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Vice President Kamala Harris has a fight on her hands if she wants to inherit the Democratic presidential mantle after President Joe Biden’s time is over, according to a new poll.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll shows that voters have serious doubts about Harris’ electability.

The poll found only 14% of voters said it was “very likely” Harris would win a general election for president if she became the Democratic nominee. Another 20% said it was “somewhat likely.”

The poll is especially noteworthy given Biden's age. The incumbent president is 81 years old and appears increasingly in decline.

A moment of confusion for Biden at a June 6 D-Day ceremony went viral last week, the latest in a string of similar incidents. At the same time, Biden remains competitive with former President Donald Trump, though several polls suggest Trump has a lead over the president.

Biden's incidents have led some to speculate that Democrats could or should try to replace Biden at the Democratic convention in Chicago in August. That would be a highly unusual, though not impossible, move. Removing Biden would naturally raise the question about who could replace him, but for now voters seem to lack confidence that Harris could win.

The poll also looked ahead to 2028: “If President Joe Biden were not in the running for president in 2028, which of the following Democrats, if any, would you want to be the Democratic candidate for president?”

While Harris was top of the list among Democrats, she only received 21% support. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg both received 10% support each, while 41% said they were unsure or didn't know.

Only 42% of those polled described Harris as trustworthy, and 44% described her as honest, according to the poll.

Notably, only 36% of those surveyed said Biden should replace Harris as his VP on the ticket.

Lawmakers plan to interrogate the head of Eco Health Alliance, the group accused of conducting dangerous coronavirus research in Wuhan, China just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will hold a public hearing May 1 where Dr. Peter Daszak is expected to testify. Daszak is the president of Eco Health Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit health research company that used taxpayer-funded grants to conduct coronavirus research.

The lawmakers on the committee also allege that newly obtained documents show Daszak’s previous testimony misled the committee or misrepresented the facts.

“These revelations undermine your credibility as well as every factual assertion you made during your transcribed interview,” the letter said. “The Committees have a right and an obligation to protect the integrity of their investigations, including the accuracy of testimony during a transcribed interview. We invite you to correct the record.”

One of those obtained documents appears to show Daszak saying he plans to work with Wuhan researchers.

A federal grant database shows that Eco Health Alliance received millions of dollars since 2014 from the federal government to study coronaviruses that originate in animals and in some cases can transfer to humans, with an emphasis on China.

A key and highly disputed part of the inquiry is whether Eco Health Alliance’ research included making coronaviruses more dangerous,.

Under former President Donald Trump, the federal National Institutes of Health cut all funding to the group in question over the controversy.

Under the Biden administration, funding has been restored, and NIH has emphatically stated that Eco Health Alliance did not play a role in the start of the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, in the absence of a definitive answer, misinformation and disinformation are filling the void, which does more harm than good,” NIH said in a 2021 statement. “NIH wants to set the record straight on NIH-supported research to understand naturally occurring bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, funded through a subaward from NIH grantee EcoHealth Alliance. Analysis of published genomic data and other documents from the grantee demonstrate that the naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the NIH grant are genetically far distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not possibly have caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.”

In 2022 and 2023 NIH awarded Eco Health Alliance a total of at least $1,230,594 to research “the potential for future bat coronavirus emergence in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.”

The idea that the COVID-19 virus began in a Wuahn lab was once denounced as a conspiracy theory but has now gotten more widespread credibility.

The FBI announced last year after its investigation that COVID-19 most likely came from a Wuhan lab. That news came just after the Department of Energy also said the Wuhan lab was most likely the origin of COVID-19, though neither agency expressed a high degree of confidence in that theory.

Other groups have suggested it came from the Wuhan wet market, though no definitive answer has been settled on.

(The Center Square) – The former head of Wisconsin’s Republican Party and the man in charge of this summer’s Republican National Convention says he doesn’t see anyone but Donald Trump getting the nomination.

Reince Priebus told News Talk 1130’s WISN that after the former president’s resounding win in the Iowa Caucuses, Trump is the presumptive nominee.

“I think that Donaald Trump exceeded expectations,” Priebus said. “I think that he exceeded the mental threshold that Democrats and people that don’t like Trump wanted to out there. ‘Oh, he didn’t get 50%.’ I think it ended up being 51%.”

Trump doubled the vote totals of both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Halley in Monday night’s caucuses.

Priebus said that kind of victory will make it tough for either challenger to find a path forward, especially DeSantis, Priebus said.

“His play is that he is going to get second in South Carolina. That he’s going to talk to donors about whether any of these cases are going to matter, in regard to President Trump, and whether he should stay in to see how things go,” Priebus said. “[But] nothing has panned out in terms of those hopes and wishes.”

Haley, Priebus said, has a slightly different play. But he also doesn’t see it panning out.

“There is a small play that, maybe, Nikki Haley can somehow rally in New Hampshire, and somehow win in South Carolina,” Priebus said. “Her play is that she is going to have this inside straight going through New Hampshire. The reality is that Super Tuesday is March 5. Fifteen states are rolling on March 5. You need to have an enormous amount of money, and an enormous number of volunteers combined to do well in 15 state primaries,”

Priebus said that’s “a tough hill to climb.”

As for Trump’s play moving forward, Priebus said the former president needs to start running as the only Republican in the race and focus that race on President Biden,

“Act like the other campaigns don’t matter to you. Slowly focus on Joe Biden, do all of your speeches about him. Go to New Hampshire and South Carolina and start acting like you are the presumptive nominee. That’s number one,” Priebus said.” Number two, I’d start making demands through your campaign to say ‘I’m the presumptive nominee.’ And I would want the party to call me the presumptive nominee.”

Priebus said it looks more and more like nothing is going to stop the former president from getting the nomination at Milwaukee’s RNC in July.

(The Center Square) – President Biden may not mention Bidenomics during his visit to Milwaukee this afternoon, but Republicans in the state talked about little else ahead of his visit.

Wisconsin Republican Chairman Brian Schimming and Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany spoke to reporters ahead of Biden’s stop in the state.

“It’s costing more to fill-up your gas tank, a $1.40 a-gallon more than when Joe Biden took office. We’re receiving paychecks that are literally worth less because of the cost of living being up. We’re paying 30% more for a cup of coffee. Everything in this administration has gone up,” Schimming said. “There is no amount of political spending that the president can do in Milwaukee today that can fool Wisconsinites.”

The president’s visit includes a tour of a green energy manufacturing center in Milwaukee. It is Biden’s first visit to the state in the 2024 election cycle.

Schimming noted that.

“Wisconsin is important. We’re really not one of 50 states for this election, we’re one of only five,” Schimming said. “We’ve had 12 races in the last 24 years in this state of 6 million people that have been decided by less than 30,000 votes.”

President Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes in 2020. Former President Donald Trump won the state by about 27,000 votes.

Tiffany said President Biden should talk about Bidenomics to explain to voters why things like cars and homes now cost so much.

“People are going to have to pay interest rates that are not 2% or 3% like they were paying in the previous administration. They’re now going to have to pay 7% or 8% for a new home loan,” Tiffany said. “And that’s made it further out of reach for young people to live the American dream.”

Home prices in Wisconsin are rising. The latest report from the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors said the average price for a home in the Milwaukee metro area is now more than $400,000.

As for the Republican presidential candidates, who will be in Milwaukee next week, Schimming avoided a specific endorsement.

“Look, we have a number of people running for president on our side,” Schimming said. “Anyone of them would be better than Joe Biden.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Wednesday night, reshaping the Republican primary field and forcing Republicans to take sides.

Former President Donald Trump welcomed DeSantis to the primary race with a barrage of attacks on his platform of choice, TruthSocial.

“‘Rob,’ My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!),” he wrote.

Trump posted several videos of DeSantis as well. One video points out how a Trump endorsement likely propelled DeSantis to victory in his Florida governor’s race in 2018. The video features old campaign videos where DeSantis held a Trump sign, praised Trump, and thanked him for standing by him, even "when it wasn't necessarily the smart thing to do."

DeSantis secured billionaire Elon Musk’s endorsement as well as praise from U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., during the Twitter Spaces event. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., wore a “Make America Great Again” hat to Capitol Hill Thursday morning, hours after DeSantis’ announcement.

On Twitter, pundits and popular conservative voices chose sides, posting in favor or against DeSantis through the night and into the morning depending on their allegiances. The announcement has divided the party more than any other.

Many Republicans hope DeSantis can provide the party with a more effective, drama-free, post-Trump future while others think Trump is the only way to take on the deep state and liberal establishment.

DeSantis was widely mocked for the technical glitches of his announcement, which was delayed more than 20 minutes as Musk and entrepreneur and author David Sacks, who moderated the Twitter Spaces event, tried to get the production working.

Sacks waved off the technical glitches, saying they were likely "melting the servers" and likely breaking records with their Twitter announcement. There is dispute over the actual number of online attendees with different outlets reporting different figures, but DeSantis had several hundred thousand users listening in for his event to begin before many gave up because of the technical difficulties. DeSantis' team claimed that within 15 hours of the announcement, it had more than 30 million views.

DeSantis’ camp tried to reframe the technical issues as “breaking the internet,” a sign of overwhelming interest. Musk said on the broadcast that breaking new ground online, especially while live, naturally comes with these kinds of issues.

