US and allies stand behind Biden's Gaza ceasefire proposal, Blinken tells Netanyahu
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem today where he reiterated that America “and other world leaders will stand behind the comprehensive proposal outlined by President Biden” for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages.
Blinken told Netanyahu that “the proposal on the table would unlock the possibility of calm along Israel’s northern border and further integration with countries in the region,” according to a US state department readout of the meeting.
The Secretary updated the prime minister on ongoing diplomatic efforts to plan for the post-conflict period, emphasizing the importance of those efforts to providing long-term peace, security, and stability to Israelis and Palestinians alike. Secretary Blinken also emphasized the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading.
Closing arguments have begun in Hunter Biden’s gun trial, beginning with the prosecutors.
Prosector Leo Wise said “no one is above the law” and added the testimonies from Biden’s high-profile family members don’t matter.
Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said “it’s time to end this case,” arguing the burden of proof against her client has not been met.
The judge in this trial has instructed jurors to only consider whether or not the president’s son was using drugs at the time he filled out the federal forms to purchase his firearm.
Jury deliberation will begin after both sides have rested their cases.
Biden’s criticism of Trump, who recently became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes, has become increasingly sharper.
Today the Biden campaign dropped a new campaign ad featuring a Trump gaffe, in which his opponent in the upcoming 2024 presidential election says:
“We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote. I don’t care.”
I approve this message. pic.twitter.com/IajfDVy72C
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 10, 2024
In a subsequent post to X, Brown thanked Trump for the endorsement and for his “leadership”.
“I look forward to working with you to bring a better future to every Nevadan and American when we both win in November!!,” Brown said.
Read the full post below:
Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership. I'm honored to have your endorsement.
— Sam Brown (@CaptainSamBrown) June 10, 2024
I look forward to working with you to bring a better future to every Nevadan and American when we both win in November!! pic.twitter.com/GCi2Uf2In1
Donald Trump endorsed retired Army captain Sam Brown in the Nevada Senate race in a Truth Social post late Sunday, giving Brown a crucial boost two days before the state primary.
Trump, who described Brown as a “FEARLESS AMERICAN PATRIOT”, posted after he spent the day in Las Vegan holding a rally, where several of the GOP Senate candidates were in attendance, AP reported. Trump chose Brown over several other candidates with close ties to the former president, including Jeff Gunter, his former ambassador to Iceland.
The winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary will face off with Democratic senator Jacky Rosen in what is likely to be one of the closest Senate races in the country.
The Kennedy name looms large over American politics. John F Kennedy, despite serving only two and a half years as president before his assassination, is frequently ranked among the top 10 US leaders; his brother, Robert F Kennedy, seemed set for his own spell in the White House until he too was killed in 1968.
Enter: Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of the former, son of the latter and increasingly, persona non grata of the surviving Kennedy clan.
Part-time environmental lawyer, full-time conspiracy theorist, an animal enthusiast who owned a pet lion at his elite boarding school and who, in his telling, had part of his brain eaten by a worm, Kennedy entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat running against Biden, before switching to an independent in October last year. The 70-year-old, who also has a history of associating with white supremacists, is an unknown quantity in the 2024 election race, with both parties worried about the havoc he could wreak.
Five months out from perhaps the most consequential election in recent US history, Biden and Trump continue to be unpopular with the American public. Kennedy’s ability to be neither of those men, and his willingness to lean into his family name, have positioned him as a spanner in the works of American democracy.
Read the full story here: Could RFK swing enough votes from Trump and Biden to decide the election?
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump was scheduled today to make a virtual address to an event by the Danbury Institute, a Christian group that calls for abortion to be “eradicated entirely”.
Hours before Trump’s expected address, the former president’s campaign said he will deliver a pre-recorded message in which he does not say the word “abortion” at all, according to a Politico, which has obtained a script of his two-minute speech.
According to the script, Trump is expected to say:
We have to defend religious liberty, free speech, innocent life and the heritage and traditions that built America into the greatest nation in the history of the world. I know that each of you is protecting those values every day — and I hope we’ll be defending them side by side for the next four years.
Dozens of Donald Trump’s supporters have been requiring medical help at his rallies in the scorching US south-west but it seems lost on him that his plans to reverse climate policies and “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels will only worsen extreme weather, campaigners say.
A total of 24 people at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday required medical attention due to the heat, according to the Clark county fire department, with six taken to hospital for treatment. The hospitalizations come after a further 11 people needed to be admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion as they waited for Trump to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.
Trump himself noted the severe heat during his speech on Sunday, with the Las Vegas rally starting around noon when the temperature was about 90F (32C) and climbed to around 102F (38C). The rally was held in a park with little shade, although organizers provided water and cooling tents, and allowed attendees to hold shading umbrellas.
