00:00Jill Biden is dropping one bombshell after another to promote her new book.
00:05Her admission earlier this week that she thought her husband was having a stroke
00:08during the 2024 presidential debate is tantamount to scandal.
00:12Scandal, some think, are on the level of Edith Wilson running the country
00:16when her husband Woodrow Wilson actually did suffer a stroke while in office.
00:20But Jill Biden's latest jaw-dropper comes in an excerpt from the book itself.
00:25The former first lady writes, again, describing the infamous debate,
00:28quote, I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew,
00:33and the hologram was glitching. Is he short-circuiting?
00:35It seems the former first lady was having the same thoughts as pretty much everyone else.
00:41She recalled, quote, is this a stroke? Has he been drugged? Oh God,
00:46will people watching assume this is how he is all the time?
00:49When the debate was over, she says the then president whispered to his wife, quote,
00:53I really effed up, didn't I? And she whispered back, yes, you did.
00:57Biden's coming clean about all of this now is irking Democrats who worry reminding everyone
01:03of her husband's shortcomings in the run-up to the midterms is not helping the party regain
01:08control of Congress. Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist with decades of experience working
01:13on Capitol Hill, said it most succinctly, quote, we need this as much as we need a hole in the
01:18head.
01:19U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reportedly reached a tentative agreement to extend the current
01:24ceasefire for 60 days, open the Strait of Hormuz, and begin talking about Iran's nuclear program.
01:29As of Thursday night, we were still waiting for the president to weigh in or sign off to
01:33make it official. Vice President Vance, however, did weigh in. Here's what he had to say.
01:37We're not there yet, but we're very close. We're going to keep on working at it.
01:40I spoke to The Post's Washington reporter Caitlin Dornbos Thursday evening about the agreement and what
01:44it actually says. The deal being considered by the U.S. and Iran does basically two things. One,
01:53it's reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And then secondly, it actually opens up the potential to
01:59start talking about the nuclear issue with Iran. And that's something that Iran has been fighting
02:04this entire time. Opening the Strait of Hormuz would obviously be a big step forward and would
02:09hopefully ease the pressure of the global oil shock. But it seems there are still some key
02:14details left to work out there. So as part of an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,
02:19the U.S. would have to drop its blockade of Iranian ports. And that's where hawks and critics of this
02:27deal are starting to get concerned, because that is the major point of leverage that the U.S. has over
02:33Iran right now. Yes, we have the military threat. But really, in all actuality, the day-to-day
02:39pressures come from the economic pressure that Iran is facing because no ships are being allowed
02:47in to trade with Iran. And that means Iran isn't making money or getting any imports.
02:52And finally, Iran also laid out again what it sees as red lines. I asked Caitlin what those are and
02:58what
02:59it means for any future negotiations. Iran gave a list of quote-unquote red lines today. It reiterated
03:05basically the same thing that it's always been saying, that it refuses to give up any of its
03:10nuclear program, does not want to get rid of its enriched uranium, does not want to give up the
03:17potential of enriching future uranium. However, I think that there are some gray lines there that can
03:24be discussed. And that's what people are saying right now when it comes to the terms of this
03:31negotiation. There may be some gray lines, some areas where perhaps Iran could degrade or destroy
03:37its uranium that's already in Iran now. Or perhaps the U.S. wouldn't have to go all the way towards
03:46extracting that enriched uranium from Iran. Maybe it could stay there. But all of these
03:52potentials have to add up to Iran not having the ability to spin up that enrichment, that enriched
03:59uranium to a level that could be used for a nuclear weapon. So the minute details, the granularity,
04:07we just don't have enough insight into those areas to be able to make a full decision on whether or
04:13not
04:13that is going to be a way forward.
04:17The White House is pushing for a new way to celebrate the United States' 250th birthday this
04:23summer. The administration wants to release a $250 bill with President Trump's likeness.
04:28In this economy? Now, if the Treasury Department moves ahead with the plan, it would be the first
04:34time a living person's face landed on American money since 1866. There are a few, shall we say,
04:41hiccups in this plan. 1866 is also the year the Thayer Amendment was passed, a federal law which
04:47bans putting a living person on our cash and coins. Another federal law lists all the allowed
04:53denominations of money in the country, and $250 is not on it. Nonetheless, U.S. Treasurer Brandon
04:59Beach and his top advisor Mike Brown pushed for the development of the new banknote. Beach even gave
05:04staff a peek at some mock-up designs. But the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
05:09a department I have never heard of, seemed to spoil the plans by pointing out that pesky
05:14Thayer Amendment hurdle. A source told the Washington Post that the plan was stopped in
05:18its tracks, noting, quote, currency often takes six to eight years to produce, particularly one of such
05:23high value. But that's not the end of the story. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant weighed in from the
05:28White House press briefing room. Right now, there is proposed legislation in front of the House,
05:33in front of the Senate, to change the first requirement so that a living person, Donald J.
05:39Trump, could be on a $250 bill. So it's all in the hands of the, it's all up on Capitol
05:48Hill.
05:49For more on these stories and everything else you could possibly want to know,
05:53check out the New York Post in print or online. And don't forget, like and subscribe to the New York
05:57Postcast wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. I promise you'll be glad you did.
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