Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea. On the menu, palace intrigue. But first …

Supreme Court Gives Trump Immunity Victory

In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday morning that presidents have complete immunity for official acts, but do not have immunity for personal acts done while in office. Score that a big win for former President Donald Trump (and for that matter, the current president and those to come.) What’s more, the High Court says a president has a presumption of immunity, and a wide swath of what would constitute official duties. For example, if the president speaks to the vice president about an official act (for example, whether to hold up the certification of the electors from swing states with questionable election methodologies and results), that would be an official act. 

The Court has sent Trump’s January 6 “insurrection” case back to a lower court, which will have to check out every single charge against him to determine if he acted in his official capacity as president in questioning the 2020 election results, or if he was operating in a personal capacity as a candidate. 

In any event, there’s almost zero chance this case will be heard before the election in November. 

Trump quickly hailed the decision.

Donald Trump's reaction to the Supreme Court ruling pic.twitter.com/grb6VjBwbP

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 1, 2024

The reaction of the sizable crowd standing outside the Court in the District of Columbia on Monday morning was muted but for a handful of protesters, including one who immediately shouted, “Trump’s above the law! Trump’s above the law!” Beyond that, the idea that presidents have immunity for official acts but not personal ones seemed fair enough, if not downright obvious.

We will have more on the decision and the scene outside the court in tomorrow’s Brew. Meanwhile, you can read the full decision here.

Aides Say Biden’s Good to Go Between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. as European Bases Go on High Alert

Good news, my fellow Americans. Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Joe Biden is on the ball, White House aides tell Alex Thompson of Axios. The other 18 hours of the day, not so much.

In Thompson’s words:

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Biden is dependably engaged — and many of his public events in front of cameras are held within those hours. Outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, the other Biden is more likely to emerge and have verbal miscues and become fatigued, aides say.

(Not incidentally, as the Daily Caller notes, this is a common condition among dementia patients called “sundowning.”)

The Wall Street Journal reports our allies have been long aware of Biden’s issues.

Biden’s performance and focus can vary significantly between meetings and even w/i a meeting. Two senior European officials cited a European Union-U.S. summit in October in Washington at which Biden struggled to follow the discussions.

The White House didn’t exactly reject the Axios assessment that the Commander in Chief is good for only six hours a day at best.

Spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios there is “one Joe Biden, who works his heart out fighting for families like the one he grew up in in Scranton, and who, because of his determination, experience, and decency, keeps achieving unprecedented results for them.” If he blew any more smoke, it’d impact the air quality index. 

On Sunday, Axios published another damning piece detailing how Biden is even shielded from the residential staff at the White House, to say nothing of being shielded from staffers.

The revelations beg an urgent question: Who is running the country those other 18 hours? Who answers when that 3 a.m. phone call comes?

This is no theoretical question. A few days ago, all U.S. military bases in Europe were put on heightened alert. “There is credible intel pointing to an attack against U.S. bases in Europe over the next week or so,” a U.S. defense official told Fox News. (Good thing terrorists only attack between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern time, isn’t it?)

Doesn’t this admission demand an investigation by Congress? Because if it’s true (and the evidence certainly leans that way), is this not why the 25^th Amendment was created? Forget giving up the presidential nomination in a few months; how can Biden remain in office right now? That’s what we’re asking.

During a rally Saturday, former President Donald Trump warned our enemies not to try to take advantage of Biden’s infirmity.

“Because we have a five-month transition period, I want the enemies to know: Don’t play around with us during this five-month period. Don’t play around.”

Family Urging Biden to Push Forward

However, Joe Biden’s family is urging the Big Guy to push forward and not drop out, The New York Times reported Sunday afternoon. Biden’s son Hunter, they say, is leading the charge. He “wants Americans to see the version of his father that he knows — scrappy and in command of the facts — rather than the stumbling, aging president Americans saw on Thursday night.” Certainly Hunter wanting his father to remain in office has nothing to do with increasing his odds of getting a presidential pardon for the felonies he was convicted of last month, or the tax fraud charges he faces later this year. Not to mention further major paydays from foreign players.

