WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview airing Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull’s-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric coming from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.
Those remarks from Biden came during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat had been scrambling to shore up his imperiled candidacy with key party constituencies. During that conversation, Biden declared that he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and that it was “time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye,” saying Trump has gotten far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.
Insisting “there was very little focus on Trump’s agenda,” Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt that while he acknowledged his “mistake,” he nonetheless is “not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one” and that he wanted the focus to be on what Trump was saying. It’s Trump, not Biden, who engages in that kind of rhetoric, Biden said, referring to Trump’s past comments about a “bloodbath” if the Republican loses to Biden in November.
“Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Biden said. “Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?”
The interview was occurring the same day that his reelection team was preparing to resume full-throttle campaigning after the assassination attempt on Trump, particularly after the GOP nominee announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate — which unleashed a flurry of criticism from the Biden campaign and other Democrats about the young freshman senator’s policy positions.
“He’s a clone of Trump on the issues,” Biden told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base shortly before departing for Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign events. “I don’t see any difference.”
The NBC interview, scheduled before the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, had been part of Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June 27 debate performance.
The Biden campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Saturday, pulling advertising off the air and hitting pause on messaging. The White House also scrapped Biden’s planned Monday visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson library, where he had been slated to deliver remarks on civil rights.
It’s still not finalized when Biden’s campaign ads will resume airing. But Biden is pressing on with the Nevada portion of his previously scheduled western swing, which will include remarks to the NAACP and UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. He’ll also headline what’s been billed as a “campaign community event” on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Hours ahead of the NBC interview, his campaign issued a blistering statement on Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, saying he picked the freshman senator because he would “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda.”
“Over the next three and a half months, we will spend every single day making the case between the two starkly contrasting visions Americans will choose between at the ballot box this November,” said Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon. “The Biden-Harris ticket who’s focused on uniting the country, creating opportunity for everyone, and lowering costs; or Trump-Vance – whose harmful agenda will take away Americans’ rights, hurt the middle class, and make life more expensive – all while benefiting the ultra-rich and greedy corporations.”
Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will be under attack at the Republican National Convention this week, and aides feel no need to put their campaign on complete pause while Biden comes under scrutiny in Milwaukee. But they’ll tread carefully in the aftermath of the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I’ll be traveling this week, making the case for our record and the vision — my vision of the country — our vision,” Biden said during his Oval Office remarks on Sunday night, just the third such address of his presidency. “I’ll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box, no violence on our streets. That’s how democracy should work.”
Biden’s renewed campaigning this week comes as Democrats have been at an impasse over whether the incumbent president should continue in the race even as he was defiant that he would stay in. Biden has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he remains in the race, and aides have been operating as such.
It was unclear if the attempt on Trump’s life would blunt Democratic efforts to urge Biden to step aside, but it appears to have stalled some of the momentum, for now. No Democrats have called for him to exit the race since the shooting Saturday night.
In the hours before the shooting, Biden was still being confronted by frustration and skepticism from Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said he asked the president during his meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus about objectively assessing the trajectory of the race, and if the Lord almighty doesn’t intervene would Biden consider “the best earthly alternative”: meeting with former presidents Obama and Clinton, and the Democratic leadership including Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to seek their advice.”
Huffman said on a social media post that Biden “disagreed with the notion that we are on a losing trajectory.”
And while Biden expressed a “willingness to listen” to other voices, Huffman said he doubted any would be persuasive. “I continue to believe a major course correction is needed, and that the President and his team have yet to fully acknowledge the problem, much less correct it,” he said.
But now, several Democrats who requested anonymity were skeptical that there would be enough drive among lawmakers to successfully try and pressure Biden not to run, especially because they are scattered and away from Washington until next week and because Biden has said he won’t step aside and seized the opportunity to quickly respond to the shooting over the weekend. The people requested anonymity to characterize private conversations.
Many in the Democratic Party had been looking to congressional leaders Jeffries and Schumer to voice concerns directly to the president. Jeffries met with Biden at the White House on Thursday night, while Schumer went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday for his visit with Biden, which occurred just before the assassination attempt on Trump.
There were still deep concerns that Biden is not up to the job and a sense that pressure to try and find another candidate could ramp up again when lawmakers return to Washington. Congressional Democrats were watching the Republican National Convention and Biden’s appearances this week with awareness that the dynamics could change — again.
Biden says it was a ‘mistake’ to say he wanted to put a ‘bull’s-eye’ on Trump
https://arab.news/p73qx
Biden says it was a ‘mistake’ to say he wanted to put a ‘bull’s-eye’ on Trump
- “Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Biden said
UN team in Dhaka to discuss modalities of probe into rights violations during deadly protests
- New interim administration has pledged to cooperate with UN investigators
- Preliminary analysis suggests over 600 people were killed, thousands injured
DHAKA: UN investigators arrived in Dhaka on Thursday to discuss the process to investigate alleged human rights violations and hundreds of deaths during Bangladesh’s recent student-led protests which led its longtime prime minister to step down.
