Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden prepare for their first televised debate of the 2024 election cycle, and the Supreme Court briefly posted a decision that reveals they may have dismissed an abortion case.
Early and historic, Biden and Trump set to face off in first debate of election cycle
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will square off in a historic debate Thursday night as they look to distance themselves in a close race for the White House.
The debate marks the first time ever that a current president will debate a former one. It will also be the earliest general-election presidential debate in history, and the first since 1988 not to be sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
In May, the Biden campaign called for the changes, arguing that increased early voting warranted a debate sooner than September and complaining that the commission had not enforced rules in 2020 and that its model was geared more toward “huge spectacles” than “good debates.”
Trump had also voiced support for an earlier debate, and the Republican National Committee had, too, threatened to fire the commission.
The candidates agreed to hold two debates, the first hosted by CNN in Atlanta.
The 90-minute event begins at 9 p.m. ET and will be simulcast and streamed by several other networks, including Spectrum News.
Among the most noticeable debate rules: There will be no live audience, and the candidates’ microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak.
Biden has been at Camp David since last Thursday preparing for the showdown, including, according to reports, by holding mock debates. Biden has not held any campaign events or made any public White House appearances over the past week.
“On Thursday, the American people will see two distinct visions for the future on stage in Atlanta: President Biden’s vision, where freedoms are protected and all Americans have a fair shot, and Donald Trump’s dark ‘vision,’ where he will serve as a dictator on day one, give tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy on the backs of the middle class, and rip away women’s rights,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a memo Sunday.
Biden could also attack Trump for his false claims about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s criminal conviction last month for falsifying business records.
Trump has taken a different approach than Biden in his debate prep, reportedly leaning more on meetings with advisers. The former president held a campaign rally last weekend in Philadelphia and has continued to do media interviews.
“I've been preparing for it for my whole life, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday night. “And I'm not sure you can lock yourself into a room for two weeks or one week or two days and really learn what you have to know. I've been through it. I've been, you know, a popular president.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden over inflation, immigration and the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip while blaming the current president, without evidence, of steering the four criminal cases against him, talking points that may resurface Thursday. Biden has denied having any involvement.
“It will be clear to the American people that President Trump's America-first agenda delivered the securest border in our nation's history; a booming economy, helping families, small business, manufacturers and farms; American energy independence; and peace through strength,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a staunch Trump ally and a member of House GOP leadership, said during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. “Compare that to today — Joe Biden's feckless, failed and catastrophically weak record.”
Trump and his allies have spent recent days preemptively attacking Biden and CNN. They have made baseless claims that the president will likely take performance-enhancing drugs before the debate and suggested moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will not be fair to Trump.
Despite often claiming Biden, 81, lacks the mental acuity to “string two sentences together,” Trump and his advisers said they are not underestimating him.
“I happen to think he’s incompetent for a lot of reasons,” Trump said on the “All-In Podcast” last week, later adding, “I assume he’s going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. I don’t want to underestimate him.”
According to FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average, Biden narrowly leads Trump 40.8% to 40.6%. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who did not qualify for the debate, is polling at 9.4%.
The second and final debate will be hosted by ABC News and held Sept. 10.
Report: Supreme Court poised to dismiss emergency abortion case, a win for the Biden administration
The Supreme Court is poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho, according to a copy of an opinion briefly posted on the Supreme Court’s website and reported on by Bloomberg News.
The case involved a federal law known as Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires that all Medicare-participating hospitals provide emergency services regardless of ability to pay, and an Idaho abortion restriction that says that performing the procedure is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, outside of very narrow exceptions.
The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion ban two years ago, saying that hospitals must provide emergency abortions if a patient's health is at risk, even in non-life-threatening circumstances.
The case could resolve major questions about providing emergency abortions in states that have severely restricted, or banned outright, abortions in the aftermath of the high court overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago.
According to Bloomberg, the document, which was quickly removed from the high court’s website, says that in a 6-3 decision, the court will dismiss the case as improvidently granted — meaning that the high court decided it should not have taken the case. It also says that it will reinstate an order that allowed hospitals to provide emergency abortions to protect a woman’s health.
The 6-3 ruling would split the court along its ideological fault lines: Per the document, liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would be joined by conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch are set to dissent.
If dismissed, the case would continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Spectrum News has not reviewed the document, and it’s unclear whether it is a draft opinion or the final one. The high court acknowledged that a document was posted inadvertently on its website.
“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website,” Patricia McCabe, a spokesperson for the court, said in a statement. “The Court’s opinion in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States will be issued in due course.”
It would be the second major ruling on abortion since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which reversed Roe, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide. Earlier this month, the high court unanimously rejected a challenge to widely used abortion medication mifepristone, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug.
The release of the document hearkens back to the release of a draft of the Dobbs decision a month before the high court officially handed down the ruling.
The Supreme Court will next issue decisions on Thursday and Friday.
LGBTQ+ advocates encouraged by new Title IX protections in schools, despite legal challenges
During Pride Month, LGBTQ+ advocates celebrated a move by the federal government recently to revise Title IX rules in schools to include protections for students who face discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Gov. Ron DeSantis already announced Florida won’t comply with the new rules and the state is suing the Biden administration.
Saffron Cousins, who was born female, considers themselves nonbinary, which they say made them a target for complaints from other students at school.
“There have been several times where I’ve had fellow students complain about my identity making them uncomfortable,” said Cousins.
And they say, thanks to the Parental Rights in Education law — which critics refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — and other measures by leaders in Florida , there’s confusion among students and teachers about what’s even allowed in schools, and what’s not.
“At this point students are fed up, teachers are fed up, the general administration is fed up,” said Saffron.
Saffron’s mother was happy to see the federal government revise Title IX rules in schools to protect against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
“I think it’s about time that they’ve done it,” said Jen Cousins.
Jen says she’s had meetings with members of the Biden administration in Orlando, where she’s urged them to take more action on the issue.
“And we constantly got the feedback of, ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got your backs,’ but nothing would ever happen," she said. "So it was great to finally for this come out and see, yay, they are taking this seriously, because before it would just seem like lip service."
But Jen said she is aware Florida leaders have already said the state will not comply with those federal protections.
“The rule that they’re trying to rule out — administratively, not by elected officials, by bureaucrats — is trying to subvert exactly why that law was passed in removing the privacy of girls and women in bathrooms and locker rooms,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz.
“I think for the time being it’s going to come down to how school districts handle it themselves,” said Jen.
The revised Title IX rules go into effect Aug. 1. just in time for next school year.
Saffron is beginning high school, where they are hoping for more inclusion and acceptance.
“There should be a lot more community spaces for me when I go to high school next year,” said Saffron.
But with the new federal protections facing legal challenges, it’s unclear if they will stay in place.