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Trump vows to return to site of assassination attempt; Obamas endorse Harris

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Friday he will return to the Pennsylvania town where he narrowly survived an assassination attempt, while Vice President Kamala Harris capped her weeklong bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee with former president Barack Obama’s endorsement.

“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY,” former president Trump wrote on his Truth Social site, without providing details on when or where the rally would take place.

Harris, the first Black woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president, swiftly consolidated Democratic support after President Joe Biden tapped her to succeed him Sunday. A handful of public opinion polls this week have shown her beginning to narrow Trump’s lead.

A Friday Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump holding 49% support to Harris’ 47% support, with a margin of error of three percentage points. A poll by the newspaper earlier this month had shown Trump leading Biden 48% to 42%.

‘Couldn’t be prouder to endorse you’

Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, endorsed Harris on Friday, adding their names to a parade of prominent Democrats who coalesced behind Harris’ White House bid after Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign under pressure from the party.

“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Obama told Harris in a phone call posted in an online video by the campaign.

‘We’re gonna have some fun with this’

Smiling as she spoke into a cellphone, Harris expressed her gratitude for the endorsement and their long friendship.

“Thank you both. It means so much. And we’re gonna have some fun with this, too,” said Harris, who would also be the nation’s first female president if she prevails in the November 5 election.

Barack Obama, the first Black U.S. president, and Michelle Obama remain among the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, almost eight years after he left office. A Reuters/Ipsos poll early this month showed that 55% of Americans — and 94% of Democrats — viewed Michelle Obama favorably, higher approval than Harris’ 37% nationally and 81% within the party.

The endorsement could help boost support and fundraising for Harris’ campaign, and it signals Obama is likely to get on the campaign trail for Harris.
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FBI says Trump was struck by bullet during assassination attempt

WASHINGTON — Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI confirmed Friday that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former president’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused his injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.

The FBI statement marked the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries and followed ambiguous comments earlier in the week from Director Christopher Wray that appeared to cast doubt on whether Trump had been hit by a bullet.

Wray’s comment drew fury from Trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a lack of information following the July 13 attack.

Until now, federal law enforcement agents involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, had repeatedly refused to provide information about what caused Trump’s injuries. Trump’s campaign has also declined to release medical records from the hospital where he was first treated or to make the doctors there available for questions.

Updates have instead come either from Trump himself or from Trump’s former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, a staunch ally who now represents Texas in Congress. Though Jackson has been treating Trump since the night of the attack, he has come under considerable scrutiny and is not Trump’s primary care physician.

The FBI’s apparent reluctance to immediately vouch for the former president’s version of events — along with the ire he and some supporters have directed at the bureau in the shooting’s aftermath — has raised fresh tension between the Republican nominee and the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency, which he could soon exert control over again.

Questions persist

Questions about the extent and nature of Trump’s wound began immediately after the attack, as his campaign and law enforcement officials declined to answer questions about his condition or the treatment he received after he narrowly escaped an attempted assassination by a gunman with a high-powered rifle.

Those questions have persisted despite photos showing the trace of a projectile speeding past Trump’s head, photographs that show Trump’s teleprompter glass intact after the shooting, and the account Trump himself gave in a Truth Social post within hours of the shooting saying he had been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote.

Days later, in a speech accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump described the scene in detail, while wearing a large, white, gauze bandage over his right ear.

“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard, on my right ear. I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,'” he said.

But the first medical account of Trump’s condition didn’t come until a full week after the shooting, when Jackson released his first letter last Saturday evening. In that letter, he said the bullet that struck Trump had “produced a 2-cm-wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear.” He also revealed that Trump had received a CT scan at the hospital.

But federal law enforcement involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, had declined to confirm that account. And Wray’s testimony offered apparently conflicting answers on the issue.

“There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray testified, before he seemed to suggest it was indeed a bullet.

“I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else,” he said.

