Afternoon News Briefing: SCOTUS makes major ruling on Jan 6 cases; What Biden team is saying behind closed doors; Bannon gets bad news, and much more….

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Below are important excerpts from some of the top stories in the news this afternoon:

1 – BREAKING: Supreme Court possibly upends scores of Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutions

From the New York Post: In a move that could upend scores of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot prosecutions, the Supreme Court on Friday narrowed the use of a charge of obstructing an official proceeding.

In a 6-3 decision in which Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the conservative majority and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberal dissenters, the high court concluded that prosecutors need to hang closer to the statutory language of the obstruction charge used in a slew of Jan. 6 prosecutions.

“The Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

At issue was a technical reading of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act which stipulates that anyone who “alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so” faces criminal liability.

2 – BIG STORY: What Biden insiders are saying behind closed doors after debate debacle

PART 1: Liberal news outlet Axios published a scathing report Friday morning about Joe Biden’s embarrassing performance at his debate with former president Donald Trump, and included details of what current and former Biden administration and Democratic officials are saying behind closed doors. The report also noted that Biden’s team appear to be pointing fingers at each other, casting blame on one another over the catastrophe.

Axios shared the following quotes:

  • A “disaster,” one former Biden administration official called it.
  • “It’s sad but it also makes me so mad to think of all the smart people lying and trying to make this work,” a former Biden White House official said.
  • A “catastrophe,” an influential Democratic campaign veteran told Axios.
  • “DEFCON 1 moment” David Plouffe, former President Obama’s campaign manager, said on MSNBC. “The “concern level is quite high.”
  • “He was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy,” one person in Biden’s orbit told Axios. “They prepared him for the wrong debate. He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It’s confounding.”
  • A former White House official argued that people needed to be fired, but lamented that probably wouldn’t happen because Biden rarely dismisses people.
  • “It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden,” Biden’s former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said on CNN.

Axios noted that even if Biden was willing to leave the race, other Democrat candidates would have a very narrow window to make their case to voters.

On the issue of Kamala Harris, Axios wrote, “Many Democrats privately question her ability to connect with voters, but passing over the first Black and woman vice president would create a different set of problems for the party.”

PART 2: Doug Kass, a world-renowned hedge fund manager, just posted a bombshell statement on social media Friday morning with some additional insider information, and alleged that Kamala Harris is NOT being considered as a replacement for Biden.

“What I am hearing regarding Joe Biden. Ron Klain and Barack Obama are having a sit down with the President today. Jill Biden is insistent that Joe runs. Kamala is furious that she is not being considered as a replacement (Whitmer and Newsom are). Interestingly my neighbor in East Hampton is hosting the Bidens tomorrow. It will be an important tell if the fundraiser is cancelled,” Kass wrote.

3 –  Barack Obama releases statement on Biden’s debate with Trump

In a posted on social media Friday afternoon, Obama wrote: “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November. http://joebiden.com.”

4 – Newsom swats down questions about Biden dropping out

The Washington Examiner reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom brushed off a question about President Joe Biden stepping aside from the Democratic ticket following Thursday night’s presidential debate, calling such speculation “unhelpful” and “unnecessary.”

An MSNBC anchor noted that “panic has set in” among some in the party and among strategists following Biden’s lackluster debate appearance and asked Newsom if that fear is unfounded.

“I think it’s unhelpful and I think it’s unnecessary,” Newsom responded. “We’ve got to go in and keep our heads high, and as I say, we’ve got to have the back of this president.”

“You do not turn your back because of one performance,” the California Democrat continued. “What kind of party does that? It has been a master class, 15.6 million jobs … this president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment.”

Speculation is still growing among some who believe that Newsom may end up as the Democrat nominee.

5 – Defiant Biden team releases statement on second scheduled debate with Trump

From Breitbart: President Joe Biden, who reportedly will not drop out of the 2024 presidential race, will participate in the second debate in September, a Biden adviser told CNN Friday.

ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will serve as moderators for the September 10 debate. More details of the event, including rules, location, staging, and format, are not yet decided, according to ABC News.

