday’s showdown, though some allies have wondered why Biden didn’t immediately move with more force to reassure the public.

Biden’s meeting with Democratic lawmakers at the White House later Wednesday evening comes nearly a week after he met with Donald Trump on stage in Atlanta.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who is attending Wednesday’s White House meeting with Democrats and is viewed as a possible replacement if Biden should step aside, told CNN the president “needs to communicate more” if he plans to rectify his poor debate performance.

The White House on Tuesday and Wednesday announced a flurry of new events and interviews they say will have Biden taking his message directly to the American people.

Jean-Pierre’s repeatedly acknowledged Biden had a “bad night” but that their focus now was on turning the page with campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, local radio interviews and a television interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday.

The day after the debate, a more fiery Biden spoke at a rally in North Carolina and he held campaign fundraisers in New York and New Jersey.

After that, he spent the rest of the weekend in Delaware behind closed doors with family and advisers. Since returning to Washington on Monday, Biden’s delivered brief remarks on the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and about extreme heat but often spoke with teleprompters and took no questions from the press.

In the meantime, pressure grew within the Democratic Party on Biden, reaching an apex on Tuesday when Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett became the first member of Congress to call on the president to withdraw from the race.

In the past 24 hours, in damage control mode, Biden’s spoken to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democratic Rep. James Clyburn and Sen. Chris Coons, ABC New has learned.

A top Biden aide told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang the president’s message to those congressional leaders is that he still has a path to victory, that the race hasn’t changed much, and that his campaign still has the money and organization.

In addition to Biden’s outreach, chief of staff Jeff Zients held an all-staff call on Wednesday on the “importance of us all to keep doing the work and executing on the mission together as a team,” according to a White House official.

Sources on the call described it to ABC News as a “straightforward pep talk” with a message that the focus should be on “execution of the president’s vision and continuing the work serving the country.”

The sources reported Zients said there is going to be a lot of chatter in the coming days, but advised staff to “tune it out” and focus on supporting one another and the meaningful work they have to do. They said Zients was the only person to speak and took no questions.

The Biden campaign is also seeking to tamp down internal party concerns about the president’s standing in the race after his debate performance.

A campaign memo sent to congressional allies obtained by ABC News cited internal campaign polling before and after Biden’s debate with Trump showing a tight race between the two candidates, within the margin of error.

“This tracks with the vast majority of public polls since the debate: The President maintained his support among his 2020 voters and voters’ opinions were not changed,” the campaign wrote.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also called into an all-staff campaign meeting on Wednesday to give a pep talk, according to multiple source familiar with the discussion.

All this before Biden meets with lawmakers at the White House. Among those who will be in attendance are Pritzker, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim, Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders, Molly Nagle, Allison Pecorin and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that Kentucky’s then-law requiring that a copy of the Ten Commandments be posted in public classrooms “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature.”

Nearly twenty years before that, the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored devotional prayer and Bible readings in public schools are unconstitutional.

These decades-old legal precedents, and others, haven’t stopped a recent wave of legislation mandating the teaching of religious texts in public schools.

Some of the legislators advocating to include the Bible and the Ten Commandments in public education argue that they have historical and moral value in the classroom, and also add educational context to American history.

However, these policies have prompted concerns from legal experts and religious freedom advocates who say that such mandates violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“It was very clear that no public official should be stating religious truths or teaching religious truth. That’s not for public officials to do or government officials to do,” Richard Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told ABC News.

“The worry has always been that if the government starts to take sides in promulgating religious truth, that will create divisiveness and religious conflict,” Schragger continued. “And there was ample proof of that, that the founders were quite aware of, particularly Protestant Catholic conflict in Europe.”

The Supreme Court has signaled that it’s open to hearing challenges regarding just how separate the church and state need to be. In 2022, the court sided with a high school football coach in Washington state, ruling that the Constitution does not prohibit public school employees from praying aloud on the job near students.

Since then, the push to enforce religion-based school requirements has gained renewed traction.

“Up until now, the Supreme Court decisions that restrict these kinds of practices in public schools have been a barrier to the enactment of those kinds of policies,” said Schragger, arguing that the court’s present conservative majority has “generated encouragement for state legislators to push the boundaries of acceptable public religious practices.”

