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      Republican attacks on Kamala Harris to get ‘as ugly and bigoted as they can’

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      For Barack Obama there was “birtherism” and a name they said sounded like a specific Middle East terrorist. For Hillary Clinton there was “Lock her up” and merchandise that said, “Trump that bitch”, “Hillary sucks but not like Monica” and “Life’s a bitch: don’t vote for one.”Rightwing playbooks deployed in past election campaigns are being dusted off for an all-out assault against Vice-President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee aiming to become the first Black woman and first person of south Asian descent to be US president.“It’s obvious that the Republicans are going to play the race and gender card, which we’ve seen already in some of the attacks on social media,” said Tara Setmayer, a Black woman who is co-founder and chief executive of the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee. “It may be catnip for their Maga base but it will be a turnoff for the moderate voters in the battleground states that will determine this election.”Harris’s sudden ascent after 81-year-old Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election has upended the race for the White House, giving Democrats a much-needed jolt of energy and instantly turned the tables on Republicans on the question of age: Donald Trump, 78, is now the oldest presidential nominee in history.Having built a campaign against Biden, Republicans are hastily recalibrating and racing to define Harris, 59, before she can define herself. They intend to tie her to Biden’s immigration policy, which they say is to blame for a sharp increase last year in the number of people crossing the southern border with Mexico illegally.The Trump campaign has been quick to brand her Kamala “Border Czar” Harris because, in March 2021, she was put in charge of the administration’s diplomatic campaign to address the “root causes” of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.Trump also regularly blames migrants who are in the US illegally for fuelling violent crime, even though studies show that immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality. His oft-repeated phrase “Biden Migrant Crime” is now defunct.A second line of attack will revolve around the economy. Public opinion polls consistently show Americans are unhappy with high food and fuel costs as well as interest rates that have made buying a home less affordable.Make America Great Again, a Super Pac backing Trump, has run an ad accusing Harris of hiding Biden’s infirmity from the public, and it seeks to pin the administration’s record solely on her. “Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job, so she did it. Look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead,” the narrator says.Whit Ayres, a Republican political consultant and pollster, said: “It’s difficult to identify a state that Kamala Harris will carry that Joe Biden wouldn’t. She inherits many of the negative attitudes about the Biden-Harris administration from criticisms of their handling of the economy and inflation to her primary responsibility: illegal immigration.”Harris had one of the most liberal voting records during her time in the Senate and ran to the left of Biden on some issues in the 2020 Democratic primary election. She also hails from California, a state constantly demonised as elitist and “woke” in Republican rhetoric. This opens her to criticism to which Biden, a moderate from Delaware with a history of bipartisanship, was immune.In a phone call with reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “She’s the same as Biden but much more radical. She’s a radical left person and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it. She’s far more radical than he is. She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants. You take a look at the electric car mandate – everything.”The former president added: “If she becomes president, Kamala Harris will make the invasion exponentially worse, and just like she did with San Francisco, just like she did with the border, our whole country will be permanently destroyed.”Trump is willing to go lower. Known for using offensive language to attack his opponents, he gave supporters at a rally in Michigan on Saturday a taste of the insults he is likely to fling at Harris in the coming days. “I call her Laffin’ Kamala,” he said. “You ever watch her laugh? She’s crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh. She’s crazy. She’s nuts.”View image in fullscreenAmerica has been here before. Obama faced hostile scrutiny over his origins and name. The conspiracy theory that he was born in Kenya, and therefore ineligible for the US presidency, was promoted by Trump as he began his foray into national politics. In 2020 Trump claimed that he had “heard” that Harris – born in Oakland, California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father – “doesn’t qualify” to serve as vice-president.This week, the spectre of birtherism has returned. Tom Fitton, president of the rightwing activist group Judicial Watch, asked his 2.6 million followers on the X social media platform: “Is Kamala Harris eligible to be president under the US Constitution’s ‘Citizenship Clause?’” He was far from alone in pushing such arguments.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHarris’s racial identity is already being questioned. Erick Erickson, an influential conservative radio host in Atlanta, Georgia, tweeted: “Kamala Harris is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants who married a Jewish man. Her experience is the American dream and melting pot, but not really the black experience, particularly that in southern swing states like Georgia and North Carolina.”When Clinton ran for president in 2016, she received sexist comments “on a constant basis”, her former aide Huma Abedin later recalled. Trump himself remarked: “I just don’t think she has a presidential look. And you need a presidential look. You have to get the job done.”Republicans’ focus on Harris is proving no less personal, from mispronouncing her name and mocking her laugh (“Cackling Kamala”) to invoking diversity, equity and inclusion programmes by suggesting that she would be the “first DEI president”. At a campaign rally Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, compared his service in the Marine Corps and small business ownership to Harris “collecting a