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Biden Says 'I'm Not Going Anywhere' as Calls to Quit Race Grow

President Joe Biden speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, July 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, July 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Biden Says 'I'm Not Going Anywhere' as Calls to Quit Race Grow

President Joe Biden speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, July 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, July 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden said "I'm not going anywhere" as he faced calls by many Democrats to end his re-election bid, using the Fourth of July celebrations on Thursday to hit back at doubts about his stamina and mental acuity to continue his campaign.
The 81-year-old Democrat's shaky showing at a June 27 debate with Republican rival Donald Trump means his every appearance is now closely scrutinized. Many Democratic voters are worried about whether he can keep up a grueling pace of work for the next 4-1/2 years and some in his party have urged him to step aside, Reuters said.
Biden was hosting the annual US Independence Day festivities at the White House on Thursday, including a barbecue for a few thousand active-duty military service members and their families.
Biden, in a suit with no necktie, began his remarks with a forceful “Happy Independence Day!"
Reading from a teleprompter, Biden made no major errors in delivering brief remarks, but at one point appeared to go off script to make reference to a war cemetery that Trump declined to visit while in office.
"By the way, you know, I was in that World War One cemetery in France. The one that one of our colleagues, a former president didn't want to go...," he said, his voice dropping to a low volume and trailing off.
"I probably shouldn't have said, anyway," Biden added, before continuing his remarks.
As Biden mingled and took selfies with guests, someone called out for him to "Keep up the fight."
"You got me, man. I'm not going anywhere," Biden said, repeating his pledge to remain in the race despite the growing calls to step aside.
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Walt Disney who founded the company that bears his name and who has been a major Democratic donor, became the latest donor to call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential election, telling CNBC on Thursday that she will halt donations to the Democratic Party until he does so.
Vice President Kamala Harris is the leading contender to take his place in the Nov. 5 election if Biden were to drop out, sources have said, though his allies believe he can assuage the concerns of voters and donors.
Among the events on Biden's calendar being closely scrutinized is an interview with ABC News on Friday that will be aired in full at 8 p.m. ET (0000 GMT Saturday). He also travels to Wisconsin the same day for a campaign rally.
Dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives are watching closely and prepared to ask Biden to step aside if he falters in the ABC interview, a source told Reuters. Democrats see capturing control of the House in November as critical, as it could be their last hold on power in Washington if Trump returns to the White House and Republicans capture the Senate.
Biden faces a new reality since last week's debate - even if he doesn't falter verbally or physically, serious concerns about his viability as a candidate are likely to linger. If he mangles words or looks unfocused or confused, he will face renewed pressure to depart.
If reelected, Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term. He is being asked by some former supporters to step aside to preserve his legacy and lessen the chances of a second Trump presidency. With just four months to go before the election, a decision needs to be made soon, they say.
Democrats, including top allies, have left the door open to having Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket.
SEEN BY DOCTOR
The White House has repeatedly said the president was suffering from a cold and jet lag on the night of the debate. On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had not had any kind of medical exam since his annual physical in February.
"He did not get checked out by the doctor. It's a cold, guys. It's a cold," she said at a news briefing.
However, spokesperson Andrew Bates said on Thursday that Biden saw a doctor after the debate. "Several days later, the president was seen to check on his cold and was recovering well,” he said.
Trump, 78, who made multiple false statements from the debate stage in Atlanta, falsely claimed in a video that was circulated on social media that he had driven Biden out of the race. He made disparaging comments about Harris in the same video.
Asked in a radio interview with WURD that aired on Thursday morning, whether there was any reason for the American people to be concerned after last week's debate, Biden demurred.
"No, I had a bad debate," he said, adding that this should not erase what he has done as president for three and a half years.
Biden's standing in opinion polls took a hit after the debate. Some 59% of Democrats responding to a Reuters/Ipsos poll said that Biden was too old to work in government, a concern that has shown up persistently in public opinion polling over the past year.

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French Vote Gives Leftists Most Seats over Far-Right, but Leaves Hung Parliament and Deadlock

Fireworks go off as people gather in front of "Le triomphe de la Republique" statue during an election night rally following the first results of the second round of France's legislative election at Republique Square in Paris on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
Fireworks go off as people gather in front of "Le triomphe de la Republique" statue during an election night rally following the first results of the second round of France's legislative election at Republique Square in Paris on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
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French Vote Gives Leftists Most Seats over Far-Right, but Leaves Hung Parliament and Deadlock

Fireworks go off as people gather in front of "Le triomphe de la Republique" statue during an election night rally following the first results of the second round of France's legislative election at Republique Square in Paris on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
Fireworks go off as people gather in front of "Le triomphe de la Republique" statue during an election night rally following the first results of the second round of France's legislative election at Republique Square in Paris on July 7, 2024. (AFP)

A coalition of the French left won the most seats in high-stakes legislative elections Sunday, according to near-final results, beating back a far-right surge but failing to win a majority. The outcome left France facing the stunning prospect of a hung parliament and threatened political paralysis in a pillar of the European Union and Olympic host country.

