RACINE: Andrea Dyess, 57, was already a Joe Biden fan, but after meeting him in her neighborhood of Racine, Wisconsin, in May, she has been talking to anyone who will listen about giving him four more years in the White House.
Dyess was on a street corner with her two young grandchildren trying to catch a glimpse of Biden’s motorcade, when a campaign worker invited her to join the president at a nearby community center.
Biden listened attentively as she told him about surviving cancer and how the Affordable Care Act, which Biden helped push as Barack Obama’s vice president, saved her life.
“I told him, just keep fighting the fight,” she said,
Since then, Dyess says she has shared her “once in a lifetime moment” directly with dozens of friends and relatives, at a church revival, at her grandkids’ school and on her neighborhood walks. She’s also been urging her 20-year-old son’s friends to register to vote.
Campaign officials say the encounter is exactly what they are hoping to replicate around the country with a series of small-scale campaign events.
Biden, 81, has spent decades honing his ‘retail’ politician style of wooing voters. Big, thundering speeches have never been his style but he lights up when meeting people one-on-one, thumping shoulders, hugging strangers and FaceTiming people’s moms.
In sharp contrast to the
mass rallies
hosted by Republican rival Donald Trump — heavy on stagecraft with classic rock playlists, anti-immigration rhetoric and mostly white audiences — Biden meets with small, more diverse groups of voters for personal conversations.
Those
smaller events
are arranged with friendly invitation-only audiences, and often publicized only at the last minute to avoid pro-Palestinian protests that have dogged Biden’s appearances for months.
It’s part of a broader campaign strategy that includes celebrity endorsements, a slew of political surrogates, traditional ads and official events to showcase Biden’s support for NATO, infrastructure funding and other key policies.
The campaign is under heavy pressure as Biden wobbles in the polls.
Despite strong economic growth and stock market highs, his approval ratings are near two-year lows, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed, and other polls show Trump ahead in several of the battleground states that Biden narrowly won in 2020.
Campaign and Democratic party officials say that is in part because voters are still smarting from higher prices and don’t know enough about what Biden has done to reduce costs of prescription drugs and other essentials, or his backing of unions fighting for higher wages.
They say US media is too “fractured” to be an effective way of reaching voters on these issues. So they’re enlisting friend networks, super-surrogates, small business groups, podcasts, new media and TikTok stars who they hope will talk issues and policies as they try to convince millions of Americans to back Biden in November.
Charles Franklin, who directs polling at Wisconsin’s Marquette University Law School, said that because Biden doesn’t have “groupies” like Trump, these smaller events are a better bet. “If they both got the same stadium and did back to back events, [I’m] pretty confident that Trump would have the bigger turnout for that,” Franklin said.
Republicans, who ridiculed Biden’s 2020 campaign for being run “from his basement,” say the lack of big Biden rallies in 2024 is further evidence of his physical and political fragility.
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, described Biden’s strategy as “tiny, staged, 15-minute snooze-fests,” and said “Team Trump’s campaign events will continue to get bigger and better.”
Before events like the one in Racine, the campaign combs its databases for local people who care about a specific issue Biden’s policies have addressed or are part of a demographic he hopes to reach, and invites them to meet Biden. Sometimes they find unexpected guests like Dyess.
The interactions are filmed by the campaign for YouTube video and campaign ads, and followed by local and national media. Ideally, participants make their own social media posts and those go viral, reaching more voters, the campaign says.
“One of the strategies around any visit is not just to have the perfect room and create the conditions for serendipity, but also to make sure that what happens in the room doesn’t stay in the room,” said Ben Wikler, head of Wisconsin’s Democratic Party.
In Milwaukee in March, for example, Biden met 9-year-old Harry Abramson, who had written to Biden about his stutter.
Biden, who stuttered as a child, shared his strategy for dealing with difficult words. The interaction was picked up by the local Fox affiliate and other TV stations, digital and print media, and Biden’s campaign put it on Facebook and other accounts. It went viral, bouncing around chat rooms, TikTok and Reddit.
“Grandpa’s gonna Grandpa. Imagine telling your friends you got speech lessons from the president of the United States,” one Reddit user wrote under a video of the interaction on “Made Me Smile,” a group with 9.5 million members.
