Hospitalized Senator Tops Colombia Poll After Assassination Plot
Support for Senator Uribe jumped 24 points to 57%, making him the most favorably viewed politician in the LatAm Pulse survey, conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News and released Tuesday. His mentor, former President Alvaro Uribe, to whom he is not related, ranked second.
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CNN
42 minutes ago
- CNN
After disasters like the Texas flood, Trump reflexively blames Biden
CNN — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday drew a hard line against quickly blaming the government in the midst of a tragedy – in this case, the deadly floods in Texas. 'Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game; it is not,' Leavitt said, amid suggestions linking the tragedy to Trump's cuts to the National Weather Service. She added: 'I just do think those comments are depraved and despicable, especially when so many Americans are mourning the loss of their children.' Less than 24 hours before Leavitt's comments, though, it was her boss, Trump, who was levying blame – not on the incumbent government, but the previous one. 'If you look at that water situation, that was really the Biden setup,' Trump said. Trump quickly clarified that he wasn't actually blaming Biden – he cited the historic nature of the floods – but there is no question he was attempting to shift potential responsibility for any government missteps to his predecessor. And indeed, this has become Trump's M.O. When something bad happens – including tragedy – Trump's reflex has been to blame his predecessor. And often, despite Leavitt's admonishment, he casts blame very quickly. Airplane crashes and air traffic control problems After a tragic crash in the Potomac River near Washington, DC, in late January that killed 67 people, Trump blamed the Biden administration and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies – despite no evidence forming anything close to such a link. He did so even as bodies were being pulled from the river. In May, after more crashes and technical problems that in some cases traumatized air traffic controllers, Trump added that 'Biden didn't do a thing for four years.' And just last week, Trump suggested air traffic controllers would have had better equipment, but 'then Biden canceled the order when he came in.' The comment echoed previous ones from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. It's not clear what Trump was referring to. Administrations have for decades declined to proactively modernize air traffic control. That included Trump proposals that were never enacted, the New York Times reported. An antisemitic attack in Colorado After an antisemitic firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado last month that led to dozens of injuries and eventually a death, Trump the next day blamed 'Biden's ridiculous Open Border Policy.' Other top administration officials echoed that line, with White House adviser Stephen Miller calling the suspect an 'illegal alien' who benefited from the Biden's ' suicidal immigration ' policies. The reality was more complex, as the Atlantic reported. The Egyptian man had arrived in 2022 during the Biden administration, but he didn't cross the border illegally. He instead arrived on a tourist visa that Trump's first administration had frequently awarded, and then applied for asylum – a process that allows one to temporarily stay in the country. That application was still pending when the attacks occurred. The failure of the Gaza ceasefire Trump came into office hailing his role in securing a ceasefire in Gaza. After it fell apart in March, Trump was asked about a UNICEF report that more than 300 children had been killed and more than 600 had been injured in Gaza following the breakdown of ceasefire talks. Asked who he blamed, Trump didn't name Hamas or Israel, but instead Biden. 'I would say that the blame for that is Biden more than anybody else, because I had – as you know, Iran was broke, and he allowed them to become rich,' Trump told Time magazine. When asked about blaming Hamas instead, Trump plowed forward. 'I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal,' he said. The lack of a peace deal in Ukraine Trump promised to end the war between Ukraine and Russia instantly upon taking office. And when repeatedly questioned about the lack of results months into his second term, he will often fall back on calling it 'Biden's war.' 'This is Biden. This isn't me,' Trump said Friday. 'This is Biden's war.' When asked in April about recognizing Russian control of Crimea as part of a peace deal – a controversial part of the proposal that Ukraine publicly rejected – Trump said: 'Crimea was given away by Barack Hussein Obama and by Biden.' Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, during former President Obama's second term. 'You can blame the man that was sitting in this seat, Biden,' Trump said earlier in the month, adding: 'I'm not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn't say he's done the greatest job.' Economic pains Trump's blame-Biden refrain perhaps comes up most frequently regarding the economy, where Trump's numbers have suffered. Trump returned to this line when the stock market sunk amid his tariff threats, when jobs numbers have come in low and when the gross domestic product had a bad quarter. 'We came in on January 20th, so this is Biden,' Trump said in late April. 'And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn't just happen on a daily or an hourly basis.' 'This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's,' he said on Truth Social the same day. 'I didn't take over until January 20th.' Trump had said just three months prior that a stock market increase at the time was due to the 'Trump effect.' By early May, Trump had removed any subtext from when he planned to blame Biden. 'I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy,' Trump told NBC News, 'because he's done a terrible job.' (Polling suggests this has not worked. Apparently because of Trump's economy-rocking tariff threats, Americans quickly tied the economy to his policies – more quickly than for other recent presidents.) Egg prices Perhaps no product has gotten more attention when it comes to inflation as the price of eggs. And when prices shot up early in Trump's presidency, he blamed Biden. 