CBS News
After struggling in first debate, Biden’s campaign remains resolute, family urges him to stay in the race
Washington — In the wake of President Biden’s calamitous debate performance last week, his campaign unveiled a new ad Monday highlighting his more energetic appearances after the debate, in which he called out former President Donald Trump for the many lies and exaggerations he told during the debate. Those post-debate appearances largely took place in front of friendly crowds — much smaller than the 51 million who saw the debate — and in at least two of those appearances, the president read his remarks off a teleprompter.
After the debate, which has prompted concern among Democrats about President Biden’s fitness for a second term, his family is encouraging him to stay in the race and keep fighting, a source with knowledge of the conversations told CBS News. The president was with family on Sunday for a long-planned gathering at Camp David. White House and campaign officials also say there are no plans to make significant changes to the president’s campaign schedule or cadence in the wake of the debate.
Mr. Biden’s showing at last week’s debate, where the 81-year-old president struggled to correct falsehoods from Trump, while delivering rambling answers to key questions in a hoarse voice, has prompted concerns about his ability to serve and suggestions from some Democrats that he should reconsider his presidential bid. The New York Times editorial board explicitly called on him to drop out of the race. But in the aftermath of the debate, his campaign has said that there are no conversations about the president leaving the race.
One of the family members urging Biden to stay in the race is the president’s son, Hunter Biden, two sources told CBS News. The sources say a few family members are frustrated about how Mr. Biden was prepared for the debate, which took place at Camp David in the days ahead of Thursday’s matchup. Still, a campaign aide stressed that reports of conversations about the race among family members are the result of “informal” family chatter, making clear that the sentiments did not come as part of a formal family discussion.
“The trip was planned. Of course it came up. But it was not a ‘family meeting’ or anything like that,” an aide said. Other aides said the family had gathered for a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz, who previously photographed the Obama family. The weekend was selected for the photoshoot because the family typically gathers for the July 4 holiday.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Another source close to first lady Jill Biden said she “does not feel the way” that some members of her family are being described in reports, which outline concern among family members about how three key advisers — White House senior adviser Anita Dunn, her husband, personal counsel Bob Bauer and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain — led debate preparations.
Another source blamed Mr. Biden’s inner circle for the debate preparations, telling CBS News that instead of allowing the president to be himself, “they pumped him up with facts that no one cares about” to fact check former President Donald Trump, and exhausted him. This source also blamed CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash for not fact-checking Trump. Before the debate, CNN said that Tapper and Bash would not try to fact-check the statements made by Trump or Mr. Biden in real time, although CNN’s political director, David Chalian said they had the latitude to do so if they deemed it to be necessary, according to the Associated Press.
“Obviously, if there is some egregious fact that needs to be checked or the record needs to be made clear, Jake and Dana can do that,” Chalian said before the debate. “But that’s not their role. They are not here to participate in this debate. They are here to facilitate a debate between Trump and Biden.”
The first lady, who is the subject of Vogue’s August cover, spoke with Vogue over the weekend from Camp David following the debate, telling the magazine that they “will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight.”
Top officials spent the weekend holding “honest conversations” with Democratic lawmakers, donors and other stakeholders. Those officials steadfastly insist that Mr. Biden is in the best position to beat Trump. Another source told CBS News that despite the president’s poor debate showing, there’s been an uptick in fundraising and volunteer engagement, claiming that the campaign has received hundreds of new resumes and new donor interest.
“There has been a real jolt of energy,” the source said.
But for voters, the debate came at a time when many Americans believe the president may be too old for the job. And a new CBS News poll found that since the debate, the percentage of voters who say that Mr. Biden has the cognitive ability to serve as president has dropped from 35% just weeks ago to 27%. Now, nearly three-quarters of voters say the president shouldn’t be running for reelection, including almost half of Democrats, according to the poll.
Still, views of former President Donald Trump’s cognitive ability aren’t far off. About half of all voters say Trump doesn’t have the cognitive health to serve. But voters generally agree that Trump was stronger during the debate, presenting his ideas more clearly while appearing more confident and presidential.
Robert Costa contributed reporting.
CBS News
As sunscreen misinformation spreads online, dermatologists face real-life impact of online trends
With the holiday weekend in full swing, the anti-sunscreen movement’s recent spike is worrying dermatologists.
“It was not like this before,” Dr. Jeanine Downie, a board-certified dermatologist with her own practice in New Jersey told CBS News Confirmed. “I see easily six patients per week that are anti-sunscreen, where it used to be maybe one every other week or one a month. And now it’s just gotten crazy.”
Downie says in the last two weeks she’s diagnosed three squamous cell and two malignant melanomas, both of which can turn cancerous if not caught early. “And that’s me, just one little dermatologist,” she said.
This movement picked up steam in June, with creators on TikTok telling followers in no uncertain terms “stop wearing sunscreen.” At first, the posts received tens of thousands of views and likes. Dermatologists on the platform then began sharing their own reactions, with those videos gaining even more views. And more recently, influencer Nara Smith went viral sharing an at-home sunscreen recipe to her 8 million followers that dermatologists say does little to protect wearers from sun damage.
Dr. Shereene Idriss, a New York dermatologist who has amassed more than a million followers on her social media channels, is trying to leverage that influence to educate users about sunscreen and sun protection.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult, I think, as a consumer, to try to weed through the noise,” Idriss told CBS News Confirmed.
This misinformation reflects the surprising reality of how some young Americans view sun safety. A study by the Orlando Health Cancer Institute in March found that 1 in 7 adults under the age of 35 say daily sunscreen use is more harmful than direct sun exposure. “I tell my patients, if you want your face to look like a leather bag later, then that’s up to you,” Downie said. About 6.1 million adults are treated each year for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas according to the CDC. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the country.
“They only want the natural things,” said Downie. “But I tell them all the time, sitting in traffic here in the tri-state area, the level of pollutants in the air on a daily, weekly and monthly basis is significantly more toxic than any chemical they’re going to rub into their skin with sunblock.”
While there’s no evidence that sunscreens are unsafe, the FDA is currently investigating potential concerns. It’s called for more data on 12 ingredients often found in U.S. sunscreen. After conducting its own study into how certain ingredients are absorbed into the bloodstream, the FDA has called for more research into potential health effects on the body.
However, beachgoers on the Jersey Shore this week told CBS News that sun safety is top of mind this summer. CBS News Confirmed looked at Google Search trends and saw terms like “sunscreen” and “what does skin cancer look like” are at an all-time high since tracking began in 2004.
“You know what gets them to start wearing sunblock?” said Downie. “Young kids and young adults, Gen Z, Gen X, they hate pores. And once they hear that they’re going to have big pores that look like potholes, they put that sunblock on.”
The dermatologists CBS Newsspoke with say there is no such thing as a healthy tan. To best protect yourself this summer, they say to use sunscreen and reapply often; wear UPF clothing or UV visors; and avoid being outside during peak UV index between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
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Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian’s modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in Friday’s election.
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator.
But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.
The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country’s Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran’s economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent.
Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country.
However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets.
The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country’s foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West.
The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation.
The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader.
Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.