That could rattle markets and the French economy, the EU’s second-largest, and have far-ranging implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability.

In calling the election on June 9, after the far-right surged in French voting for the European Parliament, Macron said sending voters back to the ballot boxes would provide "clarification."

On almost every level, that gamble appears to have backfired. Results so far showed France plunged into a political fog, with the three main blocs — a leftist coalition, the far-right National Rally and Macron's centrists — all falling well short of the 289 seats needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal addresses the media after the announcement of the results of the second round of the legislative elections at Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, 07 July 2024. (EPA)

"Our country is facing an unprecedented political situation and is preparing to welcome the world in a few weeks," said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who plans to offer his resignation on Monday.

With the Olympics looming, he said he was ready to stay at his post "as long as duty demands." Macron has three years remaining on his presidential term.

Attal made clearer than ever his disapproval of Macron's shock decision to call the election, saying "I didn't choose this dissolution" of the outgoing National Assembly, where the president's centrist alliance used to be single biggest group, albeit without an absolute majority. Still, it was able to govern for two years, pulling in lawmakers from other camps to fight off efforts to bring it down.

The new legislature appears shorn of such stability. With most ballots counted, the leftist coalition was leading Macron’s centrist alliance, with the far-right in third. That confirms the picture also given by pollsters’ projections.

In Paris’ Stalingrad square, supporters on the left cheered and applauded as projections showing the alliance ahead flashed up on a giant screen. Cries of joy also rang out in Republique plaza in eastern Paris, with people spontaneously hugging strangers and several minutes of nonstop applause after the projections landed.

Marielle Castry, a medical secretary, was on the metro in Paris, when the projections were first announced.

"Everybody had their smartphones and were waiting for the results and then everybody was overjoyed," said the 55-year-old. "I had been stressed out since June 9 and the European elections. ... And now, I feel good. Relieved."

Protesters hold a banner as they march during a demonstration following the announcement of the first results of the second round of France's crunch legislative elections in Nantes, western France on July 7, 2024. (AFP)

A redrawn political map Even before votes were cast, the election redrew France's political map. It galvanized parties on the left to put differences aside and join together in a new alliance, the New Popular Front, behind pledges to roll back many of Macron's headline reforms, embark on a massively costly program of public spending and, in foreign policy, take a far tougher line against Israel because of the war with Hamas.

Macron described the left's coalition as "extreme" and warned that its economic program of many tens of billions of euros in public spending, partly financed by tax hikes for high earners and on wealth, could be ruinous for France, already criticized by EU watchdogs for its debt.

Yet, with the projections and then the near-final results showing the New Popular Front with the most seats, its leaders immediately pushed Macron to give the alliance the first chance to form a government and propose a prime minister to share power with the president.

The most prominent of the leftist coalition’s leaders, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said it "is ready to govern."

Although the National Rally fell far short of its hopes of securing an absolute majority that would have given France its first far-right government since World War II, the anti-immigration party with historical links to antisemitism and racism was on track to have more seats than ever in the National Assembly.

After the party finished top of the first-round vote last weekend, its rivals worked together to dash its hopes of an outright victory in Sunday’s runoff, by strategically withdrawing candidates from many districts. That left many far-right candidates in head-to-head contests against just one opponent, making it harder for them to win.

Many voters decided that keeping the far-right from power was more important to them than anything else, backing its opponents in the second round, even if they weren’t from the political camp they usually support.

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, thought to be eyeing what would be her forth run for the French presidency in 2027, said the elections laid the groundwork for "the victory of tomorrow."

"The tide is rising," she said. "It did not rise high enough this time."

"The reality is that our victory is only deferred," she added.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen talks to journalists after partial results in the second round of the early French parliamentary elections, at the French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party venue in Paris, France, July 7, 2024. (Reuters)

Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 28-year-old protégé who’d been hoping to become prime minister, rued that the outcome of the vote "throws France into the arms of the extreme left."

In a statement from his office, Macron indicated that he wouldn’t be rushed into inviting a potential prime minister to form a government. It said he was watching as results come in and would wait for the new National Assembly to take shape before taking "the necessary decisions."

A hung parliament is unknown territory for modern France.

Unlike other countries in Europe that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a majority. France is also more centralized than many other European countries, with many more decisions made in Paris.

The president was hoping that with France’s fate in their hands, voters might shift from the far-right and left and return to mainstream parties closer to the center — where Macron found much of the support that won him the presidency in 2017 and again in 2022.

But rather than rally behind him, millions of voters seized on his surprise decision as an opportunity to vent their anger.

In last weekend’s first round of balloting, voters backed candidates from the National Rally, while the coalition of parties on the left took second and his centrist alliance was a distant third.

The sharp polarization of French politics – especially in this torrid and quick campaign – is sure to complicate any coalition-building effort. Racism and antisemitism marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian disinformation campaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France.