President Biden on Thursday brushed off concerns about him dropping out of the presidential race, saying there were no signs of him slowing down.

The comments came in response to a reporter who had asked Biden how he could assure the American people that he wouldn’t have more “bad nights” as the president himself characterized his debate performance.

Biden said the best way to assure them is the way he assures himself.

“I getting the job done? Am I getting the job done? Can you name me somebody who’s got more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years? I created 2000 jobs just last week. So if I slow down, I can’t get the job done,” Biden said. “That’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. But there’s no indication of that yet. None.”

President Biden on Thursday mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” when addressing a reporter during a press conference at the NATO summit.

The gaffe came after an AP reporter had asked Biden whether he had any concerns about Vice President Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were the top of the ticket.”

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president,” Biden said, not appearing to catch his mistake. “So, I think she not qualified to be president [if I thought] she’s not qualified to be president.”

The flub came just a few hours after Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The United Auto Workers President met with the union’s executive board late Thursday to discuss his deep concerns surrounding President Biden’s ability to beat former President Trump in November, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Reuters reported that UAW President Shawn Fain called together top officials of the nearly 400,000-member union to discuss its concerns with the candidacy and the union’s options, according to sources who spoke to the wire on anonymity.

Fain and the UAW endorsed Biden in January, and they are important allies of the president and could play a critical role with helping Biden win key states like Michigan, where the union is based.

Despite the pull the union has, some UAW members, in June, were still unwilling to support Biden in November and are planning to vote for Trump.

The UAW went on strike for several weeks in September, demanding increased wages and a shorter work week. Biden joined them, making him the first president to join a picket line.

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Reuters contributed to this report.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly working behind the scenes to pressure President Biden to drop out of the presidential race amid a growing number of calls from within his own party to withdraw.

Democratic lawmakers who spoke with The Hill said Pelosi has been speaking with large swaths of the party to raise concerns about Biden’s ability to beat Trump in November.

One lawmaker relayed Pelosi’s message that the stakes being high and “we can’t afford to do anything but have our best possible opportunity to win.”

Pelosi grew testy with a reporter Wednesday who had asked whether she still supported the president as he faces mounting pressure to drop out of the race.

ABC News reporter Rachel Scott caught up with Pelosi as she was walking in the halls of Congress and asked her if she had talked with Biden about her comments that morning calling on Biden “to decide” if he was going to stay in the race.

“I’m not having any discussions with you, or anyone else, about what I talk to the president about, with all due respect,” Pelosi told Scott in a video shared on X. “I’m not going to be making any comments today, in the hallway, about the fate of our nation, OK?”

A longtime advisor of President Biden’s blames the president’s inner circle and family for creating a “perfect storm of an echo chamber,” which is biting them all “in the ass,” according to a post on X by CNN’s Jake Tapper.

The CNN host shared a screenshot from one of Biden’s longtime advisors on social media Thursday.

“I just think there is an unfortunate inevitability to all this. I am sad because I have known him a long time and he is a good man,” the post read. “I am angry at his inner circle who have not served him well and at times committed malpractice in their service. And I am frustrated at the family for not expanding the circle so there would be a truth teller or two in their midst.

“They created a perfect storm of an echo chamber and it is biting them all in the ass,” the post concluded.

Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, on Thursday joined a growing list of his fellow Democrats who are calling for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

In a statement, Case said, “Difficult times and realities require difficult decisions.

“This is one of those times, realities and decisions. My guidepost is what is the best way forward for our country,” Case said. “I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President.”

Case said his call for Biden to drop out “has nothing to do with his character and record” but rather the president’s “ability to continue in the most difficult job in the world for another four-year term.”

As to who Biden’s replacement should be, “there are various paths to that decision,” Case said, adding: “But no more difficult and uncertain than the current path, nor any reason to stay on this path, which I do not believe is the best path forward for our country.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said some of his concerns were “deepened” on Thursday, and he needs to see more from President Biden and his campaign to address the concerns about his candidacy in the November election against former President Trump. 

“I need to see more analytics and data that show a path to victory,” he told reporters after the special meeting with top Biden campaign advisers on Thursday. 

According to Blumenthal, “Some of my concerns are allayed. Some others have been deepened,” after the discussion at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) with senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. 

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson. Click here to read the full story.

President Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin during a NATO summit in Washington, D.C. Thursday.

“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before starting to leave the podium.

Biden then seemed to realize his mistake, and corrected himself. “He’s going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskyy. I’m so focused on beating Putin. We got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr. President.”

Zelenskyy appeared on stage, shook Biden’s hand and said, “I’m better.”

“You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden said.

The flub comes ahead of Biden’s high-stakes press conference that will be heavily scrutinized as the president fends off a growing number of calls from within his own party to drop out of the presidential race, following his disastrous debate performance last month that re-ignited concerns over his mental fitness and age.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., on Thursday issued a statement to local outlet KGW 8, strongly suggesting that President Biden should bow out of the 2024 race.

Gluesenkamp Perez said that she, like her constituents, “doubt the President’s judgement about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisors.”

“Americans deserve to feel their president is fit enough to do the job. The crisis of confidence in the President’s leadership needs to come to an end,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “The President should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first.”

Perez, who represents a district that voted red in 2020, said last week that Biden’s debate performance against former President Trump was “painful” to watch and admitted that she believes, “Biden is going to lose to Trump.”

Click here
to read more on Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.

The narrative aggressively pushed by the Biden campaign and White House in recent weeks about President Biden, which included trying to quash concerns about his mental fitness by calling videos of him struggling “cheap fakes,” took a significant hit on Wednesday after a top Hollywood actor and former Obama aide spoke out.

On Wednesday, actor George Clooney called on Biden to leave the 2024 race, citing what he witnessed at a Hollywood fundraiser in late June where the president was criticized for seemingly needing to be led off the stage by former President Obama.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney, a longtime friend of Obama, wrote. 

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller and Cameron Cawthorne. Click here to read the full report.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., on Thursday called on President Biden
to “pass the torch to a new generation of leaders” saying the stakes in the presidential election “could not be higher.”

In a statement posted on X, Stanton said he was proud of his decision to back Biden in 2020. As president, Stanton said Biden “has been one of our country’s most effective modern chief executives.”

“The Democratic Party must have a nominee who can effectively make the case against Trump, and have the confidence of the American people to handle the rigors of the hardest job on the planet for the next four years,” Stanton said. “For the sake of American democracy, and to continue to make progress on our shared priorities, I believe it is time for the president to stop aside as our nominee.”

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., on Thursday said he expects the three White House aides subpoenaed for depositions to honor them.

The GOP-led House Oversight Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed first lady Jill Biden’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and senior adviser Ashley Williams to sit for depositions concerning President Biden’s mental state.

Speaking to Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Thursday, Comer said that all private individuals subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee under his stewardship have honored them.

“They may have come in kicking and screaming, but they’ve honored them. And we expect these three to as well,” Comer said of Bernal, Tomasini, and Williams.

“We’ll see who’s telling the truth, whether it’s the Axios reporter or whether it’s the White House press secretary, Comer added, referring to an Axios report which stated that these three individuals created “a protective bubble around” Biden and that he is “staffed so closely that he’s lost all independence.”

“But I think most Americans saw up close and personal during the debate that Joe Biden isn’t physically fit to be president and possibly not even mentally fit to be president,” Comer said.

A Wisconsin progressive radio network said it made two edits to an interview last week with
President Biden at his campaign’s request, in a decision the station admitted violated “journalistic interview standards.”

Civic Media released a statement Thursday admitting that after an interview of Biden by host Earl Ingram recorded on July 3, the Biden campaign “called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired.” The interview aired the following day with two brief portions excised, including one where Biden made an incorrect remark about the “Central Park Five” case.

“On Monday, July 8th, it was reported to Civic Media management that immediately after the phone interview was recorded, the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired,” the network said. “Civic Media management immediately undertook an investigation and determined that the production team at the time viewed the edits as non-substantive and broadcast and published the interview with two short segments removed.”

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News Digital’s David Rutz. Click here to read the full report.

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Il., on Thursday joined a growing list of Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race after his debate performance late last month reignited doubts about his ability to serve as commander-in-chief.

In a statement, Schneider praised Biden for his accomplishments while in office but said the time had come for the president to “heroically pass the torch to a new generation of leadership to guide us to the future he has enabled and empowered us to pursue.”

Schneider invoked George Washington who, despite encouragement from his supporters, declined to run for a third term “for the good of the nation and the people.”

“He knew when it was time to pass the torch,” Schneider said. “In passing the torch now, President Biden has a chance to live up to this standard and seal his place in history as one of the greatest leaders our nation, and history, has ever known. He can lead the transition of power to a new generation that can build a stronger party and a stronger nation. I fear if he fails to make the right choice, our democracy will hang in the balance.”

Schneider is the 11th Democratic House lawmaker who has publicly called for Biden to step down.

President Biden is gearing up for a crucial press conference Thursday evening, the first solo press event since the APEC Summit in California eight months ago.

On Nov. 15, Biden met with China’s President Xi Jinping and reportedly left the meeting optimistic that he had reduced tensions between U.S. and Chinese forces in the Asia-Pacific, a feat he was aiming to button up prior to announcing his re-election bid. The president’s press conference for the summit lasted about 20 minutes, and he answered roughly five questions before leaving.

However, throughout Biden’s 41 months as president, he has gone a total of 30 months without a solo news conference, 16 months without a TV news interview, and 10 months without either, according to a Fox News count.

Comedian Jon Stewart criticized the Democratic Party, President Biden and the White House for what he compared to Trump’s mafia-style refusal to answer concerns about the president’s debate performance. 

Stewart was joined by former Obama aides and Pod Save America co-hosts Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” on Thursday, where he said the Biden administration’s approach to concern was like Omertà, a Sicilian code of silence used by the mafia, which places importance on staying quiet in the face of questioning.

“In a lot of ways using Omertà, as Tommy put it, to stifle what could be an incredibly productive, at least, conversation, even if Joe Biden came out and said, ‘Look, I understand where I am at in my lifespan and cycle and what I do. Here’s how this government works,'” Stewart said, in a clip flagged by Mediaite. “Rather than coming out, and becoming Trumpian and saying, ‘You think someone else could hold NATO together, they could never, only God can tell me to get out of the race.’”

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News Digital’s Kendall Tietz. Click here to read the full report.

The billionaire founder of the world’s largest hedge fund outlined how he sees the Democratic Party having three ways to move forward with either keeping or replacing President Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.

Ray Dalio, founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, wrote in Time magazine that he respects, likes and empathizes with the president. However, he explained that party leadership “suffered a terrible loss of confidence in its honesty and judgment” because it “hid President Biden’s weak and rapidly declining condition” and “told the American people that we shouldn’t worry about it.”

Biden has repeatedly insisted that he is “all in” on remaining the party’s presidential nominee amid the controversy, and Democratic leaders have left the door open to him continuing as the nominee even as a growing number of rank-and-file elected officials call for him to step aside.

This is an excerpt of a story by FOX Business’ Eric Revell. Click here to read the full report.

Former President Obama is keeping tight-lipped following reports he’s working “behind the scenes” to force President Biden out of the 2024 presidential race. 

Multiple media outlets reported Thursday morning on Obama’s alleged efforts,
including Politico, which stated the former president was given a “heads-up” by actor George Clooney concerning his damaging New York Times guest essay calling on Biden to drop out.

“While Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it,” the report said.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough went a step further, stating on “Morning Joe,” a favorite program of Biden’s, that “what’s going on behind the scenes is the Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this.”

A source close to Obama declined to comment on the reports, but pointed Fox News Digital to the former president’s statements in support of Biden, both at the Los Angeles fundraiser that became the subject of Clooney’s op-ed, and his disappointing showing in the first presidential debate last month.

Obama has since remained quiet publicly as a number of his close allies and former staffers ramp up their calls for the president to step aside, including former adviser David Axelrod and the “Obama bros,” a group of three close advisers often referred to by that name during his tenure in the White House.

Former President Trump took shots at actor George Clooney on his Truth Social platform over the last several hours, including a video with President Biden’s face superimposed onto a scene from one of Clooney’s movies.

“So although I wish I were here with better news, the fact is you and I are sitting here today because this will be your last week of employment,” Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” says in the clip posted by Trump. Footage of Biden looking into the camera during a recent interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolous was featured in the clip. 