The debate over religious texts in public classrooms

In Oklahoma, public schools have been ordered to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12 by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.

Walters called the Bible an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” in a June 27 statement about the announcement.

Without “basic knowledge” of the Bible, Walters claimed, “Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.”

The Oklahoma Education Association – a collective of educators, administrators, and other school employees – called the requirement religious “indoctrination.” The group criticized Walters for forcing educators in a position to potentially violate the Constitution.

“Teaching about the historical context of religion (and the Bible) is permissible; however, teaching religious doctrine is not permissible. Public schools cannot indoctrinate students with a particular religious belief or religious curriculum,” the organization said in a statement to ABC News.

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), told ABC News that she doesn’t oppose the idea of teaching religion as a part of history. However, her organization objects to teaching the Bible as truth or “core values,” as Walters stated, “because that’s favoring one set of religious views over others and over non religion, and that’s expressly prohibited by our Constitution.”

In Louisiana, a new law, HB71, mandates that all public schools, from kindergarten to the collegiate level, must display the Ten Commandments, a set of religious mandates from the Bible’s Old Testament, in every classroom on “a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches.”

Lawmakers in other states have introduced similar legislation, including Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.

Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton, HB71’s primary sponsor, said during an April hearing that the bill is not about “preaching a Christian religion. It’s not preaching any religion. It’s teaching a moral code,” according to local news outlet WWL-TV.

The law argues that the Ten Commandments are also historically significant, reflecting “the understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the necessity of civic morality to a functional self-government.”

The law is already facing legal backlash, with a lawsuit from a multifaith group of families challenging the new law in court.

“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom – rendering them unavoidable – unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” the complaint reads.

In Florida, Louisiana and Texas, new laws authorize schools to hire or allow volunteer religious chaplains to provide counseling support to students. In Florida, the counselors do not need to be licensed.

“Faith leaders and civic organizations are important additional resources for students who may be facing challenges or need to build community and camaraderie,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement upon signing the bill into law in April.

AU’s Laser said she believes that growing efforts to dismantle decades-old precedent regarding legally mandated teaching of religion in public schools is part of push to turn back the clock on progress and diversity. She said she expects to see further Supreme Court challenges to similar precedents.

“This court has opened an invitation to religious extremists to challenge long standing protections that have been fundamental to our growth, towards our promises as a nation, and Christian nationalists are taking them up on it,” said Laser.

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(WASHINGTON) — Some of the Democratic governors meeting with President Joe Biden Wednesday evening at the White House are saying beforehand they hope to hear candidly from him 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.

In the wake of Biden’s much-criticized performance in Thursday’s presidential debate a rising number of Democratic governors are calling for better communication, and in a twist, some of those attending have been talked about as possible replacements should Biden decide to drop out.

ABC News has confirmed that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore are among the governors attending in person.

Others will attend the Biden 6:30 p.m. ET meeting in the Roosevelt Room virtually.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will attend virtually.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers will not be attending, although Evers plans to appear with Biden at an event in Wisconsin on Friday.

In an interview on CNN on Tuesday evening, Beshear outlined what he hopes to hear during Wednesday’s meeting, saying that governors want “a direct and candid conversation with the president.”

“I think we also want to talk about strategy … when governors get out there, we put our own credibility and brands on a line,” he said.

“And so I think that these governors who want to be helpful just want to make sure when they’re talking one-on-one with people in our communities that we are giving them accurate and reliable information.”

A powerful Democrat whose name has been floated as a possible replacement for Biden at the top of the ticket in 2024, Pritzker said Tuesday night on CNN that he has only spoken with the president’s reelection campaign — but not Biden himself — since last week’s debate.

Pritzker, who leads the state where the Democratic National Convention is set to take place next month, said Biden “needs to communicate more,” if he plans to rectify his performance.

He offered a similar desire to Beshear, saying that he hopes to hear about the Biden campaign’s strategy if the president stays in the race.

“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 to make sure that we stay the course with him,” he said.

Asked if he’d back Vice President Kamala Harris were Biden to drop out, Pritzker responded that the party had a “great bench.”

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.

The call was organized by Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who is the Chairperson of the Democratic Governors Association. The White House was aware of the call prior to it happening.

