Biden continues to draw contrast with Trump

February 23, 2024

President Biden spent the day distinguishing himself from Trump and the Putin-wing of the GOP. Biden’s leadership and decency demonstrate why he is the only choice for president in 2024.

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President Biden meets with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya.

As Trump and the GOP twisted themselves into knots to avoid admitting that Putin assassinated Alexei Navalny, President Biden met with Navalny’s widow—Yulia Navalnaya—and his daughter, Dasha Navalnaya. It is worth pausing here to acknowledge that Biden has proven himself to be a compassionate and empathetic person capable of understanding the suffering of others.

Those qualities are strikingly absent from Trump's warped personality—and from his MAGA supporters, who take their cue from Trump in all things. America deserves and needs a president capable of understanding the suffering of others.

After meeting with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya, Biden said

Today, I met with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya – Aleksey Navalny's loved ones – to express my condolences for their devastating loss.

Aleksey's legacy of courage will live on in Yulia and Dasha, and the countless people across Russia fighting for democracy and human rights.

Biden later said,

This morning I had the honor of meeting with Alexey Navalny's wife and daughter. As to state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage. And it's amazing how his wife and daughter are emulating that.

Meanwhile, Trump maintains his silence on the assassination of Navalny and his minions dodge questions about Putin’s responsibility by saying they “Don’t know enough to answer.” Hmm . . . these are the same people who raged endlessly against Biden based on an unverified, quadruple-hearsay document from a confidential informant who was not believed by his FBI handlers.

The embrace of Putin by the Republican Party is troubling because of the implications for the defense of Ukraine and the integrity of the 2024 election. We have already seen one attempt by Russia to interfere on behalf of Trump, and we are witnessing the real-time betrayal of Ukraine on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to pretend as though Alexander Smirnov never happened. Read on!

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House Oversight Committee removes references to FBI informant under cover of night

Speaking of the now-discredited FBI informant, his GOP champions in the House initially responded to his indictment for lying by claiming that his information was only a portion of the evidence they had against Joe Biden.

But actions speak actions louder than words. On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee quietly removed all references to Alexander Smirnov’s statements from the Oversight Committee’s website. See Meidas Touch Network, House GOP Quietly Deletes Russian Disinformation from Impeachment Website.

It is not enough for the House impeachment caucus to surreptitiously remove references to a Russian plant from its list of evidence against Joe Biden. Republicans should acknowledge their error and apologize—but they will not. The US media, however, should be a different story. They amplified and promoted the Russian lies about Biden—and are having a difficult time admitting their error.

As Josh Marshall wrote in his editor’s blog in Talking Points Memo,

The story here isn’t that the “Biden Crime Family” nonsense didn’t pan out. That was always transparently bogus. The story here is how the U.S. again got bamboozled by transparent foreign manipulation and how the U.S. political press bought into it pretty much whole hog. That doesn’t mean they accepted all the claims. But they treated it as reasonable, worthy of a presumption of seriousness, a serious story to be covered as such. Even with the veritable forest of red flags.

Donald Trump and his MAGA legions have spent years shock-training reporters not to bring up anything else about Russian disinformation programs aimed at helping Donald Trump. But they’re real. They’re continuing. They’re actually working. . . . Reporters have been conditioned to ignore the clear implications of what we’re learning.

So, the House Oversight Committee can try to slink away under dark of night to conceal the obvious effort by Russia to interfere in the 2024 election . . . but the media should not allow Trump to do so. As Marshall writes, Russia’s efforts to interfere are “real, continuing, and working.”

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Biden condemns Alabama court’s IVF ruling while Republicans struggle to articulate a position

President Biden made an important point on Thursday: The horrific decision by the Alabama Supreme Court effectively outlawing in vitro fertilization is “a direct result” of the overruling of Roe v. Wade—which Trump claims as his signature achievement! See HuffPo, Biden Calls Alabama Court's IVF Ruling A 'Direct Result' Of Roe Falling.

Biden issued a statement that said,

Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion.

And now, a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable. I know that folks are worried about what they’re seeing happening to women all across America. I am too.

We’re fighting for the freedom of women, for families, and for doctors who care for these women. And we won’t stop until we restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley tried to walk back her initial comments supporting the rationale of the ruling (that “embryos are babies”). Other GOP politicians babbled nonsense statements and then fled from reporters. Senator Tommy Tuberville—from Alabama—avoided questions by saying, “he has not yet seen the decision,”—which is available to anyone with a computer, a phone, or a quarter to buy a newspaper. See NBC News, Sen. Tommy Tuberville struggles to answer questions on Alabama's IVF ruling.

The issue is a “lose-lose-lose” situation for Republicans.

First, the decision itself is hugely unpopular without regard to the overruling of Roe v. Wade. But there is no way to back away from the decision without rejecting a central tenant of the anti-choice movement—that human life begins at conception.

