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      Kamala Harris to visit Wisconsin in first rally since launching presidential campaign – live

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      Kamala Harris is travelling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today where she will hold her first campaign rally since she launched her presidential campaign on Sunday with Joe Biden’s endorsement. Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes in the 2020 election, and recent polling had suggested a tight race between Biden and Donald Trump in the battleground state again.Tuesday’s visit was scheduled before Biden ended his campaign, but took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up the mantle of her party against Trump, who is scrambling to pivot his campaign against the vice-president.According to Wisconsin Democratic party chair Ben Wikler, 89 of Wisconsin’s 95 delegates, including senator Tammy Baldwin and governor Tony Evers, had already pledged their support for Harris as of yesterday afternoon.After confirming the state Democratic Party had officially backed Harris for the nomination, Wikler was quoted by Wisconsin Public Radio as saying:
      And in hearing from elected officials across the state of Wisconsin, hearing from Democratic Party activists, hearing from donors, there is a surge of focus, of enthusiasm – a kind of flowering of the kind of unity that we’re going to need to defeat Donald Trump.
      During her visit to Wisconsin today (see post at 10.14), Kamala Harris is to be joined by major elected officials in the state, including governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, attorney general Josh Kaul, secretary of state Sarah Godlewski and Wisconsin Democratic party chair Ben Wikler, as well as state labor leaders.House Democrats and Republicans will meet separately today for the first time since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on 13 July and Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race on Sunday, Chad Pergram, the senior congressional correspondent for Fox News, has posted on X. He said there will be a House hearing today on the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.Kamala Harris is travelling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today where she will hold her first campaign rally since she launched her presidential campaign on Sunday with Joe Biden’s endorsement. Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes in the 2020 election, and recent polling had suggested a tight race between Biden and Donald Trump in the battleground state again.Tuesday’s visit was scheduled before Biden ended his campaign, but took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up the mantle of her party against Trump, who is scrambling to pivot his campaign against the vice-president.According to Wisconsin Democratic party chair Ben Wikler, 89 of Wisconsin’s 95 delegates, including senator Tammy Baldwin and governor Tony Evers, had already pledged their support for Harris as of yesterday afternoon.After confirming the state Democratic Party had officially backed Harris for the nomination, Wikler was quoted by Wisconsin Public Radio as saying:
      And in hearing from elected officials across the state of Wisconsin, hearing from Democratic Party activists, hearing from donors, there is a surge of focus, of enthusiasm – a kind of flowering of the kind of unity that we’re going to need to defeat Donald Trump.
      As we have already reported, Kamala Harris has earned enough delegates to become the likely Democratic party nominee, after California delegates voted unanimously to endorse her.Several state delegations met on Monday evening to confirm their support for the vice president, including Texas and her home state of California. By Monday night, Harris had the support of more than the 1,976 delegates she needs to win on a first ballot, according to a tally by the Associated Press. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.California state Democratic chairman, Rusty Hicks, said 75% to 80% of the state’s delegation were on a call on Tuesday, all supporting Harris.“I’ve not heard anyone mentioning or calling for any other candidate,” Hicks said, adding “tonight’s vote was a momentous one”.Hicks had urged delegates to quickly line up behind Harris and had circulated an online form to submit endorsements.Daniel Boffey is the Guardian’s chief reporterThe spectacle of the Olympic Games opening ceremony could be overshadowed by the human drama in the White House after it was confirmed that Jill Biden will attend the event on the Seine.It will be a first appearance on the world stage for the president’s wife since her husband withdrew from his re-election campaign over concerns about his deteriorating health.Rumours had swirled in Paris that the first lady could pull out of the games at the last minute with some suggesting that she might even be replaced by vice president Kamala Harris whose husband, Douglas Emhoff, is leading the delegation at the closing ceremony.The White House, however, confirmed on Monday evening that Jill Biden would lead a delegation of seven other senior US figures at the opening ceremony, including the US ambassador to France, Denise Campbell Bauer, senators Chris Coons and Alex Padilla, and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass.Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race on Sunday sets the stage to end a nearly five-decade run when either a Bush, Clinton or Biden was on the ballot for president or vice-president.USA today reports:
      Members of the Bush and Clinton families, along with Joe Biden, have been on every presidential election ticket since 1980, when Ronald Reagan and running mate George HW Bush won.
      Reagan and Bush easily won reelection in 1984 before Bush won the presidency himself in 1988.
      The next four elections would feature either a Bush or Clinton on the ballot, with Bill Clinton defeating George HW Bush in 1992, before defeating Bob Dole in 1996, and George W. Bush winning elections in 2000 and 2004.
      The following four elections (2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020) all had Biden or Hillary Clinton on the ballot, with Barack Obama and Joe Biden winning election in the first two contests, Hillary Clinton losing to Donald Trump in 2016 and Biden defeating Trump in 2020.
