Andrew Roth is in Washington for the Guardian, and has this analysis on how Kamala Harris will tread a careful path on Israel and Gaza while Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US:
For much of Monday, no meetings between Benjamin Netanyahu and either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris had been confirmed, even though the Israeli PM had already departed for the US and was scheduled on Wednesday to address a joint session of Congress at the request of the House leader, Mike Johnson.
Harris appears likely to skip that session, where she would have sat directly behind Netanyahu as the president of the Senate. She will be out of Washington for a public event at a college sorority in Indiana.
Late on Monday, an aide to Harris said that both she and Biden would sit down with Netanyahu in separate meetings at the White House and denied that her travel to Indianapolis indicated any change in her position towards Israel.
Harris backers and insiders say that she is more likely to engage in public criticism of Netanyahu than Biden and to focus attention on the civilian toll among Palestinians from the war in Gaza – even if she would maintain US military aid and other support for Israel that has been a mainstay of Biden’s foreign policy.
“The generational difference between Biden and Harris is a meaningful difference in how one looks at these issues,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group that has endorsed Harris’s presidential bid.
Read more of Andrew Roth’s analysis here: As Netanyahu arrives in Washington, Kamala Harris treads a careful path on Israel and Gaza
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Martin Belam will take it from here.
In a fascinating profile of Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles this month, the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta laid out just how deeply their strategy depended on having Biden as their opponent.
The race would be “a contrast of strength versus weakness”, Alberta wrote. “Trump … would be cast as the dauntless and forceful alpha, while Biden would be painted as the pitiable old heel … their campaign has been engineered in every way – from the voters they target to the viral memes they create – to defeat Biden.” Wiles said cheerfully: “Joe Biden is a gift.”
Now that gift has been snatched away. “Their campaign was constructed from the ground up in November 2022 to beat one man,” Hugo Lowell said. “And now their principal enemy has disappeared, and they’re trying to pivot very quickly. It’s difficult to articulate just how big a problem this is for them.”
On the other hand, he added: “They’re good at this.”
The campaign started preparing opposition research dossiers on Harris in recent weeks, Hugo reported. So did Maga Inc, a Trump-supporting political action committee run independently of the campaign. A wave of new attack ads against Harris are ready to be released in key states, including an immediate $5m (£3.9m) ad buy from Maga Inc.
They have also tested messages about Harris with voters to see what works – but any such effort is inevitably less robust than the Biden playbook was. “They spent months poll testing, strategising, and then repeating the same lines again and again,” Hugo said. “That messaging – the court cases as a partisan witch-hunt, crooked Joe Biden – is engrained. Everyone knows it.
“They don’t have those pithy messages in the electorate’s mind about Harris. When I talk to them privately, it’s all very broad brush – they will eventually settle on a few, but they haven’t figured it out yet.”
Here is where Harris stands on the issues of Gaza, immigration, abortion, and inflation:
Democrats will be hoping that Harris, if she is the nominee, will have gender in her favour among Democratic voters, particularly since Roe v Wade was overturned by a supreme court with three judges appointed by Trump, who boasted this year: “We broke Roe v Wade.”
Beginning in late 2023, Harris has embarked on a national tour to highlight the threats to reproductive rights posed by a second Trump administration – an issue that Biden has been criticized for shying away from. Biden has defended Roe v Wade, but has said he is “not big on abortion”.
“As a woman on the ticket and the first woman VP and a woman of color, and then secondly, as an AG, she is strongest when her profile is fighting and prosecuting the case. People really like her in that mode,” Celinda Lake, a Democratic party strategist and a lead pollster on the 2020 Biden campaign, told the Guardian in March. “She’s so comfortable saying the word ‘abortion’. She’s so comfortable leaning in and speaking to the repercussions.”
Trump has run against and defeated a woman before – Hillary Clinton. After Roe v Wade, more people may be motivated by the possibility of a female president who is clearly in favor of abortion rights. It will probably also motivate people who are anti-abortion to vote for Trump.
The New York Times has also taken a look at whether Harris can beat Trump where Clinton failed to do so. It reports:
In the eight years since Hillary Clinton failed to win the American presidency, the work force for the first time grew to include more college-educated women than college-educated men. The #MeToo movement exposed sexual harassment and toppled powerful men. The Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.
