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      More House Democrats reportedly want Biden to quit race as he pledges to ‘unite America’ – live

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      Reports are coming through from the virtual meeting that House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has been holding with fellow Democratic representatives, and it’s not looking good for Joe Biden.High-profile congressmen Jerry Nadler of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland are reportedly among a clutch of Democratic lawmakers who told Jeffries, the most senior Democrat in the House, that Biden should leave the presidential race, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe has posted on Twitter/X.He also includes congressmen Takano, Adam Smith, Morelle, Himes and Beyer.The Guardian has not independently verified this reporting.Hello again, US politics blog readers, we’re going to close this blog now after a lively day and we’ll be back on Monday morning, Washington DC time. All of today’s stories on Joe Biden are on this Guardian US page.Congress is back in session tomorrow and it will be another news-filled day at the start of what could be a make-or-break week for the US president’s re-election campaign, so do rejoin us then. This follows late developments this afternoon coming out of a virtual meeting between some House Democrats and their leader in that chamber, Hakeem Jeffries.Here’s where things stand:
      High-profile congressmen Jerry Nadler of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland are reportedly among a clutch of Democratic lawmakers who told Jeffries, the most senior Democrat in the House, that Biden should leave the presidential race.
      More Democratic representatives, including Mark Takano of California, Adam Smith of Washington state, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Joe Morelle of New York and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania also reportedly told Jeffries they want Biden to quit the race. Maxine Waters and Bobby Scott reportedly said they support him. Jeffries did not reveal his hand.
      Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are now in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for the third stop on this campaign swing through the swing state.
      Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham believes both Joe Biden and Donald Trump should take a cognitive test. The South Carolina senator said that anyone standing for president and anyone in the line of succession should be subjected to a cognitive exam.
      Biden heard words of encouragement from Pennsylvania Democratic US senator John Fetterman on his trip to the state today. Fetterman won office two years ago despite his own struggles in a debate against his Republican opponent. “I know what it’s like to have a rough debate and I’m standing here as your senator. There is only one guy that has ever beaten Trump and he is going to do it twice and put him down for good,” the senator said.
      Biden told congregants at a church in Philadelphia this morning: “We must unite America again. That’s my goal. That’s what we’re going to do.” The supportive churchgoers chanted “Four more years!”
      We can now add Pennsylvania congresswoman Susan Wild to the list of lawmakers who reportedly told House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries in a virtual meeting today that Joe Biden should quick his re-election campaign, CNN reports.Representatives Maxine Waters and Bobby Scott reportedly told Jeffries they continue to support Biden as the presumptive nominee, as the caucus split, the outlet reported.Many apparently agree that Kamala Harris should become the nominee instead.Reports are coming through from the virtual meeting that House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has been holding with fellow Democratic representatives, and it’s not looking good for Joe Biden.High-profile congressmen Jerry Nadler of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland are reportedly among a clutch of Democratic lawmakers who told Jeffries, the most senior Democrat in the House, that Biden should leave the presidential race, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe has posted on Twitter/X.He also includes congressmen Takano, Adam Smith, Morelle, Himes and Beyer.The Guardian has not independently verified this reporting.Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are now in Harrisburg for another event.The city is the state capital of Pennsylvania, about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia, where the US president addressed a church service this morning.In between he stopped at a campaign office, as hit the swing-state in an ongoing mini-blitz to persuade Democrats he is up to being their nominee for re-election this November.Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham believes both Joe Biden and Donald Trump should take a cognitive test.The South Carolina senator told CBS on Sunday that anyone standing for president and anyone in the line of succession should be subjected to a cognitive exam.After Biden’s flop in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election, against Trump late last month, Graham said earlier today: “This is a wake-up call for the country. We need to make sure that the people who are going to be in the line of succession are capable of being commanders in chief under dire circumstances.”He added: “I’m offended by the idea that he shouldn’t take a competency test, given all the evidence in front of us,” Graham said, adding that he thinks Biden is in denial and that’s dangerous.Graham said: “What I’d like to see is President Biden take a cognitive test.” Asked if Trump should, too, Graham said: “Yes, yes, I think both.”Meanwhile, there’s some big news breaking in France, where the hopes of the far right and their leader Marine Le Pen appear to have been dashed by resurgent support for leftwing parties in a snap election.We have a live blog covering the results as they come in, and you can follow it here:During his unscheduled stop at a Philadelphia campaign office, Joe Biden heard some words of encouragement from Democratic senator John Fetterman, who won office two years ago despite his own struggles in a debate against his Republican opponent.The senator’s performance in the debate against Mehmet Oz was hampered by the auditory processing disorder that afflicted him after suffering a stroke. Fetterman nonetheless defeated Oz in the 2022 midterm elections, and, as he appeared alongside the president today, compared his comeback to Biden’s current troubles following his tired performance at his first debate against Donald Trump.“I know what it’s like to have a rough debate and I’m standing here as your senator,” Fetterman said.“There is only one guy that has ever beaten Trump and he is going to do it twice and put him down for good.”Here’s a look back on Fetterman’s own struggles in his Senate campaign:Joe Biden has made an unscheduled stop at the Roxborough Democratic Coordinated campaign office in Philadelphia.He is joined there by Pennsylvania’s Democratic senator John Fetterman, and the city’s mayor Cherelle Parker.Here are some more images from inside the event at the church in north-western Philadelphia a little earlier.Addressing the congregation.Mingling:More:Here are some images related to Joe Biden’s appearance in Philadelphia on Sunday, to speak at a church.A handful of people outside held signs urging the president to drop out of his re-election campaign.And this:Biden meets voters. More

