Tuesday Briefing: Support builds for Kamala Harris
Good morning. We’re covering Kamala Harris’s presidential bid and testimony from the U.S. Secret Service chief about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Plus, from Olympic dreams to Ukraine’s trenches.
Key Democrats lined up to endorse HarrisMany prominent figures in the Democratic Party said yesterday that they backed Vice President Kamala Harris as their new nominee to be president, just a day after President Biden announced that he was ending his campaign. The biggest endorsement came from Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, who wields considerable influence in the party. But Congress’s two top Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, have chosen to remain neutral, for now. The decision was driven in part by their belief that their endorsement would make Harris’s nomination look like a coronation, according to people briefed on their thinking. Barack Obama has also so far declined to endorse her. No one has come forward yet to challenge Harris. Some of the people who endorsed her yesterday were seen as potential rivals, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois. Here’s a list of Democrats who have announced their support for Harris. A wave of donations: Less than 24 hours after entering the race, Harris has raised more than $81 million. Several celebrities have also announced their support. A key choice: Harris needs a running mate. Here are some of her options.
U.S. lawmakers called for the Secret Service chief to resignDuring testimony in Congress yesterday, the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, called the assassination attempt against Donald Trump her agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades. But she refused to answer specific questions, citing the continuing investigation into the shooting. Both the Republican and the Democratic leaders of the House committee that heard her testimony said they wanted her to resign. Cheatle said that she had apologized to Trump. But she declined to specify why no Secret Service agents were stationed on the warehouse roof from which the shooter opened fire, how he brought a gun to the event and why Trump was allowed onstage despite warnings about a suspicious person. Here’s what we know about the assassination attempt.
Israel bombed Khan Younis and ordered an evacuationIsrael yesterday ordered residents of part of a safe zone in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, to evacuate and bombarded the area with strikes that killed or wounded scores of people, according to medical officials. Israel said that it was targeting part of the safe zone because Hamas was using it to regroup and fire rockets at Israel. It was not possible to determine whether the evacuation orders had preceded the strikes. The Gazan health ministry said 70 people had been killed, while the Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been killed. Diplomacy: Mediators hope that a truce in Gaza would encourage a drawdown between Israel and Hezbollah. |
