MIAMI: Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday reveled in the mounting turmoil surrounding President Joe Biden ‘s campaign in the wake of their debate and teased the expected announcement of his Republican running mate with one of the top contenders, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in attendance.
After days spent lying low, golfing and letting Democratic infighting play out in public, Trump used his return to the campaign trail in Florida to ratchet up his attacks on both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, indulging speculation that she could replace the president as the Democratic nominee this year and alleging, without evidence, that his son Hunter Biden is “running our government” and first lady Jill Biden “is helping.” Biden has repeatedly insisted he won’t withdraw from the race.
Trump rallied his supporters at one of his Miami-area golf courses as the presumptive Republican nominee nears a deadline to announce his running mate. But he appears in no rush, as much of the political world’s attention is still centered on questions about Biden’s ability to govern for another four-year term. Some Democrats have started calling for Biden to step down as their presumptive nominee following his dismal debate performance last month.
Trump, speaking from the 10th hole of his course, challenged Biden to another debate or even a “golf-off” reviving an offbeat argument from their debate. But mostly, he rubbed in how their meetup left Biden’s campaign facing a grim prognosis.
“Our victory was so absolute that Joe’s own party now wants him to throw in the towel and surrender the presidency after a single 90-minute performance,” Trump said Tuesday night. “They want ‘Crooked Joe’ out of the race. It’s a shame the way they’re treating him. But don’t feel sorry for him. He’s a very bad guy.”
James Singer, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, responded to Trump with a series of challenges, saying in a statement: “We’d challenge Donald Trump to create jobs, but he lost 3 million. We’d challenge Donald Trump to stand up to Putin, but he bent the knee to him. We’d challenge Donald Trump to follow the law, but he breaks it.”
Singer also said, “Joe Biden doesn’t have time for Donald Trump’s weird antics — he’s busy leading America and defending the free world.”
Trump laced into Harris with more specifics than usual. She has become a focus of the former president and his allies as speculation has mounted that she would replace Biden as the Democratic nominee. Trump called her “Laughing Kamala,” and referred to the “Biden-Harris administration,” rather than just pinning actions on Biden as he had for months, and blamed Harris for the White House’s immigration policies.
“Despite all the Democrat panic this week, the truth is, it doesn’t matter who they nominate because we are going to beat any one of them in thundering landslides and this November’s going to be amazing,” he said.
Trump, ever the showman, repeatedly played into the speculation that he might elevate Rubio to his ticket.
Rubio, a Miami native and one of the contenders for the vice presidential post, was among the Florida politicians who spoke at the event.
At one point, Trump marveled at the number of reporters in attendance and said, “I think they probably think I’m going to be announcing that Marco is going to be vice president.”
Later, when he talked about his pledge to make tips tax-free, he remarked that Rubio “may or may not be there to vote for it.”
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is seen as a potential running mate who could help Trump as he tries to secure support from Hispanic Americans, a point the senator emphasized in his remarks as he switched several times in his remarks to Spanish.
The senator did not openly acknowledge any of the speculation about him joining Trump as a running mate. He instead skewered not only Biden, whom he called “the figurehead of a left-wing government, shadow government,” but Harris, whom he would need to debate head-on if he’s chosen for Trump’s ticket.
Rubio referred to Harris not by name at first but called her Biden’s “replacement” and “a real-life, verified left-winger.” At another point in his remarks, he mocked the way Harris laughs.
He notably seemed to insert himself into Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” slogan by saying: “Together, we’re not just going to make it great again. We elect this man as president, we will make together America greater than it has ever been.”
Thousands of people turned out in the humid summer evening for the rally. Attendees were fanning themselves and holding signs featuring Trump’s mug shot, along with others that said, “You’re fired!” — Trump’s signature phrase on his former reality show, “The Apprentice.”
Trump’s youngest child who recently turned 18, Barron, also made his first-ever appearance at one of his father’s rallies. Trump implored his son to stand, with the young man pumping his fist a few times as Trump said, “Welcome to the scene, Barron.”
Both Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, are at least two decades older than most American presidents have been, according to the Pew Research Center, which said the median age for all US presidents on their first inauguration is 55 years old.
But that has not stopped Trump from arguing he is stronger than Biden, who repeatedly stumbled, paused and could not complete sentences at times during the June 27 debate.
Trump revels in Democratic turmoil as he returns to campaign trail and teases VP pick
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Trump revels in Democratic turmoil as he returns to campaign trail and teases VP pick
- One of the top VP contenders, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in attendance in attendance at rally
- Trump ratchets up his attacks on both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after days spent lying low
Taylor Swift says she will vote for Kamala Harris
“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in her post
WASHINGTON: Pop megastar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Tuesday after her debate against Republican rival Donald Trump, calling the Democratic presidential nominee a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who could lead the country with calm rather than chaos.
In a post on Instagram, Swift told her over 280 million followers that she will vote for the US vice president in the Nov. 5 election, in the biggest celebrity endorsement yet for Harris. Polls show the race essentially tied between the two candidates.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in her post.
Swift was pictured with her cat in the post, which she signed as “childless cat lady,” in a dig at Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who in a 2021 interview called some Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies.” He has since said it was merely a “sarcastic remark.”
Swift also said she was impressed by Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, who the singer described as someone “who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Walz, who was on air on MSNBC when the endorsement was announced, said he was “incredibly grateful” and urged the singer’s large fan base of “Swifties” to “Get things going.”
Trump on Wednesday dismissed her endorsement, saying he “was not a Taylor fan.”
“It was just a question of time,” Trump told Fox News in an interview. “She’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat. And she’ll probably pay a price for it ... in the marketplace.”
Reproductive rights have become a key issue for voters since the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion two years ago. IVF fertility treatments have also been pushed into the spotlight since an Alabama court ruled earlier this year that frozen embryos were people.
Harris, who supports abortion rights, has cast Trump as a threat to reproductive rights in the country after he appointed Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the Roe v Wade ruling in 2022. Trump has defended the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling but has said a federal abortion ban is unnecessary and that the issue should be resolved at the state level.
In August, Trump posted a fake social media image of Swift asking people to vote for him in the November election.
Swift made a reference to that in her post late on Tuesday, saying Trump’s move “really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.”
She added: “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
Swift has supported Democrats in the past and backed President Joe Biden in 2020. Her endorsement is the latest for Harris from the entertainment industry. Many Hollywood actors, producers and filmmakers have said they viewed Harris, a native Californian, as their hometown candidate.
Harris shares a home with her husband, Doug Emhoff, a former entertainment lawyer, in the celebrity enclave of Brentwood on the west side of Los Angeles.
Shortly after Swift’s endorsement, the Harris-Walz campaign announced pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan inspired friendship bracelets.
Russian strategic bomber planes overfly Barents and Norwegian seas, RIA says
- The flights were part of the “Ocean-2024” drills that Russia launched a day earlier
MOSCOW: Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber planes flew over the Barents and Norwegian seas as part of a major naval exercise, the state-run RIA news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying on Wednesday.
It said the flights were part of the “Ocean-2024” drills that Russia launched a day earlier.
The exercises, the biggest since the Soviet era, will involve more than 90,000 servicemen, over 400 vessels and 125 aircraft and will run until Sept. 16 across a vast area including parts of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Mediterranean, Baltic and Caspian seas.
Gunmen kill a polio worker during a vaccination campaign in Pakistan
- Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi issued a statement condemning the attack
- No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Bajur
KHAR, Pakistan: Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire Wednesday on police escorting a team of polio workers during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan, killing an officer and a polio worker, police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Bajur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, according to local police chief Abdul Aziz.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi issued a statement condemning the attack.
Pakistan on Monday launched a nationwide polio campaign amid a spike in militant attacks. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.
That same day, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting polio immunization in the northwestern South Waziristan district, in the same province, wounding six officers and three civilians.
The militant Daesh group later claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.
Red Cross pushes for aid corridors into war-torn Myanmar
- ICRC chief met Myanmar’s ruling general this week
- Access, restrictions limiting scope of aid operation
BANGKOK: Cmmittee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in talks with Myanmar’s ruling junta, its armed opponents and its neighbors to provide cross-border humanitarian assistance into the war-torn country, its chief said on Wednesday.
