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Wimbledon 2024: Results and scores from the Rounds of 16

The 2024 Wimbledon Tournament is a week away from concluding and today marked the Round of 16 for both the men’s and women’s singles tournaments. While we still have several days before the champions in each division are crowned, we’re really getting down to the best of the best at this point.

The tournaments started with 128 athletes on each side, and entering today, that number had dwindled to a measly 16. Massive names like Novak Djokovic – searching for his eighth victory at Wimbledon after losing in last year’s finals – are still alive, but other strong competitors like Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev search for their first taste of Wimbledon glory. Of course, the reigning champion, Carlos Alcaraz, is also still alive, looking to join Djokovic as potentially one of just four men (Roger Federer and Andre Agassi being the other two) to have won Wimbledon in back-to-back years since 1990.

On the women’s side, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek may be out, but that just means there’s more opportunity for an underdog to rise to the occasion and deliver an unforgettable tournament.

Here are the latest scores and results from Sunday’s Wimbledon action.

Wimbledon men’s singles results

Check out the full bracket of results from Wimbledon here.

Sunday Wimbledon scores

No. 12 Tommy Paul def. Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-2, 7(7)-6(4), 6-2

No. 1 Jannik Sinner def. No. 14 Ben Shelton: 6-2, 6-4, 7(11)-6(9)

No. 3 Carlos Alcara def. No. 16 Ugo Humbert: 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5

No. 5 Daniil Medvedev def. No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov: 5-3 (walkover)

Wimbledon women’s singles results

Check out the full bracket of results from Wimbledon here.

Sunday Wimbledon scores

No. 19 Emma Navarro def. No. 2 Coco Gauff: 6-4, 6-3

Lulu Sun def. Emma Raducano: 6-2, 5-7, 6-2

Donna Vekić def. Paula Badosa: 6-2, 1-6, 6-4

No. 7 Jasmine Paolini def. No. 12 Madison Keys: 6-3, 6(6)-7(8), 5-5 (walkover)

Wimbledon men’s doubles results

Check out the full bracket of results from Wimbledon here.

Sunday Wimbledon scores

Charles Broom & Arthur Fery def. No. 7 Wesley Koolhof & Nikola Mektić: 7(7)-6(4), 7(7)-6(5)

John-Patrick Smith & Andreas Mies def. No. 3 Rajeev Ram & Joe Salisbury: 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

No. 11 Andrés Molteni & Máximo González def. Zhang Zhizhen & Tomas Machac: 7(7)-6(4), 6-4

Evan King & Christopher Eubanks def. No. 6 Santiago González & Edouard Roger-Vasselin: 6-3, 7(7)-6(3)

No. 9 Michael Venus & Neal Skupski def. Rinky Hijikata & John Peers: 6-4, 6(5)-7(7), 6-4

Dustin Brown & Sebastian Baez def. Sam Weissborn & Sebastian Ofner: 4-3 (walkover)

Wimbledon women’s doubles results

Check out the full bracket of results from Wimbledon here.

Sunday Wimbledon scores

No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei & Elise Mertens def. Emily Appleton & Yuriko Miyazaki: 6-1, 6-2

Marta Kostyuk & Elena-Gabriela Ruse def. Yana Sizikova & Wang Yafa: 6-4, 6-4

No. 9 Jelena Ostapenko & Lyudmyla Kichenok def. Olivia Nicholls & Tereza Mihalíková: 3-6, 6-2, 6-3

No. 8 Barbora Krejcíková & Laura Siegemund def. Alycia Parks & Hailey Baptiste: 6-3, 6-3

Tímea Babos & Nadiia Kichenok def. No. 3 Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez: 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

No. 7 Desirae Krawczyk & Carline Dolehide def. Caroline Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic: 6-2, 6-1

No. 9 Lyudmyla Kichenok & Jelena Ostapenko def. Anna Blinkova & Mayar Sherif (walkover)

Wimbledon mixed doubles results

Check out the full bracket of results from Wimbledon here.

