Washington:

Indian-American businessman-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy had predicted some eight months ago that incumbent President Joe Biden would not be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he decided to give up running for re-election as president of the United States and endorsed his deputy Kamala Harris to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

“Best way to predict the future: just follow the incentives. It’s shocking how precisely right you can be, right down to the exact timing,” Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old Republican, said in a social media post along with the video interview with Fox News last November, soon after Biden announced his decision.

Best way to predict the future: just follow the incentives. It’s shocking how precisely right you can be, right down to the exact timing. pic.twitter.com/Xz5CBC8XxW

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

“Yeah, all his predictions have come true,” Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk said in response. “Wish it weren’t so,” Ramaswamy responded.

Yeah, all his predictions have come true

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2024

Wish it weren’t so. https://t.co/upKkCY2iY2

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

In his interview with Fox News, Ramaswamy had said: “I think that the reality is the managerial class around Biden has lost their use for him. This has been obvious to me since last year to play out the incentives. He is not the strongest candidate they can put up. And these people, they have stopped at nothing to keep Donald J Trump out of office,” he said.

The Indian-American, who then was the Republican presidential candidate in the primaries along with former president Donald Trump, said that two candidates – Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama – were possibly to be picked by the Democrats.

“Let’s give credit where credit is due. For almost a year one man has been saying “Biden won’t be the Democratic nominee” and predicting a last-minute blindside. People called him crazy,” Tristane Tate, a social media influencer, said, applauding Ramaswamy for his prediction coming true. Ramaswamy had made a similar prediction during one of the Republican presidential debates.

He also posted a compilation of videos of his predictions and said, “The anatomy of how a “conspiracy theory” became reality, in just 18 months.” 

The anatomy of how a “conspiracy theory” became reality, in just 18 months. pic.twitter.com/yU4wlnJ6oK

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

“‘I remember corporate media reporters sneering and laughing when Vivek Ramaswamy made this point in the debate. They’re not laughing now!” Raheem Kassam, a journalist, said on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview on July 15 that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull’s-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Mr. Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.

Those remarks from Mr. Biden came during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat had been scrambling to shore up his imperilled candidacy with key party constituencies. During that conversation, Mr. Biden declared that he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and that it was “time to put Mr. Trump in the bull’s-eye,” saying Mr. Trump has gotten far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.

The NBC interview came as Mr. Biden and his reelection team prepared to resume full-throttle campaigning after a brief pause following the weekend assassination attempt on Mr. Trump. The President and his campaign let loose a flurry of criticism after the GOP nominee announced freshman Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate.

“He’s a clone of Mr. Trump on the issues,” Mr. Biden told reporters as he headed to Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign events. “I don’t see any difference.”

Once Mr. Vance was tapped as Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential pick, the Biden campaign hit send on a fundraising solicitation signed by the President, and his team issued a blistering statement, saying he picked the freshman senator because he would “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda.” For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris phoned Mr. Vance to congratulate him and left him a voicemail message, according to a person familiar with the matter.

And to NBC anchor Lester Holt, Mr. Biden made it clear that he would keep up his focus on Trump. While he acknowledged his “mistake,” Biden nonetheless said he is “not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one” and that he wanted the focus to be on what Mr. Trump was saying. It’s Mr. Trump, not Mr. Biden, who engages in that kind of rhetoric, Mr. Biden said, referring to Trump’s past comments about a “bloodbath” if the Republican loses to Mr. Biden in November.

“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a President says things like he says?” Mr. Biden said. “Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?”

The NBC interview, scheduled before the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, had been part of Mr. Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June 27 debate performance.

The Biden campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on July 13, pulling advertising off the air and hitting pause on messaging. The White House also scrapped Mr. Biden’s planned July 15 visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson library, where he had been slated to deliver remarks on civil rights.

Mr. Biden also spoke privately to Mr. Trump after the assassination attempt, a call that the President described in the NBC interview as “very cordial.”

“I told him how concerned I was and wanted to make sure I knew how he was actually doing,” Mr. Biden said. “He sounded good. He said he was fine and he thanked me for calling. I told him it was literally in the prayers of Jill and me, and I hoped his whole family was weathering this.”

It’s still not finalized when Mr. Biden’s campaign ads will resume airing. But Mr. Biden is pressing on with the Nevada portion of his previously scheduled western swing, which will include remarks to the NAACP and UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. He’ll also headline what’s been billed as a “campaign community event” on July 17 in Las Vegas.

Mr. Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will be under attack at the Republican National Convention this week, and aides had felt no need to halt their campaign completely, particularly while Mr. Biden comes under scrutiny in Milwaukee.

Asked whether Mr. Biden would adjust his messaging this week in light of the assassination attempt, O’Malley Dillon pointed to his Oval Office address as a “roadmap for the whole country,” which she said was no different than Mr. Biden’s broader message from the start of his candidacy.

“You’re going to hear the President continue to make his affirmative agenda clear,” she said. “Not just in abstract terms, but very specifically on how it continues to help the American people versus this very negative point of view and extreme agenda that the American people have already said that they don’t want.”

Mr. Biden’s renewed campaigning this week comes as Democrats have been at an impasse over whether the incumbent president should continue in the race even as he was defiant that he would stay in. Mr. Biden has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he remains in the race, and aides have been operating as such.

It was unclear if the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life would blunt Democratic efforts to urge Biden to step aside, but it appears to have stalled some of the momentum, for now. No Democrats have called for him to exit the race since the shooting Saturday night.

In the hours before the shooting, Mr. Biden was still being confronted by frustration and scepticism from Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said he asked the president during his meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus about objectively assessing the trajectory of the race, and if the Lord almighty doesn’t intervene would Mr. Biden consider “the best earthly alternative”: meeting with former Presidents Obama and Clinton, Democratic leadership including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to seek their advice.”

Mr. Huffman said on a social media post that Mr. Biden “disagreed with the notion that we are on a losing trajectory.”

And while Mr. Biden expressed a “willingness to listen” to other voices, Huffman said he doubted any would be persuasive. “I continue to believe a major course correction is needed, and that the President and his team have yet to fully acknowledge the problem, much less correct it,” he said.

But now, several Democrats who requested anonymity were sceptical that there would be enough drive among lawmakers to successfully try to pressure Mr. Biden not to run, especially because they are scattered and away from Washington until next week and because Mr. Biden has said he won’t step aside and seized the opportunity to quickly respond to the shooting over the weekend. The people requested anonymity to characterize private conversations.

Asked by Mr. Holt if he has weathered the worst of it from his own party, Mr. Biden responded that 14 million Democratic voters selected him through the primaries and added, “I listen to them.” His mental acuity is “pretty damn good,” Mr. Biden added, but he said the question of his age was “legitimate” to ask.

Many in the Democratic Party had been looking to congressional leaders Jeffries and Schumer to voice concerns directly to the president. Mr. Jeffries met with Mr. Biden at the White House on July 11 night, while Mr. Schumer went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on July 13 for his visit with Mr. Biden, which occurred just before the assassination attempt on Trump.

There were still deep concerns that Biden is not up to the job and a sense that pressure to try and find another candidate could ramp up again when lawmakers returned to Washington. Congressional Democrats were watching the Republican National Convention and Mr. Biden’s appearances this week with awareness that the dynamics could change — again.

New Delhi:

In another fumble by US President Joe Biden, the 81-year-old confused the leaders of North and South Korea and called Kim Jong Un the president of South Korea.

Biden was addressing a private fundraiser when he attacked his rival, former President Donald Trump, for his “love letters” to the North Korean leader and their meetings during the Republican’s term at the White House.

In his attack, he referred to Trump’s pride in “love letters from South Korean president Kim Jong Un.”

The fundraiser was organised at the Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla’s home in Silicon Valley. The Democratic candidate is reported to have raised over $1.5 million at the event. 

The US president made multiple jokes about remarks by his presidential rival. “Remember him saying the best thing to do is just inject a little bleach in your arm? That’s what he said. And he meant it. I wish he had done a little bit himself,” he said.

During the pandemic, then-president Trump had suggested at a media briefing that a way to protect yourself against COVID-19 was to inject disinfectants like bleach or rubbing alcohol into your body.

This is the second time Biden has mocked Trump for his bleach remark. A few weeks ago, the US President joked that the chemical had “gone to his hair”. “Remember when he was trying to deal with Covid…He suggested just inject a little bleach in your veins. He missed, it all went to his hair!” he quipped.

Biden is prone to fumbles and gaffes, a habit his rivals have often used to discredit him as a viable presidential candidate owing to his advanced age. 

In February, the president confused French President Emmanuel Macron’s name with former leader, Francois Mitterrand, who has been dead for nearly 30 years. In another faux pas, he confused his own deputy’s designation, incorrectly promoting her to his job by calling her “President Kamala Harris”.

Men walk past debris in a heavily damaged room at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at the Shati camp for Palestinian refugees, west of Gaza City, on May 7, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., a senior administration official said on May 8.

The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of U.S. concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war on Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The U.S. has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants. The pausing of the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

Mr. Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Mr. Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.

U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which came as Mr. Biden on May 8 described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree.”

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to square the arms holdup with Mr. Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only, “Two things could be true.”

