Jill Biden - Global pulse News
  • Trump overshadows Biden in most current fundraising numbers in program of political force after felony convictions

    Trump overshadows Biden in most current fundraising numbers in program of political force after felony convictions

    NEW YORK CITY (AP) — Donald Trump’s project outraised President Joe Biden by more than $60 million last month, according to federal filings revealed Thursday that detailed the Republican fundraising surge stimulated by Trump’s felony convictions.

    Biden’s project and the Democratic National Committee together raised a robust $85 million in Might and reported $212 million in the bank at the end of the month. The strong proving does not consist of approximately $40 million raised by Biden and his leading surrogates in current days — or a different $20 million contribution from previous New york city City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pro-Biden groups.

    Still, Trump’s fundraising for, for one month a minimum of, appeared to overshadow Biden’s.

    The Trump project and the Republican politician National Committee stated it raised a jaw-dropping $141 million in Might, consisting of 10s of millions contributed right away after Trump was founded guilty of 34 felonies in the New york city hush cash case. At the very same time, billionaire Timothy Mellon, contributed a sensational $50 million to a pro-Trump extremely PAC the day after Trump’s guilty decision, according to filings revealed Thursday.

    Trump’s project decreased to report just how much cash it had in the bank at the end of Might, triggering Biden’s project to question whether the groups were still investing greatly to cover Trump’s legal costs.

    “Our strong and constant fundraising program grew by countless individuals in Might, a clear indication of strong and growing interest for the president and vice president each and every single month,” stated Biden project supervisor Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “The cash we continue to raise matters, and it’s assisting the project develop out an operation that purchases reaching and winning the citizens who will choose this election –- a plain contrast to Trump’s PR stunts and photo-ops that he’s pretending is a project.

    Taken together, the numbers detailed in the projects’ most current Federal Election Commission filings recommend that Democrats might still keep a money benefit in the 2024 governmental contest. However practically 4 months before Election Day, Trump’s side is closing the space — if it isn’t closed currently.

    The brand-new fundraising figures likewise highlight the degree to which the guidelines of governmental politics are being re-written in the Trump period.

    At practically any other time in U.S. history, a governmental prospect would have been required to leave an election after being founded guilty of lots of felonies. However in 2024, Trump’s guilty decision has actually rather sustained a huge fundraising rise that puts his group in a position to increase marketing and swing state facilities simply as citizens start paying closer attention to the election.

    Backed by Mellon’s huge contribution, the pro-Trump extremely PAC called MAGA Inc. scheduled $3.5 million in tv marketing set to start July 3 throughout Georgia and Pennsylvania on Thursday, according to the media tracking company AdImpact. In general, the group reported a $68.8 million haul for Might, ending the month with $93.7 million in the bank.

    Mellon has actually been amongst the most significant donors to Trump and independent prospect Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., although his assistance for Kennedy might be fading.

    Kennedy raised $2.6 million last month and ended up Might with $6.4 million in the bank. The large bulk of his fundraising overall originated from running mate Nicole Shanahan, a rich Silicon Valley attorney. The Kennedy project invested more than it raised for the month.

    The numbers reported on Thursday did not consist of anything raised in June, consisting of approximately $40 million raised by Biden and his leading surrogates in current days. The large bulk originated from a flashy charity event last Saturday with film stars and previous President Barack Obama in Los Angeles that raised more than $30 million. Very first woman Jill Biden likewise has actually been on her own individual fundraising swing that has actually generated $1.5 million.

    On the other hand, Biden likewise got a huge increase from Bloomberg.

    The billionaire benefactor, who quickly ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, sent out $19 million to the pro-Biden group Future Forward in addition to sending out the legal optimum of $929,600 to the Biden Success Fund, according to an individual knowledgeable about the transfers.

    Bloomberg likewise officially backed Biden on Thursday. “I stood with Joe Biden in 2020, and I am happy to do so once again,” Bloomberg stated in a declaration.

    The Biden project stated that the large bulk of its most current fundraising originated from grassroots donors such as nurses, instructors and retired people. In general, the Biden project and Democratic National Committee brought in more than 3 million brand-new donors last month, according to a declaration from the project.

    “While Trump is seeping off his billionaire sycophants, our project represents the voices of America, and we’re honored to have their assistance as we race towards November,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison stated.

    ___

    AP author Seung Minutes Kim in Washington and Jill Colvin in New york city contributed.

  • Jill Biden responds to Hunter Biden’s conviction

    Jill Biden responds to Hunter Biden’s conviction

    PHOENIX — Very first woman Jill Biden went over Hunter Biden‘s trial with NBC News on Saturday throughout a project swing, marking the very first time she has actually discussed his conviction after he was condemned on 3 felony gun-related charges.

    Biden stated that the trial marked “a difficult week for my household,” describing that they “needed to relive … the bumpy rides.”

    Still, she stated that she drew motivation from Hunter Biden’s conduct in current days.

    “I believe after the choice in the court, Hunter was strong, therefore I need to take his example and simply go out there and begin battling once again,” the very first woman stated.

    Jill Biden has actually marked the previous couple of days taking a trip to states that might show important to her partner’s chance at going back to the Oval Workplace. She has actually held public occasions in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Arizona, and she heads to California Saturday night for a star-studded charity event that the project states has actually currently set a Democratic Celebration record.

    Her travel blitz follows she invested much of the trial inside the courtroom, even shuttling backward and forward from France to be in the space in Delaware.

    After Hunter Biden was founded guilty, President Joe Biden informed press reporters that he would neither pardon his boy nor commute his sentence.

    “Joe and I both regard the judicial system, which’s the bottom line,” Jill Biden stated Saturday.

    Hunter Biden’s conviction comes simply weeks before his daddy and previous President Donald Trump are set to discuss, an important occasion for 2 presumptive candidates who are secured a tight race, as ballot shows.

    The very first woman dismissed the concept that the president’s efficiency might be impacted by Hunter Biden’s conviction.

    “Oh, no,” she addressed, including later on, “He is a strong guy, and he is a resistant guy, and he’s going to do an excellent task.”

    The president released a declaration stressing his love for his boy quickly after the jury returned the guilty decision.

    “Jill and I will constantly be there for Hunter and the rest of our household with our love and assistance,” he stated. “Absolutely nothing will ever alter that.”

    Hunter Biden does not yet have a sentencing date. He confronts 25 years in jail, though he is not likely to get the optimal sentence considering that he has no previous convictions.

    Mike Memoli reported from Phoenix, Arizona. Megan Lebowitz reported from Cleveland, Ohio.

    This post was initially released on NBCNews.com

  • What follows for the Bidens after Hunter’s decision: From the Politics Desk

    What follows for the Bidens after Hunter’s decision: From the Politics Desk

    Welcome to the online variation of From the Politics Desk, a night newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics group’s newest reporting and analysis from the project path, the White Home and Capitol Hill.