Sunday Wimbledon scores

Marcus Willis & Alicia Barnett def. No. 7 Ivan Dodig & Chan Hao-ching: 6-3, 3-6, 10-5

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Tour of Austria’s final stage cancelled after cyclist’s death

The final stage of the Tour of Austria was cancelled on Sunday after Norwegian cyclist Andre Drege died following a crash, with the organizers holding a memorial ride in tribute to Drege instead.

Drege, 25, crashed during a descent of the mountain Grossglockner on Saturday. His death was announced by race organizers after the stage ended, and the post-race presentations were cancelled.

‘The memorial ride was the express wish of Andre’s father, his teammates and his entire team,’ Tour of Austria director Thomas Pupp said in a statement.

‘It gives the entire cycling family the opportunity to come to terms with what happened and to honour Andre Drege’s memory.’

The Tour de France also paid respect to Drege before stage nine in Troyes on Sunday, with the riders leading a moment of applause before the race.

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Padres put 5-time All-Star on restricted list; out indefinitely

The San Diego Padres placed right-hander Yu Darvish on the restricted list for an indefinite period for what manager Mike Shildt called ‘a personal matter involving his family.’

Shildt, in making the announcement Saturday, did not provide information on the nature of Darvish’s situation to give him privacy. Darvish, 37, is on the team’s 10-day injured list because of a left groin strain and right elbow inflammation, and he last pitched on May 29.

‘He’s dealing with a personal matter involving his family,’ Shildt said. ‘Clearly we want to respect his privacy. He wants to make sure everybody knows he’s physically in a good spot. He’s still working on his craft. But he is going to step away for right now and deal with some things on a personal level.

‘We’re going to love and support him. He’s part of the Padre family. But at the moment, he’s going to take a break from the team.’

A five-time All-Star, Darvish is 4-3 with a 3.20 ERA in 11 starts this season, as he also missed time in April because of a neck issue. In 12 major league seasons, he is 107-88 with a 3.58 ERA in 277 starts for the Texas Rangers (2012-17), Los Angeles Dodgers (2017), Chicago Cubs (2018-20) and Padres.

All things Padres: Latest San Diego Padres news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

Players can be on the restricted list for numerous reasons with MLB approval. They remain under contract but they are no longer with the ballclub, which may affect their compensation.

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What to know for WWE NXT Heatwave 2024: Time, match card, more

It’s been an entertaining weekend in Toronto for WWE, and it will be NXT to wrap up the action. One day after Money in the Bank, NXT will hold Heatwave for the second premium live event to take place inside Scotiabank Arena.

The developmental brand of WWE will have a stacked card with all five of its championship titles on the line, and a preshow women’s tag team match scheduled to take place. Included on the card is the heated battle between Roxanne Perez and Lola Vice for the NXT Women’s Championship, and the main event of the night will be the NXT Championship match, and the odds are stacked against the champion Trick Williams as he will have to defend his title in a fatal four-way.

Here’s what to know for NXT Heatwave on Sunday night:

When is NXT Heatwave 2024?

NXT Heatwave is Sunday, July 7 at 7 p.m. ET. Coverage will begin at 6 p.m. ET.

Where is NXT Heatwave 2024?

NXT Heatwave will take place in Toronto, Canada. It will be held in Scotiabank Arena.

How to watch NXT Heatwave 2024: TV channel, streaming

The event can be streamed on Peacock, but you must have their premium or premium-plus subscription to watch. Internationally, it will be available on WWE Network.