“This is not an assessment of your productivity,” Clooney continues. “Try not to take this personal.”

“Well, I just had a bad night,” Biden responds.

The video mocking Biden came shortly after Trump blasted Clooney on Truth Social following the actor’s call for Biden to drop out of the race weeks after a Hollywood fundraiser he attended with Biden.

“So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act,” Trump wrote in the post. “He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are. What does Clooney know about anything?”

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller

President Biden’s campaign is “quietly” testing Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance against former President Trump in internal polling, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The Biden campaign’s analytics team reportedly commissioned the survey this week as Biden is fending off a steady stream of defections from Democratic lawmakers and donors. The three sources insisted on anonymity before speaking with the Times, and they did not specify the plans behind the poll, the outlet reported.

The report is the first indication that Biden’s campaign may be considering a change of course. Biden himself has insisted that he is staying in the race, and top Democratic leaders have backed him in public statements, though rumors of discontent continue to leak out from party sources.

A Thursday poll from ABC News and the Washington Post found that Biden and Trump are essentially tied, even as 67% of voters say they believe Biden should drop out of the race. That poll also tested Harris in a contest with Trump and found that she overperformed Biden, holding a slight lead of 49%-46%.

Late night host Stephen Colbert used a Dr. Seuss-style rhyme to poke fun at President Biden amid concerns about his cognitive health and ability to serve as president. 

Colbert, long one of Biden’s most dependable allies in the media, has sharpened his mockery of the president following his debate performance. 

“Is he mentally fit?” Colbert said, reading out of a mock book titled, “Oh The Places For Joe!” 

Colbert proceeded to read passages from the book, a parody of the Dr. Seuss book published in 1990 called, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” 

“Can he serve a whole term?” Colbert said. “Can he beat RFK with his brain full of worm? Just ask him, just ask him, the man loves to talk, as long as you ask him before eight o’clock.”

“Join Joe Biden as he explores a wonderful world outside of the Oval Office!” the parody book’s description reads. 

“Here’s the thing,” Colbert said. “Maybe Biden can’t win. Or maybe he’s the only one who can win. I don’t know what the right answer is and I’m not alone.” 

Just months ago, Colbert participated in a lavish record-setting fundraiser that brought in $26 million for the Biden campaign.

Colbert took the stage in New York City with Democratic presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to moderate their conversation in March. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark

A White House official told The Atlantic that President Biden making a public gaffe at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. might be fatal to his campaign. 

“This is a terrible thing to say,” an anonymous White House official told The Atlantic in a story published Wednesday. “But that might be the only thing that could force him out at this point, while there’s still time to rewrite the ending.”

Biden’s performance at the NATO summit this week has come under increased scrutiny amid concerns about the president’s cognitive health and ability to serve. 

“This week is pivotal for President Biden, not only because of the intense interest in what he will be saying at his press events but also because this summit provides a clear example of restored American global leadership in support of our nation’s defense,” Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

Atlantic columnist Mark Leibovich said that Biden was a danger to the country. 

“Never underestimate the destructive power of a stubborn old narcissist with something to prove,” Leibovich wrote. 

“President Joe Biden, 81, is acting like one of history’s most negligent and pigheaded leaders at a crucial moment, and right now, we are all pedestrians,” he added. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark

Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich, called on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race on Thursday, making her the 11th elected Democratic lawmaker to do so.

Scholten released a statement on social media Thursday, saying Biden “has served his country well,” but “must pass the torch to a new candidate.” Scholten joins a steady rhythm of Democrats who have defected from Biden’s campaign in the days since his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump.

“It is essential that we have the strongest possible candidate at the top of the ticket–not just to win, but to govern,” Scholten said. “We must have a standard bearer who will fight morning, noon and night for our civil and voting rights and unite the free world against the rising tide of authoritarianism. Joe Biden has been that leader for so long; but this is not about the past. It’s about the future. It’s time to pass the torch.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee was quick to respond to Scholten’s statement, arguing she had skirted the question of whether Biden currently fit to serve as president.

“Everyone can see Scholten’s statement for what it truly is, a transparent election-year ploy to try to cling to her seat. President Biden is sitting in the Oval Office because Hillary Scholten and Democrats hid the truth from voters and lied about the president’s condition. Hillary Scholten must answer the question: Is Joe Biden fit to serve as President?” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.

A hot mic apparently caught Governor J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., worrying about the state of the presidential race this week.

As reported by CBS News Chicago, Pritzker was overheard
at a recent crime fighting event telling someone that he was not pleased with the way President Biden’s campaign was going in the weeks following his debate performance against former President Trump.

“You gotta do what we have to do. I don’t like where we are,” Pritzker could be heard saying in a private conversation at the Illinois event.

The hot mic also caught the governor adding, “We’re just going to keep fighting. I don’t know what to say.”

The local news outlet reached out to the governor’s office to get some context for Pritzker’s quote, reporting that Pritzker’s deputy chief of communications Jordan Abudayyeh said it “sounds like [Pritzker] was talking about the state of the presidential race.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the governor’s office to confirm if Priztker was talking about the Democrat Party’s current situation with Biden at the top of the presidential ticket, though did not immediately receive a response.

If he was, the governor’s quote represents a wave of uncertainty in the party regarding Biden’s ability to beat Trump in November that has been growing since Biden’s disastrous debate. 

Multiple Democratic lawmakers, liberal pundits, and more recently, major Hollywood Biden donors, have demanded that Biden abandon his re-election bid, pointing to his performance last month as evidence he can’t win in November.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Gabriel Hays

Former President Trump lashed out at actor George Clooney on Wednesday night, calling the Democratic Party ally a “rat” for calling on the president to cease reelection efforts.

Clooney published an op-ed in The New York Times earlier in the day, expressing his belief that President Biden “saved our democracy” by beating Trump in 2020 but acknowledging that Democrats “are not going to win in November with this president.”

Trump responded
to the op-ed later that night via Truth Social, his proprietary social media platform, saying, “So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act. He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”

“What does Clooney know about anything? He uses the Democrat ‘talking point’ that Biden, the WORST President in the history of the United States, has ‘saved our Democracy,'” Trump stated.