    In today’s edition, White Home reporter Mike Memoli takes a look at the bold tone the Biden household has actually handled following Hunter’s conviction. Plus, primary political expert Chuck Todd checks out what just recently launch secret recordings expose about Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

    Register to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.

    What follows for the Bidens after Hunter’s decision

    By Mike Memoli

    After he was founded guilty on 3 felony weapon charges, Hunter Biden vowed to keep “progressing.” President Joe Biden was still processing the legal obstacle hours later on as he applauded weapon security supporters for turning their “discomfort” into “function.” And very first woman Jill Biden, who had actually mainly cleared her schedule to be with Hunter throughout the trial, is now set to start a prolonged five-state project swing.

    The individual and political toll of Hunter Biden’s legal battles might not be right away obvious, however the tone he and his moms and dads are attempting to set after the trial appears clear. As the president loves estimating his dad as stating, “When you get torn down, you need to return up.”

    It’s a bold posture that individuals near to the household state is both deliberate and familiar to them after having actually experienced even higher problems in the past.

    Do you have a news idea? Let us understand

    Biden’s own project rapidly signified Wednesday that it will not let Hunter’s conviction avoid it from assaulting previous President Donald Trump over his. A press release kept in mind that while Biden was taking a trip to to Italy for the G7 Top and his project was holding occasions throughout the nation, Trump had absolutely nothing on his public schedule.

    Jill Biden had actually joined her hubby for parts of recently’s journey to France, shuttling backward and forward to Delaware two times to be present for Hunter’s trial. The Biden project had actually kept her schedule on hold throughout the trial, however her advisors on Tuesday afternoon secured prepare for among her busiest project swings to date. She’ll make a minimum of 5 drop in 3 days in the battlefield states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada and Arizona, while likewise raising cash in California.

    Possibly the most significant test of how the Bidens emerge from the trial will be available in 2 weeks throughout the very first governmental dispute. The project is bracing for the possibility that Trump will intend to individualize the June 27 faceoff, wishing to rattle Biden by invoking his boy. However advisors keep in mind that the technique appeared to backfire 4 years back when Trump attempted to raise Hunter Biden’s organization transactions.

    Find Out More on the Bidens’ bold posture →

    Still, as we likewise reported today: The roadway forward for the Bidens might just get harder — personally, politically and lawfully.

    The president’s assistants are currently anxiously expecting Hunter Biden’s September trial in California on allegations of tax evasion. While the weapon charges trial put embarrassing, individual household characteristics and history on screen, the 2nd trial might expose possibly questionable info about Hunter Biden’s organization transactions, which Republicans have actually long looked for to connect to his dad, without proof.

    Find Out More on the Bidens’ next difficulties →

    John Roberts, America’s primary swing citizen?

    By Chuck Todd

    It’s so uncommon nowadays for individuals in positions of power to put the nation before themselves, so when it occurs, we need to ponder on the minute.

    The secret recordings of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, who spoke to a progressive activist impersonating a spiritual conservative at a Supreme Court Historic Society occasion, deal rather the contrast in how each sees his function on the court. And while numerous are concentrated on Alito, insufficient focus is being provided to the chief justice’s remarks.

    Whatever you consider Alito as a justice or as a conservative, it does appear as if he’s more comfy revealing his ideology (in this case, revealing arrangement with his undercover questioner) and utilizing his position to press his views, not always having the open mind he declared to have throughout his 2006 verification hearing.

    The genuine test of character in any position of authority is whether you are the very same individual when the spotlights are on as when the spotlights are off. Roberts revealed us that at his core, he takes his task and the duties that feature them rather seriously, anytime he’s possibly evaluated. He’s satisfying the minute.

    You don’t need to concur with every viewpoint Roberts authors or indications on to, however it is great to understand that he’s self-aware about his function and really committed to doing the task he obtained: maintaining and analyzing the Constitution to the very best of his capabilities.

    What I’ll have an interest in supervising the next couple of days and weeks is how liberals and conservatives react not to Alito’s remarks however to Roberts’. Exists universal regard for how Roberts sees the function of the Supreme Court, or do activists get annoyed that Roberts declines to virtue-signal to either the left or the right?

    Eventually, we found out extremely little brand-new about Alito in these recordings, however we found out something about Roberts. The recording needs to function as peace of mind that the individual running the nation’s 3rd branch of federal government has the viewpoint about the republic that the creators hoped individuals would embrace as soon as they accepted the weight of their duties.

    Find Out More from Chuck →

    That’s all from The Politics Desk in the meantime. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

    And if you’re a fan, please show everybody and anybody. They can register here.

    This short article was initially released on NBCNews.com

  • To beat Trump, Biden ‘should have’ the Rust Belt — plus Omaha

    To beat Trump, Biden ‘should have’ the Rust Belt — plus Omaha

    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden‘s probably course to re-election is a narrow one that depends on the exact same 3 states that offered Donald Trump the Oval Workplace in 2016 and after that tugged it far from him in 2020 — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — in addition to a single electoral vote from an Omaha-based congressional district.

    Put another method, if Trump takes any of the Big 3 Rust Belt specifies in November, it is most likely an indicator that he has actually recovered the White Home. Less than 5 months from Election Day, they make up the genuine battlefield, according to numerous operatives in both celebrations.

    “That’s the need to have,” stated Faiz Shakir, a Democratic strategist who handled Bernie Sanders’s 2020 governmental project.

    However it is hard for any project to desert states where in charge has actually won, or come close, before. That’s especially real at this moment in the race, when project assistants think there is still time for their efforts to impact popular opinion, and in an election year in which the stack of Democratic-held electoral votes has actually been minimized by a current census. They likewise understand that they can’t require the opposition to invest valuable project money in states they have actually left for dead.

    So, in addition to the Big 3, Biden’s high command is releasing resources to Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, where he dominated in 2020, along with North Carolina, where Trump won by about 1.3 portion points.

    Today, most public surveys are revealing Trump leading in those states by bigger quantities than in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where studies tend to be more detailed.

    Biden assistants state it is prematurely for triage.

    “Today, we see throughout all those locations a variety of paths” to reach 270 electoral votes, Dan Kanninen, the battlefield states director for the Biden project, stated. He explained a method of flooding carefully objected to states with personnel, purchasing advertisements and sending out Biden and his surrogates to speak to citizens in order to move the numbers.

    Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a co-chair of Biden’s project, decreased to eliminate Biden duplicating triumphes in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — or discovering a method to turn electoral votes into his column in North Carolina — however he stressed the value of the Rust Belt.

    “We require to double down on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania,” he stated.

    Biden and his White Home team — Very first Woman Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — have actually been to Michigan a lots times jointly given that his re-election project released in 2015, according to an NBC News tally. The group has actually represented 10 journeys to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while they have actually gone to Georgia 8 times, Nevada and Arizona 7 times and North Carolina 5 times, according to the NBC Think piece.