NXT Heatwave 2024 match card

Matches not in order

Fatal four-way for the NXT Championship: Trick Williams (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Ethan Page vs. Shawn Spears
NXT Women’s Championship match: Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Lola Vice
NXT North American Championship match: Oba Femi (c) vs. Wes Lee (if Lee loses, he cannot challenge Femi for the title again)
NXT Women’s North American Championship match: Kelani Jordan (c) vs. Sol Ruca
NXT Tag Team Championship match: Nathan Frazer and Axiom (c) vs. Andrew Chase and Duke Hudson
Prematch show: Karmen Petrovic and Arianna Grace vs. Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx

NXT Heatwave 2024 predictions

Fatal four-way for the NXT Championship: Trick Williams def. Je’Von Evans and Ethan Page and Shawn Spears.
NXT Women’s Championship match: Roxanne Perez (c) def. Lola Vice.
NXT North American Championship match: Wes Lee def. Oba Femi.
NXT Women’s North American Championship match: Sol Ruca def. Kelani Jordan.
NXT Tag Team Championship match: Nathan Frazer and Axiom def. Andrew Chase and Duke Hudson
Prematch show: Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx def. Karmen Petrovic and Arianna Grace.

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Madison Keys injured in Wimbledon match, withdraws

Fighting off tears, and with a spot in the Wimbledon women’s quarterfinals on the line, an emotional Madison Keys was forced to retire due to injury from her fourth-round match on Sunday against Jasmine Paolini.

The timing of the injury was particularly unfortunate for Keys, who carried a steady lead in the match before she suffered an upper left leg injury in the eighth game of the final set. At the time, Keys was up 5-2 in the set, and taking the set would’ve won her the match. After suffering the injury, Keys was visibly limping but tried to press through. When both players were switching ends with the score in the set at 5-4, Keys took a 10-minute medical timeout to treat the ailment.

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She later returned to the match with significant bandage around her leg, but her movement continued to be notably impaired. Paolini immediately broke serve and then Keys attempted to fight through the issue. Paolini, however, hit a drop shot near the net that Keys did not even attempt to chase down, forcing Keys to retire.

Keys officially dropped the match – 6-3, 6-7(6), 5-5 Ret. – ending her quest for her third career Wimbledon quarterfinal singles appearance (2015, 2023). She continued to cry as she walked off the court.

‘I am so sorry for her,’ Paolini said during her on-court interview immediately after the match. ‘To end the match like this, it’s bad, what can I say? We played a really good match. It was really tough. A lot of ups and downs. I’m feeling a little bit happy, but also sad for her. It’s not easy to win like that.’

Keys, 29, is currently ranked No. 13 in the Women’s Tennis Association; she was the 12th seed at Wimbledon.

Paolini, 28, is ranked seventh in the WTA, and will be appearing in her first career Wimbledon quarterfinal, against the winner of the match between defending U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro. In her last grand slam appearance, at the French Open at Roland Garros, Paolini reached the final before losing 6-2, 6-1 to World No. 1 Iga Świątek.

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10-year MLB veteran outfielder likely to retire after season

Just two months ago, 35-year-old outfielder Kevin Pillar was sitting home in Scottsdale, Ariz., unemployed, and released by the worst team in baseball, the Chicago White Sox.

He hated the idea that his 9-year, 10-month career was going to end this way.

He desperately wanted to reach 10-year service-time milestone, and getting 1,000 career hits sure would be nice, too.

Well on Saturday, Pillar walked into the visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field, and there were balloons, streamers and bottles of wine awaiting at his locker.

He reached the 10-year anniversary in what he believes will be the final season of his career.

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Angels GM Perry Minasian, who was with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011 when they selected Pillar in the 32nd round of the 2011 draft, and picked him off waivers when Mike Trout underwent knee surgery this year, spoke about Pillar’s accomplishments in front of the team. Pillar followed with his own speech.

“Great guy, great makeup, makes the guys around him better,’ Minasian said. “He’s been the through the good, the bad. He’s been an everyday player. He’s been a bench player. A platoon player. He’s been unbelievable.’

Who would have imagined that after hitting .160 for the White Sox, and wondering if he’d play again, he would be hitting .299 with six homers and a .867 OPS, while eclipsing the 1,000-hit mark?

Now, after being with nine different organizations since 2019, he wants to go out on his terms.

“I watched some of my good friends and teammates, who were much better players than me, maybe go a year too long,’ Pillar told USA TODAY Sports. ‘I think it would be kind of cool to go out playing really well, and people being curious to why you don’t want to play anymore, and not that the game kicked you out.