Israeli troops on May 8 seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that stopped short of the full-on Israeli invasion of the city that Mr. Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Mr. Netanyahu.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Privately, concern has mounted inside the White House about what’s unfolding in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they did not think the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a widescale operation in the city.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel described the operation along the Gaza-Egypt border in eastern Rafah as “an operation of limited scale and duration” aimed at cutting off Hamas arms smuggling, but also said the U.S. would monitor the fighting.

Just last month, Congress passed a $95 billion national security bill that included funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies. The package included more than $14 billion in military aid for Israel, though the stalled transfer was not related to that measure.

The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.

The U.S. dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently in the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say the use of the weapon, in part, has helped drive the enormous Palestinian casualty count that the Hamas-run Health Ministry puts at more than 34,000 dead, though it doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

The U.S.-Israel relationship has been close through both Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since the founding in which U.S. leaders have threatened to hold up aid in attempt to sway Israeli leadership.

President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 in the midst of the Suez Crisis. Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating violence in the Middle East. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories.

Australian PM Anthony Albanese to visit China before he flies to the United States to meet with President Joe Biden. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he will visit China in early November, making the announcement Sunday hours before he was to fly to the United States to meet with President Joe Biden.

Mr. Albanese also said China agreed late Saturday to review the crippling tariffs it levied on Australian wine that have effectively blocked trade with the winemakers’ biggest export market since 2020.

Mr. Albanese will become the first Australian Prime Minister to visit China in seven years when he travels to Beijing and Shanghai on November. 4-7.

“It’s in Australia’s interest to have good relations with China, and certainly though my focus in the coming days will be very much on the visit to the United States,” Mr. Albanese told reporters at Australian Parliament House.

“With Australia’s closest partner, talking about the future of our alliance, the future which has been upgraded by the AUKUS arrangements, a future based upon our common values, our commitment to democracy, and our commitment to the international rule of law and stable order throughout the globe,” Mr. Albanese added, using the acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Under the trilateral pact, the U.S. and Britain will cooperate to provide Australia with a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology to counter a more assertive China.

Mr. Albanese said he will meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and then attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

The visit to China and a potential breakthrough in the wine dispute mark a further repair in relations since Mr. Albanese’s center-left Labor Party won elections last year after nine years of conservative government in Australia.

China has agreed to review its tariffs on Australian wine over five months, Mr. Albanese’s office said. In return, Australia has suspended its complaint against its free trade partner to the World Trade Organisation.

A similar dispute resolution plan led to China removing tariffs from Australian barley.

Mr. Albanese said reopening the Chinese wine market would be worth more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($631 million) to exporters.

“We’re very confident that this will result in once again Australian wine, a great product, being able to go to China free of the tariffs which have been imposed by China,” Mr. Albanese said.

“It is important that we stabilise our relationship with China. That is in the interests of Australia and China, and it is indeed in the interests of the world that we have stable relations and that is what this visit will represent,” he added.

The visit will come near the 50th anniversary of Labor Party leader Gough Whitlam becoming the first Australian prime minister to visit the People’s Republic of China in 1973.

Mr. Albanese accepted an invitation weeks ago to visit China this year, but finding suitable dates had been challenging.

Mr. Albanese is visiting Washington to meet with Biden this week and will return to the United States after his China trip to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ forum in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.

It will be the ninth time Mr. Biden has met with Mr. Albanese as prime minister. The first meeting was in Tokyo hours after Mr. Albanese was sworn in as government leader in May last year for a leaders’ summit of the Quad strategic partnership that also includes Japan and India.

As well as the AUKUS deal, the leaders will also seek more cooperation on clean energy, critical minerals and climate change.

Mr. Albanese’s department announced Friday that it decided after an investigation not to cancel a Chinese company’s 99-year lease on the strategically important Darwin Port despite U.S. concerns the foreign control could be used to spy on its military forces.

Some security analysts interpreted the decision to let Shandong Landbridge Group keep the lease signed in 2015 and long criticized by Mr. Albanese as a concession to China ahead of his visit.

China’s release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei this month after she spent three years in detention in Beijing on espionage allegations was widely seen as a concession to Australia.

Mr. Albanese said the breakthrough on wine “has not been transactional,” meaning Australia did not make any corresponding concessions to Chinese demands.

“We’ll continue to put our case on matters that are in Australia’s national interest,” he said.

“I’ve said very consistently: We’ll cooperate with China where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our national interest, and that’s precisely what we’re doing,” he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden (left) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The “health of democracy” is an important issue for the India-U.S. relationship, said senior U.S. White House officials, adding that U.S. President Joe Biden raised these issues in every meeting he has held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Briefing the media after the bilateral meeting on Friday night (September 8) between PM Modi and President Biden, the officials made a reference to the Karnataka State elections, calling Mr. Modi’s public congratulations to the Congress party for its victory in the State, which the ruling BJP lost in May, a “positive indicator” for democracy. 