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon at an unrelated press conference, Walz said, “We got on a call, we talked about some of the things that we’re doing, talking about the political races and things, and talking just candidly about some of the natural disasters each of us are facing in our states, whether it be wildfires or flooding,” he said.

“And then talk turned a little bit to what was obviously a poor performance in last Thursday’s debate. And governors are asking questions about what is the plan? How are you going to do this? How are we going to message this?”

Asked about the upcoming meeting with Biden, Walz said he thinks the governors will discuss “some of … the same concerns that we talked about.”

“I think the question is, how does that impact how the country runs? How does it impact what an election looks like?,” Walz said.

Even some close allies of the president are indicating that the meeting between him and the governors is less about policy and more about how Biden is coming across.

Appearing on CNN on Wednesday morning, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is a key campaign surrogate for Biden, said that the governors will likely focus on how the president speaks to them, when asked what he thinks they want to hear from Biden.

“I would say it this way. The governors will listen to the president, and I don’t think it’s all that important as to what the president says, but the way he says it is what will weigh heavily on these governors — what his speech is like, how he follows up with questions,” Clyburn said.

“So I think the governors will not just be listening for what he has to say, but looking at the way he says it, and they will react, hopefully, honestly with him.”

ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd, Isabella Murray, Rachel Scott, Lauren Peller, Tal Axelrod, and Mike Pappano contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sources told ABC News on Wednesday that President Joe Biden has privately acknowledged that the next few days are critical to determining whether he can stay in the race for a second term.

“This is false,” White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said about the ABC News reporting and similar accounts from other news organizations.

Biden has privately told at least two people close to him in the last few days that he recognizes how difficult his political predicament is.

While he still views himself as the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump, he signaled to one ally that he is keeping an “open mind” about his path forward, sources familiar with conversations tell ABC News.

He has campaign events scheduled in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days, an interview scheduled with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on Friday, and a news conference next week at the NATO summit. All of those events represent big opportunities for Biden to change public perceptions, according to those around him.

Publicly and privately, the president is making calls and arranging meetings to communicate his view that he remains the strongest candidate to take on Trump.

Over the last few days, he has spoken to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chris Coons, Rep. Jim Clyburn, among others.

Biden was scheduled to have a private lunch with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday and a meeting with Democratic governors later in the day, important marking points. Both were added to his schedule in the aftermath of the debate.

A person close to the president says he understands the stakes of this election and the importance of defeating Trump and has continued to insist he is ready for this moment.

“I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job,” Biden said in North Carolina after the debate.

Biden has been consistent that he doesn’t want to be pressured into making the decision; he has remained “calm” during this moment, according to people who have interacted with him. Close members and associates are giving him space to see if that continues.

Separately, The New York Times has reported that Biden is weighing whether to continue in the race, a claim that the campaign is angrily denying.

“That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so,” Bates said.

Sources contacted by ABC News said he has not gone so far, to their knowledge, as to say he cannot salvage his campaign.

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(WASHINGTON) — Two Union soldiers who 162 years ago took part in one of America’s first special operations will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday.

Descendants of Pvt. George Wilson and Pvt. Shadrach received a long-awaited call from the White House telling them the Civil War heroes would be awarded the nation’s highest military honor for “gallantry and intrepidity” in defense of the Union.

President Joe Biden was on the other line, they said, inviting Theresa Chandler, the great-great-granddaughter of Pvt. Wilson, and Gerald Taylor, the great-great-nephew of Pvt. Shadrach, to accept the medal on behalf of the men who, as a part of a group of 24 volunteers, snuck behind Confederate lines in an act of unprecedented bravery.

The Union soldiers — acting as spies in civilian clothing — managed to penetrate 200 miles into Confederate territory, where they commandeered a train — “The General” — and drove it 87 miles from Georgia to Tennessee.

In what became known as “The Great Locomotive Chase,” on April 12, 1862, the Union raiders destroyed Confederate railroad tracks and telegraph lines — earned 19 of the men Medals of Honor, becoming the first group of Army soldiers to receive it.

The ambitious plot, despite wreaking havoc, failed. The soldiers were captured. Some escaped and received their medals after the war, while a group of eight of the raiders — including Wilson and Shadrach — were tried and hanged by the Confederacy.