“Not everyone really gets that opportunity in this game. I was very close to not getting that opportunity. I don’t know what the future looks like, even in this year, but if I can keep up what I’m doing and having a a very good offensive year, it might be a cool thing to leave people wanting more. It might be cool for people to ask, “Why wouldn’t you want to do it anymore as opposed to, you know, fading away.’’

Pillar remembers former Blue Jays teammate Jose Bautista being a six-time All-Star and one of the most feared hitters in the American League – twice leading the league in home runs – to playing his final seasons bouncing around and no longer wanted.

“There are some people whose lasting impression of him is bouncing around from team to team,’’ Pillar said, “and not the same fearful hitter that he once was. … Wouldn’t it be a cool thing for him to have gone out, maybe on top of your game, and people thinking, ‘Man, he could still play.’

“You don’t want it to be like, “Is he retiring, or is it because he can’t get a job?’ Not too many people get to actually retire. So, people like [former Astros outfielder] Michael Brantley, he chose to retire. If he wanted to play, everyone in baseball knows he would have had a job. He gets to choose retirement. Not a lot of people get to do that. They say they’re retiring, when really they can’t get a job.’

So, is this definitely it?

“In my heart, I’m 98% sure,’ said Pillar, married with two children, 6 and 4. “Obviously, things change but I think just going through another off-season of the unknown, and what kind of stress it puts on me and my family, is not healthy. If I’m fortunate enough to get a phone call early in the off-season, and someone wants to give me some money and a job, it’s going to be a conversation I’m going to have with my family.

“But I’m just going to enjoy this, play for the love of the game, and will be at peace at whatever happens.’’

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French PM to resign as leftists nab plurality of parliamentary seats in snap election

A far-left political coalition that unexpectedly assembled ahead of France’s snap elections is projected to win the plurality of parliamentary seats up for grabs and the country’s prime minister has announced his intention to resign – leading the country into unforeseen territory and possible turmoil.

As the election results came in, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced he will be turning in his resignation on Monday. 

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance was projected to take the second most seats, while the far right was projected to come in third.

Macron called the snap election just four weeks ago, after the right-wing National Rally (RN) scored enormous success in the European Parliamentary elections in June. Polling before the first round of voting indicated RN would continue to dominate. However, more recent polling ahead of the runoff indicates those returns have diminished and RN will fall short of a clear majority. 

The first round occurred on June 30 and resulted in just 76 of the 577 constituencies in the French National Assembly determining their representative. Candidates who did not receive an outright majority in the first round of voting went on to a second-round runoff, which happened on Sunday.

Going into the election, France was set to elect the RN as the largest party in government, though it was possible no party might emerge with a clear majority in the tightly contested election.

When the results started to come in, projections changed toward the left, signifying a lack of majority for any single alliance, which threatened to plunge France into economic and political turmoil.

The final results of the election are not expected until late Sunday or early Monday.

Macron made a huge gamble when he called for the snap election, and the projections show the gamble may not have paid off for the unpopular president and his alliance, which lost control of parliament.

While the far-right RN greatly increased the number of seats it now holds in parliament, the results fell short of the party’s expectations.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged Macron to invite the leftist New Popular Front coalition to form a government, given projections that put it in the lead.

Macron’s office said the president would ‘wait for the new National Assembly to organize itself’ before making any decisions.

A hung parliament with no single bloc coming close to getting the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers, would be unknown territory for modern France.

France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a working majority.

The projections, if confirmed by official counts, will spell intense uncertainty for a pillar of the European Union and its second-largest economy, with no clarity about who might partner with Macron as prime minister in governing France.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Israeli Minister touts Marine Le Pen as ‘excellent’ option for French president: ‘with 10 exclamation marks’

An Israeli minister has endorsed Marine Le Pen for French president, saying she would make an ‘excellent’ leader for the country as her right-wing party seeks significant gains in the current election. 

