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Thursday, July 4, 2024

Biden tells Dem governors he needs more sleep, no events after 8 p.m.

President Biden told a gathering of nearly two dozen Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday night that he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours — and even avoid events held after 8 p.m. — despite indications he can only handle the rigors of the job between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Biden’s acknowledgment was reported by the New York Times, citing two people who took part in the high-stakes meeting and others who were briefed on the comment.

During the same gathering, the outlet reported, Biden responded to a question from Hawaii Gov. Josh Green about his health by saying while his health was fine, the problem was “just my brain,” an apparent attempt at humor that went unrecognized by at least one state leader in the room.

The president’s shocking admission about his limitations comes despite his repeated intention to continue his run for a second term following a disastrous debate performance against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump June 27 in Atlanta.

The president blamed his lackluster effort on his extensive foreign travel — despite the fact that he had been in the Eastern Time Zone for 10 days prior to the debate, including a solid week of prep at Camp David.

Days after the debate, Axios reported, citing White House aides, that the president is prone to absent-minded gaffes and fatigue whenever he takes part in an event held before 10 a.m. in the morning or after 4 p.m. in the afternoon.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/04/us-news/biden-tells-dem-governors-he-needs-more-sleep-no-events-after-8-p-m-report/

NYT: '48 hours to fix a 90-minute mess: Inside Biden camp's post-debate frenzy'

In the wee hours of Friday morning, not long after President Biden had walked off the stage from a disastrous debate, his campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, acknowledged in a series of private calls with prominent supporters that the night had gone poorly but urged them not to overreact.

Later on Friday, top White House aides worked the phones, with Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, calling the Democratic leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, to check in, according to a person familiar with the call. And by the afternoon, the Biden campaign had transformed its weekly all-staff call into a virtual pep talk to dispel any doubts creeping into the campaign offices in Wilmington, Del., and beyond.

“Nothing fundamentally changed about this election last night,” said Quentin Fulks, Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign manager, according to a recording of the all-staff meeting. “We’re going to get punched. We’re going to punch back. We’re going to get up when we get punched.”

The 48 hours after the debate were a frenzied campaign within a campaign to save Mr. Biden’s suddenly teetering candidacy, a multiday damage-control effort to pressure and plead with anxious Democratic.

For now, the divide between the party’s most active supporters and its voters, who for more than a year have voiced concerns about the 81-year-old president’s fitness for another term, remains as large as ever. Some Democrats are bracing for a drop in polling after his shaky debate performance that could, they say, reignite calls to replace Mr. Biden

The all-hands efforts, from Wilmington to Washington, showed the depths of the damage Mr. Biden did to his re-election campaign in a mere 90 minutes. His campaign has been criticized as insular and insistent, so the burst of activity signaled that the debate fallout had turned into a real crisis that spun those in his orbit into a frantic battle mode.

Former President Barack Obama came off the sidelines to offer words of encouragement. Mr. Biden made a mea culpa of sorts on the stump in North Carolina at a proof-of-life rally. And prominent surrogates, including those on many wish lists of replacements, made the case for Mr. Biden on cable news. Some of the most intense advocacy unfolded behind closed doors, at private fund-raisers and in a flurry of late-night and early-morning conversations.

By Saturday, their efforts appeared to have successfully slowed the tide of prominent Democrats calling for Mr. Biden to step aside. The president, for his part, grabbed microphones at campaign events, telling supporters and deep-pocketed donors that he knew he had flubbed the debate. And he repeatedly tried to flip the focus back onto Donald J. Trump’s performance.

“I didn’t have a great night,” Mr. Biden told a group of donors in East Hampton on Saturday. “But neither did he.”

https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/48-hours-to-fix-a-90-minute-mess-inside-biden-camp-s-post-debate-frenzy-124070100011_1.html

Putin & Erdogan Discuss Syria Rapprochement To Squeeze Out Pentagon Occupation

During the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) annual summit which is being held in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana, Russia's Putin and Turkey's Erdogan publicly broached the subject of a potential Turkey rapprochement with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

The two have been in a de facto state of war for over a decade, with Turkish troops still occupying parts of northern Syrian territory, and after relations were cut in 2011 upon the start of the war. Turkey was foremost among NATO allies pushing regime change in Damascus, which involved covert support to ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other jihadist insurgents.

