Key occasions
Robert Tait
Historical past could report them as eight days that sunk a presidency, or a minimum of the rockiest highway to a conference in dwelling reminiscence – per week that has left Joe Biden’s re-election bid hanging by a thread.
Right here’s a timeline:
Jessica Glenza
On Friday, high-profile neurosurgeon Dr Sanjay Gupta referred to as on Biden to bear neurological testing and launch the outcomes to the general public, saying he and different mind specialists consider an in depth cognitive examination is warranted.
“From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression,” Gupta wrote for CNN.
Gupta certified that his suggestion was primarily based on “only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper”. He continued that “the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public”.
One of many issues Biden can have been hoping to get out of the ABC interview is stemming the circulate of prime Democratic donors from deserting him, write The Guardian’s Jonathan Yerushalmy and Callum Jones:
On Friday, media tycoon Barry Diller, when requested by the Ankler if he and his spouse, the designer Diane von Fürstenberg, had been holding agency with Biden’s marketing campaign, he replied: “No.”
Diller, beforehand a key monetary backer of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 marketing campaign, has already donated greater than $100,000 to Biden and the Democrats this time round.
Diller adopted Abigail Disney – the inheritor to the Disney household fortune and a significant social gathering donor – who stated on Thursday she would withhold donations until Biden dropped out of the race.
And earlier within the week Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings joined requires Biden to take himself out of the presidential race. Screenwriter Damon Lindelof, who has been a major contributor to the social gathering, proposed on Wednesday a “DEMbargo”, withholding funding till Biden stands apart.
Biden defiant as he fights for his political life
Good morning,
Joe Biden remains to be combating for his political life. On Friday, the president was defiant in a make-or-break TV interview on ABC, insisting that solely “the Lord almighty” might persuade him to exit the US presidential race.
At a rally in Wisconsin, additionally on Friday, Biden once more insisted he wasn’t going anyplace, and dismissed considerations about his age. “We’ve also noticed a lot of discussion about my age,” stated Biden. “Let me say something. I wasn’t too old to create over 50m new jobs.”
It stays unclear whether or not all this can be sufficient to assuage Democratic lawmakers, donors and voters who’re calling on him to step down after a disastrous efficiency on the first presidential debate and a sequence of gaffes and information reviews which have referred to as into query his health to serve one other time period. The approaching days, throughout which Biden has a packed schedule of rallies in swing states, can be essential to his re-election bid.
Observe alongside right here for the most recent developments.
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Listed below are key takeaways from the high-stakes ABC TV interview.
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Pressed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on what he would do if pals and supporters expressed concern that his candidacy would value Democrats the Home of Representatives and Senate, Biden replied: “I’m not going to answer that question. It’s not going to happen.”
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Hundreds of thousands are pinning their hopes on the Democratic social gathering because the final wall of defence towards Donald Trump’s risk of an “imperial presidency”, The Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief David Smith writes. As a substitute the Democratic social gathering is providing 81-year-old Joe Biden and an inside civil struggle.