FBI clarification

The following day, the FBI sought to clarify matters with a statement affirming that the shooting was an “attempted assassination of former President Trump which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims.” The FBI also said Thursday that its Shooting Reconstruction Team continues to examine bullet fragments and other evidence from the scene.

Jackson, who has been treating the former president since the night of the July 13 shooting, told The Associated Press on Thursday that any suggestion Trump’s ear was bloodied by anything other than a bullet was reckless.

In his letter Friday, Jackson insisted “there is absolutely no evidence” Trump was struck by anything other than a bullet and said it was “wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

He wrote that at Butler Memorial Hospital, where the GOP nominee was rushed after the shooting, he was evaluated and treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”

The FBI declined to comment on the Jackson letters.

Asked if the campaign would release those hospital records or allow the doctors who treated him there to speak, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the media for asking. 
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What’s in a name? Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has had many of them

columbus, ohio — When it comes to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s name, it’s complicated.

The senator from Ohio introduced himself to the world in 2016 when he published his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, under the name J.D. Vance — “like jay-dot-dee-dot,” he wrote, short for James David. In the book, he explained that this was not the first iteration of his name. Nor would it be the last.

Over the course of his 39 years, Vance’s first, middle and last names have all been altered in one way or another. As Vance is being introduced to voters across the country as Donald Trump’s new running mate, his name has been the source of both curiosity and questions — including why he no longer uses periods in JD.

He was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio, on Aug. 2, 1984, his middle and last names the same as his biological father, Donald Bowman. His parents split up “around the time I started walking,” he writes. When he was about 6, his mother, Beverly, married for the third time. He was adopted by his new stepfather, Robert Hamel, and his mother renamed him James David Hamel.

When his mother erased Donald Bowman from his and her lives, the adoption process also erased the name James Donald Bowman from the public record. The only birth certificate for Vance on file at Ohio’s vital statistics office reads James David Hamel, according to information provided by the state.

Beverly kept the boy’s initials the same, since he went universally by J.D., Vance explains in the book. He didn’t buy his mother’s story that he was named for his uncle David, though. “Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald,” he wrote.

Vance spent more than two decades as James David “J.D.” Hamel.

It’s the name by which he graduated from Middletown High School, served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine (officially, Corporal James D. Hamel), earned a political science degree at The Ohio State University and blogged his ruminations as a 26-year-old student at Yale Law School. Those facts are borne out in documentation provided by those entities upon request, or otherwise publicly available, and were confirmed by campaign spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk.

But the situation gnawed at him, particularly after his mother and adoptive father divorced.

“I shared a name with no one I really cared about [which bothered me already], and with Bob gone, explaining why my name was J.D. Hamel would require a few additional awkward moments,” he writes in Hillbilly Elegy. “Yeah, my legal father’s last name is Hamel. You haven’t met him because I don’t see him. No, I don’t know why I don’t see him. Of all the things that I hated about my childhood, nothing compared to the revolving door of father figures.”

So he decided to change his name again, to Vance — the last name of his beloved Mamaw, the grandmother who raised him.

It didn’t happen on his wedding day in 2014, as the book implies, but in April 2013, as he was about to graduate from Yale, Van Kirk said. It felt right to take the name of the woman who raised him before dying in 2005, as he was putting the struggles of his early life behind him and launching into this new phase.

“Throughout his tumultuous childhood, Mamaw — or Bonnie Blanton Vance — raised JD and was always his north star,” Van Kirk said in a statement. “It only felt right to him to take Vance as his last name.”

Claiming the Vance name also served to tie JD more clearly to what he writes was “hillbilly royalty” on his grandfather’s side not long before he would release a book opining on hillbilly culture. A distant cousin to his Papaw, also named James Vance, married into the McCoy-hating Hatfield family and committed a murder that “kicked off one of the most famous family feuds in American history,” Vance wrote in his book.

Vance achieved a clean slate of sorts with his new name, just as he was entering his career as a lawyer and author. Besides being the name on his book, it’s the name he used to register for the bar, to marry, to enter the world of venture capital in the Silicon Valley and as he became a father.