“It’s 110, but it doesn’t feel it to me,” said Trump, who wore a suit jacket and signature red baseball cap.
I’m up here sweating like a dog. They don’t think about me. This is hard work.
Donald Trump: “I don't care about you. I just want your vote. I don't care.”
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 9, 2024
Once in a while, Donald Trump slips up and tells the truth.” pic.twitter.com/urNUA0s8WA
Trump then said:
I don’t want anybody going on me. We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote. I don’t care.
He later said he was joking about not caring about his own voters and complained the media would criticize him for this.
Record-breaking heat enveloped much of the US south-west last week, with temperatures soaring beyond 110F (43C) in areas stretching from California to Arizona. Roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, even though the official start of summer is still a week away, with Las Vegas hitting 110F on Friday and Phoenix reaching 113F (45C).
Antony Blinken’s meetings with Israeli officials on Monday and the US push for a Gaza ceasefire deal comes after Israel’s former army chief of staff, Benny Gantz, resigned from the war cabinet.
The resignation by Gantz, leader of the centre-right National Unity party and a major rival to Benjamin Netanyahu, followed through on a threat to resign after he gave Israel’s prime minister an ultimatum of 8 June to present concrete “day after” plans for the Gaza Strip.
The withdrawal of his party also means Gadi Eisenkot, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general and war cabinet observer, and the minister without portfolio, Chili Tropper, are also stepping down.
The departure of Gantz leaves Netanyahu with enough seats in his coalition but has made him even more reliant on the support of far-right allies including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have repeatedly threatened to walk away over any deal for a ceasefire in exchange for hostages.
Donald Trump has been compared to Jesus Christ by the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at a campaign rally for the former president in Las Vegas, a city more renowned for evoking images of gambling than biblical scenes.
Greene, who makes frequent references to her Christian faith, cited Trump’s supposed Christ-like qualities to challenge the Democrats’ efforts to capitalise on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s status as a convicted felon following his recent conviction in a case involving hush money paid to an adult film actor and falsified business records in a New York court.
“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a crowd that waited in soaring early-summer temperatures.
Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.
Marjorie Taylor Greene in Vegas compares Trump to Jesus pic.twitter.com/R8l3fGUO0B
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 9, 2024
It is not the first time Greene has drawn parallels between Trump and Christ – whom Christians consider to be the messiah and son of God – as well as other historical martyr figures.
When he was arrested in New York on corruption charges in April last year, she likened Trump to Jesus and Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president after being jailed for 27 years by the racist regime.
A Georgia congressional candidate convicted for participating in the January 6th insurrection walked out of a televised Republican debate on Sunday.
Chuck Hand is one of at least four people convicted of January 6 crimes running for Congress this year, according to AP. All are running as Republicans. Hand was sentenced to 20 days in federal prison and six months of probation.
Hand is running against Wayne Johnson ahead of a 18 June primary runoff for southwest Georgia’s 2nd congressional district.
During the debate, Hand said he was refusing to debate Johnson after Michael Nixon, who finished third in an earlier primary, endorsed Johnson. Nixon brought up a 2005 criminal trespass charge and a 2010 DUI charge against Hand, both of which were dismissed, and also cited federal court documents to argue Hand’s participation in the January 6 riot was more serious than Hand had claimed.
Hand, walking out of the studio, said:
This is where I get back in my truck and go back to southwest Georgia because I’ve got two races to win.
“You’re not staying?” asked anchor Donna Lowry. “You’re leaving, sir? OK.”
Chuck Hand, a Georgia congressional candidate who was convicted of a misdemeanor for participating in the January 6th insurrection, walked off stage during a Republican debate on Sunday:
— The Recount (@therecount) June 10, 2024
“This is where I get back in my truck and head back to southwest Georgia.” pic.twitter.com/FHgRzwfBRc
US considering unilateral deal with Hamas - report
The Biden administration is considering entering into a deal with Hamas that does not include Israel, according to a NBC report.
Citing two current and two former US officials, the American broadcaster said a deal to free five US hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if current ceasefire talks involving Israel fail.
The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between Joe Biden and the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Parts of the Biden administration would like to see the Netanyahu coalition government collapse, leading to fresh elections and the formation of an Israeli government more willing to seek an understanding with the Palestinians. They believe the complete obliteration of Hamas militarily is a mirage and say Netanyahu has no realistic plan for Gaza’s future governance.
Updated
Mitch Landrieu, Joe Biden’s campaign chair, has told MSNBC that it is “astounding” that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, “first has to go sit down with his probation officer”.