‘It is excellent for Israel that she will be the president of France, with 10 exclamation marks,’ Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said Tuesday, later indicating that his view may be shared by other members of Israel’s leadership. 

‘I think I and Netanyahu are of the same opinion,’ he said when asked whether the Israeli prime minister shared his view, according to The Times of Israel. The outlet stressed that it remains unclear what had prompted Chikli to discuss Le Pen. 

Le Pen’s National Rally outperformed expectations in the European parliamentary elections, trouncing French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party and prompting him to call a snap election as he felt it created tension in the country if the electorate no longer believed in his party and their policies. 

The gamble has thus far played into National Rally’s hands, and it has continued to perform well in the first round of its parliamentary election, just as it did in the European elections. The second and final round of the country’s parliamentary elections started Sunday.

Le Pen has unsuccessfully run for president three times – in 2012, 2017 and 2022, improving her rank and share of the vote each time during that decade. Her most recent run saw her win 41.5% of the vote against Macron. 

Some speculate that the cultural issues at the heart of the election will propel National Rally – and potentially, in the 2027 presidential election, Le Pen – to control of the country. Immigration has proven a strong issue for right-wing parties across Europe, as well as the pushback those parties have shown to recent antisemitic protests and attacks.

Serge Klarsfeld, a renowned Nazi hunter, last week announced that he would throw his weight behind National Rally, telling French outlet LCI that if choosing between ‘an antisemitic party and a pro-Jewish party, I would vote for a pro-Jewish party,’ referring to National Rally, according to Le Monde. 

Antisemitism has taken sharp focus in the election after the alleged gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl that many have cast as a hate crime. Two adolescent boys arrested in a Paris suburb were hit with preliminary charges in relation to the crime, with prosecutors alleging that the rape had been religiously motivated, ABC News reported. 

Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of the Grande Synagogue in Paris said that the election has indicated to him that French Jews have ‘no future’ in France, telling The Jerusalem Post that he urges ‘everyone who is young to go to Israel or a more secure country.’ 

Sebbeg argued that even if the far-right National Rally has voiced support for Israel’s defense against Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack, the party’s roots come from a place of antisemitism that continues to trouble him. 

Jean-Marie Le Pen has repeatedly been convicted of antisemitic hate speech and made statements downplaying the Holocaust, according to The Guardian, which prompted Marine Le Pen to distance herself and the party from its founder – her father. 

‘Many Ashkenazi Jewish families here since before World War II couldn’t think to vote for National Rally, yet the Left has been antisemitic in recent times,’ said Sebbag. ‘The Jews are in the middle, because they don’t know who hates them more.’

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House Republican calls on ‘The 51’ to be prosecuted for alleged Hunter Biden laptop cover-up

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., took aim at a group of intelligence officials responsible for signing a letter that sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story on the eve of the 2020 election.

‘The 51 should all be prosecuted for knowingly pushing a false statement,’ Tenney said in a post on X Sunday. ‘See 18 U.S.C. § 1001, it’s a felony crime to: make a ‘false statement’ to an agent of the federal government related to a federal matter.’

‘The 51’ in Tenney’s post refers to 51 former top intel officials who signed on to a letter claiming that the laptop at the center of a New York Post report just weeks before the 2020 election bore all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign, a document that was later used by President Biden to shrug off concerns over the device in a debate with former President Trump. It was later revealed that the laptop was real, even eventually being entered as evidence in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.

In the wake of that trial, Fox News Digital reached out to all 51 individuals who signed the October 2020 letter to ask if they regretted signing it after it was revealed to be authentic.

‘No,’ former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said.

‘This is very old news,’ Greg Treverton, a signatory who previously served as chair of the National Intelligence Council, told Fox News Digital. ‘’What we said was true, we were inferring from our experience, and it did look like a Russian operation. We didn’t, and couldn’t of course say it was a Russian operation. Enough said.’

Meanwhile, an attorney for signatories Ronald Marks, Marc Polymeropoulos, Douglas Wise, Paul Kolbe, John Sipher, Emile Nakhleh and Gerald O’Shea provided Fox News Digital with a statement that claimed signing the letter was a ‘patriotic’ move by his clients.