government paycheque for the last 20 years”.And Megyn Kelly, a rightwing podcaster, tweeted without evidence: “She actually did sleep her way into and upwards in California politics and most women (and men) may learn that and see it for what it is: evidence of an unqualified political aspirant getting ahead based on smthg other than merit.”Kelly was referring to the claim that Harris got a career boost by having an affair with a married man, the California politician Willie Brown. In fact Brown was separated from his wife during the relationship, which was not a secret. He wrote an article in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper in 2020 under the headline: “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”David Brock, founder and chairman of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, said attacks “emerging right out of the box are that she is unqualified, that she was a diversity hire pick in the first place and the only reason the party is sticking with her is because of her race and gender. That’s a way of trying to undermine her and her qualifications for the office.“The second thing is the idea that she was actually the power behind the throne and part of an effort to cover up Biden’s actual condition and was pulling the strings all along, which is obviously not the case and is a sexist trope too.”Brock, a former conservative journalist turned Democratic operative, predicted: “The sex attacks will probably be more insidious because they have a racial subtext to them. The same playbook that we saw in 16 we’ll see again and probably even more eagerly because the right wing has gotten more Maga, more extreme in the years since Hillary ran.”Blatant misogyny and racism could alienate the very swing state voters that Trump needs for victory. But even if he is advised to tone down such rhetoric, an entire army of influencers and pundits are ready to flood the zone on his behalf.Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman and Tea Party activist turned Trump critic, said: “Trump himself is going to have a hard time running against her because he doesn’t know how to deal with someone like her. But Trump’s cheerleaders in the media know exactly what to do and they’ll go down this ugly, sexist, racist road.“They’ll make up stuff about how Kamala Harris rose in her career. Their key to winning – and I know this because I used to do some of this – is to get as ugly and bigoted as they can to implicitly and explicitly get people pissed off about who she is.” More

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      Biden’s address was a moving piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump

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      There was 6 January 2021, and a violent coup attempt by a president desperately trying to cling to power. Then there was 24 July 2024, and a president explaining why he was giving up the most powerful job in the world.Joe Biden’s address on Wednesday night was a moving piece of political theatre, the start of a farewell tour by “a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings” who entered politics in 1972 and made it all the way to the Oval Office. For diehard Democrats it was a case of: if you have tears, prepare to shed them now.The speech was also a rebuke of his predecessor Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses in both word and deed. Although he never mentioned his predecessor by name, Biden laid out two radically different visions of the US presidency set to clash again in November.Last Sunday the 46th president bowed to a chorus of fellow Democrats questioning his age and mental acuity and announced that he would drop out of the presidential election. On Wednesday, recovered from the coronavirus, the 81-year-old made his first public remarks to explain why.Speaking against the backdrop of window, two flags, gold curtains and family photos including his late son Beau, Biden began by citing the Oval Office portraits of former presidents Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.“I revere this office but I love my country more,” he said. “It’s been the honour of my life to serve as your president. But in the defence of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title.”It was a definitive rebuke of Trump, a man who has slapped his name on countless buildings and for whom the title is everything. Backed by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank, the Republican nominee is intent on an expansion of presidential power. But by giving power away – in what Hillary Clinton described “as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime” – Biden demonstrated he will always be the bigger man.Indeed, despite having months to prepare for this contingency, the Trump campaign has been struggling to find a strategy to take on the new Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. Perhaps they were not quite able to believe that Biden would step aside because they know Trump never would.Biden wore a dark blue suit, white shirt, blue tie and US flag pin. There were no major gaffes but there were slight stumbles over certain words. Sitting off-camera to his left were his son Hunter and other family members. According to a pool reporter in the Oval Office, at one point Biden’s daughter Ashley reached for the hand of her mother, Jill Biden, who was sitting next to her.(Trump, who claims he recently “took a bullet for democracy”, watched the address on his plane after a characteristically mendacious and narcissistic campaign rally in North Carolina.)Biden is the first incumbent to announce he would not seek re-election since Lyndon Johnson in 1968, although some historians argue that Johnson secretly hoped for a breakthrough in the Vietnam war and for his party to come begging for him to make a comeback.Still, some of the parallels are irresistible. For Johnson, coming after the younger, more glamorous John F Kennedy, remarkable legislative achievements at home were clouded by the war in Vietnam. For Biden, coming after the younger, more glamorous Barack Obama, remarkable legislative achievements at home have been clouded by the war on Gaza. Just as in 1968, expect protests at next month’s Democratic national convention in Chicago.But whereas Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election at the end of a long and winding 40-minute speech, Biden, recovering from Covid-19, first did so via Twitter/X. And he quickly anointed a successor in Harris.Biden reportedly has mixed feelings about being pushed aside by some of those same Democrats now singing his praises. The presidency had been his lifelong ambition – he first ran in 1988 – and his victory in 2020 was a vindication of everyman strivers everywhere. On top of that, he did the job rather well. Yet now they were telling him enough. In his Oval Office address, he buried those resentments deep in his soul, though he could not resist a pointed comment about his qualifications.