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Donald Trump has slammed Joe Biden after the president announced he will drop out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday and already pivoted to criticising Vice President Kamala Harris in his latest attack ad after Biden nominated her as his successor.
The storm around the president had been brewing ever since his disastrous performance at the first presidential debate in Atlanta a month ago, which sent his party into panic mode and prompted a wave of Democratic lawmakers, strategists, donors and pundits to call on the 81-year-old to bow out and make way for a younger nominee.
Now that he has done, the Republican presidential contender wrote in a post on Truth Social that Biden “was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve.”
He added: “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Trump’s running mate JD Vance called on Biden to resign from the White House too.
Meanwhile, Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is appearing before the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about the security failings that led to Trump’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, nine days ago.
Oliver O'Connell22 July 2024 15:09
Watch: Harris viral campaign ad attacking Trump resurfaces
Kamala Harris viral campaign ad attacking Donald Trump resurfaces
Kamala Harris’s viral campaign advert attacking Donald Trump has resurfaced after Joe Biden’s decision to step down from the 2024 presidential election race. Biden announced his decision in a social media post on Sunday (21 July), and has since publicly endorsed vice president Harris to be his successor. Harris ran to be the Democratic presidential nomination against Joe Biden in the 2020 election but withdrew her campaign before any votes were cast. As part of her campaign, she released this video, calling Trump a “world leader in temper tantrums”.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 14:30
Trump and Ivanka gave thousands to previous Kamala Harris campaigns
Uh oh. How’s he going to spin this one?
Here’s Josh Marcus on the Trumps’ past admiration for “Kackling Kamala”.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 14:00
JD Vance shows off his new Merle Haggard walk-on music
Keen listeners at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and at the Trump rally in Michigan last week may have noticed a subtle development on the campaign trail: JD Vance officially has a walk-on song.
Here’s Josh Marcus on why 2005’s “America First” by country legend Merle Haggard may not be such a solid fit for this ticket after all.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 13:30
Trump takes a big lead over Harris in betting odds for November
The former president has taken the lead in the presidential betting odds against Kamala Harris.
Trump is currently -200 favorite to win the presidential race while Harris is roughly a 2/1 underdog at +185, according to BetOnline. The newest results come as President Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek re-election in November.
But third on the list is none other than former first lady Michelle Obama, who left the White House in 2017, with odds at +2000.
Tied behind Obama is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. All of them are listed at +2500 or greater.
Gustaf Kilander has more.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 13:00
Watch: Asparagus fortune teller predicted Biden quitting presidential race – and it’s not good news for Trump either
Here’s a strange one.
An “asparagus fortune teller” correctly predicted Joe Biden would step down from the 2024 US presidential race – but also forecast bad luck for Donald Trump.
Jemima Packington, the world’s only “asparamancer”, who also foresaw Queen Elizabeth II’s death and Brexit, appeared on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show just four days ago to make her prediction.
Bathford, who makes political predictions by reading the way asparagus falls on the floor, was asked to use the ingredient to say whether Biden or Trump would be elected in November by Vine on July 17.
“I can tell you it’s neither of them,” she said.
“It’s a lady. Now, I keep on getting this. The next president of the United States is going to be a lady.”
Asparagus fortune teller predicted Biden quitting presidential race
An asparagus fortune teller predicted Joe Biden would step down from the 2024 US presidential race, but also predicted bad luck for Donald Trump. Jemima Packington, the world’s only “asparamancer” and who foresaw Queen Elizabeth’s death and Brexit, appeared on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show just four days ago. Ms Bathford, who makes political predictions by reading the way asparagus falls on the floor, was asked to use the ingredient to say whether Biden or Trump would be elected in November by Vine on 17 July. She said: “I can tell you it’s neither of them. It’s a lady. Now, I keep on getting this. The next president of the United States is going to be a lady.”
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 12:30
Trump rally shooter ‘flew drone to scope out event site' hours before opening fire
The man who attempted to assassinate Trump last week flew a drone over the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally site hours before the former president took the stage, according to a new report.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, sent the drone over the site the morning of July 13, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting.
He used a pre-programmed flight path, which officials said may mean he used the drone more than once to scope out the area, according to the Journal.
Crooks also received several packages labeled as containing “hazardous materials” and performed Google searches for Trump rally dates as well as for President Joe Biden and next month’s Democratic National Convention, the Journal reports.
Katie Hawkinson reports.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 12:00
Does Kamala Harris have what it takes to beat Trump?
With Joe Biden’s stunning announcement that he would not seek re-election nearly one month after his troubling debate performance against Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as a surprisingly strong potential challenger to the ex-president.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she wrote Sunday in a statement shortly after Biden announced he was passing the torch.
“Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
Harris — the first woman, the first African-American and the first person of Asian descent to serve in the nation’s second-highest office — has been dogged by dismal approval ratings and a policy portfolio that has seen her take on politically tricky issues, like the root causes of an immigration crisis that’s brought hundreds of thousands to the US in recent years.
But she has also spent the last three years building a profile on the world stage, most recently at last month’s Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland.
She’s also become the administration’s most prominent messenger on reproductive freedom in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, which marked the end of a half-century-old federal right to an abortion.
Harris’s “reproductive freedom tour” has taken her to events across the country where she has barnstormed events packed with female and minority voters.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 11:30
Secret Service Director to be grilled by House Oversight Committee over Trump shooting
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle will appear before the House Oversight Committee today to answer questions about the security failings that led to Trump’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, nine days ago.
Expect lots of grandstanding from hysterical Republicans.
Meanwhile, here’s Trump saying he was not briefed by the service about the suspect in advance of the attack during an interview he and JD Vance conducted with Jesse Watters of Fox over the weekend.
Trump says Secret Service did not warn him about gunman
Donald Trump said he was not warned about shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks by the Secret Service, despite reports from rally-goers an hour before he got on stage. The Republican presidential candidate told Fox News host Jesse Watters: “Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said it was a problem. “[They] could've said, "Let's wait for 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes. “Nobody said…I think that was a mistake.” Trump later questioned how Crooks made it onto the roof at the Butler rally last Saturday (13 July). Trump said: “How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn't he reported, because people saw he was on that roof.” The full interview airs on Fox News on Monday (22 July).
Joe Sommerlad22 July 2024 11:00