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      Biden insists he can reunite US as high-profile Democrats reportedly want him to quit race

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      Joe Biden insisted he was the person to reunite America in a second term in the White House as he hit the trail in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Sunday – but the number of high-profile Democrats doubting his position as the presumptive party nominee for re-election only grew amid a campaign in crisis.Pressure on the US president increased even further following his poor debate performance against Donald Trump last month and an underwhelming ABC interview last week, as a group of Democratic representatives met online with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday.Congressmen Jerry Nadler of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland were reportedly among a clutch of lawmakers who told Jeffries that Biden should leave the presidential race.Congress will be back on Monday from its latest recess and the focus among Democrats is whether Biden can continue to campaign for re-election. House Democrats are expected to meet in person with Jeffries on Tuesday to discuss the president.Biden’s fresh blitz on Sunday to rally voters, donors and campaign staff also came as prominent House Democrat Adam Schiff said Vice-President Kamala Harris could beat Trump and the president should “pass the torch” to someone else if he can’t win “overwhelmingly”.The US president made no mention of his health and fitness when he told a loudly supportive Philadelphia church congregation in the morning: “We must unite America again … that’s my goal. That’s what we’re going to do.”But Schiff, who is likely to become California’s next senator in the November election, said he thought Harris could decisively win the election against presumptive Republican party nominee Trump, if Biden drops out.He warned that the US president either “has to win overwhelmingly, or he has to pass the torch to someone who can”.Meanwhile, reports began emerging after the virtual meeting with Jeffries on Sunday, via CBS and CNN, that as well as Nadler and Raskin, representatives Mark Takano of California, Adam Smith of Washington state, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Joe Morelle of New York and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania told him they wanted Biden to quit as the race, the outlets said, citing unnamed sources. Many want Harris to take over as the nominee.Democrats Maxine Waters and Bobby Scott told Jeffries they support Biden to become the nominee and fight for re-election, while Jeffries did not reveal his hand, CNN reported.As the chaos continued, Biden was on a three-stop swing in Pennsylvania, first addressing the church service in a majority Black neighborhood in north-western Philadelphia before expecting to head to the state capital of Harrisburg about 100 miles away in the afternoon.He was introduced at the Mount Airy church of God in Christ in Philadelphia as “our honored guest” and senior pastor Louis Felton told the congregation that if they stand together “there is no election that we cannot win”, adding, “We love our president. We pray for our president.”One demonstrator outside the church underlined the conflicting views within the party and even normally loyal Democratic voters, carrying a sign that read: “Thank you Joe, but time to go.”View image in fullscreenBut Felton said: “God knew Biden needs some love.” He described Biden as a president of vision and integrity and said: “President Biden is coming back. He’s a comeback kid. He’s a fighter. He’s a champion.”He concluded: “Never count Joseph out,” as congregants chanted “four more years” when Biden finished speaking.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMeanwhile Mark Warner, another prominent Democrat and US senator for Virginia, reportedly is wrangling Senate Democrats to ask Biden at the White House on Monday to step down as the presumptive nominee.On Sunday morning, Schiff told NBC News’s Meet the Press show: “The interview didn’t put concerns to rest. No single interview is going to do that. And what I do think the president needs to decide is, can he put those concerns aside? Can he demonstrate the American people that what happened on the debate stage was an aberration?”Schiff then weighted Harris’s prospects if she became the party nominee not Biden, as her profile rises fast.“I think she very well could win overwhelmingly, but before we get into a decision about who else it should be, the president needs to make a decision about whether it’s him.”Bernie Sanders, the independent US senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, signaled his continued support for Biden.He told CBS in a Sunday interview: “What we are talking about now is not a Grammy award contest for best singer. Biden is old. He’s not as articulate as he once was. I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One – he can’t,” Sanders admitted, while adding a challenge to the president to continue to run on policies that help working-class voters.“Whose policies will benefit the vast majority of the people in this country, who has the guts to take on corporate America?” Sanders asked, saying the Democratic nominee needed to fight for health insurance coverage, selectively higher taxes and benefits.“Those are the issues he’s talked about. He’s got to bring them up in the fallt,” Sanders said.Democratic US senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said “the clock is ticking” for the president to quell doubts about his fitness to continue to run for re-election and this was a critical week for him. More

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      ‘This country needs him’: Biden draws rapturous applause at a Philadelphia church

