Trump vs Biden post presidential debate poll finds fallout among Democrats: Live updates

Last month, the judge in former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case slammed his failure to comply with deadlines and inability to keep bookkeepers to manage his “mess” of financial records.

Giuliani’s bookkeeping was heavily criticized during a three-hour-long hearing in his high-profile Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Judge Sean Lane also heard heated arguments from Giuliani’s creditors, who want a trustee to seize control of his finances and force the disgraced mayor to file monthly operating reports on time.

“There are reasons to be concerned here,” the bankruptcy court judge declared, conceding that the former mayor’s records appear to be a “mess.”

“At a certain point, a failure to comply with [court] orders means my voice will take on a decided edge,” the judge warned at the time. “If people don’t obey court orders, it’s a profound problem.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for Giuliani said: “Mayor Giuliani is simply following available options to combat an entirely partisan and politically motivated proceeding. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to the Biden regime’s ongoing efforts to take down President Trump and anyone willing to stand up against them.

“I can promise you this. No matter what they do, they can’t take away Mayor Giuliani’s most important assets— integrity, courage and love for America. And just like Steve Bannon and others, they’re trying to silence Mayor Giuliani. Well, good luck with that.”

Former presidents have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday – extending the delay in the criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, and all but ending prospects he could be tried before the November election.

In a 6-3 decision released on Monday, the court rejected Trump’s suggestion of total immunity but said some of the actions laid out in the federal election interference indictment related to his official acts and are protected.

“The president enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the president does is official. The president is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the president’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the executive branch under the constitution,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

The court’s conservative majority granted him “presumptive immunity” for actions that the former president claims were in the “outer perimeter” of his official duties.

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has shifted into a full-court press against Donald Trump in response to the incumbent’s disastrous debate performance last week.

On a press call Monday, Biden campaign surrogates including former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks warned that American democracy would disappear in November if Democrats and concerned Americans did not rally behind the president. The call was organized in response to the Supreme Court’s decision granting Trump and all US presidents limited immunity from prosecution for official acts. It also appears to be in response to newfound concerns from his own party that Biden isn’t a strong enough candidate to win the presidential election.

Notably, the Biden campaign team only took questions from four journalists on the call, only one of whom was a White House beat reporter.

John Bowden and Andrew Feinberg report from Washington, DC.

Hunter Biden is suing the Fox News network, just a little over a year after the right-wing news channel was forced to reach a historic settlement and admitted its anchors had spread false claims about a voting machine company to please its pro-Trump audience.

Biden had hoped to silence critics who have questioned his age and mental sharpness when he took on Donald Trump on stage during the first televised debate of the 2024 election on Thursday evening.

But instead of putting concerns to rest, the 81-year-old reinforced the stereotype with a bumbling, stumbling performance that is said to have left members of his party divided on whether he is the right candidate to run for the White House.

US vice president Kamala Harris, transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and state governors Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore and JB Pritzker have all been named as possible emergency successors.