News, Analysis and Opinion from POLITICO
President Joe Biden called Alabama’s decision “outrageous and unacceptable,” and said it is a “direct result” of overturning Roe v. Wade. | Leon Neal/Getty Images
Legal
One clinic cited “the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists.”
By SAMANTHA LATSON
Two more clinics in Alabama will pause in vitro fertilization treatment after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this week that frozen embryos are children under state law.
Alabama Fertility Specialists in Birmingham announced its decision Thursday on Facebook.
“We have made the impossibly difficult decision to hold new IVF treatments due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists,” the clinic wrote.
The clinic said it’s contacting patients whose care was abruptly paused to find options and potential solutions. It also notified the public that it’s working to contact legislators to explain the “negative impact of this ruling on the women of Alabama.”
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By RENEE KLAHR
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Foreign Affairs
From Washington to Munich, the world reacted to news of Navalny’s death at a precarious time for transatlantic relations.
By JONATHAN LEMIRE and ALEXANDER WARD
Updated
The shock waves of Alexei Navalny’s death rippled across the Atlantic.
In Washington, President Joe Biden blamed Vladimir Putin for the dissident’s shock demise. Hours earlier, Vice President Kamala Harris did the same in Munich. On Capitol Hill and in the halls of a swank hotel in the Bavarian capital, lawmakers in both parties called for punishing Russia and further arming Ukraine.
And in the electoral arena, both the Biden campaign and Nikki Haley, the last major Republican challenger to Donald Trump, assailed the former president for his past praise of Putin.
Navalny’s death provided a capstone to a week in which Russia once again became the central issue of concern across American politics, including new intelligence on Moscow’s anti-satellite capabilities in space and in the entrenched debate over Ukraine aid on Capitol Hill. The news also shook officials and dignitaries at the Munich Security Conference, who expressed outrage and shed tears at his death.
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Special Counsel Robert Hur’s stinging description of President Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” has highlighted the 81-year-old’s age in the debate over whether he should still be the Democratic nominee. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
2024 Elections | Analysis
The political and procedural steps for how to pick a new presidential nominee.
By CHARLIE MAHTESIAN and STEVEN SHEPARD
So far, Democrats have vigorously avoided any discussion of a Plan B for their presidential nominee. But special counsel Robert Hur’s report may have forced their hand.
Fairly or not, Hur’s stinging characterization of President Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties” has thrust the president’s age and mental fitness into the debate. Coupled with the widespread perception that Biden is too old for another term and the fact that he frequently trails former president Donald Trump in swing state polling matchups, it’s raised serious questions about whether Biden is positioned to lead the party in November — and whether Democrats need a contingency plan.
Because of procedural and political hurdles, it would not be easy to simply swap him out. The likeliest outcome is that Biden stays on the ticket. But it is also possible to envision different scenarios where the party does indeed nominate someone other than Biden at its August convention or even picks an alternative afterward to compete in a historic general election.
Here’s how it would work.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker rushed to President Joe Biden’s defense amid renewed questions about his age. | Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Politics
Democratic governors say politics played a role in poking at Biden for his age.
By SHIA KAPOS and JANAKI CHADHA
Democratic governors lashed out Friday against a report from special counsel Robert Hur, which cleared the president of wrongdoing on his handling of classified information but took digs at his age and memory.
“I smell a rat,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection, told reporters when asked about the Hur report.
“It was extremely unfair for a Trump appointee, originally to the Department of Justice, to offer his own opinions about the mental acuity or age of the president of the United States,” Pritzker said in Illinois at an unrelated news conference.
At least one other Democratic governor rushed to Biden’s defense. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul suggested politics played a role in the report’s language, saying, “I question what a Republican former employee of Donald Trump included in his report.”
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By RENEE KLAHR
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Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Special Counsel Robert Hur’s claim that Biden’s memory is “poor.” | Meg Kinnard/AP
White House
As a former prosecutor herself, Harris said, the special counsel should have had more “integrity.”
By SAMANTHA LATSON
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday defended President Joe Biden after the release of a special counsel report that questioned the president’s memory, calling the report “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate.”
Speaking at a community violence prevention program at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Harris condemned Special Counsel Robert Hur’s claim that Biden’s memory is “poor.” As a former prosecutor herself, Harris said, the special counsel should have had more “integrity.”
“The way that the presidents demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated,” Harris said in response to a question at the end of her remarks. “And so I will say that when it comes to the role and responsibility of a prosecutor in a situation like that, we should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.”
Hur’s report, which was released Thursday, found that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified information but that criminal charges weren’t warranted. The report also said Biden had a “poor” memory and that he couldn’t recall when his son Beau died, which prompted a fiery response from Biden during a Thursday night press conference.
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Joe Biden’s victory in South Carolina brings the campaign one step closer to the general election, which is expected to be one of the longest and most expensive in U.S. political history. | Alex Brandon/AP
2024 Elections
The president cruised to an easy win in the Dems’ first sanctioned contest.