But there was one more name alteration to come.

When Vance jumped into politics in July 2021, he had removed the periods from J.D. He’d often used this shorthand, JD, over his lifetime.

Asked by The Associated Press at the time if this was a formal change, or merely stylistic, his campaign said it was how Vance preferred to be referred to in print. He has maintained the usage as a U.S. senator, referring to himself as JD Vance on his Senate website, in press releases and in certain campaign and business filings.

The nominee’s legal name today is James David Vance. The AP, whose industry-standard AP Stylebook advises to generally call people by the name they prefer, honors his request to go by JD with no periods.
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Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris

ATLANTA — Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris in her White House bid, giving the vice president the expected but still crucial backing of the nation’s two most popular Democrats.

The endorsement, announced Friday morning in a video showing Harris accepting a joint phone call from the former first couple, comes as Harris continues to build momentum as the party’s likely nominee after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and endorse his second-in-command against Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

It also highlights the friendship and potentially historic link between the nation’s first Black president and the first woman, first Black woman and first person of Asian descent to serve as vice president, who is now vying to break those same barriers at the presidential rank.

“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” the former president told Harris, who is shown taking the call as she walks backstage at an event, trailed by a Secret Service agent.

Said Michelle Obama, “I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl, Kamala, I am proud of you.

“This is going to be historic,” she added.

Harris, who has known the Obamas since before his election in 2008, thanked them for their friendship and said she looks forward to “getting there, being on the road” with them in the three-month blitz before Election Day on November 5.

“We’re gonna have some fun with this too, aren’t we?” Harris said.

The Obamas are perhaps the last major party figures to endorse Harris formally — a reflection of the former president’s desire to remain, at least publicly, a party elder operating above the fray. The Obamas remain prodigious fundraising draws and popular surrogates at large campaign events for Democratic candidates.

According to an Associated Press survey, Harris already has secured the public support of a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which begins August 19 in Chicago. The Democratic National Committee expects to hold a virtual nominating vote that would, by August 7, make Harris and a yet-to-be-named running mate the official Democratic ticket.

Biden endorsed Harris within an hour of announcing his decision last Sunday to end his campaign amid widespread concern about the 81-year-old president’s ability to defeat Trump. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed in the days after.

The Obamas, however, trod carefully as Harris secured the delegate commitments, made the rounds among core Democratic constituencies and raised more than $120 million. The public caution tracks how the former president handled the weeks between Biden’s debate debacle against Trump and the president’s eventual decision to end his campaign: Obama was a certain presence in the party’s maneuvers, but he operated quietly.

Barack Obama’s initial statement after Biden’s announcement did not mention Harris. Instead, he spoke generically about coming up with a nominee to succeed Biden: “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” the former president wrote.

Both Obamas campaigned separately for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, including large rallies on the closing weekends before Election Day. They delivered key speeches at the Democrats’ convention in 2020, a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic. The former president’s speech was especially notable because he unveiled a full-throated attack on Trump as a threat to democracy, an argument that endures as part of Harris’ campaign.
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US presidential election energizes fast-growing Indian American community

washington — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise to the top of the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket has energized many Indian Americans, raising the fast-growing community’s political profile and sparking widespread excitement.

Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, appears set to become the first female presidential nominee of color after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. But the fervor isn’t solely about her nomination.

Many Indian Americans, regardless of political leanings, are equally electrified to see other notable figures of Indian descent in the national spotlight: Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, as well as former presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

“I’m very proud that Indian Americans are making it on every stage,” said Shaker Narasimhan, chair and founder of AAPI Victory Fund, a super PAC focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islander voters and supporting Democratic candidates.

Narasimhan recalled being on a call with about 130 people when news broke that Biden had dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Harris.

“Everything lit up, literally: the chats, the DMs, the phones,” Narasimhan said. “But it was all with excitement, not wonderment, like, ‘Wow.’ It was like, ‘Oh my God, let’s go,’ This is just the opportunity of a lifetime, as far as I’m concerned, for us to show our muscles.”