“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term,” he said. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”He made a call for generational change in a country facing its first presidential election without a Bush, Clinton or Biden on the ticket since 1976. “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.“It’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”That may seem to leave Biden a lame duck for his final six months. But he vowed to continue to pursue his agenda and slipped in an important line about calling for reform of the supreme court – a court that became embroiled in ethics scandals, overturned the constitutional right to abortion and declared presidents immune from prosecution for official acts.“The great thing about America is, here kings and dictators do not rule – the people do,” Biden concluded. “History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith – keep the faith – and remember who we are.”In 2020, the year of a global pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and Trump trauma, Biden’s signature empathy born of personal tragedies made him the right man at the right time to heal hearts and defend democracy. In 2024, his time has passed. That he came to recognise it reluctantly, and decided to pass the baton, taught a lesson about the presidency that Trump will never learn. More

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      Read a transcript of Biden’s speech on dropping out of the presidential race

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      Joe Biden has explained his decision to drop out of the presidential race, saying it was the “best way to unite our nation”.The US president’s remarks were broadcast from the Oval Office, his first televised appearance since announcing he would end his bid for re-election, and conveyed a reflective and hopeful message.The following is a transcript of his speech.
      My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents.
      Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln, who implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt, who inspired us to reject fear.
      I revere this office, but I love my country more.
      It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president, but the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think is more important than any title.
      I draw strength and I find joy in working for the American people, but this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It’s about you, your families, your futures. It’s about We the People. We can never forget that, and I never have.
      I’ve made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point, one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.
      We have to decide, do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy? In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as fellow Americans. Can we do that? Does character and public life still matter? I believe I know the answer to these questions, because I know you, the American people, and I know this: we are a great nation because we are good people.
      When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us. Those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much. The cause of American democracy itself. We must unite to protect it.
      You know, in recent weeks, it’s become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.
      So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation. You know, there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now.
      Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I’ll continue to lower costs for hardworking families, grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism. Make it clear there is no place, no place in America, for political violence or any violence, ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from climate crisis as an existential threat, and I will keep fighting for my Cancer Moonshot, so we can end cancer as we know it, because we can do it. I’m going to call for supreme court reform, because this is critical to our democracy, supreme court reform.
      You know, I will keep working to ensure America remains strong, secure and the leader of the free world. I’m the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world. We’ll keep rallying a coalition of proud nations to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine, doing more damage. We’ll keep Nato stronger, and I’ll make it more powerful and more united than any time in all of our history. I’ll keep doing the same for allies in the Pacific.
      You know, when I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably, would inevitably pass, surpass the United States. That’s not the case anymore, and I’m going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war. We’re also working around the clock to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.
      You know, we’ve come so far since my inauguration. On that day I told you, as I stood in that winter, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities, parallel possibilities. We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in the century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. We came together as Americans. We got through it, we emerged stronger, more prosperous and more secure.
      Today, we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16m new jobs – a record. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We’re literally rebuilding our entire nation, urban, suburban, rural, tribal communities. Manufacturing has come back to America. We’re leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma, after all these years, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. And I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the cost for everyone, not just seniors. More people have healthcare today in America than ever before. I signed one of those significant laws, helping millions of veterans and their families, who are exposed to toxic materials.
