Vice presidential debate how much time did each candidate get

PRINCETON, N.J. — By the time he was a senior at Princeton University in 1992, Ted Cruz had developed an arsenal of rhetorical skills and theatrical gestures that made him one of the most polished performers on the college debate circuit. So when he reached the quarterfinals of the national championships at M.I.T., with the title that had eluded him so far now in sight, he decided to try to knock his Harvard opponents off balance with one of his favorite tricks. Instead of the regular practice of defending his proposed topic — the merits of mind-reading — Mr. Cruz let his adversaries choose which side to argue. But the tactic, intended to highlight his confidence, backfired. As he waited for them to decide, the two Harvard students conspicuously dithered, eating up Mr. Cruz’s allotted speaking time as they whispered and searched their pockets for a coin to flip. The audience, now on to the stalling tactic, chuckled as Mr. Cruz snapped: “Gentlemen! You must have decided by now.” … [Read more...] about Ted Cruz Showed Eloquence, and Limits, as Debater at Princeton

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris was frustrated. The text of a speech she had been given to deliver in Chicago to the nation’s biggest teachers’ union was just another dreary, scripted talk that said little of any consequence. As Air Force Two made its way to the Midwest over the summer, the vice president told her staff she wanted to say something more significant, more direct. She brandished a Rolling Stone magazine article about the backlash against Florida school officials after new legislation barring the discussion of gender identity in the classroom. The teachers she was about to address were on the front lines of the nation’s culture wars, Ms. Harris told her staff. They were the same ones on the front lines of school shootings. Just blandly ticking through federal funding for education would not be enough. The plane was just an hour out from Chicago, but she said they needed to start over. By the time she landed, she had a more spirited version of the speech in hand, accusing … [Read more...] about Kamala Harris Is Trying to Define Her Vice Presidency. Even Her Allies Are Tired of Waiting.

High-ranking Democrats believe Kamala Harris does not have what it takes to serve as the future of the party, according to reporting by the New York Times. The New York Times reports that Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with the vice president’s inability to define her tenure in office. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in private conversations that Harris would not be able to win an election because she does not possess the necessary political instincts to get through a primary, according to The New York Times. Harris has been tasked with handling difficult issues such as immigration , but the Times report suggests that she has not been able to utilize the spotlight to her advantage. (RELATED: Where Has Kamala Harris Been For Seven Months?) She has also ducked opportunities attach herself to critical issues, such as last year’s baby formula shortage, according to reporting to The New York Times. The Times reports that Harris initially turned … [Read more...] about New York Times: Democrats Have ‘Lost Hope’ In Kamala Harris

WASHINGTON — The Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group that spent nearly $150 million in the past two election cycles, has invited a half-dozen potential Republican presidential candidates to its annual donor retreat next month — but not Donald J. Trump. In a meeting with reporters on Monday, David McIntosh, president of the group, said that Republican chances of winning back the White House next year would be diminished if Mr. Trump were once again at the top of the ticket and that he hoped to introduce Republican donors to other possibilities. “The party should be open to another candidate,” Mr. McIntosh said, suggesting that Republicans had already lost too many elections with Mr. Trump as the face of the party. Mr. Trump and the Club for Growth, which is based in Washington, were frequent foils during the 2022 midterms, backing opposing candidates in some high-profile primary contests, including Senate races in Ohio and Pennsylvania. When the group started … [Read more...] about Club for Growth Distances Itself Further From Trump

WASHINGTON — As President Biden prepared to deliver one of the biggest speeches of his presidency, he met with a close group of aides at the White House and read drafts aloud from top to bottom. He practiced in front of teleprompters at Camp David, making sure the language was relatable and clear. And, in quiet moments ahead of the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, he marked up his speech with subtle lines and dashes that he has long used as a signal to take a breath, pause between his words or steer through a tricky transition. Mr. Biden is the first modern president to have a stutter, which he has navigated since childhood and still speaks of in emotional terms. According to seven current and former aides who have helped Mr. Biden prepare for high-profile speeches throughout his career, the president’s shorthand will help him as he delivers an hourlong speech in which he will have to make an emphatic case for his legislative achievements and urge Republicans and … [Read more...] about Biden’s State of the Union Prep: No Acronyms and Tricks to Conquer a Stutter