      Ed Pilkington is chief reporter for Guardian USWhen Joe Biden finally ends his self-imposed seclusion at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, this week he will emerge into a very different world than the one from which he isolated when diagnosed with Covid last Wednesday.He will still be president of the United States, and as such the most powerful person on Earth. But it may not feel like that to him. His hopes of carrying on in that office died at 1.46pm ET on Sunday when he announced that he was standing down from the 2024 race.Very little is known about Biden’s specific plans for the next six months. Given the speed at which the final demise of his campaign happened, he may not know much himself.What we do know is that attempts by Donald Trump and his inner circle to force him out of the Oval Office now, on grounds that “if he can’t run for office, he can’t run our country”, are as half-hearted as they sound. Barring surprises, Biden will remain in the White House until noon on 20 January 2025.You can read the full analysis piece here:Donald Trump is due to appear on professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau’s YouTube show on Tuesday for a “special episode”.In a post on X, DeChambeau said the Republican presidential nominee will appear on his Break 50 show.The golfer’s show will be donating $10,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project for every stroke they score under par, according to the X post.DeChambeau said Tuesday’s episode “is about golf and giving back to our nation’s veterans, not politics”.The post added:
      A few weeks ago I reached out to both parties’ presidential campaigns and @realDonaldTrump was down for the challenge. It is an incredible honor to be able to enjoy a round of golf with any sitting or former president, and all have an open invitation to join me for a round of Break 50 anytime.
      A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that 83% of Democratic registered voters surveyed approved of the US president, Joe Biden, withdrawing from the race while just 17% disapproved.Four in ten registered Democrats said Biden exiting makes them more motivated to vote now he is out of the race, with 79% thinking the party should nominate the US vice president, Kamala Harris, as a replacement, according to the poll.45% of those surveyed believe the party’s chances of beating Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in November have improved since Biden’s announcement, though 10% say the electoral prospects have got worse for the Democrats, while 28% say it depends on who the nominee is and 17% say a change in candidate won’t make a difference.Democratic voters have long had doubts about Biden’s reelection bid. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in January, while the party’s nomination contest was still under way, 49% of Democrats said the 81-year-old should not run again in 2024.Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told families of the estimated 116 hostages still held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their loved ones’ release could be nearing, his office has said.“The conditions are undoubtedly ripening. This is a good sign,” Netanyahu told the families on Monday in Washington, where he is expected to meet Joe Biden later this week after making an address to Congress.It will be Biden’s first meeting with a foreign leader since he opted not to run for reelection and endorsed vice president Kamala Harris as his successor as the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris is to meet Netanyahu, who is under increasing pressure from much of the Israeli public to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, this week separate from Biden’s meeting.Efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, outlined by Biden in May and mediated by Egypt and Qatar, have gained momentum over the past month.Israeli protesters are calling for a deal with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, which would free the hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting. Negotiators from Israel’s the Mossad intelligence service are expected in Qatar later this week, continuing talks that have dragged since early this year.Democrats are urging Kamala Harris to consider choosing her potential running mate from the so-called battleground states, which this year are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.“That is the first presidential decision that vice president Harris has, so she’s got a lot of good choices ahead of her,” senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters at the Capitol, according to the Hill.He listed a number of Democratic governors as possible choices – Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, alongside transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg (who has deep ties in Michigan) and senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Here is a useful explainer on who else could be Harris’ running mate for the November election:Andrew Roth is in Washington for the Guardian, and has this analysis on how Kamala Harris will tread a careful path on Israel and Gaza while Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US:For much of Monday, no meetings between Benjamin Netanyahu and either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris had been confirmed, even though the Israeli PM had already departed for the US and was scheduled on Wednesday to address a joint session of Congress at the request of the House leader, Mike Johnson.Harris appears likely to skip that session, where she would have sat directly behind Netanyahu as the president of the Senate. She will be out of Washington for a public event at a college sorority in Indiana.Late on Monday, an aide to Harris said that both she and Biden would sit down with Netanyahu in separate meetings at the White House and denied that her travel to Indianapolis indicated any change in her position towards Israel.Harris backers and insiders say that she is more likely to engage in public criticism of Netanyahu than Biden and to focus attention on the civilian toll among Palestinians from the war in Gaza – even if she would maintain US military aid and other support for Israel that has been a mainstay of Biden’s foreign policy.“The generational difference between Biden and Harris is a meaningful difference in how one looks at these issues,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group that has endorsed Harris’s presidential bid.Read more of Andrew Roth’s analysis here: As Netanyahu arrives in Washington, Kamala Harris treads a careful path on Israel and GazaThat’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Yohannes Lowe will take it from here. More