Because of what historians attribute to an oversight, Wilson and Shadrach never received the award posthumously.

Ron Shadrach, a descendant of Pvt. Shadrach, who was only 21 when he volunteered for the mission, and historian Brad Quinlon, teamed up to push Shadrach and Wilson’s case. Text from a 2008 act of Congress even cleared the way for Wilson and Shadrach to be honored, but for reasons resembling “red tape,” some family said, the call simply never came.

Shadrach and Quinlon met in 2012 and made their case for 12 years, but even before them, a relative of Pvt. Shadrach was sending letters to President Jimmy Carter.

At the outset of the Biden Administration, two former generals — one a four-star — joined Shadrach and Quinlon’s efforts.

Quinlon believes the clandestine mission, which the White House describes as one of the first special operations in United States history, if successful, would have shortened the Civil War by as long as two years.

“I mean these were common citizens — a laborer, a carpenter,” he said.

“They enlisted. They weren’t drafted; they enlisted voluntarily. And then all of a sudden you’re getting the word, you know, we’re asking for volunteers to come do what? Go in to a hundred miles of Confederate territory to steal a train. They stayed on. They were given a chance, they could have left after that, but they stayed on.”

“I guess, unless we’ve really done it, do we really know what courage that took?”

Before they were hanged, Pvt. Wilson is reported to have given a brief speech from the gallows in which he said he did not regret his action to help save the Union.

“He proclaimed that they would yet see the flag of the United States wave over them again,” Ron Shadrack said.

Two years later, they would.

Shadrack labored over the case for more than 12 years to rectify the historical record, but, above all, he said, he did so in service of his ancestor’s sacrifices.

“We can’t really comprehend what they went through,” the Ohio native said, a bout of imprisonment that including lashing and torture.

“I had wanted to serve my country, and I hadn’t,” Shadrack said. “And so now I’ve been able to do this…” he said, choking up, seemingly reckoning with this moment – a present day that would pay tribute to a day 162 years ago for which he has so long fought.

“And I think it’s, it’s something that any ordinary American would do,” he said. “It’s what we do.”

Quinlon, who in his work has studied the acts of Medal of Honor recipients, said the award — given to some 3,500 warfighters in U.S. history — has documented the American story on the battlefield.

“I wouldn’t have taken the project on if I didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. I understand the Medal of Honor. I understand where it stands today with our military. And every military person looks up to a Medal of Honor recipients. Even generals take a seat to a Medal of Honor recipient,” he said.

A future Medal of Honor recipient saved Quinlon’s father’s life in the Philippines in World War II, losing his life as he fought off the Japanese.

“I am here because of what William Shockley did on March 31st, 1945. I understand the valor and sacrifice of the Medal of Honor,” Quinlon said.

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(WASHINGTON) — At a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden — for the first time — attributed his poor debate performance last week to the amount of foreign travel he did in June, according to notes from a small group of reporters permitted in the event.

“I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,” Biden said, referring to recent trips abroad, including his visit to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“I didn’t listen to my staff,” he continued, adding he “came back and nearly fell asleep on stage.”

Biden said Tuesday he was sorry for his debate performance but stressed that winning the election was “critical.”

“It’s not an excuse but an explanation,” he continued, adding that the DNC and Biden campaign have raised millions of dollars since debate night.

“I feel good about it,” he said.

Biden’s debate performance last Thursday triggered renewed concern over his age and mental acuity among political observers, including some Democrats who have begun to have discussions about his ability to carry on as their party’s nominee.

The president first addressed his poor debate performance at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate.

“Folks, I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he told the crowd.

“I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth,” he said to loud cheers from an enthusiastic campaign crowd.

Last Saturday, he also touched on it at a fundraiser at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

“I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder,” Biden told attendees of the event.

Earlier on Monday evening, the Biden campaign held a call with more than 500 regional and national finance chairs – who raise money for the campaign and the Democratic Party — during which senior campaign advisers defended Biden’s health and gave assurances he could carry on with his 2024 campaign.

The campaign advisers also noted that a few hundred campaign events in support of Biden took place around the country this past weekend. They also touted the fundraising haul since the debate, people who were on the call told ABC News, with the campaign and the Democratic Party raking in $33 million.

