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  • Gambling is ‘public health threat,’ panel of experts says

    Gambling is ‘public health threat,’ panel of experts says

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    Gambling has emerged as “a neglected, understudied, and expanding public health threat” throughout the world, a panel wrote in The Lancet medical journal Thursday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Gambling has emerged as “a neglected, understudied, and expanding public health threat” throughout the world, a panel wrote in The Lancet medical journal Thursday

    • The Lancet’s Public Health Commission on gambling wrote in its report that the growth of the gambling industry has been fueled by online gaming, easier access through mobile devices, legalization and the introduction of commercial gambling to new areas

    • As a result, 46.2% of adults and 17.9% of adolescents are estimated to have gambled globally in the past year, according to the commission’s analysis

    • Arguing that balancing public health and economic interests is crucial, the commission issued a series of recommendations

    The Lancet’s Public Health Commission on gambling wrote in its report that the growth of the gambling industry has been fueled by online gaming, easier access through mobile devices, legalization and the introduction of commercial gambling to new areas.

    As a result, 46.2% of adults and 17.9% of adolescents are estimated to have gambled globally in the past year, according to the commission’s analysis. That translates into about 80 million of the nearly 450 million adults who placed bets experiencing a gambling disorder or problematic gambling, the report said.

    Some form of gambling is now legal in more than 80% of countries, with betters’ net losses projected to reach nearly $700 billion by 2028, the report said. And with online access, gambling is available everywhere, the authors added. 

    “Gambling can inflict substantial harm on individuals, families, and communities,” the commission wrote. “Beyond the obvious danger of financial losses and financial ruin, these harms can include loss of employment, broken relationships, health effects, and crime-related impacts. Gambling can heighten the risk of suicidality and domestic violence.”

    The report’s authors wrote that the consequences of the digitalization of the gambling industry — which also includes highly targeted advertising — have not yet been fully recognized. They said that the industry has developed partnerships with media and social media companies and sports leagues that make it part of a “corporate ecosystem” that “wields substantial influence over policy” and regulation.

    The gambling industry has staved off broader policy changes by focusing its narrative on individual responsibility, the commission wrote. 

    “However, framing the problem in this way and narrowly focusing policy attention on a small subset of the people who gamble draws attention away from industry practices and corporate behaviour,” the authors wrote in the U.K.-based journal. “We must also seriously examine the structures and systems that govern the design, provision, and promotion of gambling products.”

    Governments, meanwhile, are conflicted because of the tax revenues they collect from legal betting, the panel wrote.

    Arguing that balancing public health and economic interests is crucial, the commission issued a series of recommendations. They include effective regulation in all countries, even those where wagering is not legal, including bans or restrictions on gambling access, marketing and sponsorships. 

    The commission recommended regulatory provisions that would protect children and young people by enforcing minimum age requirements and mandatory identification. According to The Lancet’s analysis, more than 10% of adolescents have gambled online despite a widespread agreement that commercial betting among adolescents should be prohibited.

    The authors also call for affordable, universal support and treatment for gambling harms and campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers. And they suggested international coordination to develop strategies aimed at helping protect people from gambling harms.

    “Our conclusion is clear: gambling poses a threat to public health, the control of which requires a substantial expansion and tightening of gambling industry regulation,” the commission said. “Timely response to this growing worldwide threat necessitates concerted action at intergovernmental, national, and regional government levels.

    Joe Maloney, senior vice president for strategic communications at the American Gaming Association, a trade industry group for U.S. casinos, said in a statement to Spectrum News the “regulated U.S. gaming industry works diligently with state regulators to foster a safe and responsible environment for consumers,” adding it has in recent years “made significant investments towards advancing responsible gaming initiatives, expanding available consumer resources, and developing tools to promote safer gambling.”

    “We firmly support ongoing discussions and the adoption of best practices to ensure the continued implementation of effective safeguards,” Maloney said.

    Note: This article was updated to include the statement from the American Gaming Association.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Graham, Nebraska delegation push for winner-take-all electoral votes

    Graham, Nebraska delegation push for winner-take-all electoral votes

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    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an ally of former President Donald Trump, met with Nebraska legislators Wednesday to urge them to adopt a winner-take-all system in awarding the state’s Electoral College votes, according to multiple reports.

    Meanwhile, Nebraska’s all-Republican congressional district, sent a letter to the state’s governor and Legislature speaker voicing their support for such a change.

    What You Need To Know

    • Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an ally of former President Donald Trump, met with Nebraska legislators Wednesday to urge them to adopt a winner-take-all system in awarding the state’s Electoral College votes, according to multiple reports

    • Meanwhile, Nebraska’s all-Republican congressional district sent a letter to the state’s governor and Legislature speaker voicing their support for such a change

    • Nebraska is one of two states — the other being Maine — that does not award all its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the state

    • A single electoral vote in Nebraska could potentially impact the outcome of the election

    Nebraska is one of two states — the other being Maine — that does not award all its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the state. Instead, the statewide winner receives two electoral votes, while Nebraska’s other three votes are doled out to the winner of each congressional district.

    Nebraska is a deep red state, but Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden each won one electoral vote there in 2008 and 2020, respectively, because the Omaha area has more liberals than the rest of the state.

    A single electoral vote in Nebraska could potentially impact the outcome of the election. For example, if Trump wins all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes as well as the swing states of Georgia, Arizona and Nevada and Vice President Kamala Harris wins Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the race would be tied at 269 electoral votes apiece. That would then send the election to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation casts a single vote, which would favor Trump.

    If Nebraska continues with its current system and Harris is awarded one of its electoral votes, she would win under the same scenario. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate and a Nebraska native, courted voters in the Omaha area last month.

    Graham reportedly met with more than a dozen Republican legislators Wednesday at Gov. Jim Pillen’s mansion. 

    Pillen, a Republican, said in a statement last week he strongly supports a winner-take-all process and is willing to call a special legislative session to “fix this 30-year-old problem before the 2024 election” but only if he has assurances that he has the 33 votes needed to pass a bill. 

    Republican state Sen. Tom Brewer, who has confirmed the meeting with Graham, told the Nebraska Examiner he estimates there are currently 30 or 31 legislators who support the change. The GOP holds 33 seats in the state’s 50-seat unicameral Legislature.

    “Depending on how the count comes up, it may very well decide who the next president United States is going be,” Brewer said in a separate interview with KOLN-TV. “And [Graham] just wanted us to understand the big picture, that this is a national issue, not just in Nebraska.”

    State Sen. Loren Lippincott, also a Republican, told KOLN that Graham also discussed “the costs involved in having an extension of the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration.”

    Lippincott added that he believes Graham’s visit “did move the needle.”

    But time could be running out. The Nov. 5 election is 47 days away, and a change to the state’s electoral system could face legal challenges. 

    Graham’s office, the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign have not responded to requests for comment from Spectrum News.

    Nebraska’s congressional delegation sent a letter Wednesday to Pillen and Legislature Speaker John Arch saying they believe it “is past time that Nebraska join 48 other states in embracing winner-take-all in presidential elections.”

    “Senators and Governors are elected by the state as a whole because they represent all of the people of Nebraska equally, and the state should speak with a united voice in presidential elections as well,” wrote Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts and Rep. Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith, all Republicans. 

    “We urge you to work to return Nebraska to the status quo of appointing electoral votes based on winner-take-all,” they added.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • DeSantis announces Florida probe into apparent assassination attempt on Trump

    DeSantis announces Florida probe into apparent assassination attempt on Trump

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    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday he is signing an executive order authorizing a state investigation into the apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Sunday in West Palm Beach.

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday he is signing an executive order authorizing a state investigation into the apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Sunday in West Palm Beach

    • During a news conference in West Palm Beach, DeSantis said the state — and not the Justice Department — has the jurisdiction to potentially file an attempted-murder charge against the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh

    • The governor also cast doubt on the objectivity of federal investigators when it comes to Trump

    • Florida’s investigation will be led by the attorney general’s Office of Statewide Prosecution

    During a news conference in West Palm Beach, DeSantis said the state — and not the Justice Department — has the jurisdiction to potentially file an attempted-murder charge against the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh. The governor also sought to cast doubt on the objectivity of federal investigators when it comes to Trump.

    “In my judgment, it’s not in the best interest of our state or our nation to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation, especially when the most serious, straightforward offense constitutes a violation of state law, but not federal law,” DeSantis said.

    DeSantis said federal law prevents the Justice Department from prosecuting an attempted-murder case when the target is not a current federal official or president-elect. 

    The FBI is conducting its own investigation. Federal prosecutors charged Routh, 58, on Monday with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The Justice Department could bring additional charges. Routh has not yet been arraigned.

    “To say you’re going to do a couple gun charges, that is not going to be sufficient to” hold the suspect accountable, DeSantis said.

    The governor added that he believes the offense warrants a sentence of life in prison.

    Florida’s investigation will be led by the attorney general’s Office of Statewide Prosecution. 

    “Sometimes states have the ability and the jurisdiction to bring charges and go after maximum penalties that maybe the federal government does not,” state Attorney General Ashley Moody said. “And that doesn’t mean it’s a turf war. … It is very common for state investigators, state prosecutors to work with our federal prosecutors and federal agents on dual tracks with different purposes.”

    Moody said investigators will look into “what happened when something went terribly wrong.” She cited law enforcement accounts that Routh was near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach for 12 hours before a Secret Service agent spotted his AK-style rifle in the shrubbery surrounding the course as Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, played 300 to 500 yards away.

    The agent opened fire on the suspect, who fled in a vehicle before being arrested during a highway stop shortly later.

    U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to lead two federal criminal investigations into Trump: one in Florida in which the former president is accused of illegally retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and another in Washington, D.C., over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. 

    Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases. A judge dismissed the Florida case in July, but Smith’s office is appealing the ruling.