…
A presidential contest pitting Ms. Harris against former President Donald J. Trump would represent a rematch of sorts: Mr. Trump would again have to run against a woman who held a top administration position and served in the Senate. He defeated Mrs. Clinton in 2016 in spite of her winning the popular vote by a wide margin.
But the dynamics would be unquestionably different. Ms. Harris has neither the political legacy nor the baggage of Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Trump, having served a turbulent term in office, is now a known quantity. Ms. Harris is Black and of South Asian descent.
If Harris takes up the mantle for the Democratic party, one of her first major decisions as a candidate will be choosing a running mate. Harris has not indicated who she would consider, but here are some of the names Democrats are floating, so far, as possible vice-presidential candidates:
Here is Biden calling into campaign headquarters and urging staffers to “embrace” his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Biden, who is isolating with Covid-19 at his Delaware home, vowed he is “not going anywhere” and said he will be “out on the road” for Harris:
If you’re just tuning in: Shortly after securing the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that she is looking forward to formally accepting the nomination while also making her case against a second Donald Trump presidency.
“Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” Harris said.
The 2024 election is about two different visions for America’s future, Harris said.
“Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights,” she said. “I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.”
It took 32 hours from Biden’s announcement that he would step aside to Kamala securing support from enough delegates. In that time she also raised record funding – possibly matching the total raised by the Biden campaign in months, though the most recent figure is $81m dollars, $15m shy of Biden’s total – which Harris has also inherited.
Tatum Watkins, a 19-year-old college student from southwest Iowa and a delegate to the DNC, told the AP she appreciates as a young woman that Harris is speaking out on issues like reproductive rights and is “far closer” in age to a whole new generation of voters.
“She is very much leaning into what’s popular right now,” Watkins said. “I’ve seen already her branding is what I can best describe as brat summer.”
Watkins said that has energized and excited her and other young Iowans, making what will be her first experience voting in a presidential election “even better.”
CNN commentator Van Jones says he thinks that if the Republicans focus on race in their attacks on Harris, they will lose the Black men they have worked so hard to attract to the party:
“DEI hire?”: @VanJones68 and @bomani_jones react to rhetoric from the right as Kamala Harris enters the race. pic.twitter.com/ruj94yP4au
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) July 23, 2024
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients on Monday urged aides to keep their heads down and remain focused on the work that remains, AP reports. He listed lowering housing and health care costs, implementing the administration’s key legislative achievements, and safeguarding democracy as among Biden’s top priorities for the final months of the administration.
The message is being echoed throughout the administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told senior State Department officials that Biden wants his team to remain laser focused on carrying out his foreign policy agenda. Blinken noted that there is still “one-eighth” of Biden’s term to go, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Biden, who is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Netanyahu later this week, said during his call to campaign staff that he was focused on getting a cease-fire agreement and expressed optimism that a deal was close.
“I’ll be working really closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end and Middle East peace and get all those hostages home,” Biden told campaign staff. “I think we’re on the verge of being able to do that.”
Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, said that a cease-fire deal appears closer than it has been through the conflict.
Though Harris has technically toed Biden’s line on Gaza, she is viewed as being more forceful when it comes to criticising Israel, and expressing empathy for Palestinians. When she delivered a speech in March in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, her comments on Gaza were followed by sustained applause.
“People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to act,” she said. “Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.” She added, after stopping for the applause, “for six weeks”.
In the presidential primaries, more than 101,000 Michigan Democrats, about 13% of those who voted, cast ballots for “uncommitted”, after campaigning by anti-war organizers, winning two delegates to the Democratic national convention and awakening a modern anti-war movement that forced the president’s attention to Gaza.
Harris will not preside over the chamber when when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.
According to an aide, she will meet with Netanyahu at the White House at some point this week. On Wednesday, Harris is scheduled to be in Indianapolis to moderate a conversation with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Inc, one of the nation’s oldest Black sororities.
The @VP will meet with Netanyahu at the White House this week, per an aide. She is scheduled to be in Indianapolis on Wednesday to moderate a conversation with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.’s Grand Boulé, when Netanyahu addresses Congress.
