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    Silent No More, Harris Seeks Her Own Voice Without Breaking With Biden

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    The vice president’s expressions of concern for Palestinian suffering marked a shift in emphasis from the president’s statements as she moved to establish herself as the leader of her party.After meeting with Israel’s prime minister this week, Vice President Kamala Harris said she “will not be silent.” She was referring to her concerns about Palestinian suffering in the Gaza war, but in a way it was a larger declaration of independence.For nearly four years, she has been the quiet understudy, relegated to the role of the supportive deputy while President Biden made pronouncements. Now she has suddenly been thrust to the fore as the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and neither silence nor agreeable head nods are sufficient any more.The challenge for her over the next 100 days will be to find her own voice without overtly breaking with Mr. Biden, a delicate political high-wire act without a reliable net. Every statement she makes, every sentence she utters, will be scrutinized to determine whether it is consistent with the president she serves. Yet even as she wants to demonstrate loyalty to Mr. Biden, she also hopes to show the public who she is.She is fortunate in that she and Mr. Biden do not diverge all that much, according to people who have worked with them. While friction between presidents and their vice presidents is common, there have been few notable instances where Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have been reported to be at odds. So for her, it may not be as difficult to suppress contrary instincts in the truncated election campaign she faces as it has been for other vice presidents eager to differentiate themselves.But this is a balancing act being figured out on the fly. Because Mr. Biden was running himself until less than a week ago, neither he nor Ms. Harris has had much time to figure out how to coordinate their messages. It was notable that Mr. Biden left it to Ms. Harris on Thursday to be the public voice of the administration during the White House visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, taking the silent role himself.Mr. Biden cares deeply about keeping former President Donald J. Trump out of the White House and therefore has reason to be invested in Ms. Harris’s success. He also knows that because, until he was forced to quit the race, he had insisted on running again despite concerns about his age, many will blame him for not ceding the stage earlier if Mr. Trump wins.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As Trump Looms, Blinken Aims to Reassure Allies on U.S. Commitment to Asia

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      Asian officials will press Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken about the former president and about Kamala Harris as he visits the region.For three and a half years, President Biden and his aides have insisted that the United States is a Pacific power, and that its allies and partners in the region need not worry about Washington’s commitments.For U.S. officials, underscoring that message has become increasingly important as China’s power has grown. Now Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken plans to deliver assurances in person across six nations, his most ambitious trip in the region.When Mr. Blinken lands in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on Saturday, he will face a barrage of questions about what dramatic shifts in U.S. policy might or might not occur next year, given the upcoming change in the presidency.Mr. Biden’s announcement last Sunday that he is no longer running for re-election sent shock waves around the world. Many of America’s allies are especially concerned about a second Trump presidency, given that former President Donald J. Trump has constantly declared that those allies are conning the United States into providing military support. They are uncertain if Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, can beat him in November.Regardless, Mr. Blinken’s core message will be one of American resolve.“I think the message that the secretary is going to be conveying to the region is that America is all in on the Indo-Pacific,” Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, told reporters on Monday. “I think from Day 1 of this administration, we have significantly and dramatically stepped up our engagement.”But the talking point does not answer in concrete terms the main question from allies: Starting next year, will the United States invest significantly in Asia — in both economic and military terms? Mr. Blinken could argue that Ms. Harris’s foreign policy would be a continuation of Mr. Biden’s, but in no way can he speak for Mr. Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      With Kamala Harris, U.S. Free Trade Skepticism May Continue

