Latest news with #Halperin
Fox News
7 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Biden team is ready to drop dirt on Harris if she comes after him, Mark Halperin says
Political analyst Mark Halperin revealed last week that former President Joe Biden's team is prepared to release unflattering stories about their efforts to prepare former Vice President Kamala Harris for a potential run if she comes after him in her new book. Harris announced the release of her upcoming book "107 Days," documenting her short-lived presidential run, just a week after Biden Biden reportedly signed a $10 million deal with the Hachette Book Group for his upcoming presidential memoir. While speaking on 2Way's "The Morning Meeting" with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine, Halperin dismissed the notion that they discussed these books with each other, adding that the Biden team is ready to push back if they feel threatened. "If the Biden people decide that Kamala Harris is coming after Joe Biden, wait until you hear the Palin-esque stories about how much they tried to help her be prepared to be vice president and be in a position to run, and how they decided, 'not happening. She's not up to this,'" Halperin said. "And if the Biden people feel threatened, you will hear stories about Kamala Harris as vice president that will not make her look good." Halperin's "Palin-esque" comment refers to revelations from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain's 2018 memoir, which revealed he regretted picking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Halperin later elaborated on his own show on Tuesday about how the Biden administration attempted to prepare Harris for a potential presidential run but found she wasn't "ready for prime time." "[T]he folks in the Biden administration, including the president himself, were very protective of her, did their best to make her a success, did their best to make her ready to be president either if Joe Biden left office prematurely or if she decided she wanted to run. If you look at her public schedule, you'll see she had, I think, an unprecedented number of meetings with world leaders," Halperin said. He continued, "Certainly, every opportunity, whether they were in Washington or when she traveled overseas, she met a lot of world leaders. They tried to get her up to speed, but she was not quite ready for prime time. Let me put it that way." Fox News Digital reached out to Biden and Harris' teams for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
New York Post
02-08-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Biden allies prepared to unload ‘Palinesque' stories about Kamala Harris if she discusses his cognitive decline: report
Joe Biden's allies are prepared to 'escalate' and reveal unflattering stories about Kamala Harris should the former vice president decide to talk about the former president's cognitive decline, according to a veteran political journalist. The stories about Harris' tenure as Biden's No. 2 are 'Palinesque,' 2WAY's Mark Halperin said Friday, a reference to former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. 'I will tell you, and this has never been reported, barely at all: if the Biden people decide that Kamala is coming after Joe Biden, wait till you hear the 'Palinesque' stories about how much they tried to help her be prepared to be vice president and be in a position to run. And how much they decided, 'Not happening. She's not up to this,'' Halperin said on 'The Morning Meeting' show. 3 Earlier this week, Harris announced that she would not be running for governor in California. X/Kamala Harris In the aftermath of late Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, leaks from campaign staffers suggested that Palin, McCain's running mate, was woefully unprepared for the job. In one infamous report, campaign staffers claimed that Palin did not know Africa was a continent and that she could not name the three countries that formed the North American Free Trade Agreement – the United States, Canada and Mexico. 'If the Biden people feel threatened, you will hear stories about Kamala Harris as vice president that will not make her look good,' Halperin said. 'So there's a closeness to the couples,' he added. 'It's not like they're at war currently, but I'm telling you, if Joe Biden feels threatened, if his people feel threatened by her, this is gonna escalate in a big way.' Halperin argued that Harris would have a 'hard time defending against the stories if that dam bursts.' Journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper detail some of the frustrations Biden loyalists had with the VP in their recent book, 'Original Sin.' In the book, Harris was described as a 'regular headache' for the White House, according to Biden people. 'She often shied away from politically tough assignments when Biden had accepted such assignments as vice president,' the authors write. 'She even turned down seemingly simple asks, such as headlining DC's Gridiron Club dinner.' 'Many on the Biden team felt that Harris didn't put in the work and was also just not a very nice person,' according to the book. 'Several quietly expressed buyer's remorse: They should have picked [Michigan Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer' as Biden's running mate in 2020. 3 Biden's cognitive decline and use of autopen in the White House is being scrutinized by Republicans. REUTERS 3 Halperin said the stories Biden's team has about Harris are 'Palinesque.' 2WAY/YouTube Halperin argued that Biden's people 'were extraordinary in trying to help her do the job of vice president.' 'They gave her every opportunity. And they did — they found in some instances that she had some issues.' The House Oversight Committee has brought in several former top Biden White House aides to testify on the former president's mental decline and his staff's use of autopen to sign official documents. It's unclear if the GOP-led committee plans to ask or subpoena Harris for testimony.
