Post Politics Now Biden touts work on bolstering retirement savings in Ohio visit

The president was in Ohio to talk about yes, his administration’s efforts to protect the retirement benefits of 3 million working-class Americans, but he also gave us a preview for how Biden will cast the upcoming election.

He touted the benefits of the American Rescue Plan — one of his administration’s earliest achievements — and offered a sharp distillation of how he views the Republican Party, Matt Viser and Joanna Connors write.

But the address also offered a reminder of some of the political challenges he is facing: A politician who has long prided himself on being a sought-after surrogate — and one with blue-collar appeal in states like Ohio — is a less desirable commodity at the moment for some within his party.

And Ohio highlights many issues that will be a factor in the upcoming elections:

Biden has touted an Ohio-based Intel semiconductor factory — saying in his State of the Union address that it is “the ground on which America’s future will be built” — but the $20 billion plant is on hold, a July 22 groundbreaking ceremony canceled as it awaits clarity on congressional legislation.

The killing of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot by police in Akron, Ohio, has also brought protests and fresh attention to Biden’s inability to do more to address police reform and systemic inequalities. And after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the state now has a ban on abortion after six weeks.

Read more about the meaning of Wednesday’s address here.

Six Democratic senators asked the Biden administration to reclassify cannabis and pardon nonviolent offenders, a push to get the president closer to marijuana legalization.

The senators — Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) — sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday calling on him to use his authority to pardon “all individuals convicted of non-violent cannabis-related offenses” and to remove cannabis’s classification as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. The letter was addressed to Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Biden, during the 2020 campaign, stopped short of a full endorsement of marijuana legalization but did say that he believed “nobody should be in jail for smoking marijuana.” He also said he’d be willing to support reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug.

So far, however, his administration has stayed mum on its marijuana policy and efforts to pardon nonviolent offenders.

“The Administration’s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy is harming thousands of Americans, slowing research, and depriving Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medical or other purposes,” the Democrats wrote.

The senators also mentioned an attempt they made last fall to get the Justice Department to reclassify marijuana. In a half-page response, which took six months, the department told the Democrats that they couldn’t reclassify cannabis because it “has not been proven in scientific studies to be a safe and effective treatment for any disease or condition.”

“It is obvious that cannabis has widely accepted medical benefits, affirmed by medical and scientific communities both here and across the globe,” the senators wrote.

You can read the letter here.

Joe Rogan, the color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship who has recently come under fire from critics who say his popular podcast promotes conspiracy theories, said this week that there is one guest he won’t have on his show: former president Donald Trump.

In fact, Rogan revealed Monday that he’s turned down Trump multiple times from appearing on the podcast, Spotify’s “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once; I’ve said no every time,” Rogan said on Lex Fridman’s podcast. “I don’t want to help him; I’m not interested in helping him.”

Rogan, a stand-up comedian, has a large following, mainly thanks to his show, which has an estimated audience of 11 million listeners an episode. Though quite popular, the show has earned him plenty of criticism for his penchant to promote baseless conspiracy theories on anything from politics to the coronavirus.

As Tim Bella explains:

Rogan has repeatedly downplayed the need for coronavirus vaccines and used his platform to flirt with misinformation about covid-19. Following an onslaught of backlash, he posted a video to Instagram admitting he could do more to better inform his millions of listeners, particularly when it comes to covid-19.

Trump, meanwhile, appears to be a fan of Rogan’s. In February, the former president said the embattled Spotify host should “stop apologizing.”

Rogan, who voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2020 election, recently said he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) if he ran for president in 2024. DeSantis, considered a potential GOP rival to Trump, has not announced whether he is running.

Read more about Rogan’s rejection of Trump here.

President Biden, speaking before union workers and retirees in Cleveland, on Wednesday highlighted his record in creating jobs and contrasted it with that of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

“The previous administration lost more jobs in his watch than any administration since Herbert Hoover,” Biden said. “That’s a fact, all based on failed trickle-down economics to benefit the wealthiest Americans. It hit the middle class and working people the hardest.”