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      The vice president has been critical of past trade deals. But her record suggests she could push for trade measures that address environmental issues.In a 2019 presidential debate, Kamala Harris insisted, “I am not a protectionist Democrat.”But Ms. Harris is not a free-trade Democrat, either. She has said she would have opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1992, which President Biden voted for while serving in the Senate, as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement supported by the Obama administration. And in 2020, she was one of only 10 senators to vote against the deal to replace NAFTA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.As she pursues the presidential nomination, Ms. Harris’s views on trade and economic issues are likely to become a focal point. Yet unlike former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, trade has never been a major focus for Ms. Harris. As a result, her positions on trade issues are not entirely known.William A. Reinsch, the Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called Ms. Harris “a bit of a blank slate, but one most likely to be filled in with trade skepticism.”In part that is because of her no vote on the U.S.M.C.A., which Mr. Reinsch said “leads me to assume she is part of the progressive wing of the party which is skeptical of trade agreements in general, and particularly of those that involve market access.” But, he said, “there’s not a lot out there to go on.”Still, in her time as a senator from California and as the vice president, Ms. Harris has adopted some recurring positions that hint at what trade policy might look like if she wins the White House. For example, on several occasions, her objection to trade deals revolved around a common issue: their impact on the environment, and their lack of measures to address climate change.While the U.S.M.C.A. was negotiated by the Trump administration, it won over many Democrats by including tougher protections for workers and the environment. But Ms. Harris concluded that the deal’s environmental provisions were “insufficient — and by not addressing climate change, the U.S.M.C.A. fails to meet the crises of this moment.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel Retrieves Bodies of 5 Hostages From Tunnel in Gaza

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      The military said that intelligence, including information from detained Palestinian militants, had led to the bodies in the Khan Younis area.Israeli forces retrieved the bodies of five hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Thursday, amid growing international and domestic pressure for a cease-fire deal that would lead to the release of the remaining captives.The bodies were found on Wednesday in a zone around the city of Khan Younis that Israel previously designated as a humanitarian area where Gazan civilians could go to avoid the fighting and to receive aid, the military said. The tunnel shaft was nearly 220 yards long and more than 20 yards underground, with several rooms, the military said.Israel has said that Hamas — which led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that prompted the war in Gaza — has exploited the designated humanitarian zone to launch rockets at Israel, as well as to use it for other military purposes. Aid groups have lamented that Israel has struck the area despite telling Gazans they would be safer there. Hamas had no immediate response.The five hostages — Maya Goren, 56; Ravid Katz, 51; Oren Goldin, 33; Tomer Ahimas, 20; and Kiril Brodski, 19 — had already been presumed dead by Israeli officials.From left: Ravid Katz, Kiril Brodski, Tomer Ahimas, Oren Goldin and Maya Goren in photos provided by the Hostages Families Forum.Agence France-Presse, via The Hostages Families ForumMr. Brodski and Mr. Ahimas were soldiers who were killed during the Hamas-led attack in October, while the other three were civilians whose bodies were taken to Gaza as bargaining chips, Israeli officials said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Kamala Harris Vibe Shift

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      For many Democrats, a race that felt like a dispiriting slog suddenly feels light. Even hopeful.Dianne Schwartz, an 80-year-old Chicagoan who listens to political podcasts while she exercises, felt something today. Something she hadn’t felt in a while.“I realized today, while I was listening to my podcasts, that I spent the last few days without worrying and being depressed,” Schwartz told me. “That’s amazing.” It wasn’t so long ago that Schwartz had resigned herself to the idea that former President Donald Trump would win in November — and that he could be the last president of her lifetime. But since President Biden bowed out of his tepid re-election campaign on Sunday, and his party instantaneously coalesced behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Schwartz has found herself feeling strangely, impossibly good about politics.“I haven’t been this excited about an election,” Schwartz said, “since Kennedy.”Call it the Kamala Harris vibe shift. A presidential race that felt to many Democrats like a dispiriting slog toward an all-but-certain defeat by Trump suddenly feels lighter. Hopeful. People are even feeling … is that joy?“It was just going to be this horrible, slow slog between two old men that nobody liked,” said Lisa Burns, an art teacher from New Haven, Conn. Now, she said, “everyone I know is happy.”“It’s gone from the dread election to the hope election, overnight,” said Amanda Litman, who runs a group that recruits progressives to run for office. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Just One Question for Trump and Vance: What Is Wrong With You People?

