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In 2nd quarter, Trump raises $331M, Biden raises $264M for campaigns

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Democrats publicly voicing worries about Biden campaign

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Texas lawmaker is first Democrat to publicly call for Biden to step down as party’s nominee

washington — A House Democratic lawmaker has become the first in the party to publicly call for President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee for president, citing Biden’s debate performance failing to “effectively defend his many accomplishments.”

Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas said in a statement Tuesday that Biden should “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.”

“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved,” Doggett said. “Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”

Senior Democratic leaders have been expressing support for Biden following the recent debate.
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Nikki Haley voters could swing US presidential election 

Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley continued to draw support from Republican voters long after she dropped out of this year’s U.S. presidential race. VOA’s Dora Mekouar looks at how Haley supporters may help determine the winner of the election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
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US Supreme Court: Trump entitled to some immunity in election interference case

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Could Biden’s party replace him as their presidential nominee?

U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are back on the campaign trail following their first debate last week. Biden’s sometimes-struggling performance in that debate has some members of his political party looking at who might replace him as their nominee. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.
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Key Democrats reject calls for Biden to drop out of 2024 race

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Biden appeals to donors concerned about debate performance

NEW YORK — U.S. President Joe Biden is looking to recapture his mojo and reassure donors at a Saturday fundraiser that he is fully up to the challenge of beating Donald Trump.

The 81-year-old’s troubling performance at the first presidential debate Thursday rattled many Democrats, who see Trump after the January 6, 2021, insurrection as an existential threat to U.S. democracy. Biden’s meandering answers and struggles to respond to Trump prompted The New York Times editorial board to declare Friday that he should exit the race and that staying in would be a “reckless gamble.”

Biden and his wife, Jill, planned to attend an afternoon campaign meeting in East Hampton, New York, the Long Island beach town where the real estate firm Zillow prices the median home at $1.9 million. Scheduled later was an evening fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s debate, Biden flashed more vigor in speeches in North Carolina and New York on Friday, saying he believes with “all my heart and soul” that he can do the job of the presidency.

The Biden campaign said it has raised more than $27 million on Thursday and Friday, including $3 million at a New York City fundraiser focused on the LGBTQ+ community.

Jill Biden told supporters Friday that he said to her after the debate, “You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.” The first lady then said she responded to him, “Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.”

The Democratic president still needs to allay the fears stirred by the debate as it seeped into the public conscience with clips and memes spreading on the internet and public pressure for him to bow out of the race.

Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley privately expressed deep concerns about the viability of Biden’s campaign in the wake of his debate performance.

In a series of text message chains and private conversations, they discussed the short list of possible replacements, a group that included Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But on Friday, there was no formal push to pressure Biden to step aside, and some suspected there never would be given the logistical challenges associated with replacing the presumptive nominee just four months before Election Day.

Some donors noted they were going to pause their personal giving. They said receipts from Biden’s weekend fundraiser would almost certainly be strong because the tickets were sold and paid for before the debate.
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Democracy advocates worry Jan. 6 Capitol riot is being forgotten

WASHINGTON — In the first presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump skimmed over the January 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, shifted blame for the violent mob siege and declined repeatedly to state unequivocally that he will accept the results of this year’s White House election.

And President Joe Biden, who has said the work of his presidency is to restore the soul of the nation, flubbed and floundered, failing to forcefully confront, contradict and hold Trump, the indicted former president, accountable for the attack on the election — and democracy.

It is an extraordinary moment, or lack of one, that is alarming to democracy advocates, the far-reaching effort to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent insurrection that defined the Trump presidency fading from view during the opening debate of the general election campaign.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democrat who chaired the House’s January 6 committee investigation in the last Congress, said it is a deeply unfortunate situation.

“We could have a January 6, 2.0,” Thompson said Friday outside the Capitol.

