Highlights from the 2024 presidential election campaign: July 12

Ken Jacobs said President Joe Biden’s remarks in Detroit, which stretched to over 30 minutes, should put to rest any talk that he couldn’t handle another four years in office.

“He should repeat that exact speech at the Democratic convention,” Jacobs said. “It shows that he has the stamina for this.”

Jacobs, a 71-year-old Detroit-area Democrat, conceded that Biden “had a bad performance during the debate” but said he doesn’t care about debates.

Jacobs questioned whether Democratic lawmakers who have asked the president to step aside may “have an ulterior motive.”

President Joe Biden’s speech at a Detroit rally was interrupted momentarily by a lone demonstrator, who was escorted out by security and continued to chant, “Free, free Palestine.”

Biden resumed speaking after the brief disruption and said he understands “her passion.”

“This war must end,” Biden said.

Some of the loudest crowd reactions during President Joe Biden’s speech in Detroit came when he mentioned his opponent, former President Donald Trump.

Biden said the media have been “hammering” him since their recent debate while Trump has “gotten a free pass.”

“Donald, no more free passes,” Biden said. “Today, we’re going to shine a spotlight on Donald Trump.”

At times the crowd chanted in reference to Trump: “Lock him up!”

President Joe Biden acknowledged speculation about his candidacy during a rally in Detroit but insisted that he is running.

“I’m not going to change that,” he told a raucous crowd in a high school gym.

“You made me the nominee,” Biden said, referring to the millions of Democrats who backed him in the primaries. “You the voters. You decided. No one else. And I’m not going anywhere.”

He added that he is “the only Democrat or Republican that has beaten Donald Trump ever, and I’m going to beat him again.”

Biden was greeted at the rally venue in a high school gymnasium with a deafening cheer and chants of “Don’t you quit!” as he took the stage Friday evening.

He was introduced by Cindy Rudolph, a pastor, who called him “a transformative leader.”

“We want to give him four more years,” Rudolph said, prompting the crowd to chant “four more years.”

Early in his remarks, Biden proclaimed that “Motown is Joetown.” He vowed to win Michigan again in the 2024 election.

The three men at the top of Trump’s short list to be his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, are not scheduled to be at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally tomorrow, according to two people familiar with the event’s schedule who were not authorized to speak publicly.

That makes it unlikely Trump plans to announce his vice presidential pick at his last event before the convention. Trump could make the announcement at the RNC when it kicks off Monday or post on social media, like he did in 2016 when announcing he chose Mike Pence. Politico first reported that the three top contenders would not be at Saturday’s event.

For more than two weeks, the Democratic Party has been mired in crisis. And there is no sign yet that the threat to Joe Biden’s reelection is nearing a conclusion.

The president has dug in even as a growing chorus of Democratic officials, donors and strategists calls for him to step aside.

Donors and high-profile endorsers are repudiating Biden, morale inside and outside the campaign is weak and some top Democrats are pondering whether to make a move against the president.

One of Biden’s allies privately described a cycle of alternating hope and despair in the style of the movie “Groundhog Day.”

Meanwhile Republicans are celebrating the chaos heading into their convention, which starts Monday.

▶ Read more about the Democratic party’s crisis

The uproar over President Joe Biden’s ability to win reelection is leaving Democrats at a standstill, at odds over whether to stick with Biden or press on with trying to persuade him to end his reelection bid.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn, a veteran leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, are playing oversize roles. They are generational allies of the president but also trusted voices who can bring frank concerns to Biden.

That is giving space to the current congressional leadership — House Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — to navigate the party’s political future.

▶ Read more about Democratic leaders’ efforts to shepherd the party through difficult times

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in remarks before President Joe Biden’s appearance that “lately there’s been a lot of noise about this election,” but “he has always had our back and Michigan will always have his,” she said.

Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer said the Biden administration will protect women’s reproductive rights and urged people to “reject Donald Trump once and for all.”

And Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan recalled that when times were tough in the city, “Joe Biden showed up for us.”

“But if you’ve been watching the news the last week, it seems like it’s Joe Biden versus everybody,” Duggan said. “I want you when he comes out here to let him know, Detroiters never forget. He has been there for us. We’re going to be there for him.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson framed the vote as a fight for democracy and fair elections, saying, “In 2020 in Michigan, we fought back successfully against an unprecedented effort to overturn the accurate election results.” She did not mention the president in her remarks.

Since Donald Trump’s emergence on the political scene, late-night comics have made him a relentless target. But after President Joe Biden’s poor showing in the debate with Trump two weeks ago, the comics have retrained their guns.

Stephen Colbert of CBS’ “Late Show” joked this week that “I think that Biden debates as well as Abraham Lincoln — if you dug him up right now.”

He had company: Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon have all found comedy fodder in Biden’s stumbling performance and in Democrats’ internal debate over whether the president should drop his campaign for a second term.

