Following President Joe Biden's debate oversight
regarding military deaths under his watch, members of gold star families
shared their frustration with the New York Post.
During Thursday night's debate, Biden said,
"The truth is, I'm the only president this century that doesn't have
any this, this decade — doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the
world, like he did," referring to his debate opponent, former President
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Sixteen troops have been killed overseas since Biden took office,
according to the Post. Thirteen were killed during the United States'
withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021. Three were killed five
months ago in Jordan. U.S. troops also have died in training incidents
during Biden's time in office.
Mark Schmitz, whose son, Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, was one the 13
Marines killed in Afghanistan, shared his contempt for Biden's remark
with the Post.
"My phone blew up for probably 20 minutes after that came through,
and everybody was just in utter shock. And my poor kids were in the next
room — let's just say I ultimately ended up having to apologize to them
for my language," he told the Post.
"It took all self-restraint not to put my fist right through my TV. I
was beyond ticked off, disrespected. That's all we've ever gotten out
of this president," he added.
Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui also died during the withdrawal from
Afghanistan. The Post spoke with his father, Steve Nikoui, who was
arrested in March for disrupting Biden's State of the Union address.
"I did see that, and I was just as shocked as anyone else, but I
wasn't surprised," he told the outlet. "I'm glad that the rest of
America is able to see what we've been dealing with for the last three
years.
"What he did last night was he basically refused to honor the service
and sacrifice of the 13 servicemen and women that were killed at the
Abbey gate directly — were killed because of his incompetence. And he
refuses since that's happened to even recognize them."
Democrats Considering this guy for a presidential run, REALLY?
After Thursday night's debate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the
rounds in the spin room as a surrogate for Joe Biden but ended up being
the belle of the ball as Democrats desperately seek any alternative to
the elderly president. Newsom vigorously defended Biden and quickly
quashed any thoughts that he could replace Biden on the ballot then took
his Twitter trolling to live TV with this gem:
Of course, Newsom then had to tweet out the clip (complete with Alex
Wagner nearly drooling over him) with the insult written out.
Newsom
hurled this out there despite having been in the uncomfortable - and
losing - position of having to admit at a press conference back in
February 2007 that he'd been having an affair with his scheduling secretary, Ruby Rippey-Tourk,
who also happened to be his best friend's wife. At that time Newsom was
the mayor of San Francisco, and Rippey-Tourk's husband, Alex, was also
working as his Deputy Chief of Staff.
Newsom said, in part:
I
want to make it clear that everything you've heard and read is true,
and I am deeply sorry about that. I've hurt someone I care deeply about,
Alex Tourk, and his friends and family, and that is something that I
have to live with and something that I am deeply sorry for.
I
also want to extend a personal apology to everyone in our
administration, tomy staff that I just met with, to my friends and my
family members. I am deeply sorry and am accountable for what has
occurred and have now begun the process of reconciling it, and now will
be working aggressively to advance our agenda in the city and to work
hard to build again the trust and restore the trust that the people of
San Francisco have afforded me.
Some will likely say, well, he admitted it, and he apologized, and
he's attempting to make amends, so it's no big deal; we all make
mistakes. Keep reading.
As it turns out, Tourk learned of the
betrayal by his wife and his best friend when Ruby told him the story as
part of Ruby's inpatient treatment for severe alcoholism and drug
addiction. Tourk then had his attorney confront Newsom at the office to negotiate the terms of Tourk's resignation.
In
addition to the general despicableness of carrying on a sexual
relationship with one's best friend's wife, there may have been some
issues with Rippey-Tourk's ability to give consent. In a lengthy, e.e.
cummings-style comment posted on a story about the affair, Newsom's
then-girlfriend (and current wife) Jennifer Siebel said "It was a few
nothing incidents when she showed up passed out outside of his door."
Four days after that press conference, Newsom issued a statement saying he, too, had "problems with alcohol" and was going to seek help:
"My
problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in
judgment," Newsom said in a statement widely quoted in news reports.
"Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to
the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my
life."
Newsom told department heads at a meeting this afternoon
that the help he is seeking would not require him to step aside even
temporarily, as it might if he entered a residential rehabilitation
program, sources familiar with the meeting told The Chronicle.
Having
to deny an affair with a porn star on national television is a far more
enviable position to be in than having to admit to having sex with your
employee who's also your best friend's wife - on multiple occasions -
who might have been too intoxicated to give consent. In the most
generous of descriptions, that's known as taking advantage of a woman, a
woman who just might have been looking for a safe place to sleep it
off.
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In the wake of the first debate, Joe Biden and his team have been doing all they can to try to spin away the disaster.
But
it isn't doing much good. He is getting savaged in all the media over
how badly he did. Plus, on Friday, Biden continued to be incoherent and
screaming in North Carolina, and went into pandering overdrive in New
York City for the Stonewall monument visit.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump went to a rally in Virginia
on Friday. Virginia, which should have been safe blue for Biden, is now
in play because of the strength of Trump and the weakness of Biden.
Trump
spoke about how Biden got everything he wanted with the debate--from
the network to the rules to the moderators--but nothing could help him
"defend his atrocious record":
Trump said the question wasn't
whether Biden could stand up for 90 minutes, it was whether "America can
survive" four more years of Joe Biden:
But then he dropped a new
name for Joe Biden. Especially in the wake of the debate where Joe lied
his head off, the name was very apropos:
People loved the new name.
Trump said if he wins Virginia, that means he's going to win the election, and he urged people to get out and vote.
Bill Maher was invited to the Aspen Institute’s 2024
Ideas Conference, where he made host Tina Brown a little uncomfortable
when discussing the 2024 election and the ills plaguing the Democratic
Party. The HBO host, a proud and unabashed liberal, has recently
directed more fire toward his side for their complete abandonment of
common sense.
He also said that the Democrats’ 2024 messaging is appalling in
telling the American people you can’t possibly think you can do worse
than Donald Trump. If there’s one thing, we, as a people, don’t like,
it’s having someone tell us what to do. This is basic American history,
as per our founding. Maher still wouldn’t vote for Trump and thinks the
GOP isn’t the right party for him, but he understands the undercurrents
that have led to Trump’s political ascendency.
He also torched
the woke Left again, talking about his friends with kids who are
besieged by their kids who have yet to leave home about all the
hyper-left-wing nonsense they hear daily. The usual rejoinder the youths
toss out is 'You’re old,’ or ‘That’s old thinking.’
What’s old
thinking? Maher listed off the usual talking points from these kids:
abolishing the police, tearing statutes of Abraham Lincoln down, maybe
giving communism another shot, getting rid of the Border Patrol, getting
rid of capitalism, white supremacy has never been worse, gender is just
a social construct, it’s okay to have penises in the women’s swimming
pool and prisons.
You can see Brown getting edgy during the penises in the swimming pool part.
“It’s not that I’m old; it’s that your ideas are stupid,” Maher
added. Last month, he made the same point to CNN's Fareed Zakaria:
Maher also said
that it's not his fault that he's noticing how his side has become more
insane, though he did that he felt the GOP was more dangerous, but
that's a pre-Trump take. Maher has said that for years (via The Wrap):
“People
say to me all the time, ‘You make fun of the left more than you used
to.’ Uh, yeah. Because they’re dumber than they used to be. And the
right has gotten dumber, too,” Maher said.
The “Real Time” and “Club Random” host then explained when that turning point came.
“If
I had to find a reason why I thought I was right about doing this, it
happened after Oct. 7,” he said. “I mean, people demonstrating for Hamas? For Hamas? It’s like rooting for the planes on 9/11.”
Maher
than looked out to the live festival audience for its muffled response
to such sentiment: “That’s a joke, for f–k’s sake. Come on, lighten up
white people!”