    “It was Merrick Garland who assigned a special counsel because he said there was a political issue and they wanted to appear to be above it,” DeSantis said. “… If you did a special counsel for that, wouldn’t those same concerns animate whether you’re the appropriate jurisdiction” to investigate the apparent assassination attempt? 

    “And yes, I do think that there’s a lot of concern about how these agencies have operated,” the governor continued. “And state of Florida, I mean, for us, all we’re interested in is the truth.”

    DeSantis vowed that the state’s inquiry would be transparent. He also argued that federal investigations into the first assassination attempt on Trump in July in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 have left too many questions unanswered. 

    The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Spectrum News.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Harris accepts Democratic presidential nomination, charts ‘a new way forward’

    Harris accepts Democratic presidential nomination, charts ‘a new way forward’

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    There were signs, funny costumes, and silly hats. There was a roll call vote that turned into a dance party. There were chants and cheers from “U-S-A” to “We’re Not Going Back,” and even “Lock Him Up.”

    There was an oversized copy of Project 2025. There were accolades about records as a prosecutor, as a U.S. Senator and as vice president. There were speeches about freedom and democracy, about abortion and education and every issue in between. There were protests and demonstrations and arrests.

    There were Obamas. There were Clintons. There was Joe Biden, passing the torch to his former running mate and vice president. There were would-be, passed-over running mates. There was a pep talk, as actual running mate Tim Walz channeled his high school football coaching days — complete with a fight song andcameo from his former players. 

    There were accolades and anecdotes from governors, senators, congressmen, activists, advocates, vice presidential hopefuls, former presidential candidates, and everything in between.

    There were celebrities, from Lil Jon to Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling to Steph Curry (and his Olympic gold medal to boot) and even his coach in Golden State, Chicago Bulls legend Steve Kerr. There were musical performances, from Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” to John Legend and Sheila E. paying tribute to Prince with “Let’s Go Crazy,” a nod to Minnesota’s Walz.

    And there were more than a few pointed comments about former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

    But at the end of the final night of the Democratic National Convention, it came down to Vice President Kamala Harris, accepting the party’s nomination for president of the United States — becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to accept a major party’s nomination — and making the case for her vision of America’s future.

    Harris, who before ascending to Capitol Hill then the vice presidency, was a career prosecutor. And, as a prosecutor, she said she “charged every case not in the name of the victim, but in the name of the people, for one reason: in our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us.”

    “To be clear,” she said, “my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.” 

    “And so on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.”

    ‘From the courthouse to the White House’: Harris leans on experience as a prosecutor

    Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

    “The path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected, but I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” Harris said of her march to the Democratic nomination, recounting the journey of her mother, Shymala, who immigrated to California from India with the “unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.”

    Harris said that her mother was intended to return home for a traditional arranged marriage — but then she met Donald Harris, a student who emigrated from Jamaica. “They fell in love and got married, and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me.”

    She idolized her mother (“a five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent,” she said) who insisted that young Kamala never complain about injustice but “do something about it.”

    Harris said that when she learned that her high school best friend Wanda was being sexually abused by her stepfather, she did something. She said she insisted Wanda stay at the Harris family home, and she did.

    Harris told the audience that fighting for the American people, “from the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.”

    “I will tell you, these fights were not easy, and neither were the elections that put me in those offices,” Harris said. “We were underestimated at practically every turn, but we never gave up, because the future is always worth fighting for.”

    ‘Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done’: Harris calls for an end to the war in Gaza

    Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

    After vowing to keep the country’s military strong and pledging to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and defend the people of Ukraine, Harris turned to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, an issue that has been somewhat of a third-rail within Democratic politics — as evidenced by the protests in Chicago over the course of the DNC’s four days.

    Harris said that she and President Joe Biden are working “around the clock” to get a deal done to end the fighting in Gaza.

    “Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done,” she said, before vowing steadfast support for Israel.

    “And let me be clear — I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.”

    She then immediately turned to the situation in Gaza.

    “At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the last 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again, the scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

    That last line garnered one of the largest cheers of the night.

    “And know this, I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” she vowed. “I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un, who are rooting for Trump — who are rooting for Trump. Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors, they know he won’t hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself.”

    “Because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where America belongs,” she concluded.

    On immigration, Harris says U.S. ‘can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border’

    AP Photo

    Harris said her goal was to have the U.S. “live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system” by implementing a “earned pathway to citizenship” while simultaneously securing the border.

    She pointed to the failed bipartisan border deal negotiated earlier this year with some of the most right-wing Republicans in the Senate as evidence of her intentions. That deal would have included tougher asylum standards and hiring more border agents, immigration judges and asylum officers.

    Former President Trump opposed it, and other Republicans, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, joined him in that effort.

    “I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you as president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law,” Harris said, noting “after decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border.”

    Harris has endorsed comprehensive immigration reform, seeking pathways to citizenship for immigrants in the U.S. without legal status, with a faster track for young immigrants living in the country illegally who arrived as children.

    As he watched the speech, Trump responded on social media, calling the border bill “one of the worst ever written” and claimed that Harris “wants to spend all of our money on Illegal Immigrants,” calling her a “RADICAL MARXIST.” 

    On abortion rights, Harris blames Trump for overturning Roe

    Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Harris said Americans cannot be prosperous unless they can make their own decisions about their own lives — including women’s control over their own bodies.

    “Too many women are not able to make those decisions,” Harris said, more than two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

    Harris, who has championed the Biden administration’s abortion rights efforts, said she had met with women across the country who shared stories of miscarrying in parking lots and losing their ability to have children because doctors are too afraid to treat pregnant women.

    “Couples just trying to grow their family, cut off in the middle of IVF treatments, children who have survived sexual assault, potentially being forced to carry a pregnancy to term,” she said.

    She contended that Trump will continue to erode women’s rights by limiting access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. She said he also plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator that would force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortion.

    “Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she charged.

    ‘Let us write the next great chapter’: Harris urges Americans to move forward with optimism

    Balloons are released after Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Mike Segar/Pool via AP)

    Shyamala Harris had another lesson for her daughters: “‘Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.’ America, let’s show each other, and the world who we are.”

    This is the moment, Harris said, to demonstrate the hope, the privilege, the pride of being an American.

    “Everywhere I go, in everyone I meet, I see a nation that is ready to move forward, ready for the next step in the incredible journey that is America.”

    She continued the narrative, pushed throughout the convention, that a Trump presidency was about negativity and moving backward.

    “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” she said. “And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.”

    “Let’s get out there, let’s vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

    AP Photo

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  • Takeaways: Tim Walz accepts the VP nomination as ‘freedom’ takes center stage

    Takeaways: Tim Walz accepts the VP nomination as ‘freedom’ takes center stage

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    Across the many speakers on the third night of the Democratic convention — from a former president to the national youth poet laureate, from the former House Democratic leader to the current one, senators, representatives, governors and even Oprah Winfrey — “freedom” was a common theme.

    “Let us choose truth,” Winfrey said. “Let us choose honor. And let us choose joy. But more than anything else, let us choose freedom. Why? Because that’s the best of America.”

    And freedom came in many forms, whether it was speakers pledging to protect reproductive and LGBTQ rights, railing against book bans, or underlining the right to free and fair elections as they invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

    “It’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. No, it’s not,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a finalist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. “And it’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their bodies. And hear me on this: It sure as hell isn’t freedom to say you can go vote, but [former President Donald Trump] gets to pick the winner.”

    Or as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is openly gay, put it: “I’ve got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”

    Wednesday night even featured Republicans telling other Republicans that they had the freedom to cross party lines to vote their conscience.

    “To my fellow Republicans, you are not voting for a Democrat, you are voting for democracy,” said former Trump administration official Olivia Troye. “You aren’t betraying our party, you are standing up for our country.”

    “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat,” concurred former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who said he faced a slew of attacks for standing up to Trump’s efforts to subvert the state’s election results. “You’re a patriot.”

    While the climax of the penultimate night of the DNC was Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s vice presidential acceptance speech — and Harris’ running mate’s introduction to the American people — it was the message of “freedom” that stole the spotlight.

    “Freedom,” Walz said, was what let him start his family when he and his wife struggled with fertility.

    “When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love,” he said.

    And National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman said freedom is what unites all Americans: “We are one family regardless of religion, class or color. For what defines a patriot is not just a love of liberty but our love for one another. This is loud in our country’s call because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all.”

    Bill Clinton says Harris ticket a ‘breath of fresh air,’ takes jabs at Trump

    AP Photo

    Former President Bill Clinton, the  made his case for a Kamala Harris presidency while taking several digs at former President Donald Trump.

    “Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will and, yes, the sheer joy to get something done,” Clinton said. “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself, right? So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the ‘I’s.’”

    Among the jabs he took at Trump, Clinton asked: “Do you want to build a strong economy from the bottom up and the middle out? Or do you want to spend the next four years talking about crowd size?”

    Clinton also said he wondered what world leaders watching Trump on the campaign trail are “supposed to make to these endless tributes to the late, great Hannibal Lecter?”

    But Clinton also found a way to poke fun at himself. Noting that Harris worked at McDonald’s while in college, the former president said, “I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House as president because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald’s.”

    ‘Choose joy’: Oprah Winfrey, in surprise DNC appearance, endorses Harris, rallies Democrats

    AP Photo

    In a surprise appearance on Wednesday night, Oprah Winfrey made a vigorous appeal to independent and undecided voters to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris. She spoke of the “best of America” and using “common sense” to decide who to vote for, while taking a couple of implicit jabs at the GOP ticket. This was Winfrey’s first time speaking at a national political convention.

    “Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values and that is what is needed in this election now more than ever,” Winfrey said. “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”

    Winfrey noted that she herself is registered as an independent voter who is “proud to vote again and again and again,” taking a swipe, without naming him, at former President Donald Trump’s recent comment to Christians that they just need to vote in this one election. (Trump and his campaign sought to clarify that, despite the alarm from Democrats and democracy advocates, he was talking about evangelical Christians not voting en masse.)

