Trump criticizes Kamala Harris’s remarks about Israel-Gaza war
Donald Trump described remarks by Kamala Harris after her meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday as “disrespectful to Israel”.
Trump, speaking at his own meeting with the Israeli leader in Mar-a-Lago, said:
They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who is Jewish could vote for her, but that’s up to them.
Key events
Erum Salam
Following the success of a virtual call to mobilize Black women voters for Kamala Harris, a similar event with more than 160,000 attendees was held on Thursday aimed at white women, and appeared to break records.
White women will be a key demographic for the Democrats to win over this election.
“It’s our turn to show up. So that’s what we’re doing. Hold this date and time,” read the virtual flyer for an event calling for white women – the majority of whom tend to vote Republican – to mobilize for Harris shared widely on social media.
“White Women: Answer the Call,” a Zoom call inspired by the one for Black women held earlier this week, saw 164,000 white women joining the call, reportedly setting a world record as the largest Zoom meeting in history. Nearly $2m was raised for Harris in less than two hours on Thursday night.
Shannon Watts, a prominent gun control activist, organized Thursday’s event, which featured speakers, including actor Connie Britton, former US soccer star Megan Rapinoe, US house representative Lizzie Fletcher and musician Pink.
Time to organize a white women conference call like the Black women and men have to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Who’s in?
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 23, 2024
The Zoom call that started it all was hosted on Sunday by Win With Black Women, a group of Black women leaders and organizers, within hours of Biden’s decision, and saw an astonishing 44,000 participants, raising more than $1.5m for Harris’s budding campaign.
A Win With Black Men call also inspired by the one with Black women raised more than $1.3m to support Harris from over 17,000 donors on Monday.
Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor and contender for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, has defended Kamala Harris’s remarks on the Gaza war.
Harris was “spot on” in her statement yesterday before a meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shapiro said at an event of building trade unions in Philadelphia on Friday, NBC reported.
Harris “spoke about Israel’s right to defend itself, the need for the hostages to be returned home, that that is necessary in order to achieve peace in the Middle East,” he said, adding:
She was right to shine a light on the suffering of innocents in Gaza and I thought she was right to lay it out the way she did. That has always been my view, stretching back long before Oct. 7, that we need a two-state solution, Palestinians and Israel living side by side in peace.
He added:
I think we also have to speak truth about the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, I believe, has been a dangerous and destructive force, and someone who has blocked peace in the Middle East.
The Trump campaign has released its readout of the meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
Netanyahu “thanked President Trump and his Administration for working to promote stability in the region through, among many historic achievements, the Abraham Accords, moving the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, eliminating Qasem Soleimani, ending the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal, as well as combatting anti-Semitism in America and abroad,” the statement read.
The status of both Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are disputed under international law.
According to the Trump campaign readout, the former US president “expressed his solidarity with Israel after the heinous October 7 attack, and pledged that when he returns to the White House, he will make every effort to bring Peace to the Middle East and combat anti-Semitism from spreading throughout college campuses across the United States.”
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator and staunch Donald Trump ally, has written a letter to FBI director to recant his comments over whether Trump was hit but a bullet or shrapnel during his assassination attempt.
In the letter reported by the Hill, Graham told Christopher Wray:
“It is clear to everyone that president Trump survived an assassination attempt by millimeters, as the attempted assassin’s bullet ripped the upper part of his ear. This was made clear in briefings my office received and should not be a point of contention. Therefore, I urge you to immediately correct your statement and acknowledge that President Trump was hit by a bullet rather than glass or shrapnel…
As head of the FBI, you should not be creating confusion about such matters, as it further undercuts the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans. Please correct this statement immediately.”
On Thursday, during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Wray raised questions over the matter, saying, “I think with respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
Vance defends ‘childless cat ladies’ comment, accuses Democrats of being ‘antifamily’
JD Vance defended his comment that the US was being run by “childless cat ladies.”
In an interview with Megyn Kelly which the Hill reported, Vance addressed his comments made in 2021 when he said that the country was being run “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Speaking to Kelly, Vance said:
“I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way.”
Vance went on to attack the Democratic party, accusing them of being “antifamily and antichildren.”
“There’s a deeper point here, Megyn. It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children. I explicitly said in my remarks — despite the fact the media has lied about this — that this is not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn’t have kids… This is about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming antifamily and antichildren,” he said.
“No president has done what I’ve done for Israel,” Donald Trump said as he met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Sitting across from Netanyahu and next Sara, Trump went on to say, “We’ve always had a very good relationship and if I didn’t, I have a secret weapon. You know what it is? Sara,” as he put his hands on Netanyahu’s wife’s shoulders.
“I have Sara. As long as I have Sara, that’s all that matters,” Trump continued.
Trump criticizes Kamala Harris’s remarks about Israel-Gaza war
Donald Trump described remarks by Kamala Harris after her meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday as “disrespectful to Israel”.
Trump, speaking at his own meeting with the Israeli leader in Mar-a-Lago, said:
They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who is Jewish could vote for her, but that’s up to them.
Carter Sherman
JD Vance, Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s running mate, promoted a baseless rightwing talking point in 2022 when he warned of George Soros-funded planes transporting Black women across state lines for abortions.
“I’m sympathetic to the view that like, okay, look here, here’s a situation – let’s say Roe v Wade is overruled,” Vance said in a recently resurfaced podcast interview.