    The very first woman strategies to take a trip to Wisconsin Thursday, where she will offer an early afternoon project speech in Green Bay. The city is the federal government and population center in Brown County, among the country’s crucial swing locations. From there, Jill Biden prepares to fly to Duluth, Minn., for a speech in a state that her spouse won in 2020 however that the Trump project has actually allocated as a pickup chance. On Friday and Saturday, she will project in Nevada and Arizona.

    The project’s choice to send her to Minnesota recommends that there is at least some issue in Biden’s circles about Trump’s inroads in a state Republican politicians have not won in majority a century. It has as numerous electoral votes as Wisconsin — 10 — however the majority of strategists think it is more Democratic-leaning than any of the Big 3.

    By himself, Trump has actually held 7 project occasions in Nevada, 6 each in Michigan and Pennsylvania, 3 each in Georgia and North Carolina, 2 in Wisconsin and one in Arizona, according to an NBC analysis of his travel. His schedule was constrained, he has actually stated, by the weeks he invested in a New york city courtroom before he was condemned on 34 counts associated to falsifying company records as part of a plan to assist his 2016 project by covering a declared affair that he rejects.

    Trump is arranged to appear at a rally in Detroit on Saturday and one in Racine, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. His project decreased to make assistants readily available to discuss their battlefield technique.

    Due to the fact that Democrats hold the White Home, it would be natural for them to play more defense and for Trump’s out-of-power Republican politicians to go on offense in a broader set of states. There just aren’t numerous — or possibly any — sensible targets for Biden outside the states he caught in 2020.

    Electoral mathematics has actually ended up being more complex for Biden since reapportionment following the 2020 census took an internet of 3 electoral votes far from states he won that year — consisting of one each from Michigan and Pennsylvania — and moved them into states that preferred Trump. Had Biden lost Georgia, Arizona and Nevada in 2020, and kept whatever else, he would have collected 273 electoral votes. Now, that figure is 270 — the precise number essential to win the presidency.

    Get In Nebraska. It is among 2 states, in addition to Maine, that award an electoral elect each congressional district a prospect wins. Statewide, Nebraska citizens have actually extremely preferred Republican governmental prospects in current elections. However Biden won the Omaha-based second Congressional District — and its single electoral vote — in 2020.

    It is possible that the election might boil down to that single Home district, which Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Trump and Biden every one as soon as in the last 4 election cycles.

    If Biden keeps the rust belt trifecta however loses Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, a Trump win in the Omaha district would lead to a 269-269 tie that would require the election to a vote of each state in your house. By winning the Big 3 plus Omaha — or Nevada, Georgia or Arizona — Biden would win outright.

    Khanna stated there’s something “distinctively engaging” about Biden and his financial message in the Rust Belt states, including that they represent “the clearest course to 270 electoral votes.”

    This short article was initially released on NBCNews.com

  • Biden declares close US-France ties as he’s dealt with to a state check out

    Biden declares close US-France ties as he’s dealt with to a state check out

    President Joe Biden declared the close ties in between the United States and France Saturday as French President Emmanuel Macron hosted his United States equivalent for a main state check out in Paris.

    “Today, we have as soon as again revealed the world as soon as again the power of allies, what we can attain when we stand together. That’s what the relationship in between France and the United States exhibits,” Biden stated in remarks with Macron from the Élysée Palace.

    The features of the check out come as the United States has actually enhanced its alliance with its earliest ally amidst Russia’s war in Ukraine even as some indications of cracks have actually emerged over the dispute in the Middle East.

    Macron invited the president and very first girl Jill Biden with an official welcome event starting at Paris landmark the Arc de Triomphe. The Bidens got to the monolith through motorcade, where they were welcomed by Macron and French initially girl Brigitte Macron.

    The leaders paid their aspects at the Burial place of the Unidentified Soldier and positioned completion of a big sword into the everlasting flame. A French military choir carried out “The Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by “La Marseillaise.” Biden and Macron observed a flyover before welcoming authorities from a French delegation as bagpipes played “Incredible Grace.”

    The Bidens and Macrons signed a guestbook before boarding their particular automobiles, which drove gradually down the Champs-Élysées, flanked by military workers and American and French flags. The generally dynamic Parisian road was cleared of pedestrians, with considerable roadway closures impacting the location.

    Biden explained Saturday’s arrival event as a “moving experience.”

    “It was a moving experience for a trainee of history to be at the Champs Élysée today – that was a moving experience for us, the entire delegation,” he stated.

    President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron participate in a ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, Saturday, June 8, 2024 in Paris. - Evan Vucci/AP

    President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron take part in an event at the burial place of the Unidentified soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, Saturday, June 8, 2024 in Paris. – Evan Vucci/AP

    The Bidens got to Elysée Palace, the French president’s main house, where the leaders strolled up a red carpet and positioned for images before they started a working lunch. At night, the Macrons invite the Bidens back to the Élsyée Palace for a state supper.

    Macron is returning the favor to Biden, who hosted the French president for a state check out at the White Home in December 2022, the administration’s very first.

    Biden kept in mind that the United States commemorates Self-reliance Day, the 4th of July, next month.

    “That task would not have actually been possible … were it not for France pertaining to our help. We’re a country since of France, in big part. You stepped up when we required aid,” he stated.

    France, Biden stated, “Was our very first pal. Stays among our buddies.”

    “Today, I happily stand with France and assistance liberty and democracy all over the world. That’s what this magnificent week is everything about,” he stated.

    There has actually been much for the leaders to talk about.

    Macron, like other United States allies, has actually independently questioned the future of United States management on the planet need to Biden lose the November election to previous President Donald Trump, with whom he had a more complex relationship.

    Biden has actually often remembered conference with world leaders at a G7 conference early in his term where he pronounced, “America is back.”

    “And the French leader took a look at me, and he stated, ‘For the length of time?’” Biden stated to laughter at a March charity event in New york city City. “It wasn’t amusing. He stated – he was severe, ‘For the length of time?’”

    Biden has frequently pointed to those stress and anxieties amongst his equivalents as he makes the case for a 2nd term, though Europe has actually likewise needed to compete with its own increasing tide of populism.

    On the subject of Ukraine, both nations have actually promoted their assistance for the war-torn nation. Biden on Friday revealed a brand-new $225 billion help bundle while saying sorry to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for the congressional hold-up.

    And for his part, Macron has actually been among the essential leaders in Europe’s reaction to Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine. France has actually doubled its defense budget plan, revealed it would exceed NATO’s 2% defense costs standard and rebooted domestic production of crucial military inputs.

    Biden indicated both nations’ assistance for Ukraine as an example of their close relationship.

