Joe Biden’s Grip On Re-Nomination Is At Its Most Tenuous Since The Debate Disaster

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

The Knives Are Out

The events of the past 24 hours have placed President Biden’s renomination in greater jeopardy than at any point since his June debate performance upended his campaign and the trajectory of the general election.

We now know that private entreaties from other leading Democrats for him to withdraw his re-election bid – which were suspected but not yet confirmed – were in fact made over the past week. The emissaries to the president included, separately, Sen. Charles Schumer (NY), the leading Democrat in the Senate, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY), the leading Democrat in the House, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA), the former speaker of the House.

It is obvious by his words and deeds that Biden rebuffed those appeals.

What happened yesterday was the other shoe dropping: It appears through strategic leaks and off-the-record confirmation of those leaks that leading Democrats let it be known via the press that they had tried and failed to dislodge Biden. Making that information public was another step in the pressure campaign to get Biden out. Private appeals having failed, the pressure campaign from leading Democrats went public.

At the same time, the likely next senator from California, Rep. Adam Schiff (D), came out publicly against Biden remaining as the nominee. Schiff’s position as an active Senate candidate from the most populous state was another indication of the darkening political environment for Biden.

In a parallel move, the Democratic National Committee delayed from July until August a virtual roll call vote to make Biden the nominee. The move reportedly came at the urging of Schumer and Jeffries. The effect is to buy the anti-Biden movement more time to exert pressure on him to withdraw. Meanwhile, Democratic donors continue to make their displeasure with Biden known.

It’s fair to say that there is no real historical precedent for this situation, certainly not since the implementation of the current presidential primary system in the 1970s. It’s astonishing to consider the ousting of the sitting president as the party’s standard bearer at such a late date, but it is at least as difficult to envision how he survives this widespread intra-party revolt against his candidacy.

Biden Tests Positive For COVID

The president was on a campaign swing through Nevada when he tested positive for COVID. He will isolate at his Delaware home. His symptoms are described as mild.

Piecing Together The Trump Assassination Attempt

As preliminary after-action reports continue to trickle in, let me offer one caution on sourcing for the details of the security failure that led to Donald Trump narrowly escaping assassination.

There are four broad categories of sourcing:

1. Official on-the-record accounts from law enforcement agencies;
2. Independent reporting from journalists based on eyewitness accounts and visual and documentary evidence;
3. Off-the-record accounts from government (leaks, basically);
4. Second-hand accounts provided by members of Congress based on briefings from law enforcement agencies.

No single source is inherently more or less reliable, except No. 4 above, which is always fraught because it is second hand and because members of Congress filter the information, sometimes deliberately and other times unconsciously, through their own political prisms.

With that said, here are some of the key stories from the past 24 hours:

• The NYT has produced one of its high-quality audio-visual dissections of the assassination attempt drawing on contemporaneous video and photographic evidence of the rally site from multiple angles and viewpoints.
• NYT: A Blind Spot and a Lost Trail: How the Gunman Got So Close to Trump
• WSJ: Trump Gunman Identified as Suspicious Well Before Shooting
• WaPo: Secret Service was told police could not watch building used by Trump rally shooter
• NYT: Gunman’s Phone Had Details About Both Trump and Biden, F.B.I. Officials Say

Never Seen Anything Like This

Four GOP senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention over the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and continued to follow and berate her after she tried to end the exchange.

The senators were James Lankford (OK), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Kevin Cramer (ND), and John Barrasso (WY). Here’s video of the encounter posted by Blackburn:

Secret Service Defends Its Women Agents

The Secret Service felt compelled to a defend its female employee against right-wing attacks, providing a statement to NBC News that read in part: “It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender. Such baseless assertions undermine the professionalism, dedication and expertise of our workforce.” 

Still No Official Word On Trump’s Injuries

AP: “Four days after a gunman’s attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the public is still in the dark over the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.”

Foreshadowing More Gun Violence

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that Minnesota’s ban on 18- to 20-year-olds carrying handguns in public is an unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. Relying on recent Supreme Court decisions, the appeals court said the Second Amendment applies to all adults.

JD Vance Accepts Veep Nomination

TPM’s Josh Kovensky offers four takeaways from JD Vance Night at the Republican National Connvetion.

The Lawlessness On Full Display

Trump White House official Peter Navarro was released from federal prison yesterday and made a beeline for Milwaukee, where he was reward with a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Navarro had served four months in prison for contempt of Congress after stymying the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation.

Menendez On Verge Of Resigning

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), now convicted on federal bribery charges, is considering resigning his seat under pressure from Senate Democrats, the NYT reported. NBC News took it a step farther, reporting that Menendez is telling allies he will resign.

Still Grinding My Teeth Over SCOTUS Immunity Ruling

Roger Parloff has yet more on the part of the ruling that is most flagrantly favorable to Trump’s particular situation and puts the New York hush-money conviction at risk.

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