Tuesday, July 9, 2024

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1/ Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, confirmed that Dr. Kevin Cannard, the Parkinson’s expert who visited the White House eight times, “was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals.” O’Connor, after obtaining permission from Biden and Cannard, shared publicly that Biden had a physical in February and that he showed no signs of any neurological disorder, including Parkinson’s disease. Biden has not seen a neurologist outside his annual physicals. Yesterday, the White House refused to identify Cannard nor say if he ever treated Biden or consulted on his care due to privacy reasons, despite public White House visitor logs showing Cannard had visited the White House eight times over an eight-month span between last July and March of this year. (ABC News / Axios / The Guardian / NBC News)

2/ The Republican Party abandoned its explicit endorsement of a national ban on abortion for the first time in 40 years. Instead, the party adopted Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states approach on abortion and same-sex marriage in an attempt to de-emphasize the issues, which have consistently been unpopular in public polling. Overall, the new Republican Party platform leans into Trump’s preferred “America First” stances: Republicans “will oppose Late Term Abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments)”; there is no longer a reference to “traditional marriage” as between “one man and one woman”; instead of reducing the national debt, the platform calls to “end inflation” by “slashing wasteful government spending” to “Make America Affordable Again”; and calls for ending “the weaponization of government against the American people.” (Associated Press / Politico / NPR / New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News / CNN)

3/ Trump attempted to distance himself from the conservative “Project 2025” playbook that was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and numerous former Trump administration officials, and backed by more than 110 conservative groups. The 922-page document is a sort of wish list for the first 180 days of the “next conservative administration,” that includes further restrictions on abortion access, “dismantling the administrative state” and replacing thousands of federal employees with ideological loyalists. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump claimed. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Trum...

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