MILWAUKEE — When visitors land at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, they are deluged by huge billboards for the Heritage Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based conservative group behind the highly contentious Project 2025 "presidential transition" plan.
But the political debate over presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and his policies immediately spill out on the roads and highways into the downtown Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention.
Massive pro- and anti-Trump digital signs were everywhere, sponsored by a motley crew of political actors, from the Republican National Committee and a political action committee backed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ones sponsored by a conservative Florida personal injury attorney and a liberal food spice company.
Here's what greeted visitors who were driving around the city on Saturday morning:
Billboard advertising The Epoch Times, a conservative news organization. (Raw Story photo)
Pro-Trump billboard in Milwaukee sponsored by attorney Dan Newlin. (Raw Story photo)
President Joe Biden came out swinging at his campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday, armed with a volley of zingers against former President Donald Trump, self-deprecating jokes about his own age, a laundry list of his policy accomplishments and plans for a second term, and unabashed defiance against the punditry and members of his own party who have spent weeks raising doubts about his ability to stay in the race.
It was exactly the performance many commenters on social media, including some who had been wavering since his shaky debate with Trump in Atlanta, had been hoping for — and many came out to praise him.
“That was by far, I think, the best performance he’s given since the State of the Union," said MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes. "That’s the Joe Biden that has been a very successful politician and won in 2020.”
"Biden has a really good crowd in Detroit," wrote independent liberal reporter Aaron Rupar.
"I wonder if, in a weird way, the internecine battle among Democrats could actually end up helping Biden," wrote Never Trump conservative attorney George Conway. "His problem at the debate was, ultimately, he looked weak. But standing up to the calls for him to stand down makes him look kinda … ornery. That’s not necessarily a bad thing."
"He’s definitely bringing some Dark Brandon energy to this rally," wrote former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols — a reference to a long-simmering internet meme about Biden having a "dark" alter ego, that Biden himself has happily incorporated into his campaign merchandise.
"Maybe Biden did just have a bad night at the debate," wrote MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen.
"This is the best rally President Biden has had in a long time," wrote attorney and Democratic activist Aaron Parnas. "I’m so fired up and ready to vote for him in November. He is OUR nominee!"
"Joe Biden is knocking it out of the park at his Michigan rally," wrote Democratic strategist Zac Petkanis. "He's energetic & on message with sharp hits on Trump. He's showing us how we're going to win this election, team."
"After @POTUS Biden's campaign rally tonight in Detroit, will the cut-and-run Democrats walk it back?" wrote Trump biographer David Cay Johnston. "Or will those Dems continue helping Trump? All decent people must unite to defeat Donald, the convicted criminal – rapist – insurrectionist - racist - lying - megalomaniac."
In the debate over how President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are aging, two experts agree: "It's a tale of two brains."
Dr. Harry Segal and Dr. John Gartner, both longtime psychology experts, came to the conclusion Friday on their podcast "Shrinking Trump."
Contrary to what MAGA world would have many believe following Biden's disastrous debate performance in Atlanta, Segal started the show off by throwing a curveball: It's Trump who has shown early signs of dementia, Segal said, citing Trump's language, tangential thinking, and physical gait.
Furthermore — and perhaps even more alarmingly — "Trump suffers from what we can observe as a severe personality disorder often called malignant narcissism," Segal said.
It's this disorder that leads to Trump's "chronic pathological lying," "immoral behavior," and criminal misconduct. Trump was indicted on election-related charges in several states and convicted in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records in a hush-money scheme.
Gartner has argued that Biden had a normally-aging brain, while Trump had a "dementing brain." That came into question, however, following Biden's debate struggles in which he appeared to freeze, fumble, and otherwise fail to make his points.
"It left me wondering and others, 'How is Biden really doing?'" asked Segal.
Initially following the debate, he thought it could be linked to "trauma."
"But when we looked carefully at that debate, Biden's responses were better than they sounded when you read them — and Trump's responses were much worse than they sounded when you read them."
Segal offered a model that he believes may explain Biden.
"Biden has been an extremely active president. Two wars in the world. Negotiating incredible victories in Congress, handling any number of things. And I think over the past year or so, he's been assuming that of course he'll beat Donald Trump because he's a good president," Segal said.
But perhaps, he was a tad overconfident.
