Closing summary
Hello US politics blog readers, it’s been another news-packed day and it will continue that way it seems. We are closing this particular blog now and you can immediately switch to our newly-launched blog focusing on the Republican national convention’s grand finale.
That blog will bring other major news, too, such as any major further developments concerning Joe Biden, the White House, the Democratic party and the 2024 election. You can follow that here. Tonight, Donald Trump is due to accept the Republican party’s official nomination for president and deliver his first speech since the assassination attempt against him last Saturday. So do stick around for all the political news as it happens.
Here’s where things stand:
Joe Biden has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win the 5 November presidential election and may have to drop out of the race, the New York Times just reported, citing several people close to the president.
Jamie Raskin, the high-profile Democratic US representative from Maryland, has just increased pressure on Biden to consider whether he should remain at the top of the Democratic ticket for re-election this November, by reportedly sending a letter praising his presidency but asking him to listen to his congressional cohort and making comparisons with a star baseball player who’s too tired to ensure his team wins.
Biden is “soul searching” and taking calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate seriously and multiple Democratic officials think an exit is a matter of time, according to sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.
March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control organization, has issued a statement condemning Donald Trump over his lax gun policies ahead of his address tonight. In a statement issued on Thursday, the organization, which emerged from the 2017 Parkland high school shooting in Florida where 17 people were killed, said: “It’s simple: Trump can’t just call for ‘unity’ only when it serves him and only after he’s targeted by the kind of violence he’s repeatedly incited.”
Chris LaCivita, co-campaign manager and senior strategist for Donald Trump, has accused Democrats of staging a “coup” against Joe Biden. LaCivita was responding to reports that senior Democrats are pressuring the 81-year-old to exit the US presidential race as opinion polls show the party facing a wipeout in the White House, House and Senate. “This is nothing more than an attempted coup by the Democratic party,” LaCivita told a CNN-Politico Grill event on the sidelines of the RNC.
Biden is “still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms associated with his recent Covid-19 infection”, according to his physician. Kevin C O’Connor, in a letter addressed to the White House’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, wrote that the president “continues to receive Paxlovid”.
A spokesperson for the former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, did not deny that she shared data with Joe Biden during a recent conversation that showed he could not win if he chose to carry on. According to CNN, Pelosi told Biden that polls show he cannot beat Donald Trump and that he could wreck the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the chamber in November. “Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” the spokesperson said.
Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former president Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt. Wednesday’s public event was the first of two to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore’s life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport.
Joe Scarborough, the host of the MSNBC show Morning Joe and an ally of Joe Biden, has called on the president’s aides to “help the man they love and do the right thing” by helping him leave the presidential race. Scarborough, speaking on Thursday’s show, said: “It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president. Help the man they love and do the right thing. This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out.”
Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that Joe Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to a report.
Democratic party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade Joe Biden to decide to withdraw his re-election bid as early as this weekend, according to top Democrats.
Concerns are swirling among Democrats over whether the Teamsters labor union will back Joe Biden in his re-election bid, according to a report. It comes after Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered an address at this year’s RNC in which he called Trump “one tough SOB” following his assassination attempt.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has said Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Nato would die under a second Trump presidency and that the transatlantic bond would be over.
David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, has said he is already engaging with Donald Trump’s controversial running mate, JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.
Richard Grenell, a former US ambassador to Germany, has condemned journalists for comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. “I believe it was a total divine intervention,” Grenell told reporters as he reflected on the attempted assassination of the former president.
The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate change activist organization, has issued a statement condemning the Republican national convention for staying silent regarding the environment because “their agenda is politically toxic.”
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has called on the president to fire Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle following Donald Trump’s assassination attempt last weekend.
Updated
Biden beginning to accept he may have to quit campaign - report
Joe Biden has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win the 5 November presidential election and may have to drop out of the race, the New York Times just reported, citing several people close to the president, Reuters reports.
The newspaper itself reports Biden appears to be softening his position from a hard no to contemplating the he may need to bow to the growing demands of many anxious members of his party.
Updated
Hunter Biden, the US president’s son, has asked a federal judge to dismiss tax and gun cases against him, citing the ruling in Florida this week that threw out a separate prosecution of Donald Trump.
The requests in federal court in Delaware and California underscore the potential ramifications of US district judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal Monday of the classified documents case against Trump and the possibility that it could unsettle the legal landscape surrounding justice department special counsels, the Associated Press reports.
Both Hunter Biden and Trump were prosecuted by special counsels appointed by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland. In dismissing the Trump case, Cannon ruled that the appointment of the special counsel who prosecuted Trump, Jack Smith, violated the constitution because he was appointed directly to the position by Garland instead of being nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Smith’s team has said the DoJ followed long-established precedent and has appealed Cannon’s dismissal to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.
In a pair of filings Thursday, lawyers for Hunter Biden said the same logic should apply in his cases and should result in the dismissal of a pending tax prosecution in Los Angeles – currently set for trial in September – and a separate firearm case in Delaware, in which Biden was convicted in June of three felony charges.