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      Less than 48 hours after declaring only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the US presidential race, Joe Biden described his reliance on faith “in good times and tough times” at a predominantly Black church in north-west Philadelphia.Times are certainly tough for the president right now. But in the Mount Airy church of God in Christ on Sunday morning, you could be forgiven for not noticing. Biden was greeted by rapturous applause, and departed to chants of “four more years”.Biden, 81 – facing questions about his age, acuity and ability – was not the oldest man in the room. Alongside him sat the church’s founder, Ernest Morris Sr, 91.“Since you are only an octogenarian, sitting next to a nonagenarian, don’t let anyone talk about your age,” declared Bishop Louis Felton, the church’s senior pastor. “You’re a young whippersnapper.”Before the whippersnapper even approached the microphone, as members of his own party cool on his ability to win re-election as the Democratic nominee, he received the warmest of welcomes.Outside church, a handful of signs highlighted the division stretching the Democratic coalition. “Thank U Joe but time to go,” read one. Another urged Biden to “pass the torch”.But inside, before an overwhelmingly supportive audience, he did not touch on the growing calls for him to stand aside. In a brief seven-minute address, Biden focused on hope, the need for unity, and his administration’s achievements for Black Americans.“I’ve been doing this a long time,” he acknowledged. “And I’ve honest to God never felt more optimistic about America’s future.”After the service, congregants were quick to praise him. Sure, a few conceded, last month’s TV debate, in which Biden had a dire performance against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, had sparked concerns about his viability as a candidate, but they stood behind Biden.Kim Speedwell, 57, was unbothered by Biden’s missteps. “I think his experience speaks for itself,” she said. “Even though he is in his ages … We need four more years of his experience.”While doubts appear to mount among donors and senior party figures around the prospects of Biden’s campaign, those in church this weekend were confident he would prevail in November. “This country needs him,” said Mike Johnson, 69. “Democracy needs him.”The president’s age is “a difficult issue”, granted Paul Johansen, a teacher from Massachusetts. But “he has a lifetime of service that I respect and appreciate,” said Johansen, 58. “That is not undone by a bad night.“Having said that, I appreciate the fact that the federal government is a big entity and he’ll have a lot of people helping him.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionRoz, a 69-year-old retiree who preferred not to use her last name, praised Biden’s Christian faith.“I just love the fact he does love God,” she said.She added: “Not just selling Bibles, when he probably hasn’t read one” as a swipe against Trump, who has not only wielded a Bible at a highly-controversial 2020 photo op but also began selling them during this election campaign.“I don’t care how much he slips … I slip more than him,” she added. “Anyone who got good sense is gonna vote for Biden. Who wants a criminal, a liar, an adulterer, a racist man, as president?”Felton, the pastor, noted that Biden had not originally been scheduled to appear at church on Sunday. The event was only arranged when the National Education Association’s union announced a strike on Friday, forcing his campaign to cancel a scheduled speech at one of its conferences.“God knew Biden needs some love,” said Felton. He found it in the pews of a carefully-selected church in Philadelphia. What about the ranks of his own party? More

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      Assured Kamala Harris cuts a transformed figure in New Orleans – and carefully avoids any mention of Biden’s fitness for office

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      The ideal understudy is talented but inconspicuous, prepared at all times to step into the top role and yet content to never do so.In New Orleans, at the 30th annual Essence Festival of Culture, gone was the Kamala Harris of the drab brown, chair-matching suit and the halting, technical commentary about American policy needs. That was the Harris who spoke here in 2019, then a Democratic presidential primary contender trailed by fewer than 10 reporters.Instead, on Saturday, Harris – dressed in a bright teal suit and tailed by a press contingent which had expanded to more than four times its previous size – spoke to a standing-room-only crowd in a room equipped to seat more than 500 people.In what was billed as an on-stage conversation with Essence CEO Caroline Wanga, Harris confidently offered a blend of standard campaign-season talk – a recitation of the Biden-Harris administration’s major policy accomplishments with dire warnings about the dangers posed by a possible second Trump term and the critical importance of the choice that voters will face in just 122 days – blended with the language of women’s empowerment.To say that Harris assiduously avoided any mention of recent questions about Biden’s fitness for office would be an overstatement, and Wanga did not ask or seemingly make room for the issue gripping much of Washington. In the past week, the fallout of the president’s shaky debate performance on 27 June has manifested in calls for him to drop out of the race, with a handful of Democratic lawmakers joining the chorus. Many of those same critics are now hoping Harris might be the new nominee in November.For those inclined to read tea leaves, there may well have been more there in New Orleans. Harris encouraged the audience to embrace ambition and the difficulty of cutting new, and even history-making, paths.“I beseech you, don’t you ever hear something can’t be done,’ Harris said. “People in your life will tell you, though, it’s not your time. It’s not your turn. Nobody like you has done it before. Don’t you ever listen to that.“I like to say, ‘I eat no for breakfast,’” she said.View image in fullscreenHarris had been introduced as a woman “doing the heavy lifting”, “smart”, “tough”, and a “proven fighter for the backbone of this country”. Then she entered and exited to the sound of a Beyoncé-Kendrick Lamar collaboration, Freedom, at the point where Beyonce sings, “Singin’, freedom, freedom, Where are you? … Hey! I’ma keep running.”While Biden has insisted he will remain in the race amid what he has described as a subset of Washington insiders and op-ed writers insisting he should step aside, Harris’s poll numbers have improved and her public speeches and commentary – once a much maligned element of her time on the national political stage – have become more assertive and assured.Harris has spent recent months crisscrossing the country speaking about threats to reproductive rights, maternal mortality, economic opportunity and inclusion. And in New Orleans, Harris described the election as more important than “any in your lifetime”, adding that democracy may not survive a second Trump term. Trump, she said, was a convicted felon whom the supreme court had just granted immunity from prosecution.Harris also spoke about an array of the administration’s efforts to resolve the problems that vex the lives of Americans, including many in the room: a cap on the price of insulin paid by those enrolled in Medicare; expanded access to public health insurance for low- to moderate-income women after giving birth, the period in which many fatal complications arise; and billions in student loan debt forgiven. When Harris called for those who had seen some of their student debt forgiven, hundreds of hands went up in the room.“You got that because you voted in 2020,” Harris told the audience.View image in fullscreenAnd, she said, there was work that remained such as reducing the cost of childcare for all Americans to no more than 7% of household income, and work on the cusp of being done. This included the administration’s efforts to remove medical debt from the calculus that generated credit scores and made it hard for some Americans to rent an apartment or purchase a car.Leshelle Henderson, a nurse practitioner from Cleveland providing family medicine and psychiatric care, said she was trying to serve her community and a country in the midst of a mental health crisis. And she was working double time to pay off hundreds of thousands in student loans, none of which had been forgiven. She came to Essence Fest for fun but wanted to hear the vice-president speak about student loan forgiveness and what a second Biden-Harris administration would do for the economic fortunes of Black men and women.That was before the event.“I liked what I heard,” Henderson said. “I did, but want to hear more. Honestly, I think what we heard tonight is the next president of the United States. Isn’t that something?” More

