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WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY?

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News release from Seymour Hersh

Biden’s decline has been known to friends and insiders for months

Readers of this column know that President Joe Biden’s drift into blankness has been ongoing for months, as he and his foreign policy aides have been urging a ceasefire that will not happen in Gaza while continuing to supply the weapons that make a ceasefire less likely. There’s a similar paradox in Ukraine, where Biden has been financing a war that cannot be won and refusing to participate in negotiations that could end the slaughter.

The reality behind all of this, as I’ve been told for months, is that the president is simply no longer there, in terms of understanding the contradictions of the policies he and his foreign policy advisers have been carrying out. America should not have a president who does not know what he has signed off on. People in power have to be responsible for what they do, and last night showed America and the world that we have a president who clearly is not in that position today.

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The real disgrace is not only Biden’s, but those of the men and women around him who have kept him more and more under wraps. He is a captive, and as he rapidly diminished over the past six months. I have been hearing for months about the increasing isolation of the president, from his one-time pals in the Senate, who find that he is unable to return their calls. Another old family friend, whose help has been sought by Biden on key issues since his days as vice president, told me of a plaintive call from the president many months ago. Biden said the White House was in chaos and he needed his friend’s help. The friend said he begged off and then told me, with a laugh: “I would rather have a root canal procedure every day than go to work there.” A long retired Senate colleague was invited by Biden to join him on a foreign trip, and the two played cards and shared a drink or two on the Air Force One flight going out. The senator was barred by Biden’s staff from joining the return flight home.

I have been told the increasing isolation of the president on foreign policy issues has been in part the doing of Tom Donilon, whose younger brother, Michael, a key pollster and adviser in Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and in the current re-election effort, was part of the team that spent much of the week briefing Biden for last night’s debate. Tom Donilon, who is 69, was President Biden’s national security adviser from 2010 to 2013 and sought unsuccessfully to be named as Biden’s director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He remains very much an insider.

Given Biden’s obvious decline in recent months, it is impossible for an outsider to understand why the White House agreed to any debates with Donald Trump before the election, let alone committing to the earliest presidential debate, the first of two, in modern history. One thought, I was told, was that if Biden performed well, as he had in his State of the Union speech in March, the issue of his mental capacity would be tabled. A poor performance would give the Biden campaign time to do a better prep job for the scheduled second debate.

There also was pressure from the major Democratic fundraisers, many of them in New York City, for the campaign to do something to counter the perception of the president’s obvious growing impairment, as reported and filmed by major media. I have been told that at least one foreign leader, after a closed meeting with Biden, told others that the president’s decline was so visible that it was hard to understand how, as it was put to me, “he could go through the rigors” of a re-election campaign. Such warnings were ignored.

What now? One of Washington political savants told me today that the Democratic Party is now facing “a national security crisis.” The nation is backing two devastating wars with a president who clearly is not up to it, he said, and it might be time to start drafting a resignation speech that would match or outdo the one given in March of 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson after his narrow victory over Senator Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary.

“They’re trapped,” he said of the senior advisers in the White House who hoped that Biden would somehow do well enough in last night’s debates to carry on, with the much-needed support of the more skeptical financial supporters in New York City.

Not everyone I talked to today agreed that it is time to force a Biden resignation and hope for the best at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August—to dump the ticket and seek new candidates. “My humble opinion,” one longtime contributor to the Democratic Party told me, “is to let the dust settle. Must examine the realistic options before some quick reaction creates an internal Democratic Party split with far-reaching consequences beyond 2024. Accept reality . . . 2024 is likely beyond recovery at this point. Too steep a hill to climb. Plan and execute a long-term plan to counter Mr. Orange and build a moderate platform for the recovery . . . and let Biden wander off to the Jersey Pine Barrens.”

A differing view was expressed by another political guru. “This is the age of social media—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X—and a political campaign can go very far very fast.”

