Real Gross Domestic Product rose a healthy 2.4% in the second quarter of the year, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, up from +1.4% in the first quarter. The Q2 increase reflected greater consumer spending, private inventory investment and non-residential fixed investment, the BEA says, partially offset by increased imports to the US.
FRIDAY 7/26/24
Harris Calls for Cease Fire – In what’s being called her first-ever foreign policy speech, Vice President Harris pushed back on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion before a joint session of US Congress Wednesday that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The images of dead children, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time, we cannot walk away in the face of those tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” Harris said Thursday following her White House meeting with Netanyahu, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. President Biden met separately with Netanyahu at the White House.
“And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you. Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home and let’s bring much-needed relief to the Palestinian people.” Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, recited one by one the names of hostages being held by Hamas, Morning Edition reported, and condemned protestors who spray-painted pro-Hamas slogans on a monument in Washington.
Harris’ comments drew quick criticism from far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, according to Haaretz.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Friday that “a surrender to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, an end to the war in a way that would enable Hamas to recover, and an abandonment of hostages held by Hamas. We cannot fall into this trap!”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givr posted on X; “There won’t be an end to the war, madame candidate.”
Meanwhile at Mar-a-Lago, GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump urged Netanyahu to end the war, The New York Timesreports, ahead of a scheduled meeting between the two on Friday.
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Obamas, Finally – Barack and Michelle Obama finally have officially endorsed Kamala Harris Friday as the Democratic nominee for US president, in a video initially released on the vice president’s campaign website, according to The Guardian.
“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” former President Obama said.
--TL
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THU 7/25/24 -- Biden 'Passes the Torch'
Biden Bids Adieu – Joe Biden buried the Trump-like ambition for a second presidential term he expressed in his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos following his debate disaster last month and formally announced he will not seek re-election in November.
“I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said from the Oval Office, where his family watched from the side, just off-camera.
Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who already has procured a majority of primary delegates necessary for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The party will hold a “virtual” delegate vote by August 7, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago beginning August 19. Harris is expected to announce her running mate prior to the convention.
Though Republicans have called on Biden to step down from the presidency immediately, Biden said he will remain until his term ends next January 20.
“In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” Biden told the nation. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition …
“So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”
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Netanyahu to White House – Amidst protesters outside the US Capitol, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday gave a fiery address to a joint session of Congress. Thursday, he visits the White House on the ultimate day of his three-day Washington visit to meet with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden hopes to convince Israel and Hamas to agree to his proposal for a three-phase release of remaining hostages in Gaza, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The White House says negotiations are in its closing stages, but with issues that need to be resolved.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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Big Day in Washington -- WED 7/24/24
At the White House – President Joe Biden addresses the nation Wednesday from the Oval Office to explain why he is stepping down from his re-election campaign to make way for Vice President Kamala Harris. The president is scheduled to begin at 8 pm Eastern time.
On X he tweeted he will share “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people” (per USA Today). Watch Biden’s address on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN or streaming on myriad news websites.
On the Hill – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks Wednesday afternoon to a joint session of Congress “with significantly ramped-up security presence and barricades to keep out the many different anti-war and religious groups planning to protest his speech,” according to CQ Roll Call. Vice President Harris normally would preside over the joint session, but she will instead be making previously scheduled campaign appearances.
Together again … Biden greets Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, the final day of the Israeli PM’s three-day Washington visit.
“The leaders will discuss developments in Gaza and progress toward a ceasefire and hostage release deal and the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including countering Iran’s threats to Israel and the broader region,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a White House statement.
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About that Presidential Campaign – Vice President Harris’ sudden rise to the top of the Democratic ticket raised more than $100 million from 1.1 million donors in the first 41 hours after President Biden stepped down, The Washington Post reports. The new ticket clearly has energized Democrats, including progressive “Bernie Bros” who previously criticized Harris’ tough-on-crime stance from when she was California’s attorney general, according to Politico.
The Trump campaign is attacking Harris for her efforts, or alleged lack thereof, as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” for allegedly “covering up” Biden’s diminishing cognitive capabilities over the last three-and-a-half years and even as a “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” running mate. That last attack is being counter-attacked as a blatantly racist criticism of Harris.
Meanwhile, Haley Not Haley … Michael G. Adams, attorney for former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a group called Haley Voters for Harris, formerly called Haley Voters for Biden, Fox News reports. Adams demands the group stop use of Haley’s “name, image or likeness that implies her support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”
Haley, you may remember, questioned GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s “mental fitness” after he confused her name with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), and once said the first party to nominate a younger candidate than Trump or Biden would win the election.
But Haley recanted in time to be invited to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where she committed her primary delegates to Trump.
A Haley Voters for Harris statement counters that the group does not claim to speak on behalf of Haley or her views. HV4H Director Craig Snyder told NPR’s Morning Edition that the group’s name is “a factual statement of the way a lot of people feel and the way a lot of people intend to vote in November.”
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Menendez Resigns – ICYMI, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), convicted last week on federal corruption charges and facing likely expulsion by the Senate Ethics Committee will resign his seat effective late August (per The New York Times). New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, said he would promptly appoint a replacement, though he demurred on whether it might be his wife, Tammy Murphy, who lost the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat to Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) earlier this year. Kim faces wealthy hotel operator Curtis Bashaw, who beat a Trump-backed candidate for the Republican nomination.
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Cheatle Resigns – On Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that she could not reveal, or did not know, key details about the July 13 assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at his rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania (per The New York Times). Her contentious testimony drew rare bipartisan agreement between the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) that she must resign.
On Tuesday, she did.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa