Democrats reward Biden after president explains historic determination to step apart – US politics reside

Away from Washington, Kamala Harris delivered on Wednesday what has change into the core of her stump speech to greater than 6,000 members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Included.

Harris’s 15-minute tackle on the Black sorority’s biannual assembly in Indianapolis outlined what she described as among the key accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration: eliminating some pupil mortgage debt – a point out met with resounding cheers – capping the price of insulin, increasing lower-cost and no-cost healthcare to new moms in 46 states, chopping youngster poverty in half and eradicating medical debt from the calculus behind credit score scores.

She spoke of unfinished work that she would tackle as president, together with making childcare and eldercare extra reasonably priced, securing common paid maternity depart and signing into legislation a invoice that might restore and defend the precise to abortion, which was eradicated by the conservative-dominated supreme courtroom in 2022.

Harris additionally described her doubtless opponent’s plank as a set of grim, retrogressive concepts, that are detailed within the practically 1,000-page coverage treatise often called Venture 2025. Donald Trump has denied any connection to the doc, however a number of of its chief architects served in his first administration. What’s extra, parts of the coverage had been included within the 2024 Republican social gathering platform, in addition to in speeches from this month’s Republican nationwide conference.

“I believe that we face the choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” Harris mentioned on Wednesday. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

Learn Janell Ross’s full report right here:

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was stuffed with combative remarks, in addition to claims in regards to the conflict in Gaza, now virtually in its tenth month.

My colleague Ruth Michaelson has factchecked a few of these claims right here:

On his third day in Washington, Benjamin Netanyahu lastly bought the eye he so desperately wished within the US capital.

Republicans and their visitors within the Home chamber stamped their toes and whistled as a joint session was gaveled into order, whereas the Democrat lawmakers who selected to not boycott somebody whom colleagues had known as a “war criminal” appeared on in sullen silence. In a 56-minute speech punctuated with 50 rounds of applause, the Israeli prime minister dashed hopes of a fast finish to the conflict in Gaza and distributed pink meat to the Republican devoted, blasting anti-war protest tradition and vowing to battle till “total victory”.

For 2 days, Netanyahu had largely been ignored on the Watergate resort, handed over for the spectacle of a US political cycle averaging a West Wing season finale per week. Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race amid rumours of his cognitive decline, endorsing the vice-president, Kamala Harris, weeks earlier than the conference and reinvigorating the Democratic social gathering in a single day. A bullet had grazed Donald Trump’s ear in an assassination try simply 11 days in the past, sparking comparisons to the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus Christ. America has been dwelling a long time in simply weeks; was there even room on the cable TV schedule for Netanyahu to ship one other incendiary speech?

However the Home speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican, had put Netanyahu on the schedule on 24 July and neither the US political tumult nor Biden’s bout of Covid-19, nor a requested worldwide legal courtroom warrant accusing him of “crimes against humanity” would deter Israel’s prime minister from coming to Washington to make his case earlier than Congress for a report fourth time (as soon as greater than Winston Churchill).

So when he had his second, Netanyahu stood as much as give a speech stuffed with verve however completely devoid of particulars: when and the way Israel’s conflict in Gaza would come to an finish and the 120 remaining hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October can be introduced dwelling.

Learn on right here:

Joe Biden will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu later at present because the Israeli prime minister seeks to shore up US help for the continued conflict in Gaza.

Biden will even meet with households of Israelis taken hostage in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu gave a speech – organized weeks in the past and instigated by the Republican Home speaker, Mike Johnson – to US Congress.

This was met with protests inside and outside of the constructing, with Democrats declining to attend and 1000’s protesting within the streets.

With tensions over Israel’s nine-and-half-month conflict on Gaza working excessive, police mounted an enormous safety operation to seal off the US Capitol from protesters.

Streets in Washington’s downtown space had been closed to site visitors, whereas officers skilled in coping with mass protests had been drafted in from the New York police division. The Capitol constructing itself was ring-fenced off.

“Shut it down,” a big group of protesters chanted as they marched towards the Capitol after blocking a close-by intersection, including “Bibi, Bibi, we’re not done!” Capitol police deployed pepper spray at protesters they claimed had crossed the police line.

In a roughly 10-minute speech, Biden pointed to the risk that he says Donald Trump poses to democracy within the US.

“When Ben Franklin was asked,” Biden mentioned, “as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or a Republic, Franklin’s response was: a republic, if you can keep it.”

“Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands,” Biden mentioned.

Listed here are my colleague Coral Murphy Marcos’s key takeaways from that speech:

Evaluation: Biden’s tackle was a transferring piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump

David Smith

There was 6 January 2021, and a violent coup try by a president desperately attempting to cling to energy. Then there was 24 July 2024, and a president explaining why he was giving up probably the most highly effective job on the planet.

Joe Biden’s tackle on Wednesday night time was a transferring piece of political theatre, the beginning of a farewell tour by “a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings” who entered politics in 1972 and made all of it the way in which to the Oval Workplace. For diehard Democrats it was a case of: if in case you have tears, put together to shed them now.

The speech was additionally a rebuke of his predecessor Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses in each phrase and deed. Though he by no means talked about his predecessor by identify, Biden laid out two radically completely different visions of the US presidency set to conflict once more in November.

Final Sunday the forty sixth president bowed to a refrain of fellow Democrats questioning his age and psychological acuity and introduced 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 clarify why.

Talking towards the backdrop of window, two flags, gold curtains and household pictures together with his late son Beau, Biden started by citing the Oval Workplace portraits of former presidents Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

“I revere this office but I love my country more,” he mentioned. “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 person who has slapped his identify on numerous buildings and for whom the title is all the things. Backed by the conservative Heritage Basis thinktank, the Republican nominee is intent on an growth of presidential energy. However by giving energy away – in what Hillary Clinton described “as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime” – Biden demonstrated he’ll all the time be the larger man.

Welcome again to our reside US political protection.

Senior Democrats have rallied spherical Joe Biden after the president, in an tackle to the nation, set out intimately his causes for stepping down as a candidate in November’s election.

Biden delivered a reflective and hopeful message about the necessity to start a brand new chapter in America’s story.

I imagine my report as president, my management on the planet, my imaginative and prescient for America’s future all merited a second time period, however nothing – nothing – can are available in the way in which of saving our democracy. That features private ambition.

So I’ve determined one of the best ways ahead is to cross the torch to a brand new technology. It’s one of the best ways to unite our nation. , there’s a time and a spot for lengthy years of expertise in public life. There’s additionally a time and a spot for brand new voices, contemporary voices – sure, youthful voices. And that point and place is now.

You possibly can learn our full report on that tackle right here:

After his speech, senior Democrats together with Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom took to social media to point out their help and gratitude.

Harris posted:

Different messages included: