Biden’s election year crisis keeps getting worse

There's no end to the political headaches

View in browser  May 9, 2024       Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose Biden's election year crisis keeps getting worse Biden speaking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Tuesday. There is no end to the political headaches for US President Joe Biden over the Israel-Hamas war.   There are growing signs that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might be about to defy repeated US public warnings against launching a major offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Biden is meanwhile braced for an administration report to Congress on whether Israel has violated international humanitarian law in Gaza. The process has carved deep internal divisions within the State Department and the determination is likely to cause political uproar in the US whatever it says. His administration is also wrestling with whether it can believe Israeli assurances about whether it uses US-provided weapons in accordance with international and humanitarian law. This controversy comes after the US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns that they would be used in a potential Rafah attack, which Washington has warned could cause massive human casualties. On Wednesday, Biden told CNN that he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel -- which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Netanyahu launches a major invasion of the city. Hopes for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that the administration has been pursuing for months spiked earlier this week. But it seems to have been another false dawn, with Israel and Hamas apparently talking past one another -- and amid renewed doubts that Netanyahu even wants a ceasefire. The domestic front is getting even more complicated for Biden after his restatement of support for Israel, even when the two sides disagree, in a major speech about antisemitism this week. On May 19, the president is expected to travel to Morehouse College in the critical swing state of Georgia to deliver a graduation address, but there are growing calls from some student protestors for the invitation to be rescinded.   The White House will be hoping that when the term ends for the summer the campus protests over the war in Gaza — which are giving Republicans a chance to paint a picture of a country in chaos — will cool. But if the war is still going on in August, continued protests could create a split screen of unrest and dissent as Biden accepts the Democratic Party nomination in Chicago.   No one needs a ceasefire more than those in the firing line. But it's becoming a political imperative for Biden too. Sign up for Meanwhile in America The world and America The world has passed a clean energy milestone, with a record-breaking 30% of the world's electricity produced by renewables last year.   Israeli military operations in Rafah have expanded from airstrikes to ground operations, satellite images show.   And Japan now has 9 million vacant homes. Meanwhile, CIA Director Bill Burns met with Netanyahu and the head of the Israel intelligence service, later returning to Cairo amid efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.   Houston's police chief unexpectedly retired amid questions about a department policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of cases to be suspended, including sexual abuse cases. And a cyberattack disrupted "clinical operations" at major health care nonprofit Ascension. The most bizarre presidential campaign in decades now has a brain worm story 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in Des Moines, Iowa on April 13. At 70, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the baby of the presidential election — a spring chicken compared to Joe Biden, 81, and Donald Trump, 77.   But the independent presidential candidate is at the center of a new crisis over his health that will likely renew skepticism among many voters about their choices in November. In a shocking story, the New York Times reported that RFK Jr. had experienced health issues, including an abnormality he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died.   In 2010, Kennedy suffered severe memory loss and mental fog, he said in a deposition two years later. According to the Times, he consulted top neurologists familiar with the medical history of his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had died of brain cancer in 2009. A New York doctor, after reviewing a scan of his brain, told him that his health issues could be "caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died," Kennedy said in the 2012 deposition.   At around the same time, the Times reported, Kennedy suffered from mercury poisoning, possibly from overeating fish. The condition can lead to neurological issues such as loss of peripheral vision, muscle weakness and issues with movement, hearing and speech, as well as memory loss. RFK Jr., the son of assassinated 1968 Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy, has also suffered from atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, an irregular heartbeat.   Stefanie Spear, a spokesperson for Kennedy's campaign, told CNN his issues have been resolved and that he is in "robust physical and mental health." "Questioning Mr. Kennedy's health is a hilarious suggestion, given his competition," she added. Thanks for reading.   On Thursday, thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Moscow's Red Square as part of Russia's annual Victory Day Parade.  What did you think of today's email? Send us feedback: meanwhile@cnn.com   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Meanwhile in America. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or sign up to manage your CNN account   Learn more about the CNN app |  Get CNN web alerts  |  Sign up for a free CNN account   ® © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. 1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318