"This happens to a lot of incumbents before their first debate after at the end of their first term," Segal noted. "This is not unusual. "That's why they often fail their first debate. So I believe what happened was Biden really wasn't campaigning yet — he was being president. And he showed up at the debate being president."
Furthermore, Segal said it's entirely possible that the 81-year-old Biden was simply telling the truth when he told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos about his debate performance: "I was exhausted. I didn't listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and -- and a bad night."
Segal said that Biden is extremely experienced and has shown he's in control of setting policy for three years, but that as he's aging, "he is starting to have periods where he is exhausted."
"When he begins to get tired, he mangles his words," said Segal. "He can't organize his thoughts. At the end of the day he tells staff that's it for today, let's do it tomorrow."
Even still, he believes Americans are still getting a high-functioning Biden 80 percent to 90 percent of the time.
Gartner agreed with Segal, calling the debate a "shock" and that information from those close to Biden reinforced that it might not simply be a bad night — it could be that he really does have trouble at night articulating his words, and that sometimes, "it's time for him to rest."
"That's what happens when you get old. It does not mean you are not competent."
Gartner said they had a scientist come on the show and provide ample evidence in charts and data that Trump is showing "demented speech on a regular basis."
Biden, however, is not.
"Biden is showing more signs of aging. The quiet voice, the raspy voice. The coughing. That was part of what disconcerted people during the debate."
President Joe Biden delivered a fiery rally in Detroit on Friday, laying out both his policy accomplishments and his contrast with former President Donald Trump — when he was confronted by a heckler who attacked him for the U.S. support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The crowd tried to drown out the protester with chants of "Four More Years!" but after several moments of chaos and chanting, Biden moved to quiet the audience down and respond to the criticism.
"Folks. Look. Give me one second," said Biden. "Folks, look. I understand her passion. I understand her passion. That's why I put together a detailed plan that the United Nations accepted, that the Israelis accepted, that the Palestinians accepted, to end this war."
"This war must end," Biden proclaimed to the crowd of his supporters, as they erupted in cheers. "It must end."
The Israel-Hamas war, which flared up after a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists in October of last year that marked the largest individual murder of Jews since the Holocaust, has inflamed political tensions all over the world as cities in Gaza have been leveled and civilians caught in the crossfire, and has led to protest in particular by Muslim-American voters, some of whom have threatened to withhold support from President Biden for not acting quickly enough to rebuke alleged Israeli war crimes and secure a ceasefire.
Biden, for his part, has been working behind the scenes for months to try to broker a permanent peace deal, which was repeatedly set back by both Israeli far-right hardliners refusing to accept movement toward a two-state solution and Hamas leaders walking away from U.S.-mediated Israeli offers.
Earlier today, Biden announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a framework for a ceasefire, although many more steps remain for a true end to the war to materialize.
A woman who will be speaking at next week's Republican National Convention appears to have considered former President Donald Trump a threat to democracy just a couple of years ago.
According to NBC News, the speaker, Annette Albright, used to work for a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a Facebook account "bearing her name and likeness" routinely attacked former President Donald Trump — in particular after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which the account called “an attempt to overtake our democracy ... [led] by the President of The United States."
Albright then ran for local school board in 2023 and lost. This year, in April, the campaign page for Albright attacked "the Liberal White females that have strong armed" the Democratic Party, renouncing her affiliation. Shortly after this, she gave a speech at an event held by Moms for Liberty, a far-right group that has sought to censor racial and LGBTQ content in U.S. schools and worked arm-in-arm with violent organizations like the Proud Boys.
Moms for Liberty managed to elect a number of people to local government in the immediate aftermath of Trump's departure from office, but more recently has been rocked by a series of election losses and scandals, including one of its founders, Bridget Ziegler, who was a power player in Florida politics alongside her husband, former state GOP chair Christian Ziegler, being implicated in sexual misadventures.
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is set to take place following weeks of media focus on President Joe Biden's age and physical fitness to run a campaign, and Democratic angst over whether to stick by him or try to push him out. The event could put significant focus back onto Trump and his agenda, with many expecting Trump to wait until the convention itself to unveil his running mate.
Democrats will be having their own convention the following month in Chicago.
In a turnaround almost nobody expected, Joe Biden appears to be getting more traction in the media than ever before, according to a new report.
