USA 2024: – 236, Biden and Trump reach arithmetical certainty of nomination

With a week to go before the mini Super Tuesday on March 19, Joe Biden and Donald Trump have surpassed, by winning yesterday’s primaries in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington State, Hawaii, the Mariana Islands, and among Democrats abroad, the threshold of delegates necessary to be arithmetically sure of the nomination at their respective party conventions: Republicans in July in Milwaukee, Democrats in August in Chicago. This is indicated by the calculations of the main US media, while the results are not yet final or official. The delegate thresholds to surpass were 1968 for Biden and 1215 for Trump.

With less than eight months until Election Day on November 5, the phase of the campaign for the primaries is over, and the one towards a rematch with few precedents in US history begins: 70 years ago, in 1956, Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson faced each other for the second time (and Eisenhower repeated his victory); and in the distant year of 1892, Grover Cleveland, a Democratic candidate three times in a row and already a winner in 1894, defeated Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, who in turn had defeated him in 1988.

Now Biden and Trump are the presumptive nominees of their respective parties. But yesterday’s results also have some negative implications, particularly for Trump, because in Georgia, the magnate is over 80%, but his former rival Nikki Haley, who has also withdrawn from the race, exceeds 15%, with over 60 thousand votes. A warning signal, according to some analysts, because it means that among Republicans, there is a hardcore anti-Trump faction, which in swing states like Georgia could prove decisive.

From now on, it is likely that the tones of Biden, but especially those of Trump, will change slightly: the goal will no longer be to consolidate their own base but to try to win over moderates and independents. Trump, however, presses Biden for a face-to-face debate before the three canonical ones already scheduled between September and October. “For the good of this country and to inform Americans about what is happening, there must be an immediate debate between corrupt Joe and honest Don. I am ready at any time and anywhere,” the magnate writes on Truth.

Trump’s praises of Hitler continue to reverberate, “shameful but not surprising,” according to Biden’s campaign, after the previews of the book by CNN journalist Jim Sciutto, to whom Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, recounted the magnate’s admiration for the Führer. “There is no need to be surprised by a man who proposes Nazi rhetoric in his rallies, who calls his rivals parasites, and who admires dictators and autocrats like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Kim Jong Un, and the rest of the gang,” says Biden’s campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika. “When Donald Trump speaks like a dictator, praises dictators, and says he wants to be a dictator, we must believe him.”

USA 2024: testimony in the House by special prosecutor Robert Hur
Special Prosecutor Ben Hur, who did not indict President Biden for the classified documents found in his possession but ridiculed him for memory lapses and elderly behavior, did not rule out a role in the Republican Administration yesterday if Trump were to win the November elections.

Hur, appointed in 2017 by Trump as a federal prosecutor, was asked by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell if he would commit not to accept a position from the magnate in a second term. Hur responded, “I am not here to talk about what might or might not happen in the future.”

In his testimony, Hur also clarified that he “did not exonerate” Biden in the final report of his investigation: the magistrate interrupted Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal, who said that Hur’s report amounted to a “complete exoneration” of the president. “I did not exonerate him – intervened the magistrate -: that word does not appear in my report.” Hur explained that he recommended not to prosecute the president because it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict him: “He would present himself as an elderly man empathetic, well-intentioned, and with poor memory,” it is written in his report.

Hur defended his work. “My assessment of the president’s memory was necessary, accurate, and right,” he said in the initial statement, as reported by the US media. “I did not mitigate my explanation. Nor did I unfairly denigrate the president. I explained my decision and its reasons. That’s what I had to do.”

Hur has come under fire from Republicans for not recommending Biden’s prosecution, raising suspicion of a double standard compared to former President Trump, although he himself emphasized in his report the differences between the two cases. But Hur has also been criticized by Biden and Democrats for portraying him as an elderly man with memory deficits. According to analyses by predominantly liberal US media, transcripts of meetings between Biden and Hur do not corroborate the magistrate’s analysis.

“We have collected evidence that the president knowingly held classified documents after the end of his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Hur reported to two House committees, controlled by Republicans. “However, we did not gather evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,” he added. “My mission was to establish whether the president had retained or disclosed classified information ‘knowingly,'” he continued. “I could not conclude on this point without examining the mental state of the president. For this reason, I had to consider the memory and overall mental state of the president and how they would be perceived by a criminal court jury,” he explained.