Consider the full magnitude of Kamala Harris’ challenge coming into Tuesday’s debate. She is half Black and half Indian in a predominantly white nation where they are in a growing funk about being reduced to less than a majority by 2042. Her opponent is an alpha male, Donald Trump, in a society that is more macho than any other “advanced” country.

Harris had a disastrous campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2020. She is remembered for her left-of-centre policies like universal health care and decriminalisation of illegal immigration, and for opposing fracking. She was the Vice-President – among the nation’s most nondescript jobs – to a president who became deeply unpopular because of high inflation and botched immigration controls.

She did not go through the grind of nomination party primaries where her policies, postures and personality would get defined. She was catapulted into being the Domestic contender less than 100 days before election eve. She is not the leftist of 2020. She cannot position herself as the baton carrier of Biden’s legacy because that would be electoral suicide. Her biggest problem is that people do not know enough about her or what she stands for.

Most Don’t Know Who Kamala Really Is

She had a great debut at the August Democratic National Convention (DNC), but the NYT/Siena poll on the eve of the debate came as a damper. Almost a third of those polled said they do not know enough about her or her policies, compared to only 5% for Trump. Some 36% felt she is too “progressive” compared to 28% who felt Trump is too “conservative”. As many as 97% of those who voted for Trump in 2020 said they would vote for him again. His base of white non-college educated, elderly, rural and evangelicals is rock solid.

Going into the debate, it was the swing vote in the “Arjun eye” of both Trump and Harris. Some 18 million of the US’s 161 million American voters are registered as “undecided”. Within them, it is estimated that the swing vote is 7% in seven states. Now observers have narrowed the swing vote down to 50,000 from five states.

For that narrow target audience – as much for anybody other than MAGA (Make America Great Again) bhakts – there is little doubt that Harris won the debate, hands down. In a consolidation of her convention profile, she came across as presidential, fully aware of the power and prestige of the office; as somebody who engages with policies and solutions, and wants to represent all Americans, including Republicans; somebody who values freedom in its widest sense, including woman’s rights over their bodies; somebody who wants to lead Americans out of their recent fractious past into a future of opportunity.

Kamala Sprung A Surprise

She had become fully prepped by a team which, in a departure from Biden’s lot, includes disillusioned ex-members of Trump’s core team. She had her list of talking points and she made sure she ticked off all of them, irrespective of the questions asked. She made no effort to defend Biden’s record on its weakest legacies but spiritedly defended the regime’s record on healthcare and the NATO support for Ukraine. Her policy prescriptions were as nondescript — whatever does an “economy of opportunity mean? — as at the DNC, but she was at her passionate best on abortion.

Most importantly, she baited Trump repeatedly on all his pet peeves, so that the worst of him came out. This she did brilliantly from her opening statement, priming the audience to expect the “same old playbook and bunch of lies”. To her delight, Trump fell for every single bait she laid for him.

She said people left his rallies out of “boredom and exhaustion”; predictably, Trump thundered that his rallies are the “biggest ever”. She said the world’s leaders she had met as V-P would laugh at Trump; at how easily he could be manipulated by flattery; that they call him a “disgrace”. He shouted into the mic how “strong” world leaders like Victor Urban of Hungary say that the world has gone to pieces after Trump; how the wars in Ukraine and Israel-Gaza would never have happened had be been President; how he would end the wars in “24 hours” by bashing the heads of all combatants the day he became the President-elect.

How Trump Missed Opportunities

Her coup de grace against Trump was on the results of the 2020 elections. In response to a question from the moderator, Trump repeated that he had not accepted that he had lost the last election. Harris latched on to the response, saying he had been “fired” by 81 million voters, and that his attempts at reviewing the vote had been turned down by over 60 courts. She stressed how his refusal to process the fact that he had indeed lost the election cast doubt on whether “this candidate standing to my right” had the cognitive ability to accept facts, and that the American people deserved something better from their Chief Executive.

So rattled was Trump that he barely nicked Harris on her vulnerabilities when he could have stuck a knife through her. He did repeat rants like “Biden was the worst President of the US and she was the worst Vice-President”, and he did nail the Biden administration on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan leaving behind $ 85 billion of fresh armaments. But he failed to pin her down on her several policy flip-flops, on the crisis of affordability in American families on the price of groceries, housing and healthcare, on the inability of the Biden administration to end the war in Gaza or to cripple Russia’s economy because of the Ukraine invasion, or to prevent China from attaining superiority in strategic technologies.

On abortion, where he was on the defensive, he could have deeply wounded Harris by pointing out that women seeking abortion in Minnesota face no restriction on which pregnancy stage they opt for abortion at. In fact, Trump mentioned Tom Walz, the Minnesota governor and Harris’s V-P nominee, as he began his answer on abortion, but he made only an elliptical reference to Walz and then lost his way. Instead, he alleged that Democrats were allowing unwanted babies to be “executed” after they were born, only to be corrected by the fact-checking moderators.

Shooting Himself In The Foot

Much as Harris predicted, Trump brought up immigration even when the question was not about that. He repeatedly ranted at the “millions and millions of criminals and insane lunatics” invading the country and went on to make the fantastic claim that this “invasion” would lead to WW-III.

In his first mention of immigration on the debate, he predictably repeated a lie that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating cats and dogs of the people. Only, again, to be fact-checked by the moderator that town authorities had completely denied the story. The next day, the parents of the boy whose story had ostensibly led to the lie spread by the right-wing media and brought to national attention by a tweet from J.D. Vance asked the Republicans to back off.