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      Top Democrats plan crisis meeting despite Biden’s vow to fight on

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      Congressional Democrats are to hold an emergency weekend meeting to discuss Joe Biden’s tottering presidential candidacy, after a primetime television interview failed to dispel doubts triggered by last week’s debate fiasco.Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives, scheduled the virtual meeting for Sunday with ranking committee members, according to multiple reports, even as Biden struck a defiant posture in Friday’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.In a 22-minute interview from a school library in Wisconsin, aired in full, the president brushed off his miserable debate display as “a bad night” and insisted he would only withdraw his candidacy if the “Lord almighty” ordered it.But his posture appeared only to reinforce the views of those Democrats who had already publicly urged him to quit the race, while others were said to be privately infuriated by his seemingly insouciant attitude to the prospect of defeat at the hands of Donald Trump in November’s election.On Saturday, Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota became the fifth House member to publicly urge Biden to stand aside. Four others had done so before Friday’s interview.“Given what I saw and heard from the president during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from [him] following [it], I do not believe [Biden] can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” she said.Asked by Stephanopoulos how he would feel if he had to turn the presidency back to an opponent he and his party loathe, the president said: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do – that’s what this is about.”The response seemed to minimise the consequences of handing over power to a rival who tried to overturn the results of the 2020, incited a mob to attack the US Capitol and vowed to seek “retribution” on his opponents if he won again, a threat that has unnerved many Democrats.The convening of Democratic House members by Jeffries would follow a similar move even before Friday’s interview by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who called on fellow senators from his party to meet to discuss Biden’s candidacy. Warner has been reported to be leading an effort by Senate Democrats urging the president to stand aside.Democrats who had already called publicly for an end to his candidacy reiterated the sentiment after Friday evening’s broadcast of the interview, in which Biden projected greater assuredness than in the 27 June debate with Trump, yet affected obliviousness to concerns over his mental acuity or loss of support in the polls.Lloyd Doggett, a veteran Texas Democrat who had been the first congressman to call for Biden to withdraw last Tuesday, said the interview only confirmed his view.“The need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday,” he told CNN.View image in fullscreenHe added: “[Biden] does not want his legacy to be that he’s the one who turned over our country to a tyrant.”Mike Quigley, an Illinois congressman who was the fourth to urge the president to stand aside – after Doggett, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts – called aspects of the interview “disturbing”, adding that it showed “the president of the United States doesn’t have the vigour necessary to overcome the deficit here”.Addressing Biden’s response to a putative Trump re-election, he told CNN: “He felt as long as he gave it his best effort, that’s all that really matters. With the greatest respect: no.”Julián Castro, a former Democratic presidential hopeful and a member of Barack Obama’s cabinet, acknowledged to MSNBC that Biden had been “steadier” than in his debate performance but was in “denial about the decline that people can clearly see”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAddressing Biden’s comments on a possible second Trump presidency, Castro said: “I think the most chilling was when Stephanopoulos asked him, ‘Well, what if you lose to [former President Trump,] then how are you gonna feel?’ and President Biden said, ‘Well, as long as I gave it my all,’ that, basically, that he would feel OK.”“That’s not good enough for the American people. That’s not good enough with the stakes of Donald Trump winning.”Other Democrats criticised Biden’s resistance to the idea of taking a cognitive test. He dismissed the suggestion out of hand by telling Stephanopoulos: “I take a cognitive test every day”, referring to the daily work of the presidency and running for re-election.“I found the answer about taking a cognitive test every day to be unsettling and not particularly convincing, so I will be watching closely every day to see how he is doing, especially in spontaneous situations,” Representative Judy Chu of California told Politico.Tim Ryan, a former representative from Ohio – who has also urged a Biden withdrawal – echoed that sentiment, telling the same network: “I think there was a level of him being out of touch with reality on the ground.”He also said: “I don’t think he moved the needle at all. I don’t think he energised anybody. I’m worried, like I think a lot of people are, that he is just not the person to be able to get this done for us.”Several Biden loyalists, including Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a chairman of his campaign, and John Fetterman, a senator from Pennsylvania, voiced their continued support. But even among supporters there were doubts.Ro Khanna, a California congressman and Biden surrogate, issued a statement saying he expected the president to do more to show he has vigour to fight and win the election and “that requires more than one interview.”“I expect complete transparency from the White House about this issue and a willingness to answer many legitimate questions from the media and voters about his capabilities,” Khanna said.Gavin Newsom, the California governor who has been widely discussed as a potential successor to Biden, was campaigning on Saturday for the president in Pennsylvania’s Bucks county.Kamala Harris, the vice-president, was due to make a public appearance at the Essence culture festival in New Orleans the same day. More

