CBS News
After poor debate, Biden campaign believes there’s still “no indication” anyone but Biden can beat Trump
President Biden’s campaign has concluded that there’s “no indication” anyone but Mr. Biden can beat Donald Trump, indirectly admitting that it has conducted polling that puts Vice President Kamala Harris atop the ticket amid concerns about Mr. Biden’s fitness to run that arose after his poor debate performance.
According to a memo obtained by CBS News, the campaign does not see Harris winning as the presidential candidate, a finding that flies in the face of public polling suggesting she would fare slightly better than Mr. Biden.
The campaign acknowledged that he’s slipped in polls against Trump but does not believe it’s lethal to his chances this November. It is counting on winning the Blue Wall states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and sees them as the “clearest pathway” to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, though the campaign also thinks the Sunbelt States are not unwinnable.
CBS News’ battleground state polling, which is regularly updated, does not show the president leading in any of those states right now. As of Thursday, the polling estimates Mr. Biden and Trump are tied in Michigan and Nevada at 50%. The president trails Trump by 2 points in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona — all within the margin of error.
By late July 2020, CBS News polling found Mr. Biden leading Trump by 6 points in Michigan. In early August, he was also leading in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by 6 points.
There are seven battleground states at this point in the campaign, giving Mr. Biden a series of routes to 270 electoral votes. He won six of those states in 2020 — Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — on his way to winning 306 electoral votes across the country.
Each 2024 route comes with clear hurdles for him. In a situation where Mr. Biden wins every state that he won in 2020 and takes 3 of Maine’s 4 electoral votes, but loses Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, simply winning Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would not deliver him another term. In this hypothetical, Trump also holds on to all the states that he won in 2020 and four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes, as he did four years ago.
That scenario would put Mr. Biden at 269 electoral votes — one shy of staying in the White House for another four years. To get to 270, he would have to win a congressional district in Nebraska that includes the city of Omaha. The state awards some of its electoral votes by congressional district, and winning Nebraska’s Omaha-based district that Mr. Biden captured in 2020 but Trump held in 2016, would give Mr. Biden a second term.
In their memo, campaign aides implored Democrats to stop the public infighting and instead refocus on defeating Trump, noting that the Republican National Convention next week “will be a key moment.”
“The surest way to help Donald Trump is to spend his convention talking about our nominating process instead of the MAGA extremism that will be on stage in Milwaukee,” the memo said.
“No one is denying that the debate was a setback,” it concludes. “But Joe Biden and this campaign have made it through setbacks before.”
CBS News
In Trump 2020 election case, Jack Smith asks judge for time to determine “appropriate course”
Washington — Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the federal district court in Washington to forego current deadlines in the case against President-elect Donald Trump related to the 2020 election to allow prosecutors more time to assess the “unprecedented circumstance” arising out of his election Tuesday to serve a second term in the White House.
Smith told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a one-paragraph filing that his office would like additional time to “determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.” He said prosecutors will provide more information to the court by Dec. 2.
Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House on Tuesday and will be sworn-in for a second term on Jan. 20. As a result of Trump’s victory, the Justice Department and special counsel’s office are discussing how to wind down the ongoing federal prosecutions against Trump.
The Justice Department has a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Citing the outcome of the election and Trump’s upcoming inauguration, Smith told the court that the deadlines in the pretrial schedule set by Chutkan should be tossed out “to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance.”
Trump is facing four federal charges in the case arising out of what Smith alleges was an unlawful scheme to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election. He pleaded not guilty and has denied wrongdoing.
Proceedings in the case were halted for months as Trump pursued claims that he was immune from federal prosecution all the way up to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in July that former presidents cannot face charges arising from official actions taken while in the White House.
The case returned to Chutkan in August, and a grand jury returned a new indictment against Trump that narrowed the allegations against him to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The two sides have been arguing in court papers about whether the new charges can stand.
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More than 40 monkeys escaped from a research facility in South Carolina on Wednesday, prompting warnings for nearby residents to secure their doors and windows. The fugitive monkeys had not been captured as of Friday morning.
Here is what we know so far:
Where exactly did the monkeys escape in South Carolina?
The primates broke loose from Alpha Genesis in Yemassee, Beaufort County in South Carolina.
The company confirmed 43 rhesus macaque primates escaped from an enclosure at one of the company’s facilities.
The Yemassee Police Department said on Thursday that traps with bait were set up and thermal imaging cameras were being used in an effort to capture the monkeys.
“Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes,” police said. “If you spot any of the escaped animals, please contact 911 immediately and refrain from approaching them.”
How did the monkeys escape the research facility?
Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, told CBS News on Thursday that a caretaker inadvertently failed to secure a door at the enclosure, allowing the monkeys to roam free.
“It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go,” he said. “It was a group of 50 and 7 stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door.”
He told CBS News on Friday that while they have not captured any of the monkeys, they are staying close to the facility.
“They’re just being goofy monkeys jumping back and forth playing with each other,” he said. “It’s kind of like a playground situation here.”
Westergaard said the company has put out baited traps but the monkeys are not going inside them yet.
“They’re jumping down and taking the food and then jumping back up on the fence and the tree line,” he added. “They’re watching us the same way we’re watching them.”
He acknowledged that it would be a long process to get them back and that they didn’t want to chase the monkeys because that would spook them and make them run away.
“We’ve got them very close,” Westergaard said. “This is all like what we want to see.”
What kind of monkeys are they?
The monkeys that escaped are rhesus macaque primates, which have brown fur with red faces and ears. They have close-cropped hair on their heads, which accentuates their very expressive faces.
The rhesus macaques are Asian, Old World monkeys that are primarily found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China.
Md Rafayat Haque Khan/ Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Rhesus macaques were imported to the U.S. in the 1970s for biomedical research in laboratories, according to the New England Primate Conservancy.
Rhesus macaques are “bold, extremely curious, and adventurous monkeys” and the species is “highly adaptable to coexisting alongside humans,” the conservancy says.
The rhesus macaque’s typical diet includes roots, fruit, seeds, and bark as well as insects and small animals.
What were they using the monkeys to test?
According to its website, Alpha Gensis breeds monkeys and provides “nonhuman primate products and bio-research services” across the globe. The company’s clinical trials reportedly include research on progressive brain disorders.
Local authorities said Thursday that the escaped primates were “very young females weighing approximately 6-7 lbs” and had never been used for testing due to their age.
Alpha Genesis says its staff of veterinary technicians and animal specialists work with cynomolgous, rhesus and capuchin monkeys.
The Post and Courier newspaper reported last year that Alpha Genesis won a federal contract to oversee a colony of 3,500 rhesus monkeys on South Carolina’s Morgan Island, known as “Monkey Island.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement that the monkeys were previously living on Morgan Island as “free-range monkeys” and were brought to the Alpha Genesis facility “for conditioning to be around people.”
The facility is registered with the CDC as a nonhuman primates importer, which means it “must meet standards for the importation, quarantine, and use of NHPs,” the agency said.
The CDC added that “the risk to the public is low as long as people do not approach or come in contact” with the monkeys.
How often do research monkeys escape?
This is not the first time primates have escaped from Alpha Genesis.
Eight years ago, 19 primates escaped from the company’s facility but were recaptured about six hours later.
CBS affiliate WCSC in Charleston at the time reported that local officials said the escapes were not infrequent but generally the monkeys return to the compound because they know that is where there is food.
“Every couple of years we’ll have one or two that get out. We have never had this many get out,” Westergaard told CBS News on Friday.
Last year in Pennsylvania, dozens of lab monkeys escaped after a truck carrying 100 of the animals crashed. All the primates were later accounted for.