The enthusiasm cuts across the political spectrum. Priti Pandya-Patel, co-founder of the New Jersey Republican Party’s South Asia Coalition, said the community is buzzing about the prospect of Usha Vance becoming the country’s first Indian American second lady.

“I think it’s just a proud moment to see our community actually being out there and being noticed,” Pandya-Patel said. “I think that is definitely getting our Indian community very excited.”

5 million in US

Indian Americans are one of the fastest-growing immigrant communities, surging more than tenfold since the early 1990s.

Today, there are roughly 5 million people of Indian descent living in the United States, making them the largest Asian ethnic group and the second-largest immigrant group after Mexicans.

While Indian Americans vote Democratic more than any other Asian group, roughly 20% identify as Republican.

The Indian American community has traditionally been perceived as politically less active than some other ethnic groups. However, there are indications of growing political engagement within the community.

A recent survey of Asian Americans, including those of Indian descent, found that 90% intended to vote in the November election even though 42% had not been contacted by either party or candidate.

The Asian American Voter Survey, of nearly 2,500 voters, was conducted between April 4 to May 26 by several Asian American groups.

“So that suggests a potential gap in engagement,” said Suhag Shukla, co-founder and executive director of the non-partisan American Hindu Coalition.

Shukla said the election presents a “tremendous opportunity” for the Indian American community as well as the two major political parties.

“I think Indian Americans need to recognize their power, especially because many of us do live in either purple states or purple districts,” Shukla said in an interview with VOA, referring to battleground states in the U.S. presidential election. “On the flip side, I think that it’s a real opportunity for the parties to do not just a checkmark or a checkbox-type outreach, but genuine outreach. Have town halls. Have listening sessions.”

Spokespeople for the Harris and Trump campaigns did not respond to questions about their community outreach efforts.

Both campaigns mobilize voters through grassroots organizations.

Deepa Sharma, deputy director of South Asians for Harris and a delegate to next month’s Democratic National Convention, said her group is “working closely with people on the ground who will knock on doors, will do phone bank and outreach to this community.”

Indian Americans comprise less than 1% of U.S. registered voters, according to a 2020 study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But almost one-third live in closely contested battleground states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

That puts them in a position to sway the outcome of the November election, said Chintan Patel, executive director of Indian American Impact, a progressive group.

“The South Asian American population far exceeds the margin of victory in the closest elections in these states,” Patel said.

Voter turnout steadily climbing

In 2020, the Biden-Harris ticket carried more than 70% of the Indian American vote, according to Patel, adding that support for Harris is likely to edge higher this year.

“She has drawn considerable support from the South Asian American community because she has consistently shown up and fought for our values, fought for our issues,” Patel said.

Earlier this year, Harris spoke at Indian American Impact’s “Desis Decide” summit, where she credited Indian Americans and Asian Americans with helping to get two Democratic senators elected in 2020 and 2021.

Patel said voter turnout among South Asian Americans has been steadily climbing in recent years. In 2020, for example, more than 70% of registered South Asian American voters turned out to vote in Pennsylvania, he said.

“I think they’re going to be instrumental in delivering the White House this November,” Patel said.

Similar predictions by groups such as Muslim Americans have sometimes failed to materialize.

But Narasimhan said turnout could be boosted with the right voter mobilization strategy, adding that voter education is key.

“Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean you can vote, you have to register,” Narasimhan said. “Teaching people the basic rudimentaries of what’s early voting, what’s absentee balloting, what’s going to the polls, navigating the system is critical, and we have to do that basic education.”

On the Republican side, activists are betting that Trump’s close ties to India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi will translate into votes for the former president.

“Trump has been friendly to India and that makes a big difference,” Pandya-Patel, the Republican activist in New Jersey, said.

Whether Indian American support for Trump is rising remains unclear.

In the recent Asian American Voter Survey, 29% of Indian Americans said they intended to vote for Trump, largely unchanged from four years ago.