It shows that comedy — not political favoritism — ultimately rules their world, television expert Robert Thompson says.

▶ Read more about late-night comics making fun of Biden

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s appearance in Detroit, a small but vocal group of protesters made their presence known. One man displayed a “Pass the Torch” flag, while nearly a dozen demonstrators held a sign reading, “Hey Dems, there’s nothing progressive about genocide.”

This pro-Palestinian group was instrumental in an effort that led 101,000 Michigan voters to choose “uncommitted” on their ballots during the state’s Democratic presidential primary in February.

One of the leaders, Lexis Zeidan, said it is important to keep Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war front and center as the “conversation continues to unfold around Biden’s eligibility to continue to run this nation.”

“Uncommitted voters are more valid now than ever,” Zeidan said. “Movement leaders often see things before establishment figures do.”

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley is bashing Joe Biden ahead of the president’s rally Friday in Detroit.

Whatley says Biden “is so unpopular that members of his own party want him out of the race,” including Michigan Rep. Hillary Scholten

“Voters in Michigan and around the country are looking to President Trump to bring real leadership back to the White House, restore peace through strength, and Make America Great Again,” Whatley said in a statement.

Collins, a longtime moderate Republican senator from Maine, didn’t vote for Donald Trump for president in 2016 or 2020.

And the third time will not be the charm, because she said Friday that she intends to write in the former South Carolina governor, who is not on the ballot.

“I publicly endorsed Nikki Haley, and I wanted her to win. She’s still my favorite candidate, and I think she could do a great job. She’s my choice, and that’s how I’m going to express it,” Collins told WMTW-TV.

In 2016, Collins said she wrote in then-House Speaker Paul Ryan for president over Trump.

Collins is the only New England Republican in Congress and the only Republican holding statewide office in Maine, where Trump has twice won an electoral vote.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, one of the more prominent Democratic leaders appearing with President Joe Biden in Detroit on Friday, would not give an opinion when asked whether she believes he should still be the party’s presidential nominee.

“I’m just focused on making sure people know what’s at stake this year. And know how to exercise their vote,” Benson said.

Benson has seen her profile rise as a target of violence following the 2020 election and as a national advocate for secure elections.

She said that she “feels good” about the state’s preparedness ahead of this year’s vote due to several new laws. But she said officials are contending with “a more sophisticated, coordinated effort to try to delegitimize democracy than we have in the past.”

Carole Chi, 72, said she came with a group of enthusiastic friends “to cheer him on and tell him to stay in there.” In her view, Trump should be the one to leave the race. She called him a “crook.”

“He speaks like an old man, sure. Who cares?” Chi said of Biden. “He knows what he is doing.”

Donna Harper, 71, said she was disappointed by Biden’s debate performance but encouraged by his NATO press conference Thursday.

“Let him just be Joe,” Harper said. “And I saw more of that last night.

The Republican National and Trump’s campaign released a list of “everyday Americans” who will be speaking at next week’s Republican National Convention.

Among the names:

• A group of students and fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who were captured on video protecting an American flag during campus protests
• Family members of people who were killed by repeat offenders, people living in the country illegally and from fentanyl-laced pills
• Men and women who say they are struggling to make ends meet due to high inflation
• John Nieporte, the head Golf Pro at Trump International, who worked his way up from being Trump’s former golf caddy, and Carrie Ruiz, the Golf General Manager at Trump National Doral

Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif. told President Biden on a virtual call with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Friday that he should step down as the Democratic nominee, according to three sources familiar with the call. It marks the first time that one of Biden’s growing internal detractors confronted the president with their opposition to his reelection campaign.

Biden had joined the call around noon to acknowledge the concerns that many Democrats in Congress had raised about his capabilities to serve a second term and to reaffirm that not only can he finish the campaign, but that he intends to win in November, according to one of the people, who like others, were granted anonymity to discuss a private call.

Another person told AP that the call began on a positive note, with Biden soliciting feedback from members on how to appeal to the Hispanic vote and what campaign events to join. The call allowed for a few questions of the president, which is when Levin raised his hand to launch what was described as a soliloquy on what he’d heard from his Southern California district, with voters telling him that the president should not be on top of the party’s ticket for 2024.

Levin, according to two of the people, then encouraged the president to listen to those constituents and step down.

Biden responded in kind, according to one person, saying that he understands the threat Democrats face against GOP candidate Trump but that he had a plan to win. The president wanted to answer more member questions after that but the call was abruptly ended by the organizers.

The steady drip of defections from Biden’s camp has continued today as vulnerable Democratic Rep. Mike Levin of California called on him to let someone else take over at the top of the ticket.

Levin put out the statement shortly after Biden joined a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The representative from a competitive district in Southern California said he’s heard from hundreds of constituents and supporters since Biden’s faltering debate performance.