    “We understand what occurs if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is successful in ruling over Ukraine. … And we understand Putin isn’t going to stop at Ukraine – it’s not simply Ukraine, it’s about a lot more than Ukraine. All of Europe will be threatened. We’re not gonna let that take place,” Biden stated, repeating, “We will not leave.”

    He likewise pointed out cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, in the Middle East and on the problem of environment modification.

    On the Israel-Hamas war, Macron backed a ceasefire proposition set out by Biden, composing in a post on X recently, “The war in Gaza should end. We support the United States proposition for a long lasting peace.”

    However France braked with Western allies last month as the foreign ministry revealed assistance for the International Lawbreaker Court’s choice to look for an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar. Biden had actually called the ICC’s choice “outrageous.”

    Both Macron and Biden invited the news of the rescue of 4 Israeli captives who were captured by Hamas on October 7. CNN has actually reported that an American cell in Israel supported the efforts to save 4 Israeli captives, dealing with Israeli forces on the operation. Biden utilized the minute to push for the ceasefire proposition he detailed recently.

    “I wish to echo President Macron’s remarks inviting the safe rescue of 4 captives that were gone back to their households in Israel,” Biden stated.

    He continued, “We won’t quit working till all the captives are home and a ceasefire is reached. That is necessary to take place.”

    The US-French relationship, nevertheless, has actually considerably enhanced from a low point early in the Biden administration. In September 2021, Macron took the amazing action of remembering his ambassador to Washington over a US-Australia submarine offer that blindsided the French and cost them a multi-billion dollar defense agreement. 

    “They have a warm and close relationship,” National Security Council representative John Kirby informed press reporters Friday night. “Among the important things the president aspects and appreciates about President Macron is he’s as truthful and sincere as President Joe Biden is. That’s what he wishes to see in a pal, in an ally.”

    Biden and Macron are likewise anticipated to talk about deepening maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, with a statement anticipated to construct maritime police capability and boost US-France technical cooperation on port security in the area, Kirby stated.

    “I believe you’ll see that that that we are as close as we have actually ever been with our French allies,” Kirby included.

    CORRECTION: This story has actually been upgraded to remedy the area of the state supper.

    CNN’s Kayla Tausche and Xiaofei Xu added to this report

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  • Donald Trump is running against Joe Biden. But he keeps bringing up another Democrat: Jimmy Carter

    Donald Trump is running against Joe Biden. But he keeps bringing up another Democrat: Jimmy Carter

    ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump campaigns for a return to the White House, he often reaches back more than 40 years and seven administrations to belittle President Joe Biden by comparing him to 99-year-old Jimmy Carter.

    Most recently, Trump used his first campaign stop after the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York to needle the 46th president by saying the 39th president, a recently widowed hospice patient who left office in 1981, was selfishly pleased with Biden’s record.

    “Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” Trump said in a variation of a quip he has used throughout the 2024 campaign, including as former first lady Rosalynn Carter was on her deathbed. “Jimmy Carter is happy,” Trump continued about the two Democrats, “because he had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden.”

    It was once common for Republicans like Trump to lampoon Carter. Many Democrats, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, kept their distance for years, too, after a roiled economy, energy shortages and an extended American hostage crisis led to Carter’s landslide defeat in 1980. The negative vibes waned, though, with the passage of time and reconsideration of Carter’s legacy as a political leader, Nobel laureate and global humanitarian.

    That leaves some observers, Democrats especially, questioning Trump’s attempts to saddle Biden with the decades-old baggage of a frail man who closed his public life last November by silently leading the mourning for his wife of 77 years.

    “It’s just a very dated reference,” said pollster Zac McCrary, whose Alabama-based firm has worked for Biden. “It’s akin to a Democrat launching an attack on Gerald Ford or Herbert Hoover or William McKinley. It doesn’t signify anything to voters except Trump taking a cheap shot at a figure that most Americans at this point believe has given a lot to his country and to the world.”

    Trump loyalists insist that even a near-centenarian is fair game in the rough-and-tumble reality of presidential politics.

    “I was saying it probably before President Trump: Joe Biden’s worse than Jimmy Carter,” said Georgia resident Debbie Dooley, an early national tea party organizer during Obama’s first term and a Trump supporter since early in his 2016 campaign. Dooley said inflation under Biden justifies the parallel: “I’m old enough to remember the gas lines under President Carter.”

    Any comparison, of course, involves selective interpretation, and Trump’s decision to bring a third president into the campaign carries complications for all three –- and perhaps some irony for Trump, who, like Carter, was rejected by voters after one term.

    Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his comparisons; Biden’s campaign was dismissive of them.

    “Donald Trump is flailing and struggling to land coherent attacks on President Biden,” spokesman Seth Schuster said.

    Carter remains at home in Plains, Georgia, where those close to him say he has kept up with the campaign. Biden is unquestionably the closest friend Carter has had in the White House since he left it. Biden was a first-term lawmaker from Delaware when he became the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter’s underdog campaign. After he won the White House, Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters in Plains. They saw a grieving Carter privately before Rosalynn Carter’s funeral in Atlanta last year.

    Like Carter, Biden is seeking reelection at a time when Americans are worried about inflation. But today’s economy is not the same as the one Carter faced.

    The post-pandemic rebound, fueled by stimulus spending from the U.S. and other governments, has been blamed for global inflation. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in response.

    But the effective federal funds rate is 5.33% right now, while the benchmark was above 17% for a key period before the 1980 election. Rates for a 30-year mortgage are about half what they were at the peak of Carter’s administration; unemployment is less than half the Carter peak. The average per-gallon gas price in the U.S., topping $3.60 this month, is higher than the $3 peak under Trump. It reached $4.50 (adjusted for inflation) during Carter’s last year in office.

    Carter and Trump actually share common ground. They are the clearest Washington outsiders in modern history to win the presidency, each fueled by voter discontent with the establishment.

    A little-known Georgia governor and peanut farmer, Carter leveraged fallout from Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Trump was the populist businessman and reality TV star who pledged to “Make America Great Again.” Both men defy ideological labels, standing out for their willingness to talk to dictators and isolated nations such as North Korea, even if they offered differing explanations for why.

    Carter cautioned his party about underestimating Trump’s appeal, and the Carters attended Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Jimmy Carter, however, openly criticized Trump’s penchant for lies. After Carter suggested Russian propaganda helped elect Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump began to insult Carter as a failure.

    Unlike Carter, Trump never accepted defeat. He falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, then promoted debunked theories about the election that were repeated by supporters in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress convened to certify Biden’s victory. Trump left Washington the morning Biden took office, becoming the first president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip his successor’s inauguration.

    Carter conceded to Republican Ronald Reagan, attended his inauguration, then returned to Georgia. There, he and Rosalynn Carter established The Carter Center in 1982. They spent decades advocating for democracy, mediating international conflict and advancing public health in the developing world. They built houses for low-income people with Habitat for Humanity. Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

    Many historians’ judgment of Carter’s presidency has softened.

