Category Archives: Joe Biden

Peter Welch is first Democratic senator to publicly ask Joe Biden to withdraw

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Vermont senator of more than two decades implores president in an op-ed to step down for ‘good of the country’

Peter Welch, a long-serving member of Congress from Vermont, became the first Democratic senator to publicly call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.

“We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night,” Welch, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.”

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Joe Biden hints UK should move closer to EU in Starmer meeting

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Two leaders meet during Nato summit in Washington as prime minister works on EU-UK security pact

Joe Biden has appeared to back Keir Starmer’s ambition for the UK having a closer relationship with the European Union as the leaders held their first bilateral talks at the White House.

The US president called the US and UK the “best of allies” as he met the new prime minister in the Oval Office, describing Britain as the “knot” that tied the transatlantic relationship together.

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Biden under renewed pressure to step aside as top Democrats make agonized appeals

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Senator Michael Bennet said Trump may win ‘by a landslide’ while two more senators echoed his concerns

Joe Biden came under renewed moral pressure on Wednesday to abandon his presidential candidacy amid agonised appeals by a succession of senior Democrats for him to consider the broader picture.

Those calls came as the US president dug in his heels to make it hard to supplant him as the nominee.

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Move to reduce Lords retirement age to 80 is not about Joe Biden, says Keir Starmer

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Ahead of UK-US bilateral talks, PM says primary driver for cutting peers’ retirement age is size of Lords chamber

Keir Starmer has denied that his decision to bring in a retirement age of 80 for the House of Lords means he believes Joe Biden should stand down as US president.

Ahead of his first bilateral talks with Biden at the White House, the UK prime minister said the “primary driver” for bringing in a retirement age for peers was the size of the second chamber.

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Trump airs list of false grievances at Florida rally: ‘We don’t eat bacon any more’

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Ex-president returns to campaign trail in Doral and makes baseless accusations but doesn’t name running mate

Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail in Florida on Tuesday night, hurling insults at Joe Biden and airing a litany of familiar grievances, but declining to name a running mate for November’s general election.

The former president and presumptive Republican nominee was speaking to a crowd of several hundred supporters at his golf club in Doral, a western suburb of Miami, keeping them waiting in 90F heat for a freewheeling monologue that began more than an hour later than scheduled.

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Kamala Harris underscores support for Biden at Las Vegas rally: ‘He is a fighter’

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Vice-president warns Trump would turn US to dictatorship if re-elected at event focused on AANHPI communities

Kamala Harris doubled down on her support of Joe Biden on Tuesday, describing the embattled president as a “fighter” as she warned Donald Trump would turn the country from a democracy into a dictatorship if he is re-elected to the White House in November.

The vice-president, speaking at a campaign event in Nevada, alluded to Biden’s struggles since his calamitous debate performance last month. “We always knew this election would be tough, and the past few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy,” Harris said.

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White House says time to ‘turn the page’ on Biden campaign questions as Democrats still appear split – live

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Party leaders have come out in support of president but rumbling continues as Tennessee Democrat says opinions are so vast they are ‘not even in the same book’

At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, Senator Josh Hawley endorsed the idea of Christian nationalism.

“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation – so I am,” said Hawley during remarks at the conference on Monday. “And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism – so I do.”

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Democrats lean toward accepting Biden even as party members voice concerns

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Six House Democrats have so far called for president to step aside, evidence of a party in disarray after disastrous debate

Many House Democrats appeared ready to accept Joe Biden as their nominee, despite widespread concern about his electoral viability, as prominent Black, Hispanic and progressive lawmakers rally behind the president during a crucial day of meetings on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning stone-faced, appearing uneasy about Biden’s path forward, even if most weren’t ready to publicly call on him to step aside as concerns deepen over the 81-year-old president’s age, mental acuity and ability to win the White House for a second term. Asked if the party was on the same page, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee quipped: “We’re not even in the same book.”

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Leading House Democrat Adam Smith calls on Biden to end presidential bid

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Ranking Democrat on armed services committee says debate was ‘alarming’ and urges president to stand aside

Joe Biden’s position among congressional Democrats eroded further on Monday when an influential House committee member lent his voice to calls for him to end his presidential campaign following last month’s spectacular debate failure.

Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee in the House of Representatives, issued the plea just hours after the president emphatically rejected calls for him to step aside in a letter to the party’s congressional contingent.

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Keir Starmer to meet Joe Biden this week for first time at the White House

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US president to host bilateral talks with UK leader travelling to Washington for major Nato summit

Keir Starmer is to meet Joe Biden this week for the first time at the White House as he travels to Washington for a major Nato summit of world leaders.

