Weekly News Roundup - 7/26/24
A historic month brings us to the brink of a competitive three-month presidential campaign // Netanyahu in DC // The Paris Olympics begin!
Welcome to the 30th Weekly News Roundup of 2024. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here. If you notice stories or issues you’d like to see mentioned in these roundups, let me know. In 2024, the Border Stalkers Substack is featuring one news update a week, and one book a month, with weekly posts on each book. The book of the month schedule is here.
These weekly dispatches are designed for people who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
"My hosanna has passed through an enormous furnace of doubt.”
"Nobody cares what you think about the other side. Democrats can wag their fingers all day at Republicans and vice versa. It really makes no difference. But to police one's own social and community worlds and talk about what the norms are and what's okay and what's not okay, that is quite important.”
"There is an important difference in the incentive structures between online networks and geographically constrained, legally definable institutions ... In institutions we have an incentive toward conciliation and working across disagreements because our institutions have a limited range of potential members and supporters, given their constraints due to their existence in the offline world ... Whereas one stands out in an institution for being a bridge builder, in networks one stands out for being uniquely devoted to the cause, for being more extreme in one's commitments. So while institutions incentivize conciliation and moderation, online networks incentivize extremism and tend to radicalize their members."
Big Stories This Week
President Biden made history Sunday, withdrawing as the Democratic Party's nominee for president this fall. His decision was unprecedented. In the modern era of politics, no party's nominee has backed out of the race so close to the election, just four months out. In 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson said he would not seek reelection, but that was in March, before the party had chosen its nominee. And prior to the 60's and 70's, parties chose their nominees at their party conventions in the summer.
Vice President Kamala Harris quickly solidified and consolidated the support of the Democratic party, and was virtually certain by the end of the week to win the party's nomination for president. The party plans to officially choose its nominee through a virtual roll call of the state delegations.
Biden's withdrawal takes age off the table as a liability for Democrats. It's not clear how much Trump's age will be an issue for voters, but Biden at age 81 (turning 82 weeks after the election) would have been the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history, and now Trump instead will take that dubious honor. Trump turned 78 in June. Biden was 77 when he won the presidency in 2020. He broke the record held by Ronald Reagan, who was 73 when he won reelection in 1984.
This has been a historic month. Books will be written about it. The three biggest events have been:
1.) Biden's terrible debate performance on June 27, which sent Democrats into a panic and launched the effort to replace him
2.) the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on July 13, and
3.) Biden's announcement that he is dropping out.
(If I had to pick a public moment that was key in getting Biden to drop out, it would be July 10, when Nancy Pelosi's comments on TV stopped the movement to consolidate Democrats around Biden, the same day that George Clooney wrote an op-ed calling on Biden to step aside.)
It is worth noting that the Democratic party has now managed to demonstrate on multiple occasions that it has the capacity for collective action that the Republican party does not. In the fall of 2015 the Republican party did not want Donald Trump as its nominee, but could not rouse itself to unite behind one alternative candidate who could beat him in the primary. As a result, Trump won the early primaries with around 30% of the vote while the several other candidates split the remaining 70%, and he became the nominee. And then after Trump lost the 2020 election and his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol attempting to violently disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, Republicans again could not act collectively in the U.S. Senate to vote for conviction after Trump was impeached. By contrast, in 2020, after Biden won South Carolina, the other mainstream candidates (namely Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar) immediately dropped out and endorsed Biden to make sure that he was the nominee rather than Bernie Sanders. And then over the past month, Democrats worked behind the scenes with surprising effectiveness (in particular a lack of unplanned leaks) to persuade Biden to step aside, but on his own terms. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a key player in all this, as this Politico piece explains. We may live in an age in which political parties have lost much of their capacity and power, but Democrats still retain the semblance of one in key respects, and have shown impressive ability to act collectively in an age of individualistic chaos.
Matt Bai's column this week points out that sometimes the Democrats' ability to march in lockstep has been a hindrance. He points to the party uniting behind Hillary Clinton in 2016 and to the way it refused to allow debate about replacing Biden earlier this cycle. He points to the 1980 Democratic primary, and my book about that, as the reason elder Democrats want to avoid a messy process now. No doubt there's something to that.
Week in Review
Saturday, July 20
Donald Trump holds his first campaign rally, not counting the four-day party convention, since the assassination attempt on his life.
Sunday, July 21
President Biden releases a letter at 1:46 p.m. on Twitter stating: "While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term. I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision." Biden — still testing positive for COVID and recovering at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del. — drafted the letter on Saturday afternoon and into the night with two of his closest advisers, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti.
Former President Obama endorses an open primary process, but most Democrats begin to close ranks around Vice President Kamala Harris.
Monday, July 22
Democrats continue to consolidate around Harris, and by the end of the day, she's well on her way to clinching the nomination. She has the pledged support of well over a majority of the over 2,700 delegates to the Democratic convention, and she has raised a jaw-dropping $81 million in the first 24 hours since Biden's withdrawal. She has also inherited the Biden campaign's infrastructure: over 1,000 staffers and $96 million in cash on hand at the end of June. And a super PAC supporting Harris says it has unlocked $150 million in large dollar donations that had been frozen until Biden stepped aside.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is blasted on Capitol Hill by members of both parties during a House Oversight Committee hearing. The Republican chairman and the top-ranking Democrat both call on her to resign for the agency's failures to stop an attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Elon Musk says he never committed to donating $45 million to Trump's campaign and will not do so, contradicting a Wall Street Journal report days before.