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      Democrats in disarray as Trump immunity ruling raises stakes

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      “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” So wrote the supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor in a minority opinion this week. She was far from alone in the view that, with Donald Trump threatening an “imperial presidency”, American democracy is at a moment of maximum peril.Millions are pinning their hopes on the Democratic party as the last wall of defence. Surely, they believed, Democrats would field their best and brightest led by a dynamic presidential candidate and demagogue slayer. Instead the party is offering 81-year-old Joe Biden and an internal civil war.Biden’s career-worst debate performance against Trump last month has triggered acrimony, angst and panic among Democrats just four months from election day. There are growing calls for oldest president in US history to step aside in favour of Vice-President Kamala Harris – or someone else. But Biden has so far dug in and vowed to fight on.It would be a hugely consequential decision for any party at any moment, but the one thing that Democrats agree on is the stakes are uniquely high. America’s highest court has shifted right, thanks to three Trump appointees, and could indulge his authoritarian impulses should he be elected. A Trump victory would also have dramatic implications for Ukraine and other US allies.“American democracy is facing a category 5 disaster here,” said Charlie Sykes, a conservative political commentator and Trump critic. “Not just the election but the court. Unfortunately the Democratic party feels like it’s paralysed and refusing to acknowledge reality.”Debate viewers were shocked because Democrats had created an alternate reality bubble, Sykes added. “It reminds me a little bit of what what the Republican bubble felt like a few years ago where people will say one thing in private but they won’t say it in public. In private people know that they have a real problem with Joe Biden, that it was a disaster, that it might not get better, but they’re unwilling to say that in public and right now that’s an untenable solution.”America celebrated its 248th birthday this week with its customary barbecues, fireworks and flag-waving, but its democracy has been ailing for some time. The Watergate scandal, which led to Richard Nixon’s resignation, and the Ronald Reagan era helped sow distrust in government, while the the 2008 financial crisis fuelled a sense that the system was failing to deliver.View image in fullscreenThe supreme court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for special interests to pour money into elections. Republicans have mounted voter suppression efforts. Gerrymandering, the process whereby a party redraws district boundaries for electoral advantage, has fuelled polarisation and often means the loudest and most extreme voices are rewarded in party primaries.Structural flaws have been brutally exposed. The Senate, where states have an equal voice irrespective of their population size, has become unrepresentative and calcified by procedural rules such as the filibuster. Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the past 36 years, yet both George W Bush and Trump gained the White House via the electoral college.That means five of the nine supreme court justices were appointed by a president who lost the popular vote. Trust in the court is now an all-time low. Along with corruption scandals, the justices have defied public opinion with decisions such as the overturning of Roe v Wade, a precedented that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion.In the past two weeks, the court’s rightwing majority delivered a big blow to the regulatory powers of federal agencies and ruled that officials can accept cash or gifts from people they have assisted: they only count as bribes if given before the favour. Then, most consequentially of all, came its decision to expand presidential power.In a 6-3 decision, the court said former presidents have absolute immunity from investigation or prosecution for official acts that fall within their core functions. They are also presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for private actions.The ruling was a major victory for Trump, who stands accused of orchestrating the deadly January 2021 insurrection but will now almost certainly not face trial in Washington ahead of the election in November. Sentencing for Trump’s hush money convictions was also postponed until at least September as the judge agreed to weigh the possible impact of the decision.The dissenting opinion, written by Sotomayor, was scathing as she considered what a president can now do. “Orders the navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold on to power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune … In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.”There was condemnation of the ruling across the political spectrum. Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, warned: “The supreme court decision raises the stakes because just imagine unleashing an absolutely immune Donald Trump on the nation, knowing that he can break the law at least in some respects with impunity.“That to me is the breathtaking part of it. It’s not some abstract where you’re talking about Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton or George HW Bush. It’s Donald fucking Trump that you are basically saying should be above the law.”Paul Begala, a scholar at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and former adviser to Bill Clinton, told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast: “We had a good run. We go back to June 15, 1215: your country creates the Magna Carta. So we had 809 years of believing that no king, no president was above the law and that’s come to an end.