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What Happens if Biden or Trump Drops Out Before Election Day?

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump seem on track for a rematch in November’s presidential election. But questions about Trump’s legal difficulties and both candidates’ ages lurk in the background. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at what could happen should one of them be forced to drop out.
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In Snowy DC, March for Life Rallies Against Abortion

WASHINGTON — Thousands of opponents of abortion rights rallied under falling snow on Friday at the annual March for Life, as speakers urged the impassioned crowd to capitalize on the movement’s major victory in the Supreme Court and keep fighting until abortion is eliminated.

Months before a presidential election that could be heavily influenced by abortion politics, anti-abortion activists packed the National Mall carrying signs with messages such as “Life is precious” and “I am the pro-life generation.” After listening to speeches, the crowd, braving frigid temperatures, marched past the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. One group planted in front of Court, beating a drum and chanting: “Everyone you know was once an embryo.”

Friday’s March for Life is the second such event in the nation’s capital since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal protection for abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade. Last year’s march was triumphant, with organizers relishing a state-by-state fight in legislatures around the country.

Speakers praised the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade but said it was more important now than ever to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to advance abortion restrictions.

“Roe is done, but we still live in a culture that knows not how to care for life,” said Benjamin Watson, a former NFL player who is now an anti-abortion advocate. “Roe is done, but the factors that drive women to seek abortions are ever apparent and ever increasing. Roe is done, but abortion is still legal and thriving in too much of America.”

Friday’s event appeared smaller than in past years as ice and snow complicated travel plans. But the crowd was fired up as speakers, which included members of Congress and Michigan University Football Coach Jim Harbaugh, urged participants to keep fighting until abortion becomes “unthinkable.”

“Let’s be encouraged, let’s press on and hope that we can join together and make this great difference,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “We can stand with every woman for every child, and we can truly build a culture that cherishes and protects life.”

The snow fell heavily throughout the speeches as young people built snowmen and had snowball fights behind the stage. Near the Capitol, the crowd celebrated as a group on a balcony of the Cannon House Office building cheered on the march.

“I almost didn’t come when I saw the forecast, but this is just incredible,” said Stephanie Simpson, a 42-year-old grocery store employee from Cleveland, who has attended the last four marches.

Roberto Reyes, a Mexican native and Carmelite friar, said: “All these people are going to remember this year’s march for the rest of their lives!”

Members of the crowd described overturning Roe v. Wade as a victory, but said the anti-abortion fight rages on.

“The key message this year is that our work is not done,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge, chair of the committee for pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The movement has seen mixed results. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reverted abortion lawmaking back to the states, and 14 states are now enforcing bans on abortion throughout pregnancy. Two more have such bans on hold because of court rulings. And another two have bans that take effect when cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women know they’re pregnant.

But abortion restrictions have also lost at the ballot box in Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky. And total bans have produced high-profile causes for abortion rights supporters to rally around. Kate Cox, a Texas mother of two, sought an abortion after learning the baby she was carrying had a fatal genetic condition. Her request for an exemption from Texas’ ban, one of the country’s strictest, was denied by the state Supreme Court, and she left Texas to seek an abortion elsewhere.

Movement organizers now expect abortion rights to be a major Democratic rallying cry in President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

“The pro-abortion forces, that’s one of the major things they’re going to run on,” said Susan Swift, president of Pro-Life Legal and a veteran anti-abortion activist. “That’s one of the only things that seems to animate their base.”

Biden campaign officials openly state that they plan to make Biden synonymous with the fight to preserve abortion rights.

Vice President Kamala Harris has led the charge on the issue for the White House. She will hold the first event in Wisconsin on Monday, which would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the lawsuit that led to the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.
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Top US, Mexican Officials in Washington for Migration Talks  

washington — Top U.S. and Mexican officials met Friday in Washington to discuss strengthening cooperation in addressing the large numbers of migrants trying to enter the U.S. through Mexico.

“Since our last meeting, I think a very significant development is President Arevalo being inaugurated in Guatemala,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the start of the meeting. “This opens an important new area for quiet operation on migration between our three countries and we will continue to work together more broadly to develop regional solutions to the historic challenge that that we face.”   

New Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo has said he wants to work with the United States to expand temporary work programs for migrants there, while also increasing investment in his country’s poorest areas to reduce departures.  

No significant announcement is expected to be made following Friday’s engagement, which Biden administration officials say continues progress made during a December 27 meeting in Mexico City.    

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall also attended Friday’s meeting, with Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Barcena leading the visiting delegation.   

“We will concentrate on implementing sustainable solutions that address the root causes of migration,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on a call with reporters Thursday.   

The Mexican government has called on Washington to increase development investment in Central America to reduce migration, increase the number of temporary worker visas and other legal pathways for immigration, and ramp up repatriation flights for people who arrive in the U.S. illegally, particularly from Venezuela, as a deterrence for migrants.  

The U.S. has resumed repatriation flights to Venezuela, and Mexico has done the same thing, starting in December, the most recent measure by countries in the region to address the exodus of people to the U.S. border.   

“We encourage other countries to join us. We also applaud the steps that Mexico has taken, Panama, and other countries to restrict irregular migration and impose new visa controls,” according to a White House National Security Council official on a call to reporters Thursday.    

In May 2023, Mexico agreed to receive migrants from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who were removed from the U.S. border for crossing into the United States without authorization and without following established legal pathways to asylum or other forms of migration.   