Pressed, however, on which party he thinks is “more
dangerous” when it comes to the 2024 presidential election and beyond,
Maher didn’t mince his words. It’s “definitely the Republicans.”
“When
people say, ‘You make fun of the left more’ — yes, because they went
nuttier. Obviously, so did the Republicans. But, you know, five years
ago nobody was demonstrating for Hamas,” he said. “I’m going to just go
where the funny is as a comedian. But that doesn’t make me a Republican.
They went nuttier, the left, and then they blame me for noticing it. If
I notice how unproductive it is to make everything about identity
politics, that doesn’t make me a Republican, that makes me an honest
broker.
He also added that conservatives don’t like Trump, but they hate the
didactic, snobby attitudes of the Left more. He can understand that, and
his reasoning for that is not off-base.
“The stuff
about family, race, and gender is very close to their own home,” he said
while adding that issues about defending democracy or Ukraine are
issues that are viewed as too remote for most voters.
Yet, I disagree with his take that conservatives hate Trump—but
the latter part certainly explains why those in the center have drifted
toward the former president and the Republican Party. It’s why black
and Hispanic men in working-class jobs are now joining white
working-class voters in leaning toward the Republicans. Everyone has
lives to lead, as James Carville noted when also scorching the preachy
liberal women who are destroying the Democrats. No one wants to be
spoken down to and told they're wrong for simply eating a hamburger and
watching football.
Maher isn’t a conservative, but he’s very much
with us on cultural issues. When Quiet on Set was released, which
detailed the sordid horrors that reportedly occurred at Nickelodeon
Studios, he called out Hollywood liberals for being appalled at that but
attacked Ron DeSantis for making the same claims about Disney, who has a
parade of child sex offenders walk around that kingdom. The comedian
also credited DeSantis for having a better plan for COVID, unlike New
York’s, which led to so many deaths that the state lost a congressional
seat.
He may be brash and offensive to some, but Maher has been a one-man
wrecking crew on some of the most salient cultural issues right now, and
he’s on our side. He’ll never admit it, but the commentaries about
these topics for this season of Real Time have been brutal toward
progressives. When he sees the ‘Queers for Palestine’ signs at these
pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses, he checks out, along with the
rest of us who are normal.
Joe Biden is heading for election defeat in November.
Is there any hope of recovery from this awful debate performance?
Probably not. Biden doesn’t possess the charisma, political skill, or
mental faculties to pull what will be an epic political comeback. Obama,
Clinton—sure. Those men had the chops to be president. Biden showed
last night that he decidedly doesn’t have what it takes. There’s a
reason why we had stories of Obama trying to coax Biden out of the 2020
race. He knew his vice president didn’t have what it took to be
commander-in-chief. Now, the whole nation knows.
The Democrats and the media are in meltdown mode, but they are also
doing damage control. I’m sure you saw that party members are discussing
replacing Biden on the ticket. At The New York Times, two of the
paper’s most prominent editorial writers, Nicholas Kristof and Thomas
Friedman, have called on Biden to call it a day.
I
watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it
made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American
presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of
what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no
business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a
petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the
same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances —
nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st
century.
The Biden family and political team must gather quickly
and have the hardest of conversations with the president, a conversation
of love and clarity and resolve. To give America the greatest shot
possible of deterring the Trump threat in November, the president has to
come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election
and is releasing all of his delegates for the Democratic National
Convention.
President
Biden is a good man who capped a long career in public service with a
successful presidential term. But I hope he reviews his debate
performance Thursday evening and withdraws from the race, throwing the
choice of a Democratic nominee to the convention in August.
One
of the perils facing this country, I believe and Biden believes, is the
risk of a victory by Donald Trump. And after the debate, it’s hard to
avoid the feeling that Biden remaining in the race increases the
likelihood that Trump will move into the White House in January.
Biden
has never been a great debater, but his voice and manner didn’t put to
rest the doubts about his age and effectiveness. Rather, he amplified
them. I happened to chat today with a woman who is undecided about whom
to vote for — she says she distrusts both Trump and Biden but will
choose based on who will do better for the economy — and I bet that now
she will be supporting Trump.
