Biden set for rally and crucial post-debate interview to prove he’s fit to win election: Live updates

President in Wisconsin as he hopes to set record straight after nightmare Atlanta outing

Trump falsely claims ‘broken down’ Biden is quitting White House race and derides Harris

Joe Biden is readying himself for a rally in Wisconsin and a major interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos to be broadcast on Friday evening that he hopes will reset his 2024 campaign and reassure voters over his fitness for office after his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta last week.

Donald Trump has meanwhile issued a withering attack on the president and Kamala Harris, calling his rival “highly incapable” and saying he “choked like a dog” during the debate while mocking Biden for blaming his poor performance on exhaustion and having a cold.

Turning his attention to the vice president — who is being tipped to succeed the president as the 2024 Democratic nominee — by calling her “Laffin Kamala Harris”, a new nickname alluding to her infectious chuckle.

“She did poorly in the Democrat Nominating process, starting out at Number Two, and ending up defeated and dropping out, even before getting to Iowa, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a “highly talented” politician!” the presumptive Republican nominee crowed on his Truth Social platform.

In a second post, Trump challenged Biden to “another Debate, but this time, no holds barred”, despite one already being scheduled for September 10 on ABC.

Key Points

• Biden braces for crucial post-debate interview as Trump attacks ‘Liddle’ George Stephanopoulos
• Trump lands Harris with new nickname and says Biden ‘choked like a dog’ in Fourth of July message
• Republican challenges president to ‘no holds barred’ second debate
• Biden uses Independence Day to blast Trump for turning US ‘into monarchy’
• Golf cart video reveals Trump saying ‘broken down pile of c***’ Biden is ‘quitting’ White House race

[5 July 2024 01:00 · Alex Woodward]

Biden warns against Trump’s ‘monarchy’ on July 4

The aftermath of Biden’s debate performance has been an apparently welcome diversion for Donald Trump and his campaign, keeping media attention away from his own streak of unintelligible public statements, questions about his mental fitness, and an off-the-rails agenda that just a few days ago called for “televised military tribunals” for a former congresswoman.

He’s kept a relatively low profile, for him, and appears content to let his Democratic rivals duke out their political future.

Now, Biden is hoping to use the Fourth of July holiday to turn the conversation around:

[5 July 2024 00:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

VIDEO: Biden’s political future being questioned

[4 July 2024 23:30 · Andrew Feinberg]

Does Kamala Harris have what it takes to beat Trump if Biden bows out?

With pressure mounting for President Joe Biden to stand aside after his troubling debate performance against Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as a surprisingly strong potential challenger to the ex-president.

Harris — the first woman, the first African-American and the first person of Asian descent to serve in the nation’s second-highest office — has been dogged by dismal approval ratings and a policy portfolio that has seen her take on politically tricky issues, like the root causes of an immigration crisis that’s brought hundreds of thousands to the US in recent years.

But she has also spent the last three years building a profile on the world stage, most recently at last month’s Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland. She’s also become the administration’s most prominent messenger on reproductive freedom in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, which marked the end of a half-century-old federal right to an abortion. Harris’ “reproductive freedom tour” has taken her to events across the country where she has barnstormed events packed with female and minority voters.

[4 July 2024 23:04 · Alex Woodward]

Full story: Biden warns against Trump’s ‘monarchy’ on July 4 while ex-president gleefully watches the chaos

The aftermath of Biden’s debate performance has been an apparently welcome diversion for Donald Trump and his campaign, keeping media attention away from his own streak of unintelligible public statements, questions about his mental fitness, and an off-the-rails agenda that just a few days ago called for “televised military tribunals” for a former congresswoman.

He’s kept a relatively low profile, for him, and appears content to let his Democratic rivals duke out their political future.

Now, Biden is hoping to use the Fourth of July to turn the conversation around:

[4 July 2024 23:00 · Alex Woodward]

Fan cams and coconut trees: Kamala Harris memes are resurrecting the KHive

The internet has fallen out of the coconut tree.

Speculation that President Joe Biden will hang up his re-election campaign has triggered a wave of semi-ironic online support for Vice President Kamala Harris, with fan cams set to songs from Charli XCX and memes that riff on a string of memorable quotes from her last few years in office.

The “KHive” — the online grassroots stan-culture army of earnest supporters who fueled online rage and enthusiastic support for Harris when she launched her 2020 run for the presidency — was resurrected overnight. Now Americans are quickly become coconut-pilled, Kamala maxxing, “existing in context” and “unburdened by what has been.”

[4 July 2024 22:30 · Alex Woodward]

How the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling opened the door for a shocking question: Can presidents kill their rivals?

Can a president order a rival’s assassination and get away with it?

It was an absurd hypothetical raised by an appeals court judge to point out the literally unbelievable and dangerous consequences of the legal argument from Donald Trump’s attorneys.

But it landed as a shocking warning from a Supreme Court justice in an earthquaking decision this week that shields Trump from accountability for crimes committed in office.

There has never been any legal precedent that would give a president such authority. But according to legal scholars, attorneys and the Supreme Court’s liberal justices, the decision has seemingly opened the door to question whether the commander in chief can commit legal murder.

[4 July 2024 22:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Six other presidents didn’t run for another term. Here’s what happened then

President Joe Biden is in the fight for his political life, having acknowledged that the next few days are crucial to convincing the American public that he’s the right person to lead the country for the next four years.

The crisis comes after Biden’s dismal debate performance on June 27, when he appeared frail, his voice raspy, and during which he made several gaffes and appeared to lose his train of thought.

In public, he has insisted that he’s still in the race and that he’s confident that he can beat former president Donald Trump even as his predecessor is pulling away in poll after poll.

But there’s precedent for declining to run for a second term and stepping aside. Most recently, and possibly most famously, back in 1968.

[4 July 2024 21:30 · Gustaf Kilander]

VIDEO: US elections: White House says zero chance Biden will withdraw

[4 July 2024 21:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Virginia school board member who admitted to boozing in the Capitol gets jail time for Jan 6 riot

A member of a Virginia school board who bragged about drinking beer inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot will spend 12 days behind bars for storming the halls of Congress.

Miles Adkins, 39, has pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors in connection with the riot and has been sentenced to 12 days in prison — only to be served on weekends — plus two years of probation and fines and restitution.

Despite his guilty plea, Adkins told NBC News4 that he refuses to capitulate to the demands of community members who want him to step down from his position on the Frederick County Public Schools board.

“You’re gonna need a bigger wrecking ball to get me out of there,” he told a reporter.

[4 July 2024 20:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Video reveals Trump saying ‘broken down pile of c***’ Biden is ‘quitting’ White House race

Donald Trump has branded Joe Biden a “broken down pile of c**p” and Vice President Kamala Harris “pathetic” as he claims the embattled president has already quit the White House race.

In a video posted to his Truth Social platform, the Republican presidential candidate is seen slouched behind the wheel of a golf buggy alongside his teenage son Barron Trump and declaring to an unidentified third party: “How did I do with the debate the other night? I kicked that old, broken down pile of c**p.

“He just quit, you know – he’s quitting the race... and that means we have Kamala. I think she’s going to be better,” Trump mutters sarcastically.

Trump goes on to lay into Harris, deriding the prospect of her succeeding Biden on the ticket.

“She’s so pathetic, she’s so f***ing bad. Can you imagine... dealing with [Vladimir] Putin, the president of China – who’s a fierce person, he’s a fierce man, a very tough guy...” he adds, before driving off across the green.