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Donald Trump says Xi Jinping wrote him a ‘beautiful note’ after rally shooting
Donald Trump has said China’s president wrote him a “beautiful note” after the assassination attempt a week ago, as he continued to court leaders whom Joe Biden has criticised as dictators.In his first campaign rally since narrowly escaping the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, Trump told a crowd in Michigan on Saturday: “[President Xi Jinping] wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened.”The Republican presidential nominee recalled how he described Xi as “a brilliant man, he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist”, adding that the Chinese leader makes people like Biden look like “babies”.As well as familiar attacks on Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, Trump also used the rally in Grand Rapids to hail Xi and Vladimir Putin as “smart, tough” figures who “love their country”, echoing praise he gave in 2022 of the Russian president’s strategy to invade Ukraine. In that same 2022 speech, at a rally in Georgia, Trump called North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un “tough”, and said of Kim and Xi: “The smartest one gets to the top.” On Saturday, Trump said he “got along very well” with both leaders.Still wearing a small wound dressing a week after the shooting, Trump also publicly supported the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, saying he was right in saying that “we have to have somebody that can protect us”. Orbán was this week accused by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, of betraying European leaders after he travelled to Moscow for what he called a “peace mission”, holding a joint press conference with Putin in which the Russian leader told Kyiv to give up more land, pull back its troops and drop its efforts to join Nato.After meeting Trump recently in Florida, Orbán flagged the likelihood of a Trump victory, and urged European leaders to reopen “direct lines of diplomatic communication” with Russia and “high-level political talks” with China.Trump’s reference to a “beautiful note” from Xi echoes the now-famous “love letters” he received from North Korea’s Kim. In September 2018, Trump told a rally in West Virginia: “We fell in love. No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.”The Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward later obtained 25 letters between Trump and Kim for his second book on the Trump presidency, Rage.In one letter, about a meeting in Singapore in June 2018, Kim wrote: “Even now I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency’s hand at the beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched.”After a summit in Vietnam in February 2019, Kim wrote that “every minute we shared 103 days ago in Hanoi was also a moment of glory that remains a precious memory”.The summits did not reduce tensions with North Korea.With Reuters More
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Trump’s return to rally stage met with prayers, excitement and confusion over JD Vance
“He was spared by the hand of God!” a man wrapped in a flag chanted as he walked past a line of people snaking outside the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.The display prompted a smattering of loud cries of “USA! USA!” but the general tone of the packed-in crowd who had gathered to see Donald Trump’s first rally since a would-be assassin opened fire on him at a campaign event in Pennsylvania a week ago was more laid-back.Indeed, despite the roiling impact of the shooting on US politics over the past week, it felt like back to business-as-usual for the Trump campaign road show.Joe Attard, a worker at a factory that makes sheds, made the drive from Southgate, Michigan, to Grand Rapids hoping to catch a glimpse of Trump, who was appearing in the crucial battleground state after being formally anointed as the Republican presidential candidate and hitting the campaign trail with his new running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance.“There’s a real feeling of community here, everybody in the same mind,” Attard said. “It’s a great feeling.” Other than a lone man across the barricades holding a “Deport Trump” sign, Attard seemed to be right. There were few people around without some kind of Trump-branded apparel.Perhaps in keeping with a party that has fully unified around Trump after the shocking attempt on his life, most people seemed excited to be at the rally. A man in an army baseball cap pointed people towards the ADA-accessible line. People waved and cheered for the Secret Service officers and mounted police patrolling the street.Standing in line, Isaiah White, a 25-year-old from Hudsonville, Michigan, said he was “very excited” for another chance to see Trump. The last time Trump came to Van Andel Arena, White got in line too late and had to watch on the Jumbotron outside the venue.Betsy Gatchell Goff, who came to Van Andel Arena from her hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan, said she thought Trump was “a unifying figure for our country”. Gatchell Goff hoped that with Trump back in office, “we’ll have a president who does more than sleep all day”, a disparaging reference to Joe Biden.But there was also a strain of bitter sentiment among the crowd. “Trump won” and “Unvaxxed and Proud” were two of the most common slogans on T-shirts, hats and flags.The mood around last