    The former daytime television host and Chicago native also used her remarks to tell the story of Tessie Prevost Williams, who helped integrate public schools in New Orleans in 1960 and who died last month. 

    “And soon and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father – two idealistic, energetic immigrants – immigrants – how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States,” Winfrey said of Harris. 

    ‘The honor of my life’: Walz accepts vice presidential nomination

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, second from right, poses with his wife Gwen Walz, from right, son Gus Walz and daughter Hope Walz after speaking during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    “It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at the start of his speech.

    Walz shared his story of growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach.

    He said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district.

    “They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors,” Walz said.

    Walz listed his proudest accomplishments from his time as governor, including cutting taxes, passing paid family and medical leave, investing in law enforcement and affordable housing, lowering prescription drug costs, and guaranteeing free school breakfast and lunches for students. 

    “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.

    He also signed a bill into law protecting abortions and other reproductive health care. 

    “Because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walz said. “And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

    Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen.

    “If you’ve never experienced the hell that is in fertility, I guarantee you you know somebody who has, and I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone had rung, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” Walz said. “It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

    He then turned to his wife, daughter and son Gus. “You are my entire world and I love you.”

    “I’m letting you in on how we started a family, because this is a big part about what this election is about: freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations, free to pollute your air and water, and banks, free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health care decisions, and, yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

    Walz’s family joined him on stage after the speech, as Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ played.

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  • Walz accepts vice presidential nomination on DNC’s penultimate night

    Walz accepts vice presidential nomination on DNC’s penultimate night

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    On the penultimate night of the Democratic National Convention, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage in Chicago and said that, “it’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination on Wednesday night, calling it “the honor of my life”

    • Delving into his backstory, Walz talked about growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach; he said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district

    • Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen

    • Per C-SPAN, at about 15 minutes, Walz’s VP acceptance speech was the shortest in the last 30 years, but he closed with a pep talk as he sought to rally Democrats



    Delving into his backstory, Walz talked about growing up in a small Nebraska town, joining the Army National Guard and becoming a high school teacher and football coach.

    He said his players and students inspired him to run for Congress in 2006, when he won in a historically red district.

    “They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors,” Walz said.

    “There I was, a 40-something high school teacher with kids, zero political experience, and no money, running in a deep red district,” he continued. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public schoolteacher. Never.”

    Walz listed his proudest accomplishments from his time as governor, including cutting taxes, passing paid family and medical leave, investing in law enforcement and affordable housing, lowering prescription drug costs, and guaranteeing free school breakfast and lunches for students. 

    “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.

    He also signed a bill into law protecting abortions and other reproductive health care. 

    “Because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walz said. “And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

    Walz talks of his family’s fertility struggles as he pitches Democrats’ ‘freedom’ agenda

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, second from right, poses with his wife Gwen Walz, from right, son Gus Walz and daughter Hope Walz after speaking during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz framed his pitch of Democrats’ “freedom agenda” around his struggle with having children with his wife Gwen.

    “If you’ve never experienced the hell that is in fertility, I guarantee you you know somebody who has, and I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone had rung, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” Walz said. “It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

    He then turned to his wife, daughter and son Gus and told them “you are my entire world and I love you.”

    His children, looking on at their dad giving his speech, were in tears. Hope made a heart sign with her hands, while Gus stood up, sobbing, and shouted, “That’s my dad!”

    Gus Walz cries as Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

    “I’m letting you in on how we started a family, because this is a big part about what this election is about: freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations, free to pollute your air and water, and banks, free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health care decisions, and, yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

    Walz then spoke of his relationship with guns as a veteran and a hunter and how he evolved on the issue of gun control. He boasted of being “a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I got the trophies to prove it.”

    “That’s what this is all about, the responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we’re building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want, but not everyone has that same sense of responsibility,” Walz said. “Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.”

    Among those folks, Walz named Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, pinning them to the right-wing presidential transition plan Project 2025 crafted by Trump allies and former administration officials that they’ve attempted to distance themselves from.

    “Look, I coached high school football long enough to know and trust me on this. When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it,” Walz said. “Here’s the thing, it’s an agenda nobody asked for. It’s an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us. it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need.”

    “Is it weird? Absolutely, absolutely,” he continued. “But it’s also wrong and it’s dangerous.”

    ‘Coach’ Walz closes with a pep talk, urging Dems to fight for every inch on the campaign trail

    Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

    In his short time on the campaign trail, Walz hasn’t been known for long, drawn out orations – in fact, per C-SPAN, his speech was the shortest in the last 30 years, beating Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, Dan Quayle in 1992 and, ironically, Kamala Harris in 2020, who each spoke for 18.5 minutes – which he was happy to admit fairly quickly into his truncated acceptance speech.

    “You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this…but I have given a lot of pep talks, so let me finish with this, team,” Walz said, before breaking deep into football metaphors.

    “It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball; we’re driving down the field, and boy, do we have the right team,” Walz said, boasting about his quarterback. “Kamala Harris is tough, Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready. Our job, for everyone watching, is to get in the trenches, do the blocking and tackling, one inch at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time.”

    In other words, he said, this campaign won’t be won by long-bomb Hail Mary passes to a streaking receiver over the outstretched hands of a pack of defenders — it’ll be won in a scrap, bulldozing forward, just the way Walz (who, as he noted, ran a big lineman- and linebacker-heavy 4-4 defense as a high school football coach) likes it.

    “We got 76 days. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when we’re dead. We’re going to leave it on the field,” he said, building toward a raspy-voiced football coach’s crescendo. “That’s how we’ll keep moving forward, that’s how we’ll turn the page on Donald Trump, that’s how we’ll build a country where workers come first, health care and housing are human rights and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom…that’s how we’re going to fight. 

    “And as the next President of the United States always says, when we fight, we win!” Walz said, as Neil Young’s anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World” began to blare.

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    Joseph Konig

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  • Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns

    Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns

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    Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania last week.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump

    • In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing her resignation, Cheatle admitted that the agency “fell short” on its mission to protect the country’s leaders

    • The announcement comes hours after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader announced a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack, and one day after congressional lawmakers grilled Cheatle over security lapses at a contentious hearing
    • President Joe Biden said in a statement that he “will plan to appoint a new Director soon”; Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Tuesday that Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will take over as the head of the agency in an acting capacity



    On July 13, a 20-year-old man perched on a nearby warehouse rooftop fired several shots at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in the right ear. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded. The gunman was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.

    Several investigations have been launched into the attack. In addition to congressional inquiries, the FBI is conducting a criminal probe and the Secret Service is performing an internal investigation, Cheatle told Congress on Monday.

    In the days that followed, Cheatle faced numerous calls for clarity about how such an attack could have happened, including a dramatic hallway confrontation with Republican U.S. Senators at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.

    In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing her resignation, Cheatle admitted that the agency “fell short” on its mission to protect the country’s leaders.

    “The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” Cheatle wrote. “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”

    The embattled Secret Service chief faced bipartisan calls for her resignation. The announcement comes hours after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader announced a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack, and one day after congressional lawmakers grilled Cheatle over security lapses at a contentious hearing.

    “I’m glad she did the right thing,” Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. “The immediate reaction to her resignation is that it is overdue. She should have done this at least a week ago. I’m happy to see that. I’m happy to to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats.”

    “Now we have to pick up the pieces,” he continued. “We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service. As an agency, it has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials in the executive branch, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

    The message of “overdue” appeared to be one echoed by lawmakers in Washington, particularly among House Republicans, who were planning legislative efforts to force Cheatle’s ouster.

    “The resignation of USSS Director Cheatle is long overdue,” New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair, wrote on social media. “The failure to answer basic questions over the last ten days and at yesterday’s Congressional hearing was a disgrace. House Republicans will not rest until we have 100% transparency and accountability.”

    “This is 10 days overdue,” wrote New York Rep. Mike Lawler on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This was a colossal failure on the part of the agency and requires transparency and accountability. Director Cheatle provided neither in her testimony yesterday.”

    “Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation is welcome but overdue,” said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy. “This is only the beginning of accountability for an incredible failure to protect a former president and leading candidate for that office.”

    In a post on social media after the news broke, Trump did not specificaly address Cheatle’s resignation, but accused the Biden administration of failing to “properly protect” him.

    “I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy,” he wrote on Truth Social. “IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

    In a statement, President Joe Biden, who immediately ordered an independent security review into the shooting after it took place, expressed gratitude for Cheatle’s “decades of public service” and said it “takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service.”

    “The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” the president said. “We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon.”

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Tuesday that Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will take over as the head of the agency in an acting capacity.

    In a House Oversight Committee hearing Monday, members of both parties called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign. 

    “Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement following Monday’s hearing. 

    “In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” they continued. “We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns

    Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns

    [ad_1]

    Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania last week.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump

    • In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing her resignation, Cheatle admitted that the agency “fell short” on its mission to protect the country’s leaders

    • The announcement comes hours after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader announced a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack, and one day after congressional lawmakers grilled Cheatle over security lapses at a contentious hearing
    • President Joe Biden said in a statement that he “will plan to appoint a new Director soon”; Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Tuesday that Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will take over as the head of the agency in an acting capacity



    On July 13, a 20-year-old man perched on a nearby warehouse rooftop fired several shots at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in the right ear. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded. The gunman was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.

    Several investigations have been launched into the attack. In addition to congressional inquiries, the FBI is conducting a criminal probe and the Secret Service is performing an internal investigation, Cheatle told Congress on Monday.

    In the days that followed, Cheatle faced numerous calls for clarity about how such an attack could have happened, including a dramatic hallway confrontation with Republican U.S. Senators at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.

    In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing her resignation, Cheatle admitted that the agency “fell short” on its mission to protect the country’s leaders.

    “The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” Cheatle wrote. “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”

    The embattled Secret Service chief faced bipartisan calls for her resignation. The announcement comes hours after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader announced a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack, and one day after congressional lawmakers grilled Cheatle over security lapses at a contentious hearing.