“I’m sorry to sound cynical about it but it’s that dire because we’re about to put that power, potentially, in the hands of someone who we know from past experience will blow through any guideline, regulation and now he’s been given carte blanche by the supreme court.”View image in fullscreenTrump, 78, who is running a vengance-driven campaign and has expressed admiration for strongmen, has already quipped that he would be dictator on “day one” as president. His agenda for a second term is more extreme than the first – and better organised. The cabinet, congress and courts are likely to be more loyal and compliant, with fewer guardrails in place and fewer dissenters mounting resistance.Informed by policy documents such as the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025”, Trump has made no secret of his plans to purge the federal government of thousands of civil servants deemed disloyal, weaponise the justice department against perceived political foes, slap 10% tariffs on thousands of imported goods and open detention camps to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn this context, Biden is carrying the weight of the world on his frail shoulders: the 2024 election is a must win. But his raspy-voiced debate performance in Atlanta – losing his train of thought, stumbling over words, failing to combat Trump’s lies – revived anxieties over his fitness of office. Having identified him as the right man at the right time for the pandemic election of 2020, Democrats are now tormented by the possibility that they chose the wrong candidate for 2024.Questions swirled over whether Biden’s inner circle had been concealing his weaknesses from public scrutiny for some time. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, 84, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, wondered on the MSNBC network: “Is this an episode, or is this a condition? It’s legitimate – of both candidates.”After huddling with advisers and family members, Biden acknowledged that he nearly “fell asleep on the stage” during his poor debate showing, blaming it on a cold and jetlag, even though he had returned from Europe 12 days earlier. He told an all-staff campaign call: “I am running. I’m the nominee of the Democratic party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving.”The Biden campaign dug in its heels and dismissed the critics as “bed-wetters”, a dismissive attitude that disgusted some senior Democrats and made the situation worse. There was also frustration that Biden waited several days to do direct damage control with senior members of his own party. Some said the response had been worse than the debate performance itself.Two Democratic members of Congress called for Biden to quit the race and discontent on Capitol Hill is said to run much deeper, with many Democrats fearing that Biden could also cost the party the House and Senate. A major Democratic donor, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, also called on the president to step aside.Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction.org, sponsor of the Step Aside Joe! campaign, said: “The train wreck around the bend is clear if he’s still the nominee, if he’s still the candidate. There’s an emergency cord that can be pulled.”View image in fullscreenSolomon warned: “The last days have brought powerful signs that the threat to democracy has become greater than ever. It’s a one-two punch. The obvious, clear evidence that Biden isn’t up to the job either to defeat Trump or to be president if he were to be re-elected.“Then this supreme court decision and it all underscores that the rather solipsistic fixations of the top of the Biden clan jeopardise democracy in a way that is a dream for the extreme right wing in the United States. The Biden performance was a gift-wrapped present to the Maga Republicans. It was everything but unwrapping the bow and taking off the wrapping paper.”The latest polls are fuelling alarm. A New York Times / Siena College survey found Trump leading Biden 49% to 43% among likely voters nationally, a three-point swing toward the Republican from before the debate. A Wall Street Journal poll found that 80% of voters think Biden is too old to run for a second term. A survey by Our Revolution, a political organising group, found that two in three progressives want Biden to suspend his campaign.But time is short to make a change. The Democratic National Committee announced weeks ago that it would hold a virtual roll call for a formal nomination before the party’s national convention, which begins on 19 August. Harris is emerging as the favourite to replace Biden if he were to withdraw, although governors Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan remain viable alternatives.A messy, divisive convention – where protests over the war in Gaza are already expected – would only reinforce the suspicion that, with American democracy hanging by a thread, the Democratic party is failing to meet the moment.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “American democracy and the force of the conservative movement that we’re seeing in the supreme court lacks a coherent, energetic counterpoint. The Democratic party is simply not up for the fight. The conservatives are marching ahead and the Democrats are flailing.”Jacobs added: “It’s reasonable to ask, why did it come to this with regards to Biden? Why weren’t party leaders intervening a year and a half ago to to usher off Biden to bring in genuine competition? Instead they leave it for a debate which realistic leaders could anticipate how it was going to turn out.“The fact that Trump was lying and bullying was known going in and Biden seemed so incapable of responding and so surprised by it. It was a very powerful signal of his infirmity but also of the infirmity party in moving past him. Joe Biden almost certainly can’t win, and the party seems incapable of processing that and taking action.” More

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      Joe Biden tells rally ‘I am going to beat’ Trump amid reports of new effort to get president to quit race – live

