…It is irresponsible for leading Democrats and the Biden campaign to blithely pretend last Thursday’s presidential debate never happened. We saw what we saw and heard what we heard. Magical thinking does not win elections.
Biden was alarmingly frail and struggled to complete his thoughts, let alone his sentences. And Trump confirmed every fear about what giving him another four years in the White House would mean for the nation and the world.
Before the debate, polls showed the race essentially tied, with Trump narrowly leading in some decisive swing states. If Biden now falls significantly behind, the party must consider alternative candidates.

…The Biden campaign’s response to the debacle has been unconvincing. Biden’s forceful speech at a rally Friday was good, but, of course, there is a difference between the thrust-and-parry of a debate and scripted remarks. It takes time and repetition to erase the kind of impression Biden made at the debate.
One statement from the Biden campaign described those questioning whether Biden should stay in the race as the “bedwetting brigade.” I’ve never had patience for Democrats looking for reasons to freak out. I’ve always believed that voters, in the end, would find Biden’s diminished vigor and record of accomplishment preferable to Trump’s energetic narcissism and record of failure.
They still might. But I wasn’t counting on a spectacle like that debate.

…Biden is determined to stay in the race, and reportedly he has the full backing of his family and inner circle. I can understand why the president might bristle at calls to step aside from a bunch of know-it-all columnists and commentators who have never run a campaign for student council.
But there are voices he respects. It is understandable that veteran Democratic warriors such as Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and James E. Clyburn (S.C.), as well as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), would repeat the Biden campaign’s talking points right now.
But they cannot unsee how feeble and unsteady Biden was Thursday night. They owe it to their party and their country to watch the polling trends with cold eyes. And if Biden’s numbers head south, they need to organize an intervention.

More at https://wapo.st/4eNbLEt

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said he was surprised and “horrified” by President Biden’s frail appearance in his debate against former President Donald J. Trump and pleaded with Mr. Biden and his campaign to be candid about his current condition.

In an interview with WPRI, a television station in Providence, Mr. Whitehouse, who in March defended Mr. Biden as “the only option that we have” to defeat Mr. Trump in the election, expressed alarm and said that he had “never seen” Mr. Biden in that kind of condition before. “Like a lot of people, I was pretty horrified,” Mr. Whitehouse said Monday, adding that he wanted “the president and his team to be candid about his condition, that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”

Mr. Whitehouse was joined in his concerns by Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat in a deep blue district that encompasses Ann Arbor. Ms. Dingell criticized the Biden campaign for reports that its leaders were “going to stick to their strategy” and were considering holding some kind of interview or news conference to allay concerns about the president.

“One interview isn’t going to fix this,” Ms. Dingell said in an interview on CNN, adding: “I think the campaign’s got to listen to people. And by the way, I think the campaign needs to listen to us.” She continued, “I know how to win campaigns. My strategy is to stick my ear to the ground and know what people are saying.” The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/us/politics/democratic-lawmakers-concerns-biden-debate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche: "Do you have a financial interest in the outcome of this case?"
Cohen: "Yes, sir."

Asked specifically if Cohen will benefit financially from a conviction, Cohen says it's better if Trump is found *not* guilty because it "gives me more to talk about in the future."

Courtroom reaction is audible.

Bernard Pivot, a French television host who made and unmade writers with a weekly book chat program that drew millions of viewers, died on Monday in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside Paris. He was 89. His death, in a hospital after being diagnosed with cancer, was confirmed by his daughter Cécile Pivot.

From 1975 to 1990, France watched Mr. Pivot on Friday evenings to decide what to read next. The country watched him cajole, needle and flatter novelists, memoirists, politicians and actors, and the next day went out to bookstores looking for the tables marked “Apostrophes,” the name of his show. In a French universe where serious writers and intellectuals jostle ferociously for the public’s attention to become superstars, Mr. Pivot never competed with his guests. He achieved a kind of elevated chitchat that flattered his audience without taxing his invitees.

During the program’s heyday, in the 1980s, French publishers estimated that “Apostrophes” drove a third of the country’s book sales. So great was Mr. Pivot’s influence that, in 1982, one of President François Mitterrand’s advisers, the leftist intellectual Régis Debray, vowed to get rid of the power of “a single person who has real dictatorial power over the book market.”

But the president stepped in to stanch the resulting outcry, reaffirming Mr. Pivot’s power. Mr. Mitterrand announced that he enjoyed Mr. Pivot’s program; he had himself appeared on “Apostrophes” in its early days to push his new memoir. Mr. Pivot met Mr. Mitterrand’s condescension with good humor. The young television presenter’s trademarks were already evident in that 1975 episode: earnest, keen, attentive, affable, respectful and leaning forward to gently provoke.

…President Emmanuel Macron of France, responding to the death on social media, wrote that Mr. Pivot had been “a transmitter, popular and demanding, dear to the heart of the French.” Mr. Pivot’s death took up the front page of the popular tabloid newspaper Le Parisien on Tuesday, with the headline “The Man Who Made Us Love Books.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/world/europe/bernard-pivot-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU0.romB.yvE-G6WibkIs&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb