Group of House Democrats releases joint statement calling on Biden to drop out
Five more House Democrats on Friday joined the growing number of congressional lawmakers who have called on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 election.
In a joint statement, Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois and Marc Pocan, D-Wisc., urged Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.”
“Mr. President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders,” the lawmakers wrote.
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“We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past four years,” they said.
“At this point, however, we must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign. These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change. We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House.”
Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group that has strongly backed Biden, to call for the president to step aside.
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A fifth House Democrat, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, separately urged Biden to drop out in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s time for Joe Biden to pass the torch,” Casten wrote.
“[P]olitics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation.”
Additionally, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Friday called on Biden to suspend his presidential campaign. He is now the third Democratic senator to do so.
“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,” Heinrich said in a statement.
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There are now 28 Congressional Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside. That number represents more than 10% of elected Democrats in Congress.
Behind the scenes, more and more Democratic party officials, top donors and key Biden allies are reportedly urging the president to reconsider his decision to stay in the race. Should Biden drop out ahead of the Democratic National Committee convention in August, Vice President Kamala Harris is acknowledged to be in the best position to receive the party’s nomination — although some Democrats fear she would also lose to Trump and prefer that a candidate unaffiliated with the current administration be nominated in an open convention.
Biden has made no public indication that he intends to step aside, and his campaign has forcefully denied all suggestions to the contrary.
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“Absolutely the president is in this race, you’ve heard him say that time and again,” Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’m not here to say this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign, there’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support. But it has been a small movement.”
Global cyber outage hits major airlines, banks, 911 services, and media outlets
A major cyber outage has grounded flights and disrupted businesses and media organizations throughout the world.
The technology glitch caused chaos on Friday morning with Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines issuing statements saying that their flight operations had been impacted. Emergency response systems were down at police agencies and healthcare providers in Phoenix, Arizona, forcing some police and ambulance providers to dispatch cars manually, per The Arizona Republic.
Banks and financial services firms from Australia to India and Germany warned customers of disruptions.
In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple reports from medical officials on X said, while Sky News, one of the country’s major news broadcasters was off air, apologizing for being unable to transmit live, and soccer club Manchester United said on X that it had to postpone a scheduled release of tickets.
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The technology glitch was caused by a faulty update from CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity technology company based in Texas, in a single content update for Windows hosts.
It resulted in Windows computers and tablets crashing and displaying a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death.” Over half of Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike software, the firm said in a promotional video this year.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” George Kurtz, the president and CEO of CrowdStrike posted on X. “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.”
“Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.”
Delta Air Lines issued a statement early Friday morning announcing that all flights were paused as they worked through the technology issue. Allegiant Air grounded flights also.
United says it is now resuming some flights, but customers can expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday. The airline has issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via United.com or the United app, a spokesperson said.
American Airlines says it has been able to “safely re-establish our operation.”
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT CATCHES FIRE JUST BEFORE TAKEOFF HALTING ARRIVALS AT CHICAGO O’HARE
The FAA said all flights, regardless of destination, have been affected.
Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and India said the outage meant some airlines were having to check in passengers manually.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest, said it was affected, while airline Iberia said it had been operating manually at airports until its electronic check-in counters and online check-ins were reactivated. It said there had been some delays but no flight cancelations.
London Gatwick was also experiencing issues, while Air France-KLM said its operations were also disrupted.
The technology error was separate from a problem Microsoft faced overnight with cloud services, including Microsoft 365 apps such as Teams video conferencing.
Microsoft said via X they were “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
Microsoft says service went down for some customers in the central United States around 6 p.m. ET, “including failures with service management operations and connectivity or availability of services.”
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They also stated on their services health status page and X that they are “continuing to see an improvement in service availability across multiple Microsoft 365 apps and services. We’re closely monitoring our telemetry data to ensure this upward trend continues as our mitigation actions continue to progress.”
Officials have not said how long it will take to resolve the stop, but an update is expected later Friday morning.
‘Dynasty’ star donates huge sum to GoFundMe in support of Trump rally shooting victims
Actress Catherine Oxenberg, best known for her role as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s primetime soap opera “Dynasty,” donated $50,000 to the GoFundMe authorized by former President Trump to support victims of the shooting at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“My heart breaks for the families of the victims and for the tragic loss of life. May God bless them and hold them close as they grieve,” Oxenberg wrote along with her $50,000 donation to GoFundMe to support the families of those wounded or killed in the assassination attempt of Trump, who accepted the Republican 2024 nomination for president this week.
Oxenberg also posted a link to the GoFundMe on her official X account.
TRUMP TURNS CONVICTION INTO CASH, WITH A RECORD FUNDRAISING HAUL FOLLOWING GUILTY VERDICTS IN TRIAL
The GoFundMe, which was started by Meredith O’Rourke, Trump’s national finance director and senior adviser, has raised over $5 million through over 68,000 donations. Beneficiaries of the GoFundMe include the family of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who died shielding his loved ones from bullets at the campaign rally.
Another GoFundMe set up by Jason Bubb, who owns the Three Fit Six gym in Cabot, organized the fundraiser for Comperatore’s daughter Allyson, who frequents the gym. The fundraiser has garnered over $1.2 million in donations.
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“Saturday night, our friend and family, Allyson, lost her father due to a senseless, tragic act at the Trump rally in Butler,” Bubb wrote for the fundraiser. “Allyson has been an athlete with us since the beginning. She’s a huge part of our community … if you’re able to support her and her family during this time, we will have a spot for donations at the gym. Additionally, please take the time to sign the cards at the desk.”
“Wow. We are over $800k in less than 24 hours,” he later added. “I would say our goal is 1M. Please share with everyone you know. Allyson and family are truly grateful for all your support.”
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Trump did something he’s never done before with RNC speech. The election may be over
Donald Trump may well have sealed the outcome of the 2024 election with a performance on Thursday night in Milwaukee that has largely been unmatched in recent American political history.
The former president eschewed the polarization and division that has marked much of his rhetoric in the past. In his speech officially accepting the Republican Party’s nomination there were only a couple of references to the 2020 election. Trump was able to hit on key messages when speaking about topics like inflation, and especially immigration, in ways that were compelling and arguably responsive to the fundamental concerns of Americans.
I say this not to engage in hyperbole, as I have never been – and am not now – a Trump supporter. But as a political analyst, you have to acknowledge reality. And the reality of this speech was simple: Trump spoke of the American Dream, he spoke of bringing people together, he spoke of helping African-Americans, Hispanics and those who have been left behind.
In short, Trump did something he has virtually never done before: speak to all the American people. As he said, he wanted to speak not to 50 percent but to 100 percent of the American people.
TRUMP PREACHES UNITY AS HE ACCEPTS GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION DAYS AFTER SURVIVING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Trump also understood that this was not a time to attack President Joe Biden personally or even by name. His one reference to Biden was an aside to let the crowd in Milwaukee, and indeed around the country, know what he was thinking at a time when the incumbent president is still reeling from his poor debate performance and from COVID, not to make him appear like a victim. Rather, Trump was able to compellingly crystallize the challenges the American people have with the current administration and offer a degree of reassurance that things would be different under his leadership.
To be sure, Trump did not offer specific policy recommendations in his speech beyond closing the border and cutting taxes. But rather there was a degree of optimism and confidence in his remarks that has been noticeably absent from the darker and more pessimistic speeches the 45th president of the United States has delivered over the years.
DONALD TRUMP OFFICIALLY ACCEPTS GOP NOMINATION FOR POTUS, RECOUNTS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
He also, in a way that was tasteful and empathetic, spoke about what happened to him last Saturday in Butler Township, Pa. He discussed his experience of the assassination attempt in a way that had me on the edge of my chair, even though I knew the story quite well and had seen the video many times.
Put another way, the entire speech and its production made Trump much more likable and much more sympathetic than he’s ever been before.
To be sure, circumstances, however difficult and challenging they may have been to get to this point, worked to help the former president. But, by any measure, he rose to the occasion and offered the American people something profound that has been missing under the current administration: hope, strength and a sense that the best was yet to come for our nation.
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I fully expect Trump to increase his standing in the polls as a result of this week. I say that not only because of his Thursday night address, but also because of the entire convention. It was among the best, if not the best, choreographed and produced shows I have seen in 50 years of watching American political conventions.
The effort to reach working people and those who enjoy sports like pro-wrestling and the UFC spoke to the Republicans’ desire to broaden their constituency and solidify their position as the party of working Americans.
I also believe that, if I am right, and Trump does go up in the polls after the GOP convention, the support that has been steadily eroding for Joe Biden since his terrible debate performance just three weeks ago, will only increase, and the pressure on him to quit the race will be inexorable. Indeed, it already appears now to be inevitable.
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It’s hard to see how Joe Biden, Kamala Harris or whoever the Democratic nominee is will compete with this speech and the events of this week. And I fully expect that the division inside the Democratic Party will only increase as a result of the success of the Republican convention.
As an American, I’m pleased, indeed proud, that the Republicans explicitly – and, I think, for the first time – are seeking to unify the entire country and put aside the bitterness and resentment that has so frequently been evident.
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As a Democrat, I’m not sure I know how my party will respond in a month or so to the Trump candidacy. For now, it’s enough to say that the challenges it is facing have only grown larger and more substantial after this week after a speech and convention that could only be called an unqualified success. The events and address in Milwaukee will stand up well to whatever attempts the mainstream media make to discredit Trump and his speech. (And they have already begun.)
Some may say that Trump’s speech went on too long on Thursday night. And that may be true. But the American people, unlike political commentators, simply turn the television off, they don’t give the candidate demerits for being long-winded.
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WATCH: MSNBC primetime hosts’ controversial coverage of RNC raises eyebrows
MSNBC’s top primetime anchors and hosts made numerous eyebrow-raising remarks during their coverage of the Republican National Convention, including likening recovery from a mild COVID-19 case to surviving an attempted assassination.
On Monday, the network sidelined “Morning Joe” before returning to regular programming, denying any reports that it was because of concerns that the pro-Biden program may say something insensitive on the heels of the Trump shooting in Pennsylvania. But it was the network’s rabidly left-wing primetime hosts who made several incendiary comments in their coverage this week.
MSNBC host Alex Wagner argued that the GOP’s pick for vice president, JD Vance, dropped “Easter eggs of White nationalism” by saying during his speech on Wednesday that he wanted to be buried in his family’s plot in Kentucky.
“I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity, and it’s couched in a sort of halcyon, you know, revisitation of his roots, but it is actually really revealing about what he thinks matters and who America is, and that America is a place for people with his shared Western background,” Wagner said.
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MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who has questioned whether Trump was actually shot with a bullet at his rally on Saturday, argued on Wednesday that President Biden getting COVID-19 and recovering was “the same thing” as Trump surviving an assassination attempt.
“This current President of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID, should he be fine in a couple of days, doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing? That he’s strong enough – older than Trump – to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age. So, if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?” Reid said.
She alluded to the questions surrounding Trump’s injuries during the discussion as well, saying Trump had gotten a “photo op” out of nearly being murdered.
“These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take an iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation, we’ll figure that out one day,” Reid said.
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The far-left host also suggested that Trump couldn’t avoid the consequences of his own rhetoric following the assassination attempt.
“The idea of political violence that we’ve been nursing really since then, is so dangerous,” she said. “It’s so dangerous that you cannot avoid the consequences of it, even if you’re one of the people promoting it.”
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow took issue with Vance’s love for “Lord of the Rings,” and seemed to connect the series to the “far right.”
“Like his mentor, like Peter Thiel, who had given him all his jobs in the world, Mr. Vance also when he founded his own venture capital firm with help from Peter Thiel, named it after a Lord of the Rings thing. He called it Narya, N-A-R-Y-A, which you can remember because it’s Aryan, but you move the n to the front,” Maddow said. “Apparently, that word has something to do with elves and rings from the Lord of the Rings series, I don’t know.”
At another point this week, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace became visibly frustrated over the way Biden had answered a question from NBC’s Lester Holt about “bullseye” rhetoric directed at Trump.
“There was one way to answer that question, and it was, ‘Lester, should I use the word bullseye or crosshair? No, but the FBI director that Donald Trump selected, his name is Christopher Wray, and he testified under oath before Congress that the greatest threat to this country is no longer foreign terrorism. It’s domestic violent extremism,'” Wallace said, growing angry as she spoke.
“Inside that threat, the biggest bucket by far is right-wing domestic violent extremism, so go talk to them,” she snapped while pointing her finger.
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MSNBC host Michael Steele was also accused of pushing “conspiracy theories” this week in questioning whether Trump’s ear was hit by a bullet.
“A person lost their life, two have been severely injured, and yet we’ve not received a medical report from the hospital, nor have we received a medical report from the campaign, or from the Trump organization about the extent of the damage to his ear,” Steele said.
The series of controversial remarks comes on the heels of a bizarre story that engulfed the network on Monday.
The hosts of “Morning Joe” were told on Sunday, according to host Joe Scarborough, that their show would be off the air Monday, since there would be a single news feed on all NBC platforms, including MSNBC, following the assassination attempt against Trump. However, their show wound up being the only one that was supplanted, and MSNBC returned to regular programming afterward, leaving the show’s hosts and production team upset.
A network spokesperson denied a CNN report that the show was held off the air on Monday for fear of the anti-Trump show making any controversial remarks. It returned to the air on Tuesday, where Scarborough publicly criticized the network for its decision-making.
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“We were very surprised,” Scarborough said. “We were very disappointed. And if we had known that there wasn’t going to be the one news feed from NBC News across all NBC News channels, we obviously would have been in yesterday morning.”