The US president’s press secretary confirmed he would host bilateral talks on Wednesday as the new prime minister seeks to underline the strength of the special relationship despite the change in the UK government.

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Biden tells critics ‘challenge me at the convention’ after warning Democrats that talk of replacing him helps Trump – as it happened

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Joe Biden is not alone in believing that all the talk of him dropping out is hurting the re-election efforts of Democrats nationwide.

Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from New York, said much of the same earlier today:

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Biden insists he can reunite US as high-profile Democrats reportedly want him to quit race

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President hits trail in Pennsylvania as virtual lawmaker meeting with Hakeem Jeffries shows growing party doubt

Joe Biden insisted he was the person to reunite America in a second term in the White House and was “up for the job” as he hit the trail in Pennsylvania on Sunday – but the number of high-profile Democrats doubting his position as the presumptive party nominee only grew amid a campaign in crisis.

Pressure on the US president increased even further following his poor debate performance against Donald Trump last month and an underwhelming ABC interview last week, as a group of Democratic representatives met online with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday.

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Lindsey Graham calls for physical and cognitive tests for Biden and Trump

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South Carolina senator says evaluations should be part of presidential nominee process to ensure they’re ‘capable’

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham added his voice on Sunday to a chorus calling for cognitive and physical evaluations for Joe Biden – but also called for the same for Donald Trump and others.

The Republican lawmaker recommended such tests for all future presidential nominees as well as those who may take over from a president or a nominee.

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More House Democrats reportedly want Biden to quit race as he pledges to ‘unite America’ – as it happened

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“God knew Biden needs some love,” said J Louis Felton, the church’s senior pastor, who noted that the president had been due to speak today at a National Education Association conference in Philadelphia.

When the NEA’s union announced a strike on Friday, the president cancelled his speech.

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What would a Harris candidacy mean for the elusive independent woman voter?

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Polling shows critical group unenthused about Biden and Trump – and moved by economy over abortion

The independent voter is the elusive prize in any election. This year, Democrats are hoping that widespread support for abortion rights will draw in women who might have previously shied away from the party.

But polling shows that independent female voters, a critical group for any candidate, are particularly unenthused about the prospect of choosing between the same two guys who ran for election last time. Now, with some Democrats publicly mulling replacing Joe Biden in the wake of his catastrophic debate performance and Kamala Harris emerging as a possible heir apparent, a key question is whether a Harris-topped ticket would provide them with some much-needed excitement.

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Biden defends his campaign as swing-state Democrat calls for him to exit race – as it happened

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Angie Craig of Minnesota asks Biden to ‘step aside’, as California governor stumps for president in Pennsylvania. This blog is now closed

Biden’s career worst debate performance against Trump last month has triggered acrimony, angst and panic among Democrats just four months from election day.

There are growing calls for oldest president in US history to step aside in favour of Vice-President Kamala Harris or another candidate. But Biden has so far dug in and vowed to fight on.

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Biden’s doctor reportedly met with top neurologist at White House

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Parkinson’s expert at Walter Reed medical center has visited White House eight times since August 2023 – report

Joe Biden’s doctor met with a leading Washington neurologist at the White House this year, it was reported on Saturday.

The report came after Biden on Friday ruled out taking an independent cognitive test and releasing its findings publicly, in an interview with ABC News arranged following his disastrous performance in last week’s presidential TV debate with Donald Trump.

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Top Democrats plan crisis meeting despite Biden’s vow to fight on

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House Democratic leader schedules virtual conference for Sunday as several members call for president’s withdrawal

Congressional Democrats are to hold an emergency weekend meeting to discuss Joe Biden’s tottering presidential candidacy, after a primetime television interview failed to dispel doubts triggered by last week’s debate fiasco.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives, scheduled the virtual meeting for Sunday with ranking committee members, according to multiple reports, even as Biden struck a defiant posture in Friday’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

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Biden says he’s best qualified to beat Trump, brushes off low polling and denies cognitive issues – as it happened

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Joe Biden has cancelled his upcoming Sunday address to the National Education Association Staff Union after the country’s largest union announced a strike over unfair labor practice complaints including overtime nonpayments.

A statement released by Biden’s campaign team said:

President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line. The president is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend, and we will have more details to share at a later point.

I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.

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Joe Biden: key takeaways from the high-stakes ABC TV interview

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The president blamed his debate performance on a bad cold, said he was in fine cognitive shape, and doubled down on staying in the race

Joe Biden is pushing back against questions about whether he has the mental and physical stamina to serve another term is president, arguing, in a much-hyped Friday television interview, “I just had a bad night.”

In a pre-taped sit-down interview that aired on Friday evening, the 81-year-old president told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he had been sick, exhausted, and had not prepared well for last week’s presidential debate with Donald Trump.

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