Biden Out, Kamala in, Kim Cheatle Resigns, Trump Assassination Attempt Updates
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In this week’s memo:
President Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race, Kamala Assumes His Position
Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle Testifies Before House, Then Resigns
GetSmart: 🐄 Cows have best friends and panic when separated
Newsbites
Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson: Elon Musk sat for a nearly two hour interview with clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson. At one point in the interview, Musk says he was “essentially tricked into signing documents” for his son to receive puberty blockers. He said he was told that it was necessary and that his son could commit suicide if it was not done. "And so I lost my son, essentially. So, you know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. Alright. So the reason it's called deadnaming is because your son is dead. So my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus." He ended the segment by saying, “I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.” (video on X, Spotify)
Heightened Olympics Security: The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics starts today (July 26) in Paris. The security presence for the Olympics will be unprecedented, with France expected to deploy three times as many personnel as London did for the 2012 Games. In addition, authorities will test new AI-powered video surveillance tools to identify potential threats. The security presence has been increased given the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, heightened political tensions in France, and threats from Hamas this week of an attack at the Olympics.
Netenyahu Speaks to U.S. Congress: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday vowing “total victory” against Hamas. “It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming Gays for Gaza…they might as well hold up signs saying, chickens for KFC.” (video) The speech was disrupted multiple times by pro-palestine U.S. lawmakers. “The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all the hostages. But if they don’t, Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home. That’s what total victory means, and we will settle for nothing less,” Netanyahu said.
More: Pro-Palestine rioters gathered outside the Capitol building and took down three U.S. flags and set them on fire, chanting, “burn that shit”. The flags were then replaced by Palestine flags. (video) They also set fire to a statue of Netanyahu in the streets.
Olympics competitors will swim in the Seine River: For the first time ever, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium, but instead will consist of boats floating down the Seine River. The Seine has been a focal point of the preparation for the Olympics, with France spending $1.5B to make the river clean enough for Olympic swimming events to be held in it. Swimming in the Seine has been officially banned since 1923 due to unsanitary conditions (sewage runoff, etc.). More than 10M visitors are expected to visit Paris for the Olympics.
Delta could take a $500M profit loss following the Crowdstrike software glitch that led the airline to cancel more than 5,500 flights over the past week. The software crash, which also affected emergency healthcare operations and global banking transactions, happened when Crowdstrike pushed a faulty software update. The update caused Microsoft Windows operating systems to crash and receive the “blue screen of death.” The glitch did not impact Apple products, which lessened the problems for airlines such as United Airlines.
More: The Department of Transportation is conducting a federal investigation into Delta’s response given it was the primary airline affected by the outage.
The faulty software update published by Crowdstrike on Friday, July 19 is estimated to have affected the computing operations of 25% of the Fortune 500 companies. The malfunction raised eyebrows for how many basic operations were upended, including thousands of airline flights, healthcare operations, and gas station payment terminals.
Mudslides in Ethiopia have killed more than 250 people, with the U.N. warning the death toll could eventually surpass 500 (video - warning, graphic content). The mudslides were triggered by heavy seasonal rains in the mountainous region of Gofa. Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa, with over 120M people.
Main Stories
President Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race, Kamala Assumes His Position
After months of President Biden vowing to stay in the race, a post on his X account on Sunday at 12:46 p.m. announced his resignation. His White House staffers heard the news the same way most Americans did: on social media. One Democrat close to the situation told Politico, “We’re all finding out by tweet…none of us understand what’s happening.”
In the post, Biden said,
“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.”
The news came as Biden continued to drop in poll numbers against Trump and had a difficult time recovering from a poor debate performance on June 27. While Biden remained firm that he was in a great mental state and would stay in the race, behind the scenes Democrats had a backup plan to replace him with Kamala Harris.
The Kamala Harris Handover
Just over 30 minutes after the announcement, President Biden sent out another post on X endorsing Harris to be the Democratic nominee for President.
Days before and after the announcement, Biden, who was diagnosed with covid-19, isolated himself and wasn’t seen from July 14 until July 23 when he boarded Air force One, debunking theories online that he might be dead.
Kamala secures nomination immediately
Following Biden’s announcement, Harris made more than 100 phone calls over the span of 10 hours, rallying donors and the Democratic Party behind her. Within 48 hours, she had secured her position as the Democratic presidential nominee by securing enough delegates to win. In the days that followed, Harris campaign ads spread across YouTube and the internet more broadly.
The WSJ reports that Michael Kapp, a DNC member, watched the June 27 debate during a fundraising event alongside Barack Obama and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. After the debate, Kapp drafted a letter thanking Biden for his service and endorsing Kamala Harris. He distributed the letter to closely trusted DNC members, but didn’t release it until Biden officially withdrew.
Biden attempts to explain decision
Biden addressed the nation on Wednesday. (video) Here are some of the highlights:
“I revere this office, but I love my country more…it's been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it's more important than any title.”
“You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. 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.”
“Over the next six months, I'll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I will continue to lower costs for hardworking families, grow our economy.”
Who is Kamala Harris?
Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of immigrant parents, with her father born in Jamaica and her mother born in India.
1989: Graduated with a Doctorate in Jurisprudence in 1989 from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
2003: Elected the District Attorney of San Francisco.
2010: Elected the Attorney General of California.
2016: Elected to the U.S. Senate in California.
2020: Ran for the Democratic presidential nomination but lost to Joe Biden. Appointed his vice president.
GovTrack, an independent website, found that Harris was one of the most liberal Senators, based on her voting record.
Strong stances on abortion and climate change
Climate Change
During Harris’ time as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California, she filed numerous pollution lawsuits against oil and gas companies. While in the Senate, she co-sponsored the Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During her presidential campaign in 2020, Harris proposed a $10T climate plan to make the U.S. economy carbon-neutral by 2045.
Abortion
Harris has been a strong advocate for abortion access and has been the primary spokesperson for the Biden Administration. She is the first vice-president to tour a Planned Parenthood facility (video) and She has called for Roe v. Wade to be reinstated and codified into the constitution. During her time as Attorney General, she prosecuted and raided the home of David Daleiden, who released the undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the selling of body parts and fetal tissue. He was charged with 15 felonies.
Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle Testifies Before House, Then Resigns
[Kim Cheatle’s] hearing “was awful. It was all secret and no service…she answered none of the questions that the American people have.”- Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat, Head of House Oversight Committee
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