WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will shift this week from focusing on campaigning for reelection to hosting a NATO summit. But that won't quiet the increasingly urgent questions about his precarious political situation now threatening to consume his own party.
European leaders gather in Washington starting Tuesday to celebrating the alliance's 75th anniversary. Biden will attend a series of official events and hold a news conference.
Congress is also heading back into session, meaning there will be face-to-face meetings where Democratic lawmakers can discuss concerns about Biden's ability to stay in the presidential race for its final four months — not to mention handle another term in the White House.
Already, five Democratic lawmakers have said the 81-year-old president should step aside. And several Democratic committee leaders privately say that Biden should bow out of the race. They could add to the public clamor in coming days — even as the Biden campaign, and the president himself, make calls to try to curb further defections.
Vice President Kamala Harris is most frequently mentioned as a possible replacement at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. But Biden has said repeatedly that he's staying put, and he plans to campaign on Friday in the battleground state of Michigan — which may make internal Democratic Party divisions all the more bitter.
Here's a look at what's ahead for Biden:
Biden will have a chance to look presidential, but it comes with another key test.
The summit will focus on Russia's war with Ukraine, but likely overshadowing all of Biden's other duties during it is a news conference set for Thursday. His performance there will be as closely scrutinized as his ABC interview last week for further signs of frailty or mental struggles after his disastrous debate against Donald Trump late last month.
Also, those gathering for the summit have discussed “ Trump-proofing," or safeguarding, NATO against a possible return of Trump to the White House — and those discussions could heat up because of the concerns about Biden's political future.
The gathering unfolds the week before Republicans gather in Milwaukee to formally nominate Trump, who during the debate simply shrugged when Biden asked him if he would “stay in NATO or you’re going to pull out of NATO?”
Will more Democratic lawmakers call for Biden to abandon his reelection bid this week? Will those who have done so privately make their stances public? Each day Congress is in session, the possibility that more lawmakers will turn on the president could grow.
Biden says his party is still unequivocally behind him. But that case will get harder to make if the ranks of those who have lost faith in the president swell. The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19, but the party has said it will nominate Biden via virtual roll-call before the in-person gathering begins — meaning Democrats face an increasingly tight window to pick a side.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries plans on Monday to gather Democrats who are the most vulnerable in seeking reelection. Senate Democrats are planning to talk about Biden's future during a regular caucus luncheon on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Accountability Committee, meanwhile, has announced plans to call on Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to appear for a transcribed interview “regarding his medical assessments” of the president. Biden has rejected calls to undergo cognitive testing, saying that he is regularly evaluated medically and that the rigors of being president make his mental and physical acuity clear, which has only focused more attention on O'Connor.
Even if Biden is able to quell a potential mutiny within his own party, the four months remaining before Election Day means he will likely have to avoid serious mistakes or gaffes for the duration of the race.
Going long stretches without a major misstep is something he's failed to do over long stretches throughout his political career. But Biden has also built his political persona on resilience.
He won the presidency in 2020 after failed White House bids in 1988 and 2008. Even in 2020, his campaign looked doomed after embarrassing showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. But Biden rebounded with a resounding primary win in South Carolina, and that was enough for most of the Democratic establishment to line up behind him in the days before Super Tuesday and ensure he coasted to the party's nomination and eventual matchup against then-President Trump.
During the 2022 midterm elections, meanwhile, Democrats did far better than expected, holding the Senate and only narrowly ceding the House majority to the Republicans. Biden says he's ready to defy the odds again, even as many in his party seems less and less convinced.
“You've been wrong about everything so far. You were wrong in 2020. You were wrong in 2022," a defiant Biden told reporters traveling with him on Friday. “So, look, we'll see.”
President Joe Biden smiles as he is asked questions by members of the media as he and first lady Jill Biden return on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Sunday, July 7, 2024, after attending events in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, July 7, 2024, after returning from a trip to Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday. Israeli planes also lit up the skyline across the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking what the military said were Hezbollah targets.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men, while another man was wounded.
In Beirut, the strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
BEIRUT — The southern suburbs of Beirut were hit by more than 30 strikes overnight, the heaviest bombardment since Sept. 23, when Israel began a significant escalation in its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday.
The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said.
Some of the overnight strikes set off a long series of explosions, suggesting that ammunition stores may have been hit.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron called for “a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza,” saying it's urgent to avoid escalating tensions in the region, his office said.
Macron drew strong criticism from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying "the priority is … that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.” He made the comments in an interview with France Inter radio, which was recorded on Tuesday and aired Saturday.
France doesn’t deliver any weapons to Israel, Macron said.
Netanyahu released a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.”
In a statement, Macron’s office said “France is Israel’s unfailing friend. Mr. Netanyahu’s words are excessive and irrelevant to the friendship between France and Israel.”
“We must return to diplomatic solutions,” it added.
The statement also said that Macron had demonstrated his commitment to Israel's security when France mobilized its military resources in response to the Iranian attack. French authorities did not provided details about France’s role.
Macron has called for an immediate cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people near the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, the hospital said in a statement.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men. Another two men were critically wounded, the hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment about the strike on the mosque.
The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is now nearing 42,000 according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.
BEIRUT — Powerful new explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday as Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon, also striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.
Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.
The strong explosions began near midnight after Israel’s military urged residents to evacuate areas in Beirut’s Haret Hreik and Choueifat neighborhoods. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.
Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
A man checks the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Emergency workers inspect a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli soldiers pray at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli soldier prays at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises from a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
