President Joe Biden says he’s ready to return to the campaign trail next week, even as a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers called for him to step aside.
Meanwhile, after wrapping their national convention in Milwaukee this week, Republican officials, strategists and activists are exuding a confidence not seen in decades.
Donald Trump on Saturday will hold his first public campaign rally since he was injured in an assassination attempt, with an event in the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
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Supporters crowd into downtown Grand Rapids ahead of Trump’s rally
Supporters of Republican Donald Trump crowded the streets of downtown Grand Rapids in anticipation of the former president’s remarks Saturday evening.
Numerous streets, closed for security reasons, were dotted with vendors selling food and apparel. Among them was a vendor from North Carolina who had traveled to Michigan earlier in the day, who said that he had spent the night making shirts featuring “Trump Vance ’24,” referencing U.S. Sen. JD Vance, the former president’s running mate.
Mike Gaydos, who had traveled from Indiana with his three sons to attend the rally, wore a shirt stating, “I’m voting for the felon not the kid sniffer.” Despite not considering himself a “huge” Trump supporter in the past, Gaydos said he wanted to support the former president following a recent assassination attempt on Trump.
Downtown Grand Rapids also saw a significant police presence, with officers stationed on nearly every block, while others patrolled on horseback and bicycles.
“This is the tightest I’ve ever seen the security,” said Renee White, who said that she’s been to 33 of Trump’s rallies.
White was seated behind the podium in Butler, Pennsylvania when the former president was injured in an assassination attempt. She described the shooting as “surreal” but said that it wouldn’t stop her from going to rallies.
Biden was inf
ected by a COVID-19 variant that’s responsible for 33.3% of new US infections
White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said the president was infected by a strain of COVID-19 that has caused one-third of new infections in the United States.
The White House released O’Connor’s latest report on Biden’s condition on Saturday.
The doctor says Biden’s symptoms “continue to improve steadily” but that he’s still plagued by a dry cough and hoarseness. O’Connor also said Biden’s lungs remain clear and his vitals remain “absolutely normal.”
Biden is being treated at his Delaware beach home.
California Rep. Takano to Biden: ‘I love and respect you, but the stakes are too high to fail’
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called for President Joe Biden to “pass the torch,” to Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday.
Takano was among a number of high-ranking Democrats to privately express concern for Biden’s reelection bid in a private call with leadership earlier this month.
Takano said in a posted statement on the social platform X that it has “become clear to me that the demands of a modern campaign are now best met by the Vice President, who can seamlessly transition into the role of our party’s standard bearer.”
Takano added he loves and respects Biden, “but the stakes are too high to fail.”
No details yet on when Biden will resume campaigning after COVID-19
Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler told reporters during a conference call on Saturday that details will follow “as soon as we have the green light.”
Biden was forced off the campaign trail on Wednesday after he tested positive for COVID-19. The president was in Las Vegas when he got the news. He flew to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and has been recovering there.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Harris is ‘ready to step up’ if Biden bows out
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren says that, if President Biden opts to bow out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris is “ready to step up.”
“What gives me a lot of hope right now is that, if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris who is ready to step up,” Warren told MSNBC on Saturday “to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump and to win in November.”
Warren, who competed with Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, said that the president “has a really big decision to make” about whether he wants to leave the race.
This is how Secret
Service protection has changed for presidents over the years
As the world has vastly changed, so has protection for presidents since the days when the public could come to the White House to meet Abraham Lincoln.
Protective details have grown in size, responsibility and technology over more than a century of the Secret Service protecting presidents.
When presidents leave the White House in modern times, they’re accompanied by a phalanx of Secret Service officers and agents. Cars can no longer drive past what is often dubbed “the people’s house” at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The fence has been raised, and don’t even try to get past the gate without an appointment or badge. The number of people under guard also has grown as vice presidents, former presidents, candidates, family members and more get protection.
Former Secret Service agents say the agency is studying the attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania a week ago and making changes to adjust to it.
Read more about how Secret Service protection has changed over the years
David Letterman to headline a fundraiser with Biden
David Letterman is set to headline a fundraiser with President Joe Biden with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a sign that Biden’s campaign is forging ahead despite continued calls for him to bow out of the 2024 race.