Biden visited the Fitts’ family home in North Carolina in January, part of a ‘kitchen table’ visit to regular families in swing states. Afterward, teenaged Christian Fitts posted a video on TikTok showing the President admiring school photos on his refrigerator and sharing french fries at the kitchen table.
The post got over one million “likes” and thousands of comments that attracted millions more views. Many were incredulous, rather than outright endorsements of Biden. “HIM JUST STANDING AT THE FRIDGE IS SENDING ME” one user wrote. Nearly 50,000 people liked the comment.
Tracking the digital impact of this strategy is difficult, political experts say. New tools to track TikTok content are still not reliable, most Facebook posts are private, and there’s no way to know how many of those who comment will actually vote.
Teddy Goff, co-founder of marketing firm Precision Strategies, believes the smaller events are a smart play.
“They’re going to wind up in the local news, local newspaper, local TV, and in all likelihood, will get seen by more people than might have been to that Trump rally,” said Goff, digital director of former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, referring to an April rally by Trump in Green Bay that drew a crowd of 3,200.
Relying on individuals to share the Biden message can be unpredictable.
Sheree Robinson, a Black mother of five from Racine who says funding from Biden’s American Rescue Plan helped her earn her a High School Equivalency Diploma, was invited to ride in Biden’s limousine during his May Wisconsin visit.
She posted a video on Facebook showing her smiling next to a bemused-looking Biden, as he gets detailed instructions on what to expect at the next event. In her comment, she used an obscenity to tout herself as a “big ... deal,” without any praise of Biden.
Later, however, she called into a local radio program to share what she called an “awesome” experience, and plugged Biden’s policy that helped her get a degree. The Wisconsin Democratic party is featuring her in digital ads it will use around the state.
Social media tends to embrace more negative or awkward moments, like a stumble or fall, Goff noted, rather than a tiny event like the recent one in Racine.
Biden’s campaign is outspending Trump’s on digital media in Wisconsin, according to an analysis by Priorities USA. It spent $2.2 million on digital ads in the state alone since January, compared to $1,500 spent by Trump.
So far, though, a FiveThirtyEight compilation of Wisconsin polls still shows Trump with a slight lead in the state.
Biden campaign taps friend groups, social media, with unpredictable results
https://arab.news/v6wa7
Biden campaign taps friend groups, social media, with unpredictable results
- Biden listened attentively as she told him about surviving cancer and how the Affordable Care Act, which Biden helped push as Barack Obama’s vice president, saved her life
France expels Iranian suspected of influence peddling for Tehran
- Deportation of Bashir Biazar, reportedly a former senior figure in state television in Iran, frustrated Paris-based activists who last month filed a torture complaint against him
- Case has emerged at a time of heightened tensions between Paris and Tehran, with three French citizens — described by France as ‘state hostages’ — still imprisoned in Iran
PARIS: France on Wednesday expelled an Iranian suspected of influence peddling on behalf of the Islamic republic and having links to the Revolutionary Guards ideological army, his lawyer and Iranian officials said.
The deportation of Bashir Biazar, reportedly a former senior figure in state television in Iran, frustrated Paris-based activists who last month filed a torture complaint against him.
Biazar had been held in administrative detention since the start of June and was subject to a deportation order from the French interior ministry.
Mohammad Mahdi Rahimi, the head of public relations for the office of the Iranian president, wrote on X that Biazar “has been released and is on his way back to his homeland.”
He said Biazar had been “illegally arrested and imprisoned in France a few weeks ago.”
But a representative of the French interior ministry, speaking at a hearing earlier Wednesday, said Biazar was an “agent of influence, an agitator who promotes the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran and, more worryingly, harasses opponents of the regime.”
The representative accused Biazar of filming journalists from Iranian opposition media in September in front of the Iranian consulate in Paris after an arson attack on the building.
French authorities also accused him of posting messages on social networks in connection with the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in which he denounced “Zionist dogs.”
During the hearing, his lawyer Rachid Lemoudaa said that the expulsion order was based on “assumptions” and that his client’s comments fell within the scope of “freedom of expression.”
“I have never been made aware of any threat whatsoever” posed by Biazar, he added.
Biazar has been described by the London-based Iran International television channel as a former official for Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.
Iranian state media have described him as a “cultural figure.”
The case has emerged at a time of heightened tensions between Paris and Tehran, with three French citizens — described by France as “state hostages” — still imprisoned in Iran.
A fourth French detainee, Louis Arnaud, held in Iran since September 2022, was suddenly released last month.