'Under Biden, they soared like double, triple, quadruple. You couldn't even get them,' Trump said in early April. 'They were not available.' He added in late April: 'And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, 'Eggs, eggs, eggs,' like it was my fault. I said, 'I didn't cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden,' Trump said, adding: 'Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved.' Egg prices are down, but not 87% as Trump claimed. And there is a very logical culprit for the rise in egg prices: a bird flu outbreak. But Trump chose instead to blame Biden. Signal-gate One of Trump's most puzzling efforts to blame Biden came amid one of the biggest scandals of his administration: Signal-gate. While talking about his officials discussing highly sensitive military attack information on an unclassified messaging app back in March, Trump suggested some blame lie with Biden – for not launching the attack earlier. 'Joe Biden should have done this attack on Yemen, which is basically a certain group within Yemen, the Houthis, and this should have been done by Joe Biden and it wasn't,' Trump said. 'And that's caused this world a lot of damage and a lot of problems.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tesla is in deeper trouble than you think
Tesla's troubles go far beyond CEO Elon Musk's recent dust-up with President Donald Trump, who accused the former 'first buddy' of going 'completely 'off the rails'' in a social media slap fight over the weekend. But while the battles between Musk and Trump are getting all the attention, the outlook for Tesla's revenue and bottom line have gotten notably worse. And the company could even be back to losing money, for reasons unrelated to Musk's personal politics. Musk was Trump's largest financial supporter during the 2024 campaign, and was a mainstay at Mar-a-Lago and the White House at the start of Trump's second term, with his role in slashing the federal workforce at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But Musk has since announced he was starting a new political party due to his displeasure with the tax and spending bill signed by Trump on Friday — and the barbs on their respective websites have only increased since then. Shares of Tesla closed Monday down 6.8%, as investors were concerned about the implication of Musk's latest political moves, despite his promises to re-focus on the company. It rebounded only 1.3% in Tuesday trading. 'Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,' wrote Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities who's known for being optimistic about the company. Ives put out a follow-up note Tuesday saying that the Tesla board should set ground rules to limit Musk's political activities because the company is at a 'tipping point' for its future. 'Tesla is heading into one of the most important stages of its growth cycle with the autonomous and robotics future now on the doorstep and cannot have Musk spending more and more time creating a political party which will require countless time, energy, and political capital,' he wrote. Still, Ives maintained his buy recommendation and $500 price target for the stock in his note. But analysts at William Blair cut their recommendation on the stock to 'market perform' or neutral, and also cut their earnings forecast for the company. Because even without the political stink, the Tesla's financial outlook is suddenly looking notably worse. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. But when Ives posted his belief that the Tesla board should tie Musk's future pay package to the amount of time he spends at Tesla and have oversight of his political 'endeavors,' Musk responded with his own post on X, saying 'Shut up, Dan.' Blair's note pointed out that Trump's bill not only removed the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle (EV) buyers, but also eliminated the financial penalties for automakers that fail to meet federal emissions targets. Emissions fines have historically forced automakers who still build primarily gasoline powered cars and trucks to buy 'regulatory credits' from EV companies. Removing those fines eliminates 'market demand for Tesla's credits,' said the note from William Blair analysts Jed Dorsheimer and Mark Shooter. The sale of those federal and state credits added $10.6 billion to Tesla's bottom line since 2019 and often enabled the company to post a profit. Without the revenue from those regulatory credits, the company would not have reported a positive annual net income until 2021, and it would have been back in the red again in the first quarter of this year, when its net income plunged 71% compared to a year earlier on sharply lower sales around the globe. Musk has largely downplayed all the recent bad news, saying the company's future rests on robots, artificial intelligence and self-driving taxis. But the company's taxi service is very limited to date, launching only in Austin, Texas, for a select group of customers – mostly Tesla fans – and with a Tesla employee riding in the front passenger seat to monitor the car's performance. That puts Tesla behind the robotaxi service already offered in Austin and three other cities – San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix – by Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet. And Tesla's rollout has had its shares of problems, including a video showing a robotaxi traveling on the wrong side of the road for about half of a block and another video of a robotaxi slowly turning its front wheels into a parked car. While Musk has promised his robotaxi service will be expanding soon across many other cities, he has not given any further details. He also hasn't said when the Austin service will be expanded to the general public, nor when the company's human monitors sitting in the front passenger seat will no longer be needed. Meanwhile, Waymo has definitive plans to expand its service to Miami and Washington, DC, next year in partnership with Uber. 