Thousands of protesters near Capitol ahead of Netanyahu’s address to Congress
Thousands of protesters have gathered near the Capitol building ahead of a speech by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to members of Congress.
On a stage decked with banners including one that declared Netanyahu as a “wanted war criminal”, pro-Palestinian demonstrators including the Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon condemned the Israeli leader’s invitation to speak before Congress.
“Shut it down,” a large group of protesters chanted as marched toward the Capitol after blocking a nearby intersection. “Bibi, Bibi, we’re not done!”
Demonstrators placed nearly 30 human-size cardboard coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags in memory of those killed in the war in Gaza.
Key events
Harris to meet Netanyahu on Thursday
Kamala Harris will not attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress today, but she will meet the Israeli leader on Thursday, the White House said.
Netanyahu will meet with Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Thursday before meeting separately with Harris, according to a White House statement.
Netanyahu is also expected to meet with Donald Trump on Friday.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has arrived on Capitol Hill and greeted the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson.
“We are certainly happy to welcome our friend,” Johnson said, AP reported.
Johnson added:
Today and every day America must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel.
Netanyahu told Johnson he has “shown great leadership”.
Elon Musk has said he will attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the US Capitol as a guest of the Israeli prime minister, Fox News’ Kelly Phares reports.
Thousands of protesters near Capitol ahead of Netanyahu’s address to Congress
Thousands of protesters have gathered near the Capitol building ahead of a speech by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to members of Congress.
On a stage decked with banners including one that declared Netanyahu as a “wanted war criminal”, pro-Palestinian demonstrators including the Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon condemned the Israeli leader’s invitation to speak before Congress.
“Shut it down,” a large group of protesters chanted as marched toward the Capitol after blocking a nearby intersection. “Bibi, Bibi, we’re not done!”
Demonstrators placed nearly 30 human-size cardboard coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags in memory of those killed in the war in Gaza.
‘We are not playing around’: Harris pledges to sign abortion access into law
Kamala Harris says the country is witnessing a “full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights”, including the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.
Harris says we must stand together in defense of freedom and to make sure that every American can cast their ballot and have it counted.
She says that every person in the nation should be free from gun violence, and pledges to pass universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban.
Harris says every person should be free from “bigotry, discrimination and hate”, and that she will “continue to fight for equality and justice for all”.
We who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman’s right to choose. Because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government could not be telling her what to do.
Harris says that Donald Trump handpicked three members of the US supreme court because he intended for them to overturn Roe v Wade.
She says:
When I am president of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law. We are not playing around.
Kamala Harris says voters face a choice between two different visions for the country: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past.
Harris says she is fighting for the nation’s future – a future in which everyone has affordable healthcare, no child has to grow up in poverty, the economy works for working people, and the country has affordable childcare and elder care and paid family leave.
“We here believe in a future where all women and all mothers are safe,” Harris says, noting that as vice-president, she took on the issue of maternal mortality.
As we work to build a brighter future and to move our nation forward, we must also recognize that there are those who are trying to take us backward. You may have seen their agenda. Part of it is called Project 2025.
She warns that Project 2025 is a plan “to return America to a dark past”, adding:
Let’s be clear, this represents an outright attack on our children, our families and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back.
Kamala Harris opens her keynote speech to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority by paying tribute to Joe Biden and the “extraordinary” work he has accomplished as president.
Biden is a leader with “bold vision” who “cares about the future” and who has “extraordinary determination and profound compassion” for the American people, she says.
“We are all deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation,” Harris says.
Harris gives keynote speech at sorority event
Joanna Walters
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, has just kicked off a keynote address to the biennial gathering of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, now taking place in Indianapolis.
Zeta Phi Beta is one of the sororities originating at Howard University, one of the most prestigious institutions in US higher education and one of the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU).
Howard is Harris’s alma mater, although her sorority was Alpha Kappa Alpha.
All eyes are on Harris since she more or less clinched the position of the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for president after Joe Biden dropped out of his re-election campaign over the weekend.
She is criticizing what she called Republican nominee Donald Trump’s plan “to return America to a dark past” of ultra-conservatism.
Joanna Walters
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, testified to the House committee that the Trump shooter googled the assassination of JFK.
He said, in addition to what we just posted: “One of the things that I can share here today that has not been shared is that we’ve just in the last couple of days found that from a review … an analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the [Trump] shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for, quote ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’
“So that’s a search that, obviously, is significant in terms of his state of mind. That is the same day, it appears, that he registered for the Butler rally.”
The Trump campaign rally was held in Butler county, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump was shot by the would-be assassin, a 20-year-old local, who came within an inch of killing the former president.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot dead US president John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963.
FBI Director Wray shares new analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter, revealing that on July 6th, the shooter did a Google search for how far away Oswald was from Kennedy. pic.twitter.com/7PQSjYMqvd
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 24, 2024
Trump shooter googled JFK assassination – FBI
Joanna Walters
The FBI director has just told the House judiciary committee that the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump just 11 days ago searched online for information about the 1963 assassination of US president John F Kennedy.
Christopher Wray is currently testifying before the committee on Capitol Hill, at the House of Representatives, where the Republicans are in the majority.
Wray just told the lawmakers that the man who tried to kill the former president earlier this month used the internet to research how Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK, Reuters reports.
Wray said that starting around 6 July this year, Thomas Crooks, the shooter who fired at Trump, injuring his ear during a campaign event in Pennsylvania, “became very focused on President Trump and his rally” and conducted a Google search which asked: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”
Crooks was killed by government snipers on 13 July after he fired eight shots from an assault rifle, hitting Trump, killing a rally attendee and injuring others, aiming from a rooftop some distance away.