Did Trump Underestimate Kamala?

No question, Harris got the debate she would have wanted in her dreams. Trump was either poorly prepared or, more likely, not prepared at all. A New York Post reporter, who has met him over the last 10 years, was shocked to learn at her latest meeting that Trump did not seem to know that Harris’s upbringing had little to do with her Marxist-economist professor father. His staff confirmed to her that he was not being briefed.

It was evident in the debate that Trump is yet to come to terms with being denied the opportunity to take revenge from Biden. Sensing this, a sharp Harris reminded him in the debate that it wasn’t Biden who he was contesting against, reinforcing the image of a man not in touch with reality. The debate was not even over when Taylor Swift tweeted that she was endorsing Harris, identifying herself as a “Cat Lady”, referring to Vance’s rant against “cat ladies”. Swift’s endorsement, in the air since the DNC, will impact some of the youth vote.

A Trip To The ‘Spin Room’

There were other happy straws in the wind to follow for Harris. Word got out that Trump had visited the “spin room” immediately after the debate. This is a room where the candidate’s media team gathers to issue denials and clarifications, gauge response and initiate social media ripples, knowing that it is the memes and clips that are played over and over again that agglomerate the debate’s impact among fans and critics. Candidates typically never visit the “spin room” post the debate.

The next morning brought further confirmation for Harris when Trump lashed out at the ABC, the host of the debate. He charged the moderators with being biased because of their several fact-checks, which the channel had announced it would do, unlike other media hosts in the past. Trump ranted that the moderators should be criminally prosecuted and that the channel’s licence should be revoked.

This was the ultimate proof that Harris had eminently succeeded in her objective of getting under his skin. 

Harris Has Round One

Will there be another debate? Harris needs the vast audience these debates bring — 67 million watched the Tuesday debate — to present her personable and confident self to the electorate. Democrats have made it known they want another slugfest. Trump may not be able to resist the opportunity to get his own back at a candidate who he disparages privately far more than he does so richly in public.

This election will hinge on countless anonymous assessments made regarding which candidate has the better character to be the next President of the United States, based on fleeting and superficial considerations by people with only a scant interest in politics. The Harris team won this gladiatorial contest but the war will be on at full pitch till November 5.

(Ajay Kumar is a senior journalist. He is former Managing Editor, Business Standard, and former Executive Editor, The Economic Times.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Pop megastar Taylor Swift drew more than 9 million “likes” to her Instagram post backing Vice President Kamala Harris for president from celebrities that included Jennifer Aniston, US basketball star Caitlin Clark and Selena Gomez. Soon after Harris, a Democrat, finished debating her Republican rival Donald Trump on Tuesday night, Swift, 34, told her 283 million followers that Harris and running mate Tim Walz would get her vote in the Nov. 5 election.

Her post encouraged first-time voters to be sure to register for the election, and a US General Services Administration spokesperson reported on Wednesday receiving 337,826 visitors at vote.gov from a custom URL that Taylor Swift had shared.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift posted.

She called Harris a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who could lead the country with calm rather than chaos.

Swift was pictured with her cat in her 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.

Supermodel Karlie Kloss, who is married to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s brother, liked Swift’s post.

“Parks and Recreation” and “The White Lotus” actor Aubrey Plaza echoed Swift’s endorsement in her own Instagram post on Wednesday, where she held a cat alongside the caption “HARRIS WALZ” with an American flag emoji.

Trump supporter Elon Musk, who is chief executive of Tesla and owns social media platform X, wrote on his platform, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”

His message was branded “disgusting,” “misogynistic” and “creepy.”

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” Swift wrote to her followers on Instagram. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered!”

Swift wrote that she was impressed by Walz, the Minnesota governor, and described him 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 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.”

Shortly after Swift’s endorsement, the Harris-Walz campaign announced pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan inspired friendship bracelets.

TRUMP DISMISSES ENDORSEMENT

Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed Swift’s endorsement of Harris, 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.”

In August, Trump posted a fake social media image of Swift asking people to vote for him in the November election.

Swift referred to that in her Tuesday post, saying Trump had “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.”

Opinion polls show the race essentially tied between the two candidates.

Harris, who supports abortion rights, has criticized Trump for appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who in 2022 helped overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling ensuring a constitutional right to abortion.

Trump has defended the court’s abortion ruling but said a federal abortion ban is unnecessary and that the issue should be resolved at the state level.

Swift backed President Joe Biden in 2020. Many Hollywood actors, producers and filmmakers have said they view Harris, a former U.S. senator from California, as their hometown candidate.

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

Washington:

Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump has said that his campaign raised USD 139 million in July and has USD 327 million cash on hand.

“There has never been anything like the MAGA Movement. We raised $139 Million Dollars in July alone. We now have a whopping $327 Million Cash On Hand.” Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform.

“Spectacular support from Great American Patriots who are donating to our Campaign for President of the United States, and helping out in many other ways. Much work to be done, but I will always keep fighting for YOU. Our Country is failing, but we will turn it around, quickly, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” he said on Thursday.

The Trump Campaign, in a statement, said these numbers reflect continued momentum with donors at every level and provide the resources for the final 96 days until victory on November 5th.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the U.S. presidential race injects greater uncertainty into the world at a time when Western leaders are grappling with wars in Ukraine and Gaza, a more assertive China in Asia and the rise of the far-right in Europe.