Based on these new legal developments, Mr Biden moves to dismiss the indictment brought against him because the Special Counsel who initiated this prosecution was appointed in violation of the Appointments Clause as well. The Attorney General relied upon the exact same authority to appoint the Special Counsel in both the Trump and Biden matters, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,” Biden’s lawyers wrote, also citing an opinion this month by the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas that questioned the propriety of a special counsel appointment.
Read the Guardian’s analysis by my colleague Ed Pilkington of the Cannon-Thomas thinking here.
Updated
Representative Raskin adds to pressure on Biden
Jamie Raskin, a US representative from Maryland as well as a high-profile Democrat in the House elevated to further prominence by his role on the congressional January 6 committee, has just increased pressure on Joe Biden to consider whether he should remain at the top of the Democratic ticket for re-election this November.
Raskin wrote to the US president earlier this month and compared him to a brilliant baseball player who was too tired to continue at his best, with great cost to his team, and urged Biden to consult with congressional Democrats about whether to stay in the election race, the New York Times reported exclusively a little earlier.
The newspaper reported that Raskin had written a long letter packed with praise for Biden’s long political career and an exceptional presidency, then came to the crunch.
“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” the New York Times reported that Raskin wrote in his letter.
It continued: “Your situation is tricky because you are both our star pitcher and our manager. But in democracy, as you have shown us more than any prior president, you are not a manager acting all alone; you are the co-manager along with our great team and our great people. Caucus with the team, Mr President. Hear them out. You will make the right decision.”
The Times said Raskin had verified the letter, which the newspaper had obtained.
Updated
Biden 'soul searching' about re-election bid – report
Joe Biden is taking calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate seriously and multiple Democratic officials think an exit is a matter of time, according to sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reports.
His soul searching is actually happening, I know that for a fact. He’s thinking about this very seriously,” said one of the sources, who requested anonymity.
That’s the report so far. We’ll bring you more of what the news wire comes up with when it happens.
Updated
There was a rumor that Elon Musk was going to speak at the Republican national convention today, the last day of the gathering in Milwaukee.
The rumor popped up on X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform Musk owns.
Elon Musk is rumored to be a guest speaker at the RNC convention. https://t.co/THjpfS8EbE pic.twitter.com/b6QW5kEU6A
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 18, 2024
It took Musk eight minutes to post back a version of “nope”.
I’m not speaking at the RNC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2024
Three days ago a report emerged that he plans to give $45m a month to a Super Pac focused on electing Donald Trump, which Musk later denied.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
With Donald Trump expected to take center stage tonight for his widely anticipated speech at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee this evening, here’s a look at where things stand:
March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control organization, has issued a statement condemning Donald Trump over his lax gun policies ahead of his address tonight. In a statement issued on Thursday, the organization, which emerged from the 2017 Parkland high school shooting in Florida where 17 people were killed, said: “It’s simple: Trump can’t just call for ‘unity’ only when it serves him and only after he’s targeted by the kind of violence he’s repeatedly incited.”
Chris LaCivita, co-campaign manager and senior strategist for Donald Trump, has accused Democrats of staging a “coup” against Joe Biden. LaCivita was responding to reports that senior Democrats are pressuring the 81-year-old to exit the US presidential race as opinion polls show the party facing a wipeout in the White House, House and Senate. “This is nothing more than an attempted coup by the Democratic party,” LaCivita told a CNN-Politico Grill event on the sidelines of the RNC.
Joe Biden is “still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms associated with his recent Covid-19 infection”, according to his physician. Kevin C O’Connor, in a letter addressed to the White House’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, wrote that the president “continues to receive Paxlovid”.
A spokesperson for the former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, did not deny that she shared data with Joe Biden during a recent conversation that showed he could not win if he chose to carry on. According to CNN, Pelosi told Biden that polls show he cannot beat Donald Trump and that he could wreck the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the chamber in November. “Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” the spokesperson said.
Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former president Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt. Wednesday’s public event was the first of two to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore’s life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport.
Joe Scarborough, the host of the MSNBC show Morning Joe and an ally of Joe Biden, has called on the president’s aides to “help the man they love and do the right thing” by helping him leave the presidential race. Scarborough, speaking on Thursday’s show, said, “It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president. Help the man they love and do the right thing. This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out.”
Updated
March for Our Lives: 'Trump can't just call for unity only when it serves him'
March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control organization, has issued a statement condemning Donald Trump over his lax gun policies ahead of his widely anticipated address tonight at the RNC.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the organization, which emerged from the 2017 Parkland high school shooting in Florida where 17 people were killed, said:
“It’s simple: Trump can’t just call for “unity” only when it serves him and only after he’s targeted by the kind of violence he’s repeatedly incited.