Saturday’s assassination attempt was surprisingly nonchalant among attendees. Indeed, as has happened with Trump’s campaign, the imagery and fact of the attack had been exploited for gain. A vendor on the corner sold shirts sporting a bloodstained Trump, fist raised, with the caption: “Missed me, motherfucker.”Attard was glad to see Trump back on the campaign trail so soon after an attempt on his life. “It shows the world that he’s strong,” Attard said.Among the elected officials present, the tone was more reverent. As the event opener, a local Michigan representative gave a prayer that thanked God for “graciously sparing President Trump”.Security, on the other hand, was fully alert. Secret Service and TSA agents, including at least one K-9 unit, motioned people through metal detectors, while legions of staffers in crisp polos emblazoned with “Team Trump” ushered people to their seats.There was serious political red meat from some speakers. Michigan Republican party chair Pete Hoekstra took the stage to open the event and called governor Gretchen Whitmer the “worst governor in the United States”. Anti-Whitmer sentiment was widespread, with people throughout the event calling her “Witless”, “Witchmer” or “Whitler”.The state of Michigan politics was a prominent theme. Bill Huizenga, the US representative for Michigan’s fourth district, said Trump was in Grand Rapids to show the world how “the blue wall” of midwestern states was “going to crumble like a cookie”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Grand Rapids rally was the first since JD Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate. The Ohio senator seemed to be a bit of an unknown quantity among rally attendees.“I’ll support him because Trump supports him,” Betsy Gatchell Goff said. Isaiah White admitted: “Honestly, I had to Wikipedia him, but he seems all right.”The tone shifted once Vance appeared. The new vice-presidential candidate opened with a joke about the Ohio-Michigan football rivalry and followed it up with challenging Vice-President Kamala Harris’s record, saying: “What the hell have you got?,” prompting the loudest cheers of the afternoon.But much of the tone was the usual politics-as-entertainment fare that is a hallmark of Trump rallies. Even in the wake of an attempted assassination, Trump’s rally struck a celebratory tone in this extraordinary American election.As the crowd filtered in, Macho Man by the Village People and Born Free by Kid Rock alternated with La Vie enRose by Édith Piaf. A sizzle reel from the Trump campaign lit up the arena, then launched straight into a dramatized victimhood narrative.“The only crime I’ve committed is to fiercely defend this country,” Trump’s voice boomed in the accompanying voiceover. At the line: “When I’m re-elected, I will obliterate the deep state!,” the crowd erupted into cheers and whistles. In a later promotional video, a union worker said: “Fuck you” to a reporter when asked about Joe Biden’s policies.At this, people throughout the crowd broke into laughter. More
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Trump attacks Biden and Harris in first rally since assassination attempt
Donald Trump launched a full-throated attack on Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday as he returned to the campaign trail a week after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.In his first rally since the shocking shooting, and his first with new running mate Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump appeared on stage with the conspicuous white ear bandage he wore during the Republican national convention replaced by a smaller covering. He referred to the assassination attempt as a “horrific event” and said he stood before supporters “by the grace of God. I shouldn’t be here, but let’s face it, something very special happened.”Trump said “he owed his life to immigration”, because he’d turned his head to the right toward a chart about border crossings fractionally before the bullet whizzed past his head, grazing his ear. “I hope I never have to go through that again,” Trump added. He said his opponents call him “a threat to democracy” but countered that he “took a bullet for democracy”.Trump also referred to leadership chaos within the Democratic party, which has been consumed with a debate over whether Joe Biden should step down from his re-election bid amid concerns about his age and mental acuity. “They have no idea who their candidate is, and neither do we,” Trump jibed. He called Biden a “feeble old guy”.Trump, appearing jocular and in good spirits during a lengthy speech, said he would rather be in Michigan than sitting “on some boring beach watching the waves coming in” – another dig at Biden, who is currently recovering from Covid at his Delaware beach home.As Trump campaigned on Saturday, his team put out an official update on his injuries. Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, said that the bullet fired from Crooks’ gun came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear” and produced a “2cm wide wound”.Jackson said the wound is healing but that the former president is still experiencing some bleeding, requiring an ear dressing. “Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” he wrote.At the Michigan arena, the former US president went on to predict a landslide election, asking the crowd whether they preferred he run against Vice-President Kamala Harris, to loud boos, or Biden, to cheers. But he said he would also also be happy to run against Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer who, he said, has done “a terrible job”.Trump hit his usual themes, attacking electric vehicles, China and trade and promising a massive effort on deportation. He talked in his usual extreme rhetoric, especially when it came to immigration, where he talked in dire terms of crimes committed by immigrants that echo rightwing conspiracy theories.View image in fullscreenBut Trump also pushed back on accusations that a second Trump presidency would be influenced by the extremist manifesto Project 2025 from the conservative Heritage Foundation and including scores of people close to Trump and his campaign.The document, he said, had been produced by the “severe right – very, very conservative and the opposite of the radical left. I don’t know anything about it, and I don’t want to know anything about it.”Trump was preceded on the stage by Vance, who received a warm reception, despite the sports rivalry between his home state of Ohio and Michigan.Vance criticized both Republicans and Democrats in his speech for previously failing to protect manufacturing jobs in Michigan and the US. “Both parties were broken in very profound ways until Trump came along,” he said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCrowds numbering in the thousands waited outside the 12,000-capacity Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to greet the former president amid what was expected to be improved security after the Secret Service and local police allowed 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to get on a roof with sightline of the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire several shots at the former president.Grand Rapids law enforcement declined to say whether it had deployed extra officers, referring questions to the presidential security agency. But, unlike the open county fair fairgrounds last week, Trump’s rally on Saturday was in an enclosed arena where security would be easier to secure and without, as in Butler, outer areas that were assigned to local police.“I think what you’re going to see is just a visual increase of additional agents and certainly some pretty unprecedented level of police officers just because it’s the first event after the previous Saturday,” former Secret Service agent Jason Russell told Michigan Live.Eric Winstrom, the Grand Rapids police chief, said his department had worked closely with federal partners on planning for the event “with solid operational planning, effective resource deployment, and an unwavering commitment to the safety of the community we serve”.John Schaut, chair of the Republican party chapter in Kent, Michigan, told Michigan Live the shooting hadn’t deterred Trump fans and predicted “a blowout event”.View image in fullscreenMichigan is one of a handful of must-win states for Trump and Biden. Recent polling averages place Trump with a 4% lead over Biden, at 46% to 42%. That tallies with the pattern in other key battleground states, especially in the wake of the disastrous debate performance by Biden three weeks ago that triggered a wave of panic in the party about this electability. On a national level, Trump has opened a lead against Biden in head-to-head surveys.According to local news reports, supporters began arriving for the rally as early as Friday afternoon, and by midday Saturday, lines to get in to see Trump stretched six blocks.“I think it’s amazing. It just shows how strong he is and we’re so very proud of him, not that we would expect anybody, if they weren’t up to it, to be here like this,” supporter Julie Bryant of Marshall, Michigan, told Michigan Live. “We’re just here to support, especially after what he’s just been through.”Supporter Adam Salton said he’d been in line since 6am: “Screw the right and the left, this is about Trump, this is about us. He could be on a golf course right now, he could be with his family, but he’s out here doing this for us so I’ll stand out here for eight hours for him, because it’s for us.” More
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Trump and Vance speak in Michigan at first rally post-assassination attempt – live updates
Trump says a Trump-Vance administration will rapidly reverse “every single Biden-Harris disaster”, starting from day one, if he is elected.He says he will end the “inflation nightmare”, that he will “crush migrant crime”, that he will give people an additional tax cut and that energy prices will be brought down “very quickly”.
America’s enemies will fear us. The United States will again command the respect that it deserves.
He says “something beautiful” will happen, and that he will bring back the American dream, and that it will be “bigger, better and bolder than ever before”.Trump says Democrats have been trying to make him sound “like I’m an extremist” but says that he is actually a person “with great common sense”.He says he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025. “I don’t know what the hell it is,” he says.
They keep saying [I’m] a threat to democracy. I’m saying: what the hell did I do for democracy? Last week, I took a bullet for democracy. What did I do against democracy?
Trump says he will “never stop working to deliver a magnificent future for our people”, as he notes that the upcoming November election will be the “most important election in the history of our country”.
We will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win.
