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☆ Jimmy Carter’s Final Chapter: Peanut Butter Ice Cream and His 99th Birthday
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Maybe it’s the peanut butter ice cream he still enjoys. Or the fact that his first-place Atlanta Braves are cruising toward the playoffs and he wants to see another World Series. Or as many of his loved ones and former advisers suggest, maybe he is just too stubborn to follow anyone else’s timetable. Whatever the reason, seven months after entering hospice care, Jimmy Carter is still hanging on, thank you very much, and is in fact heading toward his 99th birthday in just over a week. And then we thought it was going to be in that week that it was coming to the end.

Persons: Jimmy Carter, ” Jason Carter, “, ” Mr, Carter Organizations: Atlanta Braves Locations: Plains , Ga

“The president will talk about how those steps — how all of those steps he’s taken so far ladder up to a larger vision.”After a long career in the Senate and as vice president, Mr. Biden enjoys a strong reputation among his peers and is seen as a committed internationalist fighting the tide of isolationism. He has also managed to stitch together a series of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific in the face of aggressive moves by China. At the same time, America’s two major rivals appear weakened. President Xi Jinping of China looks less potent internationally as his country’s four-decade streak of economic growth flattens while President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia cannot even travel to the United Nations meeting or other major international gatherings because of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. But with his approval ratings mired in the low 40s and Mr. Trump threatening to take his job back in the November 2024 elections, Mr. Biden’s domestic troubles loom large over this year’s gathering at the United Nations.

Persons: ”, Jake Sullivan, “, Biden, Xi Jinping, Vladimir V, Putin, Trump Organizations: Washington, United Nations Locations: Afghanistan, Ukraine, China, Australia, India, Philippines, United States, Japan, South Korea, Camp, Vietnam, Hanoi, Russia

☆ Biden’s Tough Week: The President Faces Personal and Political Setbacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It says something about the way things have been going for President Biden lately that being targeted for impeachment was not the worst news of a tough week. But over the course of the past seven days, Mr. Biden was besieged on multiple fronts, both personal and political, challenging his capacity, threatening his family and jeopardizing his political position. One of his favorite columnists urged him not to run again, sparking more hand wringing in his party. And oh yes, House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry aimed at charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors. Politics in Washington being what it is today, Mr. Biden and his team exhibited no particular concern over the course of events.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Republicans Locations: Washington

☆ White House Strategy on Impeachment: Fight Politics With Politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Overall, this has not been handled well by the White House,” Mr. Epstein said. “We think they should work with us on legitimate issues — things that actually matter to the American people,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters. Neil Eggleston, who was a White House lawyer for Mr. Clinton, said it was important to draw the contrast. “The White House needs to continue to execute and be presidential,” he said. “It is too easy for the entire team to focus on responding to every new claim by the House Republicans.

Persons: Julian Epstein, Clinton, “, ” Mr, Epstein, ”, ” Karine Jean, Pierre, Neil Eggleston, Mr, Biden Organizations: White, Republicans, White House, House Republicans Locations: House, Baghdad, U.S, White

☆ Biden Accuses Republicans of Undercutting Working-Class Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden challenged his Republican opponents on Thursday in their area of political strength, arguing that he has done a better job of managing the economy than former President Donald J. Trump did and accusing his predecessor’s congressional allies of undercutting working-class Americans. While Mr. Trump has long made his stewardship of the economy his most salient bragging point, Mr. Biden declared that his “Bidenomics” program had done more to help everyday Americans make a living than what he termed “MAGAnomics” ever did. He framed the argument in terms of the fall’s coming budget battles, but it also represented a preview of next year’s campaign. “They have a very different vision for America,” Mr. Biden said in a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Md., just outside the nation’s capital, where he held up a copy of budget plans by House Republicans. “Their plan, MAGAnomics, is more extreme than anything America has ever seen before.”Mr. Biden trained his criticism on Republicans who are threatening to shut down the federal government if their plans are not enacted.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, ”, “, ” Mr Organizations: Republican, America, Prince George’s Community College, House Republicans, Social Security Locations: Largo , Md, America

