Latest news with #JonTester
Fox News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Few presidents have bowed out like Biden. Historians explain what it means
Weeks after former President Joe Biden went head-to-head against now-President Donald Trump, Biden announced exactly a year ago, July 21, 2024, that he would bow out of the race — an unprecedented decision that led to a series of 2024 election plot twists. Biden's announcement came amid increasing pressure from his own party to step aside following his debate performance against Trump June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, where Biden struggled to answer seemingly basic questions. Biden's last-minute decision to exit the race rendered costly consequences for his party and his legacy — at least in the near future, according to experts. "The way Biden handled his infirmity and his reluctant exit from the race will be devastating for his legacy," Tevi Troy, presidential historian and the former deputy secretary of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush, said in an email to Fox News Digital Thursday. "While Biden was once known as the person who slayed the dragon that Democrats see as Trump, he will now forevermore be known as the person who allowed the dragon to return." Even after his rough debate performance, Biden dug his heels in and refused to immediately hand over the baton to another candidate. Initially, Biden, along with his White House and his campaign, said that ending his run for reelection was off the table, and that he wanted to face Trump in November 2024. But after calls from Democrat leaders, including former Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Biden finally issued a statement claiming that he believed "it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term." As a result, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place in the race. "I think it's very difficult to separate the fact that he bowed out from the fact that he did so belatedly and only after his disastrous debate performance," Alex Keyssar, a history professor at Harvard Kennedy School of public policy, said in an email to Fox News Digital. "That is true now and will also be true for his legacy for quite a while. "He is seen as someone who made an enormous mistake — remaining as a candidate when he could have withdrawn six months earlier — and a mistake that may well have cost his party the presidential election," Keyssar said. Few presidents have chosen not to run for reelection, and even fewer have chosen to do so in the middle of a presidential campaign. The departure from the race marked the first time a presidential candidate had done so in nearly 60 years. Those who've called off their presidential bids in the middle of the campaign season include former presidents Harry S. Truman, who bowed out amid low polling, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who announced he wouldn't run again amid tensions stemming from the Vietnam War and fractures within his own party. Even so, they each withdrew from the race months ahead of Biden. "Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson both pulled out of reelection efforts in late March," Troy said. "Joe Biden did it in late July, throwing the Democratic Party into turmoil." "While incumbents generally have the advantage in running for reelection, the history of incumbent parties after the incumbent chooses to drop out late is not great: Truman's, Johnson's and Biden's party lost in each of the elections in question," Troy said. Since Biden pulled out of the race, multiple books have been written detailing Biden's final days in office, his deteriorating mental faculties, and challenges within the Democratic Party as a result of his decision to withdraw from the election. Additionally, multiple investigations are ongoing on Capitol Hill concerning Biden's mental decline. For example, the House Oversight Committee is examining the cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions taken during his presidency. Biden's presidential approval rating reached a high of 57% from January 2021 to April 2021 after he first took office, but dropped to a low of 36% in July 2024, according to Gallup. Even so, Keyssar predicted that time would soften public opinion toward Biden's presidency. "As an historian, looking further into the future, I can imagine that his legacy will become more positive, as historians and other analysts focus more on his achievements in office and his basic decency as a person," Keyssar said.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘They've got to feel it': Fmr. Sen. Jon Tester on how economic anxiety could flip Trump voters
Former Democratic Senator and MSNBC political analyst, Jon Tester, joined Nicolle Wallace and Alex Wagner on Deadline: White House to discuss how economic anxiety could flip Trump voters across the country. "Democrats need forget that message that, you know, they're bad, we're good or they're worse than we are and start talking about real kitchen table issues that people are dealing with every single day," Tester said.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘They have to feel it': Sen. Jon Tester on how economic anxiety could flip Trump voters
Jon Tester, former Democratic Senator from Montana and Alex Wagner, MSNBC Senior Political Analyst join Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss the real consumer anxiety that are putting American families on edge and forcing them to put many of their long term plans on hold because of financial concerns and what Democrats need to focus on to win back voters they have lost on the issue of the economy.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'People are very concerned': Former senator warns of impact of Trump's trade policies
Former Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., joins Morning Joe to discuss how some Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ccasio-Cortez are responding to the White House and the economic impact of Trump's trade policies.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ex-Dem senator Jon Tester links his 2024 loss to Kamala Harris' poor performance in his state
Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., linked his 2024 Senate loss to ex-Vice President Kamala Harris' poor performance in the state. Tester, who lost to former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy in that race, declared on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" that the woke politics embraced by the top of the ticket are what doomed his performance in Montana. "And the top of the ticket did not perform because I don't think the top of the ticket embraced the issues that Americans were talking about," he said. "We got wrapped up in all the cancel culture crap." 13-Year-old Cancer Survivor Earns Standing Ovation As He Becomes Secret Service Agent During Trump Speech Tester had served three terms as the Democratic U.S. Senator in Montana, which has consistently voted for the Republican presidential candidate for decades. The ex-senator has taken a more moderate stance on issues during his time in the Senate, openly breaking with the Biden-Harris administration on several issues throughout the years. The Democrat also withheld an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris after she became the party's nominee. Read On The Fox News App Both Maher and Tester agreed on the need for the Democratic Party to abandon its far-left leanings and "court the center" as the best way to rebuild and present an alternative to the GOP under Trump. He said, "Yeah, you go to the place where the people are, and that way those disenfranchised Republicans have a place to land because they don't think the other party's crazy." Tester added, "And if they're able to do that, and you do that by talking about common sense stuff that people deal with every day." President Donald Trump Concludes Remarks After Declaring 'America's Momentum Is Back' Maher then asked Tester why a more moderate Democratic lawmaker like him couldn't win his election. Though he never named her outright, Tester told host Bill Maher that Harris' progressive stances and own loss in Montana dragged his performance in the state down. "If you want to know the truth, the top of the ticket lost by what? 30-some points? And the truth is the top of the ticket has to at least be competitive if you're gonna win in a red state or even a purple state." In 2024, Donald Trump won Montana by 20 points, 58 percent to 38 percent. Sheehy beat Tester by seven points, 52 percent to 45 percent. Fellow guest panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed with Tester's point that cancel culture sunk the party in Montana, adding that "identity politics" did so as well. Reps for Harris did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for article source: Ex-Dem senator Jon Tester links his 2024 loss to Kamala Harris' poor performance in his state