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(WASHINGTON) — Democratic donors remain torn as the Biden campaign continues to try to calm worries from supporters and party members about the future of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid in the wake of Thursday’s debate performance.

On Monday evening, the Biden campaign held a call with more than 500 regional and national finance chairs — who raise money for the campaign and the Democratic Party — during which senior campaign advisers defended Biden’s health and gave assurances he could carry on with his 2024 campaign.

The call took place amid continued questions about Biden’s ability to fight off former President Donald Trump, especially as the president attempts to galvanize Democratic donors as he entered July with less cash on hand than the Trump campaign.

According to people on the call, senior campaign advisers, including Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Molly Murphy, led the conversation, acknowledging it was a bad debate for Biden but stressing he’s still the party’s nominee and that the base is excited.

The campaign advisers also noted that a few hundred campaign events for Biden took place around the country this past weekend and touted the fundraising haul since the debate, people who were on the call told ABC News, with the campaign and the Democratic Party raking in $33 million in the days since.

One source on the call told ABC News, “It was good, honest assessment – no surprising questions nor surprising answers but it was good for them to do.”

But skepticism from donors and fundraisers remains. The first question the campaign fielded on the call was about the 81-year-old president’s stamina, one person on the call told ABC News. Dillon responded, “Biden knows he has to show who he is,” but added, “At the end of the day the president has put out robust medical records,” the person said.

The campaign advisers mostly did not address what the campaign will do if polling indicates a significant reduction in support, people on the call said.

One person on the call told ABC News that he felt there was a lack of responsibility from the campaign on what happened on the debate stage last week, and that people were looking for someone to take on responsibility. Without that, the person said he doesn’t believe Biden’s fundraising can return to normal.

Soon after Thursday night’s debate, influential billionaire donor Reid Hoffman came out in support of Biden in an email to his donor network explaining why others should do so as well.

While acknowledging that Biden’s debate performance “delivered a blow to the mood among donors and organizers,” Hoffman said the debate “revealed nothing new” and that “If we’re musing on Biden’s flaws, we’re not organizing around Trump’s flaws. That’s bad for us and good for them.”

“Being a good President has little to do with being a good debater,” Hoffman wrote.

Donors across the country are divided on how the Democratic Party should move forward, some doubling down on support for Biden with others expressing skepticism.

Major Democratic donor and fundraiser Susie Buell praised Biden as a “great president” and said “he’s a man full of wisdom.”

“If he has a good team around him and he’s still managing, he will be fine … He can do this though. We just have to be there for him,” Buell said.

Susie Buell’s husband and fellow longtime Democratic donor Mark Buell, speaking separately to ABC News, added he believes there’s “plenty of time” to put someone else as the Democratic Party’s nominee, saying the party needs to do a “risk assessment.”

Praising Biden as the “most accomplished” president since Franklin Roosevelt, Mark Buell — who at one point described the president as “diminished” –noted Biden is 81 years old and added, “we thought we’re ready for the next generation and that didn’t happen, and very few people had anything to say in that process because Biden opted to run, he has delegates and he’s home free.”

“It will be data driven to see what horse we’re going to ride to the finish line,” Mark Buell said.

Another Democratic donor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely, was more critical: “They can bring him to do 20 more speeches. He can’t recover from this.”

Saying he would like to see California Gov. Gavin Newsom as Biden’s replacement, the donor said, “Someone needs to talk to Biden. Obama needs to talk to him. He’s been president two damn times. He can’t stay quiet.”

Some said they’re confused and conflicted — thoughts shifting as every hour passed as news cycles changed.

One California mega donor who had said earlier last weekend, “I am digesting it all. This is tough,” later said: “I really think he should step aside otherwise we lose.”

“I don’t think last night is recoverable. But probably he can’t be convinced so nothing will change and we will keep fighting to the end. A lot can happen between now and Nov maybe we catch a lucky break,” the donor continued.

Ajay Bhutoria, another Democratic donor, maintained it’s a choice between Biden and Trump, saying he tells people, “It was just one night and a president with a cold and sore throat is better than a convicted felon … Compare the presidencies of the two candidates and not just a one night debate.”