In some sense, this may be unfair.
This was one debate. A candidate’s physical frailty, hoarse voice and
rambling responses may not be good predictors of how that person will
govern. But in this election, they probably are good predictors that the
candidate will lose in November and not have a chance to govern again.
Now, the editorial board has called on Biden to exit the race. When
two key figures call for the same thing, maybe we should have expected
the other shoe to drop.
I don’t think there can be a change at
this point. Biden has enough committed delegates, and he’s not one to
give up, especially if his opponent is Trump. Democrats have strapped
themselves to an out-of-control rocket, and the fuse has already been
lit. Still, it’s not as if the signs weren’t there. Again, we saw them,
but we’re also glad you, liberal America, were blind to them or
dismissed them outright because conservatives made the observation.
Thank you. It allowed Trump to win the race last night.
A new study shows the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. has
increased nearly 40% over the past 10 years, surpassing the rate of
inflation during the same time span.
According to drug savings company GoodRx, prices have increased 37% since 2014.
These rising costs continue to raise worries for many customers who
are forced to take certain doctor-prescribed medications in order to
live a normal life.
On average, an American spends $16.26 out of pocket per prescription,
according to data from GoodRx data, which was first reported by CNBC.
“For most Americans, the difficulty with affordable medications isn’t
over the ones that cost thousands of dollars,” Tori Marsh, director of
GoodRx research, said in a published study. “It’s about affording
routine drugs for chronic conditions, and finding that their insurance
doesn’t cover what it used to.”
Additionally, as Americans continue to face pricier prescription
costs, they also have to come to the understanding that higher copays,
coinsurance, and deductibles typically follow as well, according to
GoodRx.
The average deductible has nearly doubled from $917 to $1,644 over the past decade.
Furthermore, almost 54% of drugs can be covered by insurance, 50% of
drugs have an insurance restriction, and 25% of Americans have at least
one prescription not covered by insurance, according to GoodRx.
“It’s really kind of a threefold problem: high costs, more
restrictions and more friction as well…so that’s like people navigating
hurdles to access their medication,” Marsh told the New York Post.
Additionally, Marsh said that these problems for many Americans
include a lack of pharmacy access, as 41 million Americans reportedly do
not have proper access to a nearby pharmacy, according to GoodRx.
The amount of medications covered by insurance from a GoodRx study of
more than 3,700 Medicare Part-D plans from 2010 to 2014 fell by 19%.
“Despite various efforts by policymakers and pharmaceutical
manufacturers to combat rising drug prices, the cost of medications
remains a significant burden for many Americans,” Marsh said in the
published study. “Legislative attempts to cap insulin prices and
manufacturer programs to provide discounts on expensive therapies have
not led to a substantial decrease in overall drug costs.”
During Thursday night’s debate, Biden claimed his administration
“brought down the price of prescription drugs” and lowered insulin shots
to $15.
However, multiple outlets fact-checked this statement and reported
that Biden actually capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month under
Medicare.
The White House also claimed that: “more Americans have health
insurance than under any other President, and are better protected
against surprise medical bills and junk fees.”
According to NBC, the Biden administration also said on
Wednesday that it would impose inflation penalties on 64 prescription
drugs for the third quarter of this year in order to lower costs for
some senior citizens in the U.S. who are enrolled in Medicare.
Americans pay “two to three times more” on average than other
countries that sell prescription drugs, according to the White House.
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By a 6-3 majority, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that cities had the
right to forbid homeless individuals from sleeping on the streets or in
public.
Since at least the 1980s, many experts believe this time frame is
when the current “homelessness epidemic” began in the United States.
Some notable left-wing pundits claim that this was due in part to
former President Ronald Reagan’s “decision to close mental institutions”
after signing a repeal of former President Jimmy Carter’s Mental Health
Systems Act of 1980. However, others adamantly reject this claim and
note that the legislation was repealed “with a Democratic majority in
both houses.”