By ELENA SCHNEIDER, LAUREN EGAN and BRAKKTON BOOKER
Updated
COLUMBIA, South Carolina — President Joe Biden cruised to victory in the first sanctioned presidential primary Saturday night.
Biden easily beat out nominal challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and self-help author Marianne Williamson in a state that he placed atop the primary calendar and where he scored a crucial victory during his 2020 campaign.
Biden’s victory in South Carolina brings the campaign one step closer to the general election, which is expected to be one of the longest and most expensive in American political history. The Republican presidential primary in South Carolina will be held Feb. 24. Former President Donald Trump is the heavy favorite in that race.
Biden was hoping that South Carolina’s vote would help assuage concerns about Democratic enthusiasm and, more specifically, his standing with Black voters. And, to a large degree, he got what he wanted. Biden looked poised to swamp the competition with roughly 95 percent or more of the vote. Turnout was trending to be roughly around a quarter of the total votes cast four years ago, though that was a much more competitive race.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on Feb. 2, 2024, in Orangeburg, S.C. State Democrats thinking about 2028 said Harris starts with a bit of an edge. | Meg Kinnard/AP
2024 Elections
The first official primary for Democrats is about a little more than President Joe Biden.
By ELENA SCHNEIDER
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina — The Democratic primary in South Carolina this Saturday has morphed into an under-the-radar contest for those eyeing the party’s nomination in 2028.
A host of prominent Democratic politicians with national ambitions have descended on the state over the last week, all hyping the Biden agenda and rallying for the 2024 campaign as surrogates. California Gov. Gavin Newsom took questions from the mayor and county leaders in Allendale, S.C. last week, while Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) headlined the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Black Caucus dinner in Columbia, S.C, last Sunday.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) called Vice President Kamala Harris “my girl” during his introduction for her at a rally at South Carolina State University. And senior staffers for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker met with state legislators this month to discuss what Democrats needed to win races inside the state, according to a person familiar with the sit-downs.
It’s the kind of grasstops glad-handing that seasoned politicians spin as surrogacy for the man atop the ticket but that equally attuned local officials recognize as — to use a colloquial term — laying the groundwork.
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President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media at the White House. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Politics
It’s Biden’s third time as president addressing the annual party conference.
By NICHOLAS WU
President Joe Biden is set to address House Democrats next Thursday at the caucus’ annual issues conference, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The White House Friday evening also announced Vice President Kamala Harris’ expected appearance at the party conference for a Wednesday moderated conversation to “discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing fight for fundamental freedoms.”
It’s Biden’s third time as president speaking at the annual party retreat, where lawmakers gather to devise strategy and messaging. Democrats are convening for closed-door sessions at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Democrats are expected to rally behind Biden at this year’s conference, which will also come days after the South Carolina Democratic primary. Liberals are hoping Biden will reignite energy among the party base for his re-election bid. One member of the caucus, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), opted to challenge Biden in a long-shot bid for the presidency, though he hasn’t attracted any support from sitting lawmakers.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Orangeburg, South Carolina. | Meg Kinnard/AP
2024 Elections
President Biden is expected to cruise to victory in the state on Saturday.
By ELENA SCHNEIDER
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina — In her fourth visit to the state this year, Vice President Kamala Harris reminded voters at South Carolina State University of their newly influential perch.
“South Carolina, you are the first primary in the nation, and President [Joe] Biden and I are counting on you,” Harris said, standing before a stage stamped with “First in the Nation.”
Harris’ get-out-the-vote rally on Friday — where she was joined by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison — caps off the campaign’s first sanctioned Democratic primary contest.
The president is expected to cruise to victory here on Saturday, facing only nominal challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and self-help author Marianne Williamson. But the contest still drew significant attention from the Biden campaign, which pumped more than $400,000 into ads and sent high-level surrogates to blanket the state over the last month.
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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted “Target Tehran” but then clarified he was not seeking airstrikes on civilians. | Francis Chung/AP
Congress
Sens. Roger Wicker, Lindsey Graham and others pushed for a military response.
By KELLY GARRITY
Updated
Calls for retaliation began pouring in from Republican members of Congress moments after U.S. Central Command revealed Sunday that three U.S. service members were killed Saturday night at an American base in Jordan in a drone attack launched by Iranian-backed militias.
“It is time to act with purpose and resolve in response to attacks that have tragically taken the lives of American service members and injured scores more,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee said in a statement.
“We must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its proxies by striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership. … It is time to act swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see.”
Some of Wicker’s fellow Senate Republicans made similar statements.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in Sacramento on Jan. 10, 2024. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Elections
But he said Democrats need to continue working to dominate the political narrative.
By DAVID COHEN
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that the Biden administration has done a much better job of selling itself in recent months.