Ohio bans abortion in 2022, or let’s say 2024. And then, you know, every day George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity – uh, that’s kind of creepy.
The US supreme court overturned Roe in 2022. Vance’s statements echo a common anti-abortion talking point accusing abortion providers and their supporters of targeting people of color.
Black women did seek abortions at a higher rate before Roe fell, but public health experts say that this is far from proof of a racist conspiracy. They point to a number systemic factors – for example, Black women are more likely to live in areas where it’s harder to access contraception. They are also disproportionately harmed by abortion bans.
Donald Trump, asked if he and Benjamin Netanyahu would need to rebuild their strained relationship if he is reelected, replied that he has “always had a very good relationship” with the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu, sitting across from Trump at his Florida resort, said Israel would be dispatching a negotiating team to Gaza ceasefire talks in Rome “probably at the beginning of the week”, according to Reuters.
Kamala Harris’ office has rejected an accusation by a senior Israeli official that her remarks calling for an end to the war in Gaza may have endangered a potential ceasefire deal.
Harris, after a meeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, said it was “time for this war to end, and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination”.
An unnamed Israeli official was later reported as saying:
Hopefully the remarks Harris made in her press conference won’t be interpreted by Hamas as daylight between the US and Israel, thereby making a deal harder to secure.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” a Harris aide told CNN today. The aide said the vice-president’s comments “tracked with her previous comments on the conflict,” adding:
She started with rock-solid support for Israel and then she expressed her concern about civilian causalities and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as she always does.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Donald Trump about his bullet wound from the assassination attempt earlier this month, according to the New York Times’ photographer Doug Mills.
Mills captured the moment Trump showed Netanyahu where he was injured:
Netanyahu arrives in Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump amid anti-war demonstrations
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Mar-a-Lago to meet Donald Trump.
Videos posted on social media showed Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, greeting Trump who extends his arms and appears to say, “Now I’m honored. Come on in.”
Trump, Netanyahu and his wife then proceed to take a photo with a smiling Trump giving a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, anti-war protestors have gathered in Palm Beach to protest Netanyahu’s visit, which comes amid the deaths of nearly 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in its ongoing war on Gaza.
Netanyahu’s visit to Florida follows his address to Congress earlier this week which has been opposed by many Democratic members of Congress and met by thousands of anti-war demonstrators who gathered in DC on Wednesday.
Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman and husband of Kamala Harris said that he learned of Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race while in an exercise class in Los Angeles.
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
Doug Emhoff has described being caught by surprise by the timing of Joe Biden’s announcement last Sunday that he was dropping out of his re-election campaign, telling an LGBTQ+ fundraiser that he was in an exercise class in Los Angeles when he heard the news.
Emhoff, 59, the husband of US vice-president Kamala Harris, explained to attendees on a fundraising call organized by a group called Black Gay and Queer Men for Harris that he was with “a gay couple friend” having “coffee, messing around and talking” when people started coming up to them.
He recalled his friend’s partner showing him his phone with news notifications and saying: “Um, you need to look at this.’”
“Of course I didn’t have my phone, so I ran and ran and got into our car, and of course my phone is just on fire, and it’s basically, ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ from everyone,” Emhoff continued, according to the LA Times. “And of course, the first thing she said was, ‘Where the … were you? I need you.’”
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Harris to travel to Atlanta next Tuesday for campaign event
Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta, Georgia next Tuesday for a campaign event, her office announced on Friday.
Harris’s visit to Georgia will mark her sixth visit to the swing state this year.
Anna Betts
Since president Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday and endorsed vice president Kamala Harris, more than 100,000 new voters have registered to vote on Vote.org, the organisation said in a statement sent to the Guardian on Friday.
Young voters, aged 18 to 34, made up the majority (84%) of the new registrations, the organisation said, adding that 18% were 18 year olds. Per the data, the top ten states where the new voters registered from were Texas, California, Florida, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Earlier this week, the organisation announced that it had set a 48-hour record for new registrations for the 2024 cycle, registering over 38,500 in the two days following Biden’s announcement.
Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.Org, said in a statement on Friday that “this continued wave of voter enthusiasm shows that Americans are determined to make their voices heard”, adding that “the surge of youth engagement is a strong indication that the next generation is motivated to show up this November.”
STEM PAC 314 Action endorses Mark Kelly as vice president
314 Action, a nonprofit PAC that seeks to elect STEM-educated Democrats into office, has endorsed astronaut and Arizona senator Mark Kelly as vice president.
Describing the astronaut, Navy captain and senator who has been reported to be on the shortlist of Kamala Harris’s vice-president picks, 314 Action president Shaughnessy Naughton said:
“At a time in history when our democracy is facing an unique threat from MAGA extremists and our planet is staring down climate change that can devastate future generations, it is imperative that we put forward the strongest ticket possible. I believe Mark Kelly’s experience as an astronaut, combat Navy veteran, US senator, and a distinguished public servant brings just that. He is the best choice to serve the Democratic ticket as the vice presidential nominee.
Mark Kelly is a proven leader. He has time and again answered the call to put service first and country before self. He knows how to win tough, competitive elections, turning Arizona from Red to Blue by defeating a formidable incumbent the first time and another Peter Thiel acolyte the second time. He uses facts, science, and data to make informed public policy decisions. He knows how to work across the aisle to get results for his constituents.”
