White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will address the briefing room Tuesday for the first time since President Biden’s rocky debate performance. 

In the aftermath of Thursday’s debate in Atlanta, Jean-Pierre did hold a press gaggle aboard Air Force One while en route to Queens, New York, on Friday, but Tuesday will be the first time she returns to the White House briefing room to field questions on camera. Biden returned to the White House Monday night after gathering with family at Camp David in Maryland over the weekend. 

During the press gaggle with Jean-Pierre, campaign communications director Michael Tyler referenced Biden’s remarks at a Friday post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Reading from a teleprompter and addressing a live audience, in contrast with the debate, the president told cheering supporters, ‘I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.’ 

‘Obviously, I think the president said himself he’s not as good as a debater as he used to be. He doesn’t walk or talk as smoothly as he used to. But he knows how to fight like hell. And I think he showed that today in North Carolina,’ Tyler said. ‘And so, that’s what the American people are going to continue to see day in and day out for the remainder of this campaign: a president in Joe Biden who understands he’s never going to stop fighting for the American people, and he’s never going to stop contrasting that against Donald Trump, who every single day is clearly fighting for himself. 

‘So, I think the President is honest about his own performance. But as far as what last night’s debate actually provided for the American people, it — it crystallized the threat — it begins to crystallize the threat that Donald Trump poses,’ he added. 

After a string of campaign events in New York and New Jersey on Saturday, first lady Jill Biden and the president’s children and grandchildren gathered at Camp David reportedly to encourage the president to stay in the race despite uproar within the Democratic Party questioning whether the current commander-in-chief is a viable candidate to nominate for a second term. 

Reports said Biden’s family on Sunday blamed campaign staffers, arguing they did not adequately prepare the president for the CNN debate against former President Trump. 

According to a new report by Politico on Tuesday, a senior administration official claimed that some of President Biden’s top officials are ‘scared s—less’ of displeasing him in daily briefings. 

‘It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’’ a senior administration official told Politico on background. ‘It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared [s—less] of him.’

The official told Politico that Biden is unwilling to take advice from outside his small inner circle, becoming increasingly isolated from wider public opinion and input.

‘He doesn’t take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it,’ the official reportedly told Politico.

White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates pushed back on the Politico report’s claim that staff are afraid of the president, telling Fox News Digital, ‘That’s simply not who [Biden] is.’ 

Jeane-Pierre’s White House press briefing is scheduled to start Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is headed to New Hampshire to headline a Democrat campaign event just days after the Biden-Trump presidential debate, fueling more speculation that he may be preparing to step in if Biden backs out of the 2024 race. 

The July 8 event, called the ‘Blue Summer Campaign Kick-Off,’ is being spearheaded by the New Hampshire House and Senate Democrats.

New Hampshire is a key swing state in the general election and Newsom, who is a top surrogate for President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign, will also be campaigning for the president and other Democrats up and down the ticket during his stop in the Granite State, according to sources familiar with his plans.

‘We look forward to welcoming Governor Newsom to New Hampshire to campaign on behalf of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as we work to once again defeat Donald Trump,’ longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley said in a statement.

Arguing that ‘Trump has grown increasingly unhinged in his campaign for power,’ Buckley emphasized that ‘it’s never been more important to mobilize Democrats across the state to defeat him and re-elect our President, Joe Biden, who has consistently fought for and delivered for New Hampshire.’

Newsom assured reporters in the spin room after Thursday night’s presidential debate that he remained firmly behind Biden — who has faced significant criticism even from members of his own party for a lackluster performance.

‘I will never turn my back on President Biden,’ Newsom said on Thursday in a comment that appeared designed to dispel rumors that he’s running a shadow campaign. ‘I don’t know a Democrat in my party that would do so. And especially after tonight, we have his back.’

Newsom added: ‘I spent a lot of time with him. I know Joe Biden. I know what he’s accomplished in the last three and a half years. I know what he’s capable of. And I have no trepidations.’

Leading up to the debate, rumors continued to swirl that Newsom, a possible future contender for his party’s presidential nomination, had been tapped as a Biden surrogate leading up to the November presidential election.

When pressed if he was ‘ready to take on Donald Trump’ – a question that hinted at the rumors that he could be a potential replacement for Biden – Newsom again denied any ulterior motives.

Last year, Biden told a group of world leaders that Newsom ‘could have the job I’m looking for’ if he wanted it, a joking reference that nevertheless alluded to Biden’s diminished approval rating and the rising discontent within his party.

‘I want to talk about Governor Newsom. I want to thank him. He’s been one hell of a governor, man,’ Biden said during a welcome reception for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in San Francisco. ‘Matter of fact, he could be anything he wants. He could have the job I’m looking for.’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., also accused Newsom of running a shadow campaign for the presidency last year, roughly around the same time that Newsom engaged in a debate with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that was hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. 

‘Let me say something that might be uncomfortable,’ Fetterman said at a Democratic Party dinner in Iowa. ‘Right now there are two additional Democrats running for Pennsylvania, excuse me, running for president right now. One, one is a congressman from Minnesota. The other one is the governor of California. They’re both running for president, but only one had the guts to announce it.’