    He is credited with deregulating much of the transportation industry, making air travel far more accessible to Americans, and creating the Department of Energy to streamline and coordinate the nation’s energy research. He negotiated the Camp David peace deal between Egypt and Israel. He diversified the federal judiciary and executive branch. He appointed the Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, who, along with Reagan, would get credit for the economic growth of the 1980s. Carter was the first president to raise concerns about rising global temperatures. And it was Carter, along with his diplomatic team, who negotiated the release of American hostages in Tehran, though they were not freed until minutes after Carter’s term expired.

    Biographies, documentaries and news coverage across Carter’s 10th decade have reassessed that record.

    By 2015, a Quinnipiac University poll found 40% of registered voters viewed Carter as having done the best work since leaving office among presidents from Carter through George W. Bush. When Gallup asked voters last year to rate Carter’s handling of his presidency, 57% approved and 36% disapproved. (Trump measured 46% approval and 54% disapproval at the time, the first retroactive measure Gallup had conducted for him.)

    “There has long been a general consensus of admiration for Carter as a person — that sentiment that he was a good and decent man,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor who studies collective public memory and has written extensively on Carter. The more recent conclusions about Carter as a president, she added, suggest “we should consider Carter’s presidency as a lens to think about reevaluating about how we gauge the failure or success of any administration.”

    How that plays into Biden’s rematch with Trump, Roessner said, “remains to be seen.”

    Regardless, the ties between the 39th and 46th presidents endure, whatever the 45th president might say. When the time comes for Carter’s state funeral, Trump is expected to be invited alongside Carter’s other living successors. But it will be Biden who delivers the eulogy.

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  • ‘Educators for Biden-Harris’ launches in Pennsylvania with focus on teacher pay

    ‘Educators for Biden-Harris’ launches in Pennsylvania with focus on teacher pay

    Valerie Williams, a former teacher in Pittsburgh, speaks at the April 26, 2024 launch of Educators for Biden in Pennsylvania. She was joined by state Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) (l) and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Bill Hileman (screen capture)

    PITTSBURGH — When her daughter was born, Valerie Williams had already had her on a waitlist for childcare for six months, hoping she’d have a spot lined up before it was time for her to go back to her job as an early childhood educator. She eventually found a child care program, but said she had to work extra jobs just to pay the $1,400 monthly bill— the equivalent of a second mortgage or rent payment, Williams said. 

    “I was a pretty good teacher working for untenably low wages, teaching in a local Pittsburgh area child care center making $12.40 an hour — that’s $496 a week before taxes, or $25,792 a year — from which my own health care premiums were also deducted, a few hundred dollars each month,” Williams said. “So I worked two additional jobs at that time, routinely working seven days a week.”

    But then she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While it was ultimately benign, at the time of her diagnosis Williams had no idea how she was going to manage or how much medical care she would need. Then she was hit with another shock: She could not afford the deductibles and copays under the health care plan provided by her teaching job. 

    “I realized that my wages were so low, I couldn’t afford to use my own health care,” Williams said. She made her comments at the Friday launch in Pittsburgh of an “Educators for Biden-Harris” initiative for Pennsylvania, joined by state Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Bill Hileman. 

    Sen. Williams, who is minority chair of the state Senate Education Committee, said the launch was “about mobilizing educators, school staff, parents and everyone in the community who cares about public education in this country.” 

    For many teachers, Sen. Williams said, the pandemic pause on student loan payments — which began during former President Donald Trump’s administration — and the recent loan forgiveness initiatives were the only ways they could afford to remain in their classrooms. 

    First lady and teacher Jill Biden launched the national Educators for Biden-Harris initiative April 19 in Minnesota, joined by the presidents of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The two national teachers’ unions, which have already endorsed President Joe Biden, have nearly five million combined members with local affiliates in all 50 states.

    As part of its student loan debt forgiveness initiatives, the Biden administration in March announced it would forgive about $6 billion in student loan debt for 78,000 public service workers including teachers, nurses and social workers. 

    Vice President Kamala Harris visited Philadelphia earlier this month to tout a new round of student debt forgiveness from the administration, and spoke with educators who described how having their loans canceled had changed their lives for the better. 

    To date, the Biden administration has canceled or forgiven a total of $144 billion in student loan debt for more than 4 billion borrowers, Harris said. 

    Campaigns’ education plans

    Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president, has criticized the Biden administration’s student debt relief efforts, calling them “very, very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work.”

    On his campaign website under a “Protect Parents Rights” section, Trump outlines his education plan if he wins another term, which includes “reward[ing] states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure for grades K-12 and adopt Merit Pay, cut the number of school administrators, adopt a Parental Bill of Rights, and implement the direct election of school principals by the parents.”

    Under his 2025 budget request, Biden proposes $12 billion to “fund strategies to lower college costs for students,” according to a White House fact sheet accompanying the budget request. And during his 2024 State of the Union address in March, Biden echoed an earlier call to increase pay for public school teachers.

    Valerie Williams said she ultimately left her teaching position and took a full-time role with her second job for better benefits and pay. “I still think about those children and their families and how frustrating it was to have to make that call,” she said Friday. “If I’d been making more money and had the benefits I needed, I would have been able to stay at the job I loved so much.” 

    The post ‘Educators for Biden-Harris’ launches in Pennsylvania with focus on teacher pay appeared first on Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

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  • White House plans to limit Biden’s graduation speeches as campuses erupt in protests

    White House plans to limit Biden’s graduation speeches as campuses erupt in protests

    WASHINGTON — Amid growing protests on college campuses by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the White House is planning for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to have a minimal presence for a traditional rite of spring: delivering commencement addresses.

    Biden is scheduled to speak at Morehouse College and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in May, while Harris is only slated to give a graduation speech at the Air Force Academy. First lady Jill Biden, who teaches at a community college, is expected to deliver a commencement address, though no school has been named.

    Two White House officials noted that the number of speeches for Biden and Harris is similar to the two previous years. By comparison, when then-President Barack Obama was seeking re-election in 2012, he delivered addresses at the Air Force Academy, Barnard College and Joplin High School. That same year, then-Vice President Biden spoke at West Point and high schools in the battleground states of Virginia and Florida.

    Another White House official declined to preview how Biden might address the campus unrest. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters this week that Biden always views these addresses “as a special time to deliver a message — an encouraging message, a message that’s hopefully uplifting to the graduates and their families.”

    “He is going to do his best to meet that moment as it relates to what’s going on, the pain that communities are feeling,” she said.

    Biden campaign officials say that despite the media focus on campus protests, public polling and their own research show that young voters are more concerned with other issues. A new Harvard University poll found that inflation and health care topped the list of issues most important to voters ages 18-29. Gun violence, protecting democracy, climate change and women’s reproductive rights also were higher than the war in Gaza.