Myanmar has been mired in conflict since February 2021 when top generals ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread protests that grew into an armed rebellion challenging the powerful military.
With wide swathes of the country in turmoil, about a third of Myanmar’s 55 million people require humanitarian assistance but the ICRC cannot operate in many areas because of access restrictions and security risks, said Mirjana Spoljaric.
“There’s a total absence in certain regions of medical services, I mean, a complete collapse,” Spoljaric told Reuters.
“There’s not even medicine coming in at the moment, and there’s very little food available.”
During a visit to Myanmar that ended this week, Mirjana said she told junta chief Min Aung Hlaing that the ICRC has the capacity to deliver more assistance.
“The problem is access,” she said. “It’s critical at the moment because we can’t even go and assess the humanitarian needs, and this is something that we need to remedy.”
CROSS-BORDER APPROACH
In an effort to push more aid into Myanmar, the ICRC is engaging multiple parties on the possibility of sending assistance through neighbors such as Bangladesh and Thailand.
“This was a constant topic of conversation,” Spoljaric said, “The cross-border issue is on the table.”
In March, Thailand delivered some aid into Myanmar, as part of an initiative backed by the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN to open a humanitarian corridor.
“The lesson learned is you need to have everybody’s agreement in order to operate. But this could potentially provide entry points for some level of ceasefire, local ceasefire negotiations going forward,” Spoljaric said.
Another potential route to deliver aid into the country is through Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the Arakan Army rebel group has taken control of significant territory and beaten back the military.
The fighting in Rakhine has led to a fresh exodus of the mainly Muslim minority Rohingya community into Bangladesh, which already has over a million Rohingya refugees in sprawling camps.
“What we seek is the direct dialogue with all the parties to a conflict with all weapon bearers and those who have control over them,” Spoljaric said.
“But at the same time as in every conflict we try to mobilize states that can have an influence.”
A former Swiss diplomat, Spoljaric did not detail the response of the Myanmar junta chief to the proposal, which she said is also being discussed with armed groups opposed to the military, neighboring countries and ASEAN.
“I am hoping that my meeting with the chairman will improve channels of communication and will at least show some openings on their side to increase operational space,” she said, referring to Min Aung Hlaing.
Children of Daesh suspects returned to France doing well: prosecutor
- Overall 170 women had returned from Iraq and Syria to France
- Until 2022, France only brought back children on a case-by-case basis
PARIS: France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday that 364 repatriated children of French parents suspected of joining the Daesh group in Syria and Iraq a decade ago were doing well.
“There are 364 children in 59 departments (areas in France), who are followed by judges for children, and who benefit from coordination from my office to make sure they have optimal care,” Olivier Christen told the France Info radio station.
Another anti-terror prosecutor had in 2018 expressed fear that the children of French nationals who joined Daesh after it set up a so-called caliphate in 2014 could be “ticking time bombs.”
But Christen, who leads the National Anti-Terror Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) opened in 2019 in the wake of a spate of jihadist attacks, brushed aside that worry.
“These 364 children in no way seem to me to correspond to that expression,” he said.
“They are being closely monitored... They pose no particular difficulty.”
“There are very different situations. Some are very, very young children, others are fully fledged teenagers,” he added.
Overall 170 women had returned from Iraq and Syria to France, he said, including 57 from detention camps in northeast Syria in recent years since the Daesh caliphate’s territorial collapse in 2019.
Of the 364 children who had been brought to France, “169 have been repatriated over the past two years,” he added.
Until 2022, France only brought back children on a case-by-case basis, prioritizing orphans and some children of women who had agreed to give up their parental rights. But Paris changed that policy two years ago.
Daesh seized control of large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, before Syrian forces spearheaded by Kurds and backed by a US-led coalition ousted them from their last patch of land in eastern Syria in 2019.
Kurdish autonomous authorities in northeast Syria have been holding around 56,000 people, including 30,000 children, in detention centers and camps.
Among them are Daesh fighters and their families, as well as displaced people who fled the fighting.
