US President Joe Biden last month announced his exit from the 2024 presidential race amid growing concerns over his health and a disastrous debate performance against rival Donald Trump.

After initially insisting he would stay in the race, the 81-year-old on July 21 announced his decision to step aside in a social media post while recovering from COVID-19 at his Delaware beach house.

Now, in an interview, Biden has shared his reasons for not seeking re-election. 

“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president,” he said in an interview with CBS. “I can’t even say how old I am – it’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth.”

He also stated the importance of defeating Trump, the Republican nominee.

“Although it’s a great honour to be a president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what I — most important thing you can do. And that is — we must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” he said. 

This interview follows his exit announcement, in which he endorsed his deputy Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Harris is set to become the official Democratic nominee at the party’s national convention in Chicago later this month. 

When asked about his confidence in a peaceful transfer of power in January 2025, Biden stated, “If Trump loses, I’m not confident at all. He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously.” 

He referenced Trump’s previous comments, including warnings of a “bloodbath” and claims of a “stolen election”.

“You can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden said. 

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.”

Adam Schiff
| Photo Credit: AFP

Representative Adam Schiff on July 17 became the most heavyweight Democrat so far to publicly urge U.S. President Joe Biden to step aside for another candidate to face Donald Trump.

He called on his ally to “pass the torch.”

Mr. Schiff, a key congressional powerbroker, praised Mr. Biden but told the Los Angeles Times that he doubts that the 81-year-old incumbent can defeat Trump – a threat to “the very foundation of our democracy.”

The Californian, who is expected to win a Senate seat this November, is one of the party’s most influential members and a key ally in the legislature for the White House.

He served as chairman of the House intelligence panel when Democrats had the majority in 2019 and shot to nationwide prominence as lead prosecutor during then-president Trump’s first impeachment trial.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Schiff aired the worry gripping the party, although often in private, that questions over Biden’s age and health will doom him in the November election.

Those concerns rocketed after Mr. Biden performed badly in a televised debate with Trump last month, often looking confused or unable to articulate.

Since then, Mr. Biden has repeatedly said he intends to stay in the race, arguing that he remains the best person to defeat Trump. Polls show a tight overall contest, but with Trump pulling ahead in key swing states.

Mr. Schiff called Mr. Biden “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history.”

However, “a second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Mr. Biden should “secure his legacy” by stepping aside, he said.

Washington:

Anyone expecting Joe Biden to step aside from the US presidential race without a fight had not fully considered the life story of a proud but often stubborn man.

From playground punch-ups to terrible tragedies and multiple White House bids, Biden has long seen his life as a series of comebacks against impossible odds.

And as a Democratic revolt over his debate debacle against Donald Trump appears to sputter for now, the 81-year-old seems determined to win the fight of his political life.

Unless a major shift occurs, it will likely fall to US voters to decide whether Biden stages another turnup for the books — or whether hubris condemns him and his party to a historic defeat by Trump.

Biden has repeatedly returned to the image of himself as an underdog since the debate, repeating his family’s mantra that “when you get knocked down, you get back up.”

“What we’ve seen the last 10 to 12 days is certainly fundamental to the Joe Biden story,” his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said from the White House podium on Tuesday.

“He is someone that is certainly counted out many, many times in his career. People tend to knock him down, and you hear him say he gets back up.

“This is the story of him standing up for himself, standing up for millions of Americans.”

‘Punch the guy’ 

That outlook was formed by a hardscrabble childhood in the American rust-belt, as part of a close-knit Irish Catholic family known for its intense pride.

His mother Jean told the young Joey and his siblings every day that “nobody was better than a Biden,” Ben Cramer wrote in his book “What It Takes,” about the 1988 US election campaign.

He was also known for never backing down.

“Most guys who got into a fight, they’d square off… Joey didn’t do that,” Cramer wrote. “He decided to fight… BANGO — he’d punch the guy in the face.”

One affliction Biden famously had to battle was a childhood stutter.

Repeatedly humiliated at school, the young Biden ended up teaching himself how to speak smoothly by sheer determination, repeating phrases again and again into the mirror.

But Biden’s biggest test was yet to come.

In 1972, he was only 29 and had just been elected senator for Delaware when his wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash, while their young sons Beau and Hunter were left badly injured.

Tragedy struck again in 2015 when Beau died of brain cancer aged 46.

Biden also had to deal with the agony of Hunter’s severe drug addiction and legal problems.

“Sometimes I marvel at Joe’s strength. His life has been marked by cruel losses,” First Lady Jill Biden, whom Biden married in 1977, said in her memoir “Where the Light Enters.”

‘Psychological prison’ 

With his family close around him, Biden has also ridden out a series of political humiliations.