In Biden’s first year in office, employers added a record 6.6 million jobs — the strongest for any president in his first year. Trump’s first 12 months saw a gain of 2 million jobs.

Assailing Republicans, Biden said that no GOP member of Congress voted for the Butch Lewis Act, a provision within the $1.9 trillion America Rescue measure that provides federal financial assistance to failing multiemployer pension plans, protecting millions of American workers at risk of suffering significant cuts to their benefits.

Biden said congressional Republicans were “afraid” to support the effort because “the Trumpers would literally take them out.”

“Not a joke,” the president added. “That’s how bad it’s gotten.”

Biden singled out Republican Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), warning that they were threats to Social Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. Last month, Graham said seniors may have to “take a little less” and “pay a little more in” to ensure the solvency of Social Security.

The president opened his remarks with a comment on Jayland Walker, a Black man killed by police in Akron, saying the FBI and others are investigating.

“If the evidence reveals potential violations of federal criminal statutes, the Justice Department will take the appropriate action,” he said.

Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, is leaving the Biden administration within the coming weeks.

Our colleague Tyler Pager reports that Bedingfield, 40, is a longtime Biden aide who served as communications director when Biden served as vice president. After months on the 2020 campaign and more than a year and a half at the White House, Bedingfield is leaving to spend time with her family.

“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain in a statement. “She has played a huge role in everything the President has achieved — from his second term as Vice President, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House.”

Bedingfield’s departure comes weeks after Jen Psaki stepped down as White House press secretary. Psaki is joining MSNBC in the fall.

On the day before he is scheduled to award Presidential Medals of Freedom to 17 people for a wide variety of endeavors, President Biden tweeted a video that included phone calls with several of them, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, relaying the news of his decision.

A ceremony is planned for 2 p.m. Thursday at the White House. A full list of the award recipients is available here.

Every week, Post Politics Now interviews one lawmaker about their work on the Hill. This week’s guest is Democratic Rep. Judy Chu (Calif.), who introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would codify abortion rights into law.

Q: Should Democrats set up votes on bills to enshrine abortion rights with exceptions for rape and incest?

A: It is absolutely necessary for us to put bills on the floor that will uphold the rights of women to abortion. And that certainly can be accomplished with a [WHPA], which is my bill, and passed in September with a vote of 218 to 211, making it the most supported pro-abortion bill ever passed in the history of Congress.

Q: What comes next for the WHPA?

A: We will be putting my bill on the floor again, but it will be accompanied by a couple of other bills, one that will ensure the data privacy of women that goes on to use third-party apps, and the other is one that will ensure that women’s rights to cross state lines will be preserved.

(A bill to codify abortion rights failed in the U.S. Senate last year.)

What could make it pass the Senate is to elect two senators that support eliminating the filibuster and support the Women’s Health Protection Act. And there are [candidates] out there. I oftentimes name John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin. If they were elected, then we would have enough votes to eliminate the filibuster and then pass the Women’s Health Protection Act [with] 50 votes.

Q: Immediately after the Supreme Court decision, Democrats were encouraging people to go out and vote. A lot of the reaction we saw was people being like, well, we’re voting. What do you say to that feeling of helplessness that I think a lot of people are feeling right now?

A: We have to show that we can do something about this. And we can do something about this. This is what I want to say to the people out there: We can eliminate the filibuster and get the votes in the Senate.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday sought to downplay the expected absences at President Biden’s event in Cleveland of the state’s Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate and governor.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to the event, Jean-Pierre said the White House has been in close touch with both Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the Senate nominee, and former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley, the gubernatorial nominee.

“Tim Ryan put out a statement supporting this trip, and we’re in constant communication with both of them,” Jean-Pierre said.

Both candidates are in competitive races in a state in which Biden lost to Trump by eight percentage points in 2020 and in which Biden’s job approval numbers are sagging.

Biden will speak at a Cleveland high school about his administration’s work to bolster pension plans undercut by the pandemic, a big issue for members of labor unions.