Expert reacts after Congress denied access to crucial Trump protection plan
BUTLER, Pa. — Congress was denied access to the integral Ops Report that details the protection plan for former President Trump’s rally, according to a lawmaker who was at Wednesday’s FBI briefing and spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
Paul Mauro, an attorney and retired NYPD inspector, said the Ops Report “should detail who was supposed to cover the area of the roof that (Thomas Matthew) Crooks fired from.”
“If there was no Ops Plan done, or if it didn’t cover that rooftop, whoever signed off on it failed badly,” Mauro said.
The detailed, written plan was in the hands of the FBI as of Thursday afternoon, according to Mauro, who said the information came from a source “I absolutely, 100% trust.” The FBI declined to comment.
FOLLOW LIVE UP-TO-MINUTE DETAILS OF ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
Somehow, Crooks, 20, fell through the cracks, despite several reported sightings as early as an hour before he opened fire on a crowd of people in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
One bullet nicked Trump’s ear, and may have killed him if Trump didn’t move his head at that exact moment.
WATCH: POLICE SEARCH FOR EXPLOSIVES IN CROOKS’ VAN
A beloved former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, died while shielding his wife and daughters from a hail of bullets, and two other men were seriously wounded.
“This was something very, very badly planned,” Mauro said. “Just the idea that they had Trump in a car, and couldn’t get the car off the grounds because it was locked is unbelievably irresponsible.”
Typically, there’s a dedicated hospital car and an evacuation plan with a driver who knows a direct route to the hospital, Mauro said.
That “tells me that this thing was done very casually, very under resourced and there was no managing mind over the whole thing,” he said.
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“There wasn’t an incident commander. Nobody was really in command. Maybe on paper, there probably was, but whoever it was was asleep at the switch.”
Mauro said they were lucky Trump didn’t sustain a more serious injury.
Now that lawmakers are being blocked from seeing the report, and the Secret Service was quick to point the finger at the local police, it screams they’re in “cover your a– mode,” he said.
“There’s a lot of culpability, and this idea that, oh, the locals blew it, that idea is already starting to fall apart.”
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After 26 seconds of gunfire, Crooks was “neutralized” on the roof that was about 150 yards away from the podium where Trump stood when he was shot.
Nearly a week after the shooting, there are many unanswered questions and apparent lapses in planning and/or execution.
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The next step is Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, where lawmakers will question Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who agreed to comply with the committee’s subpoena.
The Oversight Committee is led by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
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“It is good that Comer immediately announced that he would have oversight looking at this, and that he was going to be using the House’s subpoena power because you need somebody looking over the shoulder of the task force investigating this,” Mauro said.
“Realistically, they can say they’re doing it in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police, blah, blah, blah, but the FBI is doing this, and I’m sorry … I don’t trust their leadership.”
He said there’s been way too many failures of late, and he said it’s imperative to have someone looking over their shoulder during the investigation.
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General began its “review to examine the process implemented by the United States Secret Service (USSS) to secure” the July 13 political campaign event.
They’re also reviewing the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team “preparedness and operations.”
“Our objective is to determine the extent to which the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team is prepared for, and responds to, threats at events attended by designated protectees,” the DHS OIG said in a statement.
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The office “continues to consider other reviews related to USSS (United States Secret Service) programs and operations that may arise. DHS OIG will coordinate its reviews with other law enforcement partners, as appropriate.”
Trump shooting victim Corey Comperatore’s funeral draws hundreds, security on high alert
CABOT, Pa. – Hundreds of people lined a rural area of Pennsylvania waving American flags to honor local hero Corey Comperatore on Friday.
The former Buffalo Township fire chief shielded his family from gunfire when a shooter opened fire during a Saturday rally for former President Trump in Butler.
“Get down,” were reportedly his last words. Comperatore, 50, lost his life that day.
His daughter called her dad a “true hero,” and the massive crowds who showed up to pay their respects gave him a lionheart’s farewell.
LAST WORDS OF ‘HERO’ FIREFIGHTER WHO DIED AT TRUMP RALLY SHOOTING REVEALED
A procession of law enforcement at virtually every level, from local police to federal agents, firefighters from all over the area, EMS and military personnel drove through the streets of rural Pennsylvania.
Residents waved flags. Some were clearly emotional as they wiped away tears.
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There was a strong security presence for the private ceremony. He leaves behind his wife, Helen, and two daughters.
Authorities conducting surveillance could be seen on nearby roofs with binoculars. A small group of reporters were set up a distance away.
WATCH: MOURNERS ATTEND THE FUNERAL
The shooting nicked Trump’s ear, and was a coincidental head movement from potentially assassinating the Republican presidential candidate.
David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were seriously wounded and are now recovering in a hospital.
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The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who set up on a roof overlooking the rally about 150 yards from where Trump was speaking, was ultimately fatally shot to end the hail of gunfire.