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) July 22, 2024
Harris’s absence during Netanyahu’s controversial address underlines the mounting tension between the Biden administration and the right-wing prime minister, as the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza surpasses 39,000.
The vice president, who serves as president of the Senate, would typically preside over the chamber on such occasions, sitting on the House rostrum next to the Speaker as she has done previously for addresses by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
The aide emphasized that Harris’s absence should not be interpreted as a snub or change in her commitment to Israel’s security, but represented a scheduling conflict.
During her meeting with Netanyahu this week, the vice president is expected to discuss Israel’s security, as well as to again condemn the 7 October attack and the acts of sexual violence that have occured while stressing her concern for the humanitariain situtaion in Gaza.
CNN reports that Beyoncé has given Harris her approval for the campaign to use the singer’s song Freedom as its official tune.
Citing a source close to Harris CNN says, “Beyoncé, who is known for maintaining strict clearance guidelines around her music, gave quick approval to Harris’ campaign when they sought permission to use “Freedom” on Monday — just hours before she walked out to the song, the source added.”
Harris walked into a campaign staff event to the song, which played as she ended her speech.
Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, endorsed Harris on Sunday, CNN reports.
In case you missed this earlier: CNN senior political commentator Van Jones says that Harris has “gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours”.
“What’s happening on TikTok is extraordinary,” he says. “All of the things that were cringey about Kamala: her laugh, the coconut tree comment, being unburdened by – all those weird things that she said, she’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours as a whole generation has taken all that content and remixed it in all these incredible content videos.”
“She’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours” @VanJones68 tells me there’s been a rapid change in the past 24 hours among the TikTok generation and their embrace of VP Kamala Harris since she started her presidential bid. pic.twitter.com/l4IoYpqcnS
— Pamela Brown (@PamelaBrownCNN) July 22, 2024
He says that TikTok might be for Harris this year what Twitter was for Trump in 2016.
The hottest takes tonight with @VanJones68 @Alyssafarah @DougHeye @bomani_jones. Stick around for the end 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/rqxahP9huJ
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) July 23, 2024
ActBlue data shows donations record beaten for second day
According to a tracker of donations to ActBlue, the liberal political action committee, compiled by data journalist Ryan Murphy using ActBlue’s donations ticker, the 24 hours to midnight on 22 July have beat the record set the 24 hours before that:
Per the ActBlue tracker, yesterday's record haul of $66,647,930 has slipped to #2 on the all-time list after today's $66,766,920 haul (w/another 15 minutes to go).https://t.co/ipDuYBZMzF pic.twitter.com/jApVPWefP7
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) July 23, 2024
While not all of these donations are to the Democrats, Harris announcing her intention to run is undoubtedly responsible for the bulk of the more than $130m that appears to have been raised in two days.
Donations were coming in at a rate of $3m an hour from 9am to 10pm on Monday:
Final Monday ActBlue tally: $67,221,729, with contributions coming in at a rate of at least $3 million per hour between 9AM and 10PM. pic.twitter.com/nUVwgkW8G5
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) July 23, 2024
Updated
The latest figures from the Associated Press show Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well over the 1,976 needed to win a vote in the coming weeks.
Delegates could still, technically, change their minds but nobody else received any votes in the AP survey and only 54 delegates said they were undecided.
Harris offered a sense of how she plans to attack Trump on Monday, referring to her past of pursuing “predators” and “fraudsters” as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said of her rival, a convicted felon who was found liable for sexual assault in civil court.
Other courts have found fraud was committed in his business, charitable foundation and private university.
Wisconsin is among a trio of Rust-Belt states that include Michigan and Pennsylvania widely considered as must-wins for any candidate, and where Biden was lagging Trump.
Harris to deliver first campaign event since announcing candidacy on Tuesday
Harris will campaign in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday for the first time as a presidential candidate.
The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy. Last week, Milwaukee was host to Trump, JD Vance and the RNC.
The Wisconsin trip offers another opportunity for the 59-year-old former California prosecutor to reset the Democrats’ campaign and make the case that she is best positioned to beat Trump. Harris is scheduled to deliver remarks at a political event in Milwaukee at 1.05pm CDT (6.05pm GMT).