    But John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, said polls and other research he’s conducted underscore the challenges Biden faces in this environment, as well as potential opportunity for him to shore up support by addressing concerns about Gaza head-on in a setting like a commencement ceremony, where students but also their parents, faculty and administrators are gathered together.

    “That’s an important opportunity to try to bridge these divides, perhaps like only Biden can do. Because there are divides on this issue,” he said.

    While the situation in Gaza may not be high on the list of topics identified by young voters as priorities, Della Volpe compared it to an issue like climate change where if a candidate doesn’t share their view, voters won’t engage with them on other issues.

    “One of the first things that a young person tells me is that they don’t feel understood,” Della Volpe said. “There needs to be a recognition that we’re working seriously toward a permanent cease-fire. There needs to be recognition that we’re moving toward a two-state solution. There needs to be recognition that we do everything humanly possible to free the hostages and give people dignity.”

    A graduate holds a sign (Alex Brandon / AP file)

    A graduate holds a sign (Alex Brandon / AP file)

    For months, the Biden campaign has been “obsessed” with finding new and innovative ways to motivate younger voters, according to a senior official. The campaign notes that it launched a young voter program earlier than past presidential campaigns and has already begun deploying staff to start organizing a presence at colleges in targeted states.

    Eve Levenson, the Biden campaign’s national youth engagement coordinator, said the physical outreach on campuses is just one part of the strategy for reaching young voters. The campaign is putting a heavy emphasis on targeting college students online through its digital program and paid advertising on major social media apps. She also said there is a major emphasis on reaching young voters who aren’t enrolled in college, both through an organizing program and by having a presence at major public gatherings like music festivals and sporting events.

    The campaign next week will launch a major effort targeting young voters on abortion rights timed to the end of the school year, Levenson said.

    “We know from the conversations we have that young voters are planning to vote, and voters are planning to vote for us,” she said. “I think that there are always going to be things that not all people agree with us on. And it’s our job to make it clear what the contrast is, what the stakes of this election are. And to remind people of that.”

    Last fall, Harris conducted what the White House called a “Fight for Our Freedoms” tour of colleges, where she visited nine different campuses and spoke to a combined 15,000 students. Biden has held some recent events at smaller colleges, with small and carefully vetted audiences. Large-scale campaign-style rallies on or near campuses have been a staple of general election campaigns, especially for Democratic candidates, but the Biden campaign has been focusing on more intimate gatherings that can be filmed and distributed by its digital team.

    Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., visited multiple Wisconsin college campuses this week as a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board. He said he found, as the Harvard poll showed, that inflation and health care were top concerns among students, but that the situation in Gaza was often a subject of respectful debate.

    “Gaza is a challenging issue. And we can’t just wish it away,” he said in an interview. “It would be wrong to think that’s not impacting organizers and activists who are engaged in helping get support for the president.”

    He also said Biden should not be reluctant to address the issue directly with young voters.

    “It’s not the only issue by any means. It’s not even the No. 1 issue. But it’s in the conversation,” he said. “That kind of engagement shows students that they matter, that their voices are being heard.”

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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  • Trump to take the stage in Wilmington, NC, for his second rally in the Port City

    Trump to take the stage in Wilmington, NC, for his second rally in the Port City

    Former President Donald Trump will take the stage in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday to rally voters in the battleground state ahead of the November election.

    This is his first big campaign event since the start of his criminal trial in New York City on whether he falsified business records to cover up a payment to a porn star, marking the first-ever trial of a former American president.

    He is also facing several other state and federal investigations, including into his business, his handling of classified documents and related to efforts to overturn and reverse the results of the 2020 election.

    Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Is no stranger to the Port City, having hosted a rally here in 2022 prior to the state’s mid-term elections to campaign for Sen. Ted Budd, then a candidate. He most recently hosted a rally in Greensboro just days before Super Tuesday.

    His competitor for the White House has also been active.

    President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Raleigh in late March, honing in on health care access and calling to reinstate Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that made abortion a constitutional right for decades. First lady Jill Biden visited Greensboro and Greenville on Monday.

    The Democratic National Convention took Trump’s visit as an opportunity to attack the former president on abortion policy. DNC placed 16 English and Spanish billboards in Charlotte — where Trump is holding a fundraiser — and Wilmington.

    The billboards read: “Abortion is banned in North Carolina thanks to Donald Trump. He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide.”

    “Donald Trump is responsible for the attacks on reproductive rights that we’re seeing in North Carolina and across the nation,” said Jackie Bush, DNC’s regional press secretary.

    As Trump transitioned from celebrity to politician his views on abortion moved from one extreme to the other, and he often changes that policy position, making it hard to track what he would do if he were president. His latest position is that abortion laws should be left to the states.

    “His anti-freedom agenda is already endangering the lives of women in North Carolina, but Trump and his cronies won’t stop until every woman across the country lives under an extreme national abortion ban,” Bush said. “That’s why women in North Carolina and across the country will reject Trump’s extreme bans at the ballot box this November and send President Joe Biden back to the White House.”

    Polls show Trump and Biden neck-and-neck in North Carolina. Last week, a Quinnipiac University poll said the race would be too close to call if the election were held today.

    North Carolina is considered a swing state, but it has largely favored GOP presidential candidates, including in 2020, when Biden lost to Trump by just 1.5% of the vote. But while the state overall opted for Trump, the preference varies by county, with some swaths of the state being deeply red, while others, typically urban areas, run blue.

    New Hanover, is a purple county, and was one of just three counties in North Carolina to flip between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. The others were Nash and Scotland.

    At the Aero Center in Wilmington, doors open at 3 p.m., and Trump is set to give remarks at 7 p.m.

    Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area is hosting its 2024 Veterans parade at the Wilmington International Airport at about 9:30 p.m.

    This could bring additional traffic to the area.

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  • First lady Jill Biden to visit NC and highlight career-connected learning programs

    First lady Jill Biden to visit NC and highlight career-connected learning programs

    First lady Jill Biden will visit North Carolina on Monday, aiming to talk up the administration’s focus on education.

    Stopping in Greenville and Greensboro, Biden will visit local community colleges to discuss career-connected learning programs.

    Schedule of the first lady’s visit

    At 12:30 p.m., Biden will make her first stop at Pitt Community College in Winterville, where she’ll highlight programs that are “transforming the high school experience and unlocking new pathways to career opportunities for students,” according to a press release.

    Then, at 3:15 p.m., she’ll visit Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro. There, she plans to join a roundtable discussion with local leaders, teachers and students.

    In January, the Biden administration announced a $25 million investment in career-connected learning programs across the country. Montgomery County Schools received over $1.4 million as part of this program.

    Presidential candidates focus on NC

    President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Raleigh last month, discussing health care and the administration’s desire to restore access to abortion.

    And former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Greensboro last month where he promised to order “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if elected.