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(WASHINGTON) — In a long-awaited decision, the United States Supreme Court found that former President Donald Trump has some executive immunity for official acts committed as president, leaving experts concerned that the decision has drastically expanded presidential powers and dealt a blow to checks and balances.

One constitutional law expert warned that the ruling alters the possibility of consequences over the improper use of presidential powers, leaving the powers of the presidency “largely unchecked” with the exception of possible impeachment.

“It’s extremely troubling and is an example of the expanding powers of an imperial presidency,” Jared Carter, a constitutional law professor at Cornell Law School, told ABC News in an interview.

“The immunity is so broad that this essentially swallows the possibility of actual prosecution for a president and I think Justice Sotomayor’s dissent — pointing out the various things that a president could conceivably do, and have absolute immunity — demonstrate that point,” Carter said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a strong dissenting opinion saying the ruling reshapes the presidency and makes the president “a king above the law,” dealing a blow to the foundation of the U.S. Constitution and system of government that “no man is above the law.”

“The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”

In the court opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that a president’s motives are not relevant to the assessment nor is the fact that an action would have allegedly violated a generally applicable law. One expert called this the most damaging part of the decision.

“Motive, I think to everyone’s mind and the normal criminal law, is the soul of any criminal charge. If you consider what Trump is alleged to have done, it is really the reasons that he did it that make it criminal or not, or so we would have thought before [the decision],” Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general and professor of constitutional law, told ABC News.

While the decision distinguishes between what acts are official acts of the presidency and what are not, Litman argued it is a grey area and the decision reshapes presidential power.

“Even though it doesn’t purport to alter the scope of presidential power, what it does purport to do is alter any kind of criminalization of the improper use of federal power,” Litman said.

Did Nixon need to be pardoned?

Experts told ABC News that under this ruling, former President Richard Nixon would not have needed a pardon from then-President Gerald Ford in the aftermath of the 1972 Watergate scandal because Nixon couldn’t have been criminally charged.

The Watergate scandal centered on the Nixon administration’s involvement in a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and involved Nixon’s efforts to impede an investigation into the break-in, which eventually led to his resignation from office after Congress initiated impeachment proceedings.

“We do think of Nixon as having acted in criminal ways then having been pardoned, but after [the decision] it’s not clear — he would have had immunity anyway,” Litman said.

“Nixon’s conduct — telling the FBI to shut down an investigation of himself, which seems front and center self-dealing and the kind of thing you don’t want a president to do — absolutely, he couldn’t have been prosecuted for under yesterday’s opinion,” Litman said. “He wouldn’t have needed to be pardoned.”

The court saying a president’s motive is not relevant is a significant shift.

“The court makes clear in the opinion yesterday that Trump’s conversations with the DOJ — even though they seem completely the furthering of a scheme to steal the election — they’re totally beyond inquiry from a court or a prosecutor because that goes to motive,” Litman said.

Carter warns that things have drastically taken a turn for the worse.

“I think it’s far more dangerous now than what we saw in that span of time [under Nixon] because President Trump has bucked the norms,” Carter said. “He has no interest in the traditions of the presidency.”

What could we see in the future?

The decision dramatically shifts the balance of power — and the consequences of that decision remain to be seen, Carter said.

“The presidency has been getting stronger. This, though, is a giant leap because it eliminates that check of the possibility of criminal conviction as long as a president can make out a rational argument that this was some court duty, or an official act. It’s going to be very, very hard to prosecute,” Carter said.

The decision may have hurt democratic norms.

“Democracy depends on the rule of law. At its heart, a big part of that is that no person is above it,” Carter said.

“[The ruling] places one person largely above the law. So I think it’s antithetical to democracy, and, and is not going to lead to any positive outcomes on the democracy front,” he added.

Carter called this a “scary time for democratic institutions.”

“As of right now, we are going to be relying on the goodwill of whoever is president to behave themselves,” Carter said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The White House said Tuesday it wants to “turn the page” on President Joe Biden’s debate performance last Thursday, which stoked renewed concerns about his age and mental fitness and set off alarm bells among some Democrats about his ability to carry on as the party’s nominee.