'We expect that investors are growing tired of the distraction at a point when the business needs Musk's attention the most and only see downside from his dip back into politics,' said the William Blair note. 'We would prefer this effort to be channeled towards the robotaxi rollout at this critical juncture.' Then there's the problem of Tesla's sales. Or rather, the lack thereof. Global sales were down a record 13% in each of the first two quarters of this year, compared to a year earlier, even though demand for EVs overall continues to climb, a further sign of Tesla's declining market share. Part of the lost EV market share is due to increased competition, both from Western automakers rolling out their own EV offerings, and Chinese automakers that have made a massive push into the market. Chinese automaker BYD is poised to surpass Tesla in global annual EV sales this year for the first time, even though Tesla is a still a major player in China, and BYDs are not sold in the US. Demand is likely to weaken further come October 1, when the $7,500 tax credit for electric car buyers expires. When a previous version of the tax credit was phased out for Teslas in 2019, the company had to cut the price of the car by about half the value of the lost credit. Tuesday Tesla posted on X that 'If there ever was a time to yolo your car purchase, it's now,' referencing the upcoming tax credit expiration and using the acronym for 'you only live once.' But Tesla has also faced missteps of Musk's own doing. There has been backlash against Musk's political activity, which has had a significant impact on Tesla sales. That is likely to continue even as he moves to distance himself from Trump. In the early months of this year, hundreds of protests were held outside Tesla showrooms in the United States, Canada and Europe. Worries about self-inflicted brand damage started the company's shares on their downward slide. It prompted Trump, who was still Musk's ally at the time, to announce he was buying a Tesla for himself. In March, the president hosted an event at the White House urging others to buy the company's cars. At one point, Musk and Tesla investors might have hoped that in a closely divided country, the lost sales to Trump critics might be at least partly made up for by sales to Trump fans. But Musk seems to now face the possibility of backlash from both sides of the political spectrum. 'He's been able to alienate everyone, which many thought was impossible, but he's actually been able to do it,' Ives told CNN Monday. 'And the problem is, this soap opera just keeps going on.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Biden's reelection bid fell apart after he admitted ‘only thing' he cared about was Hunter avoiding jail
During a crucial month in former President Joe Biden's reelection bid, he allegedly said the 'only thing' he cared about was that his son Hunter Biden avoided jail, the authors of a new book claim. According to an excerpt of 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, published in the Wall Street Journal, Biden was 'distracted' by his son's legal battles, which coincided with a key moment in his doomed campaign. The former president was said to be 'devastated' by Hunter's legal troubles and months later, as one of his last acts in office, made the stunning move to pardon his son after his conviction on federal gun charges. June 2024 was a key period in Biden's reelection campaign - but the then-president suffered enormous setbacks that eventually derailed his bid for a second term. The former president didn't recognise his long-term friend and ally George Clooney at a star-studded fundraiser mid-way through the month, according to a tell-all book on his decline. The interaction, in part, is said to have influenced the actor's decision to pen an op-ed in calling for him to drop out the race. Then, two weeks later, Biden's disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump caused further concern within his own party. While all of that was going on, the book's authors — The Journal's Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager of the New York Times, and the Washington Post's Isaac Arnsdorf — claim that Biden confided in a close friend: 'The only thing I care about is that my son is not convicted.' However, Hunter was equally concerned by his father's performance against Trump. 'Hunter watched the debate from his home in Los Angeles, and his reaction was 'What the f***?',' the book claims. 'He had never seen his father so out of it, and worried about his well-being. A few days later, when Hunter arrived at Camp David for a visit, he told his father, 'I love you' and 'Get some sleep.'' The next morning, Hunter's 'concerns had softened,' the book says. 'He thought Biden had just been exhausted during the debate…No one discussed Biden dropping out of the presidential race.' However, a few weeks later, as Biden was recovering from Covid and holding meetings to determine his future, Hunter called and said he would support whatever decision was made, but 'would sure love having' his father back, according to the book. The next day, the book claims, Biden dropped out of the race. The account is said to be based on interviews with 'more than a dozen prominent Democrats' working on Biden's campaign and within White House. The book, out next week on July 8, follows another explosive publication detailing the alleged cover-up of Biden's mental and physical decline while in office written by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson. It was released around the same time Biden announced that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. On December 1 last year, Biden issued a pardon to his son, who he said had been 'selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted' by the Justice Department. In a lengthy statement, he said he hoped the American people would understand his decision as a father. It came less than two weeks ahead of Hunter's sentencing for his conviction on federal gun charges. The pardon was a full reversal of the stance he took six months prior, when he announced publicly he would not pardon Hunter if he was convicted. It prompted widespread outrage amongst Republicans and Democrats, with many calling it 'an improper use of power.'
