Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* While some recent polls have shown Donald Trump’s lead over President Joe Biden growing, a new national NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found the Democratic incumbent with a 2-point lead over the former Republican president. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error.)
* The New York Times reported that members of Team Trump were “thrilled” with Biden’s NATO news conference Thursday, because they saw it as good enough to keep the president in the 2024 race. “They foresee a landslide with Biden as their opponent and would rather not have anything happen to introduce risk, change or uncertainty,” the report added.
* Ahead of the president’s news conference, three more congressional Democrats — Reps. Brad Schneider of Illinois, Ed Case of Hawaii and Greg Stanton of Arizona — publicly called on Biden to forgo his re-election bid. Around the same time, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state suggested that Biden should also step down from office ahead of Election Day.
* After the president’s news conference, the list of congressional Democrats calling for Biden to pass the torch grew longer: Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Scott Peters of California and Eric Sorensen of Illinois added their names to the intraparty roster. This morning, Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado also publicly urged Biden to stand down.
* For its part, the Biden campaign issued a new memo yesterday, making the case that the president still has a path to electoral success, but a closer look at the document signaled potential trouble for Democrats. * Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said this week that he won’t vote for Trump in the fall, planning instead to “write somebody in.” * Speaking of Utah, Rep. Celeste Maloy appears to have finished with more votes than her recent primary rival, but the close race is now headed for a recount. * And speaking of recounts, the apparent defeat of Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., in his primary has been certified by local election officials, but this week the chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus filed a petition for a recount.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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