During a five-decade career in politics, Mr. Biden developed extensive personal relationships with multiple foreign leaders that none of the potential replacements on the Democratic ticket can match. After his announcement, messages of support and gratitude for his years of service poured in from near and far.

The scope of foreign policy challenges facing the next U.S. President makes clear how consequential what happens in Washington is for the rest of the planet. Here’s a look at some of them.

With Vice President Kamala Harris being eyed as a potential replacement for Mr. Biden, Israelis on Sunday scrambled to understand what her candidacy would mean for their country as it confronts increasing global isolation over its military campaign against Hamas.

ALSO READ | What happens next as Joe Biden seeks to pass baton to Kamala Harris?

Israel’s left-wing Haaretz daily newspaper ran a story scrutinising Ms. Harris’s record of support for Israel, pointing to her reputation as Mr. Biden’s “bad cop” who has vocally admonished Israel for its war on Gaza. In recent months, she has gone further than Mr. Biden in calling for a ceasefire, denouncing Israel’s invasion of Rafah and expressing horror over the civilian death toll in Gaza.

“With Biden leaving, Israel has lost perhaps the last Zionist President,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli Consul General in New York. “A new Democratic candidate will upend the dynamic.”

ALSO READ | Trump season: Editorial on the 2024 U.S. Presidential election

Mr. Biden’s staunch defence of Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attack has its roots in his half-century of support for the country as a Senator, Vice President, and then President. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant thanked Mr. Biden for his “unwavering support of Israel over the years.” “Your steadfast backing, especially during the war, has been invaluable,” Mr. Gallant wrote on social media platform X.

‘Unbreakable bond’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Mr. Biden as a “symbol of the unbreakable bond between our two peoples” and a “true ally of the Jewish people.” There was no immediate reaction from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ally of former President Donald Trump whose history of cordial relations with Mr. Biden has come under strain during the Israel-Hamas war.

Any Democratic candidate would likely continue Mr. Biden’s legacy of staunch military support for Ukraine. But frustration with the Biden administration has grown in Ukraine and Europe over the slow pace of U.S. aid and restrictions on the use of Western weapons.

“Most Europeans realise that Ukraine is increasingly going to be their burden,” said Sudha David-Wilp, director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund, a research institute. “Everyone is trying to get ready for all the possible outcomes.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he respected the “tough but strong decision” by Mr. Biden to drop out of the campaign, and he thanked Mr. Biden for his help “in preventing (Russian President Vladimir) Putin from occupying our country.”

Mr. Trump has promised to end Russia’s war on Ukraine in one day if he is elected — a prospect that has raised fears in Ukraine that Russia might be allowed to keep the territory it occupies. Mr. Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, is among Congress’s most vocal opponents of U.S. aid for Ukraine and has further raised the stakes for Kyiv.

Russia, meanwhile, dismissed the importance of the race, insisting that no matter what happened, Moscow would press on in Ukraine.

“That is it for Biden,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security council, said on the Telegram messaging app. “The goals of the special military operation will be achieved,” he added, using the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine.

In recent months, both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have tried to show voters who can best stand up to Beijing’s growing military strength and belligerence and protect U.S. businesses and workers from low-priced Chinese imports. Mr. Biden has hiked tariffs on electric vehicles from China, and Mr. Trump has promised to implement tariffs of 60% on all Chinese products.

Mr. Trump’s “America First” doctrine exacerbated tensions with Beijing. But disputes with the geopolitical rival and economic colossus over wars, trade, technology and security continued into Mr. Biden’s term.

China’s official reaction to the U.S. presidential race has been careful.

“The U.S. elections are U.S. internal politics. I have no comment on this,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

The editor of the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper, Hu Xijin, downplayed the impact of Mr. Biden’s withdrawal. “Whoever becomes the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party may be the same,” he wrote on X.

Many Europeans were happy to see Mr. Trump go after his years of disparaging the European Union and undermining NATO. Mr. Trump’s seemingly dismissive attitude toward European allies in last month’s presidential debate did nothing to assuage those concerns. Mr. Biden, on the other hand, has supported close American relations with bloc leaders.

That closeness was on stark display after Mr. Biden’s decision to bow out of the race. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called his choice “probably the most difficult one in your life.” The newly installed British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said he respected Biden’s “decision based on what he believes is in the best interests of the American people.”

President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President opens the door for other contenders to become the Democratic nominee in November. The President has thrown his support behind Vice-President Kamala Harris, and other prominent Democrats moved quickly to rally around her candidacy, but it’s unclear just how smooth her path to the party’s nomination is.

Also Read: Joe Biden withdraws from presidential race: LIVE update

Here are some of the leading contenders for a spot on the Democratic ticket:

Kamala Harris

Born in Oakland, California, Vice-President Kamala Harris calls Thurgood Marshall an inspiration and talks often about growing up with parents deeply involved in the civil rights movement. Ms. Harris, 59, is married to Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff.

Her economist father and cancer specialist mother met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, where Ms. Harris recalled they spent ample time “marching and shouting about this thing called justice.” In choosing Ms. Harris as his running mate in 2020, Mr. Biden called her a “fearless fighter for the little guy.” She has not wavered as his Vice-Presidential nominee and has become more visible campaigning for the Biden-Harris ticket in recent weeks.

