Good:
Joe Biden would rescind President Donald Trump’s permit allowing the Keystone XL oil pipeline to cross the border into the U.S., a move that would effectively kill the controversial project, his campaign told POLITICO on Monday.
The statement is the first from Biden’s campaign about how the presumptive Democratic nominee would handle the project that has been stalled for over a decade if he wins the White House in November.
Biden's opposition also raises the stakes for the TC Energy's efforts to start construction on the cross-border portion of the pipeline this year that would carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S.
Here’s some more context:
Stef Feldman, the Biden's campaign policy director, told the USA TODAY in a statement that “Biden strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration, stood alongside President Obama and Secretary Kerry to reject it in 2015, and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as President and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit.”
"Stopping Keystone was the right decision then and it’s still the right decision now," Feldman continued, while also blasting President Donald Trump for withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and gutting environmental regulations.
"That denial of science ends on day one of a Biden presidency," she said.
The statement from the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign is the first about how he would handle the long-stalled and controversial project.
The $8 billion pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through Nebraska and ultimately to refineries in Texas.
Trump issued a permit for the construction of the pipeline weeks into his presidency after making the pipeline a central promise of his presidential campaign.
The project has hit multiple hurdles, including outspoken opposition from native tribes, landowners, and environmental groups. It has also been blocked in court. That block is facing an appeal from Trump's administration.
This is very good news indeed. Here’s some more encouraging news:
A majority of voters say they believe Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault against former Vice President Joe Biden but most say that it will not impact how they vote in the November election.
The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll finds that 55 percent of voters surveyed say they believe Reade, against 45 percent who say they do not believe she is telling the truth. Seventy-eight percent of Republicans surveyed believe Reade, while 66 percent Democrats do not believe her. Fifty-six percent of independents believe Reade’s allegation.
About two-thirds of Democrats say the allegation will not impact how they vote on Election Day. Fifty-six percent of independents said the allegation will not impact how they vote.
Biden leads President Trump in the poll 53 percent to 47 percent, with 88 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents saying they’ll vote for Biden over Trump.
Reade’s allegation has reached voters, with 81 percent overall saying they’d heard about the claims and 56 percent saying they’ve followed the story closely.
Also, in case you were wondering about this voting block:
A Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey last month of 638 voters who backed Sanders in primaries or caucuses this year found that 4% plan to vote for Trump – down from the 12% who voted for Trump over Clinton, according to a 2017 Cooperative Congressional Election study. The Suffolk poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Sanders believes that his people will vote for Biden but he can’t take them for granted:
Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said he thinks his supporters will vote for Joe Biden in November’s US election, despite a former aide’s warning that Biden was not consolidating Sanders supporters.
In a memo released last week, former Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver said Sanders supporters were “currently unsupportive and unenthusiastic” about Biden and “there is a real and urgent need to help Biden consolidate Sanders supporters”.
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, said on ABC News’ This Week program on Sunday that Biden was “beginning” to make overtures to his supporters “And I think at the end of the day they will be voting for Joe Biden.”
“I think, at the end of the day, the vast majority of the people who voted for me who supported me will understand and do understand that Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, he is a pathological liar, he’s a racist and a sexist, a homophobe, etcetera,” said Sanders.
“But I think what Joe is gonna have to do – and he’s beginning to move in that direction – is to say to those working class people, say to those young people, say to those minorities, ‘Listen, I understand your situation’.”
Sanders said Biden’s message should focus on student debt relief, health insurance coverage, a living wage, climate change policy and racism in the criminal justice and immigration systems.
Biden understands this and today’s news shows that he is taking Sanders voters concerns about the environment seriously. Let’s help continue to unite the party around him. Click here to donate and get involved with Biden’s campaign.