GOP party leaders taking the stage have mocked victims of gun violence and propagated conspiracy theories about mass shootings for years. That is unacceptable. We continue to call for an end to all forms of gun violence, including particularly dangerous political violence. But we won’t hold our breath to see if Trump will genuinely join us in lowering the temperature.”
Updated
Meghan McCain, daughter of late Arizona senator and former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, has weighed in on the ongoing presidential race, writing on X:
“This is the most insane, intense, dramatic election cycle of my life and my Dad picked Sarah Palin as his VP without the campaign knowing her teenage daughter was pregnant …”
This is the most insane, intense, dramatic election cycle of my life and my Dad picked Sarah Palin as his VP without the campaign knowing her teenage daughter was pregnant…
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 17, 2024
Updated
Some progressives remain behind Joe Biden as he continues pushing policies for working-class communities.
Robert Tait reports for the Guardian:
Joe Biden, who so far has defied calls to quit the presidential race from Democrats worried about his ability to beat Donald Trump, this week rolled out a catalogue of left-leaning campaign promises aimed at working-class and middle-class Americans. His renewed emphasis on core progressive priorities comes after leading Washington progressives, Senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threw their weight behind his beleaguered candidacy.
The moves reframe Biden’s campaign to focus on a suite of issues from US supreme court reform to ending medical debt. They come as Biden is reportedly more open to calls for him to step aside, but still has not left the race.
For the full story, click here:
Marjorie Taylor Greene blames British reporter for Trump assassination attempt in bizarre interview
In a bizarre interview, Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused a British news reporter of being responsible for Donald Trump assassination attempt.
Speaking to the Times of London reporter Jo Crawford earlier this week, the Georgia Republican representative spoke of her support for JD Vance as Trump’s running mate before descending into a tirade against Crawford and the press.
Asking Greene about Vance’s suggestion that the UK may be the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” following the Labor party’s recent victory, Crawford said: “Doesn’t that paint a sour picture for relations with the UK?”
In response, Greene said:
“Well, let’s talk about the words of the Democrats … demonizing him [Trump] so much that a young man, a 20-year-old, which is hard to imagine, actually climbed on to a roof and tried to murder President Trump.”
Pointing a finger at Crawford, Greene went on to say:
“Let’s talk about people like you, who have demonized people like me [and] President Trump. You know, I have some of the most highest amount of death threats because of people like you … You’re the problem.”
Greene then proceeds to ask, “Where is this woman from?” to which someone who appeared to be an aide said, “The Times”.
Greene then says:
“You’re from the Times? OK. You’re ridiculous. And you’re the problem in our country. You lie about people like me; this is the first time you’ve ever talked to me … We have to put up with the most unreal amount of bullshit because of little liars like you that take your job and turn it into political activism …
You don’t get to ask any more questions. I’m done with you, because you’re the cause of … our country being divided. You’re the cause of president Trump almost being assassinated; you’re the cause of everything wrong in America.”
Updated
Trump campaign manager accuses Democrats of staging 'coup' against Biden
Chris LaCivita, co-campaign manager and senior strategist for Donald Trump, has accused Democrats of staging a “coup” against Joe Biden.
LaCivita was responding to reports that senior Democrats are pressuring the 81-year-old to exit the US presidential race as opinion polls show the party facing a wipeout in the White House, House and Senate.
“This is nothing more than an attempted coup by the Democratic party,” LaCivita told a CNN-Politico Grill event on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
They are actively engaged in an attempt – in my view and a lot of people share this view – in deposing the president of the United States.
Everything that they accuse Republicans of they’re actually doing it on national TV every single day. Look, you can’t step down as a candidate for president because you’re cognitively impaired, while still being the president. The two are linked.
LaCivita would “love” Vice-President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, he added, describing her as “gas-lighter-in-chief” for saying about Biden “Oh, he’s fine, he’s in great shape”.
LaCivita, who has been adding discipline to Trump’s election campaign, also sought to distance the former president from Project 2025, a radical manifesto drawn up by the Heritage Foundation thinktank that includes several former Trump administration officials.
“These people do not speak for him,” he said.
They do not speak for the campaign. The issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues they want to talk about.
He insisted that it is “complete and utter bullshit” for any reporter to suggest these individuals or policies will be appointed or adopted in a second Trump administration. “They’re a pain in the ass,” he said of Project 2025.
Updated
Biden experiencing 'mild upper respiratory symptoms', says doctor
Joe Biden is “still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms associated with his recent Covid-19 infection,” according to his physician.
Kevin C O’Connor, in a letter addressed to the White House’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, wrote that the president “continues to receive Paxlovid”. The letter continues:
He does not have a fever and his vital signs remain normal. He will continue to conduct the business of the American people.
Updated
Donald Trump’s running mate and Ohio senator JD Vance’s account for the money transferring app Venmo reveals an extensive network of connections including the architects of the conservative project Project 2025, according to a report.
