REPLAY: The rematch is on. Joe Biden and Donald Trump both won enough delegates in primary races yesterday to put them over the top for their party’s presidential nomination. It will be the first time in 70 years that candidates have faced each other a second time.

  Biden, despite being viewed unfavorably by the majority, has been running virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party. Last night he issued a statement saying that “freedom and democracy” are at risk if Trump regains the White House. Biden is already off for campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin, so-called “Blue Wall” states critical to Democrats.

   Trump was equally apocalyptic, declaring that, “Our nation is failing. … We’re going to turn it around.” 

The Thin Red Line: Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck abruptly announced yesterday that he is resigning from Congress and leaving at the end of next week, shaving the Republican majority to just five votes.

  Buck had already said he would not seek re-election, but yesterday he told CNN’s Dana Bash he just couldn’t wait. “A lot of this is personal and that’s the problem,” Buck said. “Instead of having decorum, instead of operating in a professional manner, this place has evolved into just bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”

THE HOT SEAT: Former special Counsel Robert Hur spent more than four hours before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday as Republican members bemoaned that President Biden was notindicted for private possession of classified documents and Democrats equally emphasized that Biden was not indicted for the same.

  Hurd, a registered Republican, said in his opening statement, “I resolved to do the work as I did all my work for the department: fairly, thoroughly and professionally.” 

  The Republicans, and in particular committee chair Jim Jordan of Ohio, tried to drive home the point that Donald Trump was indicted for the same thing Biden did, but Hurd responded that there were material differences, including Trump’s delay and lies about what documents he possessed. 

  Hurd pointed out that his 345-page report did not find Biden clear of wrongdoing, but that lack of criminal intent rendered the matter not worthy of criminal prosecution. “I did not exonerate him; that word does not appear in the report,” Hur said

  Democrats were critical of Hurd’s description of the President in the report as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”  Hurd bristled when one Democrat accused Hur of smearing Biden for the benefit of Donald Trump. Hu responded, “Partisan politics played no part whatsoever in my work.” 

THE FLIGHT LINE: A Boeing corporation whistle-blower and former quality control manager who raised questions about practices at the company’s 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, was found dead Saturday of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

  John Barnett was in Charleston for a deposition for a lawsuit in which he accused Boeing of retaliating against him for quality and safety deficits. He was found dead in his pickup truck in his hotel parking lot.

 Barnett filed his complaint in 2017 against Boeing with the Labor Department under the Whistleblower Protection Program that protects employees of plane manufacturers who report air carrier safety violations. He left the company that year after being with Boeing nearly 30 years.

  Boeing has been under scrutiny since a door plug popped out of an Alaska airlines jetliner. Alaska now says that plane was due for a safety check the day the incident happened.

  Robert Turkewitz, Barnett’s lawyer, said, “It was really weighing on him, what was going on, and reliving all these things that had happened and the stress it had caused.” 

SUNK: The Kremlin has relieved its top naval commander after embarrassing losses to Ukraine on the Black Sea. 

  Ukraine, which doesn’t have a traditional big-boat Navy, has managed to sink as many as 15 Russian navy ships with swarms of radio-controlled sea drones. Ukraine claims to sunk as much as a third of the Black Sea fleet, which once counted 80 ships, but the US puts the number at a minimum of 15 deep-sixed.

  Whatever the number, Russia has withdrawn its ships from exposure in the western Black Sea.  

THE OBIT PAGE: Eric Carmen, who belted out the Raspberries hit “Go All the Way” before going solo with the soft-rock “All by Myself” and “Hungry Eyes,” has died at age74. His wife said he died in his sleep over the weekend.

  Carmen said in an interview that he had taken his inspiration from the great music acts of the 60s. He said, “I had spent my youth with my head between two stereo speakers listening to the Byrds and the Beatles and later on the Beach Boys.” 

  The band’s big hit biggest hit, “Go All the Way,” was about a young couple contemplating having sex … a risky thing for 1970s AM radio.

  Two of Carmen’s biggest solo hits were for movies, “Almost Paradise” for “Footloose” in 1984 and “Hungry Eyes” for “Dirty Dancing in 1987. 

THE SPIN RACK: Israel has confirmed the death of Itay Chen, an Israeli-American soldier believed to have been taken prisoner in the October 7^th attacks. He had last communicated with his family that his military station was under missile attack. — The police chief in Uvalde, Texas announced his resignation following a report that said officers were not trained or equipped to handle the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Chief Daniel Rodriguez was on vacation the day of the shooting. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scion of the political family running for president as an independent, has been talking to NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former wrestler/Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura as possible running mates. 

  As Joe Biden would say, “That’s no joke.”

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