    Biden and Trump are both expected to campaign heavily in North Carolina this year as the state continues to be seen as a key swing state to winning the presidency.

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  • A look at the White House state dinner for Japan in photos

    A look at the White House state dinner for Japan in photos

    A spring-themed menu inspired by American and Japanese cuisine and decor evocative of a koi pond are all features of Wednesday night’s White House state dinner honoring Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife.

    President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are recognizing the long alliance between the United States and Japan with the rare, time-honored tradition of a state dinner that draws from the traditions of both countries. 

    Singer-songwriter Paul Simon, who counts both the first lady and the prime minister as fans, will be performing. 

    The theme and decor 

    The theme is “celebration of spring,” a symbol meant to mirror the friendship between the two countries. A garden displays blooms native to both nations, including sweet peas, peonies and hydrangeas. Glass and silk butterflies appear on the dinner tables, too. 

    The starring element of the decor for the dinner is the floor, covered to make it appear as if guests are walking over a koi pond with lily pads and cherry blossoms. The colors green, blue and pink are central to the theme — green to represent the growth of friendship, blue to represent stability and security and pink to represent spring’s essence. 

    Biden US Japan
    Glass butterflies decorate the dinner table during a preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, for the State Dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.

    Susan Walsh / AP


    The menu

    The food is the center of any good state dinner. According to the White House, guests will be served a first course of house-cured salmon; a salad of avocados, red grapefruit, watermelon radish and cucumber; and shiso leaf fritters.

    Dry-aged rib eye steak with blistered shishito pepper butter, fava beans, morels and cipollini will be the main course, with a sesame oil sabayon. 

    Biden US Japan
    White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford, left, and White House Executive Pastry Chef Susie Morrison, right, hold the dishes to be served during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, for the State Dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.

    Susan Walsh / AP


    Dessert includes salted caramel pistachio cake, a matcha ganache; and ice cream — cherry ice cream, with raspberry drizzle. 

    Biden US Japan
    Samples of the desert are passed out during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, for the State Dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.

    Susan Walsh / AP


    The evening’s wines are from Oregon and Washington. 

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  • Bidens host 2024 Easter egg roll at White House

    Bidens host 2024 Easter egg roll at White House


    CBS News Live 3

    Live

    Washington — The White House is hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday, where children gathered for the long-held tradition put on by the president and first lady.

    This year’s event, which carries on a tradition that began in 1878, features school themes. The “EGGucation” event hosted by longtime teacher and first lady Jill Biden features educational activities such as a reading nook and a farm field trip, among others, this year.

    Around 40,000 people were expected to attend the annual Easter Egg Roll event. Children roll colorful eggs using wooden spoons across the White House’s South Lawn in the longstanding tradition. 

    US-POLITICS-BIDEN-EASTER
    Children participate in the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2024.

    SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images


    Among the guests are military and veteran families, along with caregivers and survivors. This year’s event marks the third held by the Biden White House, after skipping the event in 2021 event because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Monday’s event was delayed by a storm in the area. The egg-rolling event was supposed to begin at 7 a.m., with nine sessions throughout the day. Members of the general public were able to obtain tickets through an online lottery. 

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  • Biden’s fundraiser with Obama and Clinton nets a record $25 million, his campaign says

    Biden’s fundraiser with Obama and Clinton nets a record $25 million, his campaign says

    NEW YORK (AP) — A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said.

    The eye-popping amount was a major show of Democratic support for Biden at a time of persistently low poll numbers. The president will test the power of the campaign cash as he faces off with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has already proved with his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton that he didn’t need to raise the most money to seize the presidency.

    The Radio City Music Hall event will be a gilded exclamation mark on a recent burst of presidential campaign travel. Biden has visited several political battlegrounds in the three weeks since his State of the Union address served as a rallying cry for his reelection bid. The event also brings together more than three decades of Democratic leadership.

    Obama hitched a ride from Washington to New York aboard Air Force One with Biden. They waved as they descended the plane’s steps at John F. Kennedy International Airport and got into the motorcade for the ride into Manhattan. Clinton was expected to meet them at the event.

    The hourslong fundraiser has different tiers of access depending on donors’ generosity. The centerpiece is an onstage conversation with the three presidents, moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert. There’s also a lineup of musical performers — Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele — that will be hosted by actress Mindy Kaling. Thousands are expected, and tickets are as low as $225.

    More money gets donors more intimate time with the presidents. A photo with all three is $100,000. A donation of $250,000 earns donors access to one reception, and $500,000 gets them into an even more exclusive gathering.

    “But the party doesn’t stop there,” according to the campaign. First lady Jill Biden and DJ D-Nice are hosting an after-party at Radio City Music Hall with 500 guests.

    Obama and Clinton are helping Biden expand his already significant cash advantage over Trump. Biden had $155 million in cash on hand through the end of February, compared with $37 million for Trump and his Save America political action committee.

    The $25 million tally for the New York City event includes money from supporters who handed over cash in the weeks before the fundraiser for a chance to attend. It’s raising $5 million more than Trump raised during February.

    “This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” said campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg. “Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the president’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election.”

    Trump has kept a low profile in recent weeks, partially because of courtroom appearances for various legal cases, the bills for which he’s paying with funds from donors. He is also expected to be in the New York area on Thursday, attending the Long Island wake of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens.

    His next political rally is scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Some Republican leaders have become concerned that his campaign doesn’t have the infrastructure ready for a general election battle with Biden. Trump’s campaign is expecting to bring in $33 million at a big fundraiser next week in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a person familiar, who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm a number first reported by the Financial Times.

    Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, dismissed the import of Biden’s Thursday fundraiser.

    “Crooked Joe is so mentally deficient that he needs to trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama,” he said.

    Leon Panetta, who served in top positions under Clinton and Obama, described the fundraiser as an important moment for Biden’s campaign.

    “What it does, first and foremost, is to broaden and reinforce the support of all Democrats,” he said.

    Panetta said Clinton and Obama, both known as effective political communicators, could help Biden develop a better pitch for his reelection.

    “I can’t think of two people who would be better at putting together that kind of message,” he said.

    Obama’s attendance Thursday is a reminder of his role in boosting Biden’s reelection. A joint fundraiser with Biden and Obama raised nearly $3 million in December. And people who served in the Obama administration are also raising money for Biden, scheduling their own event on April 11.

    “Consider what you’ll donate this cycle and do it now,” said an email sent to a network of people. “Early money is far more valuable to the campaign.”

    ___

    Megerian reported from Washington.

    ___

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

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  • Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to raise $25 million with Biden amid concerns about his age

    Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to raise $25 million with Biden amid concerns about his age

    Bill Clinton was 22 years younger than George H.W. Bush when he unseated him in 1992. He had just turned 50 when he won a second term by defeating the 73-year-old Bob Dole four years later. In 2008, Barack Obama was just 47 when he won the White House by defeating John McCain, a Senate colleague who was a quarter-century his senior.