He called the president an “outstanding leader,” but said he’s no longer sure he can prevail against the “incalculable threat” posed by Trump.

“It is time to move forward. With a new leader. Together,” he said in a statement.

A progressive environmental group is calling on Biden to drop his run for reelection, questioning his ability to rally young voters.

Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, praised Biden’s accomplishments in combatting climate change and warned that another Trump presidency would be “catastrophic” for the environment.

Biden was able to energize young voters in 2020, but enthusiasm has been lower in the run-up to this election and has continued to drop since his halting debate performance last month, Shiney-Ajay said.

“The stakes are too high. We can’t afford to ignore the warning signs in front of us,” said Shiney-Ajay.

President Biden is expected to meet virtually Saturday with members of the two largest Democratic caucuses on Capitol Hill as he looks to rebuild momentum for his reelection campaign even as the number of Democrats calling for him to step aside increases.

Biden will take his campaign message to members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the New Democrats Caucus, according to two people familiar with the plans, as he is expected to face a number of concerns about his ability to serve another four years in office. The people were granted anonymity to discuss the timing of the private meetings.

Trump is comparing his vice presidential search to the reality TV show he helmed years ago.

“It’s like a highly sophisticated version of ‘The Apprentice,’” Trump said on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show amid intense speculation over his pick.

The presumptive GOP nominee once again made clear his preference to unveil his pick at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off Monday in Milwaukee.

Trump said he’d “love to do it during the convention” or “just slightly before the convention, like Monday.”

He also said he’s down to a handful of “really, really good candidates.”

“I may be leaning one way and that changing sometimes — you know all of a sudden you see something that you like or you don’t like and you lean a little bit differently ... but we have a very good bench.”

Another prominent Black Democrat is making clear that she won’t jump ship on President Biden.

Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman who managed Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000, said in a brief interview Friday that she is “ridin’ with Biden” and that he remains able to do the job and campaign effectively to keep it.

Emphasizing how deep Biden’s relationships run across the Democratic Party, Brazile noted that she’s been friends with the 81-year-old president since he offered her a job on his first presidential campaign in 1987. “I went with Dick Gephardt instead,” she said, laughing. But Brazile said she learned then that “Joe Biden is a good man” and that he has proven to be an effective president.

“I don’t know when we all decided that a president has to be perfect,” she said. “It’s not like he’s out on bail and carrying 34 felony convictions.”

President Biden is currently on a virtual call with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to a Democratic aide, granted anonymity to discuss the private call.

The group’s chair, Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., put out a statement of support for Biden after his debate, but many of her members have yet to do the same and some, including Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., have publicly stated that Biden should step down.

The president has faced criticisms from Hispanic members and outside groups in response to a series of immigration decisions he’s made over the last several years and the group is a crucial voting bloc for the Democratic Party.

Toward the end of his closely watched news conference Thursday night, President Biden was talking about being examined by doctors for his mental acuity. Suddenly, a little frustration slipped through.

“No matter what I did,” he said, “no one’s going to be satisfied.”

The news conference indicated how difficult it will be for him to change the subject. The first five questions, taken together, formed a volley on the same topic: his ability to perform in the office. Even reporters who brought up other topics — Ukraine, China, NATO — usually mixed in questions about his fitness to serve moving forward.

Ultimately, it served as an ink-blot test for people who were watching him, NBC News’ Hallie Jackson said at the end. Supporters were likely encouraged by his grasp of issues, she said, “but if you think he should step off the ticket, this probably didn’t change your mind.”

Less than 20 miles away from the RNC podium at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, Republicans far afield of former President Trump will gather to present a different vision for their party.

Under the banner “Principles First,” Republicans who have carved out profiles as Trump detractors — including former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, Women4US super PAC founder Stephanie Sharp and onetime adviser George Conway — will call for a different party direction on Wednesday evening in the Pewaukee suburb.

For a Republican National Convention aimed at elevating Trump as the GOP’s near-unanimous choice for president, it’s noteworthy the group was able to book a hall within 20 miles of the convention floor in downtown Milwaukee. Never mind that the event is being held in Waukesha County, where Trump won 60 percent of the vote in 2020.

Public figures beyond the world of politics have continued to weigh in on Biden’s candidacy.

During an interview on CNBC, NBA all-star and sports analyst Charles Barkley extolled his “admiration and respect” for President Biden but said “it’s time for him to pass the torch.”

Barkley also reiterated his distaste for Biden’s competitor, former President Trump. Barkley recently took aim at the way Trump compared his criminal indictments with the United States’ history of discrimination against Black Americans, calling it “an insult to all Black people.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says Biden put on a strong showing in the foreign policy arena at his high-stakes press conference.

“I thought he showed a real command of foreign policy, really extraordinary,” Cooper told reporters. “I don’t think Donald Trump can talk about foreign policy coherently for one minute.”

Vice President Kamala Harris also visited Greensboro on the campaign trail earlier on Thursday, and Cooper said their discussions centered around “winning in November.”

Asked if he has been involved in talks about potentially being vice president on a Harris ticket, Cooper bluntly said, “No.”

President Joe Biden today will return to the same Detroit high school where as a candidate in 2020, he vowed to be a bridge to the next generation of leaders.

“I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” Biden said in March 2020 while flanked by Kamala Harris and other party leaders at Renaissance High School. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”

Four years later, many in his party are now pleading for him to fulfill that very promise and step aside.

At his event on Friday, President Biden aims to boost enthusiasm for his campaign and solidify support from Michigan’s prominent Democratic leaders. However, he will be without influential allies, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who are unable to attend.

A first-term Colorado representative is Friday’s first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop his reelection bid.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen says Biden is a “good man,” but she’s made the “painful” decision to join others in her district and the country asking him to step aside so another Democrat can run.

The list of members of Congress calling on Biden to step aside has continued to grow since the president’s news conference Thursday night, though it’s been more of a steady drip than a powerful wave.

Nearly 20 Democratic lawmakers have called him to step down.

Jeffries of New York said in a letter to colleagues Friday that he met with the president Thursday evening and “directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.”

This comes as more than a dozen Democrats in the House have called on Biden to step aside, while others want the president to stay in the race. Jeffries said Democrats have had an “extensive discussion” about the country’s future. And the conversations have been, as he said earlier in the week, “candid, clear-eyed and comprehensive.”

Two White House officials confirmed the meeting but declined further comment.

Ashley Judd wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today that his poor debate performance raises the chances that Trump could win the presidency again.

“He would wield the power of the presidency with unprecedented, incalculable cruelty and unfairness,” Judd wrote.

She called on Biden to “voluntarily, gracefully step aside” so the party can support a “talented, robust Democrat” for the presidency.

Judd cited her political activism, which has accompanied her multidecade Hollywood career. Her allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein helped spark the #MeToo movement.

In the two weeks since his debate debacle, Biden and his team have been on a relentless sprint to persuade fretting lawmakers, nervous donors and a skeptical electorate that at the age of 81, he is still capable of being president.

Rallying enthusiasm in Detroit and among its sizable Black population could prove decisive for Biden’s chances of winning Michigan, which Biden reclaimed in 2020 after Donald Trump won it in four years prior by just over 10,000 votes.

For all the usual stagecraft, the Republican National Convention that opens Monday is different from Donald Trump’s previous nominating affairs.

This year, he will accept the Republican nomination with his party in lockstep behind him and Democrats in turmoil over President Joe Biden’s viability.

The GOP expects a triumphant moment.

“The political environment is not only great for Donald Trump, but it’s really great for Republicans running for Senate, governor, House seats, all the way down,” said Henry Barbour, an influential Republican National Committee member who has sometimes criticized Trump in the past.

▶ Read more about what to expect going into the convention

That’s according to two people familiar with her plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity before full details were released.

It will be a rare public appearance in Milwaukee for a woman who has been largely absent from the campaign trail as her husband runs to return to the White House.

It remains unclear whether she will deliver a speech or have any formal role in the proceedings.

The news was first reported by CNN.

A conservative think tank that is planning for a complete overhaul of the federal government in the event of a Republican presidential win is suggesting that President Joe Biden might try to hold the White House “by force” if he loses the November election.

The Heritage Foundation’s warning — which goes against Biden’s own public statements — appeared in a report released Thursday that the group said resulted from a role-playing exercise gaming out potential scenarios before and after the 2024 election.

An AP analysis of two consecutive polls conducted in June by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 7 in 10 Black Americans have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Trump, as do about half of Hispanic Americans.

While both groups do see Trump a little more favorably than when he left office in 2021, their opinion of him is still more negative than positive.

▶ Read more about Trump’s favorability ratings here

Most of the hourlong press conference was vintage Biden: He gave long answers on foreign policy and told well-worn anecdotes. He used teleprompters for his opening remarks on NATO, which ran about eight minutes. Then the teleprompters lowered and he took a wide range of questions from 10 journalists about his mental acuity, foreign and domestic policy and — mostly — the future of his campaign.

“I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. I believe I’m the best qualitied to win,” Biden said, adding that he will stay in the race until his staff says, “There’s no way you can win.”

President Joe Biden faced a test that he had avoided so far this year: a solo news conference with questions from the White House press corps.

He made at least two notable flubs, referring at an event beforehand to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” and then calling Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” when asked about her by a reporter. But he also gave detailed responses about his work to preserve NATO and his plans for a second term.

▶ Catch up with the key takeaways and highlights from yesterday’s press conference here