Ms. Harris, who is Black and also of South Asian descent, is the nation’s first female Vice-President and the first person of colour to hold that office. A graduate of Howard University, she also is the first person from a historically Black college or university to hold the office of either President or Vice-President.

Ms. Harris won her seat in the U.S. Senate in 2016 after twice being elected California attorney general. As a Senate candidate, she stressed her fights with big banks during the mortgage crisis, for-profit colleges that were financially exploiting students and environmental wrongdoers.

She’s talked for years about recidivism and criminal justice reform and pushed for a different approach to non-violent crimes that emphasises rehabilitation instead of severe, one-size-fits-all punishment. She calls it smart on crime.

As Vice-President, Ms. Harris has been asked by Mr. Biden to take on some of the most challenging tasks his administration has faced, including securing the nation’s borders. As the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, she has cast a record number of tie-breaking votes on legislation promoted by Democrats, who are defending a razor-thin majority in both houses of Congress in this year’s elections.

J.B. Pritzker

The Governor of Illinois State, J.B. Pritzker is the richest politician holding office in the U.S. He is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, a former private equity investor and philanthropist. His net worth of $3.4 billion puts him at No. 250 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.

The 59-year-old Mr. Pritzker won the nomination for Governor in 2018, besting a crowded Democratic field. He beat one-term incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and inherited mountains of state debt, unpaid bills and ratings by Wall Street credit houses just above junk status because of Mr. Rauner’s two-year feud with legislative Democrats that resulted in the state going without a budget plan.

Working with Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, Mr. Pritzker has boasted balanced budgets and paid down billions of dollars in debt, prompting multiple credit upgrades. He also has overseen increased education funding, the centralisation of early childhood services, and new laws to make health insurance more comprehensive, accessible and affordable.

After receiving generally high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he defeated a Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican with 55% of the vote, becoming the first Illinois Governor to be elected to a second term in 16 years. He then promptly delivered a victory speech that sounded like it came from a national candidate, denouncing Donald Trump and asking, “Are you ready to fight?”

Even before his re-election, when there was speculation Mr. Biden might not seek a second term, Mr. Pritzker was criticised for saying he was happy being Governor while traveling to the early primary state of New Hampshire and campaigning for or funding Democratic candidates nationally. And he’s continued to boost his coast-to-coast profile by bankrolling a political organisation called “Think Big America” that aims to protect abortion rights and has supported state constitutional amendments to strengthen those protections in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada.

Gretchen Whitmer

Governor of the Michigan state, Gretchen Whitmer has rapidly risen in prominence within the Democratic Party since first winning the 2018 gubernatorial election after serving for a decade and a half in the State Legislature.

Her national profile grew significantly during the final years of Mr. Trump’s presidency when she emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most effective voices opposing the then President. She delivered the Democratic response to Mr. Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address and frequently clashed with him over how the federal government handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Near the end of 2020, the FBI uncovered a plot to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, which led to nine men either being convicted by jury or pleading guilty.

Also Read:Trump season: On the 2024 U.S. Presidential election

In her 2022 reelection campaign, Ms. Whitmer focused on reproductive rights, resulting in a double-digit victory and passage of a voter-approved measure codifying abortion rights in the state. Her party also flipped both chambers of the State Legislature, securing a Democratic trifecta for the first time in nearly four decades.

The massive Democratic victories in a swing state that Mr. Trump won in the 2016 Presidential election positioned Ms. Whitmer as a leading advocate for reproductive freedom and a strong contender for a future Presidential nomination.

Ms. Whitmer — who was one of the top surrogates for Joe Biden’s re-election campaign — has long deflected questions about whether she has an interest in higher office, telling the Associated Press earlier this month that she would not step in as a candidate this year if Mr. Biden were to step aside.

But the 52-year-old Democrat has been working to boost her national profile. She met with Mr. Biden in 2020 as he considered who to select as a running mate and she is currently on a national press tour for her new memoir. Ms. Whitmer has also set up a national political action committee that has raised millions this election cycle.

Gavin Newsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom is a native of San Francisco who got involved in politics by volunteering for Willie Brown’s 1995 campaign for Mayor. Two years later, Mr. Brown appointed Mr. Newsom to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he was later elected and re-elected.

Mr. Newsom then became mayor himself and received national attention in 2004 when he directed the San Francisco clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and unapologetically pushed a progressive agenda when he successfully ran for Governor eight years later. Now in his second term, he says he is “standing up for California values — from civil rights, to immigration, environmental protection, access to quality schools at all levels and justice,” according to his official bio.

Mr. Newsom, 56, has maintained a high national profile this year, challenging Republican Presidential candidates in public appearances despite not being a candidate himself. He has been one of Mr. Biden’s staunchest defenders even as criticism mounted following the president’s faltering debate performance.

During an early July stop in New Hampshire on behalf of the President, Mr. Newsom said of Mr. Biden: “He’s going to be our nominee.” The Governor was a baseball star at Santa Clara University. After graduating, he worked briefly in sales before starting a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, which includes restaurants, resorts and vineyards throughout California.

He is married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. They have four children.

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, long seen as a rising political star in Pennsylvania, is halfway through his second year as Governor after easily winning his last election by trouncing a far-right, Donald Trump-endorsed candidate in the premier Presidential battleground.