☆ For Biden, Who Neither Fought in Vietnam Nor Protested War, Trip Offers Opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Biden brought John Kerry, another combat veteran-turned-senator who ultimately joined Mr. McCain to normalize relations between Washington and Hanoi in 1995. For Mr. McCain and Mr. Kerry, the bloody battles of Vietnam changed their lives, leaving scar tissue so indelible that it shaped their thinking and careers for decades. While a contemporary of his two veteran friends, Mr. Biden never served in uniform, yet neither did he protest the war along with others of his age. For Mr. Biden, then, agreeing to a new strategic relationship with Vietnam during his trip was more about countering China than about exorcising ghosts of the past. It was apragmatic geopolitical calculation: Vietnam wants more distance from Beijing, and the United States wants more friends in the region.

Persons: Biden, John McCain, John Kerry, McCain, Kerry Locations: Hanoi, Vietnam, Washington, China, Beijing, United States

President Biden cemented a new strategic relationship with Vietnam on Sunday, bringing two historical foes closer than they have ever been and putting the ghosts of the past behind them out of shared worry over China’s mounting ambitions in the region. During a landmark visit to Hanoi by the American president, Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership formally raised the country’s ties to the United States to the highest level in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy, equivalent to those it has with Russia and China. Mr. Biden said the breakthrough was “the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation” a half-century after American troops withdrew. “Today, we can trace a 50-year arc of progress in the relationship between our nations, from conflict to normalization,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. In recent months, he has expanded cooperation with Australia, India and the Philippines and brought the leaders of Japan and South Korea together at Camp David to seal a three-way alliance that has eluded Washington in the past.

Persons: Biden, Mr, Nguyen Phu Trong, Trong, David Organizations: Vietnam’s Communist Party, “, Communist Party of Vietnam, Washington Locations: Vietnam, Hanoi, United States, Russia, China, Beijing, Australia, India, Philippines, Japan, South Korea

☆ J.F.K. Assassination Witness Breaks His Silence and Raises New Questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For an instant, standing on the running board of the motorcade car, he entertained the vain hope that maybe it was just a firecracker or a blown tire. But he knew guns and he knew better. Mr. Landis has spent most of the intervening years fleeing history, trying to forget that unforgettable moment etched in the consciousness of a grieving nation. And he realized that what he read was not quite right, not as he remembered it. As it turns out, if his recollections are correct, the much-discussed “magic bullet” may not have been so magic after all.

Persons: Paul Landis, John F, Kennedy, Landis, John Jr, — Organizations: Secret Service, Mr Locations: Dallas, Dealey Plaza, Washington

President Biden is set to arrive in New Delhi on Friday for a global summit meeting where he will present the United States as an economic and strategic counterweight to China and Russia, taking advantage of the absence of leaders from those two countries, who are skipping the gathering. Mr. Biden is bringing with him the promise of up to $200 billion in new development funds for climate change, food security, public health and other infrastructure needs in less developed countries through revamped international financing institutions like the World Bank, leveraged by a relatively small investment by the United States. Mr. Biden’s plan would match only a fraction of the Chinese investments in recent years but offers an alternative to Beijing’s presence as an omnipresent and often unforgiving creditor. The president will have an important opportunity at the Group of 20 meeting thanks to the decisions by President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to not attend. Mr. Biden will have room to present a case to a large group of important world leaders that they should align with the United States on matters that include condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine and curbing China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s, Xi Jinping, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: World Bank, Group Locations: New Delhi, United States, China, Russia, American, Ukraine

☆ Biden Picks Jack Lew as Envoy to Israel During Time of Friction
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden announced on Tuesday that he would nominate former Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew as his next ambassador to Israel, tapping a low-key Washington veteran for a high-charged post at a time of friction with America’s strongest ally in the Middle East. If he is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Lew will head to Jerusalem even as Mr. Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are at odds over the president’s efforts to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with Iran and the prime minister’s plans to rein in the authority of the judiciary in Israel. Mr. Biden has sought to smooth over the rifts with Mr. Netanyahu by inviting him to visit the United States, an invitation the president had declined to issue for months. At the same time, Mr. Biden has embarked on a high-stakes diplomatic gamble to broker normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a move that if successful could transform the power dynamics of the region. Mr. Biden’s envoys have been negotiating with the Saudis while keeping the Israelis informed about the progress, but the challenges for reaching such an accord remain daunting.

Persons: Biden, Jacob J, Lew, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr, Netanyahu, Biden’s Organizations: Washington, Senate Locations: Israel, Jerusalem, Iran, United States, Saudi Arabia

☆ Biden Team Isn’t Waiting for Impeachment to Go on the Offensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just before 8 p.m. on Thursday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video of herself at a town hall in her Georgia district declaring that she “will not vote to fund the government” unless the House holds a vote to open an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. The White House, as it turns out, is not waiting for a formal inquiry to wage war against impeachment. The president’s team has been mapping out messaging, legal and parliamentary strategies for different scenarios. Officials have been reading books about past impeachments, studying law journal articles and pulling up old court decisions. They have even dug out correspondence between previous presidential advisers and congressional investigators to determine what standards and precedents have been established.

Persons: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Biden, “ Organizations: White, Republicans Locations: Georgia

☆ To Trump, Foreign Business Is Scandalous, Unless It’s His Own
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After his fourth indictment, bringing his total count of felony charges to 91, former President Donald J. Trump last week posted a video online accusing President Biden and his family of being criminals. “The Biden crime family,” he claimed, had received millions of dollars from foreign countries. “I believe we have a compromised president,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “He’s a Manchurian candidate. That’s why Crooked Joe is letting other countries walk all over the United States.”For Mr. Trump, outrage is a selective commodity when it comes to presidential families taking millions of dollars from foreign countries. Unlike other modern presidents, Mr. Trump never gave up control of his sprawling business with its interests in multiple countries, nor did he forswear foreign business even as president.

Persons: Donald J, Biden, “, ”, ” Mr, Trump, Joe, Hunter Biden Organizations: Trump, Manchurian, White Locations: United States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain

☆ Biden Visiting Hawaii to Inspect Wildfire Damage
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“My heart, my prayers and my focus are on the victims of the Maui wildfires and their families,” Mr. Biden said in a written statement released by the White House on Sunday. I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy.”He added that the federal government would respect sacred lands, cultures and traditions in its recovery efforts. Mr. Biden arrived at Lake Tahoe on Friday evening and has made no public appearances other than participating in Mass at a local church Saturday evening. White House officials said the president is renting the house for “fair market value” but did not disclose details. Staying with him are Dr. Biden and several family members, including Hunter Biden, just a week after a special counsel was appointed to investigate the president’s son.

Persons: ” Mr, Biden, “, “ Jill, ”, Tom Steyer, Hunter Biden Organizations: White, FEMA, Democratic Locations: Maui, Lahaina, ”, Nevada

☆ Pence Undercuts Trump’s Defense in Classified Documents Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday that he knew of no widespread declassification of documents by President Donald J. Trump when they were in the White House together, refuting one of the former president’s main defenses against charges of endangering national security. But his vice president became the latest former Trump administration official to say that he had heard of no such edict. “I was never made aware of any broad-based effort to declassify documents,” Mr. Pence said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “There is a process that the White House goes through to declassify materials,” Mr. Pence added. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t occur; it’s just not something that I ever heard about.”

Persons: Mike Pence, Donald J, Trump, “, ” Mr, Pence, Mr, ” Organizations: Trump

The new three-way security pact sealed by President Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday was forged with threats by China and North Korea in mind. But there was one other possible factor driving the diplomatic breakthrough: Donald J. Trump. Both Japan and South Korea struggled for four years as Mr. Trump threatened to scale back longstanding U.S. security and economic commitments while wooing China, North Korea and Russia. In formalizing a three-way alliance that had long eluded the United States, Mr. Biden and his counterparts hoped to lock in a strategic architecture that will endure regardless of who is in the White House next. “This is not about a day, a week or month,” Mr. Biden said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea.

Persons: Biden, Camp David, Donald J, David, ”, Trump, Mr, Fumio Kishida, Yoon Suk Organizations: Trump, South Korea Locations: Japan, South Korea, Camp, China, North Korea, South, U.S, Russia, United States

☆ At Camp David Summit, Japan, South Korea and U.S. Present a United Front
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Biden administration officials said the leaders would sign off on a formal “commitment to consult,” an understanding that the three nations would treat any security threat to one of them as a threat to all of them requiring mutual discussion about how to respond. The three will also bolster cooperation on ballistic missile defense, expand annual three-way military exercises and develop a framework for security assistance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. But the emerging entente has its limits. Japan was not willing to join a compact that the United States and South Korea agreed to create last spring bringing Seoul into Washington’s strategic planning for the use of nuclear weapons in any conflict with North Korea, according to officials and analysts. The Nuclear Consultative Group that Mr. Biden and Mr. Yoon decided to form during an April meeting in Washington was intended to coordinate military responses to North Korea, and Washington vowed “to make every effort to consult” with Seoul before using nuclear weapons to retaliate against the North.

Persons: Biden, Yoon, “ Organizations: Biden, NATO, entente, Nuclear Consultative Group, Mr, ” Locations: Southeast Asia, Japan, United States, South Korea, Seoul, North Korea, Washington

☆ For Biden, Celebrating What a Law Did Rather Than What It Did Not
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden staged a day of celebration on Wednesday to herald the reduction in inflation and the Inflation Reduction Act even though experts believe one had little to do with the other. The fact that the anniversary came at the same time as a significant decrease in the inflation rate was more happy coincidence than anything else, say economists, who attribute it more to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases and other factors. The legislation did plenty of important things in terms of investing in clean energy, raising corporate taxes and curbing prescription drug prices. As even Mr. Biden implicitly conceded last week, the name of the bill was more about political branding than policy goals. The legislation, after all, advanced plenty of cherished Democratic priorities and will be one of Mr. Biden’s major arguments for a second term in next year’s election.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s Organizations: White

☆ Trump Indictment, Part IV: A Spectacle That Has Become Surreally Routine
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the fourth time in as many months, former President Donald J. Trump was charged on Monday with serious crimes and what was once unprecedented has now become surreally routine. But a country of short attention spans has now seen this three times before and grown oddly accustomed to the spectacle. The Georgia indictment went further than previous ones by charging 18 others with collaborating in a criminal enterprise with the former president, including associates like Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman. Yet most Americans made up their minds about Mr. Trump long before prosecutors like Fani T. Willis or Jack Smith weighed in, polls have shown. The Georgia indictment, powerful as it is in its language, has been priced into the market, as the Wall Street types would put it.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Willis, Jack Smith Locations: United States, Georgia

☆ For President Biden, a Political Liability That May Not Go Away Soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

All that Hunter Biden had to do was show up in a courtroom, answer a few questions, sign some paperwork and that would be it. What had been a painful but relatively contained political scandal that animated mainly partisans on the right could now extend for months just as the president is gearing up for his re-election campaign. This time, the questions about Hunter Biden’s conduct may be harder for the White House to dismiss as politically motivated. They may even break out of the conservative echo chamber to the general public, which has largely not paid much attention until now. It remained unclear whether Hunter Biden faces criminal exposure beyond the tax and gun charges lodged against him by David C. Weiss, the prosecutor first appointed in 2018 to investigate him by President Donald J. Trump’s attorney general.