Trump has called Modi a “true friend.” In 2019, he and Modi addressed a joint rally in Houston, Texas, that attracted more than 50,000 people, many supporters of the Indian prime minister. At the “Howdy, Modi!” rally, Trump called Modi “one of America’s greatest, most devoted and most loyal friends.”

Pandya-Patel said the rally boosted Indian American support for Trump, whose friendship with Modi, she added, is a key reason many Indian Americans back him.

Shukla of the American Hindu Coalition said there is a perception among some Indian Americans that the Democratic Party is not “a Hindu-friendly party.”

That may partly explain a recent “shift” in Indian American party affiliation, she said.

In the Asian American Voter Survey, the number of Indians who identify as Democrats fell from 54% in 2020 to 47% in 2024, while those identifying with the Republican Party rose from 16% to 21%.

Anang Mittal, a Virginia-based commentator who previously worked for House Speaker Mike Johnson, said the apparent shift reflects less a “sea change” than shifting political attitudes.

“I think the country as a whole is sort of shifting towards Republicans because of the larger issues that are plaguing this election,” Mittal said.
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Washington warns adversaries: US politics not a sign of weakness

washington — U.S. diplomats and military officials rejected concerns that recent — and sudden — changes to the American political landscape are a sign of weakness, warning America’s adversaries Thursday against trying to seek any sort of advantage.

“They should think again,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, briefing reporters.

“They should be disabused of the notion that we are anything but focused on the national security challenges that the country faces,” he added. “That includes responding to our adversaries when appropriate.”

At the Pentagon, officials insisted that whatever challenges U.S. adversaries might have in store, the U.S. military is ready.

“As to whether or not our adversaries are testing us at this particular time, they’re always testing us,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“It’s just a nature of who they are and what they do,” he told reporters. “I don’t think that this particular point in time is any different.”

The warnings from Washington come less than a week after U.S. President Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection, instead endorsing fellow Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris to run against former president and Republican Party nominee Donald Trump.

In an address from the White House late Wednesday to explain his decision to quit the race with just more than 100 days to go until the presidential election, Biden spoke in stark terms about the future of the country.

“Nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said.

“America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division,” he added. “We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy?”

Adding to the public concerns, the U.S. military announced just before Biden’s speech that, for the first time, Russian and Chinese long-range strategic bombers flew a joint training mission, coming within 350 kilometers of the northwestern U.S. state of Alaska.

Other officials have also warned of emboldened U.S. adversaries.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday told lawmakers that Iran still seeks retribution against Trump and some of his advisers for the January 2020 killing of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

“We need to recognize the brazenness of the Iranian regime, including right here in the United States,” he said, while declining to share details of a reported assassination plot against Trump.

“I expect there will be more coming on that,” he said.

Others have voiced concerns about the actions of Iranian proxy forces, like the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, or attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

“We are taking away capability from the Houthis,” said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown Jr., speaking to reporters Thursday at a Pentagon briefing.

“But at the same point, it’s going to take more than just a military operation,” he said. “This is an engagement with the international community, but also the [U.S.] interagency to use the various tools to put pressure on the Houthis to cease this.”

At the State Department, spokesperson Miller said no matter the challenge, U.S diplomats will be up to the task.

“The president has made it incredibly clear to the secretary and the rest of the national security team that he expects them to be focused for this next six months, that he expects them to advance the foreign policy objectives that he laid out from the outset of the administration and we have put into place over the course of the last three and a half years,” he said.

And should any adversary seek to weaken the U.S., the Pentagon’s Austin said, the military will be waiting.

“I think we’ll continue to see this going forward,” he told reporters. “But again, we have the world’s greatest military, most capable military, and we will continue to protect this nation.”
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Harris, Trump condemn pro-Hamas protest near US Capitol

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Name game begins for Harris running mate on Democrats’ ticket

Who will she pick? That’s the big political question in America after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and Vice President Kamala Harris became the likely Democratic nominee. The selection in question is Harris’ running mate against Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman is at the White House and has this report. (Camera: Anne-Marie Frederick)
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Biden speaks, with hope and wistfulness, of decision to leave race

washington — After three days of silence over his stunning decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, U.S. President Joe Biden took to prime time television Tuesday to give Americans, and the world, an explanation in a speech that was at times hopeful, at times determined, and at times wistful.