An analysis by Wired shows among the people who appear on Vance’s Venmo “friends” list are Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, an assistant US attorney for the southern district of New York as well as many lawyers for the Department of Justice, the famously anti-Trump former Arizona senator Jeff Flake, and the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The Wired report says:
Despite his anti-elite stance, Vance’s connections reveal a more complex relationship with establishment figures. At the same time, as the former president distances himself from Project 2025—a right-wing policy roadmap aiming to purge the federal government and reshape the executive branch and turn the US into what critics characterize as a Christian nationalist autocratic state—Vance’s Venmo network reveals his ties not just to Halikias but to others associated with a maximalist interpretation of MAGA. Gladden Pappin, for instance—president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and a figure with close ties to the intellectual wing of the far right—shows up as one of Vance’s friends.
Updated
Biden taking remote meetings and campaign calls while isolating, campaign says
Joe Biden is feeling “fine” and working while isolating in Delaware as he recovers from Covid-19, according to his campaign.
Biden is “continuing to make calls and do work. He has official meetings today, a lot of campaign calls that he’s getting through, and I think some Zoom calls that he’s hoping on potentially,” Quentin Fulks, the Biden campaign deputy manager, told reporters on the sidelines of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.
Updated
A spokesperson for the former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, did not deny that she shared data with Joe Biden during a recent conversation that showed he could not win if he chose to carry on.
According to CNN, Pelosi told Biden that polls show he cannot beat Donald Trump and that he could wreck the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the chamber in November. Biden is said to have pushed back during the conversation, insisting that he had seen polling data showing he could win.
The New York Times quoted a spokesperson for Pelosi saying:
Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States. Sadly, the feeding frenzy from the press based on anonymous sources misrepresents any conversations the speaker may have had with the president.
Updated
Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former president Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt.
Wednesday’s public event was the first of two to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore’s life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport.
Outside the Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, where the vigil was held for Comperatore, a sign read “Rest in Peace Corey, Thank You For Your Service” with the logo of his fire company.
On the rural road to the auto racing track – lined with cornfields, churches and industrial plants – a sign outside a local credit union read: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Comperatore family.”
Comperatore, 50, had worked as a project and tooling engineer, was an army reservist and had spent many years as a volunteer firefighter after serving as chief, according to his obituary.
He died on Saturday during the attempt on Trump’s life at the rally in Butler. Comperatore spent the final moments of his life shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire, officials said.
Read the full story: Hundreds mourn Pennsylvania man killed in Trump assassination attempt
Updated
Joe Scarborough, the host of the MSNBC show Morning Joe and an ally of Joe Biden, has called on the president’s aides to “help the man they love and do the right thing” by helping him leave the presidential race.
Scarborough, speaking on Thursday’s show, said
It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president. Help the man they love and do the right thing. This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out.
"It's really incumbent on people around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the man they love — Joe Biden deserves better. He deserves better than he is getting from those closest to him."
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) July 18, 2024
— @JoeNBC advice to Biden's inner circle, as calls for him to drop out intensify pic.twitter.com/s9VZ1v7IGI
Updated
Donald Trump has written his own speech for tonight’s address at the Republican national convention and it is expected to be more personal than his usual comments, AP reported, citing sources.
Trump’s speech is also expected to lay out a stark contrast with the Democrats’ policies, which Republicans plan to make clear are as much Kamala Harris’s as Joe Biden’s, the report says.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
The Republican national convention culminates tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Donald Trump expected to accept his party’s nomination for president. Trump is expected to deliver remarks at 9pm to thousands of party loyalists in attendance and tens of millions of Americans on prime time television.
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Joe Biden has reportedly become more open in recent days to hearing arguments that he should step aside after the party’s two main congressional leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, told him they doubted his ability to beat Donald Trump.
Pressure for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democrats’ presidential pick to face Donald Trump had eased since the Republican survived an assassination attempt last weekend, but began to rise again on Wednesday. Adam Schiff, the influential US representative from California, said publicly that Biden should quit, becoming the most well-known lawmaker so far to do so openly. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, has also reportedly told Biden that polling showed he could not beat Trump, and that would affect the Democrats’ chances in the House of Representatives this November.
Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that Joe Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to a report.
Democratic party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade Joe Biden to decide to withdraw his re-election bid as early as this weekend, according to top Democrats.
Concerns are swirling among Democrats over whether the Teamsters labor union will back Joe Biden in his re-election bid, according to a report. It comes after Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered an address at this year’s RNC in which he called Trump “one tough SOB” following his assassination attempt.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has said Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Nato would die under a second Trump presidency and that the transatlantic bond would be over.
David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, has said he is already engaging with Donald Trump’s controversial running mate, JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.
Richard Grenell, a former US ambassador to Germany, has condemned journalists for comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. “I believe it was a total divine intervention,” Grenell told reporters as he reflected on the attempted assassination of the former president.
The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate change activist organization, has issued a statement condemning the Republican national convention for staying silent regarding the environment because “their agenda is politically toxic.”