Trump says there are other things he could be doing that would be “a lot easier”, although he says he would rather be campaigning today than “sitting on some gorgeous beach watching boring waves”.Trump then talks about the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, saying there has never been a convention with so much “unity and love”.“There’s never been anything like it,” he says, noting that it was “really an amazing thing to see” with “so many great people”.Trump, still referring to the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, says it was an “incredible” time.
Nobody’s seen anything like it, and hopefully they never will again.
He thanks Texas representative Ronny Jackson, his former physician, who has been treating him since the attack. Trump calls him an “outstanding” doctor, saying: “I love that guy.”Donald Trump says he wants to thank Americans nationwide, including those attending today’s campaign rally, for their “extraordinary outpouring of love and support” in the wake of the “horrific” event last weekend.He says the assassination attempt took place “exactly one week ago today, almost to the hour, even to the minute”. “What a day it was,” Trump says.
I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God. I shouldn’t be here. Maybe JD or somebody else would be here, but I shouldn’t be here right now.
Trump says he wants to thank everyone at Butler memorial hospital and the citizens of Butler, Pennsylvania.Donald Trump begins speaking at the campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he appears to no longer be wearing the large white bandage on his injured ear from last Saturday’s assassination attempt.“This is like a Michigan football game over here,” Trump said, before thanking his running mate, JD Vance, whom he says will be a “fantastic” vice-president.Trump says he chose Vance “because he’s for the worker”.Ohio senator JD Vance is back on stage at the campaign rally at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he makes a brief speech to supporters before introducing Donald Trump.Vance says Trump was a great president who “knew instinctively what this country needed and how to put the interests of the citizens of this country first”.“We had a hell of a four years with President Donald J Trump, didn’t we?” Vance says before Trump walks on to the stage.Standing in line, Isaiah White, a 25-year old from Hudsonville, Michigan said he was “very excited” for another chance to see Donald Trump. The last time Trump came to Van Andel Arena, White got in line too late and had to watch on the jumbotron outside the venue.Betsy Gatchell Goff, who came to Van Andel Arena from her home town of Benton Harbor, Michigan, said she thought Trump was “a unifying figure for our country.” Gatchell Goff hoped that with Trump back in office, “we’ll have a president who does more than sleep all day,” a disparaging reference to Joe Biden.Joe Attard, a worker at a factory that makes sheds, made the drive from Southgate, Michigan, to Grand Rapids hoping to catch a glimpse of Donald Trump, who was appearing in the crucial battleground state after being formally anointed as the Republican presidential candidate and hitting the campaign trail with his new running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance. Attard said:
There’s a real feeling of community here, everybody in the same mind. It’s a great feeling.
Other than a lone man across the barricades holding a Deport Trump sign, Attard seemed to be right. There were few people around without some kind of Trump-branded apparel.Perhaps in keeping with a party that has fully unified around Trump after the shocking attempt on his life, most people seemed excited to be at the rally.A man in an army baseball cap pointed people towards the ADA-accessible line. People waved and cheered for the Secret Service officers and mounted police patrolling the street. More - in US Politics
Trump to hold first public campaign event since assassination attempt
Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his first public campaign rally since a shocking assassination attempt a week ago by appearing in a crucial rust belt battleground state alongside his new running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance.The return to the campaign trail by Trump comes after the attempted killing of the former US president at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire, injuring Trump and others and killing one rally-goer.The shooting roiled American politics, ratcheting up the tension in a race already fueled by fears over rising political violence and the prospect of civil unrest. It also dominated the past week’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee from which Trump emerged at the head of a remarkably unified and energized campaign.Tonight’s joint rally with Vance is the first for the pair since they officially became the nominees. Trump kicked off the gathering of Republicans by naming Vance as his vice-presidential pick.Michigan is one of the crucial swing states expected to determine the outcome of the presidential election. Trump narrowly won the state by just more than 10,000 votes in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden flipped it back in 2020, winning by a margin of 154,000 votes on his way to the presidency.“Welcome to Michigan, Donald Trump and JD Vance,” the Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, said in an Instagram post on Saturday, and outlined “three things you should know about our great state.