Biden has given no indication that he plans to drop out of the race. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Stepheny Price, Aubrie Spady and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.

In their dissents from the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, the court’s liberal justices suggested that the majority opinion allows for a slew of alarming scenarios — including a president ordering a Navy SEAL team to ‘assassinate’ his political rival or even poisoning one of his own cabinet members.

The high court on Monday ruled 6-3 that a president has substantial immunity for official acts that occurred during his time in office. It’s a decision that has significant implications for former President Trump, whose prosecution on charges related to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach and alleged 2020 election interference spurred the Supreme Court to hear the case. 

But although the majority opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts explicitly stated that the president ‘is not above the law’ and immunity is only a factor when it involves an ‘official act’ — the justices sent the case back to lower courts to determine if the acts at the center of Trump’s case were ‘official’ — the ruling raised a series of frightening possibilities, according to the trio of dissenting justices.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan wrote in the primary dissent that the court’s majority opinion ‘makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.’ 

‘The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,’ Sotomayor wrote. ‘Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.’

She continued: ‘Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.’

Sotomayor added that the majority decision has ‘shifted irrevocably’ the relationship between the president and the American people, being that ‘in every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.’

Yet another startling scenario is included in a footnote from a separate dissent authored by Jackson.

Noting that the president’s removal of a cabinet member would constitute an official act, Jackson says that ‘while the President may have the authority to decide to remove the Attorney General, for example, the question here is whether the President has the option to remove the Attorney General by, say, poisoning him to death.’

She adds: ‘Put another way, the issue here is not whether the President has exclusive removal power, but whether a generally applicable criminal law prohibiting murder can restrict how the President exercises that authority.’

Sotomayor’s conclusion summed up the prevailing tenor of her and Jackson’s writings: ‘With fear for our democracy, I dissent.’

Both dissents were taken to task in the court’s majority opinion.

‘As for the dissents, they strike a tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the Court actually does today…,’ Roberts wrote.

He added: ‘Coming up short on reasoning, the dissents repeatedly level variations of the accusation that the Court has rendered the President ‘above the law.’’

Adding that the dissents came ‘up short on reasoning,’ Roberts wrote that the ‘positions in the end boil down to ignoring the Constitution’s separation of powers and the Court’s precedent and instead fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals about a future where the President ‘feels empowered to violate federal criminal law.”

Sotomayor’s dissent swiftly reverberated throughout social media. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 election, posted on X that she agrees with Sotomayor’s stand against the ‘MAGA wing’ of the high court. 

‘It will be up to the American people this November to hold Donald Trump accountable,’ Clinton wrote.

A recent poll has found that President Biden’s core supporters are now doubting whether he should stay in the 2024 presidential race.

The poll was conducted by USA TODAY/Suffolk University between Friday and Monday. Pollsters utilizing a probability-proportionate-to-size method telephoned 1,000 respondents living in all U.S. states.

The survey found that more four in ten Democrats said that the Democratic Party should intervene and replace Biden as the nominee. Overall, 54% of the voters polled were in favor of Biden dropping out.

The poll also noted that Trump’s base ‘appeared more solid immediately after the debate,’ according to a press release published by Suffolk University. Only 14% of Republicans said that the Republican Party should replace Trump as nominee, even after his recent conviction.

Pollsters also noted that Trump won the debate, by a margin of nearly five to one, or 50% to 11%. Among Biden supporters, only 28% said that the sitting president won.

‘Most voters cited mental sharpness as a factor in their opinion on the debate performance of both candidates,’ the release noted. ‘Those criticizing the 81-year-old Biden’s performance used words like ‘confused’ and ‘incoherent.” 

‘Supporters of Trump, who is 78, praised their candidate with words like ‘coherent/articulate’ and ‘cognizant/present.’

Biden’s weak debate performance continues to rattle the Democratic Party. On Monday, one of Biden’s longtime Senate colleagues called for a new nominee.

Speaking to Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin called Thursday’s debate ‘a disaster from which Biden cannot recover.’

‘Of course, Trump’s answers were meandering, gobbledygook, and full of lies, BUT they were said with force and directness,’ he said. ‘I also think all incumbent Democratic Senators should write to Biden asking him to release his delegates and step aside so the convention can choose a new candidate.’

‘A couple of governors may need to do the same.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden and Trump campaigns, but did not immediately hear back.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

President Biden slammed the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. United States, saying it means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do, in a speedy address Monday evening.

The president spoke for less than five minutes – four minutes and 40 seconds to be exact – before turning his back to the press and walking away. 

‘This is a fundamentally new principle, and it’s a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States,’ Biden said.

The Supreme Court ruled that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.

In a 6-3 decision, the Court sent the matter back down to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Biden continued his address, saying that the American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on democracy on January 6th makes him ‘unfit’ for public office and the highest office in the land.

