Biden says he prayed for Ginsburg in church this morning, and spoke to her daughter and granddaughter last night.
Biden then cites the Jewish tradition that a person who dies on the eve of Rosh Hashana is considered a soul of great righteousness.
Biden says wait on a confirmation vote "not as a personal service to her, but as a service to the country, our country, at a crossroads. ... Right now our country faces a choice: the choice about whether we will come back from the brink."
"I'm not being naive. I'm not speaking to President Trump who'll do whatever he wants. I'm not speaking to Mitch McConnell," Biden says "I'm speaking to those Rs out there, Senate republicans who know deep down what is right for the country and consistent with the Constitution."
Biden says if Trump gets his way and Obamacare is overturned by a new majority in the Supreme Court, that lung scarring and other lasting damage from COVID will become "the next deniable preexisting condition"
Biden says: "President Trump has already made clear: this is about power. Pure and simple power. The voters should make clear on this issue that the power in this nation resides with them: the American people, the voters."
Biden lays out his gambit: If Trump wins, he will support the Senate moving swiftly on his nominee. If he wins, he wants to see the nominee withdrawn.
Action and reaction, sorrow and frustration, anger, Biden says, if the Ginsburg seat is filled now: "That's the cycle that Republican senators will continue to perpetuate. We need to deescalate, not escalate. ... Please follow your consciences."
Biden says he's not releasing a Supreme Court nominee list, as Trump campaign has demanded, b/c he's not playing their "game." He says this is to prevent potential corruption, not subject options to attacks, and b/c he doesn't want to make a choice based on a partisan campaign.
Biden says "if we go down this path, I predict it will cause irreversible damage." He calls Trump an "infection" on American democracy that needs to be stopped.
"How we talk to one another matters. How we treat one another matters," Biden says. "This nation needs to come together."
Biden says Trump wants to divide Americans.
"I will not be that president. ... We need to rise to this moment."
The Biden strategy on Court battle is to leave the politics to the Democratic base, and the fighting to Congress, while he tries to be the centering, uniting force--to try to win over voters between now and 11/3, and to lay foundation for what he wants to be in the White House
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Russian state media announces that convicted Russian spy Maria Butina, now member of the Duma, is asking Putin to fast track Russian citizenship for Tara Reade, the woman whose accusation of sexual assault rocked the Biden campaign in 2020 - and who's now already in Russia
Reade had previously been a contributor to RT, also a Russian state media outlet, and Russia had tried to get her to be a witness on its behalf to bring Ukraine conspiracy theories to the UN Security Council semafor.com/article/12/22/…
Before going public with her accusation, Reade had published a number of pro-Putin/Russia items on her blog. She later said they were "creative writing."
On the anniversary of Jan. 6, Trump’s acting defense secretary Christopher Miller is putting out an excerpt of his forthcoming book, in which he both downplays the riot and attacks the leaders of Congress for asking for his help quelling it. (1/x)
Miller writes Pelosi&McConnell “cowering like frightened children for all the world to see.Do I blame a bunch of geriatrics for acting like a bunch of geriatrics? Of course not. But do I judge them for it? You’re damned right”
In fact, they were evacuated. (2/x)
Miller writes that as Pelosi asked him to call in the National Guard, Pelosi was “incoherent shrieking” and “in a state of total nuclear meltdown.”
There is video of this call, which was shown at a Jan 6 Cmte hearing, which does not show what Miller claims. (3/x)
NEW - dozens of Republicans who last year voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, calling it "socialist," "radical spending," spent the past few months quietly lobbying the administration for money out of that bill to come home to them cnn.com/2022/10/07/pol…
Among those who wrote to the Transportation Department asking for money they voted against: Tom Emmer, the head of the House Republicans' campaign arm, who called the bill a "socialist wish list."
Here's Emmer's letter asking for money to go to Minnesota:
In public, Sen. Tuberville said the infrastructure law was “using fuzzy math and IOU’s to hide the real cost." Here's his letter appealling to Buttigieg “as a former mayor, you understand better than anyone the time and money that goes into applying for highly competitive grants"
Joe Manchin at the White House, pen from the Inflation Reduction Act in his pocket, says he named the bill that because “tell me another time that we paid down the debt, provided more energy, lowered the prices at the pump, lowered the prices at home”
“In any other time,” Manchin says, “this would have been a bipartisan bill.”
“Politics, they are what they are, but I truly believe I’ve never seen a more balanced bill,” Manchin says, adding that he was compelled by seeing other countries make big climate moves.
Says kept talks secret b/c “I didn’t want anyone to get disappointed again, I really didn’t”
Former presidents do sometimes meet with current foreign leaders, but when they do, they usually keep the meetings informal. This one was made to look, at least, like a bilateral meeting.
Orban is in Texas to address the CPAC right wing conference. A long time aide of his quit last week because of a speech the aide called a “pure Nazi text” which included an apparent joke about gas chambers in the Holocaust cnn.com/2022/07/27/eur…