    “I’m glad she did the right thing,” Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. “The immediate reaction to her resignation is that it is overdue. She should have done this at least a week ago. I’m happy to see that. I’m happy to to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats.”

    “Now we have to pick up the pieces,” he continued. “We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service. As an agency, it has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials in the executive branch, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

    The message of “overdue” appeared to be one echoed by lawmakers in Washington, particularly among House Republicans, who were planning legislative efforts to force Cheatle’s ouster.

    “The resignation of USSS Director Cheatle is long overdue,” New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair, wrote on social media. “The failure to answer basic questions over the last ten days and at yesterday’s Congressional hearing was a disgrace. House Republicans will not rest until we have 100% transparency and accountability.”

    “This is 10 days overdue,” wrote New York Rep. Mike Lawler on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This was a colossal failure on the part of the agency and requires transparency and accountability. Director Cheatle provided neither in her testimony yesterday.”

    “Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation is welcome but overdue,” said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy. “This is only the beginning of accountability for an incredible failure to protect a former president and leading candidate for that office.”

    In a post on social media after the news broke, Trump did not specificaly address Cheatle’s resignation, but accused the Biden administration of failing to “properly protect” him.

    “I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy,” he wrote on Truth Social. “IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

    In a statement, President Joe Biden, who immediately ordered an independent security review into the shooting after it took place, expressed gratitude for Cheatle’s “decades of public service” and said it “takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service.”

    “The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” the president said. “We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon.”

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Tuesday that Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will take over as the head of the agency in an acting capacity.

    In a House Oversight Committee hearing Monday, members of both parties called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign. 

    “Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement following Monday’s hearing. 

    “In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” they continued. “We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”

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    Ryan Chatelain

    Source link

  • 988 suicide line has answered more than 10 million calls, texts, chats

    988 suicide line has answered more than 10 million calls, texts, chats

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    The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 10 million calls, texts or chats in its first two years, Biden administration officials said Tuesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 10 million calls, texts or chats in its first two years, Biden administration officials said Tuesday

    • Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the launch of the hotline and affiliated website, which provide confidential support all hours of the day to people in distress

    • Launching the crisis line was included in President Joe Biden’s strategy to address the nation’s mental health crisis, unveiled in March 2022

    • Over its two years, 988 has expanded to broaden its reach
    • If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or live chat at 988lifeline.org. 

    Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the launch of the hotline and affiliated website, which provide confidential support all hours of the day to people in distress. Previously, those seeking help had to dial a harder-to-remember 10-digit number.

    “Make no mistake, 988 saves lives,” Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters.

    Launching the crisis line was included in President Joe Biden’s strategy to address the nation’s mental health crisis, unveiled in March 2022. 

    Over its two years, 988 has expanded to broaden its reach.

    The Department of Health and Human Services has invested $1.5 billion in 988, paid for though the 2021 American Rescue Plan and 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Much of that funding has gone to states, territories and tribes to hire crisis counselors and improve local responses. 

    Federal funding has also been used to bolster the national backup system, which ensures callers speak to a counselor even when their local centers have reached capacity. Some states have contributed their own funding. 

    More than 200 contact centers across the country provide support for 988.

    “Behavioral health crisis is a crisis, something we need to face together,” Tanden said. “As a country, we have a moral obligation to be there for each other, to reach out to offer help or just a listening ear.”

    Meanwhile, 988 has added tailored lines to help groups including Spanish speakers, military veterans and active service members, and LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. Those lines can be reached by calling 988 and then entering a number when prompted. The Spanish phone number has existed since 2006, but not the text and chat options.

    A videoline also has been added to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    “In the two years since we launched 988, it’s become one of the most effective first-line responses that we have to help individuals who feel alone and without options,” said HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm. 

    If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or live chat at 988lifeline.org. 

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • 988 suicide line has answered more than 10 million calls, texts, chats

    988 suicide line has answered more than 10 million calls, texts, chats

    [ad_1]

    The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 10 million calls, texts or chats in its first two years, Biden administration officials said Tuesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 10 million calls, texts or chats in its first two years, Biden administration officials said Tuesday

    • Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the launch of the hotline and affiliated website, which provide confidential support all hours of the day to people in distress

    • Launching the crisis line was included in President Joe Biden’s strategy to address the nation’s mental health crisis, unveiled in March 2022

    • Over its two years, 988 has expanded to broaden its reach
    • If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or live chat at 988lifeline.org. 

    Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the launch of the hotline and affiliated website, which provide confidential support all hours of the day to people in distress. Previously, those seeking help had to dial a harder-to-remember 10-digit number.

    “Make no mistake, 988 saves lives,” Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters.

    Launching the crisis line was included in President Joe Biden’s strategy to address the nation’s mental health crisis, unveiled in March 2022. 

    Over its two years, 988 has expanded to broaden its reach.

    The Department of Health and Human Services has invested $1.5 billion in 988, paid for though the 2021 American Rescue Plan and 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Much of that funding has gone to states, territories and tribes to hire crisis counselors and improve local responses. 

    Federal funding has also been used to bolster the national backup system, which ensures callers speak to a counselor even when their local centers have reached capacity. Some states have contributed their own funding. 

    More than 200 contact centers across the country provide support for 988.

    “Behavioral health crisis is a crisis, something we need to face together,” Tanden said. “As a country, we have a moral obligation to be there for each other, to reach out to offer help or just a listening ear.”

    Meanwhile, 988 has added tailored lines to help groups including Spanish speakers, military veterans and active service members, and LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. Those lines can be reached by calling 988 and then entering a number when prompted. The Spanish phone number has existed since 2006, but not the text and chat options.

    A videoline also has been added to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    “In the two years since we launched 988, it’s become one of the most effective first-line responses that we have to help individuals who feel alone and without options,” said HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm. 

    If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or live chat at 988lifeline.org. 

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    Ryan Chatelain

    Source link

  • Takeaways from Day 1 of the Republican National Convention

    Takeaways from Day 1 of the Republican National Convention

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    The first day of the Republican National Convention was, perhaps, one of the most dizzying days in recent memory — coming on the heels of an already tumultuous weekend after the attack on former President Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally.

    One shockwave came before the convention even formally started, when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, calling the appointment of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith — who also brought the federal election subversion case against Trump — unlawful. Despite the Justice Department vowing to appeal the decision, which could result in it being overturned, the judge’s order is a massive victory for Trump.

    Hours later, Trump named Ohio Sen. JD Vance — a fierce critic-turned-convert and staunch ally — as his running mate, ending months of speculation as to which Republican loyalist would join his ticket as he looks to win back the White House from President Joe Biden.

    And both Trump and Vance were formally nominated as the Republican candidates for president and vice president, setting up a showdown with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris with 113 days to go until Election Day.

    Trump made an appearance toward the end of the night, with rally attendees seeing him for the first time with a bandage on his right ear after it was grazed by a would-be-assassin’s bullet.

    Serenaded by Lee Greenwood singing his seminal patriotic hit “God Bless the U.S.A.,” Trump stood with Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republican officials, as well as family members like Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle and allies like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

    The crowd showered him with cheers of “USA! USA!” and “fight, fight, fight,” echoing comments he made after the shooting on Saturday.

    Despite outward calls for unity from Trump and other officials, including Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley, in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt, that courtesy did not extend to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, with numerous speakers using incendiary rhetoric to attack the Democratic administration.

    As Republicans gathered in Milwaukee, Biden, meanwhile, sat for a wide-ranging interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt at the White House, which included questions about his “bullseye” comment about Trump from earlier this month, which Republicans criticized in the wake of Trump’s shooting.

    Here are some takeaways from the first day of the Republican National Convention:

    Classified documents case dismissed

     

    This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (Justice Department via AP)

    While not a part of the RNC per se, the ruling in the classified documents case no doubt helped lead to the jubilant mood in Milwaukee on Monday.

    The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, is a massive victory for the former president, who faced dozens of felony charges accusing him of mishandling classified documents after leaving office and hampering the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty last year and has denied any wrongdoing.

    “The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers,” Cannon wrote in her ruling. “That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not.”

    “Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme–the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” she added.

    Cannon faced widespread scrutiny for delays in bringing the case against Trump. The case was set to go to trial in May, but it was indefinitely delayed as she reviewed motion after motion put forth by Trump’s attorneys.

    “Both the Appointments and Appropriations challenges as framed in the Motion raise the following threshold question: is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution?” Cannon wrote. “After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no.”

    “In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” she added.

    In a statement, Peter Carr, a spokesperson for the special counsel, confirmed the Justice Department authorized an appeal, which could result in Cannon’s decision being overruled by a higher court.

    “The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a special counsel,” Carr said.

    In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the ” dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step” in moving to dismiss all the cases against him, which he baselessly called “Witch Hunts.”

    “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME,” Trump charged. “Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”

    Read more about the ruling here

    The pick is in: Ohio Sen. JD Vance

    Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, nominates Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, during the Republican National Convention Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

    Former President Donald Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance, a Trump critic-turned-convert, to be his running mate in November’s election, succeeding former Vice President Mike Pence as Trump’s No. 2.

    “After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday afternoon. “J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”

    Trump called Vance about 20 minutes before he made his social media post to let him know his selection, sources confirmed to Spectrum News.

    Shortly after Trump announced his pick, Vance was officially selected by delegates at the Republican National Convention to be the party’s nominee for vice president. He was approved by a voice vote without opposition.

    Moments earlier, Vance entered the convention floor at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum to cheers, hugs and handshakes alongside his wife, Usha Vance, an attorney who he met while both attending Yale Law School.

    He was nominated by Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who described Vance as “a man who loves America and will represent our people with moral courage, strength and honor.”

    “JD is a living embodiment of the American Dream,” Husted said. “He came from humble beginnings and even as his life took him to places he might never have imagined, he never forgot where he came from. Ohio values are in his blood.”

    In an interview with Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday night, his first since becoming Trump’s running mate, Vance said the call from Trump was “a moment I’ll never forget.”

    The Biden campaign immediately slammed the pick, labeling Vance as the favored choice of billionaires and corporations and as a Trump loyalist who will “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” as Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a press call on Monday afternoon.

    “A clone of Trump on the issues,” President Joe Biden said at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One for a campaign trip to Las Vegas. “I don’t see any difference.”

    On the press call, Reproductive Freedom for All president Mini Timmaraju called Vance an “extreme anti-abortion politician” and O’Malley Dillon warned that Vance’s addition to the Republican ticket makes it “more clear than ever that our rights, our freedoms and our democracy are on the line.”

    Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, appear during the Republican National Convention Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

    Vance, a Trump critic-turned-convert, has emerged as a leader on the Republican Party’s rightmost reaches and a favorite among some of the more radical figures in Trump’s world. Prior to winning his Senate race in 2022, Vance was a Marine and venture capitalist who wrote a bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that garnered bipartisan praise for its depiction of his tumultuous upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and path to Yale University Law School.

    “I was a convert in 2019 to the cause of Trump’s America First agenda,” Vance said in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington last week. “I was cognizant of the fact that, because I was a convert, Trump had not yet taken over the Republican Party, even in Washington, D.C., even in 2019 even though he was the president of the United States.”

    “There were people who were aggressively pushing back against his influence, who were already planning a return to basically reimplementing the Wall Street Journal editorial page’s preferred positions in 2019. I think that’s over now.”

    In 2016, Vance notably called Trump an “idiot,” “noxious” and “reprehensible,” labeling himself as “a Never Trump guy” and telling a friend that Trump could be “America’s Hitler” as the then-businessman made his first run for president. Now, as Trump is just days away from receiving the Republican nomination for the first time, he has chosen the man who has become one of his most loyal supporters in Washington as his running mate.

    “I always wish his memory was as bad as Joe Biden’s, because he would forget about what I said about him in 2016,” Vance said in his speech last week.

    Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, right, points toward Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

    Republicans were quick to praise Trump’s pick, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying in a statement that Vance “possesses a profound understanding of the anxieties of working families and has both the lived experience and the policy expertise to help President Trump deliver a government worthy of the people it is supposed to serve.” New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of House leadership and a vice presidential contender herself, said Trump “made a strong VP choice” and called Vance “a strong America First leader and proven conservative.”

    If elected, Vance would be the youngest vice president since Richard Nixon, who was just a few months younger when he took office in 1953 as part of the Eisenhower administration. Vance has three children with his wife, Usha Vance. She previously clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on a lower court.

    The Ohio senator, who turns 40 in August, will now be pitted against Vice President Kamala Harris as both junior partners will attempt to make the case to the American people that they are fit to assume the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump or the 81-year-old Biden can no longer serve. Both campaigns have agreed to a CBS News debate later this summer.

    Trump officially becomes GOP nominee

    While not a surprise in the slightest, Trump received enough delegates on Monday to formally become the Republican presidential nominee.

    The delegation from Florida, led by his son, Eric Trump, gave him enough votes to put him over the top.

    Speakers invoke Trump’s shooting…

    Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, speaking during the first day of the Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    The assassination attempt on Donald Trump was top of mind for many of the speakers at Monday night’s event.

    Few of the speeches Monday electrified the crowd as much as the one delivered by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — a former 2024 presidential hopeful-turned-staunch Trump backer — got the crowd on their feet by invoking shooting at Trump’s rally on Saturday.

    “If you didn’t believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now!” he told the crowd in an exchange heavily laden with his Christian faith. “And our God still saves, he still delivers, and he still sets free. Because on Saturday the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet and he roared!”

    “Oh yeah, he roared!” Scott said to cheers from the crowd of “fight, fight, fight,” echoing Trump’s comments — a cheer that RNC attendees used throughout the day.

    Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right firebrand and staunch ally of Trump, opened her speech at the RNC by calling it a “somber moment” for the country in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

    “Evil came for the man that we love and admire so much,” Greene said, adding: “I thank God that his hand was on President Trump.

    She also paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, the ex-fire chief and Trump supporter who was killed in the attack, saying he “embodied the spirit of America First” and said Republicans should “honor Corey’s memory by building the country he wanted.”

    …but unity was hard to come by for Biden and Democrats

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA., speaking on the first day of the Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    As he kicked off the evening session of the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley called for unity in the aftermath of the “horrifying assassination attempt” against former President Donald Trump.

    “We are praying for President Trump. We are praying for the injured. We are praying for the family of Corey Comperatore,” he said. “We must unite as a party and we must unite as a nation. We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a greater future world.”

    But that courtesy did not extend to Biden and the Democrats, clearly.

    The very next speaker, the next speaker, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, did not appear to have gotten the memo on the greater “unity” message of the convention, quickly calling Democratic policies a “clear and present danger to America,” accusing his opposition party of having a “fringe agenda” that includes “biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.”

    “Democrats have forgotten American families, they have abandoned the working-class,” Johnson charged, adding that under Trump, those forgotten Americans are forgotten no more.”

    (Speaking to PBS News later Monday, Johnson later blamed the teleprompter loading a previous version of his speech.)

    Johnson wasn’t the only Republican to invoke anti-trans rhetoric for cheers from the crowd. Greene shifted gears after her comments about Trump’s shooting to condemn the “establishment in Washington,” which she said has “sold us out.”

    “They promised unity and delivered division,” Greene said. They promised peace and delivered war. They promised normalcy, and they gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.” (President Joe Biden’s proclamation marking Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday was not intentional; the holiday is marked on March 31 every year, and Easter Sunday falls on different days each year, it just happened to fall on the same day in 2024.)

    “And let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” she said to cheers.

    Sen. Katie Britt, R-AL., speaks on the first day of the Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, who delivered the Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech earlier this year, charged that the Democratic incumbent is “in decline” and “Donald Trump is the change we need.”

    “We see how Biden and Harris keep making things worse,” she said. “And we know the current president is not capable of turning things around.”

    “His weakness is costing us. Our opportunity, our prosperity, our security, our safety — each diminished, all in decline,” Britt said. “Just like the man in the Oval Office.”

    Scott said that President Joe Biden is “asleep at the wheel and we’re heading over a cliff,” blaming him for a number of issues, including “weakness” that “has invited world wars all around our world.”

    “America is not a racist country,” Scott later said to cheers, adding: “But if you are looking for racism today, you’d find it in cities run by Democrats.”

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  • Biden makes campaign stop; RNC prep for next week

    Biden makes campaign stop; RNC prep for next week

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    President Joe Biden makes another move to stay in office, and former President Donald Trump prepares for the RNC.


    Biden pushes on ‘blue wall’ sprint with Michigan trip as he continues to make the case for candidacy

    Four years ago, candidate Joe Biden stood before supporters at a Detroit high school, flanked by Kamala Harris and other rising Democratic stars, and called himself a bridge to the next generation of leaders.

    Biden, now a president seeking reelection, returned to the city Friday with many in his party now pleading for him to fulfill that very promise and step aside. But Biden remains defiant and says he’ll remain in the race despite a disastrous debate performance that triggered a wave of calls for him to end his candidacy.

    During a news conference on Thursday, when asked why he no longer considered himself a “bridge” to the next generation of leaders, Biden responded that “what changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, foreign policy, and domestic division.”

    “We’ve never been here before,” Biden continued. “And that’s the other reason why I didn’t, you say, hand off to another generation. I gotta finish the job.”

    In the two weeks since his debate debacle, Biden and his team have been on a relentless sprint to persuade fretting lawmakers, nervous donors and a skeptical electorate that at the age of 81, he is still capable of being president. But a spate of travel to battleground states, interviews with journalists and a rare solo news conference have done little to tamp down the angst within the party about Biden’s candidacy and his prospects against Donald Trump in November.

    So far, one Democratic senator and 16 House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step aside, with the latest statements — from Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, California Rep. Scott Peters and Illinois Rep. Eric Sorensen — coming as the president’s highly anticipated news conference ended Thursday night. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has indicated Biden still has a decision to make on whether to run, even though the president has made it clear he plans to remain in the race.

    Meanwhile, his reelection campaign has indirectly acknowledged that Biden’s route to the White House is narrowing, saying the so-called “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is now the “clearest pathway” to victory, even as other battleground states like Arizona and Nevada are not out of reach.

    That strategy is reflected in how Biden is redoubling his efforts in the Midwestern states, hitting Detroit nearly one week after he campaigned in Madison, Wis.; Philadelphia; and Harrisburg, Penn. Rallying enthusiasm in Detroit and among its sizable Black population could prove decisive for Biden’s chances of winning Michigan, which Biden reclaimed in 2020 after Donald Trump won it in four years prior by just over 10,000 votes.

    Melania Trump to make rare political appearance at the RNC, sources say

    Former first lady Melania Trump will attend the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee, according to two people familiar with her plans.

    Melania Trump has largely refrained from public appearances, noticeably missing key moments such as former President Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday victory party and his 78th birthday party last month. She also did not accompany the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on any of the days of his hush money trial in New York.

    Her presence at the convention, where her husband will be officially nominated as the Republican candidate, will be a boost for the party as it tries to present a united front compared to the crisis the Democratic party faces as some are calling for President Joe Biden to withdraw his reelection bid following his debate performance.

    Melania Trump’s plans have not been formally announced, and it is not yet clear whether she will deliver a speech or have any role in the proceedings.

    The news was first reported by CNN.

    Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After she had been largely absent from the campaign trail earlier this year, reporters asked the former first lady about her plans. Her response: “Stay tuned.”

    The few times she has been seen have been when she and Trump voted in Florida’s primary, at a couple of fundraisers and at their son’s high school graduation.

    After the Republican Party of Florida announced earlier this year that the son, Barron Trump, was selected to serve as one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida to the national gathering, Melania Trump’s office responded two days later by saying he would decline to participate “due to prior commitments.”