Fox News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Political analyst says Democrats are already worried about the 'big problem' of winning back voters for 2028
Author and political analyst Mark Halperin said Tuesday Democrats are worried about the 2028 election after seeing record-low approval ratings. Since President Donald Trump's re-election, the Democratic Party has been looking to the 2026 midterm election, where the party out of power typically over-performs, as a political comeback. Though Halperin agreed that Democrats have a chance to do well in 2026, he said they are concerned about their prospects in the next presidential cycle. "The Democrats I talked to are far less worried about 2026 in the midterms because this history suggests that even weak, the party could still do well enough to take back the House. What they're worried about is 2028," the "Next Up" podcast host said. Halperin continued, "What they're worried about is the capacity of the party to redefine itself and to win back voters they'll need to win the White House, particularly because they are a party right now without strong candidates. The Democratic brand, on its own right now, it appears to be on the wrong side of both the polling and of the history. And that's a big problem." Several recent polls have shown the Democratic Party with both record-low approval ratings and record-high disapproval ratings. A CNN poll conducted July 10-13 and released earlier this month found just 28% of Americans viewed the party favorably. This was the lowest mark for Democrats in the entire history of CNN polling. A Wall Street Journal survey released on Friday found a whopping 63% of respondents holding an unfavorable opinion of the Democrats, the highest recorded unfavorable rating for the party by the WSJ in 35 years. Halperin blamed the party's insistence on being against Trump on every single issue, including popular measures such as securing the border. "The Democrats simply accentuate the downsides of these achievements," Halperin said. "They find and highlight the weak links, and there are weak links, rather than grappling with what's actually happening that I think is more important. That the trends in this country in terms of public opinion have fueled Trump's rise and capacity to get stuff done. Trump has understood where public opinion was on these issues and others, and the Democratic Party has been and largely remains clueless." He added that Democrats now seemed unwilling to confront the activist wing in their party and "lack the creativity and self-awareness" to truly address where they went wrong. Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment. Though several Democratic figures have emerged as potential candidates to run in 2028, there has yet to be a clear frontrunner.
Fox News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Mark Halperin questions why expert and Republican analysis on Biden's autopen use 'absent' from NYT report
Political commentator Mark Halperin called out The New York Times for their interview with former President Joe Biden published on Sunday, questioning why expert and Republican analysis on the president's use of an autopen to "delegate pardons" was "absent" from their write-up. On Monday's episode of "The Morning Meeting," Halperin argued that The New York Times disregarded basic journalistic standards by failing to include opinions from experts and Republicans on Biden's claims about his use of the autopen. "If this shoe were on the other foot, I can't believe The New York Times wouldn't have gone and gotten Adam Schiff's reaction. There's no Republican reaction in that story," Halperin noted. "There's no legal expert quoted in the story…" Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer interjected, noting that there is a pattern from the "legacy left-wing press" in refusing to engage with Republicans on stories that concern possible wrong-doing by Democrats. "That's the point I'm making," Halperin replied. "It's like, that's basic journalism 101. Biden is now taking the position that he could delegate pardons, right? That's the position they took in the story. Everything else is fine. That's the one thing. So what do law professors think about that? What do Republicans think about that? It's absent from the story," he added. The political commentator continued, stating that he cannot understand "as a matter of journalism," why The Times would forgo expert and dissenting opinions on Biden's claims about his autopen use. He said that if the outlet was writing about a Republican politician in the same circumstances, "they'd have both of those things." "They'd have some hysterical law professors saying this is an impeachable offense, and they'd have a Republican saying this needs to be investigated," Halprin asserted. "It's absent from the story, it's madness." In The Times' interview with Biden, the former president argued that because he "granted clemency to so many people," he had his staff use the tool to sign the pardons. "'I made every decision,' Mr. Biden said in a phone interview on Thursday, asserting that he had his staff use an autopen replicating his signature on the clemency warrants because 'we're talking about a whole lot of people,'" The Times reported. However, The Times report said Biden did not personally approve each name included in the broad, categorical pardons. "Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence," The Times reported. Biden's chief of staff issued final approval for multiple high-profile preemptive pardons during the former president's final days in office. Fox News Digital has reached out to The New York Times for comment.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mark Halperin says Democrats investigating cover-up of Biden's health would be right thing to do
Political commentator Mark Halperin said on Sunday that Democratic lawmakers investigating the "cover-up" of former President Joe Biden's health problems would be good for the country. In a new interview with Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade on "One Nation," Halperin advised the Democratic Party to join the GOP in investigating how the American public was kept in the dark over the true nature of Biden's mental and physical decline while he was in the White House. "Democrats should want to investigate that. It's the right thing to do for the country, for it to be bipartisan, but it's probably good politics for them, too, because they are just now understanding how much their credibility has been hurt by their participation in the cover-up," Halperin said. Biden Aide Intimidated Reporter Investigating Former President's Mental Decline With 'Tacit Threat:' Book Further scrutiny has been placed on Biden's mental and physical decline in recent weeks as "Original Sin," a newly published book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, alleged that the Biden White House was going all out trying to control the perception of the aging president's failing health. The book exposes the cover-up of Biden's decline amid his ultimately aborted decision to run for re-election that wound up being a disaster for the Democratic Party. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent out interview requests last week to four key Biden White House aides to investigate their alleged roles in working to obscure Biden's health problems from the media and the public. Read On The Fox News App Credibility Crisis: White House Reporters Speak Out On Whether Biden's Mental Decline Was Deliberately Hidden Comer said that these high-ranking staffers worked "behind the scenes" and "ran interference for President Biden" to avoid his worsening condition from being discovered during his time in office. Halperin told the Fox News host he believes that the GOP opening investigations into this cover-up is a good way forward. "What I would love to see is – congressional Republicans, as you know, Brian, are now talking about launching an investigation, because there is real congressional oversight to be done here," he said. "How could this possibly have happened? What was the role of the first family? Was the role of the White House aides?" Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture He noted that it would be smart for the investigation to be bipartisan as well, as Democratic lawmakers "should want" to know what went on here. "I think it'd be great politics and great for the country for Ron Johnson and the other Republicans on Capitol Hill talking about investigating to invite Democrats to make it a bipartisan investigation. And then let's see what Democrats do," the commentator added. Fox News' Peter Pinedo and Aishah Hasnie contributed to this report. Original article source: Mark Halperin says Democrats investigating cover-up of Biden's health would be right thing to do