Clooney did take an apologetic tone in his op-ed — outright stating “I love Joe Biden” and that he believes in his “character” and “morals” — but claimed to have witnessed his decline firsthand at a fundraiser last month.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Timothy H. J. Nerozzi

Former President Obama knew of George Clooney’s New York Times guest essay calling for President Biden to drop out of the race but didn’t object to it, according to a new report.

Clooney, a major Democratic donor who hosted a lavish fundraiser for Biden just weeks ago, published a devastating essay in the New York Times on Wednesday, demanding Biden step aside because of growing concerns over his mental acuity that were heightened after his disastrous presidential debate. 

Politico reports that Clooney reached out to Obama beforehand to make him aware of the story to come, but Obama didn’t try to stop him.

“While Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it, we’re told from people familiar with their exchange. The lack of pushback is an eye-popping revelation given that the former president was one of the first big voices defending Biden following his abysmal debate performance (while many of his former aides have been some of the incumbent’s biggest critics),” the outlet reported.

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this update.

MSNBC host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki floated Vice President Kamala Harris as the best “alternative” for Democrats if President Biden withdraws from the 2024 election.

Psaki appeared as a guest on “Pod Save America” this week to discuss the controversy facing her former boss Biden after his disastrous debate performance. Several Democratic lawmakers, megadonors and pundits have urged Biden to step aside amid his declining poll numbers against former President Trump. 

“There is a question out there that, again, I think campaigns are talking about, about the alternative and the alternative is very clearly in my view—there’s a lot of really amazing Democrats on the bench, but because of the timeline and everything, I think it is clearly Kamala Harris,” she said in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.

Asked by host Jon Lovett why the party has not already consolidated around Harris, Psaki said some Democrats are not “comfortable” with her.

“I don’t why there hasn’t been kind of an overwhelming ‘Kamala would be a great president and she would be a fierce, amazing campaigner,’ right? But that’s not typically the message. I’m observing what people are saying. It’s typically ‘don’t take it away from Kamala Harris if it’s open, that would be unfair,’” she said.

Psaki argued that Harris is a “fierce communicator” who could help the party on the abortion issue. But she suggested Harris may struggle to win some votes because “we live in a sexist and racist country.” 

“It’s almost like public opinion hasn’t caught up with what she is doing out there and also we live in a country that is sexist and racist so there is that,” she said. “Not everybody at all, but there is a level of it that does impact elections.”

Fearful that a second Trump presidency would “upend our lives,” Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio., said he is moving closer to calling on President Biden to step aside from the 2024 election. 

“I’m getting closer and closer to—appreciating that as much as I respect Joe Biden and what he’s done—that, what Clooney said yesterday was really powerful and that he saved democracy in 2020. He’s got to do it again in 2024,” said Landsman, referencing Hollywood actor George Clooney’s New York Times op-ed that called on Biden to withdraw.

“I had hoped, and still do to some extent, that he can go out and make the case that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, that he is going to undermine, if not destroy our democracy. But that’s becoming more and more less likely.” 

Landsman said Biden did not help his case by attacking Democratic critics of his debate performance and poor polling against former President Trump. He also said he would like to see either Vice President Kamala Harris take over as the Democratic nominee or an open convention in August. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said it wouldn’t “hurt” for President Biden to take a cognitive test to assuage concerns about his ability to serve as president in an interview Wednesday. 

Whitmer, who serves as a co-chair for the Biden campaign, has been suggested as a possible replacement for Biden, if he chooses to withdraw, by some pundits and political commentators.  

“I don‘t think it would hurt,” Whitmer said when asked about Biden and former President Trump taking a cognitive ability test. 

“Certainly, the first presidential debate was not a great success for President Biden,” the governor said, “but he is the happy warrior.” 

“He shows up every day and fights for the American public,” Whitmer said. “He cares about other people more than he cares about himself. And that‘s precisely why I think this moment where we have Donald Trump, who‘s been convicted of 34 felonies, who cares only about Donald Trump, we can‘t lose sight of how high these stakes are.” 

But Whitmer left open the possibility that Biden might choose to withdraw from the race, despite his repeated statements that he’s not dropping out.

“We have a field,” Whitmer said. “And unless one person, Joe Biden, makes an alternative decision, this is the field, and we‘ve got to go.”

Fox News Digital’s Jeffrey Clark contributed to this update.

CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned the Biden campaign’s claim that the president has better stamina than actor George Clooney after a critical op-ed. 

President Biden received extra scrutiny on Wednesday after Clooney’s New York Times guest essay said that Biden has significantly declined and should step down.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote about a recent Hollywood fundraiser for the president.

CNN White House correspondent Kayla Tausche reported that, according to a Biden campaign official, it was Clooney who apparently lacked stamina.

“Biden aides point to an aggressive travel schedule in the coming weeks. He’s set to go to Michigan on Friday, Nevada next week, as well as an aggressive fundraising schedule with events planned in Texas and Colorado and two in California as proof that he is not going anywhere,” Tausche said.

She added, “And in response to those comments from George Cooney, Jake, a campaign official who attended that Los Angeles fundraiser tells me that George Clooney left three hours before the president. So clearly the gloves are off.”

After a pause, Tapper asked, “What does that mean, George Clooney left three hours earlier? What‘s the point?”

Tausche responded, “The point of that is to suggest that Biden’s stamina is better than Clooney‘s and Clooney didn‘t have eyes on the entire event. That‘s the response to the Clooney op-ed.”

“Okay,” Tapper responded with raised eyebrows and what sounded like a chuckle.

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick contributed to this update.

A former adviser to President Obama broke his silence concerning President Biden’s mental fitness on Wednesday, just hours after a damaging op-ed by actor George Clooney was published in The New York Times calling on the president to quit the 2024 race.

“It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,” Jon Favreau, a member of the group often referred to as the “Obama bros” during his tenure in the White House, said during an appearance on CNN.

Favreau was citing the same fundraiser as Clooney in his guest essay where the actor claimed the Biden that showed up there was “not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Clooney wrote that Democratic Party leaders needed to stop trying to convince Americans they “didn’t see what we just saw,” and accused them of ignoring “warning signs” concerning Biden.

Favreau agreed, telling CNN, “I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are.”

Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie contributed to this update.

