Gop Primary Highlights Less Predictable Southern Electorate

“As Donald Trump campaigns for a return to the White House, he often reaches back more than 40 years and seven administrations to belittle President Joe Biden by comparing him to 99-year-old Jimmy Carter,” the AP reports. “Most recently, Trump used his first campaign stop after the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York to needle the 46th president by saying the 39th president, a recently widowed hospice patient who left office in 1981, was selfishly pleased with Biden’s record.” Said Trump: “Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot.

David Ignatius: “The United States might be stumbling toward a decline from which few great powers have ever recovered. It has many of the tools of national recovery but doesn’t yet have a shared recognition of the problem and how to fix it.” “That’s not a quote from a MAGA or progressive leaflet.

“President Biden joked about his age and took jabs at former President Trump during Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner,” Axios reports. Said Biden: “The 2024 election is in full swing and yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man, running against a six-year-old.” He added: “Age is the only thing we have in common, my vice president actually endorses me.” Washington Post: “But the president soon dispensed with the yuks and pivoted to what felt like a stump speech about the clear and present danger posed by Trump and his movement.”

New York Times: “The question of what is true — or at least what can be proven — is at the heart of any trial. But this particular defendant, accused by the Manhattan district attorney’s office of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal, has spent five decades spewing thousands and thousands of words, sometimes contradicting himself within minutes, sometimes within the same breath, with little concern for the consequences of what he said.” “Mr.

Montana U. S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy (R) hired a campaign staffer who shared and liked racists posts on social media, the Daily Beast reports.

“Both Democrats and Republicans are piling on after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem revealed in her upcoming memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy named Cricket because of the dog’s alleged misbehavior,” Politico reports. “The mother of three and former congress member has seen her political caché skyrocket in recent years and was reportedly a top contender to become Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate.