Principals

1. Dems run from Biden
2. Trump sentencing delayed
3. Trump’s tax dilemma
4. Rick Scott’s underdog leadership bid
5. RNC’s secret platform process
6. Ukraine’s European ‘chasm’
7. Leon Panetta’s new gig

PDB: Trump has more cash on hand than Biden

Biden meeting with governors, lunching with Harris … Sunak braces for defeat … WaPo: Obama privately voices concerns about Biden’s ability to win

Biden’s Democratic support is waning

Democratic panic has reached a fever pitch six days after President Biden’s dismal debate showing. Lloyd Doggett became the first sitting Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, and more could follow. “We want to give him space to make a decision [to step aside], but we will be increasingly vocal about our concerns if he doesn’t,” one House Democratic lawmaker told CNN. Nancy Pelosi also said it was “legitimate” to question whether Biden’s performance was an “episode” or a “condition.” Another Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, penned an op-ed casting the election outcome as an inevitable victory for Donald Trump, while Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez offered a similar assessment. Rep. Jim Clyburn said he would support Vice President Harris if Biden were to step aside, as new polling showed Harris performing slightly better than Biden against Trump. James Carville advised donors to cut off politicians who don’t try to push Biden out on a conference call heard by Kadia Goba, while Biden ally Dmitri Mehlhorn could only argue that “Kamala Harris is more threatening to those swing voters than a dead Joe Biden or a comatose Joe Biden.”

The White House is heeding calls to get Biden out there, announcing trips to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania later this week as well as plans for a news conference at next week’s NATO summit. Biden is also slated to sit for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, and will hold a meeting with Democratic governors later today. During a campaign reception in Virginia yesterday evening, Biden blamed his poor performance on the overseas trips he took earlier in June and said he “almost fell asleep on stage” at the debate. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that Biden’s lapses have grown in frequency, and that afternoon naps were built into his debate prep sessions. A veteran quoted by the Times who Biden honored at the D-Day events in Normandy described him as a “person who is fragile and not really in charge.”

Trump’s hush money sentencing delayed

It’s Donald Trump’s lucky week. The press is swarming the fallout from Joe Biden’s debate catastrophe, the Supreme Court virtually ensured he won’t be tried on election subversion charges before November, and now his sentencing date in his Manhattan hush money case has been delayed until at least the fall. Trump had been scheduled for sentencing on July 11 — four days before the Republican convention — but prosecutors said they wouldn’t oppose pushing it back given the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity after Trump sought a delay. Judge Juan Merchan granted the request, setting his sentencing for Sept. 18 — at the earliest.

House GOP support grows for corporate tax increase

Donald Trump might have trouble getting his tax plans through Congress if he is reelected. Up to 10 GOP House lawmakers are open to increasing the corporate tax rate, Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig reports, potentially imperiling Trump’s future plans. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts changed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, and the former president wants to further slash it to 20%. The tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2025 and some Republicans are worried about the $4.5 trillion price tag of extending them. Republicans are likely to have a slim majority if they retain control of the House — meaning every vote will count. “I just don’t think we ought to rubber stamp. This isn’t 2017 anymore. This is 2024,” said Rep. Chip Roy, a skeptic of additional business tax cuts.

Inside Rick Scott’s Senate GOP leadership bid

Sen. Rick Scott, an underdog in the Senate GOP leadership race, hasn’t asked Donald Trump to back his bid even though they frequently talk, including late-night phone calls from the ex-president that wake Scott up. Still, he’s hoping he will get Trump’s support. “He said he was excited that I was getting into the race,” Scott told Semafor’s Kadia Goba. “I hope I’ll get his support. I think I’d be a good Republican and, hopefully, majority leader to help him get his agenda done.” As for other figures in Washington, the Florida senator said he’s already making inroads with the current House leadership in hopes of delivering an expansive reconciliation package previewed by Speaker Mike Johnson. Those conversations are taking place more casually at weekly Wednesday night dinners he hosts for House members at his Capitol Hill townhouse, Scott told Semafor.

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The RNC will decide its platform behind closed doors

The next Republican Party platform will be written behind closed doors, breaking from decades-long precedent. That means no spectators, no reporters, and no stream of the deliberations. “The lack of transparency is unwelcome,” Oscar Brock, an RNC committeeman from Tennessee, told Semafor’s David Weigel. “When people operate behind closed doors, you always have to wonder what the outcome is going to be.” The decision to keep the process behind closed doors is particularly notable given the attention on potential language about abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade. Social conservatives have pushed for the platform to retain strong anti-abortion language. Politico reported that two anti-abortion delegates have been stripped of their positions on the platform committee.

‘Profound chasm’ between Ukraine and Europe

Ukrainians and their European backers are growing increasingly distant when it comes to believing in Russia’s military defeat, new polling shows. The research by the European Council on Foreign Relations ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Washington came with questions mounting over the impact on the war of Donald Trump’s return to the White House — a growing worry in Europe following President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance last week — as well as the possibility of a far-right victory in the second round of France’s legislative election this weekend. As Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard wrote for ECFR, a “profound chasm” exists between Ukrainians and Europeans: “Ukrainians want weapons in order to win, while most Europeans send weapons hoping this will help lead to an acceptable eventual settlement.”

— Prashant Rao

Leon Panetta is joining a podcast

Leon Panetta, who served in top national security positions under Democratic administrations, is signing on to co-host the global affairs podcast One Decision, according to the announcement shared exclusively with Semafor. The former CIA director and Pentagon chief will join former British intelligence service head Richard Dearlove to headline the podcast as it tries to expand its reach in the US. “We’re living in a pivotal moment where the decisions of a single nation can have profound and far-reaching impacts beyond its own borders,” Panetta said in a statement. “Podcasts offer a unique opportunity to dive deeper into topics, providing listeners with fuller context and a more thorough analysis of complex issues.”