‘A careful and objective reading of the document reflects that even today its content is accurate,’ the attorney, Mark S. Zaid, said. ‘It served as nothing more than a warning letter of what we have known for decades: certain foreign governments – including Russia – continue to try and actively interfere in our domestic affairs and our guard must remain vigilant. Every patriotic American should have signed that letter.’

But Tenney shared a different view, arguing that the 51 should be prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which states that anyone ‘within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States’ who ‘falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact,’ or ‘makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation,’ or ‘makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry’ could face fines or a prison sentence of up to five years.

Tenney’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, former National Intelligence Council Chair Thomas Fingar, former National Security Agency Deputy Director Rick Legett, former CIA acting Director John McLaughlin, former CIA acting Director Michael Morell, former Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Mike Vickers, former Defense Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Doug Wise, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen, former National Counterterrorism Center acting Director Russ Travers, former National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director Andy Liepman, former CIA chief of staff John Moseman, former CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer, former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, former National Security Agency general counsel Glenn Gerstell, former CIA chief of staff Rodney Snyder, former CIA analyst and manager David Priess, former CIA Deputy Director of Analysis Pam Purcilly, former CIA senior operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos, former CIA senior intelligence officer Chris Savos, former CIA senior intelligence officer John Tullius, former CIA senior intelligence officer David A. Vanell, former CIA senior operations officer Kristin Wood, former CIA inspector general David Buckley, former CIA analyst and targeting officer Nada Bakos, former CIA senior intelligence officer Patty Brandmaier, former CIA senior intelligence officer James B. Bruce, former CIA intelligence analyst David Cariens, former CIA operational support officer Janice Cariens, former CIA senior operations officer Paul Kolbe, former CIA analyst Peter Corsell, former CIA senior intelligence officer Brett Davis, former national intelligence officer Roger Zane George, former CIA senior intelligence officer Steven L. Hall, former national intelligence officer Kent Harrington, former national security executive Don Hepburn, former dean of CIA’s Kent School of Intelligence Analysis Timothy D. Kilbourn, former CIA officer Ron Marks, former CIA technical operations officer Jonna Hiestand Mendez, former director of CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Emile Nakhleh, former CIA senior operations officer Gerald A. O’Shea, former CIA deputy chief of staff Nick Shapiro, former CIA senior operations officer John Sipher, former National Security Council senior director for intelligence programs Stephen Slick, former CIA deputy assistant director for global issues Cynthia Strand, former CIA Deputy Executive Director Greg Tarbell, former National Intelligence Collection Board Chairman David Terry, former National Intelligence Council Chair Greg Treverton, and former CIA director of analysis Winston Wiley.

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Democrats face a reckoning on Biden campaign as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill

A reckoning looms.

Mark it on your calendar.

It will begin Monday night on Capitol Hill. 

Maybe punctuated by a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus Tuesday morning. Augmented by the customary Senate Democratic Caucus luncheon Tuesday afternoon.

The reckoning will slip into Wednesday and perhaps Thursday.

We will learn where Democrats stand with President Biden during this reckoning. And we may even learn whether the president is staying in the race or standing down.

It is said that timing is everything. And Mr. Biden and congressional Democrats certainly couldn’t have had worse timing over the past week-plus.

President Biden and fellow Democrats had since 2021 or even 2022 to figure out whether the president was truly a ‘transitional figure’ (as Biden characterized himself) or if it was time to go with someone else. Not after the party burned through the primaries. It shouldn’t have taken until the earliest presidential debate in American history to have a debate of another sort – even though the president’s team pushed for the date and the format of the recent forum on CNN.

That turned out to be poor timing. 

But the timing issues only grew.

The worst thing to happen to Democrats is that the House met last Friday, just hours after the political brownfields site which doubled as the debate stage in Atlanta. That meant that the Capitol Hill press corps spent all Friday morning chasing every House Democrat imaginable through the halls of Congress, peppering them with questions about Biden’s performance.