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      Mehdi Hasan on Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump – podcast

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      It’s been a rollercoaster couple of weeks in the US election campaign. On Sunday Joe Biden announced he would not stand for re-election, before endorsing his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as the presidential candidate for the Democrats. On Monday endorsements – and money – rolled in from donors and political luminaries. Mehdi Hasan, a columnist for the Guardian US and a co-founder of the media organisation Zeteo, tells Michael Safi why despite criticising Kamala Harris in the past he is now an enthusiastic supporter of her campaign to be the next president. He explains how her entry will change the race for the White House, how Republican politicians might attack her, how her campaign may differ from Biden’s and, crucially, what he thinks of her chances of success against Donald Trump. More

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      Secret Service chief berated in House hearing after Trump rally shooting

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      Lawmakers grilled the director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, during a contentious House hearing on Monday, where members of both parties called for her resignation in the wake of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump earlier this month.In her opening statement, Cheatle acknowledged the Secret Service had “failed” on 13 July, when a 20-year-old gunman was able to take a clear shot at the former president from a rooftop near Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.Trump survived but sustained an injury to his ear, and one rally attendee, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack. Two others were injured.“As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency,” Cheatle told the House oversight committee. “We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”In a particularly damning moment, Cheatle acknowledged that Secret Service agents were informed of a suspicious individual at the Trump rally “somewhere between two and five times” before the gunman opened fire.The Republican chair of the committee, James Comer, mourned the assassination attempt as “a horrifying moment in American history” and demanded that Cheatle offer her resignation.“While we give overwhelming thanks to the individual Secret Service agents who did their jobs under immense pressure, this tragedy was preventable,” Comer said. “It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign.”Lawmakers repeatedly pressed Cheatle on how such a galling security lapse could have occurred, but the director dodged many of their questions, reminding members that the investigation of the shooting was still in its earliest stages. When Cheatle again told Comer that she could not specify how many Secret Service agents were assigned to Trump on the day of the shooting, the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene interjected: “Why are you here?”Cheatle did deny allegations that the Secret Service rejected the Trump campaign’s demands for additional security on 13 July, telling lawmakers: “The assets that were requested for that day were given.”But Cheatle became more vague when the Republican congressman Jim Jordan pressed her on whether the Secret Service had denied past requests for additional security at Trump campaign events.“It looks like you won’t answer some pretty basic questions,” Jordan said. “And you cut corners when it came to protecting one of the most important individuals, one of the most well-known individuals on the planet.”Some Republicans representatives grew openly combative as they questioned Cheatle, with Nancy Mace telling the director: “You’re full of shit today.”Democratic members joined in on the criticism, and at least two of them, Jamie Raskin and Ro Khanna, echoed Republicans’ calls for Cheatle’s resignation. Khanna compared the situation to the fallout after an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981.The then Secret Service director, Stuart Knight. stepped down in the months after the Reagan shooting.“Do you really believe that the majority of this country has confidence in you right now?” Khanna asked.Cheatle replied: “I believe that the country deserves answers, and I am committed to finding those answers and providing those answers.”Asked when more answers might be available, Cheatle said the agency hoped to conclude its internal investigation in 60 days, a timeline that sparked censure from committee members.“The notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party, is not acceptable,” said the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “This is not theater. This is not about jockeying. This is about the safety of some of the most highly targeted and valued targets – internationally and domestically – in the United States of America.”Raskin, the Democratic ranking member of the oversight committee, agreed with calls for accountability at the Secret Service while adding that lawmakers must reckon with the broader problem of gun violence in the US. He noted that the Trump campaign rally attack was not even the deadliest shooting on 13 July, as four people were killed later that day after a gunman opened fire at an Alabama night club.“What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a double failure: the failure by the Secret Service to properly protect Donald Trump and the failure of Congress to properly protect our people from criminal gun violence,” Raskin said. “We must, therefore, also ask hard questions about whether our laws are making it too easy for potential assassins and criminals to obtain firearms generally and AR-15 assault weapons specifically.”With Republicans in control of the House, it seems unlikely that a gun safety bill will pass Congress anytime soon. And after Cheatle’s performance on Monday, it seems even less likely that she will be able to hold on to her job for much longer. More

