 Today's daily debrief focuses on two sides of the political coin in the United States. On the one hand, we have the right-wing Republican Donald Trump, who's facing a host of legal challenges due to his support and role in the storming of the capital into January 2021. On the other hand, we have Joe Biden, who's extremely unpopular due to his failures to deliver on his promises and, equally importantly, for backing to the hilt Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza. In today's episode, we see what lies ahead for the both of them. We begin with Trump, who was disqualified from standing for the primaries in the state of Maine. This is based on a constitutional clause which bans from office those who have indulged in insurrection. The decision by Maine Secretary of State comes shortly after a Colorado court issued a similar ruling. Cases on the same lines have been filed in other states as well, setting the stage probably for a Supreme Court intervention. We go to Anish for the details. Anish, thanks for joining us. So Maine, the second state to come up with a similar prescription, if we can call it, but a very different one from Colorado. So could you maybe first take us through what the decision by, from the state is, what are the terms by, or what are the conditions or what are the reasons mentioned? Well, the reason is quite simple. It's the insurrection lawsuit that has been, it is one of the three lawsuits that has been fielded with the Secretary of State. Now in unlike, you know, most other places, the Secretary of State is essentially the one who handles a lot of domestic matters that includes election qualification and even at times the primaries which are like internal elections for political parties. So what the state secretary of the Maine State has ruled is that Trump is guilty of insurrection because of the January 6th Capitol violence. And because of that, he is disqualified from standing in the ballot for Republican party primary primaries. Now the issue, the thing is this is not necessarily a court judgment and it will definitely be appealed over time. We need to wait and see if it can be done because Maine is one of the first states that go into the whole primary season in the United States. And very often it is one of those states, along with New Hampshire, which is seen as, you know, which gives the, you know, the first lead for most candidates. If they actually can make a significant impact in these electorates of their parties, they can definitely see, they can keep up the momentum for the rest of the primary season, which goes on for months. Now, so if they do not do it within a week, I think, in less than a week, actually, and if there is no appeal happening at that point, then Trump will not be standing in the primaries in Maine. And that is going to be a big issue because obviously it's not the number of representatives that it sent, delegates that it sent the Republican party in Maine from is not that many. So he can probably turn it around later, but definitely it is going to have a significant impact. And, you know, it will be a major roadblock in the Trump's presidential bit. On the other hand, we still have 13 more states where the cases are pending. Some of them actually do have, you know, democratic administrations and also state secretaries even democratic appointed state supreme courts. And in all of them, it is quite, in some of them, it's quite likely that they will follow the same decision. So we need to wait and see how things are going to unfold. On the other hand, the Colorado decision, which is again done by the secretary of state, pretty much is based on the fact that there is an appeals process happening. So we cannot implement the judgment by the Colorado state supreme court, which might seem odd for those of us outside of the United States, because usually you have to get a stay or, you know, a hold on the judgment and nothing of that sort has happened yet. But the fact that it went to the supreme court and has been challenged in the supreme court is being used by again, a Republican secretary of state to just hold the decision and keep Trump on the primary ballot. There is a significant, there is a very clear political divide when it comes to whether or not or what shape these lawsuits are going to take in the coming weeks, even days now, because the primary ballots have to be ready by, you know, the first week of January in many states. So we need to wait and see how that's going to shape up. Right, Anish, it looks like a lot of this will boil down to what the supreme court of the United States decides and that it does seem like the Republicans have an advantage. The Republicans do have an advantage. They probably will. It's quite likely that they will win the Colorado appeal before January 5th, obviously, or but the question is whether or not the Supreme Court is going to intervene and have like a broader judgment or a broader ruling on the matter, you know, take up all those 13 pending lawsuits, you know, and actually give a definitive verdict on the matter of whether or not Trump was guilty of the January 6th and by default, guilty of insurrection, which is the only thing that disqualifies a person from running for the presidency. Now, the that is that is the biggest question because they might if it goes to trial, it becomes a federal trial that is going to have a very different impact and and very significantly different kind of scrutiny than, say, a state secretary or, you know, a state Supreme Court deciding matters. And that is something that the Supreme Court may want to avoid, even though it is it has a conservative supermajority. On the other hand, they could just, you know, go through these cases as they come and just, you know, give individual rulings of whether or not they're valid. And because we are also dealing with primaries and we haven't yet dealt with nominations for the actual federal election, that this is different because in some states, including some democratic states, the administration or the state Supreme Courts have refused to intervene because it is a matter of internal party democracy. And so they did not want to intervene on the matter, whether or not they think Trump was guilty of insurrection. So if the even if, you know, Trump kind of swims through this whole primary season without a disqualification, or at least without a major disqualification, there is there are still, you know, a possibility that Democrats or civil society groups would go after him before the nominations for the federal election happens. So it is still a long way. We are looking at a very long drawn election season next year. And that it is going to be quite interesting. But