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    For Dean Phillips, Biden’s Withdrawal Offers ‘Unfulfilling’ Vindication

    For Dean Phillips, the modern Cassandra of American politics, this I-told-you-so moment brings no joy. A little vindication, yes. Sadness, too, and sympathy for a man who gave his life to public service and deserved a better finale.But when it comes down to it, Mr. Phillips did tell everyone so, even though no one listened. He said early and often that President Biden was too old to run again, that he could not win, that the Democrats should find someone else to lead them into the election. When no one else picked up the mantle, he tried himself, only to be alternately ignored or pilloried.So when Mr. Biden stunned the world by pulling out of the race on Sunday, it was a bittersweet moment. Mr. Phillips could tell himself that he had tried to warn the party and at least some people remembered. By the end of the day, his phone had blown up with 1,276 text messages. He could not help wondering what would have happened had Mr. Biden made this decision 18 months ago. “Vindication,” he said, “has never felt so unfulfilling.”The story of Dean Phillips certainly looks different today than it did even a month ago. Until the world saw a frail and fumbling president on the debate stage on June 27, Mr. Phillips was a little-known third-term congressman from Minnesota whose long-shot challenge of Mr. Biden in the Democratic primaries had been dismissed as a quixotic exercise. Now it looks a little more prophetic.The point, he said, was to raise the alarm, not to advance his own ambitions. “My mission was to be a Paul Revere, not a George Washington,” he said. “I think that’s been accomplished.”Mr. Phillips sat down at a Washington hotel on Sunday to discuss his journey just 90 minutes before Mr. Biden announced that he was pulling out. The congressman had just come from the studio of CBS News, where he appeared on “Face the Nation” and discussed his opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal suggesting a secret vote of confidence on the president by House Democrats.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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    Unions tell the Biden administration to stop sending military aid to Israel.

    Several unions with millions of members demanded that the president secure a cease-fire in Gaza.A group of unions representing millions of workers sent a letter on Tuesday to the White House demanding a cease-fire in the war in Gaza and that the United States stop sending military aid to Israel.Immediately cutting military aid to the Israeli government “is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict,” read a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times, which added that the unions believed it was the best path forward after Israel and Hamas did not agree to the cease-fire deal the Biden administration outlined in May.But negotiations are ongoing. Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a Gaza cease-fire deal was “inside the 10-yard line,” though the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also said there is no expectation peace would be brokered before Wednesday. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will speak before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.Congress and President Biden have repeatedly allocated military funding for Israel to fight its war against Hamas in Gaza after Hamas brutally attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. But the growing humanitarian toll in the region has led to calls for an end to hostilities among many Americans.Unions, though historically associated with the left, have politically diverse membership and have been courted by both Mr. Biden, who dropped out the race on Sunday, and the Republicans’ presidential nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. Given their membership, the union letter is a strong statement from a key electorate that the administration needs to update its Mideast foreign policy, a policy that Vice President Kamala Harris, who was endorsed by Mr. Biden and several top Democrats to become the Democrats’ nominee, will also have to speak for.Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, the letter noted, and argued that unless the U.S. changes course, “the Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of October 7th until it is forced to stop.”The American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers and United Electrical Workers signed onto the letter.“Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues,” said Mark Dimondstein, the president of the postal workers’ union, in a statement. “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a cease-fire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off U.S. military aid to Israel.”The letter is in accordance with a vote that one of the unions representing service employees, the SEIU, took two months ago. In May, that group passed a resolution at its annual convention demanding that the government cease using taxpayer dollars to “fund military aid that enables attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza.” More

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    George Clooney Endorses Kamala Harris, Says Biden Is ‘Saving Democracy’

    Actor and Democratic fund-raiser George Clooney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential candidacy on Tuesday morning and thanked President Biden for deciding not to seek re-election. In a statement to CNN, Mr. Clooney said Mr. Biden, 81, “has shown true leadership. He’s saving democracy once again.” He also vowed to “do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.” Mr. Clooney’s representation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.His statement comes less than two weeks after he penned a harsh guest essay in The New York Times calling for Mr. Biden to step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee. The president’s disastrous debate performance and subsequent efforts to revitalize his campaign, including an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Lester Holt, inspired little confidence from Democratic voters and donors, who said Mr. Biden’s age was a liability to the party and its most vulnerable down-ballot candidates. Since suspending his presidential campaign on Sunday, Mr. Biden has been praised by Democrats and by many political figures across the world. The party has also quickly coalesced behind Ms. Harris, whom Mr. Biden endorsed shortly after exiting the race. Since formally launching her presidential campaign on Sunday, the vice president has raised more than $100 million. More

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    Harris Has Enough Support for a Nomination. Here’s Which States Endorsed Her.

    Where delegations have declared support for Kamala Harris A U.S. map highlighting the states where their delegations have declared support for Ms. Harris. In a show of party unity, state convention delegations have declared their support for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee. These endorsements represent more than enough delegates to clinch […] More

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    Lo que Joe Biden hizo es extraordinario