Democrats have often complained that Donald Trump rallies receive wall-to-wall coverage, which can arguably give him an advantage over the president when it comes to the upcoming presidential election. But the tables appear to have turned since Biden had a disastrous debate performance about two weeks ago.
New York Times media reporter Michael M. Grynbaum said on Friday that "22.5 million watched Biden's press conference last night on TV, per Nielsen."
That, the writer said, is "roughly 44% of the debate audience."
In a follow-up post, Grynbaum said, "More people watched Biden's press conference than the Oscars."
"If Americans weren't focused on this campaign, they are now," the reporter added.
Fellow New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who has sources close to the Trump campaign, shared the report on her social media.
Separately, former federal and state prosecutor Ron Filipkowski observed the shift in coverage.
"I was wondering what Biden would do to get media to finally cover his campaign events. It worked like a charm," he wrote. "Wall to wall coverage from all networks now!"
Variety also covered the Nielsen ratings.
"Around 24.2 million people watched President Joe Biden‘s news conference at NATO Summit on Thursday, according to Nielsen data," the outlet reported. "That’s up from the 20.3 million people who watched President Biden address the nation on October 19 in regards to the Israel and Ukraine wars, and it’s hovering in State of the Union address territory, as interest continues to be pronounced when it comes to President Biden’s physical state and performance."
Former President Donald Trump struggled Friday to deliver a coherent answer to a soft-ball question from a conservative radio host about how great he is at golf.
Trump appeared on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Friday at noon for an interview that saw him speak for nearly two minutes, without stopping, about golf victories, cognitive tests, President Joe Biden's claims of having piloted planes, professional golfers he has defeated and Biden's weaponization of the federal government against him.
The question that prompted this response: "Do you think [Biden] would even be able to finish 18 holes or do you think they would have to stop it and take him off because he's not healthy enough?"
"So without bragging I'm a very good golfer," Trump replied. "You know, I've won club championships. Many. Many, many club championships and I win them all the time. I still win them. I play just as good now as I did 20 years ago. That's a good sign. That's a good physical and cognitive test. Because golf is mental also. But I've won many club championships and he cannot win a club championship nor can he break a hundred. There's no way he breaks a hundred. I've seen his swing. I've never seen him play. But I've seen his swing and I've spoken to people that are near to him and he's a terrible golfer. But he's all talk, you have to understand he is, when pilots go to the White House they say, he says, 'I used to fly planes.' When truckers go to the White House he says, 'Oh, I drove a truck.' Everything that, anybody goes there, well he made a challenge to the wrong guy in golf. I mean, I've offered him, I'll give him twenty strokes, ten aside, I said, and I'll give a million dollars to his charity but they turned me down. They said no. Now, if he was a six handicap, which he's not, he says 6.2 'cause he wants to be nice and I agree, I don't believe he could break 150. I've watched his swing, I don't believe. And I break 70 a lot but I shoot in the low 70s and mid 70s and that's what you have to do. You know, when you play, when you win club championships, you're playing against scratch golfers and I often beat them. I mean, this year I won three, and I don't get to play very much, relative to a lot of these guys, they live on the golf course, you know. So it makes a challenge. He's all talk and no action. A nasty guy. And remember he weaponized government against me and that's a very bad precedent to set. Very, very bad, very dangerous."
Trump delivered this monologue two days after a Fox News radio host asked him a yes-or-no question that Trump could not answer despite rambling for about four minutes on topics that included China, the stock market, insane asylum occupants, crime numbers and war with Russia.
Trump's claims of golfing prowess have been met with much skepticism over the years, reports show.
"A year ago, he bragged about having won the Senior Club Championship in West Palm Beach, despite not playing the first round of the tournament," the Palm Beach Post reported in March. "[Trump's] dubious claims on the course are legendary, and were the subject of a 2019 book by sportswriter Rick Reilly: 'Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.'”
“Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf,” Reilly wrote. “He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele.’ ”
As a defiant Joe Biden insists on staying in the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris has hit the campaign trail, slamming former President Donald Trump at every opportunity. That includes a Thursday rally in North Carolina, which one writer argued looked a lot like an audition tape for the lead than a supporting character.
After three "aimless" years as vice president, Harris appeared to have "one goal" in mind at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, John Hendrickson wrote Friday in The Atlantic.
"Prove she’s ready to square up to Donald Trump," he said, noting her "disdain" for Trump as she called out the former president 15 times in less than 20 minutes.
