MAKE OR BREAK: President Biden hit the ball last night but failed to knock it out of the park in his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. The President spoke cogently but often without answering the question. He repeatedly dodged questions about his mental acuity and disastrous performance in last week’s debate, sometimes rattling off his accomplishments instead.

   “It was a bad episode,” Biden said. “No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted.”

  Biden declined to say whether he would get a cognitive test and claimed; “I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world.”

  Asked if there’s any chance he would leave the race, Biden said; “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get outta the race,’ I’d get outta the race. The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down.”

  Stephanopoulos asked, “If you are told reliably from your allies, from your friends and supporters in the Democratic Party in the House and the Senate that they’re concerned you’re gonna lose the House and the Senate if you stay in, what will you do?” Biden answered, “I’m not gonna answer that question. It’s not gonna happen.”

   Biden was energized and defiant in a speech yesterday at a campaign event in Wisconsin, calling Donald Trump a liar and threat to democracy. “I’m staying in this race,” Biden told the cheering crowd “I’m not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work.” 

  But Biden said of Trump, “I will beat him again in 2020,” and then said, “By the way, we’re gonna do it again in 2024.”

  In recent appearances Biden has taken to calling Donald Trump “a one man crime wave.” His campaign says they plan to spend $50 million on advertising in battleground states this month, with television, radio and digital spots focusing on abortion, economic fairness, and democracy. 

  Donald Trump, meanwhile, displayed his own mental issues with his 4^th of July social media post: “Happy Fourth of July to all, including to our highly incapable ‘President,’ who uses Prosecutors to go after his Political Opponent, who choked like a dog during the Debate but tried to pretend it was ‘International Travel’ (only 12 days rest!) and, when that gig was up, he blamed it on a ‘cold.’ Therefore, why would anyone say he’s cognitively challenged?”

PERSONAL AUTONOMY: The Kansas Supreme Court upheld abortion protections in the state’s Constitution, rejecting Republican laws that would ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure and establish additional licensing requirements for abortion clinics.

  The court reaffirmed a 2019 decision that protects a fundamental right of personal autonomy that “allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life—decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy.” 

  In a statement, Danielle Underwood, a spokeswoman for Kansans for Life, said, “Extremely liberal judges of the Kansas Supreme Court have now overturned basic health and safety standards for abortion facilities.”

EXCOMMUNICATED: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican ambassador to the US, has been excommunicated after being found guilty of “schism” for refusing to recognize the authority of Pope Francis and the liberal reforms enacted after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

  A fan of former President Donald Trump, Viganò has embraced right wing conspiracy theories while calling Francis a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.” Viganò posted the decision on Twitter/X, which itself might be considered the mouthpiece of the anti-Christ.

  His excommunication decision warns that Viganò could be ejected from the priesthood if he keeps it up. For now, he keeps his title, but will not be allowed to celebrate Mass, receive or administer sacraments, or hold official positions in the church.

THE OBIT PAGE: Paal Enger, the Norwegian who was once a professional soccer prospect and infamously stole Edvard Munch’s masterpiece “The Scream” in 1994, died on June 29th in Oslo. He was 57.

  Enger lived a double life as a rising soccer star and a professional criminal who cracked safes and stole cars. “I did so much crime in my 20s,” he told The Sun newspaper, “that I had everything — cars, boats, money, the most beautiful women in Oslo. But I wanted more.”

  Enger was obsessed with “The Scream.” While the nation was focused on the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, he and a friend put up a ladder outside the National Gallery in Oslo, smashed a window, and within a minute left with “The Scream.” They left a note saying, “A thousand thanks for your poor security.”

  Enger was caught and sentenced to more than six years in prison. He took up painting.

THE SPIN RACK: The man accused of drunkenly running over 11 people, killing three of them at a 4^th of July party in New York’s lower East Side, is a substance-abuse counselor and author of “The Sober Addict” who claims that his passion is to help “prevent death.” — The NY Times reports a trend of one-minute armed robberies of patrons at upscale restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The robbers take cellphones and watches, some of them worth tens of thousands of dollars, then speed away on a motorbike.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Pittsburgh Pirates hit so many home runs last night … seven of them including a grand slam … that the stadium ran out of celebratory fireworks.

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