Authorities in Illinois release body camera footage of Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson fatal shooting of 36-year old Sonya Massey, on July 6. Grayson has been charged with murder.
Tuesday, July 23
During a span of roughly 36 hours, Kamala Harris has raised over $100 million, and the campaign has attracted 58,000 new volunteers. The campaign announces that 62% of the 1.1 million people donating money since Sunday had not previously given to Biden.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, announce a bipartisan committee to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns, acknowledging that the agency "fell short" in its protection of Trump in Butler, Pa.
Republican leaders urge members of Congress to avoid personal attacks on Harris, and to focus on policy, seeking to tamp down such criticisms from right-wing media. "This election will be about policies and not personalities ... This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris, and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, says.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, announces he will resign Aug. 20 after being convicted on federal corruption charges.
Wednesday, July 24
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives on Capitol Hill to speak to a joint session of Congress, and is greeted by thousands of protesters a few blocks from the Capitol building, who draw attention to the more than 39,000 people killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel last October. The speech is boycotted by a large number of Democrats. Netanyahu is defiant, pledging to achieve "total victory" over Hamas and calling protesters "useful idiots."
FBI Director Christopher Wray tells the House Judiciary Committee that the 20-year old assassin who tried to kill Donald Trump searched online, a week before the shooting, "How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” It's a reference to the shooting by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. “It’s fair to say we do not yet have a clear picture of his motive," Wray says.
Democrats work toward finalizing a plan to choose a nominee by remote roll call vote by Aug. 7, just under two weeks before the party convention in Chicago begins on Monday, Aug. 19.
The Paris Olympics, not yet officially open, host the first slate of opening round competitions in soccer and rugby. And after Argentina's soccer team scores a goal to tie Morocco, 2-2, in the 16th minute of injury time, outraged Moroccan fans storm the field and throw objects onto the field. The stadium is evacuated, and after a two-hour delay, the referee rules that the goal has been disallowed due to an Argentina player being offsides. Morocco wins in a huge upset.
President Biden speaks to the nation from the Oval Office. It is the first time he has been seen in public for a week, after several days of recovery from COVID. "You know, in recent weeks, it’s become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor," Biden says. "I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So, I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation ... My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years ... I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you."
Thursday, July 25
The U.S. economy grew at 2.8% in the second quarter of 2024, well above the expected 2.1% forecast, according to a Commerce Department report. That makes it the third-best quarter of the last 10.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom orders state agencies to begin clearing homeless encampments.
Friday, July 26
Former President Barack Obama, who had initially supported an open nominating process after Biden stepped aside, endorses Kamala Harris, essentially the final piece in the puzzle for her on the way to solidifying her standing as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
The Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, the XXXIII Olympiad, take place in Paris. These are not actually the 33rd games, however. They are the 30th Summer Olympics. The term "Olympiad" refers to a four year period, and there have been 33 of those since the first Olympiad in 1896. But three Olympiads were cancelled because of World Wars, in 1916, 1940, and 1944. (Btw, the Winter Olympics don't go by the "Olympiad" name, so the next one in 2026 will be called the 25th Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics started in 1924.)
The opening of the games is marred by coordinated arson attacks on the country's high-speed rail system, which cause major delays.
Interesting Reads
Inside the Weekend When Biden Decided to Withdraw, by Katie Rogers, Michael D. Shear, Peter Baker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs for The New York Times
Harris Saves Democrats From Certain Defeat, by Karl Rove for The Wall Street Journal
If Harris Is the Nominee, It Still Won’t Be Easy to Beat Trump, by Nate Cohn for The New York Times
Major Shifts Beneath the Surface in a New Trump-Harris Poll, by Nate Cohn for The New York Times
Global reaction to Biden stepping down: Plaudits and gratitude, by Mathias Hammer for Semafor
The Party is Not Over: Nominations Belong to Parties, Not Candidates, by Jonathan Rauch for The Atlantic
Trump and His Allies Adapt to a New Role: Fighting for Attention, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for The New York Times
How Trump’s Security Failed to Stop an Assassination Attempt: A Video Analysis, by Devon Lum, Riley Mellen, Ainara Tiefenthäler, Dmitriy Khavin and Aaron Byrd for The New York Times
Biden’s legacy: Far-reaching accomplishments that didn’t translate into political support, by Josh Boak for The Associated Press
How Trump Sabotaged His Own Apotheosis by Ross Douthat for The New York Times
Today’s Democrats love unity and hate arguing. Here’s why, by Matt Bai for The Washington Post
Reckoning with the Dead at the Sphere, by Nick Paumgarten for The New Yorker
Chinese and Russian bombers patrolling off Alaska raise concerns about growing military cooperation, by Lolita C. Baldor and Didi Tang for The Associated Press
Here’s what to do with deli meats as the CDC investigates a listeria outbreak across the U.S., by the Associated Press