Hendrickson added that Harris "seems to be discreetly making her pitch to be at the top of the ticket."
Despite her history as a former prosecutor and vice president, Kamala as the candidate atop the ticket remains a bit of an unknown, he argues.
"Harris is the rare elected official with an impressive résumé who is still something of a blank slate for voters," wrote Hendrickson. "She has a few personas, none of which has fully caught on in the public imagination."
Her personas include former prosecutor Kamala, but also "Coconut Kamala," and both have been met with resistance for different reasons.
Hendrickson notes that prosecutor Kamala was "once derided by leftists claiming that 'Kamala is a cop'" and praised by Democrats for scolding Jeff Sessions at a 2017 Senate intelligence panel hearing.
Meanwhile, he adds, there's “Coconut Kamala,” a "memeable veep who spouts odd asides such as 'You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'"
"Yesterday, she delivered one of her trademark phrases, musing on 'what is possible, unburdened by what has been,'" wrote Hendrickson. "Hearing it live made me wonder whether she knows that her goofiness has become an inescapable internet joke."
Whether Harris can defeat Trump in the general election remains to be seen. But her party, he said, "badly needs voters to think so."
Biden's campaign commissioned a survey to determine whether Harris could defeat Trump if she became the Democratic nominee, The New York Times reported, citing three anonymous sources. The sources did not say what the campaign intended to do with the results.
In a memo on Thursday, Biden campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillon explained the "path ahead."
"In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump," the memo asserted. "Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden."
"The movement we have seen, while real, is not a sea-change in the state of the race," Dillon added.
A Democratic lawmaker slapped back Friday morning at CNN media pundits he blames for a "feeding frenzy" that could imperil President Joe Biden's reelection campaign.
Wolf Blitzer triggered the heated debate with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) when he chose to ask about calls for Biden to resign rather than the president's recent press conference, which the California Democrat called a "tour de force."
"What's wrong here?" Garamendi asked Blitzer. "What's wrong is that we have a feeding frenzy underway."
Garamendi admitted Biden's debate performance against Trump on June 27 was "very poor" but argued the president has not faltered when it comes to governing the nation.
"He can and has governed and he will be able to govern in the future," Garamendi said. "We've got a great team and as Democrats, we ought to get behind that team."
He also noted the "stark difference" between Biden and Trump, as demonstrated by Biden's performance at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington D.C.
"There is a stark difference between these two," Garamendi said. "One has an understanding of what it takes to be secure in this world...On the other hand, you have Trump, who understands none of this, who wants to destroy our alliances."
Garamendi argued Democrats need to put an end to the debate and focus instead on their target in November.
"We need to rally," Garamendi said. "We need to understand that we have an individual, the current president, that knows the issues inside and out."
In his final case for Biden, Garamendi pointed to recent decreases inflation, increases in employment and job growth and the bipartisaninfrastructure deal that invested $110 billion to repair roads and bridges and support new building projects.
"What does Trump want to do?" Garamendi said. "Take every piece of that apart, including giving the corporate America an additional tax cut...that's outrageous, outrageous policy."
President Joe Biden snapped back at Donald Trump Thursday night after the former president made fun of the current on Truth Social.
Trump took to his own right-wing social media site to make fun of Biden's performance at a televised press conference.
"Crooked Joe begins his 'Big Boy' Press Conference with, 'I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, though I think she was not qualified to be president.' Great job, Joe!"
But Biden wasn't taking it lying down. Instead, on social media, Biden returned some fire, suggesting he made a verbal error but still understands the difference between his vice president, who is a former prosecutor, and Trump, who recently found himself on the opposite end of the U.S. justice system.
"By the way: Yes, I know the difference," Biden's account wrote Thursday. "One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon."
The response to Biden was critical from right-wingers in the president's comments.
@SethDillon, for instance, wrote, "I feel better knowing that whoever writes your tweets knows the difference."
CNN's Anderson Cooper cracked up with his guests on Thursday as he and a former Bill Clinton advisor deliberately flubbed each other's names, a gentle and topical ribbing of Joe Biden in light of the president's latest gaffes.
Appearing on AC360, Cooper asked political consultant and commentator Paul Begala his thoughts on Biden's remarks to a live audience in a question-and-answer session.
Begala said he found Biden to be heavy on substance, but light on style.
"I saw substantive mastery," said Begala. "I mean my goodness it was a tour de force in a tour of the world."
Begala heaped praise onto Biden for talking through tough situations the country faces with Ukraine, China, and the Israel-Hamas war.
"He seemed to have the substance really at his command," said Begala.
However, he lost style points for the "soft voice," Begala said, and didn't appear to have the same "command" that he had at his inaugural address. Begala acknowledged Biden's latest appearance was not the "catastrophic failure he had at the debate."
Then the conversation shifted to Biden's latest flubs Thursday.
"He already getting static for slipping and saying Vice President Trump," Begala said. He deadpanned: "Anybody could do that, Tucker."
After a brief two-second pause, Cooper got the joke, and the pair shared a laugh.
"Thanks, thanks uh, James Carville," he retorted, trying to hold back a smile as he turned to a chuckling Ashley Etienne, who served as communications director for Harris.
When President Biden gave his press conference at the NATO summit on Thursday, he was predictably bombarded with questions about his age, his fitness to carry on the election campaign, and whether he was giving any thought to dropping out of the race — which he again adamantly denied.
When the question came to whether Biden would take a neurological exam, he flipped the script and said he has been more transparent about his own health than his opponent has.
“I’ve laid out all my stuff," said Biden. "You oughta ask Trump for his.”
Biden did go on to say that if his doctors recommend he submit to additional neurological testing, "I'll do it."
While the focus for weeks has been on Biden's mental fitness following a low-energy debate performance against former President Donald Trump, there also remain a number of questions about Trump's own health. His own disclosures typically reveal him to be in excellent health, but with height and weight profiles that don't make sense, and that leave details out.
Moreover, the former president has often had mental stumbles comparable to anything that Biden has been famous for, even claiming in one speech that George Washington won the revolutionary war by seizing the airports, and mixing up former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
President Joe Biden sought once again to quell fears about his age and fitness, following the conclusion of the NATO summit, with a lengthy press conference in which he touted his accomplishments and took open questions from the press, at several times fielding questions about whether he really had the ability to campaign for a second term.
Apart from a couple of gaffes, like calling Vice President Kamala Harris "Vice President Trump" in the first answer, Biden largely held it together and gave decisive, clear answers. And he contrasted his own fitness to Trump's, noting he has been in policy meetings and campaign events nonstop for two weeks, while former President Donald Trump is “riding around on his golf cart filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball.”
Commenters on social media broadly seemed to agree it was a better performance than the disastrous debate with Trump in Atlanta last month — but their fears about his fitness, or his ability to convince wavering voters, were by no means entirely put to bed.
"So far this is a very similar Goldilocks performance to Biden's ABC News interview: not bad enough to open the floodgates, but not good enough to silence the critics," wrote National Journal Hotline's Kirk Bado. "A frustrating spot for Dems."
"Biden has actual been pretty good at this presser. I’m not sure it will help all that much," wroteMSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen.
"This entire tone is like your Boomer boss being all aw shucks folks at a meeting about one of your coworkers dying in a freak electric fire," wrote San Francisco-based anti-Trump activist Armand Domalewski.
"The notion Biden is out of it or doesn’t govern effectively is dead wrong. On top of his material," wroteWashington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. "The question is whether he can convince people he can win."
"Every performance Biden gives now is a put-out-the-fire moment for his campaign," wrote FiveThirtyEight political data analyst G. Elliott Morris. "It is not enough for him to not make things worse, he needs to completely extinguish the wildfire of elected Dems calling on him to step down. Maybe this isn’t debate-lvl terrible but it ain’t enough."
"Nothing about Biden this evening implies he’s prepared to stand aside," wrote political scientist Ian Bremmer. "But much more pressure from his party is coming."
"Putting aside all the figure skating judge elements of this and the arm-chair doctoring, the thing that I find the most frustrating is that there continues to be no clear message," wrote former GOP operative Tim Miller. "What is the Biden v. Trump elevator pitch. What's the contrast message? Hitting Trump for just golfing all day is fine. But there's just so much to work with re: Trump and much of it is MIA."
Billboard advertising The Epoch Times, a conservative news organization. (Raw Story photo)
Pro-Trump billboard in Milwaukee sponsored by attorney Dan Newlin. (Raw Story photo)