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      Ever since President Biden’s Sunday announcement that he would not seek re-election, clearly because of age, I keep thinking about Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s contemptuous reactions to one of the most difficult personal decisions a president has ever made, and what it says about their character.“The Democrats pick a candidate, Crooked Joe Biden, he loses the Debate badly, then panics, and makes mistake after mistake, is told he can’t win, and decide they will pick another candidate, probably Harris,” Trump wrote on social media on Monday. He later added: “It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race today!”Not to be out-lowballed by his boss, Vance wrote on social media: “Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way.”All they had to say was: “President Biden served his country for five decades and at this moment we thank him for that service. Tomorrow our campaign begins against his replacement. Bring her on.’’I can guarantee you that is what Biden would have said if the shoe were on the other foot. Because he is not a bully.Biden’s good character shone through on Wednesday night in his dignified, country-before-self address at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. As I watched and listened, I remembered a lunch I had with him in May 2022 in the dining room next to the Oval Office. After we were done and he was walking me past the Resolute Desk, I mentioned to him a reading-literacy project that my wife, Ann, was working on that she thought might interest Dr. Jill Biden. The president got totally excited about the idea and said, “Let’s call your wife. What’s her number?’’He then took a cellphone out of his pocket, dialed it and handed it to me.“Honey,” I said, “I’ve got someone here who wants to talk to you.’’“I’m in a meeting,” Ann replied. “I can’t talk now.’’“No, no, you’re going to want to talk to him. It’s the president.”Then I handed the phone back to Biden, who engaged her in a conversation about reading and how much his wife was passionate about that subject, too.Look, I’ve been to the rodeo — this is what smart politicians do. But there is one difference with Joe Biden that I observed over the years: It’s how much he authentically enjoyed it, how much he enjoyed talking to people outside his bubble and giving them a chance to say, “I got to meet the president. He talked to me!”That sort of kindness came naturally to him. It brought him joy. And I have no doubt that Trump’s and Vance’s venomous first reactions to Biden’s resignation came naturally to them too.I’m sure it brought them joy. But it sure left me wondering: What is wrong with you people? More

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      The Beginning of Biden’s Long Goodbye

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      In a speech from the Oval Office, President Biden said it was time to “pass the torch to a new generation.” But he said nothing about his own age or capacity that led so many Democrats to desert him.He always knew that he would be delivering a speech like this. He just thought, or hoped, that it would be more than four years from now. Yet while it was not technically a farewell address, with six months still to go in office and more presidenting to do, it was the beginning of Joe Biden’s long goodbye.Mr. Biden’s address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night was all Joe, love him or hate him — the paeans to American exceptionalism, the evocations of family, the selective boasting about his record, the favorite lofty phrases about an “inflection point” and “saving our democracy,” and yes, the soft, raspy old man’s voice that no longer commands the room the way it once did.What there was not much of was introspection about how he had gotten to this moment of indignity. He may be focused on the soul of America, but he revealed little of his own. Indeed, if there has been much soul searching over these past days and weeks of personal and political trauma that led to this reluctant end of his storied half-century political career, the search has been called off. Or at least the results were not reported.He said it was time to “pass the torch to a new generation,” but said nothing about his own age, health or capacity that led so many Democrats to desert him since the calamitous debate on June 27. He did not describe the journey from supreme confidence that he and he alone could beat former President Donald J. Trump to the conclusion that in fact he could not. He offered no elaboration on how he had finally decided to give up his bid for a second term, but at the same time, he held back any bitterness he may have felt.Instead, it was an opportunity for a reset, to tell his story again on his own terms and recast the narrative as he starts to exit the stage. In his first extended public comments since dropping out, he tried to remind voters who had grown weary or wary of him why most of them had liked him in the first place and maybe, just maybe, to begin to shape his place in history.“My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” he said with pictures of his family visible behind him. “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pa., and in Claymont, Del., one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as the president of the United States. But here I am.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Full Transcript of Biden’s Speech on Ending His Run for Re-election

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      “The best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” the president said in a rare Oval Office address. And he told voters, “History is in your hands.”President Biden delivered remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday on his decision to abandon his bid for re-election. The following is a transcript of his speech, as recorded by The New York Times.My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents. Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt inspired us to reject fear.I revere this office, but I love my country more. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title. I draw strength and find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me, it’s about you. Your families, your futures.It’s about we the people. And we can never forget that. And I never have. I’ve made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point. On those rare moments in history, when the decisions we make now determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come, America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy. In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as, I mean, fellow Americans — can we do that? Does character in public life still matter? I believe you know the answer to these questions because I know you the American people, and I know this:We are a great nation because we are a good people. When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country, is larger than any one of us. Those of us who cherry that cause cherish it so much. The cause of American democracy itself. We must unite to protect it.In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More