Never before were Democratic senators so glad the Senate was out that day. In fact, the Senate didn’t meet at all last week.

The worst thing politically for Biden was that the House and Senate were both out over the past week. Congressional Democrats were petrified after the president’s performance at the debate. But the fact that Democrats only had to endure tough questions from reporters at the Capitol for one day bought Biden time he didn’t have. Congress doesn’t return until Monday, and while apprehension about the president intensified, the recess muted those reservations and paused demands for Biden to possibly bow out.

A senior House Democratic leadership source said those who are close to the president ‘did not serve him well.’ The source added: ‘this is not sustainable.’

Democrats freaked out about what Biden’s electability could mean for their own opportunities to hold the Senate and flip the House.

In the early going, Democrats dodged reporters late last week after Biden bombed.

‘I have no comment whatsoever,’ said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., making a beeline for his car after descending the Capitol steps.

‘You have no comment? After the worst performance by any president (in a debate)?’ countered yours truly.

‘I’m staying with Pop Pop,’ replied Espaillat, referring to Biden.

Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., avoided questions, noting he had had a ’12 o’clock flight.’

Yours truly pressed Keating about whether Biden should remain on the ballot.

Keating replied that the decision would ‘be decided by the president,’ adding Biden did not seek ‘his counsel.’

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., said Democrats don’t ‘need to overreact’ to the president’s performance. He also argued that ‘it’s a big leap’ for Democrats wanting to shove Biden off the ticket.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., emphatically replied ‘no’ when asked if the president should back off. But it’s clear now that Jeffries and other top Democratic leaders are listening closely to their caucus and gauging where members stand with the president. 

However, Jeffries added later in the day that he would ‘reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say I stand behind the ticket.’

Everything in politics is relative, as Jeffries might say. So where congressional Democrats stand with Biden could soon dictate a lot more commentary – from the minority leader, and others.

It would take a lot for the Democratic Party to unspool itself from Biden. His delegates are only pledged to him now. But the party is scheduled to bind those delegates to Biden in a virtual roll call vote on Aug. 7. As of right now, the party can only replace the nominee after Aug. 7 due to death, resignation or disability.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the former House majority whip and assistant Democratic leader, is credited with salvaging Biden’s 2020 sagging bid for the White House, engineering a victory in the Palmetto State. Clyburn described the debate as ‘strike one’ for Biden. 

‘If this were a ballgame, he’s got two more swings,’ said Clyburn.

But this isn’t a ballgame. This is the presidency.

‘I don’t know what you do in this game,’ said Clyburn.  

Even House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., discussed the possibility of deploying the 25th Amendment. There’s a provision where the vice president and the Cabinet – and potentially a two-thirds vote by both the House and Senate – could remove an incapacitated president who is deemed unfit to serve.

‘It’s the Cabinet that makes that decision. I would ask the Cabinet members to search their hearts,’ said Johnson.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, even introduced a resolution regarding the 25th Amendment before the recess. It’s possible there could be votes related to the 25th Amendment or the president’s competence when lawmakers return to Washington in the coming days. 

The coming days on Capitol Hill will be an utter doozy.

One thing to watch for: where California Democrats stand. Forty California Democrats comprise the 213 member House Democratic Caucus. That’s nearly 19%. It’s 9% of the entire 432-member House (there are three vacancies). Don’t forget that Vice President Harris is a Californian and served as the Golden State’s senator.

If California Democrats begin to move against Biden, it’s hard to see how they don’t align with Harris.

‘If the White House or the administration or the president doesn’t have that conversation (about Biden’s viability) with members of Congress, with members of the Senate, you will probably see a number of folks starting to come out,’ Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., told Fox News. 

‘Let Biden continue campaigning,’ said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. ‘He has shown since the debate that he’s perfectly capable.’

But this could all change when lawmakers return to Washington in the coming days. And there is likely to be a reckoning on the Democratic side of the aisle.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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