DAVID AXELROD

As 2024's campaign season begins, politicians are looking in the mirror and deciding whether they see an American president staring back.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that two years into President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States is “in a better place in the world” and better positioned to address global issues including climate change, COVID-19 and dangerous opioids.

The Iowa caucuses and their outsize importance have largely been an exercise in myth-making.

Former President Barack Obama has returned to the campaign trail in Georgia, framing the 2022 midterm elections as a referendum on democracy and urging voters not to see Republicans as an answer to their economic woes.

There’s no such thing as a purely personal opinion from the Oval Office on major matters of policy.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki isn't confirming reports that she'll soon take a TV job at MSNBC.

In the lead-up to his 90th birthday, civil rights icon Andrew Young delivered a sermon that lamented the war in Ukraine and “rancor” in the world.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has lost her libel lawsuit against The New York Times.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is back in a New York City courtroom more than a week after her libel trial against The New York Times was postponed because she tested positive for COVID-19.

MSNBC says it has hired former Biden aide Symone Sanders to host a weekend television show and another on its Peacock streaming service.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been on a PR blitz promoting his new book.

President Joe Biden’s plan for a massive expansion of social programs is being framed by supporters as such a high-stakes endeavor that it’s “too big to fail.”.

Joe Biden’s presidency is entering a new and more perilous phase.

More action, less talk and something for the history books.

President Joe Biden speaks with Mary Anna Ackley, Owner of Little Wild Things Farm, left, and Michael Siegel, Co-owner of W.S. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and the Democrats were on the brink of pushing through sprawling legislation with an eyepopping, $1.9 trillion price tag. Other GOP efforts to define Biden as a radical or to attack his mental acuity also didn't resonate. Some Republicans argue it will simply take time for the GOP to organize against Biden, given the honeymoon period most new presidents enjoy. All the while, the Biden White House is underscoring its attempts at bipartisanship, putting the Republicans on the defensive for not signing onto the broadly popular COVID relief bill.

President Joe Biden speaks with Mary Anna Ackley, Owner of Little Wild Things Farm, left, and Michael Siegel, Co-owner of W.S. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and the Democrats were on the brink of pushing through sprawling legislation with an eyepopping, $1.9 trillion price tag. Other GOP efforts to define Biden as a radical or to attack his mental acuity also didn't resonate. Some Republicans argue it will simply take time for the GOP to organize against Biden, given the honeymoon period most new presidents enjoy. All the while, the Biden White House is underscoring its attempts at bipartisanship, putting the Republicans on the defensive for not signing onto the broadly popular COVID relief bill.

Increasingly deep into the process of selecting Cabinet members and other senior staff, the incoming Biden administration has a distinctly Obama feel. There's Denis McDonough, former President Barack Obama's chief of staff who Biden announced on Thursday would be nominated as the secretary of veterans affairs. Susan Rice, Obama's former national security adviser, was named the director of Biden's White House Domestic Policy Council. Jeff Zients, who did stints as acting Office of Management and Budget director and a top economic adviser in the Obama White House, will return as Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator. They're pressing Biden to focus in particular on the diversity of his Cabinet after several early picks were white men.

If Trump wins, Republicans win the Senate," said Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and chief of staff to President Barack Obama. Florida, a state that voted for Trump, voted for the minimum wage. Illinois, a state that voted for Biden, voted down a progressive income tax. “It’s clear there was more voter frustration with Trump than with the ideology of the Republican Party,” said Mike Murphy, a strategist to several Republican presidential campaigns who broke with his party over Trump. “Trump lifted Republican candidates by vastly boosting turnout in areas of Republican strength," said David Axelrod, former senior adviser Obama.