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has called on Joe Biden to fire Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle following Donald Trump’s assassination attempt last weekend.
As surely as Donald Trump sought to cash in on his various criminal indictments, so the former president turned Republican presidential nominee began to sell merchandise commemorating his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania last weekend.
In Butler county on Saturday, a rooftop gunman wielding an AR-15-style rifle fired shots at the stage. Trump was wounded in one ear. One rally-goer was killed and two injured. The gunman, who was killed by a sniper, was discovered to have had an explosive device in his car.
Despite such traumatic events, 45Footwear, a company which has sold $399 golden Trump-branded sneakers, swiftly offered a new range of high-tops.
Donald Trump is really selling sneakers with a picture from the assassination attempt on it... pic.twitter.com/z7VKcCC2Nx
— Complex Sneakers (@ComplexSneakers) July 17, 2024
Rather more pricey than unofficial assassination merch churned out in China, the $299 white shoes were emblazoned with the US flag, an image of Trump with fist raised and face bloodied and the words “Fight Fight Fight” – his instant reaction to being shot.
Fittingly, Trump also told agents protecting him: “Let me get my shoes.” One was left on the stage. Days later, gettrumpsneakers.com was selling its “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT High-Tops”, “limited edition” sneakers “featuring Trump’s iconic image with his fist raised, [that] honour his unwavering determination and bravery.
With only 5,000 [numbered] pairs available, each one is a true collector’s item. Show your support and patriotic pride with these exclusive sneakers, capturing a defining moment in history.
A “bonus 10” would be “randomly autographed”, the site said.
Updated
Obama tells allies Biden needs to seriously consider re-election bid – report
Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that Joe Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to the Washington Post, citing multiple sources.
The Post writes:
Obama has only spoken with Biden once since the debate, and he has been clear in his conversations with others that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. He has emphasized that his concern is protecting Biden and his legacy, and has pushed back against the idea that he alone can influence Biden’s decision-making process.
Updated
Richard Grenell, a former US ambassador to Germany, has condemned journalists for comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
Grenell was reflecting on the attempted assassination of the former US president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“Let me just step back and just say: I’m really struck this week that we could be having a funeral for Donald Trump,” Grenell told international reporters at a Foreign Press Centers briefing in Milwaukee.
I believe that God intervened. I believe it was a total divine intervention.
Grenell, who served as acting director of the national intelligence under Trump, called for the media to help lower the political temperature.
I hear a lot of criticism on the left about my party and how words have meaning and I think it’s really important that we all take it down a notch and talk about policies.
Certainly, there are some publications in Germany that have been horrific about calling Donald Trump Hitler. Because you know the next thing after calling someone who murdered millions and millions Jews - the next thing is stop them. There’s a moral urgency to stop someone when you call someone Hitler. The language has been horrific.”
Henk de Berg, a Dutchman who is a professor of German at the University of Sheffield in Britain, recently published Trump and Hitler: A Comparative Study in Lying. The book compares and contrasts Hitler and Trump as political performance artists and how they connect with their respective audiences.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has assured politicians that Nato will survive a second Donald Trump presidency.
The Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll reports:
Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Nato would die under a second Trump presidency and that the transatlantic bond would be over, the secretary general of the military alliance has said.
Jens Stoltenberg said leaders must engage with Donald Trump in the same way they did in 2016, no matter what the rhetoric during the US election campaign.
“I worked with him for four years,” he said. Asked if he thought Trump had changed since the end of his presidency in 2020, Stoltenberg said he could not answer but added: “I think it’s important not to create self-fulfilling prophecies in a way that assuming that a new administration in the United States will mean the end of Nato. There were concerns about that also in 2016. The reality was that Nato is stronger after four years … more troops, high readiness.”
For the full story, click here:
The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate change activist organization, has issued a statement condemning the Republican national convention for staying silent regarding the environment because “their agenda is politically toxic.”
In its statement issued on Thursday, the organization said:
“It’s the last day of the Republican National Convention, and national Republicans have made it clear that they have no plans to address climate change, and don’t even want to talk about it.
The RNC has released a party platform that promises to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and increase the production of oil, gas, and coal. Trump has promised to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and end decades-old protections for our air and water that save lives and protect our health.
However, during the RNC this week, even these plans were missing from prime-time speeches. The absence is glaring…
With heatwave after heatwave this summer, climate change is increasingly on people’s minds. Heading into November, voters will be considering if they want to risk another year of climate disasters.
Make no mistake. Just because Republicans don’t want to talk about their climate plans to voters, doesn’t mean that their radical, anti-climate agenda that empowers oil and gas billionaires to destroy our planet won’t be a top priority for a second Trump administration. Another Trump presidency would cause catastrophic and irreversible damage to our climate.”
Updated
Pompeo, Carlson – and Hulk Hogan – to speak ahead of Trump's big speech at 9pm CT
Ahead of Donald Trump’s widely anticipated speech tonight at the Republican convention, several other major Republican figures and celebrities are scheduled to speak.