    On Thursday, both former presidents — now 77 and 62 years old, respectively — will suspend their active retirements to try to provide a political jolt to the campaign of their successor Joe Biden, 81, with a rare joint appearance for a campaign fundraiser in New York.

    The rare and highly anticipated gathering of three Democratic presidents will raise over $25 million, according to a release by the Biden campaign, which is characterizing it as the most successful political fundraiser in American history.

    But it also may serve to highlight Biden’s main vulnerability this year, one that his campaign has increasingly taken steps to overcome.

    Unlike Obama and Clinton before him, Biden is running against a candidate only a few years his junior. Still, Biden has already been adopting some of the tactics and even language that Dole and McCain used when they ran against much younger men.

    Take, for instance, Biden’s last trip to New York, where he offered a new answer to the age question.

    “It’s about how old your ideas are,” he told NBC “Late Night” host Seth Meyers, adding that former President Donald Trump “wants to take us back on a whole range of issues.”

    It was a twist on how Clinton answered a question about Dole’s age during the second presidential debate in 1996.

    “I don’t think Sen. Dole is too old to be president. It’s the age of his ideas that I question,” he said.

    Dole said that “wisdom comes from age, experience and intelligence,” also mirroring an answer Biden has given this year.

    Scott Reed, who was Dole’s campaign manager, said the campaign was often frustrated at how age was a frequent focus of the media covering the race. The campaign released detailed medical records and did focus groups and polling to test ways to address the issue — and found that older voters tended to be especially concerned about it.

    They “could never imagine being president. They couldn’t even keep their own checkbooks, let alone be commander of the free world,” Reed, who recently was a co-chair of a super PAC supporting Mike Pence’s presidential campaign, told NBC News.

    Dole campaigned more aggressively than any of the other principals in the race, Reed argued, including a final 96-hour nonstop campaign in the closing days that he said helped Republicans at least maintain control of Congress.

    “Beating an incumbent president is very difficult, especially when there’s a growing economy and a world peace. So our challenge against Clinton back in ’96 was bigger than age,” he said.

    Twelve years later, McCain, like Dole, tried to use humor to defuse the age issue. Both men, in fact, made cameos on “Saturday Night Live” — McCain multiple times — where age was a punch line.

    “I ask you: What should we be looking for in our next president? Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old,” McCain said in one appearance. “I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and, most importantly, the oldness necessary.”

    Mark Salter, a longtime senior adviser to McCain, said the campaign also recognized age was a challenge but aimed for a show-not-tell response.

    “We didn’t make him up or change his wardrobe or have him do push-ups in front of the cameras or anything,” he said. “We would often draw reporters’ attention to the fact his schedule was more crowded than Obama’s. In New Hampshire, he would do 100 or whatever town halls and stick around until the last question was asked. And then he talked to reporters all day, worked all night.”

    Clinton’s campaigns — especially a re-election theme of “Building a Bridge to the 21st Century” — sought to capitalize on the generational contrast more conspicuously than Obama’s. For Obama, “Change” as a theme was more a one-two punch in the Democratic primaries, running to succeed the unpopular George W. Bush while challenging the initial Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton.

    Salter said McCain’s team did consider the idea of a one-term pledge, “not so much to address a concern about his age as it was to get a piece of the ‘change’ message.” Ultimately, though, McCain shot down the idea.

    “He never had any doubt” about his ability to serve, Salter said. “He never seemed his age until he got sick.” McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017, the year a potential second term would have ended.

    There is not much precedent for the event Biden’s campaign is putting on Thursday. The high-profile evening, which will draw more than 3,000 people, is expected to sell out, the person familiar with the planning said.

    The event is designed to impress.

    Actor Mindy Kaling will host the program at Radio City Music Hall, which will open with remarks from first lady Jill Biden and feature musical guests Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele, according to a Biden campaign official.

    Some of the biggest donors will have the opportunity to have their pictures taken with the three Democratic presidents, shot by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. The cheapest tickets have sold for $250, with the largest contributions coming from people who gave $250,000 and $500,000.

    Biden-Harris campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, finance chair Rufus Gifford and Biden Victory Fund finance chair Chris Korge have taken the lead on organizing the fundraiser, along with Condé Nast Editorial Director Anna Wintour.

    Beyond the in-person component, other donors will have access to a “grassroots virtual conversation” with the three presidents that will be moderated by Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. That access costs as little as $25, according to the online invitation.

    The first lady will also hold a “500 person VIP afterparty” after the event, which will be co-hosted by DJ D-Nice, whose profile rose during the coronavirus pandemic after he held virtual “Club Quarantine” events on Instagram live.

    In planning Thursday’s fundraiser, the Biden, Obama and Clinton teams have sought to balance how “you look forward and backward at the same time,” a source familiar with the planning said. Obama, Biden and Clinton will inevitably go down memory lane during a discussion moderated by comedian Stephen Colbert.

    Some of the legislation Biden is proudest of from his time as a senator — the crime bill and the Violence Against Women Act — were signed into law by Clinton. And Biden’s loyal service as Obama’s vice president was a major factor in overcoming other vulnerabilities, including age, as he ran in a crowded field of Democrats in 2020.

    But Biden has increasingly been using the word “future” in his speeches while describing policies like tax reform, universal pre-K and affordable housing that would be part of a second-term agenda.

    “I want to talk about the future of possibilities that we can build together — a future where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and the biggest corporations no longer get all the tax breaks,” he said in his State of the Union address this month.

    Biden speaks regularly to both former presidents, according to multiple sources familiar with the relationships. Obama and Biden met in person Friday to record an event tied to the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

    During a private conversation in the White House’s Family Dining Room, Obama told Biden how effective he thought his State of the Union address had been, as had been the busy travel schedule Biden embarked on afterward, said a source familiar with the matter.

    Aside from private conversations, Biden also often directs his top aides to follow up with Obama or Clinton on various topics of conversation. Chief of staff Jeff Zients, senior advisers Anita Dunn and Steve Ricchetti, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and campaign advisers Jen O’Malley Dillon and Mike Donilon have all held calls with Obama recently at Biden’s direction.

    Similarly, a longtime Clinton aide met last week with Ricchetti to discuss Clinton’s desire to play an active role in support of Biden this year.

    Beyond traditional campaigning, both men are likely to participate in more unconventional campaign tactics the Biden team has been experimenting with to reach especially younger voters. Thursday’s fundraiser is just one component of what an official involved in the process called an “extensive program” for the three commanders in chief in New York on Thursday, including recording a podcast together.

    Reed, the Dole campaign manager, said Biden’s best approach in dealing with age is not an “ice cream cone strategy” of trying to appear more dynamic.

    “The best thing Biden can do is go after Trump and show the energy he shows when he’s behind closed doors with these donors,” he said.

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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