NEW YORK – ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away from President Donald Trump on Thursday as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the presidential election was being stolen from him. Trump was more subdued Thursday, yet offered a litany of complaints about “suppression” polls, mail-in voting and fraud that he never specified. Cordes said there is no indication of a substantive number of illegal votes cast, and said Trump's reference to votes arriving late was “another falsehood.”MSNBC cut away from Trump to anchor Brian Williams. “There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”After ABC ended its coverage, the network’s White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, also said there was no evidence of illegal votes. But especially in this election.”While CNN kept Trump on the air, a chyron displayed under him said, “Without any evidence, Trump says he's being cheated.”Anchor Jake Tapper looked weary when it was over.

The final stretch of a presidential campaign is typically a nonstop mix of travel, caffeine and adrenaline. – The final stretch of a presidential campaign is typically a nonstop mix of travel, caffeine and adrenaline. But as the worst pandemic in a century bears down on the United States, Joe Biden is taking a lower key approach. Still, some Democrats say it's critical that Biden infuse his campaign with more energy. Four years later, Biden faces persistent questions about whether his campaign is organizing and connecting with voters.

WASHINGTON Since leaving the White House nearly four years ago, former President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for a new generation of political leaders to step up. Obamas political support and personal affection for Biden is genuine, forged during their eight years together in the White House. He is an incomparable witness for Biden, David Axelrod, a longtime Obama political adviser, said of the former president. During the 2016 race, Obama privately discouraged Biden from running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Certainly Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are among them.Indeed, the former president has enviable popularity, both among Democrats and all Americans.

FILE- In this June 3, 2020 file photo, workmen walk by the shuttered La Tropicana Cafe in Tampa, Fla. Now its doors are likely closed for good, like so many other bars and restaurants done in by the coronavirus pandemic. For years, his father, Roland Manteiga, kept a corner table reserved for himself, with a special red telephone to call in scoops. La Tropicana become a favorite hangout. !For regular customers or sometime visitors, historic restaurants and bars have made lasting memories for so many people as they crossed paths with celebrities or, like Joplin, the soon-to-be famous.

At the same time, the Trump administration has opposed any significant efforts in the latest coronavirus rescue package to protect and strengthen mail voting. But this week largely belongs to Biden, who is days away from announcing the winner of the veepstakes. The question then becomes whether the Trump administration will do anything to address his concerns about mail voting. GOP officials said over the weekend that the vote to formally give Trump his party's 2020 presidential nomination will be conducted in private later this month. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election.

NEW YORK The Sinclair Broadcast Group said Saturday it is pulling from the air an edition of its America This Week program that discusses a conspiracy theory involving Dr. Anthony Fauci and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, talked in detail in a new podcast about the serious threats and hate mail directed his way. Bolling told CNN Business that he wasn't even aware of the Plandemic video before his bookers arranged for Mikovits' appearance. The 26-minute Plandemic video emerged this spring and promoted a series of questionable, false and potentially dangerous theories. Fauci says he is receiving not only hate mail, but actual serious threats against me."

(AP Photo/Dan Sewell)CINCINNATI During a background briefing with reporters in December, President Donald Trump's reelection campaign team gave only passing mention of Ohio. Trump's campaign has budgeted $18.4 million in television advertising in Ohio for this fall, second only to Florida, according to campaign advertising tracking data. Trump won Ohio by 8 percentage points four years ago. In nearby Hilliard, Democrats won their first seat on the City Council in three decades. Even as Trumps standing began to fall after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Ohio was not seen as a concern, campaign officials said.

DES MOINES, Iowa Joe Biden's presidential campaign has lined up a senior team in Iowa, a sign Democrats see the state where Republican Donald Trump beat them handily in 2016 as within reach. Joining Norris as Biden's Iowa campaign director is Lauren Dillon, who directed Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar's 2020 Iowa caucus campaign. She was a senior advertising strategist for Democratic Senate candidates during the 2018 midterm elections after serving in several roles at the Democratic National Committee. The tightening in Iowa follows incremental gains by Democrats since Trump carried the state. The Trump campaign named a senior Iowa team almost a year ago, including Eric Branstad, son of former Gov.