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      Addressing a crowd of whooping supporters, Joe Biden delivered an energetic rally speech in Madison, Wisconsin – a major swing state.Biden opened up his remarks by taking a jab at a Fourth of July comment made by Donald Trump in 2019 when Trump said that revolutionary war troops “took over the airports” from the British.“He’s a stable genius,” Biden said mockingly.He went on to vow to beat Trump but not before accidentally slipping up with his words.“I’m staying in the race … I will beat him again in 2020,” said Biden, before correcting himself a few seconds later by saying: “And by the way, we’re going to do it again in 2024.”Biden went on to address criticisms about his age, with the 81-year old president saying: “I keep seeing all those stories about being too old … You think I’m too old to restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land? Too old to ban assault weapons again? To protect social security and Medicare? … Too old to beat Donald Trump?”He then cited Trump’s criminal record, calling him a convicted felon with the “morals of an alley cat” and pointing to Trump’s involvement in the January 6 riots in 2021.“You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American at the same time,” he said, adding: “This is so damn serious. You can’t love your country only when you win.”Biden’s demeanor throughout his nearly 20-minute address on Friday was energetic and forceful, marking a stark shift away from his performance during last week’s debate, which saw him struggle to articulate his thoughts.With one campaign event out of the way, Biden has several more tests facing him amid these make-or-break days, with a crucial ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos set to air tonight at 8pm.Another Democrat in Congress has expressed doubts about Joe Biden’s viability: Brad Sherman, from California, posted that he was looking forward to the president’s upcoming interview on ABC, but also said it was “important” that Biden conduct an “extended LIVE interview” as soon as possible.His statement further suggested that party rules do not mandate that Biden remain on the ticket:
      Counter to popular belief, the rules of the Democratic Party do NOT require that pledged delegates vote for Biden at the convention. Party rules require delegates’ votes, “reflect the sentiments of those who elected them,” at the time the delegates cast their ballots.
      Democratic Congressmembers Raúl Grijalva and Lloyd Doggett have publicly called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy. In another defiant speech, Biden told supporters in Wisconsin earlier today that he would not be quitting the race.The Biden campaign has responded to Donald Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025, a rightwing effort to aggressively roll back civil rights and other liberal policies. After Trump on Friday claimed, “I know nothing about Project 2025,” and “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying,” the Biden campaign pointed out the former president’s many connections to the initiative:The Make America Great Again Super Pac supporting Trump has run ads promoting the effort and calling it, “Trump’s Project 2025.” John McEntee, who served as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump, was brought on last year as a senior adviser for Project 2025 via the Heritage Foundation, an influential rightwing conservative thinktank that has drafted the plans to dismantle and reorganize US government.Led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a manifesto that calls for a crackdown on immigration, the reversal of LGBTQ+ rights, further erosion of reproductive rights, the undoing of environmental protections and the implementation of other rightwing policy goals. Trump allies and former appointees have been involved in the effort.The Trump campaign previously said Project 2025 was not its own initiative, but that it was “appreciative” of suggestions from other groups. Trump has also directly praised the Heritage Foundation and said “we need the help” from the group, as Biden’s campaign pointed out. And the Heritage Foundation has also previously claimed credit for Trump administration policies.More here from our past coverage of Project 2025:Joe Biden will reportedly hold a solo press conference next Thursday, according to journalist Jacob Gardenswartz, citing senior administration officials on a call with reporters.Officials have not publicly confirmed the event, but news of a potential media conference led by Biden comes as the president has faced increasing pressure to speak with reporters and do interviews in the wake of his poor debate performance.Biden has done fewer press conferences and media interviews than any of his past seven predecessors at this point in his term, according to a report this week in Axios. His first post-debate interview will air this evening on ABC.Some key events and links from the day so far, as we prepare for Joe Biden’s major ABC interview to air this evening:
      Biden delivered an energetic campaign speech in Madison, Wisconsin, saying: “I am running and going to win again.”
      The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, broke from other Democratic governors supporting Biden’s campaign and issued a statement urging him to “listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump”.
      The White House said Biden was seen by his doctor after the debate and that the physician found he was fine and “recovering well” after reports he was suffering from a cold.
      Donald Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, an agenda of rightwing activists to erode civil rights and other progressive policies under a second Trump term. But key figures involved in Project 2025 are closely linked to Trump.
      Several powerful Democratic backers have said they will pause donations until Biden steps aside.
      Robert F Kennedy Jr made a startling pledge to not “take sides” with respect to the September 11 terrorist attacks if his long-shot presidential campaign vaults him to the White House.
      Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia, is organizing a group of senators to urge Joe Biden to exit the race, according to a new report in the Washington Post, based on accounts of “two people with direct knowledge of the effort”.The Post reports:
      Warner is telling Democratic senators that President Biden can no longer remain in the election in the wake of his faltering debate performance, according to the people familiar with private conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. The Virginia senator has told others that he is deeply concerned Biden is not able to run a campaign that could beat former president Donald Trump.
      The senator’s spokesperson did not confirm or deny the report to the Post, saying in a statement: “Like many other people in Washington and across the country, Senator Warner believes these are critical days for the president’s campaign, and he has made that clear to the White House.”The report was published as Biden delivered an energetic campaign speech in Wisconsin reiterating that he was not ending his campaign. But he continues to face pressure and scrutiny. The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, who has been a Biden campaign surrogate, issued a statement earlier today urging the president to “listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump”.Addressing a crowd of whooping supporters, Joe Biden delivered an energetic rally speech in Madison, Wisconsin – a major swing state.Biden opened up his remarks by taking a jab at a Fourth of July comment made by Donald Trump in 2019 when Trump said that revolutionary war troops “took over the airports” from the British.“He’s a stable genius,” Biden said mockingly.He went on to vow to beat Trump but not before accidentally slipping up with his words.“I’m staying in the race … I will beat him again in 2020,” said Biden, before correcting himself a few seconds later by saying: “And by the way, we’re going to do it again in 2024.”Biden went on to address criticisms about his age, with the 81-year old president saying: “I keep seeing all those stories about being too old … You think I’m too old to restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land? Too old to ban assault weapons again? To protect social security and Medicare? … Too old to beat Donald Trump?”He then cited Trump’s criminal record, calling him a convicted felon with the “morals of an alley cat” and pointing to Trump’s involvement in the January 6 riots in 2021.“You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American at the same time,” he said, adding: “This is so damn serious. You can’t love your country only when you win.”Biden’s demeanor throughout his nearly 20-minute address on Friday was energetic and forceful, marking a stark shift away from his performance during last week’s debate, which saw him struggle to articulate his thoughts.With one campaign event out of the way, Biden has several more tests facing him amid these make-or-break days, with a crucial ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos set to air tonight at 8pm.In his closing remarks, Joe Biden said:“I have never been more optimistic about America’s future because the American people are decent, good, honorable. Just remember who in God’s name we are. We’re the United States of America …“So let’s stand together, win this election and exile Donald Trump.”“You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American at the same time,” Joe Biden said.“This is so damn serious. You can’t love your country only when you win,” he added.“Ultimately, the American presidency is about character … It’s about the president’s decency, integrity. Do they respect people or do they incite violence and hate? … And what’s worse, the supreme court has just ruled … for virtually no limits on the power of the presidency …“We just celebrated the Fourth of July saying we will not be ruled by a king.”“Trump’s biggest lie of all is he had nothing to do with the insurrection of January 6,” said Joe Biden.He went on to say:“We all saw with our own eyes. We saw he sent thousands to attack the Capitol. We saw police being attacked, the Capitol being ransacked, mob hunting for Nancy Pelosi, gallows set up to hang Mike Pence.“Let me ask you something, after what Trump did on January 6, why would anyone ever let him be near the Oval Office again?”Joe Biden repeated his popular line from last week’s debate, saying that Donald Trump “has the morals of an alley cat”.The crowd whooped in response as Biden went on to forcefully say: “Trump is a convicted felon … Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted criminal – he’s a one-man crime wave.” More