Second, it is also a reminder that Trump is responsible for the overruling of Roe v. Wade and the downstream consequences that are now stigmatizing and afflicting women across America. Trump reportedly believes (privately) that right-wing religious fundamentalists have gone too far in implementing the Dobbs decision. If Trump attempts to ‘reason’ with those supporters, he will discover that ‘reason’ has nothing to do with religious fundamentalism. So, Trump will either bob and weave to avoid taking a firm position, or he will anger a large part of his base by walking away from their underlying religious principles.

Finally, this is an issue of vital interest to tens of millions of young American women and men who may be on the other side of the abortion issue from Joe Biden. Being the object of the GOP’s moral condemnation (or criminalization) of efforts to overcome infertility must be maddening. They may not vote for Joe Biden, but they may also not vote for Donald Trump. In a closely divided electorate, small changes at the margin are all we need to win.

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Tell Robert Reich how you feel!

Robert Reich is a fellow Substack author who served as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton and is a renowned economist, currently on the faculty of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Reich is a good guy and ally of the progressive Democratic movement. Many readers of this newsletter also read Robert Reich.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Reich created a firestorm on his Substack page by suggesting that Ezra Klein’s proposal for Biden dropping out at the convention deserved to be considered or, in his words, “I felt it needed to be debated.”

Reich received a huge amount of pushback from his readers on Substack, so he ran a second story, which included a live poll asking if Biden should drop out. As of Thursday evening, Reich’s poll shows 58% of respondents say Biden should not drop out, 12% say that an open convention is too risky, and 26% say that Biden should drop out.

If you can, I urge you to make your voice heard in Reich’s poll. See Robert Reich, My surprise at yesterday’s Substack response.

If you are paid subscriber to Reich, I urge you to add your voice to the Comments in his Substack blog (linked above).

Here is my thought: Robert Reich is a thought leader in the Democratic progressive movement. It is wrong for Reich to broach the subject of Biden’s age by saying, “I am not saying he should drop out, but let’s at least talk about whether he should drop out.” That articulation translates into nothing less than, “I believe Biden should drop out” even if that is not what Reich intended. And should understand that fact.

It is time for Reich to show leadership, not to act as a debate moderator.

The idea that millions of Americans will vote for Joe Biden in the primaries only to have their votes disregarded because some people are worried that Trump will win is offensive. It proposes a massive disenfranchisement of Democratic voters.

If elements of the party are worried about Joe Biden’s ability to run a winning campaign, there is an obvious solution: Challenge him according to the existing rules. Don’t invent new rules that apply only to Joe Biden. Dean Phillips is running against Biden on the age issue—and the voters are resoundingly rejecting Dean Phillips. And yet, that is not good enough for some in the Democratic Party—including Reich—who feel we need to “have a conversation” about Joe Biden dropping out.

There are no “party bosses” to manage an “open convention.” It would be a goat rodeo of catastrophic proportions that would ensure Donald Trump's victory. For those fantasizing about a Gavin Newsom-Gretchen Whitmer ticket, remember that there will be a dozen other candidates who will seek the floor nomination at an open convention—including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joe Manchin, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson. (I include Sanders and AOC as legitimate candidates who will garner organic support from the party's progressive wing, not to tie them to chaos candidates like RFK Jr. etc.)

It is time for Democratic thought leaders to stop treating Ezra Klein’s proposal as if it deserves serious consideration. Doing so undermines Biden and helps Trump. Stop the handwringing. Now is not the time for political Prince Hamlets. We need all hands on deck to help Biden defeat Trump. It’s that simple. There is no need to contemplate the nature of the universe or hold college-style debates. We are dealing with political realities and need to act.

Let Robert Reich know how you feel. We need him as a leader, not a debate moderator.

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Concluding Thoughts.

My wife and I had a great meeting with readers in Platteville, Wisconsin at the wonderful Driftless Market & Deli. A picture of our group is below.

As usual, it was inspiring. But I want to share how two activists who attended the meeting are amplifying the Democratic message in Wisconsin.

First, the Grant County Democrats purchase airtime on local radio stations and play the radio spots every month eleven times during two specific periods—"milk time” (when farmers are milking their cows) and “news times.” The Grant County Democrats run a different ad every month. Here is a recent example: “Democrats won’t ban books . . . .”

If you are a Democrat in Grant County, Wisconsin (or anywhere in America) and want to support more efforts to reach voters in a swing county in Wisconsin, check out the Facebook page, here: Grant County Democrats.

Second, a reader has decided to rent a billboard on a major highway in the greater Dubuque area that will urge passers-by to “Vote on November 5” and will include pictures of Biden-Harris and two local candidates. The reader is doing this on her own initiative (and we all chipped in our lunch money to help underwrite the billboard). Her determination and dedication are truly awe-inspiring!

The same is true for everyone who attended the meeting. Living in a state with a reactionary legislature and an active MAGA culture can be challenging. But they are “proud and loud” about their support for Joe Biden—and Democrats up and down the ballot. Joe Biden is lucky to have them in his corner!

Talk to you tomorrow!