More Democrats call for Biden to exit 2024 race as president vows to return to campaign trail – live | US elections 2024

Hello US politics blog readers, it’s been another extraordinary morning in political news even if Washington DC is a bit of a ghost town, with Joe Biden bunkering in Delaware, Congress on recess and Republicans wandering home from their convention in Milwaukee.

But there couldn’t be more drama and the day feels young so stick with Guardian US and we’ll bring you the developments as they happen.

Incidentally, we hope you can read this because you dodged the global IT failure, and you can also read all the developments in that story, live, here.

Here’s where things stand in US politics:

• High profile Democratic congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California and Ohio freshman representative Greg Landsman brought the number of members of Congress who have called on Joe Biden to get out of his re-election race to 30.

• Joe Biden remained defiant, despite isolating out of the public eye in Rehoboth because he caught Covid, saying he’ll be back on the campaign trail next week. This despite pressure mounting for him to step aside from the top of the Democrats’ Biden-Harris 2024 ticket.

• Mark Heinrich of New Mexico became the third sitting US Senator to call for Biden to quit the race, urging the president to step aside for the good of the country and pass the torch, saying the party needs a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November, for the sake of US democracy.

• Biden also issued a statement condemning Russia for sentencing a Wall Street Journal reporter to 16 years for, as the US government and media continue to assert, simply doing his job. “Journalism is not a crime,” Biden said, as a Russian court found Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. The trial was widely viewed as a sham. Biden is pushing for his release.

• Congressmen Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, and Marc Pocan of Wisconsin wrote a letter addressed to the US president calling on him to step aside from the reelection race.

• Before Joe Biden said he’s be back on the campaign trail next week, yet another media report bubbled up saying that members of Biden’s family has begun discussing an “exit” plan, citing “two people familiar” with the situation. The report suggests Biden has yet to make a final decision, but that his closest allies believe he is likely to step aside.

• Jenn O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s reelection campaign chair, said he is the “leader of our campaign and the country” during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the president’s favorite show. “He is the best person to take on Donald Trump and prosecute that case,” she said.

• Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave an interview in which he declined to make an endorsement in the 2024 election, but called Donald Trump’s reaction – raising a fist and mouthing fight, after his ear was bloodied by a bullet during an assassination attempt at one of his rallies, in Pennsylvania last weekend, “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life”.

In the last few moments, two more Democratic members of Congress have called on Joe Biden to step aside from his reelection campaign, even as the US president issued a defiant statement.

Zoe Lofgren wrote a statement, posted by CNN’s Jake Tapper just now, saying to Biden: “Your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot….I urge you to step aside from our Party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete.”

Ohio congressman Greg Landsman also made the call.

Lofgren sat on the January 6 committee hearing evidence into the attack on the Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump in 2021 as they aimed to overturn his defeat by Biden.

She was also an impeachment manager on the House team that prosecuted Trump as president first for trying, essentially, politically to extort Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in this and his second impeachment for the Capitol attack.

Joe Biden has issued a statement in which he says he’ll be back on his re-election campaign trail next week.

This is despite pressure mounting for him to step aside from the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

The US president also said of Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention last night when accepting the party’s nomination for the presidency that Trump’s “dark vision is not who we are as Americans”, Reuters reports.

More details shortly.

Mark Heinrich, the senior US Senator from New Mexico, has just put out a statement adding his voice to the growing chorus of national Democratic lawmakers calling on Joe Biden to step aside from his reelection campaign for the White House.

Heinrich urges Biden to step aside for the good of the country and pass the torch, saying the party needs a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November, for the sake of US democracy.

Here’s his statement posted to X:

Another group of House Democrats called on Biden to step aside on Friday, after Jon Tester of Montana became the second sitting senator to publicly urge Biden to reconsider his re-election bid.

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. Democrats have a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice-President Kamala Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment, wrote Democratic congressmen Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, and Marc Pocan of Wisconsin wrote in a letter addressed to the president.

Though the congressmen do not explicitly endorse Harris, the letter strongly suggests she should be at the top of the ticket.

Emphasizing their “great admiration” and “sincere respect” for the president’s decades of service, they write: “Mr President, you have always put our country and our values first. We call on you to do it once again, so that we can come together and save the country we love.”

Earlier on Friday, a Russian court found Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, after a trial widely viewed as a sham.

In a statement, Biden denounced the sentencing decision, saying Gershkovich had “committed no crime”. The US president said the reporter was “targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American” and that his administration was “pushing hard” for his release.

As I have long said and as the UN also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime. We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists. Additionally, since the very first day of my administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home. And Jill and I are holding Evan and his family in our prayers.