    En las próximas horas y días, muchos analistas políticos dirán que el presidente Joe Biden se sintió acorralado y no tuvo más remedio que ponerle fin a su campaña a la reelección. De manera dolorosa, sus limitaciones habían quedado al descubierto. Había perdido la confianza del Partido Demócrata. Se tambaleaba hacia una revuelta interna cada vez más desagradable o hacia una derrota potencialmente desgarradora ante Donald Trump. Retirarse no fue un acto de gracia. Fue preservar la reputación.Todo eso es correcto. Pero no es toda la verdad. No es la historia completa. Ignora la grandeza de lo que Biden hizo: su peculiaridad histórica, su agonía emocional, su humildad esencial.Sí, su decisión de abandonar sus aspiraciones a un segundo periodo y dejar que otro demócrata más joven buscara la presidencia llegó semanas más tarde de lo que habría sido ideal, después de demasiado secretismo, demasiada arrogancia, demasiada negación. Llevó al límite las ilusiones, mientras se mofaba de las encuestas, atacaba a los medios y reclamaba omnisciencia de una manera que recordó de manera inquietante a las bravatas populistas de Trump. (“Me siento muy frustrado por las élites”, “Miren las multitudes”). Pero eso no elimina el enorme impacto y ejemplo extraordinario que implica renunciar a su candidatura.Su salida de la contienda presidencial genera un tipo y una dimensión de incertidumbre sobre quién será la persona nominada de uno de los principales partidos políticos —y qué tipo de operación apresurada y tardía puede llevar a cabo— que no tiene precedentes pragmáticos en la política estadounidense moderna. Puede que su respaldo a Kamala Harris y el estatus tradicional de la vicepresidenta como aparente sucesora se traduzcan en su rápida designación. Es también posible que no sea el caso. Harris tiene muchos escépticos, y muchos demócratas prominentes anhelan una competencia real, no una transición de la indulgencia obligatoria de Biden a la lealtad forzada a Harris.Esto es terra incognita. Aunque en 1964 y 1968 los republicanos y los demócratas, respectivamente, empezaron sus convenciones sin tener claro el resultado, los aspirantes habían estado dando a conocer sus plataformas y compitiendo por la nominación durante gran parte del año. No estaban en una contienda apresurada luego de un volantazo a mediados de julio que ha hecho que muchos estadounidenses estén en vilo.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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    Kamala Harris recibe cifra récord de donaciones para su candidatura

    Tan solo la oleada de donaciones en línea alcanzó un máximo de 11,5 millones de dólares en una sola hora el domingo por la noche.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]La vicepresidenta Kamala Harris recaudó 81 millones de dólares en las primeras 24 horas desde que anunció su candidatura a la presidencia, informó su campaña, una cifra récord mientras los demócratas daban la bienvenida a su candidatura con una de las mayores avalanchas de dinero de todos los tiempos.Su campaña declaró que 888.000 donantes habían contribuido en su primer día, el 60 por ciento de los cuales estaban haciendo su primera contribución durante la contienda de 2024. La campaña dijo también que había inscrito a 43.000 de esos donantes para aportaciones recurrentes.La campaña de Harris no desglosó qué parte de los 81 millones de dólares se recaudó en línea mediante donaciones de pequeño importe frente a las de grandes donantes.Pero ActBlue, el portal digital de donaciones para los demócratas, había procesado más de 90 millones de dólares en el mismo periodo de 24 horas, según un análisis del New York Times de las contribuciones en línea de la plataforma.La oleada de donaciones en línea alcanzó un máximo de 11,5 millones de dólares en una sola hora el domingo por la noche.El partido se está uniendo rápidamente en torno a Harris. Las donaciones ayudarán a reconstruir un fondo que corría el riesgo de agotarse en las semanas de incertidumbre tras el mal debate del Biden, luego de que los grandes donantes pausaran sus aportes.Una de las fuentes de dinero fue una llamada el domingo por la noche con un grupo llamado Win With Black Women (Gana con las mujeres negras), que la campaña de Harris dijo que había recaudado 1,6 millones de dólares.En total, el domingo fue el tercer día de mayor recaudación en la historia de ActBlue. El máximo histórico se produjo el día después de la muerte de la jueza Ruth Bader Ginsburg en septiembre de 2020, cuando ActBlue procesó unos 73,5 millones de dólares. El segundo día más alto fue el día después del primer debate entre Biden y el expresidente Donald Trump, que coincidió con un plazo límite clave de recaudación de fondos.El lunes iba camino de ser otro gran día para las donaciones, con ActBlue superando los 30 millones de dólares procesados a media tarde. El contador de ActBlue incluye todas las donaciones en línea realizadas en la plataforma, incluidas las destinadas a candidatos a la Cámara de Representantes y al Senado, así como a organizaciones sin fines de lucro de izquierda.Shane Goldmacher es un corresponsal de política nacional y cubre la campaña de 2024 y los principales sucesos, tendencias y fuerzas que moldean la política estadounidense. Se le puede contactar en shane.goldmacher@nytimes.com. Más de Shane Goldmacher More

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    What’s Next for the Harris Campaign

    Vice President Kamala Harris faces many questions, from the management of her campaign to the selection of her running mate, should she be the Democratic Party’s nominee.President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the presidential ticket after ending his re-election campaign on Sunday, raising the chance that she could be the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be president of the United States.Ms. Harris in many ways has been preparing for this moment for the past year as she emerged as one of the Biden campaign’s more aggressive voices on abortion rights and attacks on former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Biden spoke to Ms. Harris on Sunday morning before he posted a letter online informing the world that he would be stepping down as the Democratic nominee.In another post less than a half-hour later, he endorsed Ms. Harris, who quickly issued a statement saying she intended to “earn and win this nomination.”But as the details of the nominating process remain unclear, there are many questions Ms. Harris and her team will face in the days ahead.What About Her Campaign?Ms. Harris will now need to take over the vast infrastructure of Mr. Biden’s campaign, which has roughly 1,300 staff members and dozens of offices around the nation. There are signs that is already happening.On a call with the Biden campaign staff on Sunday, Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chairwoman, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden campaign manager, informed the staff members that they were all now working for Harris for President, according to two people who listened to the call. “We’re all going to do it the same,” Ms. Chavez Rodriguez 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