With President Biden’s Wednesday Covid diagnosis and growing questions about his competence taking top billing over the Republican National Convention on Thursday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC didn’t mince words in burying Biden by observing this “coordinated” push by other Democrats to force him out was reminiscent of a famous scene from A Few Good Men and deployed a term they’d repeatedly invoke to suggest Trump was toast: “The walls are closing in”! ABC’s Good Morning America co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos has already made his true feelings known about Biden on a hidden camera, so it was no surprise when he bleakly told viewers of Biden “testing positive for Covid” and “facing mounting pressure from the top congressional Democrats...to leave the race”.     Senior White House correspondent Selina Wang was more generous toward the man she covers, but not before lamenting “[t]his could not have come at a worse time for President Biden” as he had “been on the campaign trail trying to prove he has the stamina to stay in this race, but now all of that is on hold as calls for him to drop out grow louder.” After a mundane blow-by-blow of Wednesday, Wang conceded his “support among democratic leadership is now crumbling”, but closed with some happy talk for this still supporting Biden:  Most Democratic lawmakers are standing by President Biden. Only 21 have publicly called on the President to step aside and their effort to replace Biden is running out of time. The party is planning to hold a virtual roll call to nominate the President in early August and this decision to step aside — it is the President’s to make and it is his alone.  Speaking a few minutes later with chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, Stephanopoulos dropped the “walls” quote: “Jon, we have to begin with President Biden. Boy, the walls are closing in on him.” Karl didn’t disagree, blurting out, “oh, they sure are, George” before laying out his reporting that “Senator Chuck Schumer over the weekend...visited one-on-one with President Biden and very directly, very bluntly told him that it would be bad...if he stayed in the race.” Karl claimed that was reported “first here on ABC”, but was actually shared a day earlier by our friends at the Rutheless variety progrum. “I just don’t see how it is tenable for — for Joe Biden to continue as the — as the Democratic nominee, President — and Democratic nominee in 2024,” Karl added. The two further slammed Biden by pointing out “a majority of Democrats polling — in polling shows that a majority of Democrats now want him to leave the race” and his campaign’s fundraising has not only “completely dr[ied] up”, but “stopped” where it seems as though this will be “very hard to sustain”. NBC’s Today wasn’t even better. Not sitting on the set of Biden’s favorite show, Morning Joe, where he’s a co-host, Willie Geist told it straight: “A rollicking show of unity there Milwaukee for Republicans, as questions are raised now about the political future among Democrats of the President of the United States.” Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez described Biden’s Covid test as having arrived “at a devastating time for the President” and “threatens to intensify Democrat’s anxiety about his health as he faces calls to leave the race.” Gutierrez also noticed Biden’s gait in observing he “slowly boarded Air Force One” and touted the litany of leaks from leading Democrats. Co-host Savannah Guthrie — who’s married to a Democratic strategist and Gore 2000 campaign official — correctly diagnosed that if “you look at the — the events unfolding yesterday, nothing happens by accident” and thus “felt coordinated and calculated.” Making the movie reference, Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker agreed and argued that, “when you take it all together and the fact that no one is denying these stories, Savannah, it’s as good as all of them basically saying, yes, we did order the code red” Like Stephanopoulos and Karl, they also brought up the money crunch as likely to play a role in whether Biden stays or goes. CBS Mornings didn’t have zingers, but they didn’t go any easier on Biden. Co-host Tony Dokoupil said Biden’s “new setback” in the form of Covid was made worse by footage of him “seem[ing] to struggle to board Air Force One, another scrutinized moment, renewing those big questions about his future as a candidate.” Correspondent Nikole Killion also spotlighted Biden’s trouble walking: “The President took his time coming down the stairs of the plane, pausing to look around and holding on to the railing. He then slowly made his way into the car, appearing to struggle as he climbed in.” Dokoupil and correspondent Ed O’Keefe later discussed how this is not how the opposing party would want their counter-programming of the other party’s convention to look like (click “expand”): DOKOUPIL: You know, Ed, you don’t want to counter-program in quite the way Democrats are — O’KEEFE: No. DOKOUPIL: — against the Republican National Convention, but counter-programming it is. We hear Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi potentially making moves behind the scenes when it comes to Joe Biden in the race. O’KEEFE: There was a congressman who texted me yesterday and said, “Could we have one day without bad news this week?” I mean, it’s been that incredibly terrible for them, frankly. We do know that the two top congressional leaders, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer — and Nancy Pelosi now — have all said to him, essentially, “There’s a potential you’re gonna lose. We’re gonna lose dozens of House races, handful of Senate races, and lose total control of Washington. That message has been conveyed. His team knows that. They understand it. They’ve seen the polling, but he’s not going anywhere. There is no plan for him to leave. There is no plan for an alternative schedule at the Democratic National Convention. Wilmington, or his campaign headquarters as we say, his team, essentially, says, this has been a bad stretch. We’re gonna come out of this. We’re gonna have our convention, you’re gonna see our stars. The President’s going to be talking about different proposals. We mentioned, for example, the Supreme Court changes, proposals to cap rent across the country, things that speak to the voters that Democrats — DOKOUPIL: Yeah. O’KEEFE: — need to turn out in November. And if they can do that, they believe things will rebound. DOKOUPIL: Well, a bad stretch. There’s not that much stretch left. To see the relevant transcripts from July 18, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