Initially peaceful demonstrations in early July, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for allocation of civil service positions, turned violent two weeks later following a crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout.
In early August, as protesters defied nationwide curfew rules and stormed government buildings, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power.
The new interim administration, led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, has pledged to cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to deliver justice and accountability for violence committed during the month-long uprising.
“It’s really an exploratory visit to discuss with the interim government, with the advisers, with some of the ministries, with the civil society, with this broad section of Bangladesh society, to hear your priorities, your needs going forward and explore some areas where the office of the high commissioner could assist, including in the area of fact-finding and investigation,” Rory Mungoven, chief of the Asia Pacific region at the OHCHR, who is leading the three-member team to Dhaka, said.
“The high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, is really inspired by the courage and commitment to democracy and human rights of the Bangladesh people, particularly the students and particularly the youth. And he sees this as a historic opportunity for the country in restoring democracy, renewing institutions, advancing human rights.”
According to the OHCHR’s preliminary analysis of the recent unrest in Bangladesh and published on Aug. 16, there are “strong indications” that the security forces used “unnecessary and disproportionate force” in their response to the student-led protests.
“Alleged violations included extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, and severe restrictions on the exercise of freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” the report reads.
“According to available public reports by media and the protest movement itself, between 16 July and 11 August, more than 600 people were killed ... Thousands of protesters and bystanders have been injured, with hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of patients. The reported death toll is likely an underestimate.”
The majority of deaths and injuries have been attributed to security forces and the student wing affiliated with the then-ruling Awami League party.
The casualties, the report said, resulted from “the use of live ammunition and other force against protesters who while acting violently reportedly were not armed, or only lightly armed,” as well as “from instances of security forces unlawfully using lethal force against protesters posing no apparent threat, unarmed protesters, and bystanders, including at least 4 journalists and at least 32 children.”
Most victims have been student demonstrators, whose colleagues are hoping for justice and accountability.
“We want to believe that we will have a proper investigation,” Umama Fatema, a coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organizing group, told Arab News.
“We wanted the International Criminal Court and the UN to intervene in this situation from the very beginning. We just want a proper investigation, and we want to get a proper report. We want to see a proper report on the whole massacre that happened in Bangladesh.”
Bangladesh revokes diplomatic passport of ex-PM Hasina: government
- Interior ministry said that Hasina’s passport, as well as those belonging to former government ministers and ex-lawmakers no longer in their posts, “have to be revoked”
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government revoked the diplomatic passport of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, after she fled a student-led uprising earlier this month.
The interior ministry said in a statement that Hasina’s passport, as well as those belonging to former government ministers and ex-lawmakers no longer in their posts, “have to be revoked.”
More than 450 people were killed — many by police fire — during the weeks leading up to Hasina’s ouster, as crowds stormed her official residence in Dhaka.
A United Nations team arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday to assess whether to investigate alleged human rights violations committed during protests that ended Hasina’s iron-fisted 15-year rule.
“The former prime minister, her advisers, the former cabinet and all members of the dissolved national assembly were eligible for diplomatic passports by virtue of the positions they held,” the ministry said in a statement.
“If they have been removed or retired from their posts, their and their spouses’ diplomatic passports have to be revoked.”
Hasina’s government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political opponents.
Dhaka’s new authorities said that Hasina, and other former top officials during her tenure, could apply for a standard passport, but that those documents were contingent on approval.
“When the aforementioned people apply afresh for ordinary passports, two security agencies have to clear their application for their passports to be issued,” the ministry added.
Hasina, who fled to India, was a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu-nationalist government preferred her over her rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
While India is hosting Hasina, Modi has also offered his support to the new Bangladeshi leader Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the caretaker administration.
Yunus has said his administration would “provide whatever support” UN investigators need.
Romanian prosecutors ask court to extend detention of influencer Andrew Tate
- Before their latest detention the brothers had been subject to a travel ban, under which they were free to travel within Romania but not leave the country
- A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women
BUCHAREST: Romanian prosecutors have requested that Andrew Tate be detained for 30 more days, the Internet personality’s representative said on Thursday, after he was among six people taken into custody in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were among six people detained on Wednesday for an initial 24 hours after Romania’s anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT conducted four home searches in Ilfov county and the Bucharest municipality.
He was already indicted in mid-2023 along with his brother and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they denied.
“The Tate brothers have been issued a proposal for 30 days preventative arrest by the Romanian DIICOT,” Tate’s representative said in a statement, adding that a hearing to decide on the detention would be held at 1200 GMT in Bucharest.
The representative did not address the fresh allegations against Tate in the statement and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Before their latest detention the brothers had been subject to a travel ban, under which they were free to travel within Romania but not leave the country.
A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.
DIICOT said in a statement that it had ordered the detention of six people for crimes including forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
It said that it had requested that three of the detained defendants remain in custody while another one be put under house arrest.
According to DIICOT, two of the accused used the “loverboy” method, which involves convincing victims that they are in a romantic relationship, to force 34 victims into making pornography which they then sold online for proceeds of over $2.8 million and 887,000 tokens.