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      RFK Jr reportedly held Trump talks about endorsement and possible job

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      The independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly held recent talks with Donald Trump about endorsing his campaign for a second presidency and – if successful – taking a job in his administration.The talks, first reported Monday by the Washington Post, come days after Kennedy publicly apologized for a video posted online that showed part of a private phone call between him and Trump. The clip included Trump sharing his thoughts about childhood vaccines and being in broad agreement with Kennedy, a noted vaccine sceptic. In the video, Trump seemingly invited Kennedy to endorse his campaign.But the Post reported that it was Kennedy – a Democratic candidate who became independent in October last year – who later sought a post overseeing health and medical issues under any new Trump administration in exchange for his support.At a meeting in Milwaukee early last week, the outlet said, discussions between the two included possible jobs that Kennedy could be given at the cabinet level – or posts that do not require Senate confirmation. The talks also explored the possibility of Kennedy dropping out and endorsing the former president.Trump advisers were reportedly concerned that such an agreement could be problematic – but they did not rule out the idea.The idea surfaced after Kennedy, with about 9% voter approval in the presidential race and both major parties fearing he could win vital independent votes, was denied the opportunity to debate Joe Biden and Trump in June.That encounter between Trump and the president – who performed poorly – set the stage for the latter man to announce Sunday that he would not seek re-election.Kennedy told the Post on Monday that Trump campaign had been more open to him than the Democratic party apparatus. His uncle, President John F Kennedy Jr, was assassinated in 1963 and his and father, Senator Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968.“I am willing to talk to anybody from either political party who wants to talk about children’s health and how to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy Jr said, adding that he had “a lot of respect for president Trump for reaching out”.Kennedy added: “Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead, they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign.”The reported exchange comes despite Trump’s comments in April when he said Kennedy is “far more LIBERAL than anyone running as a Democrat”. Trump also said Kennedy had been pushed out of the Democratic party “because he was taking primary votes away” from Biden, among other things.Kennedy, in turn, called Trump’s vice-presidential pick JD Vance – a US senator and retired marine – “a salute to the CIA, to the intelligence community and to the military industrial complex”. Kennedy said on CNN in April that “there are many things President Trump has done that are appalling” – and that the former president had overseen “the greatest restriction on individual liberties this country has ever known”.Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told the Post: “President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States.” More

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      The Guardian view on Joe Biden quitting the race: a fresh start for Democrats | Editorial

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      Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday marked the beginning of the end of an American political life filled with second acts. None was more remarkable than his defeat of Donald Trump in 2020. His acceptance that he could not do so again will burnish what his vice-president on Monday described as an “unmatched” legacy. Elected to relief rather than elation, as the man saving the US from a second Trump term, he became the president who helped it recover from the pandemic, pushed through a landmark green infrastructure package and sought to shape a fairer economy.He could now be a lame duck, beset by Republican attacks on his capacity to continue as commander-in-chief. But he could cement his record, emboldened by the certainty of departure from office. His decision to quit his re-election bid was belated, yet in sharp contrast to Mr Trump’s delusional egotism.Kamala Harris now appears as queen of the comeback. She floundered in the race for the 2020 nomination and was seen to struggle as vice-president, though few shine in that role. Yet Mr Biden has endorsed her as his successor, as have other top Democrats, including potential challengers. Not much more than 100 days before the election – and with early voting beginning in just two months – few want to snub her and take chances on a little-known alternative, especially if it complicates campaign finances.Ms Harris would not only be the first woman of colour to win a presidential nomination. She would be a 59-year-old running against an often incoherent 78-year-old; a voice of warmth against a vindictive demagogue; a former prosecutor running against a convicted criminal. A woman who has staunchly advocated abortion rights would take on the man who ensured Roe v Wade was overturned – and whose running mate has extreme views on abortion, pushing for police to have access to reproductive health records. She has been somewhat more critical of Israel over the war in Gaza than Mr Biden, perhaps shoring up progressive support. And people have regretted underestimating her: she had Mr Biden on the ropes over his attitude to segregationist senators and opposition to school integration policies in a 2019 debate, and skewered William Barr, Mr Trump’s attorney-general, in a Senate hearing.There is nonetheless a strong case for an open convention – reportedly the preference of Barack Obama and some donors. Some fear that the party is repeating the mistake it has just made with Mr Biden: ignoring qualms because it assumes it has no choice. Ms Harris is familiar to voters, unlike potential rivals, but unpopular. Polls suggest she outperforms Mr Biden in a contest with Mr Trump, but doesn’t erase the latter’s small lead – and does more poorly in battleground states. Republicans are already turning her thankless task of overseeing border issues against her, and accuse her of covering up her boss’s frailty.A contest for the nomination carries some risks – Democrats don’t want to see their nominee damaged by a bruising process – but it could generate excitement, push Mr Trump out of the limelight and produce a strong running mate. If delegates rallied behind Ms Harris, that would strengthen her bid. If another candidate proved even stronger, all the better.Democrats rightly believe that this election could prove existential for American democracy. But that hasn’t proved sufficiently persuasive for voters. Polls suggest that they want change, and were uninspired by Mr Biden’s request to let him “finish the job”. The Democratic nominee must grasp the opportunity born of his debate disaster and create the sense of a fresh start, not only for the party’s campaign, but for the US itself. More

