Biden should resign as president immediately, says JD Vance
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JD Vance has said Joe Biden should resign as US president immediately.
The Republican vice presidential candidate said that everyone calling on Mr Biden to withdraw from the race without also calling on him to resign the presidency was “engaged in an absurd level of cynicism”.
“If you can’t run, you can’t serve,” Mr Vance added, in a post on X. “He should resign now.”
The US president has not yet decided to step aside, with his team publicly insisting he will remain on the ticket. However, in private, the Biden team has acknowledged that his candidacy may be untenable, according to the New York Times.
The president’s aides have been privately discussing dates and a venue for Mr Biden to announce his exit from the race, the paper reports.
08:39 PM BST
Trump set to speak
Welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids tonight.
JD Vance is currently on the stage talking up his new boss – and the former president is due to speak soon.
05:10 PM BST
That’s all for today.
Thanks for following the Telegraph’s live blog. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the US election.
04:58 PM BST
Harris is ‘ready to step up’ if Biden bows out, says Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator for Massachusetts, has said that if Joe Biden opts to bow out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris, the vice president, is “ready to step up.”
“What gives me a lot of hope right now is that, if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris who is ready to step up,” Ms Warren told MSNBC on Saturday, “to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump and to win in November.”
Ms Warren, who competed with Mr Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, said the president “has a really big decision to make” about whether he wants to leave the race.
04:36 PM BST
Kamala Harris ‘only choice’ to replace Biden as time runs out, say Democrats
Kamala Harris is the “only choice” to replace Joe Biden as the Democrats’ presidential nominee as there is so little time until the election, senior party figures have told The Telegraph.
The vice-president is seeing a groundswell of support among the party’s many elected officials who believe the 81-year-old president’s position is untenable.
But the question of how she would assume the position at the top of the ticket, should Mr Biden stand down, is increasingly contested.
Read the full piece, by Rozina Sabur, Deputy US Editor, here.
04:18 PM BST
Biden ‘angry’ with Obama over calls to step down
Joe Biden is reportedly angry with Barack Obama for joining other top Democrats in calling for him to bow out of the US presidential race.
Mr Obama, the former president, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, are among those calling for Mr Biden to withdraw from the race, as Mr Biden’s cognitive faculties have come under increasing scrutiny.
Mr Biden, currently in isolation with a Covid infection at his beach home in Delaware, is said to view Ms Pelosi as the instigator of the plot to oust him but is particularly wounded by the involvement of Mr Obama, whom he once considered a close friend.
03:57 PM BST
Kamala Harris allies ‘working behind scenes to position her as Biden’s replacement’
Allies of Kamala Harris are said to be working behind the scenes to position the vice president as the best replacement for Joe Biden if he steps down as the Democratic nominee, writes Susie Coen, US Correspondent, and Verity Bowman.
The uncoordinated effort involves prepping talking points which show Ms Harris is the party’s best hope of defeating Donald Trump in November, sources told Politico.
The group is quietly preparing to show she is qualified to lead the ticket in her own right rather than simply because it would be remiss to overlook the first female black vice president.
Read the full piece here.
03:17 PM BST
Biden’s opponents plan oust him using party rulebook
Joe Biden’s opponents are drawing up plans to use a clause in the Democratic Party rule book to ditch him as a candidate at the convention, according to reports in the US, writes David Millward, US Correspondent.
Delegates are no longer bound to vote for the candidate they were elected to support at the convention.
A change in party rules in 1980 says they can choose somebody else if “in good conscience” the candidate represents their beliefs.
According to the New York Post Elaine Kamarck briefed fellow delegates on the clause in a Zoom call on Friday.
“There’s no such thing as Joe Biden releasing his delegates. And Joe Biden gets this,” Ms Kamarck, an expert on the party’s rules, reportedly told 50 delegates.
If enough of the 3,896 pledged delegates refuse to back Mr Biden and abstain the convention would be thrown wide open.
It would pave the way for around 700 “superdelegates” - an array of senior party officials, members of Congress and governors – to enter the fray.
This could see the party coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris or a raft of candidates throwing their hats into the ring.
02:57 PM BST
Biden says he will return to campaign trail next week
President Joe Biden says he’s ready to return to the campaign trail next week, even as a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers called for him to step aside.
Meanwhile, after wrapping their national convention in Milwaukee this week, Republican officials, strategists and activists are exuding a confidence not seen in decades.
Donald Trump on Saturday will hold his first public campaign rally since he was injured in an assassination attempt, with an event in the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance.
02:29 PM BST
How JD Vance became the new king of America
The future of the Republican Party, and perhaps the United States with it, is James David “JD” Vance: former US Marine, best-selling author, senator from Ohio and now selected by Donald Trump for potential vice president, writes Tim Stanley.
Trump had been tempted to go with someone else: Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, a solid conservative who wouldn’t outshine the boss. An insider told NBC News that when Trump’s sons Don Jr and Eric heard this debate they went “bats--- crazy”, crying “JD! JD! JD!” like kids after ice cream.