Three homeless people had filed a lawsuit in the city of Grants Pass,
Oregon, after being given tickets for sleeping and camping outside,
according to the BBC.
The city argued that criminal sanctions were required to uphold
municipal regulations that prohibited homeless individuals from being in
public areas for “reasons of cleanliness and safety” during a Supreme
Court hearing back in April.
Due to the lack of public shelters in the city, the homeless
residents claimed that the sanctions violated the Eighth Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the Conservative majority, stated
that the city’s camping regulations do not cause “terror, pain, or
disgrace” in a decision published on Friday.
He also clarified that the prohibition places more emphasis on the
acts of individuals than on their position alone and that it does not
criminalize the “mere status” of homelessness.
“Under the city’s laws, it makes no difference whether the charged
defendant is homeless, a backpacker on vacation passing through town, or
a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn
of a municipal building,” stated Justice Gorsuch.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the three liberal justices who dissented,
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a
crime. Homelessness is a reality for so many Americans.”
Yet, a number of cities welcomed the decision in posted statements.
Grants Pass, the city at the center of the legal battle, announced that
its officials would meet with their attorneys to consider the next
steps.
San Francisco announced that it would assist areas in “managing our public spaces more effectively and efficiently.”
However, according to Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco
Coalition on Homelessness, funds and resources still ought to “go
towards getting folks off the streets.”
“Around 653,000 people did not have homes in 2023, the largest number
since tracking began in 2007, according to U.S. government
figures…There were also an estimated 256,000 people living without
shelter on a given night across the country last year, according to the
Department of Housing and Urban Development,” BBC reported.
Soon after the ruling, the National Alliance to End Homelessness
stated that this ruling “sets a dangerous precedent that will cause
undue harm to people experiencing homelessness and give free reign to
local officials who prefer pointless and expensive arrests and
imprisonment, rather than real solutions.”
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Despite acknowledging that President Joe Biden’s performance in the
debate on Thursday night was “bad,” former President Barack Obama still
urged voters to support his former vice president over Donald Trump.
“Bad debate nights happen,” Obama, 62, posted on X (Twitter) on Friday afternoon, adding, “Trust me, I know.”
“But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought
for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about
himself,” Obama said in regards to Biden and Trump. “But this election
is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his
entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” he added.
“Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
Bad
debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a
choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life
and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the
truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the…
Throughout the verbal sparring on Thursday night, Biden, 81,
disappointed Democrats who had so desperately hoped that the president’s
week-long debate preparation would help him come out on top.
However, Biden still frequently stammered, stumbled over sentences,
and seemed to freeze and lose his train of thought multiple times. Many
Americans felt embarrassed that the United States’ commander-in-chief
seemed to be in such bad shape, especially knowing the leaders of many
other countries were watching as well.
In addition to Obama, former Democrat President Bill Clinton also chimed in on the debate talks as well.
“I’ll leave the debate rating to the pundits,” Clinton said on
Friday. “Joe Biden has given us 3 years of solid leadership, steadying
us after the pandemic, creating a record number of new jobs, making real
progress solving the climate crisis, and launching a successful effort
in reducing inflation, all while pulling us out of the quagmire Donald
Trump left us in.”
The last time Clinton made media headlines was after he was spotted
vacationing in Mexico with California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom.
This followed the controversial Jeffrey Epstein document dump where many
of Epstein’s close colleagues and friends were exposed. Former
President Clinton acknowledged traveling the world in Epstein’s private
jet alongside the notorious sex trafficker, yet he still claimed that he
was “unaware” of Epstein’s sexual offenses.
After Thursday’s debate, major questions were raised regarding
Biden’s capacity to be on the ticket on election day after his extremely
poor performance. However, reports that he would soon be replaced were
adamantly refuted by aides, who said he was already preparing for the
rematch in September.
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