Whatever happens, we have a president—now fully unveiled—who just may not be responsible for what he does in the coming campaign, not to mention his actions in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Whatever happened to the 25th Amendment that authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president incompetent? What is going on in the Biden White House?

Seymour Hersh is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Bill O’Reilly predicts Biden will drop out of presidential race ‘sometime soon’

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From LifeSiteNews

Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly predicted President Joe Biden will soon drop out of the race after a disastrous debate performance. Biden’s aides and liberal news outlets have also suggested the president should stop his re-election bid.

President Joe Biden will soon drop out of the 2024 presidential race, longtime conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly suggested recently.

“Expect this. Sometime soon, President Biden will step aside as President Johnson did in 1968. Vietnam got him. But first, the K Street Democrats in D.C. have to quietly float replacement names with the top liberal media moguls,” O’Reilly said on his website Monday. “Something as monumental as this is not done spontaneously. The liberal media and Hollywood money people will have input.”

“What is absolutely certain is that Joe Biden is finished as a powerful man,” O’Reilly added. “Shortly, he will have to go quietly into the night, pretty much dragging Jill Biden with him.”

O’Reilly, who was host for more than two decades of the popular The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News and now comments at his own website and for NewsNation, made the prediction following an underwhelming performance by Biden at last week’s debate against Donald Trump.

His prediction mirrors the desire and speculation of prominent liberal voices and outlets, including The New York Times editorial board, which urged Biden to drop out just one day after the presidential debate.

The board wrote:

He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.

Biden is currently engaged in a “reckless gamble,” according to the Times, because if he continues down this path, Trump will likely win.

“There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency,” the editorial board argued. “There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden.”

“It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes,” according to the liberal newspaper.

After reiterating how much it despises Trump, the editorial pleaded with Democratic strategists to convince Biden to drop out of the race.

“Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader,” the editorial board wrote. “The confidants and aides who have encouraged the president’s candidacy and who sheltered him from unscripted appearances in public should recognize the damage to Mr. Biden’s standing and the unlikelihood that he can repair it.”

Biden has also lost the support of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia is considered a swing state in the 2024 presidential election. “The 81-year-old president has shown a greater capacity to tell the truth than his opponent, former President Donald Trump,” the editorial board wrote on Saturday, June 29. “But the unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.”

Some Democratic activists and aides have expressed concern about Biden in recent days.

“They’ve just been trying to skate to the general election with as minimal exposure as possible to the public. And now it’s blown up on them,” former Democratic National Committee delegate Thomas Kennedy told The Intercept. The news outlet reported that chances are low Biden will drop out of the race.

But concerns remain.

“Biden is toast,” one Democratic activist told Politico after the debate.

“In text messages with POLITICO, Democrats expressed confusion and concern as they watched the first minutes of the event,” the news outlet reported. “One former Biden White House and campaign aide called it ‘terrible,’ adding that they have had to ask themselves over and over: ‘What did he just say? This is crazy.’”

Some family members are blaming Biden aides for the president’s poor performance, according to a Sunday article in Politico. “First lady Jill Biden and his son Hunter Biden were the loudest voices urging the president to stay in the 2024 contest,” the outlet reported, based on unnamed sources.

Biden’s “cognitive health” remains an issue for many voters.

“For months before the first debate, the nation’s voters repeatedly expressed doubts over whether President Biden had the cognitive health enough to serve,” CBS News reported today. “Today, those doubts have grown even more: now at nearly three-quarters of the electorate, and now including many within his own party.”

Among registered voters, only 27 percent think Biden has the “mental & cognitive health to serve as president.” About 50% of registered voters, or twice as many, say Trump does.

The post-debate poll found in general, registered voters trusted Trump more. For example, 18 percent said Biden “inspired confidence,” while 44 percent said Trump did. Similarly, 21 percent said Biden “presented ideas clearly,” while 47 percent said Trump did.