Mr. Shapiro, 51, has been a surrogate for Mr. Biden, backing the President in appearances on cable networks, and has years of experience making former President Mr. Trump the focus of his attacks, first as State Attorney General and now as Governor.

If he joins a Democratic ticket, Mr. Shapiro will become the first Presidential nominee of Jewish heritage or the second Vice-Presidential nominee of that background, after former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2000.

Mr. Shapiro has won three State-wide races — two as attorney general, one as Governor — with a tightly scripted, disciplined campaign style, offering voters something of a lower-key alternative to the State’s brash political star, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.

As the Governor, Mr. Shapiro has begun to shed a buttoned-down public demeanor and become more confident and plain-spoken. In one recent MSNBC appearance, he said Mr. Trump should “quit whining” and stop “sh- talking America.” Mr. Shapiro has aggressively confronted what he viewed as antisemitism cropping up from pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and has professed solidarity with Israel in its drive to eliminate Hamas.

He is a staunch proponent of abortion rights in Pennsylvania and routinely touts his victories in court against Mr. Trump, including beating back challenges to the 2020 election results. He also has positioned himself as a moderate on energy issues in the nation’s No. 2 natural gas state and plays up the need for bipartisanship in the politically divided State government.

Roy Cooper

North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has won six State-wide general elections over two decades in a State where Republicans routinely prevail in similar federal races and also control the legislature.

Mr. Cooper, 67, has received strong job-approval ratings as Governor, benefitting from a booming State economy, for which his administration and lawmakers take credit. He also portrays himself as a fighter for public education and abortion rights. While Mr. Cooper finally persuaded Grand Old Party (GOP) legislators last year to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, other efforts have been thwarted by a General Assembly with veto-proof majorities that has eroded his formal powers.

A native of small-town Nash County, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Raleigh, Mr. Cooper was his high school quarterback and head of the Young Democrats at the University of North Carolina, where he obtained both his undergraduate and law degrees. “Coop,” as he was known to friends, came home and worked at his father’s law firm.

Mr. Cooper upset the Democratic incumbent in a 1986 state House primary race and was elected to the General Assembly. He served 14 years there and later became the Senate majority leader. He was elected Attorney General in 2000, a position he held for 16 years. In that post, he is likely best known nationally for declaring three former Duke University lacrosse players innocent after they were wrongly accused of sexual assault by an escort service dancer.

Mr. Cooper unseated another incumbent in 2016, this time Republican Governor Pat McCrory by roughly 10,000 votes. A top campaign issue was the “bathroom bill” that Mr. McCrory signed requiring transgender people to use public restrooms that corresponded with the sex on their birth certificates. As Governor, Mr. Cooper quickly reached an agreement with legislators to partially repeal the law.

His time as Governor also was marked by restricting business and school activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. He won re-election in 2020 by 4.5% points, even as Mr. Trump won the State’s electoral votes.

Mr. Cooper and his wife, Kristin, have three grown daughters.

Andy Beshear

Kentucky State Governor Andy Beshear secured his reputation as a rising Democratic star by beating Trump-endorsed Republicans in his bright red state.

He displayed a disciplined, tenacious style in winning re-election last year, defeating then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The Governor has urged Democrats to follow his winning formula by focusing on the everyday concerns of Americans, from good-paying jobs to quality education and health care.

Mr. Beshear supports abortion rights, but in Kentucky has tailored his message to push back against what he calls an extreme ban that lacks exceptions for rape and incest victims. He won widespread praise for his empathy and attention to detail in guiding the Bluegrass State through the COVID-19 pandemic and leading the response to tornadoes and flooding that caused massive damage. He honed his speaking skills by holding regular news conferences that often last an hour or so.

Mr. Beshear has presided over record-setting economic growth in Kentucky, and he typically begins his briefings by touting the State’s latest economic wins. He frequently mentions his Christian faith and how it guides his policymaking. An attorney by trade, Mr. Beshear won the election as State Attorney General in 2015. He then unseated Trump-backed Republican incumbent Matt Bevin to first win the governorship in 2019.

Mr. Beshear entered politics with a strong pedigree as the son of former two-term Governor Steve Beshear, but the son has faced tougher political obstacles. Mr. Beshear, unlike his dad, has dealt with an entirely GOP-controlled Legislature and Republican lawmakers have stymied some of his priorities. One of them is a State-funded preschool for every Kentucky 4-year-old.

Mark Kelly

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona leveraged his career as an astronaut to build a brand as a moderate in a state that long supported Republicans.

In his two campaigns — the first in 2020 to finish the late Republican Senator John McCain’s last term, and the second two years later for a full term — Mr. Kelly has earned more votes than any other Democrat on the ballot. He outpolled Mr. Biden, who narrowly won Arizona by 2% points in 2020.

Mr. Kelly’s first turn in the national political spotlight came through tragedy. His wife, then U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson The shooting left six people dead and spawned an early reckoning with political violence and partisan rancor.

Ms. Giffords’ improbable survival made her a national inspiration but snuffed out a promising political career of her own. She and Mr. Kelly went on to found a gun-control advocacy group, and Ms. Giffords has been a powerful surrogate as Mr. Kelly has taken her place in politics.

In the Senate, Mr. Kelly has focused on national security and the military as well as the drought plaguing the U.S. West. He was instrumental in crafting the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill signed by Mr. Biden to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.