The memos of Supreme Court clerks evaluating death row petitions usually consist of a brief review of the facts and then a dispassionate legal analysis as to whether the court should hear the case. Not so for Ted Cruz . Mr. Cruz, the most ardent death penalty advocate of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s clerks in the 1996 term, became known at the court for his signature writing style. Nearly two decades later, his colleagues recall how Mr. Cruz, who frequently spoke of how his mentor’s father had been killed by a carjacker, often dwelled on the lurid details of murders that other clerks tended to summarize before quickly moving to the legal merits of the case. “That, I think, was a special interest of his,” said Renée Lerner, then a clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who said she was impressed with how deeply Mr. Cruz delved into the facts and history of a murder case. “It was unusual for a Supreme Court clerk to do that.” Other clerks, however, had a less admiring … [Read more...] about As Supreme Court Clerk, Ted Cruz Made Death Penalty His Cause

BALI, Indonesia — President Biden returns home from a week of diplomacy and crisis management in the Middle East and Asia strengthened in his faith that this period of war and economic turmoil calls for his brand of coalition-building politics — reinforcing the leadership differences with his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, just as he announced another White House run on Tuesday. Mr. Biden’s swing through Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia was buoyed by a cascade of better-than-expected news for Democrats in the midterm elections and punctuated by a nearly three-hour meeting with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, that appeared to ease the rancorous rhetoric between the two increasingly rivalrous economies, the world’s largest. As reports emerged of Russian-made rockets killing two people in Poland, Mr. Biden convened an emergency meeting with NATO and Group of 7 leaders over the latest missile strikes in Russia’s war in Ukraine, declining to speculate on the source until more facts were … [Read more...] about Amid Crises, Biden Offers the World a Choice: My Way, or Trump’s

AT the Radisson Hotel in Nashua, N.H., Jon Favreau sipped Diet Coke and munched on carrot sticks and crackers to pass the time. His boss, Senator Barack Obama, wandered in and out of the room. Finally, results from the New Hampshire Democratic primary started coming in, surprising everyone. Hillary Clinton was pulling past Senator Obama, who had won the Iowa caucuses only five days earlier. Mr. Favreau, the campaign’s 26-year-old head speechwriter, found himself in the hotel lounge with less than three hours to revise what was to have been a victory speech. What made it particularly strange was that his words were being challenged. Mrs. Clinton had helped turn her campaign around by discounting Mr. Obama’s elegant oratory, saying, “You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.” “To be honest,” Mr. Favreau said, “the first time I really stopped to think about how it felt was when he started giving the speech. I looked around at the senior staff, and they were all smiling. And I … [Read more...] about What Would Obama Say?

William H. Rehnquist, who died Saturday at the age of 80 almost a year after learning he had thyroid cancer, helped lead a conservative revolution on the Supreme Court during 19 notably successful years as chief justice of the United States. Including 14 years as an associate justice, Chief Justice Rehnquist's tenure on the court was not only one of the longest in the institution's history but also one of the most consequential. With a steady hand, a focus and commitment that never wavered, and the muscular use of the power of judicial review, he managed to translate many of his long-held views into binding national precedent. Chief among those was an enhanced role for the states within the federal system, which the court accomplished under his leadership by overturning dozens of federal laws that sought to project federal authority into what the Supreme Court majority viewed as the domain of the states. In the zero-sum game of the tri-partite separation of powers, the Supreme … [Read more...] about William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Is Dead at 80

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is claiming to be the latest “target” of former President Trump after stating during an appearance on ABC’s This Week that Trump was so “toxic” that “boring” Joe Biden won in 2020. “Joe Biden’s president because Donald Trump lost. Joe Biden didn’t win, and Joe Biden’s never taken possession of that fact. So he continues to do what he did when he was running which he thinks was great, because ‘I won,'” Christie told ABC’s Jon Karl over the weekend. “No, you didn’t win, Trump lost, and you can’t change who somebody is, Jon,” Christie continued, admitting that Biden is “old” and “boring.” However, Christie said Biden was successful in the last election because he was “running against someone … who was so toxic that he won anyway.” Trump took to TruthSocial, hitting back against Christie, pointing to the former governor’s abysmal approval ratings as well as the failure of the 60-year-old’s presidential campaign and his recommendation of … [Read more...] about Chris Christie Claims to Be ‘Target’ of Trump After Bashing Him