Updated
Meanwhile Biden plans to return to the White House on Tuesday afternoon, though has no public events scheduled.
He has aid that he will address the nation later this week.
President Joe Biden’s “symptoms have almost resolved completely” from Covid, according to his physician, as the president on Monday remained out of public view for the fifth straight day.
Biden called into the Wilmington, Delaware, headquarters of his former campaign during a visit by Vice President Kamala Harris, whose bid for the White House has been endorsed by Biden. The president sought to pep up the staff, urging them to give “every bit” of their “heart and soul” to Harris. Biden also vowed to be “out on the road” campaigning for his vice president.
“If I didn’t have Covid, I’d be standing there with you,” said Biden, whose voice sounded a gravelly, according to AP.
Harris statement on becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee
Late on Monday night, less than 36 hours after Joe Biden announced that he was stepping aside, the Harris campaign has released a statement confirming that she has received the support needed to become the Democratic party’s nominee (though a reminder, has not yet been nominated) and that she looks forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.
Here is the full statement:
When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.
I am grateful to President Biden and everyone in the Democratic Party who has already put their faith in me, and I look forward to taking our case directly to the American people.
This election will present a clear choice between two different visions. Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights. I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.
Over the next few months, I will be traveling across the country talking to Americans about everything that is on the line. I fully intend to unite our party, unite our nation, and defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the 2024 US election with me, Helen Sullivan.
Kamala Harris confirmed late on Monday night that she had received the support needed to become the Democratic party’s nominee, and said that she looks forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.
Less than 36 hours after Biden announced that he was stepping aside, Harris earned enough delegates to become the likely Democratic party nominee, after California delegates voted unanimously to endorse her.
She also broke fundraising records, with $81m raised in 24 hours – $15m short of what Biden has raised over months of his campaign so far.
Nancy Pelosi made the motion to endorse Harris for president at a virtual meeting of California’s DNC delegation on Monday evening, a spokesperson confirmed, and delegates voted unanimously for Harris.
By Monday night, Harris had the support of at least 2,471 delegates, according to an AP tally of delegates, more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
Delegates could still change their minds before 7 August, but nobody else received any votes in the AP survey, for example, and just 57 delegates said they were undecided.
Here are the other key recent developments:
In a speech to campaign staffers on Monday, Harris said that building up the middle class would be a defining goal of my presidency’. She will work to build a country “where every person has affordable healthcare, where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity,” she said. “All of this is to say, building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she said.
She also spoke about abortion, attacked Trump’s economic policies, and appeared to choose a campaign song: Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’. Speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris turned to Donald Trump’s economic and social welfare policies, saying, “We are not going back”. Trump would put Social Security and Medicare “on the chopping block”, she said, turning healthcare into something that was only for the wealthy.
America’s freedom was fought for by its founders, framers, abolitionists, suffragettes, freedom riders, farm workers, she said. “And now I say, team, the baton is in our hands. We, who believe in the sacred freedom to vote. We who are committed to fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. We who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence. And that’s why we will work to pass universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban.”
Harris’ campaign aims to wrap up her presidential nomination by Wednesday and secure a majority of the nearly 4,000 convention delegates needed to win, Reuters reports, citing four unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
A survey by the Associated Press has found that Harris has the support of more than half of the delegates she’ll need to take President Biden’s place at the top of the Democratic ticket. Over 1,000 pledged delegates told The Associated Press or announced that they plan to support Harris in a forthcoming vote to pick a new White House nominee.
Biden will return to the White House on Tuesday and is expected to address the nation later this week. President Joe Biden’s “symptoms have almost resolved completely” from Covid-19, according to his physician, as the president on Monday remained out of public view for the fifth straight day.
The leader of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee will preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, Senate aides have told Reuters, as Harris will be traveling outside Washington.
Bernie Sanders has still refrained from endorsing Harris, though he said he thinks she will be the nominee, and stands a chance of winning the election with a big vote.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison said on Monday the Democratic party will deliver a presidential nominee by 7 August and is committed to an “open and fair” nominating process.
Updated
