Tag: Joe Biden

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News Round-Up: January 23, 2020

(image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: When you look like Brazilian tourism expert Kiko Riaze (above), I’ll FIND something in my house that needs to be painted. Follow Riaze on Instagram here. • HuffPost: L.A. Law star Harry Hamlin said he’s proud of his role in the groundbreaking 1982 gay flick Making Love but believes the film was ahead of its time. “It was like 10 years too early and it completely ended my career. That was the last studio picture I ever did. The door shut with a resounding smash.” • The Advocate: A month after the Hallmark Channel’s dust-up with LGBTQ people over removing an ad for Zola wedding planning that featured a lesbian wedding, the company’s president and CEO, Bill Abbott, has stepped down. • Out Music: The Pet Shop Boys new album Hotspot drops tomorrow, January 24, and in advance of that release we get to step behind the velvet rope for their new single “Monkey Business.“ Set in a sexy nightclub and featuring a wild bunch of characters who eventually end up in a champagne fight, the tribe bust their best moves on a dance floor straight out of Saturday Night Fever.

• New York Times: Despite their fiery history on the debate stage, Sen. Kamala Harris of California is considering endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nominee for president. Great – then he can pick her for veep duties and they’ll win. • BroadwayWorld: In a tribute to longtime GRAMMY executive producer Ken Ehrlich, and to acknowledge the importance of music education in schools to the Recording Academy, GRAMMY Museum® and Ehrlich, artists associated with Ehrlich’s 40-year career will gather to perform “I Sing The Body Electric” from the film Fame. The performance will feature current nominees Camila Cabello, Gary Clark Jr. and John Legend joined by Debbie Allen, Joshua Bell, Common, Misty Copeland, Lang Lang, Cyndi Lauper, Ben Platt, and The War And Treaty. • People: Did Prince Charles diss Vice President Mike Pence as he made his way down an assembly line of world leaders at the World Holocaust Forum?

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Biden Holds Huge Lead Nationally Among Black Voters

Former Vice President Joe Biden
The Washington Post reports former Vice President Joe Biden holds a huge lead nationally among black American voters.

Former vice president Joe Biden is far and away the favored candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination among black Americans, boosted by his personal popularity, his service in the Obama administration and perceptions that he is best equipped to defeat President Trump, according to a national Washington Post-Ipsos poll.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) occupies second place in the Democratic field among African American voters, easily outdistancing the remaining candidates in the race. Sanders is leading among black voters under age 35, replicating his success with younger white voters in other national polls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) runs third.

(via Washington Post)
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Poll: Joe Biden Continues To Lead By Double Digits

Former Vice President Joe Biden (image via Instagram)

From The Hill:

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls by double digits a month ahead of the Iowa caucuses, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill.

The poll shows Biden registering 30 percent support among Democrats nationally. In a relatively distant second place is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who notched 17 percent in the survey. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is lingering in the No. 3 spot with 12 percent support. No other candidate registered double-digit support. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in fourth place at 7 percent, while former tech executive Andrew Yang notched 3 percent support.

Still, recent polls in early primary and caucus states show a more fluid race. 

An Emerson College survey of likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers released last month showed Biden and Sanders in a statistical tie for first place, with 23 percent and 22 percent support, respectively.

And a WBUR-MassINC poll of New Hampshire Democrats from December showed Buttigieg and Biden knotted at the top with 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Sanders wasn’t far behind in that survey, with 15 percent support.

And here’s some eye-popping news – former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has tied Warren for third place in the latest Hill/HarrisX poll:

The former New York City mayor is now in a dead heat for third place with top-tier candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who also received 11 percent support. Biden, meanwhile, continues to lead the Democratic field with 28 percent followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 16 percent.

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News Round-Up: December 24, 2019

Chris Hemsworth and friend
Some news items you might have missed: • Advocate: Brazil’s homophobic president, Jair Bolsonaro, complained at a press conference Friday about his treatment by the media, telling a reporter, “Your face looks an awful lot like a homosexual’s.” • The Hill: The Morning Consult poll for this week showed former Vice President Joe Biden with 31 percent support for the second week in a row, after rising 2 percentage points since the beginning of December. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ranked as the runner-up with 21 percent support. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg kept third and fourth place with 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively. • Instinct: Michael Henry is back with a festive video celebrating the holidays with the dumpster queens. The video features Henry with Pete Zias and Michael Lucid at their iconic meeting spot talking about themes of the season such as giving gifts, sexy encounters, and holiday movies.

• CivilBeat: Former Governor of Hawaii,  Neil Abercrombie, has called on U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to resign her seat in Congress saying, “I feel very strongly the 2nd District of Hawaii must be fully represented.” Gabbard is running a long-shot campaign for president and recently moved to New Hampshire, an early Democratic primary state. • Out: A European airline will jettison the greeting “ladies and gentlemen” for the more gender-neutral “welcome everyone” a sign of respect for nonbinary people. • Twitter: In order for Thor star Chris Hemsworth and a quokka, a small marsupial native to Australia, to get to know each other a bit, Hemsworth had to get down to the little guy’s level. Which explains the hunky actor’s body position in the pic at the top. The short video also sparked the interest of the gay community for reasons I really don’t need to explain…LOL

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Monmouth National Poll: Biden Leads Sanders By 5 Points

The latest Monmouth University polling on the Democratic race for the 2020 presidential nomination shows former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders leading the pack of contenders. Biden leads with 26 percent support with Sanders statistically within the margin of error at 21 percent. Sen. Elizabeth Warren trails Biden by nine points at 17 percent, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in single digits with 8 percent support. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has already moved up to 5 percent support thanks to heavy campaign ad spending. As I’ve said on The Randy Report before, I don’t put much stock into national polls because the race will be won in individual states. But I do find them to be interesting as a snapshot in time in gauging something of a ‘national mood.’ The current RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Biden averaging 28.6 percent nationally with Sanders (his nearest competitor) 11 points behind at 17 percent.