6 – ‘The View’ abandons ship as co-hosts call for Biden to step aside after dismal performance

From Fox News: Several anti-Trump pundits on ABC’s “The View” said President Biden should abandon his re-election campaign following his widely panned performance at Thursday’s debate.

The reliably liberal daytime gabfest aired a montage of news-making moments from the CNN Presidential Debate, which went so poorly for Biden that many of his media allies have expressed concern about his fitness to serve another term. Biden has been criticized for looking and sounding too old, repeatedly losing his train of thought mid-sentence, and overall doing nothing to diminish concerns about his age and mental viability.

Co-host Sunny Hostin, a strong Biden supporter, told the panel “most of us are mourning.”

“It was really hard to watch and it kind of pains me to say this today, but I think President Biden needs to step down and be replaced,” co-host Sara Haines said. “If we want to defeat Donald Trump in November, I absolutely think that,” she continued. “And I think Biden’s team saw it coming. I think that’s why they pushed for an earlier debate, so they’d have time to change course if needed.”

7 – Biden proves he can still give a speech – with a speech writer and a teleprompter

From The Hill: President Biden sought to tamp down the panic among some Democrats on Friday over his ability to lead the party heading into November following a calamitous debate performance a night earlier, delivering a more energized speech in North Carolina in which he acknowledged some of his shortcomings.

“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said at a campaign rally in Raleigh. “But I know what I do know,” he continued. “I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”

Biden repeatedly coughed during his speech:

During his speech, Biden made a multitude of false statements, even as he claimed Trump lied repeatedly during the debate the night before. RNC Research and the Trump campaign posted video clips of Biden’s false statements, and fact-checked him:

8 – State to require schools to teach Ten Commandments, Bible

From Fox News: All public schools in Oklahoma are now required to incorporate the Bible and Ten Commandments into their curricula for grades 5-10, primarily for historical context.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters issued a memo Thursday informing superintendents across the state their districts are required to incorporate the Bible into lessons. Walters said in the memo that his directive aligns with educational standards approved in May 2019.

“We’ve seen the radical leftists drive God out of schools, drive the Bible out of schools, and we have to make sure that our kids have an understanding of what made America great,” said Walters. “Not teaching our kids about the faith of our founders and the influence that the Bible had in our history is just academic malpractice.”

9 – GOP Rep. Thomas Massie announces wife’s sudden, unexpected death

From the Washington Examiner: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced that his wife Rhonda died on Thursday. It’s unknown what caused her death, but Massie said she had visited Mount Rainier with him and other family members last week.

“Yesterday my high school sweetheart, the love of my life for over 35 years, the loving mother of our 4 children, the smartest kindest woman I ever knew, my beautiful and wise queen forever, Rhonda went to Heaven,” Massie said. “Thank you for your prayers for our family in this difficult time.”

“She was valedictorian at our high school where we went to the Prom together, accepted at MIT and Harvard, earned a Mechanical Engineering degree from MIT, and devoted her life to our family,” Massie added. “We spent last week touring Mt Rainier with our grandson — she was the best mammaw ever! We love you Rhonda.”

10 – Steve Bannon must report to prison by Monday after Supreme Court rejects last-minute appeal

From NBC News: Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon must report to prison by Monday after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute bid to stave off his four-month sentence for defying subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 committee.

Bannon was convicted in Washington on two counts of contempt of Congress nearly two full years ago, in July 2022, and sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols had put his sentence on hold as he pursued an appeal of his conviction, which was rejected in May. Nichols then ordered Bannon to report to prison by July 1, saying there was no basis to continue to delay the sentence. An appeals court then rejected Bannon’s appeal of the decision, leaving only the Supreme Court to help him avoid incarceration.

Bannon was held in contempt of Congress after he blew off the Jan. 6 committee’s request for documents and testimony as part of its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power in the lead-up to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Bannon’s lawyer told the Supreme Court that he was relying upon the advice of counsel, saying he was waiting for issues of executive privilege to be settled.

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