In 1988 he was forced to abandon his first presidential bid following a plagiarism scandal.

His next bid in 2008 ended in heavy defeat in the Democratic primaries, before Barack Obama picked him as his running mate.

Yet in the current crisis over Biden’s age and health, the very things that have previously brought Biden strength could also bring about his downfall.

It’s common knowledge that he will only really listen to family members and a few aides he’s known for decades, but as he ages that bubble has become increasingly insular.

His long-standing belief that he’s been underestimated and mocked by the media means he’s even less likely to listen to outside voices.

Moreover, Biden’s lifelong image as someone who always bounces back means he may not be able to envisage a graceful exit this time around.

Franklin Foer, author of a book on the early Biden presidency, wrote recently in The Atlantic magazine that “humiliation — and its transcendence — is Biden’s origin story.”

“Right now it is his psychological prison, a mental habit that might doom American democracy.”

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

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to the press with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Maryland Governor Wes Moore after attending a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and other Democratic governors at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Democratic governors of New York, Minnesota and Maryland on Wednesday said they would support U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection bid after a candid discussion with him about his weak performance in last week’s debate.

“The president has always had our backs. We’re going to have his back as well,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore told reporters after a meeting with Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House that included 24 Democratic governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., some joining online.

Mr. Moore said the governors were frank in relaying negative feedback from constituents about Mr. Biden’s poor performance during the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump. He said there was clearly work to do before the Nov. 5 election, but Biden had made it clear he would stay in the race.

“The president… he’s our nominee. The president is our party leader,” Mr. Moore said. There has been growing talk among Democrats in recent days that 81-year-old Biden should drop out of the race.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she felt confident after the meeting and all the governors pledged their support to Mr. Biden. The president is “in it to win it,” she said.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said Mr. Biden’s debate performance on Thursday was bad but he felt Mr. Biden was fit for office.

“Obviously we, like many Americans, are a little worried. We’re worried because the threat of a Trump presidency is not theoretical,” Mr. Walz said, adding that the previous Trump presidency was marked by “chaos, destruction.”

Nearly a dozen of the State leaders attended the meeting in person, but only three spoke with reporters afterwards.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who participated in person, posted his reaction on social platform X: “I heard three words from the President tonight — he’s all in. And so am I.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign said the president reiterated his determination “to defeat the existential threat of Donald Trump at the ballot box in November” and discussed the importance of electing Democrats up and down the ballot.

“All participants reiterated their shared commitment to do everything possible to make sure President Biden and Vice President Harris beat Donald Trump in November,” it said.

President Joe Biden’s simple act of sitting down while commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, gained more attention than the ceremony itself in some circles as social media users shared a shortened version of the clip to falsely claim he was reaching for a nonexistent chair.

The clip was the first of at least three out-of-context or trimmed videos shared widely over less than two weeks in June to fuel a narrative that Mr. Biden is mentally and physically unfit for office.

It’s long been standard practice in politics to spin real moments to make an opponent look bad. Yet the recent spate of misleading videos — which amassed millions of views and were picked up by right-leaning outlets around the world — shows how the reach of social media and real concerns about Mr. Biden’s age has made the tactic especially powerful in 2024.

Experts say voters can expect to see both Republicans and Democrats weaponising unflattering, out-of-context moments to label each other’s presidential candidates as weak, confused or senile — especially considering their ages of 81 and 78. Indeed, edited and misrepresented clips have also circulated about former President Donald Trump.

“Any misinformation that seems to reinforce or resonate perceptions or dominant narratives, whether they’re accurate or not, is very effective,” said Erik Nisbet, a professor at Northwestern University who studies media, public opinion and public policy in democracy and elections.

At the G7 summit in Italy, where Mr. Biden headed after Normandy, a clip of the President watching a skydiving demonstration was cropped to make it appear as though he wandered off for no reason. A wider view of the video shows he was greeting paratroopers who had just landed. And at a Los Angeles fundraiser last weekend, a pause by Mr. Biden as he left the stage amid cheers was used to say the President froze, while Mr. Biden’s campaign said he was only stopping to take in the applause.

The clips have been especially effective at activating concerns about Mr. Biden’s competency, according to Mr. Nisbet, because he is the oldest sitting president the U.S. has ever had, and he moves with more difficulty than he once did.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Mr. Biden’s physician, wrote in a February memo after the President’s annual physical that he “continues to be fit for duty” and that his stiff gait is the result of arthritic changes in his spine. He said that Mr. Biden has reported additional hip pain and started using a new device for his sleep apnea, but that he showed no signs of stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or other similar conditions.

