let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has failed to qualify for the presidential debate with President Biden and former President Donald Trump. The debate will be hosted by CNN next week in Atlanta, on June 27. Kennedy had until 12:00:01 a.m. ET Thursday to fulfill the debate requirements.
Under CNN's criteria, a candidate must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to be eligible to win 270 electoral votes, the number needed to win the presidency. Kennedy is on the ballot in five states — Utah, Michigan, Delaware, Oklahoma and Tennessee — for a total of 42 electoral votes. He'll also be on the ballot in California as the nominee of the American Independent Party, and in Hawaii, on his We the People ticket, which adds up to 100 potential electoral votes.
“My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly. Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly,” Kennedy said in a statement. He also falsely claimed that debate is illegal.
In an effort to qualify, Kennedy filed a legal complaint to the Federal Election Commission. But the agency has not taken any action.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign raised $2.6 million in May and had just over $6.4 million in cash on hand at the end of the month, according to new filings, a paltry sum compared to the fundraising juggernauts behind his two major competitors.
Kennedy’s independent presidential bid announced the tepid fundraising haul in Federal Election Commission filings Wednesday. The documents show his team spent $6.3 million in May as he worked to gain access to ballots around the country and appear at next week’s presidential debate on CNN.
About $2.7 million of that figure went to a consulting firm that specializes in ballot access.
Those efforts appeared to be in vain on Wednesday before a midnight deadline, with the network requiring candidates to appear on enough ballots to have a shot at winning the White House, as well as receive at least 15% in four national polls.
On Thursday, Kennedy’s campaign got even more bad news. He would not be appearing at next week’s presidential debate due
to his low poll numbers. The candidate was apoplectic. “My exclusion by
Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic,
un-American, and cowardly,” Kennedy Jr. seethed
in a statement released soon after CNN announced that he didn’t make
the count. “Americans want an independent leader who will break apart
the two-party duopoly. They want a President who will heal the divide,
restore the middle class, unwind the war machine, and end the chronic
disease epidemic.”
That may be true—at the very least Americans certainly say they want those things in a leader when polled. But it’s abundantly clear that they don’t want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The candidate should be grateful he didn’t make the cut—appearing in next week’s debate would only accelerate his campaign’s demise.
The biggest problem with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is that voters do not like him. That’s not an overstatement. Last October, his favorability rating, per 538’s average, was plus eight points; he was, around the same period, regularly polling in the 15-20 percent range. His favorability rating today is minus nine points; he has been polling in the high single digits for months.
The organizers of Uncommitted campaigns cited both strategic and ethical arguments for the protest vote. The latter, in short, is that the Democratic establishment — which has been in many respects directly complicit with Israel’s perpetration of genocide — must not be rewarded for its involvement in a world-historical crime.
Now, at the conclusion of the primaries, it appears that the Uncommitted campaigners’ energies were well spent. After weeks of fevered organizing and turnout efforts, the “uncommitted” vote scored substantial percentages in multiple primaries, including 13 percent of the vote in Michigan.
Geoff Bennett:
Today, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated criticism the Biden administration calls untrue and unfair, that the U.S. has withheld weapons Israel needs to fight the war in Gaza.
The diplomatic spat between the prime minister and the Biden White House comes as simmering tensions between Netanyahu and his own military boiled over.
Nick Schifrin is here with more — Nick.
Nick Schifrin:
For months, even years, military officials in Israel have often disagreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but most military criticism of Israel's longest-serving leader is made anonymously or after retirement.
This week, though, Israel's Defense Forces' top spokesman made public the military's concerns about Netanyahu's repeated claim of total victory over Hamas.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter):
The political echelon has to decide and the Israel Defense Forces will implement. But this business, this business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear, it's simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public. If we don't bring something else to Gaza, then at the end of the day, we will get Hamas.
Nick Schifrin:
So how significant is this public criticism by the military of the prime minister? And how does it play into the diplomatic tensions between Netanyahu and the Biden administration?
For answers to that, we turn to Laura Blumenfeld, a former senior policy adviser on the State Department's Israeli-Palestinian negotiating team and currently a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Laura Blumenfeld, thanks very much. Welcome to the "NewsHour."
So, how significant is this public military criticism of the prime minister?
Laura Blumenfeld, Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: I think it's very significant.
I think the IDF recognizes, while they may be winning militarily, they're losing morally, and that has long-term strategic implications for Israel's security.
This idea of indecision, I think what they're saying to the prime minister is, take a position and defend it. The prime minister cannot be an undecided voter. We need you to support our ask for Ultra-Orthodox fighters. Our forces are depleted.
Number two, we have a political horizon that we're looking for that we can aim for militarily, and we don't want to occupy the Gaza Strip after the war. I remember spending time with the last military commander of Gaza before Israel withdrew, and he wore what I recall was the Gaza mask.
It was this combination of dust, sweat, and the smell of regret. We rode around in a Jeep while kids were throwing stones at him, and he said: "This is the most morally corrosive thing for our state and ultimately for our security."
Nick Schifrin:
For Netanyahu, this is not only about what is now a public spot with the military. It's also tensions within his coalition.
And, this week, he released a statement saying — quote — I demand that all coalition partners get a hold of themselves and rise to the importance of the hour, put aside every other consideration, put aside all extraneous interests, line up as one together behind our fighters."
How fractious is this coalition, and how important are those tensions?
Laura Blumenfeld:
Well, look, he needs the coalition in order to exercise what he calls the cease-fire deal, which is the most important priority right now for the Israeli public.
And to get to that deal, he's going to have to keep his coalition together. There are sort of some behind-the-scenes assurances and winks from the United States that maybe Lapid and some of his opposition members will support him. But he's got to be able to pull this through for the Israeli public.
That is the number one demand and he's responding to it, or he's trying to.
Israeli forces killed another journalist in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, bringing the total number of Palestinian media workers' deaths since Oct. 7, 2023, to 152.
The Government Media Office in Gaza identified the victim as Salim al-Sharafa, who worked as a presenter and journalist for local broadcaster Al-Aqsa TV. The statement, however, did not elaborate on how or where he was killed.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the war in Gaza has become "the deadliest for journalists" since it began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992.
In February, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, said the war in Gaza has seen the highest levels of violence against journalists in 30 years.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 259 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,431, with 85,653 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
A "tactical pause" declared by the Israeli military in Gaza to enable aid flows has had no impact on deliveries of the badly-needed aid, the UN's health agency said on Friday.
"Overall, we the UN can say that we did not see an impact on the humanitarian supplies coming in since that, I will say unilateral, announcement of this technical pause," said Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organisation representative in the Palestinian territories.
"That is the overall assessment".
