2024 Campaign: Biden Faces Dem Challenger; Pence Drops Out
Plus the latest from the Middle East, and in Russia a mob storms an airport looking for Jews
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It’s Monday and we’re on the move… literally: New data from the U.S. Census found almost 1.4 million people said goodbye to the Golden State and Big Apple last year. Where did they go? Here are the 5 states that welcomed the most new residents in 2022:
Florida
Texas
California
North Carolina
Georgia
Were you one of them? If so, why? Let us know on Instagram @mosheh
Here’s to a great week,
Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney
🗞 STATE OF 2024 RACE: YOU SAY GOODBYE, AND I SAY HELLO
One door closes and another one opens…
Former Vice President Mike Pence is calling it quits on his Republican presidential campaign, as Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) joins the Democratic race with a primary bid against President Biden.
MEET DEAN PHILLIPS
The little-known, moderate Democrat from Minnesota announced Friday that he will pursue a long-shot bid against the sitting president, becoming the party’s first elected official to challenge Biden in the 2024 race.
Rep. Phillips represents a district in the Minneapolis suburbs. He’s centering his campaign on anxieties over Biden’s age (Biden turns 81 in November, Phillips is 54).
Phillips thinks he’s a viable option for voters who share his concerns that Biden is not be the strongest Democrat to go into an election against former President Trump, the GOP primary’s current front-runner, or the alternatives.
As a moderate, Rep. Phillips has advocated for bipartisanship and respect in politics.
In the 2018 midterms, he flipped a seat held by Republicans when he defeated a GOP incumbent. Since then, Phillips has served in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and worked with Republicans on legislation to tackle things like military and entrepreneurship issues.
Before becoming a politician, he ran his family’s wine and spirits business called Phillips Distilling, and helped launch Talenti Gelato. He shared this emotional story with NBC News about his search for the helicopter crash site in Vietnam where his biological father, a young Army captain, had been killed when Phillips was just 6 months old.
THE AGE-OLD QUESTION
Democrats have shown little interest in backing anyone but Biden, despite their significant concerns about his age — which seems to be the only real issue right now that could pull some of the President’s supporters, or critically important swing voters, into another camp.
Poll after poll reveals Democrats’ unease about Biden’s re-election, and his age is the main reason why.
A CNN/SSRS survey released last month found 67% of Democratic voters want someone else besides Joe Biden to be the party’s 2024 nominee, compared to just 33% who want Biden on the ticket.
In this AP-NORC poll conducted in August, 77% of all Americans — including 69% of Democrats — said Biden is too old to effectively serve as president.
Phillips has been outspoken in calling for generational change in the Democratic Party. Last year he was one of a handful of younger lawmakers calling on older Democrats to step aside to allow a “new generation” to take over — like then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn, who are all in their 80s. Eventually those leaders did step aside after the 2022 midterms. But as several high-profile Democrats turn down the chance to challenge Biden, Phillips is taking matters into his own hands.
❝
"The polls say it, the numbers say it, but most importantly, the people are saying it... they're saying it around their kitchen tables, in their neighborhoods, in their garages, on their farms, in their coffee shops. And the fact that people are not being heard is why we have the anger in the country. So the answer is yes, he will lose. And I’m not the only one that thinks that. I may be one of the few that’s simply willing to say it out loud."
Rep Dean Phillips to reporters in Concord, NH
POPULARITY CONTEST
While Biden’s age heads north, his approval rating is moving south. Phillips thinks his dwindling popularity with both voters and lawmakers within his own party is enough to boot him from the 2024 ticket.
Overall voter dissatisfaction: The latest Gallup poll finds just 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance — 59% disapprove.
Democrats: The same Gallup poll finds President Biden’s job approval among Democrats has tumbled 11% in the past month — his lowest approval rating by his own party yet.
Far-left Democrats: Biden is facing a revolt from the progressive wing of his party over his steadfast support for Israel as it intensifies its retaliation against Hamas. Both liberal lawmakers and voters are demanding the White House call for a ceasefire.