After the fundraiser clip spread online, Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer blasted such negative characterisations as a tactic from those who “are so scared of losing to Joe Biden, they’ll make anything up” to distract voters from Mr. Trump’s misdeeds.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a press briefing called the videos “cheap fakes”, a term for videos edited using cheap video editing software rather than artificial intelligence.

Mr. Trump’s campaign has doubled down on the clips and circulated a meme that defined a “cheap fake” as “any unedited video of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline that the Biden administration does not want the public to see.”

Also Read | Trump turns 78, spotlighting age as central issue in 2024 race

Experts say these attacks can be iterative, with social media influencers and campaigns piling on one another.

“The attention economy within conservative media helps perpetuate these cycles of circulation and these sorts of misinformation and campaign messaging,” said A.J. Bauer, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who studies conservative news.

For example, the Republican National Committee posted a cropped version of the video of Mr. Biden at the G7 summit in Italy shortly after it happened, captioning the post, “What is Biden doing?” The RNC’s post was then shared by right-leaning media outlets — among them, Sinclair Broadcast Group syndicated stations and the New York Post, which embedded the RNC’s post in its story.

This clip was also picked up by publications abroad, including the tabloid The Sun in the U.K. and the newspaper Corriere della Sera in Italy. A pro-Trump super PAC highlighted the latter coverage on social media as proof that “the world is laughing at us.” Joshua Tucker, a politics professor and co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, said that Republicans will likely run aggressively on concerns about Mr. Biden’s age, but they should expect Democrats to strike back at Mr. Trump, who is only a few years younger.

“Given some of Trump’s behaviour of late, the RNC is playing with fire a little bit here,” Mr. Tucker said.

Mr. Biden’s campaign has begun reciprocating with attacks on Mr. Trump through its rapid response account on the social media platform X. On Thursday, it posted a montage of clips it claimed showed Mr. Trump “getting confused, lost, wandering off, and waving to nobody.” The out-of-context post followed other left-wing efforts to use videos to paint Mr. Trump as confused, senile or attention seeking.

For example, social media users earlier this month used an image of Mr. Trump holding Donald Trump Jr.’s hand at a rally last fall in Hialeah, Florida, as alleged proof that the former president needed to be escorted offstage. The original video captured the moment in full context, showing the father and son only briefly clasped hands in a greeting as Mr. Trump departed without help.

The fact that these images and videos have only simple edits or are misrepresented, rather than manipulated with editing software or artificial intelligence, gives them even more power in a moment when Americans are concerned about high-tech fakes, experts said.

“It’s persuasive because it’s not fabricated,” Mr. Nisbet said. “It’s simply distorted visual cues to create a false impression about what happened.” At the debate next week — the first this cycle between the two leading candidates for president — both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will face pressure to show they remain healthy, sharp and fit to be president.

Both men have made public verbal gaffes, flubbing names, dates or facts. Health experts caution that such mix-ups can be common and exacerbated by stress. They also point out some cognitive ageing is normal, including delay in memory retrieval. And Mr. Biden has fought a stutter since childhood, a challenge that critics have seized on to attack and ridicule him.

Experts agree that most voters are unlikely to switch candidates based on misleading videos, but they said such misinformation could further entrench people in their beliefs or dampen their enthusiasm to participate in the political process.

“This election will not be about persuasion,” said Mr. Nisbet. “It’s about mobilising — the Democrats mobilising Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, Mr. Trump and Republicans doing the same. And it’s going to be a close election.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held wide-ranging talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on October 27.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Joe Biden has emphasised that the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of a potential meeting with President Xi Jinping next month to reset bilateral ties.

President Biden met Wang at the White House on October 27 after the top Chinese diplomat held wide-ranging talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Wang’s visit is expected to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between Mr. Biden and Chinese President Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco in mid-November.

“The President emphasised that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication. He underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting between Mr. Biden and Wang.

Mr. Sullivan and Wang had candid, constructive, and substantive discussions on key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics, said the National Security Council in a readout of the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. Sullivan discussed concerns over China’s dangerous and unlawful actions in the South China Sea. He raised the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Also read: View From India | Dispute in the South China Sea

China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. China has been conducting provocative military exercises around the self-ruled island.

“The two sides reaffirmed their desire to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level diplomacy, including working together towards a meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November,” said the readout.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Mr. Blinken and Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation.

“The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners,” he said.

The relationship between the world’s two largest economies began to deteriorate during the Trump administration. In 2018, former President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum that would impose retaliatory tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports.

The U.S. and China have one of the world’s most important and complex bilateral relationships. Since 1949, the countries have experienced periods of both tension and cooperation over issues including trade, climate change, the South China Sea, Taiwan and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration has sought to re-establish normal diplomatic ties with China after an incredibly fraught period, most notably over the Chinese surveillance balloon incident in February.

U.S. President Joe Biden. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Joe Biden said on October 20 he thought Hamas was motivated to attack Israel in part by a desire to stop that country from normalising relations with Saudi Arabia.

“One of the reasons … why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign fundraiser. The U.S. President indicated that he thinks Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on October 7 because, “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognise Israel” and were near being able to formally do so.

Israel-Hamas war, Day 15 LIVE updates | Biden says Hamas attacked Israel to stop historic agreement with Saudi Arabia

Jerusalem and Riyadh had been steadily inching closer to normalisation, with Mr. Biden working to help bring the two countries together, announcing plans in September at the Group of 20 summit in India to partner on a shipping corridor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Mr. Biden on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September and told him, “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

The Saudis had been insisting on protections and expanded rights for Palestinian interests as part of any broader agreement with Israel. An agreement would have been a feat of diplomacy that could have enabled broader recognition of Israel by other Arab and Muslim-majority nations that have largely opposed Israel since its creation 75 years ago in territory where Palestinians have long resided.

But talks were interrupted after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip where Palestinians live into nearby Israeli towns.

The October 7 attack coincided with a major Jewish holiday. It led to retaliatory airstrikes by Israel that have left the world on edge with the U.S. trying to keep the war from widening, as 1,400 Israelis and 4,137 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas also captured more than 200 people as hostages after the initial assault.

The normalisation push began under former President Donald Trump’s administration and was branded as the Abraham Accords. It is an ambitious effort to reshape the region and boost Israel’s standing in historic ways. But critics have warned that it skips past Palestinian demands for statehood.

What are Israel’s options after the Hamas attack? | Analysis

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said soon after the Hamas attacks that the militant group’s leadership may have been driven in part by a desire to scuttle the United States’ efforts at the sealing of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Such a pact between Jerusalem and Riyadh would be a legacy-defining achievement for Joe Biden, Mr. Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Washington:

President Joe Biden on Saturday blamed “a small group of extreme Republicans” for a budget impasse that has placed the US government a week away from a shutdown, urging the lawmakers to resolve the issue.

Speaking at a Congressional Black Caucus awards dinner, Biden said he and top House Republican Kevin McCarthy had previously agreed on government spending levels.

“Now a small group of extreme Republicans don’t want to live up to the deal so now everyone in America could be forced to pay the price,” he said.

US lawmakers have until midnight on September 30 to reach an agreement on a spending bill, before funding for government services is due to dry up.

“Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress. It’s time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do. Let’s get this done,” Biden added.

A government shutdown would put the finances of hundreds of thousands of workers at federal parks, museums, and other sites at risk, but it could also carry significant political costs for Biden, who is running for re-election.

The White House wants any budget bill passed by lawmakers to include $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv.

While such a plan is supported by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, it is radically opposed by some members of the House.

The budget vote in Congress regularly turns into a standoff between the two parties, with each camp using the prospect of a shutdown to obtain concessions from the other — until a solution is found at the last minute.

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

Columbian President Gustavo Petro. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Colombian government manipulated a video to alter the applause received by President Gustavo Petro during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Associated Press reviewed the video and was able to verify that it was altered. The recording released by the Presidential office incorporated applause for the U.S. President Joe Biden, who spoke moments before Mr. Petro, making it appear the applause was directed at the Colombian leader. The manipulation was first reported by the Colombian website La Silla Vacía.

The Presidential office was asked for comment by the AP but had not responded by late Friday afternoon. Although Mr. Petro did receive applause, the final clip of the video posted on Thursday on the government’s YouTube channel does not correspond to what was broadcast in the UN video.

It incorporates a different shot to the original broadcast and to what was broadcast in the media, making it seem that many more attendees applauded Mr. Petro at the end of his speech.

The recording raised doubts among social media users and the media, given that there were several empty seats in the General Assembly during Mr. Petro’s speech.

At 1.52.39 of the official UN broadcast, the same applause that the Colombian government video shows going to Mr. Petro is heard but it is at the end of Mr. Biden’s address.

The UN video also shows that three men in the seventh row stand up at the same time and that a woman walks towards the podium between the seats, the same scene that appears in the video released by Colombia’s Presidential office.

AP photographer Richard Drew captured the moment of Mr. Petro’s speech in a photo and shows that in the seventh row there were only people sitting in three of the 12 seats. In the edited video released by the Colombian government, all those seats look to be occupied.

This year’s annual meeting of the UN General Assembly brought together heads of state and government from at least 145 countries, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.