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      As Biden departs, Trump set to face questions over his age and acuity

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      With 78-year-old Donald Trump now certain to face a Democratic candidate younger than he is, the Republican could have the tables turned on him over the questions of age and mental agility that he often sidestepped while Joe Biden was his opponent.The age gap between Trump and any of his likely Democrat opponents – Kamala Harris, 59; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, 52; Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, 51 – could make him the sole focus of voters’ desire for a generational handover of power.And with Biden’s often stumbling public appearances – and especially his disastrous debate – now a thing of the past, there is likely to be a fresh focus on Trump’s mental acuity and his frequently rambling, confused campaign speeches.Last month, for example, Trump got the name of his own doctor wrong. Previously he has made high-profile campaign trail gaffes, in which he seemed to think Barack Obama was still president and mistook his arch Republican rival Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi.Nearly 60% of US voters said last month that Biden should “definitely” or “probably” be replaced, while Trump’s favorability rating had risen to 40% since his hush-money conviction and the attempt on his life eight days ago. Harris’s favorability sits at around 39%.Biden’s departure from the ticket upends several aspects of Republican’s calculations, including that Trump the felon will now possibly have to debate Harris the former prosecutor in September – if she receives the nomination.The vice-president proved her debating skills in 2019 when she delivered a highly personal attack on Biden on the issue of race that he later described as “hurtful” and chilled relations between the Biden-Harris camps before she was named vice-president.Political commentator Anthony Michael Kreis posted on Twitter/X soon after Biden’s announcement: “I can’t believe the GOP is running an old guy for president. Yikes.”Trump’s reaction to his recent assassination attempt – pumping his fist and mouthing “Fight, fight, fight!” – has been full of vigor and helped unify his Republican party behind him and after his brush with death, he vowed to run a “unity” campaign.But that pledge dissolved on Saturday when he returned to disparaging Biden, Harris and the Democratic agenda and has been delivering his usual rants on the campaign trail, often laced with conspiracy theories and even a repeated and bizarre reference to a shark.After Biden announced he would abandon his re-election effort, Trump responded to Biden’s announcement, saying his now ex-rival was not fit to run for president and “not fit to serve”.Trump said last week he didn’t think that switching out Biden for Harris “would make much difference”, he told Bloomberg. “I would define her in a very similar [way] that I define him.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA pro-Trump Super Pac accused Harris on Sunday of being “in on” a cover-up of Biden’s “mental decline”, and characterized her as the driving force behind the administration’s policies.Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf says that Trump’s “less than gracious” response to Biden stepping down is something Democrats will hope continues as a successor to Biden emerges. “Trump is reverting to type, Biden is out of the picture, and Trump is the only one who can seize defeat from the jaws of victory.“Without having Biden as his opponent, and calling him ‘Sleepy Joe’, who is he going to rail against? How he attacks a woman is very different but you can already tell from the way he attacked Biden on Sunday that he’s not thinking clearly. His vitriol has taken over again.“Democrats will be able to use Harris as an offensive chess piece in the suburbs of the country, women’s right to chose and reproductive freedom, and hope that Trump screws up by overreacting so they can accuse him of bring incapable of controlling himself because of his age,” Sheinkopf said, “and it becomes a different race.”Read more about Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 election:

      Joe Biden drops out and endorses Kamala Harris

      Democrats praise Biden and Republicans go on the offense

      Who will replace Biden? How does the process work?

      A look back at Joe Biden’s life in politics More