WASHINGTON DC: Despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to confront Republican Donald Trump, President Joe Biden hasn’t softened the push for him to exit the 2024 race.
Biden has weighty options before him this weekend that could set the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads toward the November election with an energized GOP after the Republican nominating convention to send Trump back to the White House.
Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, on Saturday added his name to the list of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress who say it’s time for Biden to leave the race. The Californian called on Biden to “pass the torch,” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, earned backing from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president is “ready to step up” to unite the party and take on Trump should Biden decide to bow out. Warren said knowing that “gives me a lot of hope right now.”
More lawmakers are expected to speak out in the days ahead. Donors have raised concerns. And an organization calling on Biden to “Pass the Torch” planned a rally Saturday outside the White House. Biden has insisted that he’s all in.
“There is no joy in the recognition he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats urging Biden’s exit from the race. “But the stakes of this election are too high and we can’t risk the focus of the campaign being anything other than Donald Trump.”
The standoff has become increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders, a month from the Democratic National Convention that should be a unifying moment to nominate their incumbent president to confront Trump. Instead the party is at a crossroads unseen in generations.
It’s creating a stark juxtaposition with Republicans who, after years of bitter and chaotic infighting over Trump, have essentially embraced the former president’s far-right takeover of the GOP, despite his criminal conviction in a hush money case and pending federal criminal indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
From his beach home in Delaware, Biden, 81, is isolating with a COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said Friday that the president still had a dry cough and hoarseness, but his COVID symptoms had improved.
The president’s team insisted he’s ready to return to the campaign this coming week to counter what he called a “dark vision” laid out by Trump.
“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
But outside the Rehoboth enclave the debate and passions are intensifying.
A donor call with some 300 people Friday was described as a waste of time by one participant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. While the person was complimentary of Harris, who spoke for five minutes, the rest of the time was filled by others who brushed aside donor concerns, according to the participant.
Not only are Democrats split over what Biden should do, they also lack consensus about how to choose a successor.
Democrats who are agitating for Biden to leave do not appear to have coalesced around a plan for what would happen next, for now. Very few of the lawmakers have mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they favor an open nominating process that would throw the party’s endorsement behind a new candidate.
Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont have both called for Biden to exit the race and said they would favor an open nominating process at the convention.
“Having it be open would strengthen whoever is the ultimate nominee,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to move past Harris, the nation’s first female vice president, who is Black and Southeast Asian, and logistically unworkable with a virtual nominating vote being planned for early next month, before the Democratic convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19.
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who has called on Biden to step aside, explicitly endorsed Harris as a replacement.
“To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling upon President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice President Harris to step forward to become the Democratic nominee for President,” McCollum said in her statement.
It’s unclear what else, if anything, the president could do to reverse course and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters, who are wary of his ability to defeat Trump and serve another term after his halting debate performance last month.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.
At the same time, a majority of Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top slot, according to a separate AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Biden, who sent a defiant letter to Democrats in Congress vowing to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to shore up support, an absence noticed by senators and representatives.
The president did conduct a round of virtual conversations with various caucuses in the past week — some of which ended poorly.
During a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, one Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin of California, told Biden he should step aside. During another with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Biden became defensive when Rep. Jared Huffman of California asked him to consider meeting with top party leaders about the path forward.
Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called Friday for Biden to step aside.
At the same time, Biden still has strong backers. He picked up support Friday from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ campaign arm and has backing from leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Biden’s ability to win back skeptical Democrats is tested at a perilous moment for his campaign
https://arab.news/jxtn9
Biden’s ability to win back skeptical Democrats is tested at a perilous moment for his campaign
- Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called on Biden to “pass the torch,” to Vice President Kamala Harris
Ugandan voters face soldiers in the street and an Internet shutdown before presidential election
KAMPALA: Ugandans are set to vote Thursday in an election that is likely to extend the rule of the long-term president while raising concerns about transparency, hereditary rule, military interference and an opposition strategy to prevent vote tampering at polling stations.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986, seeks a seventh term that would bring him closer to five decades in power. But he faces a strong challenge from the musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine, a 43-year-old who represents those yearning for political change.
Six other candidates are running for president in the East African nation of roughly 45 million people. Electoral authorities say there are 21.6 million registered voters.
Analysts say Museveni will almost certainly retain power, but at 81 he has become even more reliant on the nation’s security forces to enforce his authority. His son and presumptive heir, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is the top commander of the military, which Wine accuses of interfering in the electoral process.
Here is what to know about the issues dominating the election.
Internet shutdown is a blow to activists
On Tuesday, less than 48 hours before the start of voting, the Uganda Communications Commission directed Internet service providers to temporarily suspend the general public’s access to the Internet, as well as the sale and registration of new SIM cards.
The government agency said the measure was “necessary to mitigate the rapid spread of online misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud, and related risks.” It also cited a risk to national security stemming from possible violence.
The Internet shutdown was a blow to pro-democracy activists and others who use the Internet to share information about alleged electoral malpractices including ballot stuffing and other offenses that routinely plague Uganda’s elections.
‘Protecting the vote’ strategy
Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform, has urged followers to stay near polling stations and remain watchful after voting as part of an effort to prevent rigging.
Ugandan law allows voters to gather 20 meters (65 feet) from polling stations. Electoral officials are urging Ugandans to cast a ballot and then go home, perhaps returning later to witness vote counting.
The argument over whether voters should stay at polling stations as witnesses has animated public commentary and raised fears that the election could turn violent if security forces choose to enforce the electoral body’s guidance.
“The first step is for all of us to stay at the polling stations (while observing the 20-meter distance) and ensure that nothing criminal happens,” Wine wrote Tuesday on X. “We implore everyone to use their cameras and record anything irregular.”
Soldiers deployed in the streets
In a New Year’s Eve address, the president said he recommended security forces use tear gas to break up crowds of what he called “the criminal opposition.”
Wine faced similar setbacks when he first ran for president in 2021. He often was roughed up by the police, clothes ripped from his body, and dozens of his supporters were jailed.
Wine told The Associated Press in a recent interview that at least three of his supporters have been killed in violent campaign events, claiming “the military has largely taken over the election.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has cited “widespread repression,” including the abduction and disappearance of opposition supporters.
Ugandan authorities say the presidential campaigns have been mostly peaceful. Ugandan authorities began deploying troops on Saturday in parts of the capital, Kampala, with armored trucks spreading into different parts of the city and soldiers patrolling the streets.
Military spokesman Col. Chris Magezi said the deployment was meant to deter violence, rejecting concerns that the mobilization was anti-democratic.
Son’s ambition raises hereditary rule concerns
Museveni has ruled Uganda for nearly 40 years by repeatedly rewriting the rules to stay in power. Term and age limits have been scrapped and rivals jailed or sidelined. But he has no recognizable successor in the upper ranks of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement.
Kainerugaba, the president’s son, has asserted a wish to succeed his father, raising fears of hereditary rule.
Kainerugaba is a four-star general who sparked controversy by writing social media messages widely seen as offensive including comments about beheading Wine. He also wrote about hanging Kizza Besigye, an opposition figure who has been jailed over treason charges that he says are politically motivated.