    Barron Trump was seen for the first time since he turned 18 at a campaign rally at his father’s golf resort in Doral, a Miami suburb. 

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Full list of congressional Democrats calling on Biden to leave presidential race

    Full list of congressional Democrats calling on Biden to leave presidential race

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    On Monday, Biden sent a letter to Democratic lawmakers saying he is “firmly committed to staying in this race” and calling for an “end” to speculation within the party about the future of his candidacy.

    Here is a look at the 20 known congressional Democrats — 19 in the House, one in the Senate — who have said either publicly or privately they’d like to see Biden step aside.

    Rep. Earl Blumenauer

    The Oregon lawmaker, who is retiring in January, on Wednesday joined the chorus of Democrats urging Biden to withdraw. 

    “It is a painful and difficult conclusion but there is no question in my mind that we will all be better served if the president steps aside as the Democratic nominee and manages a transition under his terms,” Blumenauer said. “He has earned that right.”

    Rep. Ed Case

    Case, a longtime fixture in Hawaii politics, said in a statement Thursday that his “guidepost is what is the best way forward for our country.”

    “I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President,” Case said, adding that his decision has nothing to do with the incumbent’s “character and record” as president. “If it did, there would be no decision to make.”

    Rep. Angie Craig

    The Minnesota congresswoman issued a statement Saturday saying she has “great respect for President Biden’s decades of service to our nation and his steadfast commitment to making our country a better place,” but, “given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.”

    Craig called for “an open, fair, and transparent Democratic process to select a new nominee to inspire and unite our great nation.”

    “If we truly believe that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans must be stopped, there is only a small window left to make sure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win,” she said.

    Rep. Lloyd Doggett

    On July 2, the Texas lawmaker became the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to drop out the race, citing his performance in the presidential debate and the need to defeat former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. 

    “Instead of reassuring voters [during the debate], the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies,” Doggett said in a statement.

    “Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang,” he continued. “Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory.”  

    In an interview with Spectrum News after his announcement, Doggett said that he came to the decision to ask Biden to withdraw “reluctantly and sadly” because of his accomplishments as president.

    “I’ve watched the polls and what’s happened over the last year,” he said. “We’ve been running behind, hoping that we get some momentum out of this debate. Instead, we got disappointment.”

    “I watched it with my wife, we were alarmed by his inability to counter the Trump lies and to really defend an admirable effort that the president’s made these last few years,” he continued, detailing that he discussed his position about wanting to replace Biden as the nominee with colleagues in Congress and his constituents in Texas.

    He also said the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump’s immunity case last week underscored the importance of defeating the Republican ex-president at the ballot box in November.

    “There is so much at risk in having a criminal and his gang take over our government, that I just think we have to have a stronger candidate than President Biden has happened to be,” Doggett added.

    Rep. Raúl Grijalva

    Grijalva, a progressive Democrat from Arizona, was the second member of Congress to call on Biden to step aside, telling The New York Times on July 3: “What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”

    Grijalva said a second Trump presidency would be “very, very dangerous,” describing the former president as an “anti-democratic, authoritarian despot.”

    Rep. Jim Himes

    The Connecticut lawmaker was one of at least four House Democrats who said during a private call Sunday that Biden should step aside. Himes is the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

    According to Politico, Himes said he has received several hundred texts and emails about Biden’s age, all from people who wanted the president to leave the race. Himes also reportedly expressed concerns about Democrats losing both chambers of Congress if Biden presses on.

    On Thursday, after Biden’s NATO press conference, Himes went public with his call for Biden to exit the race.

    “Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled. His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure,” Himes wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.”

    Rep. Seth Moulton

    Moulton, of Massachusetts, told radio station WBUR on July 4 that he does not believe Biden can defeat Trump and should bow out.

    “President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our Founding Fathers — George Washington’s — footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,” Moulton said.

    On Sunday, Moulton told WCVB-TV: “There are a lot of colleagues who share my concern, but have not gone public. We should be cleaning up and down the ballot, and that’s just not the case right now. So, we need to ask, ‘What do we need to do differently?’”

    Rep. Jerry Nadler

    The New York Democrat and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee was on the same call Sunday with Himes. 

    Nadler, as one of the more senior members on the call, was the first person to say that Biden should step aside, according a person familiar with the call who was granted anonymity to discuss it with The Associated Press. He did so aware of his seniority and that it would allow others to join him.

    However, on Tuesday Nadler told CNN of Biden: “He said he’s going to remain in, he’s our candidate, and we’re going to support him.”

    Rep. Scott Peters

    Shortly after Himes’ post-debate detraction, Peters, a California Democrat, expressed that in a “high stakes” election, Democrats “are on a losing course” with Biden at the helm.

    While praising his accomplishments as president, Peters said in a statement that Biden’s debate performance “was not a blip.”

    “Today I ask President Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign,” Peters said. “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course. My conscience requires me to speak up and put loyalty to the country and to democracy ahead of my great affection for, and loyalty to, the President and those around him.”

    Rep. Brittany Pettersen

    On Friday, the day after Biden’s NATO press conference, Pettersen, a Colorado Democrat, urged Biden to “please pass the torch” to a new generation of Democratic leaders in a statement posted to social media.

    Pettersen, an organizer for the incumbent Democrat’s 2008 campaign, expressed “deep admiration for Joe Biden and all he has done for this country,” which she said makes her decision to ask him to stand aside “more painful.”

    “Please pass the torch to one of our many capable Democratic leaders so we have the best chance to defeat Donald Trump,” she added.

    Rep. Mike Quigley

    In an appearance on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” on Friday, Quigley, of Illinois, had a direct message for Biden: “Your legacy is set. We owe you the greatest debt of gratitude, the only thing you can do now to cement that for all time and prevent utter catastrophe is to step down and let someone else do this.”

    Quigley doubled down on his opinion Monday, saying Biden’s Friday interview with ABC News did nothing to change his mind. 

    “He looks very frail,” Quigley told CNN. “His voice is very soft. It’s not robust. And again, it is not how I perceive that. It’s how the American people perceive it.”

    Rep. Pat Ryan

    A Democrat representing a frontline New York district, Ryan called on Biden to step aside Wednesday, telling The New York Times, “I’d be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall.”

    “For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders,” Ryan told the outlet. “I really hope, with all my heart, that he will listen.”

    In a subsequent post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ryan doubled down on his comments.

    “Trump is an existential threat to American democracy; it is our duty to put forward the strongest candidate against him,” he wrote. “Joe Biden is a patriot but is no longer the best candidate to defeat Trump.”

    In an interview with Spectrum News on Thursday, Ryan called the debate “a wake-up call” for Democrats.

    Trump “is unfit for office and has to be stopped, he cannot go anywhere near the White House again. And so I believe it’s our patriotic duty as a party to put forward the strongest candidate to defeat him,” he added.

    Rep. Brad Schneider

    Schneider, an Illinois Democrat and prominent member of the New Democrat Coalition in the House, said in a statement Thursday that “the time has come … for President Biden to heroically pass the torch to a new generation of leadership to guide us to the future he has enabled and empowered us to pursue.” 

    Schneider hailed Biden’s accomplishments in office, notably leading the country through the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recovery in its aftermath, and said that the incumbent “now has the opportunity to secure his legacy and boldly deliver the nation to a new generation of leadership.”

    “The stakes in this election could not be higher,” he said. “Donald Trump and the administration he would install are an absolute threat to the very core of our nation.”

    Rep. Hillary Scholten

    Scholten, who represents a district in western Michigan once held by Gerald Ford, joined the chorus calling for Biden to step aside Thursday, hailing his “incredible” legacy but expressing concern that Americans cannot “unsee” his performance at last week’s debate.

    “We just have too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines and be silent while we still have time to do something,” Scholten, a frontline Democrat in a battleground state, said in an interview with The Detroit News on Thursday.

    She said she will continue to support Biden over Trump should she stay in the race but urged him to “allow a new leader to step up.”

    “But the people of Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District elected me to represent them with integrity,” Scholten said. “They elected a Congresswoman they trust to speak the truth, even when it’s hard. They voted for someone who would put America’s future first and stand up for what is right. That’s what I am doing now.”

    Rep. Mikie Sherrill

    The New Jersey congresswoman said in a statement Tuesday she is asking Biden to “declare that he won’t run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee.”

    Sherrill praised Biden for his more than 50 years serving the country and working to pass “remarkable legislation that will reverberate for generations.” She said her constituents “want a leader who can continue to build on our successes but is also able to turn the nation’s attention to the urgent threat that Trump presents to our democracy, to our freedoms, to our country.”

    The “stakes are too high — and the threat is too real — to stay silent,” Sherrill said.

    Rep. Adam Smith

    On Monday, Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, urged Biden to “take a step back” from the ticket and called for Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.

    “I think it’s become clear that he’s not the best person to carry the Democratic message,” the Washington state Democrat said on CNN, before praising the Democrats’ platform and record and acknowledging Biden’s role in the country’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    He went on to call a second Trump presidency a “complete disaster,” condenming the far-right Project 2025 agenda, which the ex-president attempted to distance himself from last week, and his economic proposals.

    “We’ve got a good message,” said Smith, who also made his opinion known at Sunday’s call of top Democratic committee members. “The president has shown he is not capable of delivering that message in an effective way.”

    Rep. Eric Sorensen

    The Illinois Democrat became the third Democratic lawmaker following Biden’s NATO press conference to call for his departure from the race.

    “In 2020, Joe Biden ran for President with the purpose of putting country over party,” Sorensen said in a statement posted to social media. “Today, I am asking him to do that again.”

    Rep. Greg Stanton

    Arizona’s Stanton, who called himself “one of President Biden’s earliest supporters in 2020” in a statement Thursday, hailed the president’s record in delivering for his state, but argued that Trump “poses an existential threat” to the U.S. Constitution and American democracy and the party needs a nominee who can make a case against him.