Liberals on social media seethed in reaction to Democratic lawmakers reportedly admitting behind the scenes that former President Trump isn’t a “threat to democracy” as their party loudly claims. 

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein appeared on The Bulwark Podcast Tuesday and revealed what “top Democrats” have told him off the record as they panic over whether they should support or abandon President Biden on their ticket. 

“People are weighing this set of things. Like, ‘It would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president as an elected official in the Democratic Party,’ and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins, and saying, in a revealed preference way, ‘I can live with Donald Trump winning,’” Klein said. “And I’ve heard people say that to me off the record, to be fair-“

“Really?” podcast host Tim Miller reacted. 

“I’ve had top Democrats say to me, basically, say something like, ‘I don’t know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are. But the reason I’m acting the way I am is because I don’t think that,'” Klein continued. 

“Who the f— is this?” an angered Miller exclaimed. “Out your sources, Ezra!” 

“I find it maddening, but I do find it consistent,” Klein responded. 

Klein later told Miller, “I think you have to at some point say, whatever these Democrats are saying in public, they’re more resigned and more willing to just be the resistance to a Trump presidency than a lot of their public-facing rhetoric would suggest.”

“You have a calm voice, but you’re skyrocketing my f—ing blood pressure right now,” Miller said. “Ezra, I’m just, like, so f—ing mad.”

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this update.

Fox News contributor Marie Harf sounded off on how the Biden campaign has responded to Democrats who have raised concerns about President Biden’s electoral viability in the wake of last month’s debate.

Appearing on “America’s Newsroom,”  Harf noted that several public opinion polls show Biden losing support versus former President Trump. She criticized the Biden campaign for “attacking Democratic lawmakers” who’ve spoken up and said Biden should withdraw from the race.

“I think that there’s a lot of frustration, that they are trying to turn the page and say, ‘we’re not having this conversation about the debate anymore,'” she said.

“But the problem, Bill, is that voters are having that conversation. It’s not just pundits, it’s not just members of Congress. And I am incredibly concerned that the Biden team doesn’t have a plan to turn this campaign around, that we are going to lose in November, and that they are dismissing concerns that voters have across this country about whether President Biden can win and can govern for another four years. They’re not taking this as seriously as they should.” 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., doubled down on his support for President Biden after his highly criticized debate performance last month. 

Fetterman told Fox News host Jesse Watters Wednesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime” he realizes Biden isn’t as sharp as he was a few years ago, but it doesn’t change his support for the commander-in-chief.

“I really don’t think I’ve seen anything that makes me want to change that,” he said. “I’m not following him blindly, but I do fundamentally believe he’s been a great president and I do believe ultimately he can prevail.”

Biden has refuted calls from his own party to step down from the 2024 race, saying in a letter to House Democrats Monday that he’s the best candidate who can beat former President Trump in November. 

Nine House Democrats and one Democratic senator have called on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race since his disastrous performance at the CNN Presidential Debate in Atlanta, according to a tally from The Associated Press.

Fetterman admitted to Watters he only saw parts of the Biden-Trump debate, but there was no question that the president had a “bad night.”

He said he’s spent a year with Biden at different events across Pennsylvania, and to him, he was “normal” and “engaged.”

“He was actually very popular, and people were eager to have a selfie and those kinds of thing[s]. So, I really want to remind everybody that Joe Biden has done a really good job as president, and I fundamentally am going to remain loyal to that,” Fetterman added. 

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this update.

NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd claimed on Wednesday a senior cabinet secretary told him in 2022 that Biden couldn’t run again.

The former “Meet the Press” host discussed dwindling confidence in Biden’s campaign on his podcast “The Chuck Toddcast” with Politico columnist Jonathan Martin. While floating potential exit paths for Biden to step down, both criticized Democratic Party members for refusing to publicly voice their concerns.

“The politicians of the Democratic Party in the last few days have shown that a lot of them don’t have the courage of their convictions. They simply aren’t going to stand up and say in public what they’ve been telling folks like us in private for years. This is not a new story,” Martin said.

Todd recounted, “I had a cabinet secretary two years ago, two years ago, out of the blue asked me, ‘Do you really think he’s gonna? He can’t run again like this.’ And I said, ‘Well, you have more action with him than I do.’ And they said, ‘I don’t have a lot of interaction with him.’ This is a pretty senior cabinet secretary. This was two years ago.” 

He added, “It’s the classic open secret, the nonversation. It’s the story everybody knows, and that everybody was afraid to talk about.”

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick contributed to this update.

A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll shows a majority of President Biden’s own supporters say he should drop out, even though he’s virtually tied with former President Trump.

Americans are split 46-47% between Biden and Trump if the election were held today, according to the poll. The results did not meaningfully shift from a pre-debate poll, which showed a 44-46% divide between the two candidates. 

However, Biden does appear to have suffered politically from his poor performance at the CNN Presidential Debate in Atlanta. Sixty-seven percent overall said he should withdraw from the race. A larger number, 85%, said he is too old for a second term, a record high for the survey.

Biden insists he is in the race to win and will not withdraw. But 62% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents said Biden should step aside. That includes 54% who identified as Biden supporters. 

Democratic Party strategist James Carville doubled down on stating President Biden should be replaced as the party’s presidential nominee, saying that keeping him in the race is an “idiotic choice.”

The former Bill Clinton adviser made the statement on CNN Tuesday night, telling anchor Anderson Cooper that Democrats are losing to Republicans following Biden’s poor debate performance nearly two weeks ago, and that they need to adjust ahead of November.

“I think we got to have a change, I just genuinely do,” Carville declared. 

Earlier this week, the pundit told NewsNation that it’s “inevitable” that Biden will step down from his campaign as the calls for him to do so from the media and people in his own party have only increased in the time since his debate performance. 

“He’s going to come to the conclusion that this is just not a good idea and he’s going to resist it and he’s going to listen to his family,” he said.

Carville became more forceful with his opinion on Biden’s situation Tuesday, slamming Biden’s team for how they’ve handled things following the president’s debate. 

“I watch some of these press conferences and it reminds of a book they made me read in college called ‘Ship of Fools,’ a bunch of desperate people sailing into disaster.”

He then told Cooper it would be a huge mistake if he stayed in the race, as the president and his team have been saying they intend to do. 