Biden spoke of his five decades in public office, touted his presidential record of domestic and political achievements – but then called for energetic new leadership to face tomorrow’s challenges.

“I revere this office,” said Biden, his hands resting on the glossy, hulking Resolute Desk, the gold-brocade drapes of the Oval Office framing his sloping shoulders. “But I love my country more.”

“Nothing – nothing – can come in the way of saving our democracy,” he said. “That includes personal ambition. So, I decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’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.”

Biden also thanked Vice President Kamala Harris, who has taken to the campaign trail with his endorsement and enough delegate pledges to net the nomination. He described her as “experienced,” “tough,” and “capable” but added: “the choice is up to you.”

He did not name-check his Republican opponent in the race. But analysts say Biden’s stark warnings all point to one man.

“He talked about polarization,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a professor of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University. “He talked about violence and political violence. Those are all things that harken back to Donald Trump and his presidency. He talked about the threats facing the nation when he first took office, January 2021. And so that was certainly about Donald Trump. But yeah, this wasn’t a place for him to talk about Donald Trump. It wasn’t a place for him to give a campaign speech.”

Biden’s job now, he said, will focus on domestic challenges like civil rights and voter freedom, gun safety reforms, the quest to end cancer and Supreme Court reform. He also cited the various challenges the U.S. faces abroad, with wars raging in Gaza and Ukraine and China becoming more emboldened in the Indo-Pacific.

It’s those foreign fires, analysts say, that are likely to concern voters who were already worried about Biden’s future.

“That’s really the concern I think people will have, which is: How does a lame duck president deal with foreign policy crises?” said Thomas Schwartz, a history professor at Vanderbilt University.

That question may be answered as soon as Thursday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House in what administration officials told reporters Wednesday is an attempt to stitch up the first phase of a longer cease-fire deal that will end the brutal nine-month conflict in Gaza.

In a sign that foreign leaders may be hedging their bets in this electric American election cycle, the Israeli leader is also holding two other meetings while in the U.S., with Harris and Trump.

But for the final act of this presidency, Joe Biden remains the protagonist on America’s biggest stage. The ending, analysts say, is a classic.

“What has stopped Joe Biden is the thing that has stopped every human being since the beginning of time, and that is, we age,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at the policy and research firm Third Way. “And it got to the point where I feel he could do the job, but he couldn’t convince the American people that he could do the job.”

But this could also be a triumphant moment for the 81-year-old president, who was widely thanked by Democrats for making the decision to step aside.

”In some ways,” Kessler said, “he’s like an athlete that is going to make the Hall of Fame and is retiring and gets the cheers from the crowds, finally, for a long, 50-year, tremendous career.”

Biden clearly understood that this address would be a dramatic peak. So, he used his final words to break the fourth wall, with a message as old as America:

“The great thing about America,” he said, “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.”

Kim Lewis contributed from Washington.
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Biden speaks, with hope and wistfulness of decision to leave race

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday explained to American citizens and to the world why he decided not to stand for reelection in the 2024 presidential race. Biden, speaking from the Oval Office, also outlined what urgent challenges he sees as the nation careens toward a November vote. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports.
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Biden says he’s ‘passing the torch’ to unite nation

washington — President Joe Biden said he is “passing the torch to a new generation” as he explained his abrupt departure from the 2024 presidential race to Americans for the first time on Wednesday night, during an Oval Office address capping more than 50 years in politics.

“I revere this office,” Biden said. “But I love my country more.”

Biden, 81, rebuffed weeks of pressure from Democrats to step aside after a disastrous debate performance on June 27, saying at one point that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to go.

“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” said Biden. “That is the best way to unite our nation.” 

