Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a long-awaited White House visit to meet with President Joe Biden and likely Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at an important moment for all three politicians.
On Wednesday, President Biden made his first address since his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters rallied to denounce Israel’s war in Gaza, while Netanyahu delivered a scathing speech to Congress to defend Israel’s conduct in the war and vowed “total victory” against Hamas.
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Just days into her new role as the Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee, Kamala Harris is already facing a wave of Republican-backed attack ads questioning her personality, her progressive record and what she knew about President Joe Biden’s decline.
But for now, at least, Democrats have yet to engage in the summertime advertising fight. And in a sharp reversal from much of the year, Republicans are suddenly dominating the airways.
▶ Read more on the fight over airwaves.
Insisting that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden used his first public address on Wednesday to deliver an implicit repudiation of former President Donald Trump.
“Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said, in a somber coda to his 50 years spent in public office. “And that includes personal ambition.”
It was a moment for the history books — a U.S. president reflecting before the nation on why he was taking the rare step of voluntarily handing off power. It hasn’t been done since 1968 when Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek reelection in the heat of the Vietnam War.
Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office surrounded by family and close advisers.
As he spoke, seated off to the side and along the curved wall, were mostly relatives. They included the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and his granddaughter Finnegan Biden, as well as his daughter Ashley Biden.
First lady Jill Biden was also there, as were other family members and the president’s longtime adviser, Mike Donilon.
Biden’s voice was very soft and sometimes barely audible, though he got a bit louder occasionally. Toward the end of remarks, Ashley Biden reached for the hand of her mother, the first lady, who was seated next to her.
Standing in the back were White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and other staff.
When Biden concluded, those assembled applauded. Jill Biden then walked to the Resolute Desk and stood next to her husband. “This has been the honor of a lifetime,” the president said.
No American incumbent president has dropped out of the race so late in the process. The last president to do so was Lyndon Johnson in March of 1968. When Johnson addressed the nation from the Oval Office, he spent the majority of his remarks talking about the Vietnam War, and his duty to focus on it.
He tried to make the case that American forces were making great progress in the war, and said, “One day, my fellow citizens, there will be peace in Southeast Asia.” That portrait was at odds with the politics in the Democratic Party, riven by division over the war, prompting several prominent Democrats, including Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy.
Johnson also acknowledged how the war was tearing the country apart. “In these times as in times before, it is true that a house divided against itself by the spirit of faction, of party, of region, of religion, of race, is a house that cannot stand. There is division in the American house now.”
He then made the stunning announcement that he would not seek reelection.
“I shall not be a candidate for reelection. I have served my country long, and I think efficiently and honestly. I shall not accept a renomination. I do not feel that it is my duty to spend another 4 years in the White House.”
Trump posted on his social media website that the president “was barely understandable, and sooo bad!”
During the speech, Biden called Vice President Harris “tough” and “capable.”
In a separate post, Trump slammed Biden and Harris as embarrassments, noting, “THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TIME LIKE THIS!”
As President Biden addressed the nation, his former opponent was among those watching.
Trump watched Biden’s 10-minute address from his campaign plane as he flew out of North Carolina following a rally.
Photographs showed Trump watching Biden speak intently, his head tilted sideways.
Trump adviser Chris LaCivita subsequently posted on X a different picture showing the former president turned sideways and frowning, intently not watching as Biden spoke.
“On Trump Force One …Hey Joe …You’re Fired!” LaCivita wrote over the picture.