The fundraiser on July 29 will be at the home of a family friend on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Green told The Associated Press Friday. It will feature the longtime late-night host, plus Biden and first lady Jill Biden. The campaign has at least 10 other fundraising events over the last 10 days of July.
Letterman helmed CBS’ “Late Show” for 22 seasons. The event comes as other celebrities like George Clooney, director Rob Reiner and Stephen King have called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, following his disastrous debate performance on June 27. There’s also been growing concern over continued fundraising support after anxious donors expressed serious worries about his performance and the future of the party.
Read more about the fundraiser with Hawaii’s governor here.
Trump returns to the campaign trail in Michigan
Republican Donald Trump on Saturday will hold his first public campaign rally since he was injured in an assassination attempt, with an event in the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate.
The joint rally with Ohio Sen. JD Vance is the first for the pair since they became the GOP’s nominees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump kicked off the gathering of Republicans by naming Vance his vice presidential pick and concluded it with a speech urging unity following a July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania that left Trump with a bloodied ear and killed one man in the crowd.
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” Trump said Thursday night in what was the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes.
Read more about the crucial role Michigan could play in the election.
Majority of Democrats think Kamala Harris would make a good president, AP-NORC poll shows
As President Joe Biden faces a growing drumbeat of pressure to drop his reelection bid, a majority of Democrats think his vice president would make a good president herself.
A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top slot. About 2 in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.
Since Biden’s debate debacle on June 27, many Democrats have privately and even openly looked to Harris to step in and succeed Biden as the party’s presidential nominee, believing she has a better chance against GOP nominee Donald Trump. For her part, Harris has remained completely loyal to Biden, being one of his toughest defenders in the aftermath of the disastrous debate performance.
Read more about the poll here.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown one of several members of Congress to call for Biden to end his campaign
Third-term U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, of Ohio, was one of a dozen members of Congress who on Friday said Biden should end his campaign.
The plea came as Brown faces Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, in what’s viewed as one of the most competitive Senate races of the year.
Brown is the only Democrat holding a statewide position in Ohio. His former bellwether state has twice supported Donald Trump by large margins and Trump has the state’s junior senator, JD Vance, as his running mate.
While Brown has enjoyed a long, close relationship with Biden — he was even on the shortlist to be Biden’s vice presidential pick — he has worked to distance himself this cycle amid Biden’s unpopularity. Brown has aired ads touting his support for border- and fentanyl-related legislation, highlighting one bill that Brown sponsored “and Trump signed.”
Viewership for Trump’s RNC acceptance speech peaked at 28.4 million
For better or worse, former President Trump had a large audience watching him deliver his nomination acceptance speech at the RNC on Thursday.
An estimated 25.4 million people watched the final night of the convention on one of 14 networks that were covering it, the Nielsen company said on Friday. Viewership peaked at 28.4 million between 10:45 and 11 p.m. Eastern, at the beginning of Trump’s speech, Nielsen said.
That would be good news for the ex-president. The early part of his speech, where he spoke dramatically about last Saturday’s attempt on his life, was generally regarded as its most effective. As it dragged on past the 90-minute part and past midnight on the East Coast, Trump largely went off-script for remarks that resembled his typical stump speech.
Fox News Channel had 9.4 million viewers during Trump’s speech, comfortably ahead of any other network. An estimated 72 percent of the viewers were aged 55 and up, Nielsen said.
It was the most-watched night of the convention, which is typical for the evening when the presidential nominee speaks.
Black lawmakers are standing by Biden at a crucial moment. But some express concerns
The Congressional Black Caucus prides itself on its authority among Democrats and its influence with President Joe Biden in particular. So far, only one of its roughly 60 members have joined calls for Biden to drop his reelection bid due to concerns over his age and ability to win.
But the caucus’ broad backing of the president varies widely, ranging from enthusiastic support to outright skepticism. And a small but growing number within the group are publicly expressing doubts about Biden’s candidacy.
Black voters are widely credited with helping Biden clinch the Democratic nomination four years ago and then defeat Republican Donald Trump. Whether Black lawmakers stick with the president now, and how fervently they do so, could be critical in the coming days as pressure builds from the highest levels of the Democratic Party for Biden to end his campaign.
▶ Read about Black lawmakers’ relationship with the president