      You know, the most significant climate law ever, ever in the history of the world, the first major gun safety law in 30 years. Today, violent crime rate is at a 50-year low. We’re also securing our border. Border crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office.
      I’ve kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the supreme court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and be a president for all Americans. That’s what I’ve done.
      I ran for president four years ago because I believed, and still do, that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was a stake, and that’s still the case.
      America is an idea. An idea is stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant.
      It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident. We’re all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
      We’ve never fully lived up to it, to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either, and I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.
      In just a few months, the American people choose the course of America’s future.
      I made my choice. I made my views known. I would like to thank our great vice-president, Kamala Harris. She’s experienced. She’s tough, she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and the leader for our country.
      Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the bust of Dr King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.
      When Ben Franklin was asked, as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or republic, Franklin’s response was: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ A republic, if you can keep it.
      Whether we keep our republic, is now in your hands.
      My fellow Americans, it has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office as president of the United States. Here I am.
      That’s what’s so special about America. We are a nation of promise and possibilities, of dreamers and doers, of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things. I gave my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others.
      I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you.
      The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do.
      History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith. Keep the faith and remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. And there is simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.
      So let’s act together, preserve our democracy. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you. More

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      Netanyahu says Israel aiming for ‘total victory’ in Gaza as number of protesters arrested in Congress – live

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      Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will achieve “total victory” and that it will settle for “nothing less”.Total victory, he says, means that Israel will fight until it destroys Hamas’s military capability, end its rule in Gaza and bring all the hostages home.The Israeli prime minister moves on to talk about a post-war Gaza, and says that “a new Gaza could emerge” the day after Hamas is defeated.He says that his vision for a post-war Gaza is of a “demilitarized and de-radicalized Gaza”, adding:
      Israel does not seek to settle Gaza. But for the foreseeable future, we must retain overriding security control there to prevent the resurgence of terror, to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.
      Netanyahu says that Gaza should have a civilian administration “run by Palestinians who do not seek to destroy Israel” and that a new generation of Palestinians “must no longer be taught to hate Jews”.He notes that the terms “demilitarization” and “deradicalization” were applied to Germany and Japan after the second world war, and that applied to Gaza “can also lead to a future of security, prosperity and peace”. “That’s my vision for Gaza,” Netanyahu says.Connecticut senator Chris Murphy reacted to Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, asserting that it’s out of bounds to suggest that anyone who objects to the war in Gaza is a “Hamas sympathizer.”“That speech was, as I expected, a setback for both the U.S.-Israel relationship and the fight against Hamas” Murphy said on X.During his address, Netanyahu likened that the thousands of protestors demonstrating at capitol hill as Hamas sympathizers. “Many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil,” he said. “Many stand with Hamas.As Netanyahu address Congress today, demonstrators marched in Washington DC, calling on the US to end arms sales to Israel and to implement an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.Our video editors have this report of Netanyahu’s visit to DC:Here are images from around Capitol Hill today, where thousands gathered to protest Israel’s bombardment of Gaza ahead of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress.The Democratic party has announced the rules for the nomination of its presidential candidate, setting the stage for Kamala Harris to be officially chosen as the party’s standard bearer in early August before the party’s convention in Chicago begins later that month.According to rules adopted today by the convention’s rules committee, candidates will declare their intention to stand by 27 July, and then voting can begin virtually by 1 August at the earliest. Delegates will convene in Chicago beginning 19 August “to approve the Democratic Party platform, have ceremonial and celebratory votes on the nominees, and host historic acceptance speeches from the new Democratic ticket and voices throughout the Party”, the Democrats said in a statement.Harris, who announced her candidacy on Sunday, has said she has enough delegates to win the party’s presidential nomination, and no other major candidate has come forward to challenge her.Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian American in Congress, held up a sign accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of genocide during his speech today.She had this to say about it:Separately, Axios reports that about half of the Democrats elected to the House and Senate opted to skip the Israeli prime minister’s speech:Jean-Pierre also elaborated on Joe Biden’s timeline for revealing his decision to end his bid for a second term.The president, who had been recovering from Covid-19 at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, announced the decision with a post made on X, without warning, on Sunday afternoon. Jean-Pierre shed a little bit more light on the lead-up to that:
      He met with a small group of advisers on Saturday evening and with his family, and was thinking through how to move forward. Sunday afternoon, he made that decision. It was in a very short period of time, as you can imagine. And then at 1.45 [pm], he got on the phone with some of his assistants, assistant to the president, some advisers. He let them know, and then minutes later, a letter went out.
