Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on Samantha Power’s upcoming trip to Israel. We also report on the warning from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines over Iranian involvement in anti-Israel protests in the U.S., cover the debate over the Democratic Party’s Israel platform and talk to New York state and congressional lawmakers about the proposed reimplementation of a mask ban in an effort to clamp down on antisemitic activity. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shari Redstone, Amir Faintuch and Almog Meir Jan.
What We’re Watching
- President Joe Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington today. The U.K.’s new leader, who has been in office for less than a week, will also meet jointly with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
- USAID Administrator Samantha Power is headed to Israel later this week, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss scoops. Power is one of several U.S. officials in the region this week — the State Department’s Barbara Leaf will be in Israel later this week as part of a swing through the region including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and also a stop in Italy. More on Power’s trip here.
- In Gaza this morning, the IDF dropped leaflets calling for the evacuation of Gaza City in its entirety, saying it “will be a dangerous combat zone.” The instructions include safe routes to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The IDF previously evacuated specific areas of Gaza City, in northern Gaza where about 200,000 Palestinians remain. Allowing Gazans to return to the north is one of Hamas’ demands in hostage negotiations.
- Hostage-release negotiations are continuing in Doha, Qatar, today, where Mossad Director David Barnea landed along with the head of the Shin Bet and the IDF general in charge of hostage negotiations. The White House’s Brett McGurk left Israel for Doha today after meeting with officials in Cairo earlier this week to discuss a potential cease-fire agreement. Last night, McGurk met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv.
- On Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold its markup of U.N. and UNRWA bills.
What You Should Know
Democrats are in the final stage of grief — acceptance — over President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance that has left few party leaders optimistic that he’ll be able to defeat former President Donald Trump in November, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports.
After private in-person meetings held by House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday, only one additional Democrat — Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) — called for Biden to step aside, even as many privately are concerned about the president’s health and publicly worried about his political prospects. Even Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who privately said Biden should withdraw from the race on Sunday, changed his tune two days later.
“He’s going to be our nominee and we all have to support him,” Nadler said, reflecting the prevailing mood in Democratic circles. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at a Tuesday press conference: “As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe.” The Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, representing key elements of the Democratic base, both unequivocally backed the president.
Notably, the list of those falling in line behind Biden include progressives often critical of the president, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). A Biden loss to Trump in November could potentially fire up the party’s progressive base, which emerged as part of the “resistance” during Trump’s first term in office.
The acceptance of Biden as the nominee comes as Democrats recognize they have no good options at this late stage of the campaign. Any move to push Biden aside carries massive risk, especially after the president wrote a letter Monday declaring any such attempt to pick an alternative candidate without engagement by voters would be an antidemocratic act.
Biden’s aggressive counterattack against his own party’s “rebels” underscores that: a) he’s not willingly stepping aside; b) any attempt to pressure him to step down, even with Vice President Kamala Harris as the successor, will not come without a cost.
Biden’s resistance comes as Democrats recognize that Harris carries significant political baggage of her own. Biden may be a likely loser given the trajectory of the race, but the downside risk is potentially greater if Democrats blow up their ticket for a similarly unpopular nominee. Harris would hold less appeal with older white voters (with whom Biden is holding his own), even as she could bring more younger progressives to her side.
Harris — if she emerged as the nominee — would also have to answer uncomfortable questions about how much she knew about Biden’s health while sticking with the White House line that all was well. The reality is there are no good alternatives for Democrats, even with Biden looking in historically weak shape.
Polls have been inconclusive on who would be a stronger challenger: A CNN poll last week showed Harris running slightly more competitively, but an Emerson national poll out Tuesday showed Biden still performing better than Harris. Nearly all of the post-debate polls show Biden trailing, with widespread voter concern about his age and ability to handle the job for another four years.
A new Wisconsin poll, conducted jointly by top Trump and Biden pollsters, found Trump in a strong position, leading Biden by six points (44-38%) in a full-ballot test. Wisconsin is the battleground state where Biden had been polling the most competitively.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said on CNN yesterday that Trump could win the November election “by a landslide.”
But for Democrats on a ballot in 2024, accepting Biden’s problems while maintaining a united anti-Trump front is now looking like their most credible chance to hold down Senate losses and have a shot at winning back the House. If a united party gives Democrats an outside shot at holding onto a bit of power, the thinking goes, it’s a better outcome than to risk dividing the party at the worst possible time.
foreign interference
U.S. director of national intelligence says Iran is influencing and funding Gaza war

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday that the Iranian government has both provoked and provided funding for protests in the U.S. over the war in Gaza, suggesting that connections between U.S.-based demonstrators and the Iranian regime and its affiliates go deeper than previously believed, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” Haines said in a public statement. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”