    “For the sake of American democracy … I believe it is time for the President to step aside as our nominee,” he said.

    “The stakes in this election could not be higher,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “For our country’s sake, it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.

    Rep. Mark Takano

    The California lawmaker, too, said during Sunday’s private call that Biden should withdraw, a source told the AP. Takano is the ranking member of the the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

    Many others on the call raised concerns about Biden’s capability and chance of winning reelection, even if they stopped short of saying Biden should step out of the race.

    Sen. Peter Welch

    The Vermont politician on Wednesday became the first Senate Democrat to call for Biden to leave the race.

    “I understand why President Biden wants to run,” Welch said in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. “He saved us from Donald Trump once and wants to do it again. But he needs to reassess whether he is the best candidate to do so. In my view, he is not. For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.”

    Welch cited recent polling analysis from the Cook Political Report that found that six battleground states have shifted toward Trump after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Some states, like Minnesota and New Hampshire, are still expected to lean Democratic, while Nevada, Arizona and Georgia have moved from “toss up” to “lean Republican.”

    Spectrum News’ Kevin Frey and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Pelosi says Democrats want answer soon on Biden’s candidacy

    Pelosi says Democrats want answer soon on Biden’s candidacy

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    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday congressional Democrats are encouraging President Joe Biden to make a decision soon about whether he’s remaining in the race for the White House, despite that Biden said earlier this week he’s committed to his candidacy.

    What You Need To Know

    • Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday congressional Democrats are encouraging President Joe Biden to make a decision soon about whether he’s remaining in the race for the White House, despite that Biden said earlier this week he’s committed to his candidacy

    • “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told MSNBC, adding that “time is running short”

    •  Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., confirmed Tuesday he told colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he does not believe Biden can win in November

    • Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio also said in Tuesday’s private meeting they do not believe Biden can beat Trump, Axios reported
    • While not a lawmaker, actor George Clooney, a high-profile Democratic backer who recently hosted a star-studded Hollywood fundraiser for Biden last month, urged the incumbent to step aside in an opinion piece for The New York Times on Wednesday

    “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We’re all encouraging him to to make that decision because time is running short.”

    Pelosi’s comments came nearly two weeks after Biden’s devastating debate performance against former President Donald Trump, in which Biden, 81, struggled to articulate some of his answers. 

    “I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” said Pelosi, who praised Biden for his NATO speech Tuesday and for legislation he signed as president.

    Last week, Pelosi, who continues to serve in Congress, said she thought it was a “legitimate question” to ask whether Biden’s debate performance was an episode or a condition. 

    In a statement to Spectrum News following her interview on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Pelosi said the California Democrat “fully supports whatever President Biden decides to do.”

    “We must turn our attention to why this race is so important: Donald Trump would be a disaster for our country and our democracy,” Pelosi’s spokesperson said.

    On Monday, Biden sent a letter to congressional Democrats saying he is “firmly committed to staying in this race” and called for an “end” to talk within the party of him stepping aside.

    Seven House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to drop out the race. No Senate Democrats have done so yet, but Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., confirmed Tuesday he told colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he does not believe Biden can win in November.

    “Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

    Bennet, who stopped short of calling for Biden to withdraw, cited polling showing the incumbent trailing even before the debate and said he’s heard from constituents concerned about the president’s age and mental acuity. 

    “These are my voters who said to me, ‘I have been through this with my mom. I’ve been through this with my dad. I’m terrified about what it will mean if Donald Trump is elected president again in this country,” Bennet said.

    The Colorado lawmaker, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020, said he thinks Biden “has been a really good president” but added, “We have to defeat the malignant figure that is Donald Trump.”

    “I believe those of us that are in these elected office have a moral obligation to the people that we represent and the future of our country … to do everything we can to make sure their future is as bright as it could be,” Bennet said. “And if we just sit on our hands, if we say we’re going to disregard what is plainly in front of us and plainly in front of the American people and we end up electing Donald Trump again as president of the United States, that’s going to be a huge tragedy beyond epic proportion.”

    Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio also said in Tuesday’s private meeting they do not believe Biden can beat Trump, Axios reported. Both are seeking reelection this year in states Trump won in 2020.

    Tester issued a statement Monday saying Biden “has got to prove to the American people—including me—that he’s up to the job for another four years.”

    Also this week, two top Democrats indicated they have doubts about Biden’s electability. 

    Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois told reporters Monday that Biden’s debate performance “raised a lot of questions” about the president. 

    And Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the longest serving Democrat in the chamber, said in a statement that “after talking with my constituents, I believe President Biden must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.”

    Another prominent figure loaned his voice to the chorus of those urging Biden to step aside, though not one belonging to a lawmaker: Actor George Clooney, a high-profile backer of Democrats who hosted a star-studded Hollywood fundraiser for the incumbent last month.

    “We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney said in an op-ed for The New York Times on Wednesday. “On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”

    He urged the party to pick a new candidate ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention.

    “Let’s hear from Wes Moore and Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear and J.B. Pritzker and others,” Clooney wrote. Let’s agree that the candidates not attack one another but, in the short time we have, focus on what will make this country soar. Then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out.

    “Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy. But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would. The short ramp to Election Day would be a benefit for us, not a danger,” Clooney said, later concluding: “Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.”

    Spectrum News’ Cassie Semyon contributed to this report.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Senate bill would label Trump’s efforts to overturn election as unofficial acts

    Senate bill would label Trump’s efforts to overturn election as unofficial acts

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    Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would classify former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as unofficial presidential acts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would classify former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as unofficial presidential acts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday

    • The bill aims to ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling last week granting presidents and former presidents some criminal immunity does not derail the federal case against Trump in Washington

    • Schumer argued the Constitution gives Congress the authority to check the judiciary through legislation

    • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he disagrees with the effort

    The bill aims to ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling last week granting presidents and former presidents some criminal immunity does not derail the federal case against Trump in Washington.

    In that 6-3 ruling along partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity when carrying out their core constitutional duties and “at least presumptive immunity” over their remaining official actions.

    “What the conservative justices have done is effectively place a crown on Donald Trump’s head,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. “In their judgment, the president is now free to behave however he likes – even to behave criminally — and as long as he argues that he was acting as president, he is in many ways untouchable.

    “I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” the Senate majority leader added. “We’re doing this because we believe that in America, no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative justices may believe.”

    Schumer argued the Constitution gives Congress the authority to check the judiciary through legislation.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he disagrees with the effort.

    “Democrats seem to want to turn Washington into The Hague,” McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. “Their problem with the Supreme Court isn’t that they won’t be able to prosecute a president for unofficial criminal activity — because they still can. Their problem is that they won’t be able to prosecute official actions that they don’t like.”

    The bill faces long odds. Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance legislation, and Republicans control the House.

    Trump was indicted last year in Washington on four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, two charges related to obstructing an official proceedings and conspiracy against rights. 

    The former president and presumptive Republican nominee this year is accused of participating in a scheme to submit slates of fake electors to Congress as he falsely alleged widespread fraud cost him the election. He has pleaded not guilty.

    The Supreme Court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must determine whether the allegations against Trump involve official presidential actions.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Senate bill would label Trump’s efforts to overturn election as unofficial acts

    Senate bill would label Trump’s efforts to overturn election as unofficial acts

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    Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would classify former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as unofficial presidential acts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would classify former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as unofficial presidential acts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday

    • The bill aims to ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling last week granting presidents and former presidents some criminal immunity does not derail the federal case against Trump in Washington

    • Schumer argued the Constitution gives Congress the authority to check the judiciary through legislation

    • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he disagrees with the effort

    The bill aims to ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling last week granting presidents and former presidents some criminal immunity does not derail the federal case against Trump in Washington.

    In that 6-3 ruling along partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity when carrying out their core constitutional duties and “at least presumptive immunity” over their remaining official actions.

    “What the conservative justices have done is effectively place a crown on Donald Trump’s head,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. “In their judgment, the president is now free to behave however he likes – even to behave criminally — and as long as he argues that he was acting as president, he is in many ways untouchable.

    “I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” the Senate majority leader added. “We’re doing this because we believe that in America, no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative justices may believe.”

    Schumer argued the Constitution gives Congress the authority to check the judiciary through legislation.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he disagrees with the effort.

    “Democrats seem to want to turn Washington into The Hague,” McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. “Their problem with the Supreme Court isn’t that they won’t be able to prosecute a president for unofficial criminal activity — because they still can. Their problem is that they won’t be able to prosecute official actions that they don’t like.”

    The bill faces long odds. Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance legislation, and Republicans control the House.

    Trump was indicted last year in Washington on four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, two charges related to obstructing an official proceedings and conspiracy against rights. 

    The former president and presumptive Republican nominee this year is accused of participating in a scheme to submit slates of fake electors to Congress as he falsely alleged widespread fraud cost him the election. He has pleaded not guilty.

    The Supreme Court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must determine whether the allegations against Trump involve official presidential actions.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Biden admin. wants additional funding to pay for bridge collapse, Maui wildfires

    Biden admin. wants additional funding to pay for bridge collapse, Maui wildfires

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    The Biden administration renewed its call Friday for Congress to provide supplemental funding for urgent domestic needs and added to its wishlist. 

    What You Need To Know

    • The Biden administration renewed its call Friday for Congress to provide supplemental funding for urgent domestic needs and added to its wishlist

    • The revised request includes nearly $4 billion in new funding being sought compared to the October proposal

    • The Biden administration wants additional funding to address disaster relief, including the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, last year’s wildfires in Maui and tornadoes that devastated communities in the Midwest

    • In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote that the administration also “reiterates its call on the Congress to support the toughest, fairest bipartisan border security agreement in decades

    The requests initially appeared in a $106 billion spending package proposed by Biden in October. That plan also included foreign aid to help Ukraine and Israel in their wars and Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China. 