Biden campaign national co-chair Mitch Landrieu: "A guy that wants to be president of the United States first has to go sit down with his probation officer. That is just an astounding statement that sometimes people walk by." @MSNBC
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 10, 2024
Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel comes as the UN security council in New York is scheduled to vote on a US-drafted resolution backing its proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.
Washington is struggling to gain the unequivocal backing of Israel or Hamas for a three-stage deal proposed by Joe Biden, that would lead to the release of all the remaining hostages in return for Israel accepting steps towards a permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of its forces from Gaza – two key Hamas demands.
The draft UN resolution backing Biden’s proposal suggests the move to phase two and the permanent end of hostilities will occur “on the agreement of both parties”, but says if the negotiations to reach that stage take longer than six weeks, “the ceasefire will continue as long as the negotiations continue”.
It says the US, Qatar and Egypt will work to ensure the negotiations keep going until all the agreements are reached and phase two is able to begin.
A vote is expected later today, after the US finalized its text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the 15-member council. It was not immediately clear whether Russia and China would veto the draft, which needs nine votes and no vetoes to pass.
Blinken arrives in Israel to meet Netanyahu
Anthony Blinken is scheduled today to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem as he kicks off a Middle East trip where he is expected to urge leaders to support a three-stage Gaza ceasefire deal proposed by Joe Biden.
The US secretary of state met with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Cairo earlier today before traveling on to Israel. Blinken is also meeting with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant later today.
Blinken, speaking to reporters, said Hamas was the only outlier in not accepting the proposal for a ceasefire deal, to which he said Israel had agreed.
My message to governments throughout the region, to people throughout the region, is if you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes.
A senior Hamas official said Blinken’s comments were “biased to Israel”.
Updated
The South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, said on Sunday that Donald Trump should pick a woman to be his running mate amid reports that her fellow Republican’s shortlist is nearly all men.
“I think that that would be beneficial, according to the polling that I’ve seen for him and a lot of swing states, is that having a woman that is helping his campaign makes a difference,” she told Dana Bash during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.
One in four Republican women haven’t made up their minds because they want to have a woman talking to them about the issues they care about. And women aren’t monolithic. They don’t care about just one issue.
Noem’s comments come amid reports that the former president’s campaign for a second term in the White House is vetting possible picks. Only one of them, congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, is a woman.
Others include senators JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and Tom Cotton. The North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, congressman Byron Donalds, and Ben Carson, the former secretary of housing and urban development, are also reportedly under consideration.
Until recently, Noem was considered a top possible pick for the No 2 spot on the Republican ticket for November’s election. But her chances reportedly fell significantly after she published a story in her recently published memoir about killing her dog.
Hunter Biden gun trial resumes with president's son not expected to testify
Hunter Biden’s federal trial resumed on Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, with closing arguments expected as soon as today.
Hunter Biden, the only surviving son of Joe Biden, faces three felony charges tied to a 2018 firearm purchase while using narcotics. He is accused of making false statements on a gun-purchase form when he said he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days. He has pleaded not guilty.
Here are some key takeaways from the trial’s first week’s proceedings.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, indicated in court this morning that his client will not testify, allowing the judge, Maryellen Noreika, to give the jury an instruction that they should not hold it against Biden that he did not testify in the case.
This is not the same as announcing definitively that Hunter Biden will not testify. The instruction will be given later today.
Donald Trump is determined to avoid jail, but if he does get handed a prison sentence after his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York last week, the former president’s inner circle is certain he will lay the blame squarely at the judge’s feet, sources familiar with the matter said.
The precise way Trump might blame the judge, Juan Merchan, remains unclear because Trump has been avoidant of the issue and the matter was not resolved when he huddled with his top advisers at a Trump Tower meeting immediately after the verdict on Thursday, the sources said.
But Trump is likely to double down on his attacks against Merchan, directing his supporters at rallies and in Truth Social posts to take up their grievances with the judge, one of the sources added.
The consequences of Trump’s likely rhetoric are difficult to predict. Trump has been railing against Merchan for months as being unfair and in conspiracy cahoots with the Biden administration to prevent him from campaigning – and nothing concrete has happened.
Still, Trump’s supporters have a history of making threats against judges Trump has assailed, including death threats to Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge who is presiding in his federal 2020 election interference case, and to the chambers of the New York judge who oversaw his civil fraud trial.
More than half of Joe Biden’s supporters are primarily motivated to cast their vote for the president in order to prevent a return of Donald Trump to the White House, according to a new poll.
Opposing Trump is the main reason to back Biden for 54% of the Democratic incumbent’s voters, the new CBS/YouGov poll found, up from 47% in a similar survey conducted in March, which was prior to the presumptive Republican nominee being found guilty of business fraud by a New York jury.
