Tough Decisions, Showdown Votes Await Obama On Health Care, Afghanistan, Jobs, Banks

“When he gives the commencement address at Morehouse College, President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war at a center of Black politics and culture,” the AP reports. “Morehouse is located in Atlanta, the largest city in the swing state of Georgia, which Biden flipped from former President Donald Trump four years ago.

“President Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio of his two-day interview with the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents, the Justice Department told Congress Thursday, as Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to relinquish the recordings,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Politico: “Garland was facing the possibility of being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the recordings in the face of subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

“Less than a month before the start of his first trial, Hunter Biden may be losing a key financial lifeline,” Politico reports. “Kevin Morris, a Hollywood entertainment lawyer who has long supported the president’s son, has told associates that he has run out of resources to help fund Biden’s legal defense.”

“Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company have been on a wild ride since making their debut on Wall Street in March: soaring, crashing and then climbing again,” the New York Times reports. “The rally has pushed the value of Mr. Trump’s majority stake in the company to some $6 billion, a major windfall as he ramps up his presidential campaign and faces steep legal bills tied to the multiple cases against him.”

Politico: “It sounds outlandish. It was literally a plot point in HBO’s political satire, Veep. It hasn’t happened for 200 years, not since the House clawed the presidency from Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but didn’t manage to win over the Electoral College, and elected his opponent, John Quincy Adams — prompting a massive populist backlash that remade American politics.” “And yet it’s an entirely plausible outcome once again, thanks to recent efforts that could lead to a scenario in which neither candidate makes it to that golden number of 270.

New York Times: “With Mr. Trump leading in the polls, big financiers on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere are edging into his corner…” “The motivations are manifold. In many instances, it’s less that they’re enthusiastic about Mr. Trump — ‘I still hate the man,’ one hedge fund billionaire said — and more that they’re exasperated with the economic and immigration policies of President Biden.” “In other cases, the willingness to support a return of Mr.