Biden leaves to Harris the race he wanted to run | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: President Joe Biden spoke to the nation Wednesday, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. Paste BN Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi has the latest on investigations into the shooter's motive in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. Paste BN White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. Mattel announces a blind Barbie and a Black Barbie with Down syndrome as additions to its its growing line of diverse and inclusive dolls.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, July 25th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, President Joe Biden passes the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, plus the latest findings from investigations into the shooter's motive in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington.
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President Joe Biden spoke to the nation yesterday less than a week after his decision to drop out of the presidential race.
President Biden:
I believe, I reckon 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.
Taylor Wilson:
Biden said there's still time to make a difference, and pledged to be focused on doing his job as president for the next six months. In the speech, Biden notably shied away from defending his recent flubs and questions about his mental acuity. Instead, he said he would battle gun violence, call for Supreme Court reform, press efforts to end cancer, keep NATO powerful and united, or to end the war in Gaza and more. But passing significant legislation through a Republican-controlled house in the next few months is unlikely. While lame duck presidents often turned to foreign policy as territory where they can still exert influence, his power to pressure foreign leaders will be complicated by their interest in and calculations about the contenders to lead the next administration.
History is not encouraging when it comes to big ambitions for lame ducks. Even the phrase itself doesn't sound promising. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 was not able to achieve his stated goal of peace in Vietnam. That was left to successor Richard Nixon. Harry Truman as a lame duck in 1952 tried and failed to end the war in Korea. That was achieved by successor Dwight Eisenhower. And Bill Clinton's efforts at a Camp David Summit to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians came close but fell short. Only time will tell how Biden's last few months will go. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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FBI Director Christopher Wray testified yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee as questions remain over a motive into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump earlier this month. I spoke with Paste BN Justice Department correspondent Aysha Bagchi for the latest. Hello, Aysha.
Aysha Bagchi:
Hey, Taylor. Good to see you.
Taylor Wilson:
Good to see you. As investigations continue here, Aysha, what image of the shooter really is emerging?
Aysha Bagchi:
The image that has been emerging, investigation is ongoing, is the portrait of a young man that was kind of a loner. It's not that he had no friends, but he doesn't seem to have had a lot of friends or a lot of social connections. He also seems to be someone who wasn't clearly very partisan, wasn't very active when it came to politics. There is a record of him having made a $15 donation to Act Blue, a Democrat-affiliated organization, but later that year, he registered as a Republican, and a number of his former classmates have described a young man who really didn't have much to say when the conversation turned to politics. And some of them have said, if anything, he was a little conservative. So the portrait isn't someone who had clear overt anti-Trump bias at least so far that investigators have found out.
It also seems to be the portrait of a young man who was a little nerdy. He participated in a math book club. One member of that book club told the Wall Street Journal that Thomas Matthew Crooks didn't have much to say when the conversation turned toward politics, but he would be a lot more animated when they were talking about logic concepts. And then there are some questions about his mental health. Lawmakers were told in a briefing last week that he searched for major depressive disorder. So that does seem to be a line of investigation that the FBI is looking at, whether he had mental health issues. And he definitely is also a young man who had significant experience with guns, seems to have had some enthusiasm for guns. He was involved in at least one club where using guns was a hobby.
Taylor Wilson:
Yes. I want to touch on his politics just a little bit more here, Aysha. I know Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the shooting made claims that the shooter was motivated by a democratic or a liberal hatred of Trump. What did we hear on that front, and has any of the evidence backed any of that up?
Aysha Bagchi:
Yes, there were a handful of Republicans who made those sorts of claims in the immediate aftermath. Probably the most prominent one is JD Vance. He's now Donald Trump's running mate, Senator from Ohio. And he very quickly posted on X that rhetoric around the idea that Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who needs to be stopped led directly to the assassination attempt. There were also Congress people who said things like that. Representative Mike Collins from Georgia posted that Joe Biden should be immediately charged for inciting an assassination. And Senator Rick Scott from Florida posted that Crooks was a madman inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left. And of course, at the time we didn't know much. I'm sure it's a line of investigation that the FBI was pursuing, whether he had a particular political ideology. But so far, that is not the portrait that has emerged. FBI director Christopher Wray, gave testimony in an open setting before Congress and said again that they haven't really identified any political motive or any type of ideology associated with Thomas Matthew Crooks so far.
And he appears to have made searches for information about other prominent people as well, including Joe Biden and the Democratic National Convention. There were also reports that he searched for FBI director Chris Wray himself and also the Attorney General Merrick Garland and a British royal family member. So it's not at all clear that this happens to have been an attack that was motivated by partisan politics or a kind of leftist anti-Trump ideology. It may be the case that the shooter was kind of looking to do something that would make him famous or take down someone very famous. Again, investigation is preliminary, but that is the portrait that's emerging so far.
Taylor Wilson:
As you mentioned, FBI Director Christopher Wray made some revelations to the House Judiciary committee yesterday, especially surrounding other internet searches the gunman made and some of his actions the day of the assassination attempt leading up to the shooting. What else did we learn here, Aysha?
Aysha Bagchi:
Yes. A new piece of information that Director Wray shared is that on July 6th, about a week before the assassination attempt, the shooter researched Lee Harvey Oswald's attack on John F. Kennedy that killed him and the distance from Kennedy that shooting took place at. And that also was the day, apparently, that the shooter registered for the rally. There are some indications that this plan might have been coming into place just a week before the rally. We learned that at the hearing. And Director Wray also talked about some of the hours leading up to the shooting. He said that the shooter had purchased a ladder, but it's not clear that the shooter used the ladder to actually get on top of the roof. The director said that it appears so far that he may have just used some items that were nearby and used something on the side of a building to help himself to climb up onto the roof.
The director also talked about the shooter's use of a drone before the attack. Now this is just hours before the attack, and apparently the drone seems to have been used a couple hundred yards away from where President Trump ultimately was speaking. But it looks like the FBI is trying to figure out how the drone may have been used to scope out the situation. And the director said that the shooter doesn't appear to have had any accomplice. At least they haven't found anyone like that so far. But we certainly learned that the shooter had researched a presidential assassination attempt that in fact historically was successful before the attack.
Taylor Wilson:
And of course, investigations continue, so we'll keep an eye out for any other new developments. Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for Paste BN. Thank you, Aysha.
Aysha Bagchi:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress yesterday where he tried drumming up support against Hamas and Iranian threats.
Benjamin Netanyahu:
Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.
Taylor Wilson:
Congressional Republicans may have invited Netanyahu to address Congress as a show of support for Israel's embattled leader, but his visit has also drawn attention to the divisions created by Israel's ongoing war against Hamas and Gaza, which has led to mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian crisis. Protesters hit the streets in Washington and dozens of democratic lawmakers refused to attend the speech. Still, other lawmakers warmly welcomed the controversial figure.
I spoke with Paste BN White House correspondent Francesca Chambers for more, and a look ahead at the Israel Leaders' meetings with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Francesca, thanks for popping on during another busy week.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So let's just start with some of the basics here. What did Benjamin Netanyahu focus on in this speech to Congress?
Francesca Chambers:
Taylor, he said in his speech that the US and Israel must stand together. He said that when they do, something really simple happens, we win. They lose in reference to Israel's war against Hamas. But in the speech, he also criticized protests that were taking place on college campuses with young people very much being in support of a separate Palestinian state as well as the protests that were taking place outside of the US capital.
Taylor Wilson:
This is an extremely controversial figure on the world stage. I'm curious, how welcomed was he by lawmakers initially, and how did they react to his remarks?
Francesca Chambers:
There were major protests taking place outside of the Capitol building and across Washington. And on top of that, there were a number of Democrats who decided not to show up to the speech because of their differences with Netanyahu over the way that he is conducting his war against Hamas. At the same time, there are still a bipartisan group of lawmakers who attended the speeches, very many pro-Israel Democrats as well in the chamber. But you did have some such as Rashida Tlaib who showed how frustrated they were with his handling of the war. She held up a sign that said, "war criminal," on one side, and on the other side it said "guilty of genocide."
Taylor Wilson:
Francesca, he's expected to meet with President Joe Biden on Thursday. What can we expect from this meeting?
Francesca Chambers:
So his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House is something that Bibi Netanyahu has long sought. If you recall, Taylor, last year when he came to the United States, he met with Joe Biden at the United Nations General Assembly. That took place in New York. So he's finally getting his White House meeting. He's also going to be sitting down with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is replacing Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
Taylor Wilson:
What do we know about her stance on Israel and Gaza?
Francesca Chambers:
Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken out in almost every turn more quickly and forcefully against Israel's conduct in the war than even President Joe Biden. It was the vice president who said on a trip to Dubai that too many Palestinian civilians had died in the war. It was also the vice president who was the highest ranking official at the time in the Biden administration to say that an immediate ceasefire needed to take place in March. Now, President Biden did go on to make those same arguments, but the fact that she spoke out more forcefully and more quickly than he did initially has given her some distance from positions that he's taken that have upset progressives in the Democratic party.
Taylor Wilson:
Netanyahu is also expected to meet with former President Donald Trump. This is set for Friday. What's the expectation here? And, Francesca, is this typical for a foreign leader to meet with a presidential candidate in this way?
Francesca Chambers:
With the US presidential election taking place, we've actually seen a couple foreign leaders go to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the former president who's now the Republican nominee for President in 2024. In fact, heading out of the NATO Summit, we actually saw Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, go to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump as well. And in the last few weeks, we've seen Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky give Trump a call too.
Taylor Wilson:
Is there any sense, Francesca, that Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week might lead to progress toward a ceasefire? What's the latest on that front?
Francesca Chambers:
That's certainly what the Biden administration hopes to get out of the meeting with Netanyahu. The president laid out what that proposal would look like at the end of May, but since then, it's been fits and starts through the process to get this three-phase deal that President Biden has tried to get over the finish line. The first phase of that process that President Biden laid out would involve Hamas releasing Israeli hostages. It would also involve Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners. The end game for all of that would be a two-state solution. However, Bibi Netanyahu has consistently opposed the creation of a separate Palestinian state.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Francesca Chambers is a White House correspondent with Paste BN. Great insight as always. Thanks, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Barbie has announced two new additions to its growing line of diverse and inclusive dolls, a blind Barbie and the first black Barbie with Down syndrome. Mattel announced the new dolls yesterday as part of Barbie's 2024 Fashionistas line, an inclusive range of dolls with over 175 varieties of skin tone, eye color, hair color, and texture, body types, disabilities, and fashions. According to a statement from Mattel, the two newly announced dolls were created in partnership with nonprofit agencies that advocate for those with vision impairment and blindness, and people with Down syndrome.
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After a half century in political office, first as a senator from Delaware, then as a vice president under the Obama administration, and then finally, as the nation's 46th president, President Joe Biden leaves behind a legacy. What will history remember of him? His accomplishments while in office, or his disastrous debate performance? Tune in today after 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time as Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page joins my co-host Dana Taylor to give the 30,000 foot view on Biden's legacy as President.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt, from Paste BN.