again, as I said, it is going to be very long drawn and pretty much unlike any of the previous elections we have covered or, you know, we have seen in recent memory. Thanks so much, Anish. You're talking to us moving on to President Joe Biden, whose full-throated support for Israel has earned him the moniker genocide. Now, Biden is facing countrywide protests by hundreds of thousands who are in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Equally worrying for Biden ahead of the 2024 elections is dissatisfaction over many unfulfilled promises. Anish is back with us for more on this. Anish, welcome back. We're now talking about Biden after talking about Trump. First of all, of course, I want to ask you a bit about the other response to Biden's policies in Palestine. We've seen hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, you know, a very number of polls saying that there is a great amount of support for a ceasefire, a lot of disapproval of how the US administration is handling the situation. Could you take us through what's happening there? Well, what we're looking at is how for a very long time in the United States, there was always this sort of smoke screen when it came to Israel, and it was pretty much successful in the propaganda machinery that existed, that supported Israel's wars. We are not talking about one or two, it's like there have been multiple wars on Palestine and there was only a minority, even if though they were like prominent and like they were visible in several places, it was only a minority opinion to actually support self determination of Palestine in the mainstream, you know, public opinion in many cases. But right now, what we're seeing is there is complete, you know, overwhelming support for Palestine this time around. Even the spin doctors who try to make turn it into like Palestine or Palestinian resistance had provoked the whole situation does not work anymore because of the kind of reports, obviously, that are reaching there. And despite how and we have seen that in multiple times in the mainstream media, despite how the headlines are, you know, tinkered a bit to make it seem as if somehow the 21,000 people who died in Gaza just died off their own and not because of a very targeted genocide that is being conducted in Gaza. And this is something that the Democrats, the establishment Democrats have not reckoned with yet because obviously they continue to be beholden by, you know, basically they've beholden by lobbyist money in most cases and considering the fact that the Zionists are the biggest lobbying group. I pack in fact are the biggest lobbying group when it comes to foreign policy issues. It is no surprise and much of their money also goes to the Democrats for that matter. It is no surprise that there is, you know, this complete disconnect from the people's opinions. And this is something that that's something that is definitely coming to bite them. And it is it is not definitely looking good. It has actually brought down Biden's approval ratings, even further that what it should have been, I mean, considering the mismanagement. But it's just tinted the entire image that Biden is somehow significant when it comes to shaping or directing foreign policy issues in the country. Right, Anish, but to go back to somewhat domestic issues now, Biden coming in, promising to reverse a lot of policies as a Donald Trump administration, making a lot of promises to key sections of this voter base. How successful has he been in sort of fulfilling these promises or delivering on them? Well, I mean, if you're talking about success, there has to be some intent to actually achieve some of that success. And what the Biden administration has displayed is that there has been no intent whatsoever to deliver on any of these promises. Very often technicalities have been used as a defense against criticism. Very often, you know, the fact that they do not have an overwhelming majority in the Senate has been used for the last the first two years more of their administration has a defense and, you know, or as a very convenient excuse to actually say that, oh, but because we do not, we can't stop the filibuster. We can't do anything about it. But we forget the fact that filibuster is something that they could have done something about as well before the Congress convened at the start of Biden's administration. So the fact that the establishment Democrats want to continue to keep this very convenient excuse in place so that they can be stonewalled, any kind of progressive legislation can be stonewalled, shows that there has been very complete lack of intent on their part. This comes on major policy issues, including, you know, health care expansion of Medicaid or different kinds of health care programs that the government has expanding the COVID era, welfare policies that actually afforded a lot of people a saving grace in many ways to actually get out of poverty, even if it was for a very brief moment. And even if it was far shorter than what they were required, it actually did help a lot of people. He cut down on those. He pretty much abandoned the entire, you know, $15 per hour minimum wage. That was pretty much one of his, you know, campaign plank. And all of that was completely and you see, like all of these factors, once they fail, they just get abandoned unless there is a massive movement or backlash backlash so huge that they cannot really just sit tight and like ignore. So it is somewhat of that sort that we're seeing the establishment Democrats actually the Democratic Party overall, we can't really differentiate at this point, who's the establishment and who's not is the progressive. But the Democratic Party as a whole, more or less have pretty much abandoned a lot of their policies. And that is, you know, that's showing. And this is despite many of the policies, the campaign promises that they have shown are wildly popular in the United States. And that has we saw with the referendum on abortion in a very considered strongly conservative voting state in previously. And all of that is somehow completely missed the messaging from the people having completely missed by the Democrats and especially the Biden administration. And that pretty much is showing in the manner in which he is losing support. And if he has to completely he has to stand against Trump, there is a good chance that he might not see a second term in, you know, the next next year in the general elections. Thank you so much for the analysis. That's all we have in this episode of Daily Debrief. We'll be back tomorrow. In the meanwhile, do visit our website, peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on all the social media platforms.