Here are a few on this evening’s schedule:
Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo
Former Fox host Tucker Carlson
Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White
Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan
Eric Trump
The ex-president himself is due to take center stage tonight from 9pm to 10:30pm CT.
Updated
Top Democrats have told Axios that party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade Joe Biden to decide to withdraw his re-election bid as early as this weekend.
According to the outlet, Biden is being told that if he remains in the race, Trump may win by a large margin and in turn “wipe away Biden’s legacy and Democrats’ hopes in November”.
Additionally, one close friend of Biden speaking anonymously said, “His choice is to be one of history’s heroes, or to be sure of the fact that there’ll never be a Biden presidential library … I pray that he does the right thing. He’s headed that way.”
Axios’s latest report comes amid increasing calls from Democrats and celebrity donors for Biden to step aside.
On Wednesday, Axios reported that according to two people familiar with the matter, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has told Biden of the “political peril” the Democratic party faces if he remains in the race.
Updated
Biden reportedly asked about Harris polling as he is 'more open' to calls to step aside
Joe Biden has reportedly become more open to calls for him to step aside and withdraw his presidential bid.
Robert Tait reports for the Guardian:
Joe Biden has reportedly become more open in recent days to hearing arguments that he should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate after the party’s two main congressional leaders told him they doubted his ability to beat Donald Trump.
While continuing to insist he will be the party’s nominee in November, the president has reportedly started asking questions about negative polling data and whether Vice-President Kamala Harris, considered the favourite to replace him if were to withdraw, fares better.
The indications of a possible rethink come after Biden tested positive on Wednesday for Covid-19, forcing him to isolate for several days while curtailing a campaigning visit to Nevada that had been part of a drive to show his candidacy was very much alive.
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Updated
House speaker Johnson calls on Biden to fire Secret Service director
House speaker Mike Johnson has called on Joe Biden to fire Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle following Donald Trump’s assassination attempt last weekend.
In an interview with Fox Business on Thursday, Johnson said:
“We organized a call yesterday for all House members, Republican and Democrats. We had most of them on the call. We had the FBI director Christopher Wray and we had director Cheatle, Secret Service. They did not give us satisfactory answers to some very important questions. And some of it needs to be in a classified setting, I suppose. But I’m prepared this morning to call on President Biden to fire to director Cheatle.
Yesterday I said that she should resign. It’s clear that she has no intention to do so, but the oversight here, the mistakes, the ineptitude, whatever it is, was inexcusable.
He went on to add:
“I had [homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas] on the phone within hours of the event last Saturday because the buck stops at his desk, ultimately, homeland security director. He did not have a lot of information, some very important facts that he should have had in front of him before he talked to the speaker of the House about this…
But there’s so many more questions than there are answers right now, and it’s very frustrating to us. And it is dangerous. It’s a dangerous thing. We have got to get accountability.”
Hulk Hogan, the professional retired wrestler, will be speaking at the Republican convention tonight ahead, NBC reports.
Hogan’s expected address will come ahead of Donald Trump’s speech in which the ex-president is set to officially accept his presidential nomination.
FIRST TO NBC: Two senior campaign officials confirmed that Hulk Hogan will speak tonight at the RNC convention ahead of former President Trump formally accepting the GOP nomination for President of the United States.
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) July 18, 2024
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During his address at the RNC as Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance presented Republicans as working-class champions in a speech laced with populism.
The Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports:
Addressing delegates in Milwaukee on the third night of the convention, Vance, the junior senator of Ohio, presented the Republican party as a champion of working-class Americans while denouncing Democrats as out of touch and ineffective. The populist-tinged rhetoric offered the latest sign of how Trump has reshaped the Republican party and rejected much of the traditional conservatism of its past.
“From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” Vance told the energized crowd. “That is, of course, until a guy named Donald J Trump came along. President Trump represents America’s last, best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again.”
Vance leaned into his own personal story, first shared in his bestselling and controversial memoir Hillbilly Elegy, to bolster his message. He recounted experiences with childhood poverty in Middletown, Ohio, and his later acceptance to Yale Law School as he introduced himself to a much larger audience of Americans for the first time.
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Concerns are swirling among Democrats over whether the Teamsters labor union will back Joe Biden in his re-election bid, the Hill reports.
Despite calling Biden “definitely the most pro-labor president we’ve ever had, we’ve ever seen,” Teamsters president Sean O’Brien also delivered an address at this year’s RNC in which he called Trump “one tough SOB” following his assassination attempt.
Instead of backing Democrats and Biden, the union, which comprises 1.3 million members, said it plans to do its “due diligence” over who to endorse.
The Hill reports that O’Brien has requested to speak at next month’s Democratic national convention but has not yet been invited.
“There’s a fair amount of frustration in labor, overall, and I think there’s political malpractice on the part of Democrats. And as a result, you have Sean O’Brien addressing the Republican Convention, signaling that, as a union member, you could think that it might be okay to vote for Trump,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, told the Hill.