‘The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable. Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump once again. Now knowing, he’ll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it,’ Biden said.

Biden also spoke about the character of the nation’s first president, George Washington, and how he believed power was limited, not absolute.

Biden wrapped his speech and dodged questions from reporters as he left abruptly. 

Reporters shouted questions at Biden, asking him if he plans to drop out of the presidential race following his debate with Trump. 

Biden has not taken questions from the press and has used teleprompters at his events, including a fundraiser in the Hamptons, following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last week.

‘Today’s Historic Decision by the Supreme Court should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the New York Hoaxes – The Manhattan SCAM cooked up by Soros backed D.A., Alvin Bragg, Racist New York Attorney General Tish James’ shameless ATTACK on the amazing business that I have built, and the FAKE Bergdorf’s ‘case.’ PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!,’ Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social. 

The former president was charged in August 2023 by Special Counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

Trump has denied doing anything wrong and has said this prosecution and three others are politically motivated to try to keep him from returning to the White House.

Trump shared his reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on his presidential immunity case, saying it’s a ‘big win for our constitution and democracy,’ according to his Truth Social page. 

‘THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IS A MUCH MORE POWERFUL ONE THAN SOME HAD EXPECTED IT TO BE. IT IS BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN AND WISE, AND CLEARS THE STENCH FROM THE BIDEN TRIALS AND HOAXES, ALL OF THEM, THAT HAVE BEEN USED AS AN UNFAIR ATTACK ON CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT, ME. MANY OF THESE FAKE CASES WILL NOW DISAPPEAR, OR WITHER INTO OBSCURITY. GOD BLESS AMERICA!’ Trump posted. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

The House Judiciary Committee is suing Attorney General Merrick Garland to obtain recordings of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

The committee, as part of the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, stressed the importance of the ‘verbal and nonverbal context’ of Biden’s answers that could be provided by the audio recordings – especially considering that Hur opted against charging Biden after the interview, in part, because he was viewed as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ 

The lawsuit comes amid chaos in the Democratic Party as leaders consider whether Biden should continue with his re-election campaign after the president’s widely panned debate performance last week.

The committee, in its lawsuit, says the president’s invocation of executive privilege over the materials ‘lacks any merit,’ and it asks the court to overrule that assertion of privilege. 

‘This dispute is about a frivolous assertion of executive privilege,’ the lawsuit states. 

As part of the House impeachment inquiry against the president, the committee issued a subpoena to Garland to obtain records related to Hur’s investigation of Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified records. The committee sought materials related to Hur’s interviews with Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter of Biden’s 2017 memoir. 

The Justice Department has provided the committee with transcripts of those interviews, but Garland ‘has refused to produce the audio recordings of the Special Counsel’s interviews with President Biden and Mr. Zwonitzer.’ 

‘Instead, Attorney General Garland asked that President Biden assert executive privilege over those recordings, and President Biden complied with that request,’ the lawsuit states. 

The committee argues that audio recordings ‘are better evidence than transcripts of what happened during the Special Counsel’s interviews with President Biden and Mr. Zwonitzer.’ 

‘For example, they contain verbal and nonverbal context that is missing from a cold transcript,’ the committee states. ‘That verbal and nonverbal context is quite important here because the Special Counsel relied on the way that President Biden presented himself during their interview – ‘as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ – when ultimately recommending that President Biden should not be prosecuted for unlawfully retaining and disclosing classified information.’

The committee argued that the audio recordings – not merely the transcripts of them – are ‘the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview.’ 

‘The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed, and ultimate recommendation that President Biden should not be prosecuted,’ the suit states. 

The committee said Biden’s ‘self-serving attempt to shield the audio recording’ of his interview from the public ‘represents an astonishing effort to expand the scope of executive privilege from a constitutional privilege safeguarding certain substantive communications to an amorphous privilege that can be molded to protect things like voice, inflection, tone and pace of speech.’ 

The committee also noted that the transcript of the interview was made public, which essentially ‘waived’ executive privilege.’ 

‘Additionally, the heart of the privilege claim – that Executive Branch employees will be less likely to cooperate with DOJ investigations if they know that audio recordings of their interviews may be released to Congress after DOJ has made transcripts of those same interviews publicly available – is at odds with common sense,’ the lawsuit states. 

‘If the potential for disclosure would chill cooperation, it would be the disclosure of a transcript, which DOJ voluntarily disclosed here, not the disclosure of audio recordings after the transcripts are widely available,’ the lawsuit states. 

The committee argued that because of this, Biden’s invocation of executive privilege ‘lacks any merit.’ 

‘The Committee therefore asks this court to overrule the assertion of executive privilege and order that Attorney General Garland produce the audio recordings of the Special Counsel’s interviews with President Biden and Mr. Zwonitzer to the committee,’ the lawsuit states. 

The lawsuit comes just weeks after the House of Representatives voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress, referring him for criminal charges over defying the congressional subpoenas for the audio recordings.

The Justice Department, though, said it would not prosecute Garland. 

‘Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,’ Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter last month. 

Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’