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In First Post-Debate Interview Biden Calls Trump a ‘Felon’ and Strongly Defends His Record
Many across America are expected to watch President Joe Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos Friday night at 8:00 PM, his first TV interview since last week’s damning debate performance, amid calls, largely from the mainstream media, that he pull out of his re-election race.
And while pundits are clamoring Biden must talk to the press more, and appear live and unscripted, his interviews and public appearances including unscripted remarks have largely been ignored by the press, including his unscripted remarks at his Independence Day celebration for veterans at the White House on Thursday (photo above).
7.4.24 630 pm ET CNN Domestic did not carry this, CNN International did. President Biden off teleprompter pic.twitter.com/EjoXClf7F0
— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) July 4, 2024
President Biden’s first actual interview since the debate, with WURD‘s Andrea Lawful-Sanders, aired on Independence Day (audio below). WURD is Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned radio station.
“In the 14-minute interview, Biden made his case to voters with what the administration considers a series of wins for Black communities: lowering drug costs including insulin, an increase in Black wealth and home ownership, supporting HBCUs, nominating the first Black woman Supreme Court justice and the unprecedented diversity of his cabinet,” WURD reported.
READ MORE: ‘Total Collapse’: Trump Campaign Mocks ‘Every Democrat’ Calling on Biden to Quit
The Daily Beast, which did cover Biden’s WURD interview, admitted, “the White House is likely to be relieved at the overall performance.”
Asked what he has to say to Americans who “plan on sitting this election out,” President Biden replied, “Same thing that was said to me when I was a young kid getting out of school during the Civil Rights Movement.”
“If you don’t do something about it, you’re to blame.”
Asked if Americans had any reason to bet concerned after his debate performance, Biden told Lawful-Sanders, “No, I had a bad debate. But 90 minutes on stage does not erase what I have done for three-and-a-half years. Proud of the record and we’ve just got to keep moving.”
Biden rattled off many of his accomplishments, which, as Lawful-Sanders noted, “many of us in the general public were not aware of.”
When asked what makes this election so important, President Biden launched into a lengthy set of reasons why he’s running.
“First of all, I’m running against a convicted felon who is said he wants to be a dictator on day one, not a joke. He means it and he’s appointed a Supreme Court that is outrageous in terms of decisions its made, not just on choice but on freedom across the board. They just said that he has immunity and I have immunity, which I reject.”
“This is the most important election because the next president of the United States, by the way, is going to be able to appoint at least two more justices in the four year period. Maybe more. Imagine what that does to the Supreme Court. Trump-appointed justices to the Supreme Court eliminated affirmative action. Gutted voting rights, killed Roe v. Wade, expanded presidential immunity. And the next president is going to have the chance as I said to put one or two more justices on the court.”
“I appointed to Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman, to the court. She’s bright as hell. One of the best appointments ever, and look who Trump appointed.
“I mean, look, states now are in a position where a young girl, 13 years old, is raped, she has to carry that baby to term. It’s amazing in some states.”
“I’ve appointed more Black women to the appellate courts than every other president in history combined, combined. And I made a promise. I made a promise when I ran and I met and I kept it. And that is Andrea, I have an administration that looks like America. We have more African Americans and women in positions of power in my administration, from the Vice President all the way through cabinet than any president had in all of American history. I got to serve with the first Black president, I’ve appointed a Black Vice President.
“Look. What, what’s the thing that people look to? I remember. Anyway, I shouldn’t get too personal,” Biden said, appearing to get emotional.
“President Biden, you can say whatever you want to say,” Lawful-Sanders interjected. “This is your time.”
READ MORE: Christian Nationalist Behind MAGA’s Project 2025 Blasted for ‘Threatening Violence’
“Well, look, you know, imagine what it says to a young girl who is in school having trouble, wondering what she can do, and look up and see a Supreme Court Justice who’s a black woman, or a Black Vice President, or a Secretary in the Cabinet, or a famous political figure?”
“They say, ‘I can do that. I can do that. I can do that. I remember as a Catholic kid growing up in an area where we didn’t like Catholic – didn’t get, I’m the first president who got elected statewide in the state of Delaware as a kid. Well, you know, I was I looked at [President] John Kennedy and said, ‘Well, he got he got elected, why can’t I get elected?'”
“When you say this most important election, it’s about defending democracy. Not embracing political violence.”
Trump “won’t even agree that if he loses the election again, he won’t encourage political violence.”
“He said that if he loses here will be a ‘bloodbath.'”
“Nobody said anything like that ever before.”
Biden went on to discuss Trump’s plans, including tax cuts for corporations, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and putting “a 10% tax on all goods coming into the United States. And all economists point out. They point out that that means that that’s going to be a $2500 tax increase, increase, for the average American…. while he’s cutting taxes for the super wealthy.”
Listen to the full Biden WURD interview below or at this link.
READ MORE: Karine Jean-Pierre Responds to Reporter Asking if President Has Alzheimer’s or Dementia
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
