The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Inside the Hill’s response to Biden’s disastrous debate

Reporting on the tariff talk

House Dems’ musical chairs

THE TOP

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week. We’ll share a quick roundup of our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

Dems in crisis: If you’re a Democratic lawmaker, it’s safe to say you were relieved you didn’t have to be in Washington this past week.

President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance forced Democrats to confront the foundational — and long-suppressed — vulnerabilities of their 81-year-old presidential nominee.

For months, Biden’s aides in the White House and his campaign scoffed at questions about the president’s age, health and mental acuity. Biden has effectively been shielded from the kinds of public settings that might increase scrutiny of his age and mental sharpness. But alas, last week’s debate put the president’s biggest problem on national television.

The days following the debate have been dominated by talk of whether Biden should step aside as the party’s nominee — and, if he did, who would take his place. Needless to say, this was a stunning turn of events.

Meanwhile, there’s no indication from the Biden camp that he’ll suspend his campaign, and the president has said he’s “not going anywhere.”

Among Democrats, there’s an overwhelming sense of dread about November, combined with anger at Biden and those around him. To give you a sense of how Democrats are feeling right now, take a look at what a Democratic senator told us this past week — that lawmakers feel “lied to” about Biden’s condition.

Biden’s aides, this senator added, have been “shielding” him from settings that would exacerbate Biden’s biggest liabilities. That’s quite the statement.

As reporters, we’re accustomed to lawmakers fretting — mostly privately, but sometimes publicly — about their party’s presidential nominee. Look no further than former President Donald Trump, whose presence on the ballot in 2016 and 2020 caused serious problems for down-ballot Republicans running in tough races. GOP lawmakers would speak candidly about this in private or off the record with reporters. They’d then express completely different views in public.

But instead of Republicans being the ones who are fuming and panicked, it’s now Democrats. Many of them feel like they’ve been deceived. Even some of his closest allies, like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are now saying publicly it’s valid to ask whether Biden’s flubs and stumbles at the debate were just one-offs or evidence of a “condition.”

To be sure, Democratic lawmakers were difficult to get a hold of this week. And the ones who wanted to speak to us did so reluctantly — and anonymously. You can be sure that they’ll be on the spot to answer the same questions when they return next week.

What we’re reading: The New York Times’ Peter Baker had a great piece this week highlighting the vast differences between how Democrats and Republicans are grappling with their presidential nominees’ vulnerabilities.

— Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 10 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

Inside the Hill’s response to Biden’s disastrous debate

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) shocked the political world this week when he became the first Hill Democrat to call for President Joe Biden to withdraw. After Doggett’s announcement on Tuesday afternoon, the real reporting started.

Immediately, our group chats and Slack messages began lighting up with the news. Instinctively, the team started reaching out to every Democratic source we had.

Our first texts went to members of Congress themselves to gauge their reactions.

What jumped out to me from my conversations with House Democrats was the lack of anger at Doggett. In ordinary circumstances, you’d expect an avalanche of criticism from his colleagues aimed at Doggett’s public show of disunity.

But there was none. Instead, Dems seemed resigned to the fact that more anti-Biden declarations would follow from their colleagues. It was a stunning admission that the president’s standing among his own lawmakers has fallen drastically since the disastrous June 27 debate.

We also hear a lot of fury at the White House from Democratic lawmakers. First, that they hadn’t been prioritized in Biden’s outreach tour post-debate. Second, that it seemed Hunter Biden — the scandal-ridden son of the president — was playing a major role in convincing Biden to stay.

We cobbled together all the strings of reporting we compiled into our top on Wednesday morning. It is a testament to the team effort that plays out each week at Punchbowl News that we had four bylines on the top. It’s always a joy to enter the Google Doc and plug away with the team on a high-impact story.

The level of nervousness among Democrats only increased as we entered Wednesday. We fielded calls from sources informing us a number of letters were being crafted by members — some in safe seats, others in competitive districts — calling on Biden to step down.

What I’m reading: I was enthralled by Rep. Jared Golden’s (D-Maine) local news op-ed in the Bangor Daily News explaining why he thinks Trump will win. Fascinating to read from a Democrat!

— Max Cohen

Reporting on the tariff talk

The June 27 presidential debate was a doozy and, of course, light on policy news. But as I was watching that night, there was a policy point that stuck out to me.

Former President Donald Trump talks about tariffs a ton. On debate night, President Joe Biden used that penchant to argue that Trump would raise people’s taxes because tariffs could increase the cost of goods for consumers.

So even though the news of the day was Biden’s poor performance in the debate, I set out to chase down House members that Friday so I could ask about tariff politics.

This time, I was asking about Trump suggesting a 10% across-the-board tariff, which he got asked about at the debate. Some weeks back, I’d also asked House Republicans about a private meeting when Trump floated the idea of getting rid of income taxes and replacing them with tariffs.

In both cases, it was clear the tricky line that the GOP is walking with tariff talk. The types of bigtime tariffs that Trump is talking about could raise people’s costs — according to experts — just as lots of congressional Republicans are railing against inflation under Biden. Democrats see a winning political point here.

Responding to some of Trump’s tariff pitches, Republicans made several arguments. On the 10% tariffs, some framed it as a negotiating position rather than a concrete policy proposal. One Republican asked if I’d read Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” to understand the strategy.

On replacing income taxes, Republicans downplayed the idea that it was under serious consideration. One member even said it would be really difficult to administer.

Most Republicans don’t want to publicly break with Trump on this, or really anything. But for GOP lawmakers wary of these kinds of big tariff ideas actually going into effect, it’s going to be a long road ahead. Trump’s interest in proposing tariffs is no passing fancy.

What I’m reading: I’ve been following the coverage of Hurricane Beryl and why it turned into such an intense storm.

— Laura Weiss

House Dems’ musical chairs

House Democrats are already making plans on who will take the reins of key caucuses next year, as they hope to take the majority.

This week Max and I did a little deep dive on which members are vying for coveted spots of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others. These groups will be crucial for passing legislation, as well as working with the White House, especially if President Joe Biden remains in office.

Lucky for us, we were able to get a hold of House Dems before they took off for the July 4 break and before this week’s news cycle became dominated by talk of Biden’s political future.

Here’s our breakdown:

Casar told us that he is planning to talk to every member of the influential leftwing group before officially deciding to run. But, his colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) already definitively told us Casar is running. Whoops!

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) currently chairs CPC.

Max will have a lot more on both candidates’ visions next week with exclusive interviews from Schneider and Davids.

The CHC has been really active this Congress and have pushed back a lot on the Biden administration’s immigration and border policies. Whoever leads this caucus next Congress will have their hands full whether it’s Biden or Donald Trump in the White House.

Clarke is the group’s first vice chair and previously served as CBC whip.

What I’m watching: I’m currently rewatching the American Crime Story series, but out of order. I just finished the “Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which is the second season. It’s the best of the three, in my opinion.

— Mica Soellner