    Congress approved $95.3 billion in February for those initiatives but has not acted on the other requests, including money to bolster border security. 

    The revised request includes nearly $4 billion in new funding being sought compared to the October proposal, but also drops a $2.2 billion request related to the nuclear fuel supply chain because Congress has already acted on that.

    The Biden administration wants additional funding to address disaster relief, including the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, last year’s wildfires in Maui and tornadoes that devastated communities in the Midwest. 

    At the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard have paid $112.5 million for wreckage removal, response activities and other unplanned contests, officials said. The Biden administration is seeking to replenish those funds.

    In March, a container ship lost power and slammed into the bridge, causing it to crumble into the water below. Six construction workers who were on the crossing were killed, and maritime traffic at the busy Port of Baltimore was disrupted for weeks.

    The administration is also seeking $3.1 billion to rebuild the bridge and to repair and reconstruct other federally owned highways and roads across the country that have been severely damaged by natural disasters, such as typhoons, wildfires and hurricanes, or other causes. 

    The federal government is requesting $25 million for the Labor Department to award grants for reconstruction and recovery needs caused by natural disasters as well as cleanup and recovery efforts at the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

    And the Biden administration wants another $700 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to spend on long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization and mitigation in regions hit by major disasters last year as well as in the future.

    “Obviously, these are urgent needs that in many cases, when we look at the October supplemental, we’ve been requesting now for almost nine months,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday. “So I think our desire is that Congress acts as swiftly as possible, and we are going to work with the Hill.”

    In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote that the administration also “reiterates its call on the Congress to support the toughest, fairest bipartisan border security agreement in decades, which would deliver significant policy changes, resources, and personnel needed to secure America’s border and fix the broken immigration system.”

    In February, Republicans in both the House and Senate rejected a border deal that was negotiated for months by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

    The White House is also restating its request for other disaster-relief funding as well money to stabilize child care centers, to pay wildland firefighters and to restore a program making high-speed internet access accessible and affordable to all Americans. 

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • White House blocks release of Biden’s special counsel interview audio

    White House blocks release of Biden’s special counsel interview audio

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    The White House on Thursday blocked the release of audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents, arguing Thursday that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes.

    Biden’s move to assert executive privilege came shortly before the Republican-led House committees on Judiciary and Oversight met to advance a motion to refer Attorney General Merrick Garland to his own Justice Department for a contempt of Congress charge for refusing to hand over the recording.

    The House Judiciary Panel voted along party lines to advance the referral measure on Thursday, and House Oversight Committee followed suit later that evening. 

    What You Need To Know

    • The White House on Thursday blocked the release of audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents, arguing Thursday that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes

    • Biden’s move to assert executive privilege came before two House committees met Thursday to advance a motion to refer Attorney General Merrick Garland to his own Justice Department for a contempt of Congress charge for refusing to hand over the recording

    • White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a scathing letter to House Republicans that they were likely to edit and distort the recordings for political purposes

    • House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, argued the transcript of the interview are not sufficient in determining whether Hur acted appropriately in not recommending charges, accusing the White House of having “a track record of altering transcripts.”

    “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a scathing letter to House Republicans.

    “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate,” Siskel added.

    Garland separately advised Biden in a letter made public Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege, which protects a president’s ability to obtain candid counsel from his advisers without fear of immediate public disclosure and to protect confidential communications relating to official responsibilities.

    Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, Garland said: “People depend on us to ensure that our investigations and our prosecutions are conducted according to the facts and the law and without political influence. We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committees get responses to their legitimate requests, but this is not one.”

    Garland added that the effort to hold him in contempt is the latest in “a series of unprecedented and, frankly, unfounded attacks on the Justice Department.”

    The Justice Department warned Congress that a contempt effort would create “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” with Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte saying: “It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress.

    In a February report he submitted to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Hur wrote that his investigation “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”

    Justice Department policy protects a sitting president from being charged with crimes, but Hur said, even if he could, he would not recommend prosecuting Biden because the evidence did not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, adding, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” comments Republicans have seized upon.

    A transcript from the Biden interview have already been made public. But House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, argued those are not sufficient in determining whether Hur acted appropriately in not recommending charges, accusing the White House of having “a track record of altering transcripts.”

    Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said it is “an incomprehensibly absurd position” that the White House would assert executive privilege for the audio recording after the transcript has already been released.

    “That tape must be quite something if the administration of the president has decided to assert executive privilege to keep it from the committee in the course of an impeachment inquiry,” he said.

    Bishop added that the transcript does not capture “demeanor evidence” such as hesitations in answering questions.

    Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., argued that Biden’s conversation with an investigator should not be protected by executive privilege. 

    “It’s crystal clear to me that any official discussion between the president and any subordinate cannot be pierced,” he said. “But this case is very different because it’s not a conversation between the president and a subordinate over policy or the discharge of his official duties. Rather, it’s an interview in the course of a criminal investigation. To me, this is far closer to the Nixon tapes.”

    Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, defended Garland, saying “substantially complied with every request” made by House Republicans about the Hur investigation.

    “The only thing that has not been produced is the recording itself, which can be easily manipulated,” Nadler said. “ … This isn’t really MAGA base and getting Donald Trump reelected.”

    Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said Republican assertions that the transcript could not be trusted are unfounded.

    “There is no evidence whatsoever that this transcript was made up, that it’s fake, that it’s been doctored,” he said. “This transcript was produced by Robert Hur’s office. Robert Hur was appointed by Donald Trump. He is a Republican appointee. The notion that somehow this transcript is fake is a wild, insane conspiracy theory.”

    Hur was a senior official in the Trump Justice Department, but was appointed special counsel in the Biden classified documents case by Garland in January 2023.

    Siskel’s letter to lawmakers comes after the uproar from Biden’s aides and allies over Hur’s comments about Biden’s age and mental acuity, and it highlights concerns in a difficult election year over how potentially embarrassing moments from the lengthy interview could be exacerbated by the release, or selective release, of the audio.

    The transcript of the interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details — something longtime aides says he’s done for years in both public and private — but otherwise showing deep recall in other areas. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about his age. At 81, he’s the oldest ever president, and he’s seeking another four-year term.

    Hur’s report said many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.”

    But investigators did find evidence of willful retention and disclosure related a subset of records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, house, including in a garage, an office and a basement den.

    The files pertain to a troop surge in Afghanistan during the Obama administration that Biden had vigorously opposed. Biden kept records that documented his position, including a classified letter to Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday. Some of that information was shared with a ghostwriter with whom he published memoirs in 2007 and 2017.

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  • Former President Jimmy Carter ‘coming to the end,’ grandson says

    Former President Jimmy Carter ‘coming to the end,’ grandson says

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    Former President Jimmy Carter is “coming to the end,” his grandson Jason Carter said Tuesday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Jimmy Carter is “coming to the end,” his grandson Jason Carter said Tuesday

    • The younger Carter provided the update on his 99-year-old grandfather during the 28th Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum in Atlanta

    • The longest-lived American president, Jimmy Carter has been in hospice care in Plains, Georgia, since February 2023

    The younger Carter provided the update on his 99-year-old grandfather during the 28th Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum in Atlanta, the first held since the former first lady died in November.

    The longest-lived American president, Jimmy Carter has been in hospice care in Plains, Georgia, since February 2023. 

    “My grandfather is doing OK,” said Jason Carter, who chairs the board at The Carter Center, which hosts the forum. “He has been in hospice, as you know, for some —  almost a year and a half now. And he really is, I think, coming to the end. 

    “As I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him. And there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end, and I think he has been there in that space,” Jason Carter added.

    Jason Carter said he visited the former president a few weeks ago to watch an Atlanta Braves game on television. 

    “I said, ‘Pawpaw, people ask me how you’re doing, and I say, “I don’t know.”’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t know myself,’” Jason Carter said, laughing. “He’s still there.” 

    “But those moments for him in this last year have reminded us, I think, of another of the really important aspects of my grandmother’s legacy, which is that of caregiving,” Jason Smith said, turning the attention back to the forum’s namesake.

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    Ryan Chatelain

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  • Some Planters nuts recalled in 5 states over potential listeria

    Some Planters nuts recalled in 5 states over potential listeria

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    Hormel Foods has voluntarily recalled two types of Planters nuts in five states over concerns about potential contamination from the bacteria listeria. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Hormel Foods has voluntarily recalled two types of Planters nuts in five states over concerns about potential contamination from the bacteria listeria

    • The food manufacturer is recalling some 4-ounce packages of honey roasted peanuts and 8.75-ounce cans of deluxe lightly salted mixed nuts

    • The recall only impacts products shipped to Publix supermarkets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina and to Dollar Tree stores in Georgia and South Carolina

    • Listeria infections can be serious and sometimes fatal in young children, elderly people and individuals with weakened immune systems and can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women

    The food manufacturer is recalling some 4-ounce packages of honey roasted peanuts and 8.75-ounce cans of deluxe lightly salted mixed nuts.

    The recall only impacts products shipped to Publix supermarkets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina and to Dollar Tree stores in Georgia and South Carolina.

    The recalled honey roasted peanuts have a “best if used by date” of April 11, 2025, while the mixed nuts have a date of April 5, 2026.

    All of the potentially contaminated items were produced at one of Hormel’s facilities in April, the company said.

    There have been no reports of illnesses related to the products, Hormel said in a news release Friday.

    Listeria infections can be serious and sometimes fatal in young children, elderly people and individuals with weakened immune systems. In pregnant women, they can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature births and potentially fatal infections in newborns, according to the Mayo Clinic.

    The effects of listeria infections may be mitigated with prompt antibiotic treatment.

    Other people can be infected by listeria but rarely become seriously ill. Symptoms may include fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea and diarrhea. 

    Roughly 1,600 people are infected with listeria each year, with about 260 dying, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

    Hormel is advising customers who purchased the recalled products to discard them or exchange them at the store. 

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    Ryan Chatelain

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