The differences were not as large when it came to the question of a candidate’s ability to explain “plans & policies,” with 35 percent of respondents saying Biden did and 43 percent saying Trump did.

Among Democratic registered voters, 55 percent said he should continue running, while 45 percent said he should not.

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled for August 19 through the 22nd.

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Economy

European Voters Are Taking Sledgehammer To Continent’s Radical Open Borders And Climate Agenda

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By RICHARD HOLT

 

The results from both the recent European Parliamentary elections and France’s snap legislative elections have surprised our socialist friends across the ocean.

Despite the consistent rejection of climate activism in national elections, the ultra-left European Union Parliament has continued to loom darkly on its subjugated member states with failing “climate” and “open border” policies. The election results are more than just a passing trend: they are a clear repudiation of the left-wing policies on immigration and climate that have dominated the EU’s agenda in recent years.

Voters across Europe have expressed their dissatisfaction with these policies, which they perceive as economically burdensome and socially disruptive. In Germany, for example, center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) secured 30.2% of the vote, while the conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 16%, a significant increase from their previous performance​​. This rise in support for the AfD is a direct response to the German government’s aggressive climate policies and its handling of immigration.

The German government’s climate agenda — particularly the Energiewende, has placed a heavy financial burden on households and businesses. Within the framework is a policy called “Marginal Pricing.” This means that the price of electricity at any given time is set by the most expensive power plant needed to meet demand at that moment. The overall transition to renewable energy has led to some of the highest electricity prices in Europe, with German households paying significantly more than the European average​​. These high costs have not only strained family budgets but have also impacted the competitiveness of German industries, leading to job losses and economic uncertainty.

Moreover, the decision to phase out coal and nuclear energy without adequate alternatives has left the country reliant on costly and inconsistent renewable sources. This dual energy system has created inefficiencies and further driven up costs​​. The frustration over these economic pressures has been a significant factor in the rise of conservative parties, who promise to alleviate these burdens by rolling back stringent climate regulations.

Immigration policies have also played a crucial role in the electorate’s shift to the right. Germany, and indeed much of Europe, has experienced a significant influx of asylum seekers over the past decade. The public’s growing concern over immigration, coupled with the perceived inability of left-wing parties to manage this influx effectively, has driven voters toward conservative alternatives. The AfD, for instance, has capitalized on these concerns, positioning itself as the defender of national borders and cultural identity​​.

This trend is not confined to Germany. In France, the legislative elections held this weekend show a significant shift to the right there as well. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally garnered over 33% of the vote, a dramatic win reflecting public dissatisfaction with Macron’s failed policies. Macron’s policies in regards to taxes, pensions and immigration coupled with long-term protests has eroded support for his centrist alliance, which only received about 21% of the vote. The left-wing New Popular Front, including La France Insoumise and the Socialist Party, trailed with around 28% of the vote. This rightward shift is part of a broader European trend where voters are increasingly turning to conservative parties in response to economic strain and immigration concerns​.

The success of these parties underscores a growing demand for policies that prioritize national sovereignty and economic pragmatism over ideological commitments to climate activism and open borders. Voters are increasingly skeptical of policies that they perceive as detached from the realities of everyday life. The economic strain of high energy costs, combined with the social challenges of integrating large numbers of immigrants, has fueled a backlash against the left-wing establishment.

The rightward shift in the elections for the European Parliament is a powerful statement against the dubious feel-good policies from a failed left-wing activism on climate and immigration. It is a demand for a more market-centered approach that considers the economic and social realities faced by regular Europeans. The rise of conservative parties across the continent is not just a political realignment but a profound demand for sanity.

Richard Holt is an ambassador for Project 21, an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility have not traditionally been echoed by the nation’s civil rights establishmentHe is also a political consultant at Sirius Campaigns with over two decades of experience working on campaigns for local, state and federal offices across the country.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Featured image credit: Marine Le Pen (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

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