It’s no surprise, then, that the family is fixing the blame for Biden’s debate performance not on the guy who actually debated or his debilitating condition, but on his staff — most specifically White House senior advisor Anita Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, the Big Guy’s personal attorney. Avoiding responsibility is to the Bidens what ducks are to the bearded Family Robertson.

If it is true that Biden’s family is dismissing how broken and badly humiliated their patriarch was during last Thursday’s presidential debate with Donald Trump, and are pushing him toward continued embarrassments, regardless of the toll it takes on him or how it damages his legacy, to say nothing of how it puts the security of our nation at risk, we are heading into a whole new realm of elder abuse.

You need only look at Hunter’s laptop and his daughter Ashley’s diary to know these are some very troubled people. But not one single person in the family is screaming at the top of their lungs that pushing Joe forward this way is cruel?

Where’s Dr. Jill? Not Bothered, Apparently

The Washington Post had a headline Saturday: “Jill Biden Unmoved by Panic Over Joe Biden’s Debate Showing.” (The story is behind a firewall.) “Unmoved” is a very curious choice of word. The connotation is clearly negative. Imagine “Jill Biden Unmoved by Pleas from Starving Orphans.” It suggests a coldness, indifference.

The First Lady also was apparently unmoved by Biden’s recent illness. According to The New York Times, Dr. Jill told people at a fundraiser Friday.

“As Joe said earlier today, he’s not a young man. And you know, after last night’s debate, he said, ‘You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.’ I said, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.'”

Which gets to this …

Is Dr. Jill the New Edith Wilson?

Joe Biden has given us Jimmy Carter’s economy, Barack Obama’s weakness around the world, Bill Clinton’s financial and sexual scandals, Richard Nixon’s targeting of political enemies, and Lyndon Johnson’s riots in the streets. He’s even got Russian warships and missiles in Cuba again, just like when John F. Kennedy was in office.

We can now add another copycat item to the list. He’s got Woodrow Wilson’s infirmity and a wife who is seemingly running the country. After Woodrow Wilson had a stroke in October 1919, the seriousness of which was kept from the American people, First Lady Edith Wilson kept all but a few advisors far from the president while she took over his duties. As PBS detailed in a story called “When a Secret President Ran the Country,” “[s]he was, essentially, the nation’s chief executive until her husband’s second term concluded in March of 1921.”

Is Dr. Jill running the country now? Flashback to June 2021. 

Prepping for the G7. pic.twitter.com/drPmb2vBwI

— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) June 9, 2021

Or is nobody really at the helm? That would explain moments like this …

White House Denies It Supports Sex Changes for Kids, Despite the Evidence

The White House released a statement Friday denying the Biden administration supports child sex changes for minors. 

Our own Jay Richards, commenting on X, said that’s a pile of cow droppings the size of Rachel Levine. 

How fake is the White House statement opposing gender surgery for kids? The HHS "fact sheet" on "youth and gender affirming care" is still up. Interesting that this guidance, which leads to sterilization, is issued by the "Office of Population Affairs." 🤔https://t.co/jWjxl8cdDs

— Jay W. Richards 🇺🇸 (@DrJayRichards) June 29, 2024

Plus, as we reported last week, Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary at HHS — herself a transgender person who was born a man — strongarmed the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in 2021 to dump age-limit guidelines for transgender procedures.   

The medical watchdog group Do No Harm has launched a campaign to get Levine fired in the wake of last week’s revelation.

Levine’s demands were politically motivated and showed no concern for medical evidence or ethics. As the documents show, Levine worried that age restrictions would cause more states to pass laws protecting children … Rachel Levine has harmed children by intervening in the development of medical guidelines. We call on Rachel Levine to resign immediately. Failing that, we call on President Biden to fire Rachel Levine. 

But as Donald Trump pointed out in the debate, Biden never fires anybody. (Well, except his dogs. Maybe. Sometimes.)

Meanwhile, the Texas Supreme Court ruled 8-1 last Friday that the state’s ban on sex-changes, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments for minors is constitutional.

On the Stream Menu

Stream contributor Angelos Kryiakides asks “Do Near-Death Experiences Confirm a Biblical Worldview?”

Jason Jones details how “Hindu Nationalists Persecute Christian Charities, Including Mother Teresa’s Nuns.”