But more recently Ankara's priorities have shifted as it seeks to root out Syrian Kurdish paramilitary groups in north Syria, as well as squeeze out the US troop presence there. The Pentagon has long backed the Kurds and their aspirations for an autonomous region, but both Assad and Erdogan agree that the US occupation must end immediately.

"We couldn’t meet with my dear friend for a long time,” Erdogan had told Putin at the SCO during introductory remarks. And the Russian leader in turn told a press briefing, "We continue to work actively on a number of the most important lines of international policy. We are in constant contact with you. Our ministries and agencies are constantly exchanging information and coordinating positions on key areas."

Regarding Syria, a Turkish readout of the Putin-Erdogan meeting said, "He [Erdogan] stressed the importance of taking concrete steps to end the instabilities that create fertile ground for terrorist organizations, especially in the Syrian civil war... Turkey is ready to cooperate for a solution."

This comes one week after Erdogan shocked his own population and officials by saying there's currently no obstacle which would prevent the restoration of official ties with Syria. According to the Associated Press:

His comments came just days after Syrian President Bashar Assad made similar remarks, indicating a willingness among the two neighboring countries to end tensions and normalize relations.
"There is no reason why (diplomatic ties) should not be established," Erdogan told reporters.
“In the same way that we kept our relations with Syria alive in the past — we had these meetings with Mr Assad that included family meetings — we cannot say that it will not happen again,” Erdogan said. He was referring to a vacation that the Erdogan and Assad families took in southern Turkey in 2008, before their relationship soured.

Currently, there's talk of a future meeting between Syrian and Turkish delegations in Baghdad, but the date has yet to be announced.

At the SCO meeting Putin and Erdogan also discussed the possibility of peaceful settlement in Ukraine...

Major issues which remain, however, is Turkey's ongoing support for proxies in Syria, including the "Syrian National Army" (SNA) and Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The latter still controls Idlib and is Syrian al-Qaeda.

If a final deal and restoration of relations is eventually achieved between Assad and Erdogan, it could be the death knell for the Pentagon occupation of northeast Syria. This has long been openly stated as a goal of Erdogan, amid increased tensions with Washington, despite both being in the NATO alliance. Putin certainly wants to see that happen too.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-erdogan-discuss-syria-rapprochement-squeeze-out-pentagon-occupation

Netanyahu tells Biden he sent negotiators to finalize cease-fire deal with Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Biden that he has sent a negotiation team to have indirect talks with Hamas about a cease-fire deal, according to reports — as a possible hostage swap looked closer than it has it weeks.

The prime minister also told Biden that Israel is committed to “ending the war only after achieving all of its goals,” the Times of Israel reports. Netanyahu previously said that the goal was to destroy Hamas and ensure Gaza never again poses a threat to the Jewish state.

Both the US and Israeli governments are examining the Iran-backed terror group’s proposal, which was sent over to Egyptian and Qatari negotiators on Wednesday. A US official familiar with the matter called the proposal “constructive,” but in need of more work.

Netanyahu has called on his security cabinet to convene Thursday and discuss the latest developments to try to free the some 120 hostages remaining in Gaza.

Hamas had rejected the deal last month, which called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and laid the groundwork for a hostage exchange, as well as allowing more aid to be delivered to Palestinian refugees.

Like with previous deals before it, Hamas refused on the grounds that the proposal did not call for an end to the war, a condition Israel has rejected as Netanyahu reiterated that the fighting will only end once Hamas is eradicated.

Hamas political official Bassem Naim, however, claimed the terrorist group had not fully accepted or rejected the American proposal.

Naime said Hamas has “responded with some ideas to bridge the gap,” but did not elaborate on what those ideas were.

The terror group claimed in a statement that their demands were flexible, but again tried to cast the blame on the stalled talks on Israel, accusing the Jewish state of “trying to deceive and evade.”

Negotiators believe Israel and Hamas’ main issue stems from the uncertainty between the first two phases of Biden’s plan.

During phase one, Israel would withdraw from densely populated areas in Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and Hamas would in turn free several hostages, including women, older people and those who are sick and wounded.

The second phase would see a similar exchange for the freedom of all remaining living hostages, with Israel agreeing to withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip.

Both Israel and Hamas officials have expressed concerns that the other will back out in the middle of the deal and attack, similar to how the first wave of hostage exchanges ended in November.

Some 250 people were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that left another 1,200 dead.

Since the start of the war, more than 100 were freed in November’s exchange, with another seven rescued by the IDF and 19 others having their bodies recovered from Gaza.

