Nominations could soon usher in election rematch
NEW YORK — Joe Biden and Donald Trump hoped to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations with dominant victories in a slate of state primaries on Tuesday as the 2024 fight for the White House moves into a new phase.
Neither Biden, a Democrat, nor Trump, a Republican, faced significant opposition in primary contests across Georgia, Washington state, Mississippi and Hawaii. The only question was whether they would earn the necessary delegates in each state to hit the 50% national threshold to become their parties’ presumptive nominees.
The 2024 presidential contest is on the verge of a crystallizing moment that will solidify a general election rematch between Biden and Trump. And that rematch — the first featuring two U.S. presidents since 1956 — will almost certainly deepen the nation’s searing political and cultural divides in the eightmonth grind that lies ahead.
On the eve of Tuesday’s primaries, Trump acknowledged that Biden would be the Democratic nominee, even as he unleashed a new attack on the president’s age.
“I assume he’s going to be the candidate,” Trump said of Biden on CNBC. “I’m his only opponent other than life, life itself.”
Biden, too, directed much of his attention toward Trump, whom the Democratic president described as a serious threat to democracy during a campaign stop Monday night in New Hampshire. He also signaled a more robust presence on the campaign trail.
“I’m looking forward to doing more and more of these events,” Biden said. Later, he joked about his age. “I know I don’t look it, but I’ve been around a while.”
Georgia was a pivotal battleground in the last presidential election — so close that Trump finds himself indicted there for his push to “find 11,780 votes” and overturn Biden’s victory.
But as both candidates seek to project strength in the key swing state, Biden and Trump are grappling with glaring flaws.
Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases involving his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, among other alleged crimes. He’s also facing increasingly pointed questions about his policy plans and relationships with some of the world’s most dangerous dictators. Trump met privately Friday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has rolled back democracy in his country.
The 81-year-old Biden is working to assure a skeptical electorate that he’s still physically and mentally able to thrive in the world’s most important job.
He’s also dealing with dissension within his party’s progressive base, which is furious that he hasn’t done more to stop Israel’s war in Gaza. Last month in Michigan, a protest “uncommitted” campaign attracted more than 100,000 votes and secured two Democratic delegates.
Biden entered Tuesday 102 delegates short of the 1,968 needed to formally become the presumptive Democratic nominee. There were 254 Democratic delegates at stake Tuesday in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state. With no major opponents, Biden is on pace to reach that mark.
Trump, meanwhile, is on pace to reach his magic number as well. As of Sunday, he was 137 delegates short of the 1,215 needed to win the GOP nomination. There were 161 Republican delegates at stake on Tuesday in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington state and Hawaii.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden hosted Poland’s president and prime minister for White House talks on Tuesday with the Polish leaders looking to press Washington to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war in Europe.
Ahead of the visit, President Andrzej Duda called on other members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3% of their GDP as Russia puts its own economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its plans to conquer Ukraine.
Poland already spends 4% of its own economic output on defense, double the current target of 2% in NATO.
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and should remain the leader in security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in an address to Poland on Monday. “However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernize and strengthen their troops.”
In a Washington Post opinion piece to spotlight his call for greater NATO spending, Duda argued that Russia was switching its economy to “war mode,” allocating close to 30% of its annual budget to arm itself.
“This figure and other data coming out of Russia are alarming,” Duda wrote. “Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the biggest threat to global peace since the end of the Cold War.”
The Biden administration suggested Duda’s call to raise the defense spending target for NATO countries may be, at least for the time being, overly ambitious.
“I think the first step is to get every country meeting the 2% threshold, and we’ve seen improvement of that,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “But I think that’s the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal.”
Biden invited Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for meetings to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO, a historic step Poland took into the West after breaking free from Moscow’s sphere of influence after decades of communist rule.
The visit also comes amid a standoff in Washington between Biden, a Democrat, and House Republicans on Ukraine funding. House Republicans have blocked a $118 billion bipartisan package that includes $60 billion in Ukraine funding, as well as funds for Israel, Taiwan and U.S. border security.
Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane in Warsaw, Duda said while the talks in Washington would celebrate an anniversary, they would above all focus on European security going forward and “about Russian imperial policy, which has returned.”
The visit also gives Biden another opportunity to showcase how his view of NATO, a 32-member transatlantic military alliance, contrasts with that of the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump has said that when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent”
in meeting the alliance’s defense spending target. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the visit by the Polish leaders was an opportunity to reflect on the countries’ shared “ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance, which makes us all safer.”
Fear is deepening across Europe about Ukraine’s fate as its ammunition stocks run low and as Russia makes gains on the battlefield.
Duda and Tusk, who are also scheduled to meet with U.S. lawmakers while in Washington, are expected to add their voices to calls for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to advance a Senate-passed aid package.