They said India is “disappointed” that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the G20 summit, said senior U.S. White House officials, adding that there was “clear appreciation” that U.S. President Joe Biden travelled to India for it.

On chances for a joint declaration being forged at the end of the G20 summit, the officials said there had been some forward movement, particularly on climate issues in the draft communique, but that the U.S. would remain “purposeful determined and resolute” on the language over Ukraine. As The Hindu had reported on September 8, officials and diplomats said the language on all non-geopolitical issues had been cleared, but Ukraine remains a sticking point with the U.S. and allies ranged on one side and Russia and China on the other. 

“There was a clear appreciation on the part of India that President Biden is here, and that he made the trip,” said Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, adding that “I think it is a disappointment for India that both Russia and China (Presidents) are not here”. 

Highlighting the India-U.S.-Saudi Arabia-India infrastructure corridor which now includes the European Union, that is expected to be announced, Mr. Campbell said that talks are still ongoing with all the parties present in Delhi, and this would be a “major breakthrough that would help fundamental delays with respect to infrastructure and communications, from India with the Middle East (West Asia) and then on to Europe. 

Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | PM Modi in US | A major leap forward for India-US ties?

The officials also faced several questions from the U.S. White House Press Corps members on the lack of access for journalists in the press pool to the bilateral meeting and the main G20 venue. Mr. Campbell said that this had been raised with India, and stressed that despite India’s objections, the U.S. had held a press interaction with PM Modi and President Biden during the state visit in Washington in June. 

“I do want to just underscore for you that in every meeting that I’ve been in, the President is very clear about the importance of the health of democracy. He doesn’t do this in such a way that suggests that one country is lecturing to another but rather that we all face shared challenges, and we think it’s important that we’re constantly asking the hard questions about our democracy.” When pressed on whether U.S. concerns over India have led to any “change” in the Modi government, Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, the NSC Senior Director for South Asia, pointing to recent Karnataka elections, said that Mr. Modi had congratulated the Congress party on the results, although she said the U.S. would not like to ascribe this to its influence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes U.S. President Joe Biden for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, Delhi, on September 9, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Dan Kitwood

The “health of democracy” is an important issue for the India-U.S. relationship, said senior U.S. White House officials, adding that U.S. President Joe Biden raised these issues in every meeting he has held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Briefing the media after the bilateral meeting on Friday night (September 8) between PM Modi and President Biden, the officials made a reference to the Karnataka State elections, calling Mr. Modi’s public congratulations to the Congress party for its victory in the State, which the ruling BJP lost in May, a “positive indicator” for democracy. 

They said India is “disappointed” that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the G20 summit, said senior U.S. White House officials, adding that there was “clear appreciation” that U.S. President Joe Biden travelled to India for it.

G-20 Summit 2023 in New Delhi Live Updates | September 9

On chances for a joint declaration being forged at the end of the G20 summit, the officials said there had been some forward movement, particularly on climate issues in the draft communique, but that the U.S. would remain “purposeful determined and resolute” on the language over Ukraine. As The Hindu had reported on September 8, officials and diplomats said the language on all non-geopolitical issues had been cleared, but Ukraine remains a sticking point with the U.S. and allies ranged on one side and Russia and China on the other. 

“There was a clear appreciation on the part of India that President Biden is here, and that he made the trip,” said Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, adding that “I think it is a disappointment for India that both Russia and China (Presidents) are not here”. 

Highlighting the India-U.S.-Saudi Arabia-India infrastructure corridor which now includes the European Union, that is expected to be announced, Mr. Campbell said that talks are still ongoing with all the parties present in Delhi, and this would be a “major breakthrough that would help fundamental delays with respect to infrastructure and communications, from India with the Middle East (West Asia) and then on to Europe. 

Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | PM Modi in US | A major leap forward for India-US ties?

The officials also faced several questions from the U.S. White House Press Corps members on the lack of access for journalists in the press pool to the bilateral meeting and the main G20 venue. Mr. Campbell said that this had been raised with India, and stressed that despite India’s objections, the U.S. had held a press interaction with PM Modi and President Biden during the state visit in Washington in June. 

“I do want to just underscore for you that in every meeting that I’ve been in, the President is very clear about the importance of the health of democracy. He doesn’t do this in such a way that suggests that one country is lecturing to another but rather that we all face shared challenges, and we think it’s important that we’re constantly asking the hard questions about our democracy.” When pressed on whether U.S. concerns over India have led to any “change” in the Modi government, Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, the NSC Senior Director for South Asia, pointing to recent Karnataka elections, said that Mr. Modi had congratulated the Congress party on the results, although she said the U.S. would not like to ascribe this to its influence.