Israel estimates that 116 remain in Hamas captivity, including the bodies of at least 42 hostages.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/04/world-news/netanyahu-set-to-speak-to-biden-about-as-israel-weighs-latest-hamas-cease-fire-proposal/

'White House says gender-affirming surgeries should be limited to adults'

The Biden administration said it opposes gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors, deviating from past statements that broadly support gender-affirming health care for youth and angering LGBTQ groups that have backed President Biden in the race against former President Trump.

A White House spokesperson told The Hill in an email that while the administration supports gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, it believes gender-affirming surgical care, specifically, should be reserved for adults.

The administration’s statement, which was first reported by The 19th News, drew swift criticism from influential LGBTQ organizations and figures who accused the administration of abandoning its commitment to transgender youth and going back on a promise not to insert politics into private medical decisions.

“The Biden administration is flat wrong on this,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which has endorsed Biden and poured millions into his reelection. “It’s wrong on the science and wrong on the substance. It’s also inconsistent with other steps the administration has taken to support transgender youth.”

Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, a nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ people in the South, called the administration’s statement “cowardly.”

“It is a troubling concession to the right-wing assault on transgender Americans, falling for their false narratives about surgical care and betraying a commitment to equality and trust in the medical community,” Scott said in a statement. “Let’s be very, very clear: Government has no business inserting itself into private medical decisions that should be exclusively between patients, their providers, and the patients’ parent or guardian.”

“It is dangerous to begin endorsing categorical bans or limits on healthcare, and there is no justification for restricting transgender youth’s access to the very same care that many cisgender youth receive every year – that’s literally the definition of discrimination,” she said. “We demand the Biden Administration retract this thoughtless statement and work to undo its damage.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the backlash.

The Biden administration first expressed some skepticism to gender-affirming surgeries for minors last week in a New York Times report, which came in response to another Times report that the staff of Adm. Rachel Levine, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), had urged the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an organization devoted to researching transgender health care, to remove age minimums for gender-affirming medical care from its guidelines for minors.

The draft guidelines, released in late 2021, recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormone treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries and 17 for surgeries on genitals or reproductive organs. Gender-affirming medical care of any kind, however, was only to be recommended to minors with a “well documented” history of gender incongruence and who demonstrate “the emotional and cognitive maturity” needed to provide informed consent for treatment, according to the draft guidelines.

The final WPATH guidelines, released in 2022, removed minimum age requirements altogether, including for surgery. The group said that change, among others, will “eliminate unnecessary barriers to care” and foster a more individualized approach.

Other medical organizations and health care professionals have said maturity and social support are better indicators of whether gender-affirming care is appropriate than age minimums. The Endocrine Society, a nonprofit organization that focuses on endocrinology and hormone research, recommends waiting until 18 for genital, or “bottom,” surgery, and such a procedure being done on minors is exceedingly rare.

In a statement to the Times, a spokesperson for HHS said Levine, who is transgender, “shared her view with her staff that publishing the proposed lower ages for gender transition surgeries was not supported by science or research, and could lead to an onslaught of attacks on the transgender community.”

HHS did not respond to questions from The Hill about the Biden administration’s stance on gender-affirming surgery for minors. A spokesperson for WPATH did not immediately return a request for comment.

The administration’s latest statement on surgery for transgender minors is a departure from the president’s speeches, public statements and executive actions that express unequivocal support for gender-affirming care and denounce state laws meant to restrict or ban treatment, primarily for youth.

Twenty-five Republican-led states since 2021 have adopted laws that bar transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming health care, which major professional medical organizations say is medically necessary. In some cases, state law limits care for trans adults, in addition to minors.

In Arizona, surgeries — but not other care — are banned for transgender youth under 18. Access to other treatments, including puberty blockers and hormones, is protected under an executive order signed last year by the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs.

In Ohio, a state Health Department rule similarly bars minors from undergoing gender-affirming surgery, though Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has called the claim that doctors are performing surgeries on minors in the state “a fallacy.”

In April, a federal judge blocked an Ohio law banning gender-affirming medical care more generally for minors, and enforcement of a similar Montana law was halted last fall. In June, a federal judge struck down a Florida law barring access to gender-affirming health care for minors and some adults, and Arkansas’s first-in-the-nation ban was ruled unconstitutional last year.

At the urging of the Biden administration, the Supreme Court late last month said it will decide during its next term whether bans on gender-affirming medical care for minors are constitutional.

https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4753693-white-house-gender-affirming-surgeries-limited-adults/

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