“That was a year and a half ago, now I don’t feel that way anymore. Absolutely not,” he said of past criticisms of the president and his political party on ABC’s “This Week,” commending both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
But he added: “I would hope that Democrats learn a little bit about communications strategy by flooding the zone and starting to get back on our feet in terms of dominating the narrative.”
The governor, who said that Democrats “have the receipts” from three years of work by the Biden administration, said that former President Donald Trump is always pushing his narrative, regardless of the setting.
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POLITICO illustration by Emily Scherer/Photos by Getty Images, AP
politics
Ambitious politicians spent 2023 jockeying for the presidential race on the horizon.
By BILL SCHER
Donald Trump’s road to victory in the 2016 presidential election began in March 2011, when he first publicly questioned the origin of Barack Obama’s birth. He soon became the leading voice of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory, forging an unbreakable bond with a large portion of the Republican base that would later propel him to the presidency.
Then-Illinois state Senator Barack Obama may not have known it at the time, but his 2002 speech at a Chicago rally opposing an invasion of Iraq set his course to the presidency. Six years later, Obama won his party’s nomination over more experienced Democratic competitors who had voted for the war, and then he bested a Republican military hero in the general election.
So, who took the pivotal steps in 2023 that set them on the path to the presidency in 2028?
It’s not too soon to ask, though that doesn’t make the exercise easy. What appears meaningful can end up forgotten; what seems out-of-step today may look ahead-of-its-time tomorrow. Regardless, what happens five years or more before a presidential election has the potential to set determinative events into motion.
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Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the second National Space Council meeting at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, on Sept. 9, 2022. She serves as chair of the space council. | Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
Defense
It’s unclear what country will take part, but some have already signaled their interest.
By MATT BERG
NASA is hoping to send a group of astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade, and at least one of them won’t be American.
During a National Space Council meeting Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that an astronaut from another country will join the U.S. team.
“In recognition of the essential role that our allies and partners play in the Artemis program,” Harris said in opening remarks before the meeting, “we intend to land an international astronaut on the surface of the moon by the end of the decade.”
It’s a major diplomatic move for Washington as it attempts to build an international coalition in space to counter a similar initiative being pursued by China, which the U.S. believes is gearing up for future battles in orbit. Harris didn’t specify which nation will provide the astronaut.
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Elections
“I never read ‘Mein Kampf,'” Trump told a crowd in Iowa.
By GISELLE RUHIYYIH EWING
Updated
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night denied he was inspired by Hitler while repeating his comments that immigrants were “destroying the blood of our country” — despite coming under intense fire for similar remarks over the weekend.
“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing — they’re destroying our country,” Trump said Tuesday at an event in Waterloo, Iowa, echoing comments he made at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday in which he said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Trump’s weekend remarks were met with much criticism, including from President Joe Biden, who compared his likely 2024 opponent’s rhetoric to that used in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
“The language he uses reminds us of the language coming out of Germany in the 30s,” Biden told reporters Tuesday. “He has called those who oppose him ‘vermin’ and again this weekend he talked about the blood of our country being poisoned.”
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President Joe Biden speaks during a memorial service for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, at the National Cathedral. | . Susan Walsh/AP
Legal
The president honored the first woman Supreme Court justice at a service attended by other members of the high court.
By LAUREN EGAN and JOSH GERSTEIN
President Joe Biden honored the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at a funeral service Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral, celebrating her legacy as an “American pioneer.”
Biden said that O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, “empowered generations of women” and demonstrated that “a woman can not only do anything a man can do, but many times do it a heck of a lot better.”
Speaking to pews full of members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and White House officials, Biden recalled O’Connor as “gracious and wise, civil and principled.” He said she profoundly believed the Supreme Court was a “vital line of defense for the values and the vision of our republic — devoted not to pursuit of power for power’s sake, but to make real promise of America.”
The president applauded O’Connor for “the sacred cause of democracy she devoted her life to,” calling it “one that we must continue.”
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Arab American and Muslim leaders said that they were pleased to see Vice President Kamala Harris’ remarks in Dubai — though they are looking for more than words at this point. | Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images
White House
Her response to the Israel-Hamas war underscores how Democrats are walking a fine line between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian constituencies.
By EUGENE DANIELS and HOLLY OTTERBEIN
Vice President Kamala Harris has been telling colleagues in the administration that she wants the White House to show more concern publicly for the humanitarian damage in Gaza, where Israel is locked in a bloody and prolonged battle with Hamas, according to three people familiar with Harris’ comments.
President Joe Biden is among the officials Harris has urged to show more sensitivity to Palestinian civilians, these people said.
In internal conversations about the war in Gaza, Harris has argued that it is time to start making “day after” plans for how to handle the wreckage of the war once the fighting ends, one senior administration official said.
One person close to the vice president’s office said she believes the United States should be “tougher” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; she has called for being “more forceful at seeking a long-term peace and two-state solution,” this person said.
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