The president made his decision after days of soul-searching and agonizing over internal polling that predicted he could lose to Republican Donald Trump in November and drag down fellow Democrats with him.

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do,” he said. “History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.” 

First major address since announcement

It was Biden’s first extended public remarks since he announced on Sunday via social media that he had decided not to seek reelection on November 5.

Biden is the first incumbent president not to seek reelection since 1968 when Lyndon Johnson, under fire for his handling of the Vietnam War, abruptly pulled out of the campaign on March 31.

Biden also joins James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Calvin Coolidge and Harry Truman as presidents who all decided not to stand for a second elected term.

Biden faced calls to step aside after his rocky performance in the debate against Trump raised troubling questions about his mental acuity.

Party praises president

Since he stepped aside, however, Democrats have rallied around him, paying tribute to his character and his record as president.

A crowd of staff walked into the White House earlier in the evening to watch the speech together. An official said a reception and viewing party were being held across the White House.

Biden said he will focus on his job as president over his remaining six months in office. He is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday on efforts to negotiate a Gaza cease-fire.

It was the fourth time Biden used the formal setting of the Oval Office since taking office in 2021. His last Oval Office speech was on July 15 when he urged Americans to cool the political rhetoric after the attempted assassination of Trump.

Biden’s political career began when he was elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 29, becoming the sixth-youngest U.S. senator. He will conclude his White House tenure on January 20, 2025, as the oldest American president when he will have already turned 82.

“The defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden said. “I draw strength, and 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.'”
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Democrats poised to virtually nominate Harris and running mate by August 7

WASHINGTON — Democratic National Convention delegates can make Vice President Kamala Harris their presidential nominee — and even start approving her yet-to be-named running mate — in online voting beginning next week, as the party races to coalesce around a new top of its ticket heading into November.

The convention’s rules committee on Wednesday passed a proposal where delegates from around the country will be able to vote on potential presidential nominees to replace President Joe Biden, who abandoned his reelection bid last weekend.

But Harris is the only major Democrat to announce publicly that she’s seeking the nomination, meaning she’ll almost-certainly be approved in a single round of virtual balloting beginning August 1 — some 18 days before the party’s convention opens in Chicago.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison referenced the unprecedented shakeup in the presidential race left by Biden’s bowing out, telling a virtual meeting of the convention’s rulemaking arm, “In the darkness of night, we see our brightest stars.”

The plan was approved after more than 90 minutes of online discussion that featured little objection. The final vote to pass the full set of convention’s rules was 157-3.

They require Harris, and any other potential Democrat willing to challenge her, to submit 300 electronic signatures from convention delegates, not more than 50 of whom can be from the same state, by the evening of July 30.

If multiple candidates qualify, it could spark multiple rounds of voting over several days. But, if Harris is the only candidate, voting would begin August 1. Delegates voting “uncommitted,” or for another candidate who hasn’t qualified under the rules, will have their choices converted simply to “present.”

Delegates will receive ballots via secure email. The process will be designed not only to formally nominate Harris, but to eventually do the same for her vice presidential selection prior to August 7 — giving her a tight window to pick a running mate.

Who she might choose is unclear. Early favorites include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, but potentially half a dozen other candidates are being considered.

Biden dropped out of the race last weekend and endorsed Harris, and hundreds of Democratic members of Congress and governors, as well as leading labor unions and activist organizations have since backed her to replace him. An Associated Press survey of delegates to the convention also revealed that the vice president has the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot.

That doesn’t automatically make her the nominee, though, and the party is pushing ahead with the virtual voting process because it says it can’t wait until the convention starts to formally choose its nominee. It blames a deadline to appear on the Ohio ballot stating that candidates must be selected by August 7.

Ohio state lawmakers there have since changed that, but the modification doesn’t take effect until September 1 — and DNC attorneys warn that waiting until after the initial deadline to determine a presidential nominee could prompt legal challenges.

“Our party remains steadfast to an open, fair and transparent nominating process,” said Minyon Moore, chair of the Democratic convention. “We will do this right.”
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