Politics

• Biden’s next test: an interview with Curious George: On Wednesday, a group of Democrat governors swallowed hard and declared Joe Biden “fit for office,” while yesterday the beleaguered Big Guy spoke briefly and disjointedly at a July 4th gig before gamely staying up to watch the fireworks. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as the 81-year-old Biden’s handlers must now weather two storms: the growing chorus of calls for him to get out of the race, and the snapping shut of wealthy Demo donors’ checkbooks. His party’s next chance to euthanize his candidacy will take place in a pre-recorded interview with diehard Democrat and former Clinton toady George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. And even this event comes with a whiff of desperation, as the network has moved up the release of the entire interview to 8 p.m. ET tonight, with a preview of the interview airing at 6:30 on “World News Tonight with David Muir.” Originally, the plan was to release it piecemeal over the weekend, with the entire interview not airing until Sunday night, but Team Biden clearly realized that if they don’t right this listing ship of state most ricky-tick, it’ll be too late.

• Jill Biden, Hunter Biden are “dead set” on not letting Biden quit (Daily Wire)

• Netflix cofounder, major Hollywood voices urge Biden to step aside (National Review)

• Humor: Biden campaign unveils new slogan: “Only senile some of the time” (Babylon Bee)

• A Democrat says Trump will win and “democracy” will survive: In her 1969 book On Death and Dying, Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced her model of five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. After last Thursday’s debate debacle by Joe Biden, many Democrats moved from denial to anger, but one of their colleagues, Maine Democrat Congressman Jared Golden, has already leapfrogged to the fifth stage. Consider this passage from his recent op-ed in the Bangor Daily News: “Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise. It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that. … Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.” This seems like a healthy and realistic approach to us, especially given all the damage that Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have done to the country since he took office. Golden, though, finds himself in a tough reelection race in a district that favors Trump, so this bold pronouncement might be politically motivated.

• Court rules MS must add more majority-black districts: In a case that may have implications for gerrymandered electoral districts all across the country, the deep-red state of Mississippi must redraw its state legislative districting map to include more black-majority districts in both Senate and House races. As The Epoch Times reports: “A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi issued an order that strikes down the state’s 2022 redistricting maps for electing members of the state legislature on the premise that they diluted black voting strength in violation of federal law. The judges ordered the districts redrawn to include two additional black-majority districts in the Mississippi state Senate and one additional black-majority district in the state House.” While it’s true that this ruling applies to state races and not national ones, the precedent bears watching — especially given the Democrats’ fondness for lawfare and their thirst for electoral power.

• Britain’s election: While Americans were busy celebrating their independence from British rule yesterday, the Brits were casting their votes in a national general election. At stake was the leadership of the United Kingdom, and as the numbers came in, it became clear that Britain’s conservative party, the Tories, who have run the country for the past 14 years, were out. By night’s end, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was conceding defeat to Labour Leader Kier Starmer. The UK’s left-wing Labour Party has taken the majority in Parliament, and for the first time since Tony Blair, a leftist — Starmer — will be prime minister. It would appear that as much of Europe has increasingly moved to the political right in recent elections, the UK has gone the opposite direction. However, that may have more to do with years of poor leadership from the Tories rather than any political-ideological shift to the left among voters.

• France’s leftist and centrist parties join forces to stop Le Pen from taking power in Sunday's election (Daily Wire)

Economy

• WH celebrates 1¢ cheaper gas: “July 4th gas prices expected to hit lowest level in 3 years,” blared yesterday’s social media post from White House spokesman Andrew Bates. According to GasBuddy, the price at the pump is down an average of $1.30 from this time in 2022. Of course, the average price of gas on July 4th, 2022, was just below a record high of $5 a gallon. However, it is true that the average price of gas is down from last year. It has dropped from $3.50 to $3.49. That’s a whopping 1¢ per gallon in savings, America! Time to celebrate. Meanwhile, the average cost of a 10-person Independence Day cookout rose 5% over last year’s, now totaling a record $71.22. That’s up nearly 30% from just five years ago. Is it any wonder that Joe Biden is underwater versus Donald Trump with Americans regarding running the economy?

• June jobs numbers: The June employment numbers are in, and if they are accurate, they show a continuing steady rate of job growth. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 206,000 jobs were added last month. Yet with this report comes the now-typical news that jobs numbers for April and May were revised down by 111,000. Meanwhile, the headline unemployment rate is rising, ticking up slightly from 4.0% to 4.1%. Furthermore, economists forecast a slowdown in hiring as they see economic conditions tightening. Sustained high inflation, despite its rate of increase having slowed, is still hitting Americans hard. Credit card debt remains near record highs as Americans, struggling to manage the unrelenting higher cost of living, are going into debt. Interestingly, three-quarters of the jobs added in June came from the government.

• General Motors to pay $146 million in penalties for emissions (AP)

Culture

• Shocker of the Week: A Demo weirdo avoids punishment: Regular readers will remember Sam Brinton as the “nonbinary” Biden nuclear energy staffer who was nabbed in late 2022 for felony theft when he was caught on videotape stealing a $2,325 Vera Bradley suitcase from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport. Other thieving incidents were soon uncovered, and yet the red-handed Brinton somehow managed to avoid jail time when he struck a plea deal that included community service and mental health treatment. As Just the News reports, Brinton, “who has faced multiple felony larceny charges for stealing luggage in Minnesota, Nevada, and Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to petit larceny in exchange for a lighter sentence that includes 50 hours of community service, entrance into an adult diversion program, and a letter of apology to victim Asya Khamsin, who is a Tanzanian fashion designer.” One wonders — but not for long — what would’ve happened to a straight white male in the Trump administration under the same circumstances.

• City of New York pays male felon who identifies as a Muslim woman $350,000 for “discrimination” after placing him in a men’s prison for one month (Reduxx)

• Gender-confused double murderer finally moved back to men’s prison (Hot Air)

• Good news: Pro-life father wins against political persecutors: Paul Vaughn, a devout Christian, U.S. Navy veteran, and father of 11, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration and convicted for violating the FACE Act by protesting at an abortion clinic, was sentenced on Tuesday. Vaughn, who was facing prison time, was given three years of supervised release. In her sentencing, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said that Vaughn and the 11 other codefendants were “imposing their religious beliefs on other people.” Still, she also observed that their actions were not violent, and no one was hurt. Vaughn, whose family was ridiculously subject to an early morning FBI raid to arrest him when he had told authorities that he would “come down at any time,” responded to the sentencing by praising God while also promising to appeal the verdict.

Misc.

• Trump torches “old, broken-down pile of crap” Biden: “He’s quitting”; “pathetic” Kamala Harris up next (Daily Wire)

• Biden contradicts press secretary, says he had medical exam after debate (Daily Wire)

• Journalists: Don’t blame us, we were just following orders (Hot Air)

• Louisiana becomes latest state to allow concealed carry without a permit (Washington Examiner)

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