Another concern is that nearly every poll has Biden in a neck-and-neck race with Trump — a candidate who has lied repeatedly about what happened in 2020 and who is facing 91 felony charges in four different indictments. The fact that Biden appears to be in that close of a battle, despite all of Trump’s troubles, is worrisome.
PENCE SAYS PEACE OUT
The shakeup in the Democratic race comes as Vice President Mike Pence ends his run for the White House, becoming the first major candidate to leave the race. “This is not my time,” Pence said, as he struggled to raise money and garner support in the polls as his old boss continues to dominate the race. He has not yet endorsed another candidate.
His decision comes about two months before the Iowa caucuses, a state he was depending on and was seeing little traction in. Pence was also potentially not going to qualify for the next debate on Nov. 8.
Pence was effectively running throwback campaign on traditional pre-2016 GOP stances in a party that has been transformed by Trump. He also struggled to overcome critics in the party base who saw his move to not support Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election as disloyal.
TRUMP IS… TRUMPING
Former President Trump’s voter base in the race remains rock steady, even as his legal troubles mount and he campaigns far less than his GOP rivals. In fact, he’s using his trials to energize his supporters, who feel he is being wrongly targeted: a Monmouth University Poll from September found most GOP voters still say Trump is their party’s strongest 2024 nominee, with few seeing his legal challenges as any real concern.
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: What we’re watching: Biden is making a trip to Minnesota, Rep. Dean Phillips’ home state, this week… for what the White House says was a pre-planned trip. As of now, just like Trump on the GOP side, Biden is in the driver’s seat coasting to the Dem nomination despite some of the recent polling.
Watch to see whether Phillips can pick off any elected Democrats in the coming months. They have so far stood by Biden publicly while expressing some concerns about his age behind the scenes. Notably, Phillips’ campaign is being run by former John McCain presidential campaign manager-turned Trump critic and Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt—who has a knack for getting media attention.
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 Two killed, 18 injured in Florida shooting (CNN)
📌 Maine Gunman Disclosed He Had Mental Health Issues, Gun Shop Owner Says (NY TIMES)
📌 Pro-Palestinian protesters scale part of Brooklyn Bridge, force shutdown of iconic NYC artery (FOX)
📌 Chicago mass shooting leaves 15 injured, police say (NBC)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 Anti-Jewish mob storms Russian airport to seek out Jews, Israelis allegedly on a flight (WASHINGTON POST)
📌 U.N. aid warehouses looted in Gaza as Netanyahu declares "second phase" in war (CBS)
📌 Israel expands ground operations in Gaza as Netanyahu announces 'second stage' of war against Hamas (FOX)
📌 Hurricane Otis death toll rises to 43 while searchers comb through debris in Acapulco (NPR)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 UAW leaders push ahead with Ford contract as GM talks drag (REUTERS)
📌 The FDA is warning parents to test their children after lead is found in WanaBana fruit puree pouches (CNN)
📌 CVS and Walgreens employees planning a walkout to protest working conditions (FOX)
📌 What to expect from Apple’s ‘scary fast’ event (CNN)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 Friends star Matthew Perry found dead at age 54 (NY TIMES)
📌 ‘SNL’ jabs at Biden in cold open (CNN)
📌 Kirk Cousins injured and out of game in Green Bay (NBC SPORTS)
📌 Aaron Carter’s 2-Year-Old Son Files Lawsuit Against Doctors, Pharmacies For Contributing To Father’s Death (YAHOO)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: OCTOBER 30
1938: Orson Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast airs on CBS radio, causing panic among thousands of listeners who actually believed martians had landed on earth. It leads the FCC to make new rules about fake news.
1961: The Soviets detonated Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya island in the Arctic Ocean; the largest nuclear weapon ever set off, it produced the most powerful human-made explosion ever recorded.
1968: Marvin Gaye scores first No. 1 hit with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”
2003: LeBron James, who was drafted directly out of high school, made his NBA debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
2018: American crime boss Whitey Bulger —who was a leading figure in organized crime from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s—was beaten to death by fellow inmates while in prison.