“Here, we protect reproductive freedom. We’re not interested in your national abortion ban. Two, we find ways to put money back in Michiganders pockets … and three, we’re a proud union state and UAW workers still remember when Donald Trump broke his promises to Michigan workers … and Michigan is going to reject your extreme Project 2025 agenda.”With Vance by his side, Trump will deliver remarks in Grand Rapids, a historically Republican stronghold that has trended increasingly blue in recent elections.Whitmer’s caustic welcome was seen as polling indicates she would beat Trump by 1% in the key swing state if she were to become the Democratic presidential nominee, but trails the former president by almost 4% nationally in a hypothetical general election matchup.Trump’s choice of Vance was seen as a move to gain support among so-called rust belt voters in places such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio who helped Trump notch his surprise 2016 victory.Vance specifically mentioned those places during his acceptance speech at the Republican national convention, stressing his roots growing up poor in small-town Ohio and pledging not to forget working-class people whose “jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionDemocrats have dominated recent elections in Michigan, but Republicans now see an opening in the state as Democrats are increasingly divided about whether Biden should drop out of the race.Biden has insisted he is not dropping out, and has attempted to turn the focus back towards Trump, saying on Friday that Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican national convention showcased a “dark vision for the future”.In polls over the last week, Trump has often extended his narrow lead over Biden, though the race overall remains close. Trump, however, is continuing to perform strongly in the crucial battleground states that are vital for victory. His campaign also insists that the contest is broadening to bring in some states – such as Virginia – that Democrats previously considered safe.The Associated Press contributed reporting More
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Pity US voters their choice of leaders. Surely democracy is better than this? | Simon Tisdall
What a shambles! What a shame! With less than four months to go, America’s presidential race, global democracy’s showpiece event, has boiled down to a choice between a crook, a codger, a cheerleader and a charlatan. Four folks who, for varying reasons, are barely fit.Voters deserve better. Or perhaps, by applauding and rewarding bad behaviour, they really don’t. Friends and allies look on aghast. Chinese and Russian online election trolls sneer with delight. No worries, guys. The US is busy screwing itself.First, the psychopath mansplaining atop the Republican ticket. The word, by definition, denotes a personality characterised by impaired empathy and remorse, narcissism, superficial charm, manipulativeness, dishonesty and an outward appearance of normality. Sound about right? Yup. Except it’s worse than ever. At 78, his chronic condition is deteriorating rapidly.Sanctimonious, sentimental, self-pitying, vicious, ignorant – addressing the Republican convention, Donald Trump showed he hasn’t changed a bit. Yet now, unbelievably, this sleazy liar, convicted felon and wannabe dictator, this serial sexual abuser, faux-Christian and closet racist reckons he holds the moral high ground. And all because some poor fool took a shot, elevating him to martyr status.The Pennsylvania assassination attempt was the perfect advertisement for Trump’s favourite role of victim-saviour. He is persecuted. He suffers for you. Now he’s born again. Trump likened his recent New York court tribulations to Jesus in the wilderness. And he claimed God helped him dodge the killer bullet. Joe Biden’s earlier, inept appeal to place “a bull’s eye” on Trump’s back inadvertently fortified the fable.Trump’s disciples raised their arms in salute. “The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle. But an American lion got back on his feet and he roared!” proclaimed lackey senator Tim Scott, mangling metaphors. Divine intervention had saved Trump – in order that he save America.Trump’s unprepossessing son, Donald Jr, claims the near-death experience has fundamentally altered his pa. Baloney. American lions don’t change their spots, as Scott might say.Trump, sensing electoral advantage in a new, insincere guise of national unifier, will exploit the notion ruthlessly. Yet, if re-elected, all bets are off. Revenge and score-settling will be prioritised as before, alongside the hard-right, democracy-shattering Project 2025 agenda.Trump is sick. But so too, sadly, is America’s other main presidential contender, in different ways. Biden has an illness to which those exercising great power often succumb: a delusional belief in his own indispensability. Only he can beat Trump, he insists. It’s nonsense, of course. Biden may be the only Democrat who can’t beat him. Reports suggest the old stager may be finally recognising that reality.Hubris, vanity, pride and a first lady living life vicariously: all influenced Biden’s stubborn hanging on. Now he has Covid again. Of all these ills, old age is the most unforgiving. There’s no fighting the clock. And politically, at 81, Biden’s game is up. Latest polling suggests two-thirds of Democrats think he should quit. About 70% of all voters doubt his mental capacity to lead for another four years. Time to go, Joe.Panicky squawking in the Democratic henhouse is barely contained at this point. There is no agreed party mechanism to remove an incumbent, nor for replacing one. Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have mostly kept their heads down, muttering off-mike. They never really rated Biden. Yet he turned out a better president than either. Do they secretly hope he crashes and burns? Like age and pride, envy and legacy also poison the well.The unfitness of Trump and Biden throws a sharper spotlight on their understudies. So who’s next in line? Kamala Harris, vice-president since 2021, is on Democratic pole. But familiarity has not translated into popularity. Her favourability rating averages minus 15 points. While she notionally fares better than Biden against Trump in some swing states, her claim to the crown is unpersuasive.Harris, 59, is unfairly criticised, perhaps because she is the first female vice-president – a California liberal with black and Asian American roots. She’s led on issues such as abortion, climate, education and voting rights. But opponents dismiss her as a lightweight White House cheerleader who failed in her main task of repelling border illegals.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAttacks on Harris notably increased at the Republican convention – a pre-emptive strike strategy, hedging against a Biden departure. But it’s unclear who among more than half a dozen potential Democratic candidates might get the nod. Names like California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg are tossed around like racecourse betting tickets. If the call comes, Harris will need to toughen up and wise up fast – or risk being shouldered aside.Intriguingly, the same fate could befall Trump one day, given his telling choice of the unpleasantly hard-right, white nationalist-populist senator JD Vance as running mate. Despite his privileged background and wealth, Trump portrays himself, against all evidence, as a champion of the working man. Vance, in contrast, is arguably the real thing, warts and all – a self-styled hillbilly throwback with a chip on his shoulder the size of Ohio.Vance, 39, is the least-known member of 2024’s electoral quadrumvirate. A shameless opportunist, his fiercely stated loyalty to Trump, whom he once compared to Hitler, looks confected and expedient. He’s already casting himself as the Maga heir apparent. How long before he usurps the throne? No one knows what he truly believes, except perhaps his wife, Usha, the brains behind the drone.Vance’s extremist, intolerant views on abortion, immigration, isolationism and protectionism, plus his inflammatory, divisive rhetoric, typify America’s hugely self-destructive 2024 election. The choice on offer ranges from the sick and dangerous to the crudely rabid or banal. Democracy is better than this. Four months remain to rescue America – or else it ends in tears. Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s Foreign Affairs CommentatorDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk More
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A wild three weeks in US presidential politics: a timeline
They may go down as the wildest three weeks in the history of the US presidency, when the prospects of Joe Biden’s candidacy surviving until polling day seemed to change from day to day – sometimes even from hour to hour.Here is a summary of the milestone events as Biden’s re-election effort went through a maelstrom of uncertainty.27 JuneBiden and Donald Trump face off in the earliest debate ever staged between two main candidates in a presidential election, largely in response to demands by a White House team eager to allay doubts over the president’s advanced age (81) and suspicions that his cognitive powers are fading. Instead, Biden puts in a perplexing performance that intensifies the concerns. Over 90 minutes, he appears at times confused, mangles his sentences, repeatedly loses his train of thought and fails to combat a rush of lies from a bullishly confident Trump, who cannot conceal his glee over his rival’s discomfiture. Democratic operatives exchange frantic messages calling for Biden to abandon his campaign even while the debate unfolds.28 JuneThe president, realising his campaign is suddenly in deep trouble, tries to launch a counteroffensive, telling a rally of supporters in North Carolina that he is staying in the race. “I know I’m not a young man,” he shouts – reading his remarks from an teleprompter. “I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know … When you get knocked down, you get back up!”Few are convinced. Within hours, the New York Times, the most influential newspaper in the US, publishes as searing editorial telling Biden to step aside, calling his candidacy a “reckless gamble” that risks a second Trump presidency.3 JulyAs pressure mounts and with a Democratic member of Congress, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, already having called for him to withdraw, Biden meets virtually with state governors in an effort to set minds at rest. But although he wins statements of support, doubts persist after it is reported that he tells them that he is trying to refrain from holding events after 8pm to conserve energy. There is unease at his response when one governor, Josh Green of Hawaii – a medical doctor – inquires about his health, eliciting the puzzling response: “It’s just my brain.”5 JulyBiden gives his first mainstream interview since the debate, an eagerly awaited 22-minute affair with George Stephanopoulos of ABC in a school library in Wisconsin. It is an improvement on the disastrous debate showing but hardly reassuring. The president declares that only the “Lord almighty” could persuade him to step aside from the race. Many Democrats also express deep misgiving about his response to being asked how he would feel if he ran against Trump in November only to lose. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did as good a job as I know I can do – that’s what this is about,” he replies. Some condemn the statement as out of touch, given the Democratic fears of a second Trump presidency.7 JulyHakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, holds crisis talks with senior party House members, at least four of whom say the president should step aside as candidate.8 JulyBiden strikes back in anger. As members of Congress return to Washington DC after a recess, the president sends a letter to the entire Democratic congressional contingent telling them he is unequivocally committed to staying in the race and reaffirming his belief that he can beat Trump. He follows up with an unscheduled live telephone interview to MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme in which he throws down the gauntlet to his critics by telling them to “challenge me at the [Democratic] convention”, due to take place in Chicago in August. Jeffries meets with a full complement of House Democrats on Capitol Hill, some of whom tearfully voice fears about the effect Biden’s plunging popularity in the polls might have on their own election prospects. Yet many Democrats appear resigned to Biden staying on the ticket10 JulyWith the mutiny apparently fizzling out, the New York Times gives it renewed impetus by publishing an opinion article from George Clooney, one of the Democrats’ biggest fundraisers, urging Biden to stand down. Proclaiming his love and admiration for the president, Clooney cites his personal experience of a fundraising event in Hollywood last month attended by Biden, who he says cut the same disturbingly diminished figure that millions saw on the debate stage in Atlanta on 27 June.11 JulyWith the pressure on and mounting numbers of Democrats calling for his withdrawal, Biden holds a rare news conference marking the close of Nato’s 75th anniversary conference in Washington DC. Facing massed ranks of international journalists and speaking for an hour without the aid of a teleprompter, the president gives an admirable – yet still flawed – performance. He expounds on intricate details of foreign and economic policy. At the same time, he commits embarrassing gaffes, referring to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice-President Trump” without correcting himself, having earlier mistakenly introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “President Putin”. The performance seems enough to buy him time.13 JulyDonald Trump survives an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler county, Pennsylvania, a stunning development that puts the discussions on Biden’s candidacy on hold just as the president has been holding talks on his future with leading party figures, including Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader.14 JulyBiden’s staff temporarily suspends all campaign events and political advertising in a display of solidarity over the attempt on Trump’s life. The president gives a prime-time televised speech from the White House urging that both parties rhetorically “lower the temperature” to stave off a rise in political violence.15 JulyWith no Democrats having called for Biden’s withdrawal since the assassination attempt on Trump, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) tries to lock in the presidential nomination for him by unveiling plans for an early electronic roll call of delegates – meaning that the president would effectively have secured his candidacy weeks before the party’s convention starts on 19 August. The plan triggers an immediate backlash among Democrats who still believe Biden must step aside.Meanwhile, Biden gives an arresting answer to NBC’s Lester Holt in another prime-time interview when asked who he listens to on whether he should remain or drop out of the race. “Me,” he replies. “I’ve been doing this a long time.”17 JulyWhile campaigning in Nevada, the president tests positive for Covid and immediately returns to his home in Delaware to isolate. The announcement seems to mark an end to the brief respite in the efforts to persuade him to end his candidacy. The DNC, reportedly following an intervention by Schumer, announces it is postponing the planned electronic roll call by at least a week – giving Biden’s critics more time to muster.18 JulyWith Trump preparing to accept the Republican nomination in at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, reports emerge that Biden is at least listening to arguments that he should withdraw and asking if Harris would fare better. It is also reported that Barack Obama has told associates that he believes the president’s path to winning the election has greatly diminished and that he should reconsider the viability of his campaign19 JulyTen congressional Democrats – nine House members and one senator – call for Biden to stand aside as the candidate, bringing the total who have done so publicly to 32. The president insist he will continue as the nominee and is ready to resume campaigning after isolating from Covid, seemingly confounding speculation that he could be preparing a withdrawal announcement. More