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The stocks of the world’s largest chipmakers took a tumble following Donald Trump’s comments in which he said Taiwan should pay for US protection.
The Guardian’s Jack Simpson reports:
Shares in semiconductor and related tech companies had already plunged on Wednesday after the former president’s comments, as well as a report that suggested Joe Biden’s administration was considering the strictest controls on the trade of chips to China.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell by 2.4% on Thursday. That followed a 7% fall the previous day, when Trump questioned why the US was acting as Taiwan’s “insurance” when, he claimed, it had taken away America’s chip business.
On Wednesday, the US’s tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index had its worst day since December 2022, falling 2.8%, after an unconfirmed Bloomberg report suggested Biden was considering introducing the most severe restrictions on companies if they continued to give China access to semiconductor technology.
It said the US president was considering whether to impose a measure called the foreign direct product rule, which would allow the US to impose controls on foreign-made products that use even tiny amounts of US technology.
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Are any Democrats calling on Biden to stay in the race?
In Milwaukee, Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and a party grandee, said Biden would be confirmed as the Democratic nominee by virtual vote between 1 and 7 August, before the Chicago convention.
The former White House chief of staff Ron Klain said: “Based on working in two campaigns against Trump I am unchanged in my view that Joe Biden is uniquely capable of defeating him – that’s my gut view based on experience.”
So what does Biden say?
Biden has repeatedly said he is up to the job, telling one interviewer he will be the nominee “unless I get hit by a train”. On Wednesday, his social media team posted a tongue-in-cheek message on X about his Covid status.
I'm sick
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 17, 2024
of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 17, 2024
And if you agree, pitch in here.https://t.co/V93cYUUFQu
While, in comparison to the Democrats, Republicans appear remarkably united at present, it is worth noting which big name Republicans are not present at the RNC.
The former president George W Bush, the former vice-president Mike Pence and senators Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Todd Young (Indiana), Mitt Romney (Utah) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) are all skipping the convention.
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Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has written a column for the Guardian, arguing that Trump’s near assassination transformed his theology, giving the decidedly earthly ex-president a powerful spiritual sheen.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has transformed the theology of Trump. He has long portrayed himself as an innocent lamb falsely accused, the target of slings and arrows to bear the suffering of believers. Now the bullet and the blood of Butler, Pennsylvania, have sanctified him for the faithful and brought forth a new gospel.
Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee endorsed the party platform, a document that contained a plank pledging to create a new federal agency to defend Christian nationalism: “To protect Religious Liberty, Republicans support a new Federal Task Force on Fighting Anti-Christian Bias that will investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America.” The document casts Christians as though they are a sect still persecuted by the Romans, about to be dragged into the Colosseum to face ferocious beasts.
But after the shooting, there was no mention of a platform. There was no reference to the political party. Trump had not simply survived crucifixion. He was not only resurrected. He became his own second coming. He was washed in his own blood. Divine intervention proved he was destined to return. All that is required from followers are declarations of faith. The return is a restoration of the grand course of events that was unjustly detoured by a stolen election. Trump is now a martyr, resurrected and the second coming all at once. All power is invested in the messiah on day one.
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Democrats’ rift over Biden widens
Pressure for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democrats’ presidential pick to face Donald Trump had eased since the Republican survived an assassination attempt last weekend, but began to rise again yesterday.
The tension rose as Biden was diagnosed with Covid and cancelled events to self-isolate at his home in Delaware.
Adam Schiff, the influential US representative from California, said publicly that Biden should quit, becoming the most well-known lawmaker so far to do so openly.
Then ABC News reported that Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader and the most senior Democrat in Congress, had told Biden in a meeting on Saturday it would be better for the country and the Democratic party if the president ended his re-election campaign.
However, a spokesperson for Schumer called the report “idle speculation”.
Later on Wednesday a second report from CNN said the former house speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden that polling showed he could not beat Trump, and that would affect the Democrats’ chances in the House of Representatives this November.
Also on Wednesday afternoon, David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama as president, increased his persistent pressure campaign on Biden as he warned that the president had not done enough to relieve voters’ concern about his age since last month’s hapless debate performance.
Earlier in the day, as an ABC-Norc poll found nearly two-thirds of Democrats saying Biden should withdraw, the blogger and podcaster Nate Silver linked to video of moments in a speech in Las Vegas the night before, in which the 81-year-old president seemed to struggle.
Silver said: “It’s just so weird living through this real-life Emperor Has No Clothes Moment. He obviously shouldn’t be president for four more years. Everyone knows this.”
This is from Biden’s speech to the NAACP yesterday.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) July 17, 2024
He loses track of what he’s saying constantly. Asking people to ignore what’s right in front of them is absurd. pic.twitter.com/b2IVsFStIe
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Away from the US, UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said he is already engaging with JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.
