Sunday, July 14, 2024. 🇫🇷 Annette’s News Roundup.
The President speaks on Trump shooting.
Biden Condemns Shooting at Trump Rally, Calling it ‘Sick’
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” President Biden said in a nationally televised statement.
President Biden condemned the shooting incident at former President Donald J. Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday and expressed gratitude that Mr. Trump survived and was evacuated.
“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Mr. Biden said in a nationally televised statement. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”
Mr. Biden said he had tried to reach Mr. Trump but was not able to talk with him because the former president was with his doctors. He said he would try again later in the evening. “Apparently, he’s doing well,” the president said. “I plan on talking with him shortly, I hope.”
Asked if he would characterize the incident as an assassination attempt, he said he had his own opinion but would wait for more facts to come in first.
“The bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that he should have been able to conduct peacefully without any problem,” Mr. Biden said. “But the idea, the idea, that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of, it’s just not appropriate. Everybody, everybody must condemn it, everybody.”
Mr. Biden was at Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he has a residence, when the shooting occurred. After releasing an initial written statement, he left his residence in his motorcade and headed to a local police department building so he could address the matter on camera.
A White House official told reporters that Biden was briefed on the incident by Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service; Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary; and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the president’s homeland security adviser.
A Biden campaign official said the campaign was pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down its television advertising as quickly as possible in deference to the seriousness of the moment.
The president’s statement came after similar expressions by other senior Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, both from New York and the party leaders of their respective houses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Republican congressional leaders and former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama likewise issued comments. Vice President Kamala Harris issued her own statement after the president’s remarks.
Mr. Biden’s relative slowness to issue a statement drew criticism from a Republican senator, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. “How has the White House said nothing?” he asked on social media shortly before Mr. Biden’s statement was released.
Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, called on Mr. Biden to deliver an address from the Oval Office to discuss the situation. “Bring the temperature down,” he wrote on social media. “Remind us we are all Americans.” (New York Times).
U.S. Secret Service counter sniper/overwatch team in the moments before/during the failed assassination attempt of President Trump.
Another strong voice for Biden.
Bernie Sanders: Joe Biden for President.
Bernie Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont.
I will do all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected. Why? Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump — a demagogue and pathological liar. It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.
I strongly disagree with Mr. Biden on the question of U.S. support for Israel’s horrific war against the Palestinian people. The United States should not provide Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government with another nickel as it continues to create one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.
I strongly disagree with the president’s belief that the Affordable Care Act, as useful as it has been, will ever address America’s health care crisis. Our health care system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive and needs to be replaced with a “Medicare for all” single-payer system. Health care is a human right.
And those are not my only disagreements with Mr. Biden.
But for over two weeks now, the corporate media has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world. The media has frantically searched for every living human being who no longer supports the president or any neurologist who wants to appear on TV. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have joined that circular firing squad.
Yes. I know: Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate.
Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.
I understand that some Democrats get nervous about having to explain the president’s gaffes and misspeaking names. But unlike the Republicans, they do not have to explain away a candidate who now has 34 felony convictions and faces charges that could lead to dozens of additional convictions, who has been hit with a $5 million judgment after he was found liable in a sexual abuse case, who has been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, who has repeatedly gone bankrupt and who has told thousands of documented lies and falsehoods.
Supporters of Mr. Biden can speak proudly about a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment. The Biden administration, as a result of the American Rescue Plan, helped rebuild the economy during the pandemic far faster than economists thought possible. At a time when people were terrified about the future, the president and those of us who supported him in Congress put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to desperate parents and protected small businesses, hospitals, schools and child care centers.
After decades of talk about our crumbling roads, bridges and water systems, we put more money into rebuilding America’s infrastructure than ever before — which is projected to create millions of well-paying jobs. And we did not stop there. We made the largest-ever investment in climate action to save the planet. We canceled student debt for nearly five million financially strapped Americans. We cut prices for insulin and asthma inhalers, capped out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and got free vaccines to the American people. We battled to defend women’s rights in the face of moves by Trump-appointed jurists to roll back reproductive freedom and deny women the right to control their own bodies.
So, yes, Mr. Biden has a record to run on. A strong record. But he and his supporters should never suggest that what’s been accomplished is sufficient. To win the election, the president must do more than just defend his excellent record. He needs to propose and fight for a bold agenda that speaks to the needs of the vast majority of our people — the working families of this country, the people who have been left behind for far too long.
At a time when the billionaires have never had it so good and when the United States is experiencing virtually unprecedented income and wealth inequality, over 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, real weekly wages for the average worker have not risen in over 50 years, 25 percent of seniors live each year on $15,000 or less, we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any other major country, and housing is becoming more and more unaffordable — among other crises.
This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can do better. We must do better. Joe Biden knows that. Donald Trump does not. Joe Biden wants to tax the rich so that we can fund the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Donald Trump wants to cut taxes for the billionaire class. Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security benefits. Donald Trump and his friends want to weaken Social Security. Joe Biden wants to make it easier for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. Donald Trump wants to let multinational corporations get away with exploiting workers and ripping off consumers. Joe Biden respects democracy. Donald Trump attacks it.
This election offers a stark choice on issue after issue. If Mr. Biden and his supporters focus on these issues — and refuse to be divided and distracted — the president will rally working families to his side in the industrial Midwest swing states and elsewhere and win the November election. And let me say this as emphatically as I can: For the sake of our kids and future generations, he must win. (Op-ed, New York Times).
Political Violence does not lessen the need for the American press to speak out against Trump.
If you work for these news outlet, or know anyone who works for these news outlets, you might want to start demanding that they ask Republicans to reject Trump and ask him to drop out.
Your Daily Reminder.
Trump is a convicted felon.
On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.
The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. He will now be sentenced sometime around September 18th.
Today is Bastille Day, the so-called 4th of July in France, a celebration commemorating the Storming of the Bastille as the French people rejected the yokes of monarchy and aristocracy, and embraced freedom. Our American Revolution of 1776 was a model for them.
Following the French election last week, when unexpected voters turned out in troves to stop the fascist Right from taking over their Democracy, the French now have the right, to demand that we should see them as a model for us.
Happy Bastille Day all.
Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote. Make sure everyone you know has a plan to vote. Remember the 18 years olds as well as the 80 year olds.
Worry less. Do more.
Have a great Sunday. I am taking the day off. I will see you on Tuesday.