Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Biden out: President Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid on Sunday, yielding to relentless pressure from his closest allies amid serious doubts about his age and health affecting his chances against former President Donald Trump. Announcing the unprecedented move on X, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him and committed to serve as president until January 2025. "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And 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," Biden wrote, only days before he was due to be officially nominated at the Democratic National Convention. His withdrawal clears the path for Harris to potentially run for president and make history as the first Black woman to do so. It remains unclear, however, if other senior Democrats will contest the nomination or if the party will open the field for other candidates. Over 30 Democratic lawmakers had publicly urged Biden to step aside after a troubling debate performance against Trump on 27 June raised concerns about his mental acuity. Despite holding firm for three weeks after the debate, Biden yielded to a torrent of polls showing him trailing Trump and voter preference for a younger candidate. (Capital Brief)(New York Times)(Reuters)
2.
Trump roars: Donald Trump seized on Biden’s announcement, saying he was never fit for the presidency and using the moment to fundraise on social media. "He [Biden] only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement," The Republican presidential nominee wrote on his social media site. "All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn't capable of being President, and he wasn't." After a brief call for national unity immediately after an assassination attack against him last week, Trump has resumed his characteristic inflammatory rhetoric. Over the weekend, Trump said he received a “beautiful” note from Chinese President Xi Jinping after he was shot in the ear during the attack. Trump brought up the note at his first rally since the attack, held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, which was also the first alongside his new running mate JD Vance. At the rally, he mocked President Biden’s intelligence calling him “stupid”, compared former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a dog and repeated provocative but false claims on immigration, the economy and election fraud. Rebutting accusations he is a threat to democracy and distancing himself from Project 2025 - a set of major conservative policy proposals in preparation for a Trump administration - he also declared: “Last week, I took a bullet for democracy.” (Reuters)(Axios)
