The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 8th, 2024: Russia's Staggering Battlefield Losses & Dems Intensify Pressure For Biden To Bow Out

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    A new report is shedding light on Russian troop deaths inside the meat grinder on Ukraine’s front lines, which has cost Moscow more troops than all other Russian conflicts combined since World War II. A growing a number of leading Democrat lawmakers are calling for President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race due to concerns about his age. We’ll bring you the latest on the efforts to have Biden step aside, and how the president himself is reacting. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] ☕ Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB Code: PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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fresh-roasted, and it's shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. They literally, they take the beans out of the roaster, they put them in a box, they mail them to you, you lands on your doorstep, you put it in your coffee cup, bobs your uncle. Go to blackout coffee.com promo code PDB for 20% off your first-time purchase. It's Monday, 8 July. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, a new report is shedding light on Russian troop deaths on Ukraine's front lines, fighting which has reportedly caused Moscow more troops than all other Russian conflicts combined since World War II. At some point, you have to ask just how long Putin can keep this up, and at what point the Russian population says enough. Ah, just kidding. Past history

indicates that Putin can keep this going indefinitely, and the Russian population will put up with it. Also, a growing number of leading U.S. Democrat lawmakers are calling for President Biden to bow out of the presidential race due to concerns about his age and mental acuity. Biden reportedly responded by saying, quote, I'm in a presidential race? Okay, fine, that's not a real quote. We'll bring you the latest on the efforts to have Biden step aside and how the president himself is reacting. But first, our afternoon spotlight, we're learning more about just how many soldiers the Putin regime has sacrificed in their war of attrition against Ukraine, and the losses, well, they're significant and sobering.

A recent analysis conducted by the economist estimates that between 462,000 and 728,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the Kremlin mounted their invasion in February of 2022. The Bloodshed is a reflection of Vladimir Putin's so-called meat grinder strategy, which involves flooding conflict zones with overwhelming numbers of troops with little regard to their lives. The bloodshed makes us one of the deadliest conflicts in Russia's history. To put these numbers into perspective, the deaths and injuries now exceed all losses by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation in all its wars combined since World War II. Now, it's important to note that these estimates don't separate how many troops were killed versus wounded.

The Economist based their report on leaked documents from the U.S. Department of Defense, along with other official and unofficial sources. This included culling through Russian inheritance data and obituaries posted to social media. Officially, verifying the information is, well, it's next to impossible, given that the Kremlin does not disclose their losses. but the analysis by the economist is in line with recent projections regarding troop deaths from U.S., U.S., U.K., and French intelligence, as well as some Russian media. Two Russian media outlets reported on July 5th that somewhere between 106,000 to 140,000

had died as of June 21st. France, meanwhile, has estimated Russian deaths at approximately 150,000, while the BBC recently estimated a figure of 130, 13,000. Now, parsing through the data, the economist found that for every Russian soldier killed in battle, roughly three to four are seriously wounded. We should stress that the figures from various governments and Russian media do not include deaths of militia members in Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, and those numbers have been significant. This includes any losses attributed to Russia's paramilitary force, the Wagner Group, which has seen their ranks devastated by

more than two years of fighting. The government figures also do not account for seriously injured Russian soldiers who cannot return to battle. Pulling all these additional metrics together, the economist arrived at their estimate of between 462,000 and 728,000 Russian troop deaths and injuries as of mid-June. That's also in line with a separate estimate from British officials that roughly 500,000 Russian troops have been injured so far in the fighting. Notably, the report The report found that Russian troop deaths have accelerated as the war drags on, with a major spike seeing during Russia's counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 in the Dinesk region. Russia's capture of the eastern Ukrainian city at Dievka last fall, for example, proved particularly

bloody. The rate of loss is getting so bad that the American Institute for the Study of War estimates that Russia could soon average 20,000 troop deaths per month. Now, despite these numbers, analysts say that the United States say that the United States'clock. the losses are not expected to impact Putin's strategy or cause major manpower shortages in the near and medium term as he continues to press his perceived advantage over Ukraine, particularly when it comes to weapons. Putin has managed to shore up any gaps in his own military production capabilities with support from North Korea, Iran, and China.

Xi's regime has provided vital economic support to Russia over the past two years that has allowed Putin to maintain his invasion, and most of the same. recently, they appear to be providing direct military hardware support through the joint production of Iranian designs Shahed drones. Coming up after the break, a growing number of leading Democrat lawmakers are calling for President Biden to bow out of the presidential race due to concerns about his age and mental acuity. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong.

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Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash special offer. Terms apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. A growing number of House Democrats are asking President Biden to step aside for the 2024 election, raising concerns about his electability and ability to lead the party to victory. During a call on Sunday, convened by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, representatives Adam Smith, Jerry Nadler, Mark Takano, and Joe Morel urged the president to step aside. These lawmakers all hold significant committee positions,

and they added to the growing number of Democrats questioning Biden's candidacy. Additional Democrat lawmakers, including Representative Jamie Raskin, Don Beyer, and Jim Hime, voiced apprehensions about Biden's ability to secure a victory in November. These requests to the president and the party follow Representative Angie Craig, who became the first frontline member of the Democrats, to publicly call for Biden to, quote, step aside for the next generation of leadership. Concerns over Biden's age, he's now 81, and more importantly, his mental acuity, are not new and have been a recurring issue among voters and within his own party.

However, his debate performance last month further fueled doubts about his viability against former President Trump, and this has led to increasing requests from some Democrats for him to step down as the nominee. This internal discord comes as Democrats face the need to present a robust candidate against Trump, who, at least in side-by-side comparison, remains a forbentable opponent at 78. Polling reflects widespread concern over Biden's age, and some Democrats, like Representative Susan and Wilde are wary of the potential down-ballot impact. Wild, although not explicitly calling for Biden to exit, echoed the electorate's apprehensions about his candidacy's implications. On Monday, President Biden dismissed suggestions that he should withdraw from the presidential race, emphasizing the importance

of voter preference and his political record. In a letter addressed to congressional Democrats, Biden called for unity and highlighted his commitment to defeating former President Trump. The readaffirmed his statement in a recent interview where he said, quote, only the Lord Almighty could get him to reconsider. Despite efforts to control the narrative, Biden's gaffes have left many Democrats, questioning his ability to secure another term. The coming days may see increased pressure for a change in leadership as the party grapples with its strategy for the 2024 election. And, of course, the site of much of the media, acting as if they've just discovered that President

and Biden may be in declining mental health is equal parts pathetic and completely unsurprising. The notion that Biden's close circle of enablers, including his wife and family, VP Kamala Harris, the White House chief of staff and a tight-knit group of sycophants, were somehow able to hide the mental acuity issue from the media is laughable. The media, for the most part, was just as complicit as VP Harris and others who spent months telling the American public that the president is sharp as attack and more vigorous and energetic than folks half his age. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Monday, 8 July. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. For an ad-free PDB experience, be sure to check out our

premium membership at pdb premium.com. And remember, you can get your president's daily brief fix on all major podcast platforms, our YouTube channel at President's Daily Brief, and on the First TV. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then,

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