Persons: Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden’s, David C, Weiss, Donald J, General Merrick B, Hunter Organizations: White

President Biden asked Congress on Thursday for another $24 billion to help Ukraine and other countries affected by Russia’s invasion, the first time lawmakers have been asked to increase financing for the war effort since Republicans took over the House in January. The request will test whether the expansive American effort to bolster Ukraine retains the bipartisan support it has enjoyed in Washington since Russian forces crossed the border nearly 18 months ago. Leading Republicans, including former President Donald J. Trump, have grown increasingly vocal in expressing skepticism or opposition to more aid for Ukraine. Mr. McCarthy said in June that any supplemental appropriation request for Ukraine was “not going anywhere” and that additional aid would have to be worked out in the regular congressional spending process. Seventy House Republicans voted last month to cut off Ukraine altogether and while that suggests a bipartisan majority remains, it was unclear if Mr. McCarthy would defy such a large segment of his conference.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, “, Young, Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy Organizations: Republicans, Trump, Ukraine, White, Office of Management, Republican Locations: Ukraine, Washington, Russian, California

President Biden escalated his confrontation with China on Wednesday by signing an executive order banning American investments in key technology industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities, the latest in a series of moves putting further distance between the world’s two largest economies. The order will prohibit venture capital and private equity firms from pumping money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Administration officials stressed that the move was tailored to guard national security, but China is likely to see it as part of a wider campaign to contain its rise. “The Biden administration is committed to keeping America safe and defending America’s national security through appropriately protecting technologies that are critical to the next generation of military innovation,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. A series of expanding export controls on key technologies to China has already triggered retaliation from Beijing, which recently announced the cutoff of metals like gallium that are critical for the Pentagon’s own supply chain.

Persons: Biden, “, Richard M, Nixon, Henry Kissinger Organizations: Treasury Department, U.S . Locations: China, U.S, Beijing

☆ Anguish in Camelot: Kennedy Campaign Roils Storied Political Family
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It must be painful for them,” said Bob Shrum, who for years was one of the leading advisers to Edward M. Kennedy, the senator and patriarch known as Ted. “He’s been through some struggles himself,” Mr. Shrum added of Bobby, “and I think they want to love him. It’s very sad at every level.”Robert Kennedy Jr. opted against discussing his relations with his family. In a statement to CNN in April shortly before kicking off his campaign, he acknowledged that some relatives do not support him. Amid reports of infidelity, he separated from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who also battled addiction and died by suicide in 2012.

Persons: ”, Bob Shrum, Edward M, Kennedy, Ted, “ He’s, ” Mr, Shrum, Bobby, “, ” Robert Kennedy Jr, Mary Richardson Kennedy, Cheryl Hines Organizations: CNN

☆ A Rising Tide Lifts Many Boats, but So Far Not Biden’s
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It can take a while for the public perspective to catch up with improving conditions. By the time he came up for re-election in 2012, public confidence in the economy had improved and he secured a second term. Wages have begun rising faster than inflation — but only just begun. While illegal border crossings have dropped significantly since last year, they surged again in July. Likewise, gas prices remain below their peak but have inched up lately.

Persons: George H.W, Bush, Clinton, Biden Organizations: Fitch Locations: Siena

☆ For the Court of Public Opinion, Trump Relies on a ‘Whataboutism’ Defense
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Trump now faces 78 felony counts in three different criminal cases, not to mention a slew of civil lawsuits and trials alleging all sorts of wrongdoing. At least in the court of public opinion, though, his defense can be boiled down to three words. The real outrage, Mr. Trump’s defenders maintained, is Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings. The Justice Department, they claimed, is only going after the former president to cover up for the current president. Mr. Trump is a victim persecuted by his enemies, so the argument goes, while Hunter Biden is a one-man crime wave who personifies the Washington swamp.

Persons: Trump, Trump’s, Biden’s, Hunter, Hunter Biden Organizations: Republican Party, Justice Department, Trump Locations: Washington

☆ Trump’s Case Has Broad Implications for American Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the newborn republic, by contrast, the framers set limits on power through four-year presidential terms renewable only by the voters. As Ronald Reagan once put it, what “we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”Until Mr. Trump came along. Bringing the case to court, of course, may or may not restore some of that public faith in the system. Mr. Trump has been laying the ground for the eventual indictment for months, making clear to his backers that they should not trust anything prosecutors tell them. “Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media page on Tuesday afternoon.

Persons: George Washington, John Adams, Ronald Reagan, Trump, Trump’s Organizations: Mr, Republican Locations: United States

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