Mr. Kelly was a Navy test pilot and flew 39 combat missions during the Gulf War before joining The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he flew three missions on the space shuttle. Originally from New Jersey, he settled with Giffords in Tucson after retiring from NASA and the Navy.

Unlike Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat two years before Mr. Kelly but later left the party to become independent, Mr. Kelly has managed to retain the support of the party’s grassroots base without alienating independent voters.

The US election campaign takes a deadly turn- with Trump and his new Vice President choice surging in the polls after the assassination attempt, and pressure building on President Biden to step aside for another candidate- what are the major issues for voters, and what will decision 2024 in the US mean for India?

This week we are looking at the turmoil in America- with less than 4 months to election day, it seems nothing is certain, not even who the final candidate lineup may be

First- to the shocking assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump as he was giving a speech in Pennsylvania. Pumping his fist as he was taken away from the stage, Trump was recast as an American hero, seeing a further bump in his ratings. Trump is the third US President to have been injured in an assassination attempt, four Presidents have been killed in the past

Second- Trump announced his Vice-Presidential candidate- JD Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegies, married to Usha Chilukuri , daughter of Indian immigrants. Vance was a never-trumper, now a US Senator, who endorsed Trump whole heartedly at the Republican National Convention this week

Finally, Trump was formally nominated at the RNC- he accepted, with a message of unity, which included a few swipes at the Biden administration

Across the political battlefield- the Democrats and President Joseph Biden have had compounding problems with the campaign

First, a disastrous Biden-Trump debate which sparked concerns about Biden’s frail health and grip on issues, which Biden sought to dispel

Followed by criticism over the Trump assassination bid and faulty security, even being blamed for instigating the assassin, who was actually a registered republican

And then, President Biden was hit by Covid, and had to quarantine right when he should have been out campaigning.

So if Trump is up, and Biden down, is he also out? Thats the big question- 

The triple whammy has convinced many senior democrats to push Biden to step down from the candidature which could happen quickly- who could take over? It could either be VP Pick Kamala Harris, or an open convention to select the new team anytime up to the DNC August 19-22.

Here are the latest polls then- as you can see when you scroll, it’s at present all red- with Trump up between 2 and 6 points.

What according to voters polled are the big issues?

1. Inflation and unemployment

2. Immigration

3. Access to abortion/ reproductive rights

4. Gun violence/Gun rights

5. Climate change/energy

6. Israel/Gaza*

7. Russia/Ukraine

8. Trade and Tariffs- China

9. Taxes

10. Crime figures

Impact on India – of those 10 issues, 5 have foreign policy implications, that could actually impact India

1. Trump’s promise of a crackdown on immigrant numbers and illegal aliens, closing the borders is likely to be of concern, as also the violence that anti-immigrant speech spurs.

2. Biden pushed for green energy, funding India’s renewable transition, whereas Trump, who walked out of the Paris accords last time around will push for more oil- in his words, drill, baby, drill

3. On Israel/Gaza, Trump will probably pay less heed to civilian casualties of Palestinians, but may push Israel more for a deal for a ceasefire, including with Saudi Arabia, as he did in the past, and get tougher on Iran- India watching closely what either can do to bring peace and actualize the IMEEC corridor

4. Biden has committed to funding Ukraine for as long as it takes, and taken a stern view of India-Russia ties and PM Modi’s Moscow visit, so a Trump win will be a relief for New Delhi, especially given the criticism from US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti last week, about India and strategic autonomy

5. And on China, Trump policy is likely to be tougher on China when it comes to trade and tariffs, but perhaps not as hard on Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea- judging by comments his Vice President nominee made recently. Trump revived the Quad, but Biden raised its profile, and given it is India’s turn to host the Quad summit next, New Delhi will be keen to see the new president visit here soon.

No mention of India in Trump’s RNC speech, but on 3 other issues, India will watch closely

6. Human Rights- Trump won’t push India on Human Rights issues the way the Biden administration has – religious freedom etc., although Trump is likely to be more intrusive on the issue of India’s cutting FCRA licenses to Christian charities that form his base.

7. Pannun case- While the trial in the Pannun case will go on regardless of who is in power, it is possible a Trump administration will be easier on the public messaging over transnational repression

8. Transfer of technology- Biden has committed to transferring technology to India without strings attached, whereas Trump might want to extract more assurances impose costs to the deal- as he has done in the past, even threatening sanctions over India’s oil imports from Iran, which the Modi government acceded to

WV Take:

The next few months will see more turmoil in the US elections- at a time the India-US relationship is seeing a slump of sorts, that isn’t good news, but no matter who wins the elections, there is ample opportunity to pick up ties, given that New Delhi has dealt well with both the Trump Administration as well as the Biden ones. All eyes now will be on whether there will be a new contender to deal with from the Democrats, and what their track record on foreign policy and India ties says.

WV Reading Recommendations:

On Trump and Biden:

The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future by Franklin Foer

The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House by Chris Whipple

PERIL by Bob Woodward, also Fear and Rage

All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way Hardcover – Import, 30 July 2024 by Fred C. Trump III

The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict by Elbridge A. Colby

The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump by Alexander Ward

On India-US ties:

Open Embrace: India-US Ties: India-US Ties in a Divided World by Varghese K. George

Friends with Benefits: The India-US Story by Seema Sirohi

A Matter Of Trust: India-US Relations from Truman to Trump by Meenakshi Ahamed

Script and Presentation: Suhasini Haidar

Production: Gayatri Menon and Shibu Narayan

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Joe Biden react as they attend a Ukraine Compact meeting, on the sidelines of the NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, U.S. July 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A defiant Joe Biden insisted Thursday that he will run for another term as U.S. president and beat Donald Trump, as a string of verbal gaffes at a major summit threw a harsh new spotlight on his fitness.

In a high stakes press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Washington, the 81-year-old acknowledged the need to “allay fears” among Democrats but said he was determined not to step aside.

Also read | Trump torches Biden as gloves finally come off after debate

His bid to portray himself as in command was undermined by introducing Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as his Russian foe Vladimir Putin earlier in the day, and then referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” at the news conference.

Mr. Biden’s candidacy has been in crisis since a disastrous debate performance against Mr. Trump two weeks ago renewed concerns around his age — and the rare solo press conference, lasting about an hour, was designed to show he still has what it takes.

“I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Trump.

Already the oldest president in U.S. history, Mr. Biden said he was “not in this for my legacy” but to “complete the job I started.”

The president has faced a steady drumbeat of Democrats calling for him to abandon his 2024 candidacy, fearing that Mr. Trump is in a position to beat him.

More calls from House representatives came Thursday night after the news conference.

Mr. Biden made clear he supported Ms. Harris — who as vice president would take over from him in the event of an emergency, but is also seen by a growing number of Democrats as a stronger candidate at the top of the ticket.

‘Pace myself’

Amid reports that Mr. Biden’s campaign was quietly testing Ms. Harris’s strength in a theoretical match-up against Mr. Trump, the president said he would not have picked her if “she was not qualified to be president.”

He also denied reports that he needed to go to bed by 8 p.m., a time at which he was still holding his news conference on Thursday.

But after blaming his debate debacle on a mixture of jet lag and a cold he admitted it would be “smarter for me to pace myself a little more.”

He stressed too that neurological exams showed he was in “good shape” and said he would take another if his doctors recommended one, but they hadn’t.

Mr. Biden also fielded a series of foreign and domestic policy questions with detailed if occasionally meandering answers and relatively few slip-ups, though he did mix up Europe and Asia.

With questions swirling about his ability to hold his own against autocratic leaders like Mr. Putin or China’s Xi Jinping, Mr. Biden said he was “ready to deal with them now and three years from now.”

Yet his relatively assured performance failed to stop the bleeding, with three more Democratic lawmakers calling for him to quit the race, bringing the total to 17.

Mr. Trump meanwhile mocked Mr. Biden over his gaffes during the press conference itself.

“Crooked Joe begins his ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference with, ‘I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president… Great job, Joe!” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social site.

President Joe Biden dismissed calls to end his reelection bid and denied that his debate performance wrought significant damage to his campaign, a defiant posture that risked further alarming Democrats who fear he has not honestly grappled with his biggest political crisis.

Biden on Friday in an ABC News interview refused to commit to an independent medical exam to reassure the public of his mental fitness, even as he insisted he has the stamina to serve another four years.

He did not accept that he trails Donald Trump in the polls, said he had not directly heard discussions among senior Democrats about asking him to step aside, and declared only the “Lord Almighty” would prompt him to even consider ending his bid.

And while the president, 81, avoided a significant gaffe like the ones that bedeviled his disjointed debate performance, the 22-minute prime-time interview with anchor George Stephanopoulos was unlikely to assuage concerns among the voters, donors, and Democratic officials who have spent the past week in a panic that he not only would fail to defeat his Republican opponent, but would not be able to serve another four years even if he managed reelection.

“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Biden said when asked how he will feel in January if Trump wins the election, a nightmare scenario for Democrats.

Biden’s posture is perhaps the only strategy available for a candidate who is determined to continue his bid to win a second term. After Biden unveiled a revamped stump speech earlier Friday that acknowledged his age and more forcefully attacked Trump, his campaign indicated he plans to soldier on with more events Sunday in battleground Pennsylvania and beyond.

Multiple polls released following the debate showed Biden losing ground to Trump, with several showing him trailing by 6 percentage points. The share of voters in a New York Times/Siena College poll who believe he is too old to be president grew to 74%.

Dismisses Polls

When asked if he believes he is not behind, however, Biden said “all the pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a tossup.”

One Democratic donor, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said they are angry at those in Biden’s orbit for not encouraging him to step down, calling the continued campaign delusional and selfish.

“He is dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have” David Axelrod, a former Obama White House adviser who has been critical of Biden, posted on X after the interview.

Before Biden’s ABC appearance, Illinois Representative Mike Quigley joined a group of more than half a dozen House Democrats who have either explicitly called on the president to drop out, or said they believe he would lose to Trump in November.

Biden acknowledged Senator Mark Warner, a prominent Democrat from Virginia, was looking to rally other lawmakers to pressure him to drop out. The president said he had heard from others that he should remain in the race.

“Mark and I have a different perspective,” Biden told Stephanopoulos.

“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down,” the president continued.

‘Wasn’t In Control’

Biden chalked up his poor debate performance to a “bad episode” brought on by a severe cold and that there was “no indication of any serious condition.” Asked when he realized that he was having a bad night, Biden suggested that at one point he had been distracted by Trump shouting.

“I realized that I just wasn’t in control,” he said of that moment.

Asked if he had watched his debate performance, which alarmed Democratic allies, Biden said “I don’t think I did, no.”

