Just 10 days ago, President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19. We covered it, noting the serious problem it presented for his campaign–for a number of reasons.
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DONATE HERE!The deeply embattled Biden had been struggling through particualrly brutal news cycles–one focused on his dismal debate performance against Donald Trump and another focused on how the latter survived an assassination attempt. Between the negative press and the rapturous coverage of his opponent, Biden looked positively deflated.
And then he got COVID, a reminder of the pandemic he has repeatedly taken credit for ending. At that point, the smart money was on Trump and the GOP to dominate in November.
Well here we are, Friday, July 26, 2024, and Joe Biden is no longer the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. In a remarkable, yet not wholly unexpected turn of events, the incumbent president decided to drop out of the race and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris.
With Biden's announcement, timed perfectly on the heels of the Republican convention at which Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, the dynamics of the race changed.
Within a single day, Harris had enough delegates to become the party nominee. She has proven to be a fundraising machine, hauling in $125 million in just three days. Support for Harris has exploded on TikTok and her personal and campaign accounts there have amassed massive followings already. The polls are tightening up with the new ticket-topper leading in several. While Harris faces an uphill climb until November, the Democratic base has been electrified by a new candidate, who appears, as she often says, "unburdened by what has been."
Harris has had a trailblazing political career as the first person of color to serve as San Francisco district attorney, the first woman, the first Black American, and South-Asian American to serve as California attorney general and U.S. vice president. While her tough criminal justice background dogged her in 2019 when she first ran for president, it has not been an issue in this race so far, with even progressives setting their reservations aside with an eye to November.
While the news cycle has been good for Democrats, Republicans have been left trying to figure out the best angle of attack against Harris.
Predictably, the default response from the political Right has been a flurry of sexist and racist attacks. At a rally, Trump mocked her laugh, telling his supporters, "She's crazy. She's nuts." Harris has been called a "DEI" vice president and the "original Hawk Tuah girl," and even accused of being the "maidservant" to Hillary Clinton. The swift, bigoted responses have House GOP leaders calling on members of their own party to stop attacking Harris for her race and gender.
Meanwhile, Trump VP pick Vance has been having a rocky start. The Associated Press recently published a fact-check of an internet rumor that Vance had described having sex with a couch in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. The AP initially ran the story under the baffling headline, "No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch."
However, people online called out the prestigious wire news service, noting that the story had technically not fact-checked Vance's alleged sexual history with furniture, but rather a rumor that he'd written about couch sex in his memoir. (I personally submitted a correction to the AP over the matter.)
Within hours, the AP had changed its headline to "Posts spread baseless rumors about GOP vice presidential pick JD Vance having sex with a couch" before removing the post altogether. The takedown of the fact-check, which AP said did not meet its rigorous editorial standards, only prompted more questions and more headlines tying Vance to the rumors.
Between the exit of Joe Biden, the reinvigoration of the Democratic base, their consolidation around Harris, the tightening polls, and the negative headlines for Republicans, the 2024 race just underwent a significant upheaval. November's outcome is anything but set.
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"J.D. Vance faces most embarrassing rumor (and fact-check) of his life" – THE NEW REPUBLIC
"A list of words that do NOT appear in 'Hillbilly Elegy,' so stop asking!!" – DEFECTOR
"The Kamala switcheroo" – THE AMERICAN PROSPECT
Israel-Gaza
All eyes were on Kamala Harris this week as she met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose visit prompted pro-Palestine demonstrations. After notably skipping the foreign leader's address to Congress, Harris met privately with him on Thursday to discuss Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed roughly 40,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry–the actual death toll was recently estimated at 186,000–and is considered by many observers to qualify as a genocide. Unconditional U.S. support for the violence since October is widely seen as a drain on President Biden's approval ratings–especially in key states like Michigan.
For more about Biden's support for Israel, check out this story by IN THESE TIMES:
With her meeting, Harris had an opportunity to distance herself from an unpopular policy. But the day offered little in terms of explicit commitments to change. Ahead of her meeting with Netanyahu, Harris released a statement condemning antisemitism and flag-burning by the pro-Palestine protesters. Following the meeting, Harris told reporters that she "will not be silent" about suffering in Gaza and had expressed her serious concerns to the prime minister about the way in which Israel has prosecuted its war.
"What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” Harris explained. “The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”
For More
"VP Harris meets with Netanyahu to discuss Israel-Hamas war in Gaza" – STATES NEWSROOM
"Major unions are calling for an end to Israeli military aid" – JACOBIN MAGAZINE
"Dozens of lawmakers are protesting Netanyahu – but have little to say about Israel's systemic abuses of Palestinians" – THE INTERCEPT
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