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      Trump asks judge to gut classified documents case after immunity ruling

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      Donald Trump moved on Friday to capitalize on the US supreme court’s decision to confer broad immunity to former presidents, asking the federal judge overseeing his criminal case for retaining classified documents to take a scalpel to any charges that were “official” acts that could not be prosecuted.The supreme court this week held that former presidents enjoyed some immunity from criminal prosecution for certain conduct they undertook in office, which also meant evidence of immune acts could not be introduced as evidence at any trial even if they did not form part of the charges.The framework of criminal accountability for former presidents, as laid out by the ruling, has three categories: core presidential functions that carry absolute immunity, official acts of the presidency that carry presumptive immunity, and unofficial acts that carry no immunity.The request from Trump’s lawyers did not say which parts of the indictment they considered to be official conduct that was immune. But if the US district judge Aileen Cannon agrees to go through the charges, it would almost certainly further delay the case by months.The filing not only showed the far-reaching ramifications of the immunity decision, which is now affecting Trump’s documents case in Florida even though the ruling originated from a pre-trial appeal in the former president’s 2020 election subversion case in Washington; it also demonstrated Trump’s intent to use it to destroy the substance of the cases.The 10-page filing from Trump’s lawyers asked Cannon for permission to file new briefs, arguing the immunity decision gutted prosecutors’ position that he had no immunity and “further demonstrates the politically-motivated nature of their contention that the motion is ‘frivolous’”.But Trump’s filing was doubly notable as it asked Cannon to pause all other proceedings in the case until she decided whether the special counsel, Jack Smith, and his prosecution team were authorized to bring the case in the first place.In a recent motion to dismiss the case, Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith had been improperly appointed since he was not named to the role by the president or approved by the Senate like other federal officers are – and that the attorney general, Merrick Garland, had no legal power to do so by himself.The motion appeared destined for denial after a recent hearing in federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida, when prosecutors countered that Garland – under the appointments clause of the US constitution – had authority to name “inferior officers” like special counsels to act as subordinates.But as part of the supreme court’s decision, Justice Clarence Thomas gave the notion new momentum. “If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, the lower courts should thus answer these essential questions concerning the special counsel’s appointment,” Thomas wrote, albeit with respect to the 2020 election case. More