We now have, as we would expect, a tsunami of commentary regarding the horrible assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It is not trivial to observe that at least the good news is that just about everyone agrees what happened is very bad and not an encouraging sign about the state of our nation. After that point of agreement, we have many different and diverging opinions about who or what is to blame. Republicans, Democrats, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, etc., etc. This act of violence against Donald Trump is, unfortunately, not a one-off in our nation today. Rarely do we open the news and not read about murders, too often mass murders, to which we cannot even clearly ascribe a motive except that of a deranged individual looking for the supreme venting of his or her frustrations. What strikes home about an assassination attempt of a political leader is not just the public position of the individual, but that we know who the victim is. We may be moved by news and statistics. But once a human face is put on a tragedy, once it is no longer just a dry statistic, it takes on a different dimension. Once the human condition is before us, we start asking serious questions. I believe Donald Trump was honest and sincere in his Truth Social post saying that “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” The late Claremont Institute scholar Harry V. Jaffa noted the importance of understanding the words in the Constitution’s preamble, that its purpose is to “secure the blessings of liberty.” “A blessing,” writes Jaffa, is “what is good in the eyes of God. It is a good whose possession — by the common understanding of mankind — belongs properly only to those who deserve it.” And Jaffa continues to remind us that the founders concluded the Declaration of Independence saying, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” I regularly reference Gallup polling that points to the percentage of Americans satisfied with the way things are going in the country. Today it is barely more than 20%. Most Americans feel there is something very wrong in our nation. It is my great hope that what will come out of all this is a renewed sense that human freedom, the ideal on which our nation is founded, is rooted in the sacred. Each human life is unique so each must be free to live and express and do what no one else can. And it is my hope that a renewed sense of the sacred will inspire personal humility that comes from appreciation that each of us is part of something greater than ourselves. And that this will inspire respect for others, knowing that each one is created in the image of God. This, I hope, will stop the blame game and inspire everyone to double down in taking personal responsibility for a better world. And that our sense of the sacred will extend to and include that magical moment when life is first conceived in the womb. Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address just 41 days before he was assassinated. He spoke to a nation that could not have been more divided. Let’s learn from Lincoln’s great closing words that day. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” Her recent book, “What Is the CURE for America?” is available now. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Award-winning actor and legendary comedian Bob Newhart has died, according to multiple reports. The comedy icon was 94. Newhart died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles after a series of short illnesses, according to his longtime publicist Jerry Digney.Newhart is survived by four children and 10 grandchildren.In 1955, Newhart started a job as an accountant. However, he realized that he wanted a career in comedy.Newhart started making comedic bits revolving around one-sided telephone conversations. He was hired to do comedy sketches on the radio. Newhart then became a stand-up comedian. He notched a contract with Warner Brothers Records, which resulted in the 1960 release of “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” — the first comedy album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and Newhart took home the award for Best New Artist. In 2007, the comedy album was selected as one of 25 entries into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.Newhart followed up with an illustrious television and movie career. In 1962, Newhart appeared in the Steve McQueen war film "Hell Is for Heroes." Newhart acted in notable movies such as "Cold Turkey," "In & Out," and "Elf," plus was a voice actor in Disney's "The Rescuers." His TV career started in 1961 when he hosted "The Bob Newhart Show." The show lasted only one season, but Newhart was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. In 1963, he made an appearance in an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." In 1972, he got his second "The Bob Newhart Show," which ran until 1978. In 1982, the iconic deadpan comedic actor got another sitcom with "Newhart," which lasted eight years. Newhart starred in the sitcom "Bob" for one season starting in 1992 and then in "George and Leo" with Judd Hirsch in 1997.Newhart appeared in episodes of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," "Saturday Night Live," "The Simpsons," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "ER," "NCIS," "The Big Bang Theory," and "Young Sheldon" in 2020. Newhart was a regular on the TV talk show and variety show circuit, making numerous guest appearances on "The Jack Paar Show," "The Gary Moore Show," "The Dean Martin Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson."Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993. For his comedic talents, he won the Mark Twain Prize for Humor in 2002. Newhart is survived by four children and 10 grandchildren. His wife of 60 years, Virginia "Ginnie" Newhart, died in 2023.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Arizona Republican Party declared victory after an appeals court ruled in favor of an election integrity law to ensure that only those who are citizens can turn in a voting ballot. Arizona House Bill 2492 required that new voters provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote with state forms to vote in presidential elections or in order to vote early by mail for any office. 'We are grateful the court is upholding this provision in our law.'The lawsuit claimed that the requirement of citizenship proof was meant to suppress voter access. Arizona state Republican Speaker of the House Ben Toma praised the ruling. "Great news—the 9th Circuit stayed the district court’s injunction of Arizona’s common sense voting law, ARS 16-121.01(c). All county recorders must now require proof of citizenship when accepting state voter registration forms," he posted on social media. "I was proud to join Senator Petersen defending this law and election integrity," Toma added. Arizona Senate President Peterson also released a statement about the ruling. "This is a victory for election integrity in Arizona. Only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections. It sounds like common sense, but the radical left elected officials in our state continue to reject this notion, disrespecting the voices of our lawful Arizona voters," he wrote. "We are grateful the court is upholding this provision in our law, and it's time for Congress to take action to ensure only lawful U.S. citizens are voting in federal races," Petersen added. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Never mind the past. As the convention in Milwaukee makes clear, if you love Trump now, you’re in.

MSNBC: J.D. Vance Wanting to Be Buried in Family Plot an ‘Easter Egg' of White Nationalism

Axios: Some Dems Think Biden Will Drop Out as Soon as This Weekend

Gaming Account Reported As Belonging to Would-Be Trump Assassin Believed to Be Fake, FBI Says

Holy Whiplash, Batman! 'Multiple Sources' State Biden to Withdraw From 2024 Race As Soon As Weekend

Trump Breaks Silence About Assassination Attempt: 'I Think You Appreciate God Even More'