      So, it was in a very short period of time that the president was able to think about this and make a decision.
      Over at the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is holding the first briefing with reporters since Joe Biden announced he would end his bid for a second term.Besides a letter he released on social media, the president has not elaborated on his decision, but plans to do so when he addresses the nation from the Oval Office at 8pm ET, Jean-Pierre said.“The decision that he made on Sunday was about putting country first, was about his party and was about the American people,” Jean-Pierre said.“He’s going to be on camera later today, obviously, to address the American people from the Oval Office, because of this moment and how big this moment is. He wants to do that. He wants to make sure that Americans hear directly from him.”Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that every man, woman and child in Gaza is receiving more than enough food.“The prosecutor of the international criminal court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza: This is utter, complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication. Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food!” he said, wagging his finger.According to data released by the United Nations, a total of 25,183 trucks entered Gaza before Israeli forces stormed the Rafah crossing in May, which affected both crossing points in the southern part of the enclave. The same UN data says a total of just 2,835 have entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom and Erez in the north in the months since, a fraction of the need.In total, per UN data, 28,018 aid trucks have entered Gaza since the war began. A little more relief entered via the US-built pier, but this has not been seen as a successful effort to boost the supply of aid.The US pier was also intended to overcome what the relief organisation Oxfam called, in a report earlier this year, Israel’s deliberate blocking of aid.Sally Abi Khalil, the organisation’s Middle East and north Africa director, added: “Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it.”Earlier this year, the world’s leading authority on famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, warned that Gaza was on the brink of famine if no action were taken.In a report in June, the organisation’s famine review committee said that as there had been some increase in goods allowed into northern Gaza, that “the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring”.However, they added that the risk of famine remains. They added: “The situation in Gaza remains catastrophic and there is a high and sustained risk of Famine across the whole Gaza Strip. It is important to note that the probable improvement in nutrition status noted in April and May should not allow room for complacency about the risk of Famine in the coming weeks and months. The prolonged nature of the crisis means that this risk remains at least as high as at any time during the past few months.”The US Capitol Police now say six people were arrested for disrupting Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in the House chamber:The US Capitol Police said five people who disrupted Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech from a gallery in the House chamber were arrested, while officers deployed pepper spray on protesters outside the Capitol:Photographers on the scene caught images of Capitol police deploying pepper spay:Benjamin Netanyahu also uses his address to praise Donald Trump, and says he wants to thank the former president “for his leadership in brokering the historic Abraham accords”.He thanks Trump for “recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights”, for “confronting Iran’s aggression” and for “recognizing Jerusalem as our capital and moving the American embassy there”.The status of both Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are disputed under international law.Israelis were “relieved” when Trump “emerged safe and sound from the dastardly” assassination attempt on him, Netanyahu says.Benjamin Netanyahu says that he is “confident” that the US and Israel will “vanquish the tyrants and terrorists” that threaten both countries.He says that as Israel’s prime minister, he vows that Israel “will not relent” or bend, no matter “how difficult the road ahead”.He says that Israel will continue to work with the US and its Arab partners on the “noble mission” to “transform a troubled region” full of “repression, poverty and war” into an “oasis of dignity, prosperity and peace”.Israel will always remain the US’s “indispensable” ally, “loyal friend” and “steadfast partner” through thick and thin, Netanyahu says.