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays contributed to this update.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is being slammed for his political similarity to President Biden as the president’s poor June debate performance continues to pose concerns to Democrats in down-ballot races and on Capitol Hill.

“Joe Biden’s politics now are not much different from mine,” Brown says in the ad from Republican candidate Bernie Moreno’s campaign. His quote comes from a 2021 interview. 

The ad notes the vulnerable Democrat’s proclivity to vote in line with Biden, with a narrator saying, “Extreme liberal Sherrod Brown voted with Biden 99% of the time.” 

The campaign cited an analysis of Senate votes during the 117th Congress in 2021 and 2022, which showed Brown siding with Biden 98.5% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. 

In 2023, during the first half of the 118th Congress, Brown voted with the president 97.9% of the time, per a separate FiveThirtyEight aggregation. 

“Sherrod Brown votes with Biden 99% of the time for his disastrous agenda that has destroyed our economy, created a wide open southern border, waged war on American energy, and sold out Ohio workers,” said Moreno spokesperson Reagan McCarthy in a statement. “Brown can try to run from his record of voting in lockstep with his longtime friend Joe Biden, but Ohioans know that he has rubber-stamped this administration’s agenda every step of the way.”

The ad is part of a seven-figure statewide ad buy that will run on digital and streaming as well as through the mail. 

Liberal celebrities in Hollywood are showing solidarity with their fellow A-lister George Clooney following his scathing essay calling for President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race.

“I think it’s a valid point,” Michael Douglas reacted to Clooney’s essay on Wednesday’s installment of “The View.” 

“I’m deeply, deeply concerned. I mean, especially- it’s difficult because the Democrats have a big bench. They’ve got a lot of heavy hitters,” Douglas said before suggesting Biden was ill-advised ahead of last month’s presidential debate. 

Filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner said, “My friend George Clooney has clearly expressed what many of us have been saying.”

“We love and respect Joe Biden. We acknowledge all he has done for our country. But Democracy is facing an existential threat,” the “All in the Family” star wrote on X. “We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.”

Actress Mia Farrow similarly warned it’s “time to pass the torch Or we will lose the Senate, the House and our Democracy.”

“Ill vote for Joe if he declines to step down. Of course. But he is losing,” Farrow said. “We cannot EVER give our country to Trump.” 

“Clooney describes Biden as not being the person he once knew, but as he was during the debate. They were together 3 weeks ago. So it wasn’t just that one night,” Farrow continued. “I care deeply about our democracy I hope he names another talented Democrat who will carry forward Joe Biden’s great accomplishments – and win.”

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this update.

On Wednesday, former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested in an interview that Biden should reconsider his vow to remain in the race, adding fuel to the fire of the party’s disarray.

“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she said. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”

“I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with,” she added. 

Pelosi said in the interview that she and other Democrats are waiting to see how the week goes for Biden, suggesting that she told fellow Democrats to not speak publicly about their thoughts on Biden until the week concludes.

“Let’s just hold off,” she said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”

Pelosi later said she believes Biden can win in November during a tense exchange with a reporter. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this update.

President Biden is slated to face the media late Thursday afternoon in his first solo press conference since his disastrous debate last month, and it’s anticipated that he’ll be grilled as the nation weighs his mental acuity amid heightening health concerns. 

Biden is expected to hold the news conference on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. after hosting NATO leaders in Washington, D.C., this week. The media has dubbed the press conference a “big boy press conference,” with the president fielding questions from the media solo. It marks Biden’s first solo press conference of the year and the first time he will speak to the media at a presser since his debate against former President Trump on June 27, Fox News found.

Biden is facing heightened concerns over his health in the wake of his poor debate performance, which opened floodgates of concern in the Democratic Party that the president’s 81 years of age and alleged slipping mental acuity will cost the party as the Biden campaign squares up against Trump.

At least nine elected Democrats have called on Biden to drop out since the debate, and at least 23 Democrats, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, have expressed concern over Biden’s performance and re-election effort.

Biden has vowed to remain in the race despite rising concerns and calls for him to drop out and let another candidate take on Trump. 

“There’s been a lot of speculation: What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out? What’s he going to do?” Biden said Friday in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin. “Well, here’s my answer: I am running and going to win again.”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this update.

The jury in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial appeared “attentive” as Corporal Alexandra Hancock took the stand Thursday, July 11.

Several jurors began taking notes and scanning the gallery as special prosecutor Kari Morrissey began questioning the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office representative.

Hancock recalled interviewing Hannah Gutierrez Reed, David Hall and Alec Baldwin on the day of the shooting, the three individuals who were criminally charged in the case.

“Two people had been shot on the set,” Hancock testified from the briefing she received before arriving on scene.

Hancock interviewed Baldwin on Oct. 21 after the fatal shooting. She testified that Baldwin would reach out to her via cellphone following the initial interview.

While interviewing Gutierrez Reed, Hancock said that Hannah admitted she loaded the weapon with ammunition she had provided.

“As you sit here today, do you have any question as to who provided live ammunition on to the set of Rust?” Morrissey asked Hancock, to which she responded, “No,” before responding once again that it was “Hannah” who provided the ammunition.

Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Fox News Digital’s Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

Alec Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set of “Rust” in October 2021.

In the state of New Mexico, manslaughter is defined as the “unlawful killing of a human being without malice.”

“Voluntary manslaughter consists of manslaughter committed upon a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion,” according to the state legislature.

“Involuntary manslaughter consists of manslaughter committed in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to felony, or in the commission of a lawful act that might produce death in an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection.”

The legislature states that whoever commits involuntary manslaughter is “guilty of a fourth degree felony for involuntary manslaughter.”

If a person is convicted of a fourth degree felony, sentencing can range between 18 months imprisonment or three years imprisonment.

The court may also impose a five thousand dollars ($5,000) fine for a fourth degree involuntary manslaughter charge.

Alec Baldwin
abruptly left the courtroom during a special motions hearing in his involuntary manslaughter trial.

The “Rust” actor seemed to surprise his lawyer when he stood up and left the Santa Fe District court room as the prosecution argued to admit more evidence before trial resumed Thursday, July 11.

Baldwin, 66, returned to his trial while carrying a cup of coffee in one hand.