— Morgan Chalfant

Beltway Newsletters

Axios: Democratic lawmakers are more upset at President Biden’s “denial and deflection” about his poor debate night than they are about the performance itself, and some are even hoping that Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer privately push Biden to leave the race.

Playbook: Vice President Harris’ stock is rising as Democrats reel over Biden’s poor debate, though the vice president’s chief of staff told aides at a meeting this week she is supporting Biden. “The more people understand the physics of the nomination fight, the stronger her candidacy becomes,” Jamal Simmons, her former communications director, said. “It’s delegates, it’s the racial and gender dynamics. … And she also is the most vetted of the people right there.”

WaPo: Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Democrats are talking about trying to expand the seats on the court, introducing impeachment articles against conservative justices, or pursuing term limits or ethics requirements. All these ideas are long shots.

White House

• President Biden will award the Medal of Honor posthumously to two soldiers, Philip Shadrach and George Wilson, for their actions in the Great Locomotive Chase military raid during the Civil War. The chase was the inspiration for the 1926 Buster Keaton film “The General.”
• Biden and Vice President Harris will also have lunch today.
• Hunter Biden has joined meetings between Joe Biden and his top aides since the president returned to the White House from Camp David on Monday. While the younger Biden is regularly at the White House, it is unusual for him to be in or around meetings that the president is having with his team, according to four people familiar with the matter. — NBC
• The Biden administration has told emergency room doctors they must perform abortions when necessary to save a pregnant woman’s health, following last week’s Supreme Court ruling that failed to settle the dispute over whether state abortion bans override a federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment.
• Biden and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders called on Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in a joint opinion piece in USA Today to cut the prices of their weight-loss drugs.

Congress

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said she will file impeachment articles against Supreme Court justices over the immunity ruling earlier this week.
• House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul announced that former White House press secretary Jen Psaki will sit for a transcribed interview in his Afghanistan withdrawal investigation on July 26.

Outside the Beltway

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pro-Israel nonprofit has released a TV ad blasting some pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters. — Forward

Economy

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he’s satisfied with the progress on taming inflation over the past year, but still wants to see more before being comfortable enough to begin cutting interest rates.

Courts

• Justice Department officials plan to pursue criminal cases against Donald Trump past Election Day even if he wins, under the belief that rules against charging a sitting president wouldn’t take effect until after Inauguration Day in January. — WaPO
• The Supreme Court declined to add any new gun cases to the docket for the fall as it closed out its current term.
• Trump adviser and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred “effective immediately” for his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, a New York state appeals court ruled.
• Progressive judicial advocacy group Demand Justice is planning to spend $10 million by the end of the year to advocate for Supreme Court reforms and prepare for the effects a second Trump administration may have on the judiciary — Politico

Polls

• One-third of Democrats believe President Biden should bow out of the presidential race following last week’s debate, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that also found no other prominent Democrat performing better than Biden against Donald Trump.
• Here’s how people around the world feel about the economic situation in their respective countries.

On the Trail

• Virginia state Sen. John McGuire was certified as the winner in his primary challenge to House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good.
• President Biden’s campaign outraised Donald Trump’s campaign during the month of June, but Trump has more cash on hand after raising $331 million in the second quarter.
• Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is in an odd spot, Semafor’s Dave Weigel writes. Biden was the more moderate candidate when the two ran against each other for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and was seen as more electable. Now, Sanders is making the case that Biden is worth supporting and able to win in November despite the president’s shaky debate performance last week.
• Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., had threatened to break with Biden over the weekend after the debate with Trump , but a “full-court press” was quickly enacted to help dissuade him from appearing on a Sunday news talk show.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he has “skeletons in his closet” after being accused of sexually assaulting a babysitter in the late 1990s. The allegations were part of a monthslong investigation by Vanity Fair.

National Security

• Satellite images showed suspected Chinese electronic spying bases in Cuba. — WSJ
• The Central Intelligence Agency has mishandled sexual assault and workplace harassment within its ranks, according to a recently completed comprehensive internal review conducted at the direction of the Senate.

Foreign Policy

• The UK goes to the polls tomorrow.
• China seized a Taiwanese fishing boat near the island of Kinmen.
• Israel and the UN are in negotiations to set up Elon Musk’s Starlink in Gaza to boost security for aid workers. — Axios
• The US is prepping another $2.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine.
• Chinese and Russian companies are developing an attack drone similar to an Iranian model deployed in Ukraine, according to European officials, a sign that Beijing may be moving closer to providing the sort of lethal aid Western governments have warned against. — Bloomberg
• North Korea said it has tested a new ballistic missile with a “super-large warhead,” the latest development in an arms race with South Korea as the countries compete to introduce more destructive weapons.
• The US is prepping another $2.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine.
• Chinese and Russian companies are developing an attack drone similar to an Iranian model deployed in Ukraine, according to European officials, a sign that Beijing may be moving closer to providing the sort of lethal aid western governments have warned against. — Bloomberg

Technology

Google’s carbon emissions have surged nearly 50% since 2019, marking a notable setback of net-zero emissions by 2030. The tech giant in its 2024 environmental report attributed the spike to data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions fueled by fast developments in and demand for artificial intelligence.

Media

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been arbitrarily detained by Russia and should be immediately released from prison, a UN panel on arbitrary detention said.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: The US deported dozens of Chinese migrants in its first large flight in five years.

What the Right isn’t reading: Wisconsin’s Supreme Court agreed to take up challenges to the state’s 175-year-old law that conservatives argue bans abortion.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Heads Up

Principals will not publish on July 4 or 5 due to the holiday.

Suzan DelBene is a Democratic congresswoman from Washington and the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.