DIICOT alleges that one of the defendants forced a 17-year-old minor to produce pornography in Britain and Romania creating profits of $1.5 million. It also alleges that the same defendant repeatedly had sexual relations with a 15-year-old victim.
Pakistani detained over disinformation linked to UK riots
- Asif has been charged with cyber terrorism over the post on his Channel3Now website, according to FIA documents
- The article with the false information was published on Channel3Now just hours after the attack and was widely cited in viral social media posts
LAHORE: A judge extended on Thursday the custody of a Pakistani man accused of spreading disinformation on his clickbait website thought to have fueled anti-immigration riots in Britain, officials said.
Farhan Asif appeared in court for the second day in a row in the city of Lahore over allegations he published an article falsely claiming that a Muslim asylum seeker was behind a deadly knife attack on children in the United Kingdom.
He was remanded on Thursday for a further four days, an officer with the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) who asked not to be named told AFP.
He has been charged with cyber terrorism over the post on his Channel3Now website, according to FIA documents seen by AFP.
UK authorities have blamed online misinformation for sparking days of riots which targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, as well as police officers and other properties.
“He is a 31-year-old software engineer with no journalism credentials, apart from running the Channel3Now website, which served as a source of income for him,” a senior official at Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Initial investigations indicate that his sole intent was to make money through clickbait content.”
The article with the false information was published on Channel3Now just hours after the attack and was widely cited in viral social media posts.
The website is no longer accessible.
More than a dozen English towns and cities saw unrest and riots after the July 29 knife attack that killed three girls during a dance class in Southport.
The man charged with murder and attempted murder over the stabbing spree, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain to parents who hail from Rwanda, an overwhelmingly Christian country.
Officials have blamed far-right elements for helping to stir up the disorder.
Kamala Harris’ multiracial roots reflect changing US demographics
- 42 million Americans identify as multiracial, or 13 percent, up from 2 percent in 2000
- Harris would be the first Black woman and South Asian if elected in November
CHICAGO: The daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, both immigrants, Kamala Harris reflects the United States’ changing demographics.
When she steps onto the stage Thursday evening in Chicago to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination as their presidential candidate, she will represent the country’s fastest growing racial category.
Some 42 million Americans now identify as multiracial, or 13 percent of the country, according to the US Census Bureau. That is up from 2 percent in 2000 when the census first allowed people to select multiple races.
America has long been a self-styled “melting pot” of people who trace their origins around the world, but in practice some states legally segregated citizens by race until the civil rights laws of the 1960s and laws prohibiting interracial marriage were not overturned until 1967.
Social change since, though, has been rapid. Barack Obama was elected as the country’s first Black president in 2008, and Harris would be the first Black woman and South Asian if elected in November.
“We’re living in a situation 50 years later where we could be looking at our second mixed-race president, and it’s beautiful,” said Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way, an advocacy group, whose father was Black and his mother white.
America’s future will look even more diverse. The vast majority of multiracial people are younger than 44 and a third are still children. The trend has been met by confusion, upset and worse from some of the US’s shrinking white majority. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew groans at a gathering of Black journalists last month when he falsely portrayed Harris as pivoting from Indian to Black.
“I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black,” Trump said. “But you know what, I respect either one.”
Harris has long identified with both her parents’ ancestry. In Trump’s remarks, some multiracial people saw echoes of their own experience of being asked to choose one or the other.
Harris’ upbringing makes her a better leader for America, Democrats in Chicago said.
“When you have individuals who carry multiple experiences in the same person, that’s an asset,” said Representative Maxwell Frost, who is Lebanese, Puerto Rican and Haitian, speaking at a Politico event on the sidelines of the convention. “That enhances her ability to legislate and advocate” on behalf of a broad range of Americans. The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did spokespeople for Trump. As the US becomes more diverse and multicultural, white nationalist groups continue to thrive online, pushing conspiracy theories such as the “The Great Replacement,” while some Republican lawmakers have focused on banning books and canceling classes focused on racial history.
Thousands of racial hate crimes are reported yearly, with 232 aimed at people of multiple races in 2022, the most recent year for which FBI data is available.
“Unfortunately, we’re really into a period of backlash,” said Matthew Belmont, a Dartmouth College history professor who has studied the demographic trend, despite the 2020 election of Harris as vice president and her administration’s elevation of racial justice priorities.
“So much of that was push back that really emerged in response to the Obama presidency and it was really stoked among people who are scared by the demographic trends in the United States.”
Tara Betrayer, an Afro-Latina and white conservative co-founder of political action committee the Seneca Project, said she was once attracted to the Republican Party in part because of its emphasis on color-blind policies.
“Do Democrats take it too far at times with the racial identity politics? Well, yeah,” she said. Now an independent, Betrayer said some of the Republican Party’s recent rhetoric on issues including illegal migration carried undercurrents of racism. Republicans reject those criticisms, saying their focus on border controls are aimed at securing the country for all Americans.
“This is really their last gasp at trying to stop the country from evolving, and I think they’re missing out on something that’s beautiful,” Betrayer said.