State prosecutor Kari Morrissey
had successfully argued to admit another statement into evidence where Baldwin acknowledged the danger of ammunition when he stated that “blanks can kill.” 

Fox News Digital’s Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

A friend of Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s
father, longtime Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, allegedly handed over a box of ammunition from the “Rust” set.

“A good Samaritan walked into the police station and gave you the lethal ammunition, didn’t they?” Spiro asked crime scene technician Marissa Poppell.

After the Hannah Gutierrez trial, there was an individual that came to the police station and stated they had ammunition, and they turned in the ammunition,” Poppell said.

“And they told you, that this was the ammunition that ended up with Seth Kenney that killed Miss Hutchins. Right?” Spiro said, to which Poppell responded, “I do not recall all of their statements.” 

Kenney worked as the main prop distributor for the Western film back in 2021. His company, PDQ Prop, supplied blank and dummy ammo to the “Rust” set.

While the investigation found live rounds at PDQ prop, the prosecution previously claimed the rounds did not match the live round fired on set on Oct. 21, 2021. According to prosecutors during Gutierrez Reed’s trial, the live rounds on the “Rust” set were seen in photographs taken on Oct. 10 — two days before Kenney’s dummy rounds arrived.

During redirect, Morrissey brought it to the court’s attention that the “good Samaritan” was in fact a friend of the family.

“Are you aware that Troy Teske is a close friend of Hannah Gutierrez, Reed’s father?” Morrissey asked, to which Poppell said she did “not know that.”

“Are you aware that Troy Teske had his own motivations for wanting to place blame on Seth Kenney to help Hannah Gutierrez?” Morrissey questioned Poppell.

Morrissey continued, “Is Mr. Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter for loading a live round into the gun?”

“No,” Poppell said.

“Has a person already been tried and convicted for those things?” Morrissey asked.

“Yes,” Poppell said.

Spiro got one final question in and asked Poppell, “The good Samaritan asked you in reference to the ammunition he provided, question, ‘And that’s the one that killed Halyna?’ And you said ‘yes.'”

“I don’t recall that,” Poppell said. Spiro asked, “Do you deny that?”

“I don’t deny that.” 

State prosecutor Kari Morrissey successfully argued to admit another Alec Baldwin statement into evidence in a motions hearing Thursday, July 11, during his “Rust” involuntary manslaughter trial.

A portion of transcripts showed Baldwin, 66, acknowledging the danger of ammunition when he stated that “blanks can kill.” 

“Mr. Baldwin even indicated he knew that it could kill someone,” Morrissey argued to the court.

Alec Baldwin is facing two special prosecutors in the “Rust” involuntary manslaughter trial.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey has worked in law for nearly two decades and is one of the top attorneys in Albuquerque.

She typically focuses on criminal defense and criminal rights cases. Morrissey graduated from University of New Mexico’s law school.

Morrissey is joined by special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson. She typically works as a criminal defense and personal injury lawyer.

Johnson graduated from University of New Mexico School of Law and began her legal career as an assistant district attorney in Albuquerque.

Johnson is most known for her role defending former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran in the high-profile corruption case where she was accused of using campaign funds for an alleged gambling addiction.

At the beginning of the “Rust” shooting investigation, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies
was assigned the case. She brought on Andrea Reeb as a special prosecutor before they both resigned.

The prosecution and Alec Baldwin’s defense stalled the second day of the involuntary manslaughter trial multiple times as they battled over which evidence could be admitted.

At one point Spiro attempted to admit a handful of exhibits, which special prosecutor Kari Morrissey objected to. Morrissey quipped that they should have reviewed the evidence prior to the “Rust” trial.

Later in the day, Baldwin’s lawyer wanted to show crime scene technician Marissa Poppell a lapel video. Morrissey objected and they had a side bar with Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.

The judge ruled that Poppell could view the video since she was there at the time the video was recorded. The crime scene technician agreed to watch the video to refresh her memory during the lunch break.

The “Rust” crime scene technician agreed there is “zero evidence” linking actor Alec Baldwin to the live ammunition found on the Western film set after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

“There is zero evidence in this case that Alec Baldwin brought the live round on the set,” Baldwin’s attorney Alex Spiro said in court.

“Correct,” Marissa Poppell responded.

“There is zero evidence that Alec Baldwin loaded that live round into that gun,” Spiro added.

“Correct,” the technician testified.

Hutchins died on Oct. 21, 2021 after a gun Baldwin was holding discharged. The actor and Hutchins had been practicing a close up scene where Baldwin cross-drew the revolver.

Seth Kenney seemed to be a key focus of attorney Alex Spiro’s cross-examination during the second day of witness testimony in the “Rust” case.

Kenney worked as the main prop distributor for the Western film back in 2021. His company, PDQ Prop, supplied blank and dummy ammo to the “Rust” set.

While the investigation found live rounds at PDQ prop, the prosecution previously claimed the rounds did not match the live round fired on set on Oct. 21, 2021. According to prosecutors during “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s trial, the live rounds on the “Rust” set were seen in photographs taken on Oct. 10 — two days before Kenney’s dummy rounds arrived.

Spiro brought up Kenney’s involvement during his questioning of crime scene technician Marissa Poppell at Baldwin’s trial, implying that an outsider could have introduced live rounds onto the set.

Attorney Alex Spiro questioned why law enforcement waited a week to search the “Rust” prop truck that housed the blank ammunition and dummy rounds used during filming.

While live ammo was found in different areas of the Western film set, there was no live ammo recovered from the prop truck.

“You’re finding these live rounds all over the set, right? Sort of seemed to be a little bit of everywhere without much, cohesion between where you’re finding them,” Spiro said during the involuntary manslaughter trial. “And they’re housed originally in the truck. And so you go a week later to the prop truck, which has all of the ammunition. And there’s not a single live round there, right? Why did law enforcement wait a week to go to the prop truck?”

“The search warrant needed to be written,” crime scene technician Marissa Poppell explained.

“I’m not sure of why the time difference occurred exactly,” she added.

Spiro claimed that a search warrant for the church at Bonanza Creek Ranch, where “Rust” was originally filmed, was written and filed the same day of the shooting. Poppell clarified the search warrant was done the next day, Oct. 22, 2021.