Activist group Iran Justice and victims of human rights violations filed the torture complaint against Biazar last month in Paris.
It accuses Biazar of complicity in torture due to his past work with IRIB, describing him as a former director of production there.
The complaint referred to the regular broadcasts by Iranian state television of statements by — and even interviews with — Iranian or foreign prisoners, which activists regard as forced confessions.
“It is incomprehensible... that no legal proceedings have been initiated” against Biazar, Chirinne Ardakani, the Paris-based lawyer behind the complaint, told AFP.
She said there were “serious indications” implicating Biazar “in the production, recording and broadcasting of forced confessions obtained clearly under torture.”
“Nothing is clear in this case,” she added.
The French citizens still held in Iran are Cecile Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Jacques Paris, detained since May 2022, and another man identified only as Olivier.
Kohler appeared on Iranian television in October 2022 giving comments activists said amounted to a forced confession.
Amnesty International describes Kohler as “arbitrarily detained... amidst mounting evidence Iran’s authorities are holding her hostage to compel specific action(s) by French authorities.”
Meanwhile, Sweden last month released Hamid Noury, a former Iranian official it had jailed over the 1988 mass executions of dissidents in Iran, in exchange for two Swedes jailed in the Islamic republic.
The exchange was bitterly criticized by campaigners who had fought for Noury to be bought to justice under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and by the family of Swedish citizen Ahmadreza Jalali, who faces the death penalty in Iran and was not included in the deal.
Election outcomes won’t change its Ukraine support, says the UN General Assembly’s president
- That stance “cannot change because this is a matter of law,” General Assembly President Dennis Francis told AP
- The UN’s main policy-making body has given broad support for efforts to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty, Francis said
KYIV: The UN General Assembly will keep standing up for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty whatever the outcome of national elections across the globe this year, the body’s president said Wednesday, adding that “no country has the right to invade another country.”
That stance “cannot change because this is a matter of law,” General Assembly President Dennis Francis told The Associated Press during his first visit to Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces battle Russia’s invasion for a third year.
The UN’s main policy-making body has given broad support for efforts to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty, Francis said.
But elections this year in the US and in a handful of key European Union countries have raised concerns about a potential shift in policies among Western nations whose military and financial support has been crucial for Ukraine to thwart the Kremlin’s ambitions.
“It will be for us to witness over time what the implications of the results of those elections are for the entire international system and in particular for the state of Ukraine,” Francis said.
“I am convinced that the people of Ukraine will not give up,” he said, whatever the election outcomes. “They will not accept it and they will not allow foreign domination of their homeland.”
Speaking in Kyiv at the end of a two-day visit, Francis called on Russia “to withdraw immediately all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine” — a reference to a General Assembly resolution that was approved shortly after the outbreak of the war. More than two years later, Moscow’s army is slowly seizing new land in eastern Ukraine.
Francis met with Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss peace and international security. He pledged support for Zelensky’s peace plan, which was discussed at a recent international gathering in Switzerland attended by scores of countries and bodies, including the UN
“I think there are many important elements in (Zelensky’s plan) that can provide a foundation for dialog when that time is appropriate,” he said. “Let us see where it takes us.”
Italy appeals court upholds conviction of 2 Americans in death of policeman but reduces sentences
- The new verdict drew acceptance from the men’s families and disappointment from the officer’s widow
- Teenagers at the time of the slaying, the former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area had met up in Rome to spend a few days vacationing
ROME: An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two American men in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but significantly reduced their sentences.
The new verdict, ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out the original convictions, drew acceptance from the men’s families and disappointment from the officer’s widow.
Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth had been found guilty in the July 2019 slaying of Carabinieri Vice Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega, and after the first trial, were both sentenced to life in prison, Italy’s harshest penalty.
Those sentences were reduced on appeal before Italy’s highest Cassation Court last year ordered a new trial altogether. On Wednesday, the appeals court convicted Finnegan and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison; it sentenced Natale-Hjorth to 11 years and four months, along with an 800 euro ($863) fine.
“I don’t think we could ask for a reasonable, better decision today,” said Ethan Elder, Finnegan Lee Elder’s father.
Teenagers at the time of the slaying, the former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area had met up in Rome to spend a few days vacationing. The fatal confrontation took place after they arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to have been a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad drug deal. Instead, they were confronted by two officers.
Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from the hotel room.
In ordering the retrial, the Cassation Court said it hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged drug dealer.
The defense had argued that the defendants didn’t know they were facing law enforcement when the attack happened, an argument repeated during the new trial.
Prosecutor Bruno Giangiacomo said his office would wait to read the court’s written reasonings before deciding on a possible appeal to the Cassation. In Italy, both defendants and prosecutors can appeal at every level of judgment.
“Both aggravating factors that were increasing the penalty were excluded,” Giangiacomo said after the verdict. “This could be a delicate point where we can think about an appeal to the Cassation court.” Prosecutors had asked that Finnegan be sentenced to 23 years and nine months and Natale-Hjorth to 23 years.
Rosa Maria Esilio, the widow of Cerciello Rega, was “devastated” by the verdict, said her lawyer Massimo Ferrandino.
“For five years she has been carrying a huge pain. She was the one who closed the eyes of her husband in the morgue. You can imagine her pain today too,” he said.
The killing of the officer in the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy, and the 35-year-old Cerciello Rega was mourned as a national hero.
Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without carrying out the slaying.
But lawyer Francesco Petrelli, who represented Natale-Hjorth, said the appeals court clearly recognized that there was a different level of participation by his client.
“There was a reduction, mainly of the responsibility,” he said, adding that “there was a shift from intentional malice to negligence.”
Prosecutors contend that the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine with 80 euros ($96) in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but didn’t receive it.
In a statement released by lawyers after the new verdicts, Leah Elder, Finnegan Elder’s mother, insisted that her son was prepared to take responsibility for his actions and move on.
“This trial is unfortunately connected to the tragedy of a person’s death, a grave fact that has marked and will forever mark the lives of all the families involved,” she said. “Bringing out the truth of the facts would help Finnegan take full responsibility for the pain he caused with his tragic reaction. I hope that, even as he pays for his mistake, he will also open up to hope for the future.”
Biden under pressure as Democratic panic rises
- Post-debate polling by OpenLabs found that New Hampshire, Virginia and New Mexico — all once safe Biden states — are now in play for Trump
- Big names in the House of Representatives — including Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn — have acknowledged that questions over his condition are fair
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden scrambled Wednesday to save his reelection bid, with pressure mounting on him to pull out following a disastrous debate showing, and the president himself reportedly saying the coming days could be make-or-break.
The 81-year-old told a key ally he must convince the public quickly that he can do the job, The New York Times and CNN reported, raising the stakes for Biden’s first post-debate TV interview, scheduled for Friday.
“He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place,” the ally said, discussing the president’s poor showing against Donald Trump in Atlanta last week, according to the Times.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a brief denial on social media that the claim was “absolutely false.”
Democratic establishment figures have voiced bafflement over what they see as deflection and anodyne excuses from the president and his aides after his often incoherent debate performance.
And in Congress, lawmakers see Democratic prospects of taking over the House of Representatives, hanging on to the Senate and returning to the White House slipping away, four months ahead of the election.
The concern followed reports that post-debate polling by progressive non-profit OpenLabs found that New Hampshire, Virginia and New Mexico — all once safe Biden states — are now in play for Trump.
Biden was also buffeted by new research showing Trump up three to six points nationwide since the debate, with 75 percent of voters believing Democrats would fare better under a new leader, according to a CNN survey.
It wasn’t until Tuesday — five days after the debate — that Biden called House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and congressional staffers have been voicing consternation over the glacial pace of the outreach.
“We are getting to the point where it may not have been the debate that did him in, but the aftermath of how they’ve handled it,” a senior Democratic operative told Washington political outlet Axios.
Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged Tuesday that he had a “bad night” and was fending off a cold — but flatly denied that he was dealing with dementia and other any other illness.
Aware of growing alarm in the party, Biden scheduled a White House meeting with all 23 Democratic governors on Wednesday evening.
He will make his pitch in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days, and sit with ABC News on Friday for his first interview since the debate.
The president has cited fatigue as a new explanation for his poor showing, saying that he had been unwise to travel “around the world a couple times” before the debate and “almost fell asleep on stage.”
But he had been back in the United States for nearly two weeks and spent two days relaxing and six in debate preparation.
The Times said people who have interacted with the president had found that his mental fogginess was “growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.”
Democratic lawmakers have begun to go public with their doubts, with two saying Tuesday they expected Biden to lose to Trump in November and another calling for him to quit the White House race.