A further 27% of Biden voters are supporting the president because they like him – down from 31% in March – while 19% say that they are backing him because he is the Democratic nominee for president.
The poll comes as the Biden campaign has ramped up its rhetoric in attacking Trump directly in recent weeks, pointing to the former president’s felony conviction and string of past controversies. Last week, Biden said his predecessor is “reckless and dangerous” for complaining that his New York trial was rigged and claimed that he had been driven “crazy” by his 2020 election loss.
The outcome of this year’s presidential election remains in the balance, with the new CBS poll finding Biden and Trump are essentially tied nationally and in key swing states. Trump is on 50% of support among likely voters, and Biden is on 49%, with these figures switched for likely voters in battleground states.
Donald Trump’s longtime refusal to admit wrongdoing in his hush-money case and repeated attacks on the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, and the trial could hurt him at his sentencing next month.
The former president has repeatedly claimed that the case against him was “rigged”, called Justice Merchan a “devil” who was “highly conflicted”, and claimed, without evidence, that Joe Biden was behind the production.
The ultimate decision with sentencing rests with Merchan, who has wide discretion to sentence him to fines or probation on the low end, to a carceral sentence on the high end, regardless of what prosecutors might request. Much could depend on how Merchan interprets Trump’s conduct, including any lack of remorse.
Jeffrey Cohen, an associate professor at Boston College Law School and a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, told AP:
The fact, I think, that he has no remorse – quite the opposite, he continues to deny his guilt – is going to hurt him at sentencing. It’s one of the things that the judge can really point to that everybody is aware of — that he just denies this — and can use that as a strong basis for his sentence.
Trump to address Christian group that calls for abortion to be 'eradicated entirely’
Donald Trump will address a Christian group that calls for abortion to be “eradicated entirely” and calls it “child sacrifice”, as the presumptive Republican nominee tries to navigate between appeasing parts of his base who favor strict abortion laws and a broader electorate that largely supports some access to the procedure.
Trump is scheduled to make a virtual appearance on Monday at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, which believes “that the greatest atrocity facing our generation today is the practice of abortion” and it “must be ended”, according to its website. The group’s statement reads:
Abortion must be ended. We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for overturning Roe v Wade but has declined to endorse a national abortion ban and says he wants to leave the issue to the states. Both the Southern Baptists whom Trump will address Monday and the GOP at large are split on abortion politics, with some calling for immediate, complete abortion bans and others more open to incremental tactics, according to AP.
In a statement to Politico, the Biden campaign blasted Trump’s decision to speak at today’s event, saying the presumptive Republican nominee “loves campaigning with abortion ban extremists.”
Donald Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officials Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush-money case, according to three people familiar with the plan.
The former president will do the interview via a computer video conference from his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, the people told the Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the plans publicly.
One of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, will be present for the interview. People convicted of crimes in New York usually meet with probation officials without their lawyers, but the judge in Trump’s case, Juan Merchan, said in a letter Friday that he would allow Blanche’s presence.
The usual purpose of a pre-sentencing probation interview is to prepare a report that will tell the judge more about the defendant, and potentially help determine the proper punishment for the crime.
Such reports are typically prepared by a probation officer, a social worker or a psychologist working for the probation department who interviews the defendant and possibly that person’s family and friends, as well as people affected by the crime.
Present reports include a defendant’s personal history, criminal record and recommendations for sentencing. It will also include information about employment and any obligations to help care for a family member. It is also a chance for a defendant to say why they think they deserve a lighter punishment.
Merchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 11 July. He has discretion to impose a wide range of punishments, ranging from probation and community service to up to four years in prison.
Trump to face probation interview in hush-money case
Good morning US politics readers. Donald Trump is scheduled for a pre-sentencing interview with New York probation officials today, according to reports.
The former president will hold a virtual interview from his home at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, alongside his lawyer Todd Blanche, sources told the Associated Press. It comes after Trump was convicted last month on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The probation interview is used to prepare a report that will include a defendant’s personal history, criminal record and recommendations for sentencing. It is also a chance for a defendant to say why they think they deserve a lighter punishment.
Trump is also expected on Monday to address a Christian group that calls for abortion to be “eradicated entirely” and calls the procedure “child sacrifice”. Trump is scheduled to speak virtually at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, an organization that also seeks to ban same-sex marriage and use the Bible to guide public policy.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East today as a proposed Israel-Hamas ceasefire hangs in the balance. The US secretary of state met with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, in Cairo earlier, and is scheduled to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister Yoav Gallant later today.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are expected to wrap up arguments in his federal gun trial in Delaware today, with jury deliberations potentially to begin at the end of the day.