      Thank you America. Thank you for your support and solidarity. Thank you for standing with Israel in our hour of need. Together, we shall defend our common civilization together, we shall secure a brilliant future for both our nations. More

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      ‘I was not voting before, now I am’: gen Z voters on what they think of Kamala Harris

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      American gen Z voters share how they feel about Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, why they like or dislike her as a candidate and whether they think she could beat Donald Trump, as the vice-president races towards winning the Democratic nomination for November’s election.‘I think she’s just what we need’“I think [Kamala Harris] is the only one that makes sense. She will get the votes Biden couldn’t. She could get the Black, Asian, Latino, women’s, LGBTQ+ and youth votes. She stands more for progress and equality than an old white dude and if she wins it will be historic. The Democrats need a bold move and I think she’s just what we need.“I hope the Democrats realize what an opportunity this is for them.” Will, 22, construction worker from Portland, Oregon‘We are fired up’“I have so much renewed passion and hope now that Kamala is the endorsed candidate. She made history when she was elected VP and I believe she can make history again. I get emotional just thinking about it. And despite having just purchased a new home and having hardly any extra cash lying around, my husband and I just donated $100 to a campaign for the first time this election cycle. We are fired up.“My concern is we are facing a self-fulfilling prophecy; that people think it’s an impossible task to elect a Black woman to the highest office and as a result it becomes one. I think it’s quite the opposite actually. I feel Kamala is just what we need to energize young voters and get them to the polls.” Lizzie, 28, engineer from Idaho‘I’m concerned that she is silly or not serious’“I feel mixed about it. I am a Democrat and at first I thought: ‘Oh well, we’re stuck with Joe we’ll get him elected if it means no Donald Trump.’ Then after the debate I thought: ‘Omg this guy is way too old!’ I guess Biden seemed so set on still running I thought he would never drop out. I liked Kamala when she ran back in 2020 but I’m not sure how I feel about her today.“My biggest concern with her is this perception that she is silly, or not serious. She laughs in every interview and the “You think you fell out of a coconut tree? You are the sum of everything … ” is a huge meme on TikTok. I guess I wouldn’t say it paints her in a horrible light, but I just think people don’t take her seriously.” Georgie, 25, research associate from Massachusetts‘Kamala is not perfect, but I’m more optimistic now than with Biden’“I and everyone I know are THRILLED that Kamala Harris is now leading the ticket. Joe Biden could not win. Kamala is not a perfect candidate, but she can campaign; she is running against the oldest major party nominee in history; she can make the case for a new Democratic administration. Joe Biden could do none of these things, so while I think Democrats still face an uphill battle, I am infinitely more optimistic now that we have a likely nominee who is physically and mentally capable of running an energetic campaign.“Kamala is not a perfect candidate, and I probably would have supported someone else if Biden had stepped down a year ago. I’m worried that she will struggle to differentiate herself from the administration’s policy on Gaza (as Hubert Humphrey struggled to differentiate himself from the Johnson administration’s policy on Vietnam), that she’ll be blamed for voters’ dissatisfaction with the status quo, and, of course, she will certainly face racist and sexist headwinds that Biden did not. BUT, and it’s a big ‘but’, I thought Biden was a certain loser after the debate, so even if Harris’s chances to win are 30%, that’s still better than 0%. I don’t have any concerns about her ability to do the job if elected, and I think she is perfectly capable of running a winning campaign, at least in theory.” Peter, 27, museum educator from Indiana‘That Harris was picked by delegates, not voters, is a disaster for her campaign’“I watched the 2019 debates (eg Harris’s inability to perform under pressure from opponents like Tulsi Gabbard) and her recent interviews (eg her disastrous response to Lester Holt when asked if she’d been to the border) and don’t think she’s the strongest the Democratic party can offer. She doesn’t bring the fact-based, logical responses needed to counter a populist candidate like Trump nor does she present clear policy beyond typical stump-speech moralizing.“I’d rather have Pete Buttigieg to be honest and feel deeply, horribly cheated because the Democratic candidate isn’t going to be chosen by a primary vote, instead relying on a couple thousand delegates in Chicago.“I’d feel better if she were at least chosen by the American people instead of being sweethearted because Biden picked her for VP. It all leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I’ll have a hard time backing Harris until there’s a broad-scale democratic process to ballast her presidential bid.“The Trump campaign is going to villainize Harris and the Democratic party over the lack of primary voting to support Harris’s candidacy. This narrative feeds exactly into the anti-establishment, deep-state messaging central to the Trump campaign, and the sad thing is that the Trump campaign will have a point: Harris was not picked by voters, she was picked by delegates. It’s a disaster for any campaign she’d hope to launch, and based on Harris’s past performances under fire, she will have no effective argument against Trump’s accusations.” Michelle, 26, from Wisconsin‘I think she can do great things’“It will be refreshing for someone new to take the lead. [Harris] has got experience, she is young and passionate. Let’s see if she can make positive changes. This country needs a levelheaded individual, not a pushover or tyrant. I think she can do great things.