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Video: Joe Biden’s Tense Exchange In Iowa

Joe Biden campaigning in Iowa
When a senior voter in Iowa stood up and told former Vice President Joe Biden he was too old to be president and followed that by accusing him of selling access to the presidency. Joe was not having it: “You’re a damn liar.” From Buzzfeed News:

Former vice president Joe Biden got into a heated exchange with a man in Iowa on Thursday, in which he challenged the man to an IQ test or push-up contest after the man questioned Biden about his son and said he was too old to be president.

During a question-and-answer portion of the event in New Hampton, Iowa, the man asked Biden a question about having “sent” his son to work for Ukrainian oil company Burisma. And he said that Biden is “too old” to serve as president. “You’re a damn liar,” Biden responded.

“Look, the reason I’m running is because I’ve been around a long time and I know more than most people know and I can get things done. That’s why I’m running. And you want to check my shape, man, let’s do push-ups together here, man, let’s run, let’s do whatever you want to do, let’s take an IQ test,” Biden said.

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World Leaders’ Response To Trump Is Now Biden Campaign Ad

L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump
After several world leaders were captured on video apparently laughing at Donald Trump, Trump responded by calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “two-face,” canceled his press conference for the day, and left the NATO summit in London early.

The video clip, which went viral, is now part of a campaign ad for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the spot, Biden calls Trump ‘dangerously incompetent and incapable of world leadership.’

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New Poll Indicates LGBTQ Voters Have A Double-Digit Favorite

Photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg
L-R Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
A new poll conducted by YouGov/Out Magazine shows LGBTQ voters are definitely leaning towards a particular Democratic presidential candidate and it’s Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. I’ll say upfront any polling should be taken with a grain of salt, but this does provide a glimpse into what some folks may be thinking at this time. Announced as a ‘first of its kind’ survey of likely Democratic primary voters who identify as LGBTQ, the results show Warren easily outpaces her fellow Democrats garnering 31 percent of those polled. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came in second with 18 percent, former Vice President Joe Biden pulled in 16 percent, and out South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg received 14 percent support. Everyone else in the field scored in the single-digit range. 31% – Elizabeth Warren 18% – Bernie Sanders 16% – Joe Biden 14% – Pete Buttigieg 6% – Kamala Harris 3% – Cory Booker 2% – Julián Castro 2% – Amy Klobuchar 2% – Andrew Yang 1% – Tulsi Gabbard 1% – Marianne Williamson All other candidates scored zero support. The data-crunchers at YouGov surmise Warren resonates so strongly with LGBTQ voters because LGBTQ voters tend to be more liberal than the average Democratic primary voter. According to Alissa Stollwerk, Vice President of YouGov Blue, “Seventy-seven percent of LGBTQ+ Democratic primary voters identified in our survey as very or somewhat liberal, approximately 20 percentage points higher than the percentage of Democratic primary voters overall who identify as very or somewhat liberal in our surveys.” For instance, respondents said they overwhelmingly prefer bold structural reforms (68%) versus incremental changes in policy (28%). Asked who could beat Donald Trump in the general election, 53 percent said Warren could win, 52 percent said Biden would trump Trump, 46 percent indicated Sanders could come out on top, 29 percent gave the nod to Buttigieg, and 26 percent said Harris could beat Trump. More from the survey: • 93% disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president; 89% strongly disapprove • 89% say Trump should be impeached and removed from office • 73% say the epidemic of violence against transgender women of color is the most critical issue facing the LGBTQ Community today; 60% said complete nondiscrimination protections; 59% indicated LGBTQ youth homelessness In a statement to Out, Stollwerk notes that such polling “is a snapshot of a group of people at a given time” and should be viewed as such. But the results do offer insight into “the viewpoints of these Democratic voters, what issues are important to them, and what they want to see in the next Democratic nominee for president. (source)

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Fox News Polls Shows Biden Leading Trump 12+

L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump
The latest Fox News poll shows:

Biden performs best against Trump (51-39 percent) in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. He leads by 12 points, garners over 50 percent and keeps Trump below 40 percent.

In early October, Biden led by 10 (50-40 percent).

More Democrats (91 percent) back Biden than Republicans (86 percent) support Trump, and 88 percent of 2016 Trump voters would stick with him, while 91 percent of Clinton voters would support Biden.

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Democratic Race Tightens Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses

Photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg

L-R Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
The latest New York Times/Siena College poll shows the Democratic field tightening in the 2020 Iowa caucuses race as Sen. Elizabeth Warren holds a slight lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders while Mayor Pete Buttigieg is surging to third past former Vice President Joe Biden. From the New York Times:

Ms. Warren appears to have solidified her gains in the first voting state while Mr. Buttigieg has climbed quickly to catch up with Mr. Sanders and overtake Mr. Biden, the one-time front-runner. Ms. Warren is drawing support from 22 percent of likely caucusgoers, while Mr. Sanders is at 19 percent, followed by Mr. Buttigieg at 18 percent and Mr. Biden at 17 percent.

The survey is full of alarming signs for Mr. Biden, who entered the race in April at the top of the polls in Iowa and nationally.

He is still in the lead in most national polls, but his comparatively weak position in the earliest primary and caucus states now presents a serious threat to his candidacy. And Mr. Biden’s unsteadiness appears to have opened a path in the race for other Democrats closer to the political middle, particularly Mr. Buttigieg.

(image via NY Times)