Lammy was speaking just hours after the possible future US vice-president reiterated his “America first” views, pledging to the Republican national convention (RNC) that he would not send US soldiers to war abroad unnecessarily.
“We will send our kids to war only if we must,” Vance said, signalling a significant policy shift for the US which has cemented its position as the defender of the world’s democracies ever since the second world war.
Vance has previously described Britain under Labour as the first “truly Islamist” country with a nuclear weapon.
Lammy told the BBC:
Let me just say on JD Vance that I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working class background with addiction issues in our family. We’ve written books on that. We’ve talked about that.
And we’re both Christians so I think I can find common ground with JD Vance.
In another move aimed at softening Trump’s image, his granddaughter Kai Madison Trump made her debut on the political stage last night.
“He calls me during the middle of the school day to ask how my golf game is going and tells me all about his,” she said. “Grandpa, you are such an inspiration and I love you. The media makes my grandpa look like such a different person but I know who he is.”
In opinion polls, Trump is running 11 percentage points ahead of where he was nationally in the 2020 race of the White House. He is surfing a wave of sympathy and adulation after his right ear was injured by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Two days later, his ear bandaged, Trump received a hero’s welcome from cheering, sign-waving supporters at the convention in Milwaukee. Some echoed Trump’s initial response to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Speaker after speaker suggested that Trump’s life was spared by God’s providence so that he can continue a sacred mission for the nation. But they backed away from early accusations that Democrats were to blame for the shooting.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, who on Saturday tweeted that the Joe Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly” to the attempted assassination, struck a different tone in his convention address on Wednesday night.
“Now consider what they said. They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm literally right after an assassin nearly took his life.”
What should we expect from Trump's speech later?
With political winds at his back, Donald Trump on Thursday is expected to use his first speech since surviving an assassination attempt to plead for national unity.
Strategists view the Republican national convention address, likely to be watched by tens of millions of Americans on prime time television, as a unique opportunity to redefine the former US president as more palatable to moderate voters.
But critics remain sceptical that a Trump reset can last, citing past supposed “pivots” that were hyped by the media only for the septuagenarian to soon revert to dark, divisive and incendiary outbursts.
“That was a profound existential moment and I’m sure it’s impacted him in the short run, but you are who you are,” David Axelrod, a former chief strategist for President Barack Obama, said. “He isn’t by habit or orientation a unifier.
“Maybe so long as the race is going well others can persuade him that it’s better to be quiet than noisy. But you never know what happens in two in the morning when he’s got his phone in his hand and an impulse in his head.”
Updated
You can watch a clip from Vance’s speech here:
After his speech, Democrats scoffed at Vance’s attempt to appeal to working Americans, accusing him of backing “an economic agenda that will raise costs on American families, while giving billionaires and corporations tax cuts”.
Michael Tyler, communications director of the Biden campaign, added, “JD Vance is unprepared, unqualified and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”
In his speech, Vance joined the scores of Republican lawmakers who have condemned the assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday. Vance urged Americans to unify in the face of violence, even as he vilified Democrats who previously criticized Trump.
“I want all Americans to go and watch the video of a would-be assassin coming a quarter of an inch from taking his life,” Vance said. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump, and then look at that photo of him defiant, fist in the air. When Donald Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him.”
What happened on day three?
JD Vance formally accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday with a deliberate, and at times divisive, pitch to re-elect Donald Trump in November.
Addressing delegates in Milwaukee on the third night of the convention, Vance, the junior senator of Ohio, presented the Republican party as a champion of working-class Americans while denouncing Democrats as out of touch and ineffective. The populist-tinged rhetoric offered the latest sign of how Trump has reshaped the Republican party and rejected much of the traditional conservatism of its past.
Vance told the energized crowd:
From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.
That is, of course, until a guy named Donald J Trump came along. President Trump represents America’s last, best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again.
Vance leaned into his own personal story, first shared in his bestselling and controversial memoir Hillbilly Elegy, to bolster his message. He recounted experiences with childhood poverty in Middletown, Ohio, and his later acceptance to Yale Law School as he introduced himself to a much larger audience of Americans for the first time. In an emotional moment, Vance acknowledged his mother in the crowd and celebrated her 10 years of sobriety after decades of struggling with drug addiction.
With a mention of the battleground states that could determine the outcome of the election, he vowed that a Trump-Vance administration would deliver economic opportunity for working-class communities.
He added:
In Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice-president who never forgets where he came from. And every single day for the next four years, when I walk into that White House to help President Trump, I will be doing it for you, for your family, for your future and for this great country.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the 2024 Republican national convention.
The fourth and final day in Milwaukee will conclude with Donald Trump’s speech. Prior to that, his son Eric expected to speak.
Day three at the RNC saw JD Vance formally accept the Republican vice-presidential nomination with a deliberate, and at times divisive, pitch to re-elect Donald Trump in November.
You can read our main report of day three here:
Stick with us for reaction to that, plus all the day’s developments and analysis from across the country.