“I just hope she is smart and strong enough to not continue to support war and the crackdown on immigrants.“This country was built on the foundation of immigrants and the pursuit of fairness and equity. I don’t mind the basis of what it means to be a Republican but their agenda has really changed over the years. We need to support each other as people; I just hope others get over their greed so we can do just that.” Lee Ocasio, 28, medical assistant from New York‘I hope she’ll restore Roe v Wade’“I am anxious for the results, but if she’s got a good chance at victory, I’m in full support. I had switched back and forth on supporting a Biden withdrawal, but what’s done is done now.“I’m a little worried about her policies. From what I’ve read this far, she doesn’t seem to have much of a stance or plan for things like Palestine, immigration or inflation, but if she can restore Roe v Wade, she will have 110% of my support.” Kaleb Stanton, 24, grocery store worker from New Mexico‘She’ll be a tougher candidate to beat than Biden’“I have been worried about the lack of enthusiasm about Biden’s candidacy, particularly among young voters, and the implications that could have on turnout. Virtually all indicators have pointed to a strong economy under Biden; however, I think many young people feel like there is less opportunity for them today than there was for prior generations.“For this reason, I think it is unsurprising that there would be a lack of enthusiasm to support Biden or Trump because of their age (regardless of their ability to do the job or not).“I think that VP Harris will be a harder opponent for Republicans to run against. Consider the matchup: a 78-year-old male Republican nominee recently found guilty on felony charges, and responsible for appointing three supreme court justices that helped overturn Roe v Wade versus a 59-year-old female (likely) Democratic nominee with a background as a former prosecutor. Harris will be able to hammer Republicans on abortion/reproductive health, contrast her own ‘law & order’ background with Trump’s felon status, and offer a younger option to voters that were concerned about Biden’s (and Trump’s!) age.“I think Harris also has strengths that bring previously competitive southern states back into play in a way that Biden couldn’t in 2024. Harris would be the first female president, first female African-American president, and first Asian-American president. She represents America’s cultural melting pot in a way that no previous presidential candidate has and I believe this could help boost African- and Asian-American turnout, two historically strong Democratic voter bases that some polls have shown to be slightly wavering in their support in recent years.” Anonymous policy researcher at a thinktank in their 20s‘She appeals way more to gen Z than Biden’“[Kamala Harris] is a much better candidate for the country, and appeals way more to gen Z voters than Biden did. I was not voting before, and now I am.” Javier, 25, a gay Latino voter from New York More

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      Trump files complaint against Harris for taking over Biden’s campaign funds

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      Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the vice-president Kamala Harris, accusing her 2024 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by replacing Joe Biden’s name with her own to take control of his campaign funds.The complaint, filed by the Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, argued that the Biden campaign could not rename its committee from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” once Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, and roll over $91m.“This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5m excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign. This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws,” the eight-page complaint said.“Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate,” it added. “Biden for President 2024 has shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate the general election funds it has already received. This makes them all excess contributions.”Whether the complaint generates traction with the FEC remains unclear, but the Trump campaign has been looking for any way to slow down the momentum Harris has been able to generate with voters and donors after she quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee.The strategy, according to people familiar with the matter, has included opening new legal battles to try to prevent Harris from accessing Biden’s funds, although the complaint on Tuesday stopped short of a lawsuit.Warrington made that explicit request to the FEC in the complaint, asking the agency to enjoin the transfer. And if the FEC were to deem the transfer unlawful, the complaint said, it would ask the FEC to consider issuing a fine or making a criminal referral to the US justice department.The Harris campaign has viewed the FEC complaint as a spurious legal effort to throw sand in their gears, noting that the Biden-Harris committees have always been authorized committees for either Biden or Harris, according to a person familiar with the thinking.And in a statement, the Harris campaign noted that they had raised $100m in donations in the 36 hours since Biden withdrew from the 2024 race, adding: “Baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe complaint, earlier reported by the New York Times, also argued that Harris taking over Biden’s remaining campaign funds amounted to an excessive unlawful contribution given that “Biden for President” was not an authorized committee for the Harris campaign.“If Mr Biden will not seek the Democratic party’s nomination, then he will never participate in the general election and all general election contributions received by Biden for President are excessive and must be disposed of,” the complaint said. More

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      Democratic congressional leaders back Kamala Harris as campaign gains energy