The interview came during a trip to Wisconsin in which Biden flatly declared he was not considering dropping out of the race. He said those looking to pressure him were disrespecting the will of Democratic primary voters, and that he still believed he represented the best chance for Democrats of defeating Trump.

The issue will be put to the test over the coming week in the face of growing concern from Democratic lawmakers and donors.

After his trip to Pennsylvania, Biden hosts NATO leaders starting Tuesday at a summit in Washington. The president’s ramped-up schedule is a response to panicked Democrats who have demanded he do more to prove to voters he is capable of serving another four years in the White House.

So far, some Democrats remain wary.

Biden met Wednesday behind closed doors with more than 20 Democratic governors in a bid to stem the crisis engulfing his presidency, telling them he is “in it to win it.” He received public votes of confidence from several of them, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer.

But privately, the governors had tough questions for the president and he acknowledged that he needs to get more sleep going forward, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

One of the participants, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, issued a statement Friday that stopped short of calling on Biden to drop out but appeared to push him to at least consider the possibility.

“I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” she said.

 

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

While Ronald Reagan, left, had pledged to leave office if he became ‘impaired’, President Biden affirmed that he is ‘racing to the end’.
| Photo Credit: AP

The age question for presidential candidates in the U.S. is more than four decades old. President Ronald Reagan in 1980 answered it with a pledge to resign if he became impaired, and in 1984 with a clever joke that reset his campaign from a stumbling debate performance to a 49-State landslide and a second term.

“I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” Reagan said to the question he knew was coming in perhaps the most famous mic-drop moment in campaign history. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

The audience roared, even Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale laughed — and Reagan’s reelection was back on track.

Today, Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, is struggling for such a redemptive moment after a disastrous debate performance against Republican former President Donald Trump, 78. Those 90 minutes last week set off alarms among Democrats hoping Mr. Biden would keep Mr. Trump from returning to the White House — and heightened concern among voters long skeptical of how either elderly man would govern a complex nation of more than 330 million people for four more years.

More than two dozen people who have spent time with the President privately described him as often sharp and focused. But he also has moments, particularly later in the evening, when his thoughts seem jumbled and he trails off mid-sentence or seems confused, they said. Sometimes he doesn’t grasp the finer points of policy details. He occasionally forgets people’s names, stares blankly and moves slowly around the room, they said.

Mr. Biden has vowed to stay in the race, despite signs of eroding support on Capitol Hill.

“I am running … no one’s pushing me out,” Mr. Biden said on a on call Wednesday with staffers from his reelection campaign. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”

But the question facing him is far more intimate, according to one expert who covered Reagan’s health during his presidency. “The most important debate of the campaign is the one taking place right now in Biden’s head between the part of mind telling him he’s the chosen one, and the more self-aware part,” said Rich Jaroslavsky of the University of California Berkeley, formerly of the Wall Street Journal.

At its heart, the question — how old is too old to be President? — is about competence. And Americans have never had wider personal experience with the effects of aging than they do today.

A surge of retiring baby boomers means that millions more Americans know when they see someone declining. For many, this widespread experience made Mr. Biden’s halting performance during Thursday’s debate a familiar reality check.

Mr. Trump seemed more vigorous, even though he lied about or misstated a long list of facts. When he challenged Mr. Biden to a cognitive test, Mr. Trump flubbed the name of the doctor who had administered his.

“Is this an episode, or is this a condition?” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 84, wondered on MSNBC, reflecting the question dominating Democratic circles this week. “It’s legitimate — of both candidates.”

Reagan faced the same questions even before he was elected as the oldest President to that point.

That didn’t happen. Reagan served two full terms, leaving office in 1989.

Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden has made a similar pledge, and their campaigns did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

File picture of Dr. Sampat S. Shivangi
| Photo Credit: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Eminent Indian-American physician Dr. Sampat Shivangi has been elected as an official delegate to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this month that would formally nominate former U.S. president Donald Trump as the party’s presidential candidate.

Mr. Trump, 78, is the presumptive Republican Party candidate for the presidential election.

An influential Indian-American community leader, Dr. Shivangi, has been elected as a National Delegate at the convention for the sixth time.

“It is a great pleasure and honour to share the news that I have been nominated and elected as (an) official delegate at the upcoming Republican National Convention to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 13 to July 19, 2024,” Dr. Shivangi said.

The four-day Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would formally nominate Mr. Trump as the party’s candidate for the November 5 presidential election.

The nomination process would be completed by Republican delegates from across the country.

Dr. Shivangi, a lifelong member of the Republican Party and a founding member of the Republican Indian Council and the Republican Indian National Council, has been nominated as RNC delegate six consecutive times.

“This will be my sixth time serving as a National Delegate at the Republican National Convention to nominate the Republican Party nominee to contest the national presidential election,” he said.

“My nomination began as early as when President George W. Bush was nominated in New York, then-Senator George McCain, Governor Mitt Romney, (and) President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Now again to re-elect President Donald Trump in 2024 in Milwaukee,” he said.

He is the national president of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, one of the oldest Indian American Associations.

Over the past three decades, he has lobbied for several bills in the U.S. Congress on behalf of India through his enormous contacts with U.S. Senators and Congressmen.

“I feel this is a unique honour and an opportunity for an Indian American to represent the community at the national level,” he said.

Dr. Shivangi said he would be part of the luncheon hosted by Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi in honour of the delegates at Northern Lights in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, for the Mississippi delegates.