Oswald shot JFK in November 1963 by firing from a book depository overlooking a road in Dallas, Texas, as the then president’s motorcade passed by.
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, is currently testifying before the House judiciary committee over the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Wray told congressional lawmakers that the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, flew a drone roughly 200 yards (180 meters) from the rally stage where Trump would later stand, viewing and livestreaming the footage.
The FBI recovered the drone and a controller from the car belonging to Crooks and is analyzing it, he said.
FBI Director Wray describes the drone and explosive devices recovered from Thomas Matthew Crooks following the assassination attempt against former President Trump. pic.twitter.com/jNCXSXxPAI
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 24, 2024
Wray, in his opening statement to the committee, said the FBI would “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation of a shooting.
March for Our Lives backs Harris in first-ever political endorsement
March for Our Lives, the gun violence prevention organization created by the student survivors of the 2019 Parkland high school shooting, has announced it is endorsing Kamala Harris’s presidential bid.
“As one of the largest youth-led movements in the nation, we are clear-eyed about the challenge ahead, and we believe that Kamala Harris is uniquely suited to meet this moment,” the organization said in a statement, adding:
We need an ardent defender of democracy, a gun violence prevention champion, and a leader who will listen to young people, give us a seat at the table, and fight for our future. We believe that Kamala Harris is that candidate and the right person to stand up for us and fight for the country we deserve.
The organization’s endorsement of Harris comes as she oversees the White House office of gun violence prevention. As vice-president, Harris has met regularly with advocates and survivors of gun violence.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has said he will attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech today.
Schumer, in remarks on the Senate floor this morning, said he disagrees with “many of Bibi Netanyahu’s policies” but that he will attend the speech “because the United States relationship with Israel remains ironclad and transcends any prime minister or president”.
Robert Tait
Among those organizing the main rally against Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress were Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the People’s Forum and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Speakers lined up to address the crowd included Jill Stein, the Green party presidential candidate, and the actor Susan Sarandon.
Protesters say they will publicly demand Netanyahu’s arrest, as requested by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor in May. The request was later denounced by Joe Biden.
“If Biden were fit to lead, he would stop funding genocide and turn Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over to the ICC,” Ahmad Abuznaid, an executive director at the USCPR, said in a statement.
Separate protests were also expected from Israeli groups angered that Netanyahu has failed to secure the release of more hostages. Pro-Israel counter-protesters were also expected to be present.
Thousands expected to protest as Netanyahu addresses Congress
Robert Tait
Capitol Hill is on high alert for a day of protest from thousands of demonstrators representing a broad coalition of groups voicing opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, when he addresses a joint session of Congress.
With tensions over Israel’s 10-and-half-month war in Gaza running high, police mounted a major security operation to seal off the US Capitol from protesters long before Netanyahu is due to speak at 2pm ET.
Streets in Washington’s downtown area were closed to traffic, while officers experienced in dealing with mass protests were drafted in from the New York police department. The Capitol building itself has been ring-fenced off.
Anna Betts
In the two days after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, Vote.org recorded its highest number of new voter registrations over a 48-hour period that the organization has seen during the 2024 cycle, the organization told the Guardian.
The organization said in a statement that the site saw a roughly 700% increase in daily new voter registrations during that period, totaling over 38,500. Young voters, aged 18 to 34, made up the bulk (83%) of those registrations, the organization added.
The figures recorded during the 48 hours after Biden withdrew on Sunday were higher than those recorded last September when singer Taylor Swift posted on Instagram urging followers to register to vote, which resulted in 34,000 registrations in 48 hours, the organization said.
Coral Murphy Marcos
The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to the US Congress, calling him a “war criminal” presiding over a “rightwing extremist government”.
Sanders delivered his remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday as Congress expects Netanyahu to give a speech to Congress on Wednesday afternoon.
“Tomorrow will be unique in bringing Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress,” said Sanders on Tuesday.
It will be the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honor.
Sanders said of Netanyahu:
He should not be welcome in the United States Congress.
Donald Trump has said he would “absolutely” debate Kamala Harris and that he would be “willing” to debate her more than once.
Trump, in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, said:
I agreed to debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies.
I would be willing to do more than one debate actually.
Trump and Joe Biden had previously agreed to two debates, the second scheduled to take place on 10 September on ABC.
But Trump has in recent days pushed for Fox News to hold the second debate instead, calling ABC “a joke”.
“I’m not thrilled with ABC,” Trump added on Tuesday:
I guess they committed but I have at least equal say, and I don’t like the idea of ABC.
Nina Lakhani
The co-founder of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement has said the invitation to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to speak before Congress confirms the US is in “full partnership in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip”.
Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights defender who helped launch the BDS movement almost 20 years ago, said in a statement:
By rolling the red carpet for Netanyahu, a certified genocidaire, the US government is confirming to the world its full partnership in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. Days after the international court of justice ruled that Israel is guilty of apartheid and that its occupation and annexation are illegal, the US is desperately trying to save the Israeli regime’s lost legitimacy, if it ever had any.
In a more just world, the leaders of the US government itself and the many US complicit corporations, particularly military manufacturers, should also stand trial for complicity in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and not just in Palestine.
Barghouti was interviewed by the Guardian earlier this year, when he spoke about the student-led protests demanding universities cut financial and academic ties to Israel.