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      Kamala Harris won key backing from the Democratic party’s senior congressional leadership on Tuesday as she carried the energy and momentum from her whirlwind ascent to presumptive presidential nominee into a lively first campaign rally.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, gave the vice-president their endorsement during a lunchtime press briefing. Harris, they said, had re-energized Democrats following Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would no longer seek a second term.“We are brimming with excitement, enthusiasm, unity,” Schumer said.“In just the last 36 hours I have seen a surge of enthusiasm from every corner of our party uniting behind Vice-President Harris, an enthusiasm felt in every corner of the country. And it’s contagious among Democrats, the volunteers, the small contributions, they’re just pouring in, in ways even beyond our expectations.”Jeffries said Harris was “a commonsense leader who knows how to deliver real results for hard-working American taxpayers”.Their approval came shortly before Harris addressed cheering supporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday afternoon in her first solo campaign appearance. Harris praised Biden, attacked the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and predicted: “We will win this election.”“Before I was elected vice-president, before I was a US senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California, and a courtroom prosecutor before that,” she said.“In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type. And in this campaign I promise I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”The rally followed news that the Harris for President campaign had raised more than $100m in the day following Biden’s withdrawal, largely from first-time donors. Harris hailed it as a record: “the best 24 hours of grassroots fundraising in presidential campaign history”.It also came after confirmation on Monday night that Harris had secured the support of enough Democratic party delegates at its national convention next month to win the nomination for November’s election.Biden said in a tweet he would deliver a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening to explain his decision to withdraw, and lay out a vision for his final six months in the White House.Also on Tuesday, Harris’s campaign took the first formal steps towards naming a running mate. Reports in US media outlets suggested that Harris was looking at closely at two potential candidates, the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and the Arizona senator Mark Kelly, but had requested vetting materials from several others.They included the governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, although Whitmer has said she would serve instead as co-chair of the campaign.A surprise omission was reported to be Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, a vocal Harris acolyte. He told CNN he had not received a package from the campaign, but would “at least listen” if he was called, stressing his focus was the people of Kentucky.Eric Holder, the attorney general during Barack Obama’s administration, has been hired to vet Harris’s potential picks of her running mate, according to Reuters.The news that Harris had already begun assessing potential running mates reflects the speed at which the campaign is moving towards next month’s Democratic national convention in Chicago, at which the party’s candidates must be confirmed.A survey by the Associated Press indicated that Harris had the backing of 2,688 state delegates, far more than the 1,976 needed to become the nominee.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“When I announced my campaign for president, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” Harris, a former California senator, said in a statement.“I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”A CBS News/YouGov poll on Tuesday found that 83% of Democratic registered voters approved of Biden withdrawing from the race, while just 17% disapproved.Polls matching Harris against Trump were tighter, but showed Democrats gaining ground. Morning Consult found that the former president has 47% support nationally to Harris’s 45%, while Biden trailed Trump by six percentage points in an earlier poll.Harris entered the second full day of her campaign for the nomination in an almost unassailable position, following a breathless 24 hours that saw almost every senior party figure championing her candidacy.All 23 Democratic state governors have publicly backed Harris, including several who had been considered potential rivals for the nomination, such as Whitmer and JB Pritzker of Illinois.The rapid pace at which she racked up endorsements was matched by an avalanche of donations. More than $100m poured into campaign coffers in its first day, a spokesperson said on Monday, calling it the largest single-day haul of any presidential candidate in history and with most of the money coming from grassroots donors making their first contributions of the election cycle.Campaign officials, however, were equally enthused by the succession of heavyweight Democrats who voiced their support for Harris even before Schumer and Jeffries did so on Tuesday. Notable among them was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, who called the vice-president “brilliantly astute” and “rooted in strong values, faith and a commitment to public service”.A number of organizing efforts are also under way on her behalf. The Win With Black Women advocacy group hosted a Zoom call for 44,000 people and raised more than $1.5m. A similar initiative involving more than 20,000 Black men on Monday pulled in at least another million.Among the high-profile endorsements to come in for Harris on Tuesday was that of George Clooney, the Hollywood actor who wrote a powerful opinion article earlier this month calling for Biden to step aside.“President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice-President Harris in her historic quest,” he said in a statement. More