“So if you could do a search warrant in one day, for one thing, why does it take seven days to do a search warrant for something else?” Spiro questioned.

“I do not know the circumstances of why there was that time frame,” Poppell testified.

Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial began on July 9 with jury selection. The trial is scheduled to last until July 19.

The prosecution will be given five days to question their witnesses, completing the state’s argument against Baldwin by July 16. Baldwin’s defense was given the following three days to question witnesses.

Closing arguments will begin July 19 as well and the jury will then be dismissed for deliberations.

The prosecution accused Baldwin of placing his finger “on or around” the trigger of the F.LLI Pietta Long Colt 45 Revolver the actor was holding at the time of the shooting. However, Baldwin has maintained he did not pull the trigger.

The 66-year-old actor’s lawyers argued the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was “not foreseeable.”

“No one had any idea that it was on that set or in that gun in that world,” Alex Spiro explained. “They were all in it together.”

Actor Alec Baldwin is standing trial for the charge of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Halyna Hutchins, who died in October 2021 after being shot with a prop gun.

This case brings to mind another tragic incident that occurred nearly three decades ago: the accidental shooting of Brandon Lee by a prop gun on the set of “The Crow,” by co-star Michael Massee.

The son of martial artist Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee was shot on March 30, 1993 in Wilmington, North Carolina. He died the following day during surgery from the injuries sustained.

Although some of the details are similar to the shooting on the set of “Rust,” the main difference is the bullets in the gun.

While in Baldwin’s case, the gun was loaded with a live round rather than a blank, the weapon that led to the death of Lee was loaded with blanks and no live round. A portion of a dummy round was left in the barrel from a past scene and was projected from the firearm into Lee’s abdomen with the force of a live bullet. 

Following an investigation, no criminal charges were filed. 

While filming on the set of “Rust,”
Alec Baldwin had a live round inside his gun belt, according to evidence shown during the involuntary manslaughter trial.

Attorney Alex Spiro showed the jury a photo of the gun belt.

“This is a close up of the gun holster that was belonging to Mr. Baldwin that has a live round in it,” crime scene technician Marissa Poppell testified.

Spiro then showed a second close-up photo of a different gun belt.

“Mr. Ackles, another actor on the set, turns out that he — as he acted, as he performed — had a live bullet in his bandolier,” Spiro claimed.

“Correct,” Poppell responded.

“And you have no reason to think Mr. Ackles had any idea that was there, right?” Spiro continued.

“Correct,” the technician replied on the stand.

During the “Rust” armorer’s involuntary manslaughter trial, prosecutors argued Hannah Gutierrez Reed unknowingly brought live rounds onto the set and failed in her duty to safety check.

Alec Baldwin’s team began day two of the “Rust” involuntary manslaughter trial by cross-examining SFCSO crime scene technician Marissa Poppell.

Alex Spiro immediately zeroed in on the “destroyed” firearm, which the attorney previously argued was grounds to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge.

“As to the firearm, I think where you left off yesterday is ultimately that firearm was destroyed in the testing, fair?” Spiro asked Poppell.

“Not destroyed, but, broken,” she replied.

“It’s fair to say that the firearm can’t be put back in the original condition that it was in at the time of the incident,” the lawyer continued. “Is that fair?”

“I believe it could be put back together with replaced parts. But as far as, in my terms, destroyed — meaning no longer in existence — It is not the case,” the crime scene technician explained.

“But as part of the investigation and entrusted with the evidence in this case, the gun will never be in exactly the same condition that it was in on October 21st [2021]?” Spiro further questioned.

“Yes,” Poppell conceded.

Alec Baldwin received continued support from his family on the second day of the “Rust” movie shooting trial.

The 66-year-old actor entered the courtroom with his wife, Hilaria. Baldwin’s brother, actor Stephen Baldwin, and his sister, Beth Keuchler, also were spotted sitting in the courtroom for the second day in a row.

Hilaria and Stephen also attended the “30 Rock” star’s jury selection on July 9.

The benches inside the courtroom designated for press, attorneys and the public were half full for day two of the involuntary manslaughter trial.
Baldwin could spend up to 18 months in prison, if convicted.

The jury will continue to hear witness testimony Thursday, July 11 as the prosecution continues arguments.

Former Santa Fe County Sheriffs Nicholas LeFleur and Timoteo Benavidez took the stand during the first day. Both recounted their arrivals on scene in the immediate aftermath of the October 2021 shooting that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

As the years have passed since the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, Alec Baldwin has had little to say about the accidental shooting that led to his day in court.

In the first year after a gun the actor was holding on set discharged, killing Hutchins, Baldwin sat down for a handful of interviews in which he attempted to give his defense. Baldwin maintained he did not pull the trigger of the gun in his very first sit down interview with George Stephanopolous.

“I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.”

Baldwin went on to tell Chris Cuomo that “every single person on the set of the film” knew what happened on the day of the shooting.

The 66-year-old actor even revealed he lost five jobs due to the on-set shooting during a 2022 interview with CNN.

Alec Baldwin arrived around 8 am local time for his second day of the “Rust” involuntary manslaughter trial.

The actor pulled up to the courthouse in a black SUV with attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro. His wife, Hilaria, was also with him as the group walked into the Santa Fe, New Mexico courthouse.

He passed by the press silently as people shouted questions.

“Do you want to hear from Hannah Gutierrez Reed?” a member of the press shouted, referencing the “Rust” armorer who was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter.

Fox News Digital’s Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

Many key players are expected to testify in Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” involuntary manslaughter trial.

The prosecution’s final witness list included firearm experts, film industry experts along with members of the “Rust” cast and crew.

Director Joel Souza, who was hit in the shoulder by the bullet that struck cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, will be called by the state. Crew members Mamie Mitchell, Cherlyn Schaefer, Gabrielle Pickle and more are expected to be called. Prop master Sarah Zachry, who never faced criminal charges despite her role working with armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, will also testify.

Gutierrez Reed, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the fatal shooting, will not take the stand.

Others who testified in Gutierrez Reed’s March trial will testify in Baldwin’s case, including medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell.

Gutierrez Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on March 6 after nearly two weeks of testimony from some of the same witnesses Baldwin will see.

The armorer was sentenced to 18 months in prison.