Biden has yet to take any questions from reporters on his politically disastrous debate showing against 2024 rival Donald Trump. That continued Tuesday as he visited an emergency operations center in Washington to discuss extreme heat and new workplace protections, where he largely read from a teleprompter and did speak off-the-cuff as many critics said would be a true test of his competence.

That will change on Friday when he sits for his first television interview since the debate with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

The White House, seeking to change the narrative before then, also announced a flurry of campaign stops in the coming week that will get Biden on the road and in front of voters.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that Biden will speak with Democratic lawmakers and governors on Wednesday to address their concerns before traveling to battleground states this weekend.

Biden will be in Wisconsin on Friday and Pennsylvania on Sunday, Jean-Pierre said, and will give a solo news conference during next week’s NATO summit that he’s hosting in Washington.

“We’re going to turn the page,” she said. “We’re going to get out there. Across the country, Americans are going to see him for themselves.”

But during the nearly hour-long briefing, Jean-Pierre faced a flurry of tough questions about the debate, the panic it’s caused among some Democrats and Biden’s overall fitness to serve.

“First of all, I want to say we understand the concerns,” Jean-Pierre said. “We get it. The president did not have a great night, as you all know.”

“But I will say this, and the president said this over the past couple of days, certainly right after the debate: He knows how to do the job,” Jean-Pierre said, “and he knows how to do the job not because he says it, because his record proves it.”

Jean-Pierre said “bad night” 13 times as she reiterated that Biden had a cold and that his record over the past three and a half years speaks for itself.

Still, some Democrats are continuing to express concern after the debate performance. Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first Democratic member of Congress to call on Biden to withdraw as the party’s presidential nominee.

ABC News Senior Congressional Rachel Scott asked about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments earlier Tuesday that it’s fair for people to ask whether Biden was facing “an episode or a condition.”

“Which one is it?” Scott asked.

“Well, what I can tell you is that he had a cold and a bad night. I would not see this as an episode,” Jean-Pierre responded. “I would see this as what it was and what we believe it to be, which is, it was a bad night. And he did, on top of that, he had a cold. And that is the reality of the situation.” She said he hadn’t been taking cold medication.

Jean-Pierre was also asked directly about the president’s health records and whether anything is being hidden from the public eye.

“Absolutely not,” she said.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said after Biden’s physical in February that he was a “healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”

Jean-Pierre was also asked repeatedly about whether Biden will release results from any mental acuity tests.

“The medical team said it is not warranted in this case. We have put forward a thorough, transparent, annual report on his health. So, they have said that is not warranted. It is not necessary. Again, we understand, we understand. We’re not taking away from what you all saw, what the American people saw. We understand, it was a bad night,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and his allied groups registered their largest fundraising month of the campaign in June, his campaign announced, as his team seeks to spotlight good news amid a torrent of questions about the president’s capabilities to run the country after his debate performance last week.

The Biden operation raised $127 million in June, part of a total $264 million raised from April through June, the campaign said.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign, the Republican Party and their joint fundraising announced raising $111.8 million in the month of June, a little short of the Biden campaign fundraising from the same month.

The Trump team, however, is entering July with a bigger cash on hand than the Biden team. The Trump campaign and the Republican Party together ending June with $285 million compared to the Biden campaign and the Democratic Party ending the month with $240 million.

This is because Trump had outraised Biden two months in a row earlier this year, including the Trump team’s $141 million May haul dwarfing the Biden team’s $85 million total that month.

“President Trump’s campaign fundraising operation is thriving day after day and month after month. Winning this quarter brought us a cash on hand advantage, which is punctuated by a Biden burn rate that grows while yielding no tangible results for them,” senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement.

Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said the “Q2 fundraising haul is a testament to the committed and growing base of supporters standing firmly behind the President and Vice President and clear evidence that our voters understand the choice in this election between President Biden fighting for the American people and Donald Trump fighting for himself as a convicted felon.”

The campaign on Tuesday sought to contrast that with Trump, who a spokesperson accused of “running a campaign for his ultra-rich friends and corporations, not the American people.”

The Biden campaign touted the nearly $40 million raised in the final days of the month, which happened to be in the wake of the debate performance.

The Biden operation raised a majority of its June money from grassroots, small-dollar donors, a fact the campaign highlighted to indicate the breadth of enthusiasm for the president.

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