Liberal media outlets poured in criticism of DeSantis for the launch with a string of blistering headlines. Politico called the tech failures "horrendous" while the Washington Post said it "didn't work." CNN called the launch "embarrassing," and NBC said the launch "melts down."

It is worth noting, though, that both Trump and DeSantis have built their brands by mocking and disregarding those very same media outlets.

Trump jumped on this opportunity as well, sharing a video on Truth Social of one of Musk’s rockets failing to launch and then exploding with DeSantis’ logo overlaid on the crashing missile.

“I know Ron,” Trump said. “The way he handled his announcement, he will handle the Country!”

During the Twitter event, DeSantis took subtle shots at Trump without naming him, saying he had frustration with the former president's inability to enact his agenda and blasted the "culture of losing" in the GOP.

DeSantis hit on several key issues for Republican voters during his announcement, namely the border crisis, rising crime, critical race theory, media bias and censorship as well as the government response to COVID-19, saying his response in Florida kept states around the country from "rolling lockdowns."

"First, we need an honest reckoning about what happened during COVID," DeSantis said, calling the federal pandemic response "authoritarian" and not in line with the data. "I saw an interest in the narrative and politics over evidence..."

The first GOP caucus is in Iowa on Jan. 22, 2024, while the first GOP primary is Jan. 30 of the same year in New Hampshire. The first group of states holding their presidential primary votes is in March of next year.

Polling from Morning Consult surveyed Republican primary voters and put DeSantis in second place among the contenders with 18% support, though far behind Trump, who came in at 61% support.

Radio host and commentator Larry Elder, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have announced their 2024 ambitions as well. The Morning Consult poll put Haley and Ramaswamy both at 4% support. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., announced he is running on Monday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is still considering a bid.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed a fourth time in two days to win his bid to serve as Speaker of the House Wednesday as Republicans remain divided and the position remains unfilled.

Another vote will be needed to confirm a speaker, and until then the newly seated chamber will remain stalled.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, nominated U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., to oppose McCarthy Wednesday, pointing out this is the first time two black Americans have been nominated for Speaker of the House.

“Byron Donalds is a good man raised by a single mom who moved past adversity, became a Christian man at the age of 21, and has devoted his life for…his country, and he has done it admirably,” Roy said. “But there is an important reason for nominating Byron, and that is this country needs a change. This country needs leadership that does not reflect this city, this town that is badly broken.”

The new speaker would need 218 votes to secure a majority. After November's elections, Republicans hold 222 in the House, leaving them a slim majority.

Donalds was able to peel away enough votes to keep McCarthy from winning the speaker's role and force another vote.

Wednesday’s vote comes a day after McCarthy failed to get the needed 218 votes for the position three times on Tuesday. About 20 Republicans voted for U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that day with Democrats backing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the expected Democratic successor of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Former President Donald Trump vocalized his support behind McCarthy in a post on TruthSocial Wednesday.

“Some really good conversations took place last night, and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE ‘HOUSE’ TWICE!” he wrote. “REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT. IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB - JUST WATCH!”

The failure to confirm a speaker marks a divide in the party and growing frustration from the conservatives in Congress who feel betrayed by party leadership as the deficit continues to rise and conservatives have won few legislative victories in recent years. Even during Trump’s term, the party struggled to implement his agenda in Congress, though that was in part because of Trump’s failure to rally support and remain focused on the legislative agenda, opting to rely more on executive action.

That party division was further highlighted late Tuesday by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who sent a letter to the Architect of the Capitol blasting McCarthy, who has already moved into the Speaker’s office, saying “no member can lay claim to this office.”

“What is the basis in law, House rule, or precedent to allow someone who has placed second in three successive speaker elections to occupy the Speaker of the House Office?” the letter said. “How long will he remain there before he is considered a squatter?”

Despite the opposition, McCarthy told reporters Tuesday night that he was not dropping out.

Some conservative Republicans, though, have been unwilling to throw their support behind the California Republican, who many saw as too liberal, but so far no challenger has arisen with enough clout to get the needed votes.

“In his 14 years in Republican leadership, McCarthy has repeatedly failed to demonstrate any desire to meaningfully change the status quo in Washington,” U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., said. “Despite our deep reservations we have continued to work in earnest to find a path forward with McCarthy, knowing that this crucial moment would come.

As The Center Square previously reported, Perry said he and other conservative members in the House laid out conditions for McCarthy but that he “balked” when faced with them. Those conditions included a promise to vote on a balanced budget, the “Texas Border Plan,” term limits for members of Congress, and the Fair Tax Act, which would create a national sales tax on certain services and property to replace the current income tax, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes.

“We requested transparent, accountable votes on individual earmarks that would require two-thirds support to pass, and to ensure that all amendments to cut spending would be allowed floor consideration,” Perry said. “He dismissed it.”