Trump caved. Vance got the call. The decision is immensely consequential.
Read the full piece here.
01:55 PM BST
Biden: Trump has a ‘dark vision for the future’
Joe Biden criticised his Republican rival Donald Trump as having a “dark vision” for America and said he looked forward to returning to the campaign trail next week and winning at the ballot box in November.
“Donald Trump’s dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box. I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda..,” Mr Biden said in a statement following the Republican National Convention.
01:36 PM BST
Watch: Trump recounts ‘painful’ assassination attempt at RNC convention
01:12 PM BST
Pressure mounts on Biden to step aside
Despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to confront his Republican rival Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has done little to soften the push for him to exit the 2024 race.
Mr Biden has weighty options before him this weekend that could set the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads toward the November election with an energized GOP after the Republican nominating convention to send Trump back to the White House.
Almost 35 Democrats in Congress say it’s time for Biden to quit the race, with more lawmakers expected to speak out in the days ahead. Donors have raised concerns. And an organization calling on Biden to “Pass the Torch” planned a rally Saturday at the White House.
12:51 PM BST
Trump the agitator extends a hand of friendship ... for a bit
Donald Trump ascended the stage at the Republican National Convention in a manner befitting a prize fighter, or his former life as a TV star, writes Rozina Sabur, Deputy US Editor.
The GOP nominee is an American “bad--s” and a “fighter”, his warm-up acts former wrestler Hulk Hogan, musician Kid Rock, and son Eric Trump had just told the crowd.
But as he began his acceptance speech, he adopted another persona: Trump the sombre statesman.
Read the full piece here.
12:20 PM BST
Election in Pictures
12:06 PM BST
Trump unlikely to discuss ‘painful’ trauma on campaign trail
Riding high after a triumphant convention that formalized Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s White House nominee, the ex-president will speak at a rally in Michigan today.
Attendees at Saturday’s 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) rally though are unlikely to hear Trump discuss last week’s trauma, as he told the convention: “You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell.”
It comes as Joe Biden’s campaign is grappling with an internal Democratic Party revolt from senior lawmakers and donors calling on the 81-year-president to quit the race.
11:37 AM BST
Trump to hold first campaign rally since assassination attempt
Donald Trump will hold his first campaign rally on Saturday since he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt one week ago and fresh from his nominating convention where his takeover of the Republican Party was cemented.
Trump will appear in Grand Rapids, in the battleground state of Michigan, along with his new vice presidential pick, Ohio US Senator JD Vance. It will be their first campaign event together as the now official Republican presidential ticket.
Republican Party officials said during Trump’s nominating convention in Milwaukee this week that his brush with death last Saturday had changed him, and that when he made his acceptance speech on Thursday night he would call for national unity.
While Trump began the address with a call for unity and national healing, much of his speech was his well-known list of grievances and attacks on opponents.
11:14 AM BST
Democrats call for ‘open process’ to replace Biden
Nancy Pelosi has reportedly called for an “open process” to select a new Democrat presidential candidate should Joe Biden step down in the coming weeks.
Ms Pelosi is keen to avoid the appearance of a Kamala Harris “coronation” by awarding the ticket directly to the US vice president, believing that an uncompetitive process would put voters off, Politico reports.
Zoe Lofgren, a representative for California and ally of Pelosi, told MSNBC on Friday that Ms Harris would be “the leading candidate”, but could not be handed the role without any democratic process.
“I think kind of a mini primary, maybe a vetting hosted by former presidents including Obama and Clinton, would be helpful and help focus the attention,” Ms Lofgren said.
10:43 AM BST
Biden team ‘discuss venue’ for potential exit announcement
Joe Biden’s aides have reportedly been privately discussing dates and a venue for the 81-year-old to announce his exit from the US presidential race.
The US president has not yet decided to withdraw from the contest, but Mr Biden’s team have been planning for the eventuality, according to the New York Times.
It comes amid mounting pressure for Mr Biden to bow out from top Democrats, including 30 congressmen and former US president Barack Obama, once a staunch Biden ally.
Mr Biden’s campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillion, on Friday acknowledged a “slippage” in support for the president but insisted he’s “absolutely” remaining in the race and the campaign sees “multiple paths” to beating Trump.
“We have a lot of work to do to reassure the American people that, yes, he’s old, but he can win,” she told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show. She said voters concerned about Biden’s fitness to lead aren’t switching to vote for Trump.
10:08 AM BST
Biden recovering from Covid
Joe Biden, 81, isolating with a Covid infection at his beach home in Delaware, with a small circle of family and close advisers.
Kevin O’Connor, the White House doctor, said Friday that the president still had a dry cough and hoarseness, but his Covid symptoms had improved.
The president’s team insisted he’s ready to return to the campaign trail next week to counter what he called a “dark vision” laid out by Trump.
“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Mr Biden said in a statement Friday. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