Venezuela is in the middle of a political and economic crisis and 7 million Venezuelans have left their home country, according to the United Nations. 

Officials apprehend thousands daily

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 242,418 migrant encounters at the southern border in November, numbers similar to October’s total of 240,986. In 2022, encounters totaled 235,173 in November and 231,529 in October.    

December numbers have yet to be released, but federal border officials reported a record 11,000 apprehensions a day at the southern border in December.   

“It coincided with the time when Mexican enforcement was no longer implemented. The immigration enforcement agency in Mexico was not funded, which prompted President Biden to reconnect with [Mexican] President [Andres Manual Lopez] Obrador.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters January 10. 

Border encounters dropped sharply with the beginning of the new year when enforcement resumed in Mexico.    

On Thursday’s call, U.S. officials said this is typically the time of year when encounters at the border decrease.    

“But we also believe that the actions taken by the Mexican government are having an impact as well,” the DHS official said.    

Migrant wave becomes liability  

The wave of migration has become a political liability for U.S. President Joe Biden ahead of the November election. He has been under immense pressure from Republicans and some members of his own party to limit border crossings, in part to ease pressure on American cities struggling to house and feed all the new arrivals.  

House Republicans have linked their demands for stricter border policies — their current top domestic priority — to the request from the White House for billions of dollars in funding to support Ukraine and Israel.   

“We understand that there’s concern about the safety, security and sovereignty of Ukraine,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters after he and other congressional leaders met with Biden this week. “But the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our safety and our security.”  

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate likely to compete against Biden in the November election, has launched increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail, saying that migrants crossing the border are “poisoning the blood of our country.”  

A Homeland Security Department official said during Thursday’s call that the U.S. and Mexico understand that more people are displaced around the world today than at any other time since World War II.   

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees says at least 108.4 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2022 worldwide because of “persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order.”

That number “includes record numbers of individuals displaced within our own hemisphere,” the DHS official said on the phone call.

“This is a challenge for us,” said the official. “And it’s also a challenge for our Mexican counterparts. We look forward to continuing our robust conversations with them on how we can work together to address what isn’t just an American challenge or a Mexican challenge but truly a regional challenge.”   
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Is Europe Ready for Possible Return of President Trump?

America’s allies in Europe are preparing for a possible second presidential term for Donald Trump after he won the Iowa Republican caucus earlier this month, cementing his place as the current front-runner to take on President Joe Biden in November’s election. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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US Congress Averts Shutdown, Funds Government Into March

WASHINGTON — U.S. Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March. 

The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative members of the Republican conference. Shortly before the vote, the House Freedom Caucus announced it ‘strongly opposes’ the measure because it would facilitate more spending than they support. 

Nevertheless, about half of Republicans joined with Democrats in passing the third stopgap funding measure in recent months. The action came a few hours after the Senate had voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill by a vote of 77-18. 

The measure extends current spending levels and buys time for the two chambers to work out their differences over full-year spending bills for the fiscal year that began in October. 

The temporary measure will run to March 1 for some federal agencies. Their funds were set to run out Friday. It extends the remainder of government operations to March 8. 

Right wing pressures Johnson

Speaker Mike Johnson has been under pressure from his right flank to scrap a $1.66 trillion budget deal he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier this month. Republican Representative Chip Roy said the continuing resolution passed Thursday will facilitate that agreement. 

“It’s Groundhog Day in the House chamber all the time, every day, yet again spending money we don’t have,” Roy said. 

Johnson has insisted he will stick with the deal, and moderates in the party have stood behind him. They say that changing course now would be going back on his word and would weaken the speaker in future negotiations. 

Representative Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Americans expect Congress to govern and work in a bipartisan fashion. 

“Some of my colleagues would see that this government would shut down and don’t care how hurtful that would be,” DeLauro said. 

House Republicans have fought bitterly over budget levels and policy since taking the majority at the start of 2023. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his caucus in October after striking an agreement with Democrats to extend current spending the first time. Johnson also has come under criticism as he has wrestled with how to appease his members and avoid a government shutdown in an election year. 

“We just needed a little more time on the calendar to do it and now that’s where we are,” Johnson said Tuesday about the decision to extend federal funding yet again. “We’re not going to get everything we want.”

Most House Republicans have refrained so far from saying that Johnson’s job is in danger. But a revolt of even a handful of Republicans could endanger his position in the narrowly divided House. 

Representative Bob Good, one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, has been pushing Johnson to reconsider the deal with Schumer. 

“If your opponent in negotiation knows that you fear the consequence of not reaching an agreement more than they fear the consequence of not reaching an agreement, you will lose every time,” Good said this week. 

Other Republicans acknowledge Johnson is in a tough spot. “The speaker was dealt with the hand he was dealt,” said Representative Andy Barr, noting the constraints imposed by the party’s slim majority. 

The short-term measure comes amid negotiations on a separate spending package that would provide wartime dollars to Ukraine and Israel and strengthen security at the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson is also under pressure from the right not to accept a deal that is any weaker than a House-passed border measure that has no Democratic support. 

Johnson, Schumer and other congressional leaders and committee heads visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss spending legislation. Johnson used the meeting to push for stronger border security measures while Biden and Democrats detailed Ukraine’s security needs as it continues to fight Russia. 

Biden has requested a $110 billion package for the wartime spending and border security. 
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