The race for the presidency of the United States received a dose of new energy on Tuesdaywith former President Donald Trump and his new Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, not shying away from criticizing each other as they head toward the Nov. 5 election.
Meanwhile, in Washington, President Joe Biden He quietly returned to the White House, after recovering from COVID-19, with the expectation that he would use his remaining time in office to achieve foreign policy goals.
Trump quickly moved to attack Harris after Biden, 81, to abandon his candidacy for re-election on Sunday under pressure from fellow Democrats concerned about his frailty, mental acuity and declining poll numbers.
“Liar Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches!” Trump, 79, said on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday. He previously accused her of helping cover up Biden’s condition.
“The Democrats lied and misled the public about corrupt Joe Biden, and now we find out that he is a complete and total cognitive and physical ‘disaster,'” Trump said. “They also misled the Republican Party, causing it to waste a great deal of time and money” on political advertising targeting a candidate, Biden, who is no longer Trump’s opponent.
Harris, a former prosecutor and senator from California, the nation’s most populous state, said at a rally Tuesday that she knew people like Trump.
At the end of May, Trump He was found guilty of 34 felonies related to a 2016 hush money payment he made just before the election he won eight years ago. The money was given to a porn star to silence her, though Trump has denied that he had a one-night stand with the actress a decade earlier.
Biden, who will finish the final six months of his term, endorsed Harris, his second-in-command for the past three and a half years.
On Monday, he told Harris campaign workers: “The name has changed at the top of the ballot, but the mission hasn’t changed at all. And by the way, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be on the campaign trail with her, with Kamala.”
“I’ve been honored and humbled, I say this from the bottom of my heart, my word as Biden, by everything you’ve done for me and my family,” he said, adding that now: “I hope you give every bit of your heart and soul that you gave to me to Kamala.”
Biden said he would address the nation from the White House on Wednesday night about his decision to withdraw from the presidential race and how he plans to govern during his remaining time in office. He is the first president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to withdraw from a reelection campaign.
While some Democratic officials initially thought Biden’s withdrawal could lead to a contested race among several contenders for the party’s presidential nomination, The most likely presidential candidates were quick to endorse Harris’s candidacy.
By late Monday, Harris had amassed more than enough delegates for the party’s Aug. 19-22 national convention in Chicago to unofficially claim the nomination, though the party is holding a virtual vote that will decide the race even earlier, on Aug. 7.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, still an influential Democratic strategist, endorsed Harrisas did actor George Clooney, a top Democratic fundraiser in Hollywood who two weeks ago wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling on Biden to end his candidacy, even though Clooney helped organize a dazzling fundraiser for him in June.
The top two Democratic leaders in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, endorsed Harris on Tuesday.
“We’re excited. It’s a happy day. Democrats are moving forward more united than ever” to support Harris, Schumer said.
Harris’ campaign said it had raised more than $100 million from Sunday afternoon, when Biden ended his candidacy, through Monday night.
Meanwhile, Harris is mulling whom to select as her running mate, with former Attorney General Eric Holder and Washington attorney Dana Remus beginning to vet the backgrounds of several possible choices.
Among the names that appeared in the news were Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a former American astronaut; and six state governors, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
Harris traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday for her first campaign rally as a potential Democratic nominee.
Trump, after ensuring the Republican presidential nomination last weekwill resume his campaign on Wednesday with a rally in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, another battleground state. Trump won the state four years ago against Biden, even as he lost the national election.
In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised Harris for being “a leading voice for American foreign policy and for our diplomacy.”
But he stressed that Biden has his work cut out for him, even as Harris campaigns to take the reins.
“What he’s been intensely focused on is the work that remains to be done in these next six months to continue the efforts, the work that we’ve been doing, in particular trying to bring peace to the Middle East, to end the war in Gaza, to put that region on a better trajectory; continuing to deal as effectively as he has with Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and making sure that we continue to do everything we can to strengthen Ukraine; our engagement across the Indo-Pacific, where we’ve been building relationships and partnerships that are stronger than ever, whether it’s with our allies – Japan, Korea, Australia, or New Zealand – whether it’s with countries like the Philippines and India, or with emerging countries like Vietnam or Indonesia,” Blinken said.
Analysts agreed
“There’s actually still a good percentage of his presidency left, there’s still an eighth of this presidency left, and there remain real challenges, both at home in terms of cutting costs, and in terms of protecting consumers from junk tariffs and protecting workers from terrible rules that benefit corporations and abroad,” said Navin Nayak, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
“So trying to achieve a ceasefire and peace in the Middle East, trying to continue to push back against Russia’s war in Ukraine, I think the president is now squarely focused on those challenges and freed from the real rigors of having to run a presidential campaign as well,” Nayak said.
And this situation also leaves foreign leaders in an interesting position, as is the case of the Israeli prime minister, who this week is preparing to meet with Biden, Harris and Trump. during his visit to the USA.
Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said: “I think Biden has a problem internationally, which is that foreign leaders know he’s not going to be around for a few more months, so they’re going to be hesitant to do business with him because they know that whoever comes next … and even if it’s Harris, they’re likely to have their own foreign policy team and their own set of goals.
“On the other hand, I think foreign leaders will want to accomplish things they can achieve quickly under Biden because they are not sure what will happen next,” Suri said.
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