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Joe Biden low-key announces re-election campaign
Joe Biden confirmed today that he will stand for a second term in the White House, but will make a former announcement later on.
The comment came in an interview with television personality Al Roker during today’s Easter Egg Roll at the White House. After some banter between the two men about whether Biden would be hosting the annual tradition beyond 2024, Roker pressed the president to clarify his intentions.
“I’m planning on running, Al, but we’re not ready to announce it yet,” the president said.
You can watch the clip below:
Expulsion vote could come back to haunt Tennessee GOP
Officially, Tennessee’s Republican party is defending the vote by its lawmakers to oust two Democrats from the state house of representatives after they staged a noisy protest in favor of gun control legislation. Here’s their statement from Thursday, when the expulsion occurred:
And yet, there are signs from within the party that the banishment wasn’t the best idea, despite the fact that Tennessee is an overwhelmingly red state.
“If my job, along with other members of the RNC, is to protect the brand of the Republican Party, this didn’t help,” Oscar Brock, a Republican National Committeeman from Tennessee, told the New York Times. “You’ve energized young voters against us. Worse than squandering support, you’ve made enemies where we didn’t need them.”
He continued:
Even in Tennessee, we have swing districts in the State House and Senate and if you’ve angered tens of thousands of students and presumably their parents, you could theoretically expose yourself to a united front.”
The GOP is already reeling nationally as it feels the consequences of its enthusiastic support for the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade. Last week, a conservative candidate lost the race for a crucial Wisconsin supreme court seat, which could set the stage for Democrats to undo the swing state’s gerrymandered legislative maps and its abortion ban.
As for the two Black Democrats ousted from the Tennessee House last week, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, they seem set to be reappointed to their seats by the local councils in their constituencies.
Ousted Tennessee Democrat may head back to statehouse after vote today
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Republicans in Tennessee last week removed two Black Democratic lawmakers who staged a noisy protest in favor of gun regulations on the floor of the state house of representatives, but they may not be gone for long. The Associated Press reports that Nashville’s metro council will today vote to send one of the now-former lawmakers right back to his seat, while the Shelby county commission could do the same for the other legislator on Wednesday. We’ll then see what the state GOP thinks of this.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Abortion pill access appears imperiled after a Friday evening ruling from a conservative Texas federal judge revoked the approval of one of two pills used in medication abortion, though another judge in Washington state simultaneously ordered the pills remain available.
House Republicans remain very, very mad at Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg for indicting Donald Trump, and have just announced a hearing featuring “victims of violent crime in Manhattan” for next Monday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 2pm.
English (US)