The outcome underscores the choice Americans face this fall as the riot over the 2020 election remains fundamental to the 2024 campaign, but also obscured by it, despite the four-count federal indictment against Trump for working to overturn the results four years ago in the run-up to the violent siege and despite the convictions of more than 1,000 people in the Capitol attack.

It comes as the Supreme Court is weighing cases involving January 6, including a decision Friday that makes it easier for some rioters to contest their charges and convictions, and another expected Monday on whether Trump can claim immunity in the federal election case.

All told, what seemed politically untenable, as the defeated Trump departed Washington downcast on Biden’s inauguration day on January 20, 2021, is now within reach as the president who tried to overturn an election is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, edging toward an Oval Office return.

“We are four months away from the first presidential election since a violent attack on our Capitol. … And the man responsible for that — Donald Trump — is currently the leading candidate,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Democracy, which works to counter authoritarianism.

“You’d think that alone would be disqualifying, or at a minimum would be the central focus of the election,” he said.

And yet, Bassin said, the topic was “relegated to an afterthought” in the debate, “and the current president is struggling to press the case on why this issue should be of existential importance.”

The forum itself is not necessarily to blame. The moderators pressed the candidates, asking Trump not once, but repeatedly, whether he would commit to not having another January 6 and accepting the results of the election this time.

Trump insisted he had “virtually nothing to do” with the storming of the Capitol on January 6 and tried to shift blame to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, repeating his false claims about the delay in sending in the National Guard.

Biden, whose underwhelming debate performance of stunted answers and trailing thoughts has sent the Democratic Party into turmoil, struggled to deliver a cohesive response, despite having given high-profile speeches about January 6, including on the first anniversary.

“Look, he encouraged those folks to go up on Capitol Hill,” Biden said on the debate stage.

Thompson, whose committee produced a lengthy, 1,000-plus page report on its investigation into Trump’s monthslong attempt to overturn the election and the storming of the Capitol, said Biden missed a “golden opportunity” to set the record straight as millions of people watched the debate.

It was left to the people who actually experienced January 6, the lawmakers who fled to safety as the mob of Trump supporters approached, to respond. Rioters, many wielding flag poles and with tactical gear, engaged in brutal, bloody hand-to-hand combat, fighting the U.S. Capitol Police to gain access to the building.

“January 6 was a dark day,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on social media.

“Trump-inspired insurrectionists sought to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” he said. Schumer decried Friday’s “shameful decision” from the Supreme Court that he said “will embolden anti-democracy radicals and make it harder for our judicial system to try insurrectionists.”

Pelosi said Trump presented “another pack of lies” during the debate. “How dare he place the blame for January 6th on anyone but himself, the inciter of an insurrection?”

On Friday, the Supreme Court limited a federal obstruction law that has been used to charge Trump, alongside hundreds of Capitol riot defendants. While the ruling is certain to cause a reconsideration of some cases against the rioters, it is unclear how it will impact Trump’s indictment, which includes other charges.

Trump, during a rally Friday in Chesapeake, Virginia, said a “great thing” just happened in response to the decision in the obstruction case, to the roar of “USA!” chants from the crowd.

“They should be immediately released — immediately,” Trump said about the defendants he called “the J6 hostages.”

A more energized Biden, at his own rally in the swing state of North Carolina, said, “The choice in this election is simple. Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
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Who will Trump choose for vice president?

Who will U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump pick to be his vice presidential running mate? With the Republican National Convention approaching next month, Trump has been mum about his choice, but several contenders have emerged. VOA’s Tina Trinh tells us each of those prospective running mates brings an opportunity to expand Trump’s base of support.
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Biden addresses poor debate performance as critics suggest he drop out of presidential race

US President Joe Biden addressed concerns Friday about what was roundly viewed as a poor debate performance the night before. Some supporters are now calling for him to drop out of the presidential race, but analysts say the incumbent is still on track to secure his party’s nomination. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
Camera: Genia Dulot, Angelina Bagdasaryan
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