Big names in the House of Representatives who are usually foursquare behind Biden — including Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn — have acknowledged that questions over his condition are fair.
House Democrats vented their frustration during a video call on Tuesday, although some reportedly cautioned against changing leaders so close to the August nominating convention.
“The fundamental issue, of course, isn’t the campaign. It’s not the Biden family. And it’s not even last week’s debate,” political analyst and prominent Trump critic Bill Kristol wrote Wednesday for conservative outlet The Bulwark.
“It’s the fitness of the president to be president — not for a few more months, but for four more years.”
Labour predicted to oust Tories in UK election
- Polls overwhelmingly predict that Labour will win its first general election since 2005
- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted he was still “fighting hard”
LONDON: Britain’s political leaders made a final frantic push for votes Wednesday on the last day of an election campaign expected to return a Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted he was still “fighting hard” despite one of his closest allies conceding that the Tories were heading for an “extraordinary landslide” defeat on Thursday.
The Conservatives suffered a further blow at the 11th hour when The Sun tabloid, famous for backing election winners, endorsed Keir Starmer’s Labour.
Polls overwhelmingly predict that Labour will win its first general election since 2005 — making Starmer the party’s first prime minister since Gordon Brown left office in 2010.
That outcome would see Britain swing leftwards back to the center ground after almost a decade and a half of right-wing Conservative governments, dominated first by austerity, then Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis.
Starmer, 61, criss-crossed the UK in a bid to shore up Labour support and warn against complacency in the campaign’s final hours.
“If you want change, you have to vote for it,” he told reporters at an event in Carmarthenshire, south Wales, where supporters handed out cakes with red ribbons, the color associated with the party.
“I’m not taking anything for granted,” he added, before flying to Scotland on the same plane that took the England football team to the European Championships in Germany.
Sunak, 44, sought to hammer home his oft-repeated warnings that a Labour government would mean tax rises and weaker national security — jibes that Labour has branded a desperate attempt to cling to power.
The Tories also stepped up their warnings to voters to stop the prospect of Labour winning a “supermajority,” which Labour fears is intended to hit turnout.
Sunak ally Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said Wednesday the electorate would “regret” handing Labour “untrammelled” power without an effective Tory opposition.
“If you look at the polls, it is pretty clear that Labour at this stage are heading for an extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before,” he told right-wing broadcaster GB News.
But ex-PM Boris Johnson — ousted by his own colleagues, including Sunak, in 2022 — staged his first major intervention of the campaign Tuesday, urging supporters not to see the result as a “foregone conclusion.”
Labour has enjoyed a consistent 20-point lead in the polls over the past two years with many voters dissatisfied at the Conservatives’ handling of a range of issues including public services, immigration and the economy.
Several surveys predict that Labour will win more than the record 418 seats it won when Tony Blair ended 18 years of Conservative rule in 1997.
Labour requires at least 326 seats to secure a majority in the 650-seat parliament.
Voters head to the polls from 7:00 am (0600 GMT), with results expected to start dropping from about 2230 GMT late Thursday into Friday morning.
The vote is Britain’s first July election since 1945, when Labour under Clement Attlee defeated the Conservatives of World War II leader Winston Churchill, ushering in a period of transformational social change.
Attlee’s government created the modern welfare state, including the state-run National Health Service (NHS), Britain’s most cherished institution after the royal family.
Starmer’s “change” agenda is not so radical this time around and promises cautious management of the economy, as part of a long-term growth plan that includes nursing battered public services back to health.
A Labour government would face a formidable to-do list, ranging from spurring anaemic growth to ending NHS strikes and improving post-Brexit ties with Europe.
Some voters simply eye a respite from politics after a chaotic period of five prime ministers, a succession of scandals and Tory infighting between centrists and right-wingers that shows no sign of abating.
The Sun called the Conservatives a “divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country,” adding: “It is time for a change.”
Starmer — the working-class son of a tool maker and a nurse — has none of the political charisma or popularity of former leader Blair, who presided over that last Labour victory in 2005.
But the former human rights lawyer and chief public prosecutor stands to gain from a country fed up with the Tories, and a feeling of national decline.
Arch-Euroskeptic Nigel Farage hopes the discontent will see him elected an MP at the eighth time of trying, while the Liberal Democrats are expected to gain dozens of seats.
