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Biden rules out quitting at start of make-or-break trip to battleground states

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Biden rules out quitting at start of make-or-break trip to battleground states

Joe Biden said he was “completely ruling out” ending his re-election bid on Friday at the start of a make-or-break weekend of public appearances intended to quell calls from within his party to drop out of the presidential race.

Biden sat for his first television interview since his disastrous performance in last week’s presidential debate, which sparked panic in the Democratic party.

In a clip of the interview released by ABC News, Biden said the debate was a “bad episode”, claiming he was “exhausted” and “sick” on the night.

But amid reports that members of Biden’s family are blaming his top campaign staff for the president’s halting performance, he said his appearance on the debate stage was “nobody’s fault but mine”.

The interview came shortly after Biden delivered a defiant speech in Wisconsin, a swing state, telling a crowd of supporters that he would not bow to the mounting pressure on him to quit.

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“Guess what? They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump.”

But Biden’s bullishness was undercut by a report that an influential Democratic senator was attempting to assemble a group of the party’s senators to urge the president to drop his re-election bid.

Mark Warner, a senator from Virginia, told colleagues that Biden could no longer remain in the race for the White House, The Washington Post reported on Friday. A spokesperson for Warner did not respond to a request for comment. When Biden was later asked by a reporter about Warner, the president said the senator was “the only one considering that”.

Separately, Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, became the first state governor to suggest Biden step aside. Healey was among governors who met the president for emergency talks at the White House this week.

She issued a statement on Friday afternoon saying she was “deeply grateful” for Biden’s leadership, but urged him to “listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump”.

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But Biden brushed aside the concerns again on Friday evening, telling reporters that he was “completely ruling . . . out” leaving the race. When a reporter asked him if he was the best candidate to beat Trump, Biden replied: “I did it before.” When the reporter asked a follow-up, he replied: “You’ve been wrong about everything so far. You were wrong about 2022 . . . you were wrong about 2023 . . . so look, we’ll see.”

Reporters travelling with Biden noted several people standing outside the venue where he spoke in Wisconsin holding signs urging him to “bow out” and “pass the torch”. Another sign read: “Give it up, Joe,” while one said: “Pres Biden — serve your country — not your ego.”

On Sunday, Biden will make a campaign stop in another swing state, Pennsylvania. The trip through critical states comes as he battles to quell deep discontent in his party about his determination to stay in the race. Despite Democratic governors publicly voicing support for Biden this week, scores of lawmakers, party operatives and influential donors are now agitating for him to be replaced with a younger candidate.

The pre-recorded interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, a former adviser to Democratic president Bill Clinton, was being billed as a chance for the president to allay concerns about his mental acuity.

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sought to downplay the significance of the interview, telling reporters on Air Force One on Friday that Biden was preparing for the conversation “like he does with any other interview”.

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Some donors have pushed California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to replace the president as the Democratic candidate, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Vice-president Kamala Harris is in pole position to replace Biden if he drops out.

A handful of Democratic lawmakers have come out publicly in recent days calling for Biden to end his re-election bid. An increasing number of megadonors — including media heiress Abigail Disney and Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel — have said they would not give Biden any more money.

Biden has also been weakened by damaging public opinion polls that show him trailing Trump by several points both nationwide and in the battleground states that are likely to determine the outcome of November’s election.

But Biden and his campaign have refused to blink in the face of the pressure. His campaign on Friday said it would spend another $50mn on advertising in the month of July, including for ad spots that would run during this month’s Republican National Convention and the Olympics.

Harris, Newsom and Whitmer have remained publicly loyal to the president’s campaign. At a July 4 celebration at the White House on Thursday evening, Biden joined hands with his vice-president as some people in the crowd chanted, “four more years”.

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But other prominent Democrats are more reluctant to share the stage with the president. When Biden visited Wisconsin on Friday, he was joined by the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers — but not Tammy Baldwin, the state’s Democratic senator, who is polling far ahead of the president.

The latest FiveThirtyEight polling average shows Trump leading Biden by just shy of two points in Wisconsin.

Trump has kept a relatively low profile since the debate, allowing media attention to remain on Biden’s difficulties and Democratic disarray.

But the former president has slammed Harris in recent days, and on Thursday night challenged Biden to another “no holds barred” debate. A second debate between them is already scheduled for September.

“What a great evening it would be, just the two of us, one on one, in a good, old fashioned debate, the way they used to be,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!!!”.

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Biden said on Friday that he remained “committed” to attending the September debate.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

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Supreme Court financial disclosures reveal how their books add to their income

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks at the Reagan Library on Sept. 9, 2025, in Simi Valley, Calif. Barrett discussed and signed copies of her new book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.

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Even as the Supreme Court was handing down one legal thunderbolt after another last week, the justices were quietly releasing their annual financial reports. Justice Samuel Alito was the only sitting justice to request an extension, which he has done for 15 years. The disclosures do not give a complete account of the justices’ total income and wealth, but they give insights into their concertgoing, guest professorships and even their involvement in youth sports.

In addition to their salaries, much of the justices’ reported income came from their book deals. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson led the pack earning more than $1.1 million last year for a total of roughly $4 million since her memoir, Lovely One, was published in 2024.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy also reported income from published books. Earnings from their books ranged from $849,000 for Barrett, to $300,000 for Gorsuch and $88,000 for Sotomayor, whose books include her 2013 autobiography and five children’s books. Justice Clarence Thomas, who previously earned $1.5 million for his 2007 memoir, listed no publisher payments last year, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of 13 co-authors of a 2016 legal treatise, also received no payments last year. Kavanaugh is said to be working on a memoir but he listed no payments for the anticipated book. Alito does have a book coming out in the fall, but with his financial report still outstanding, there is no data on how much he was paid for the work in 2025.

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The only two sitting justices who have not written books are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan.

Many justices also earned income from teaching at law schools. Roberts reported income from New England Law, located in Boston, and Gorsuch reported teaching income from George Mason University in Virginia. Thomas taught classes at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and Barrett and Kavanaugh taught at Notre Dame Law School. Barrett graduated from the school and began teaching there 23 years ago; Kavanaugh has family connections to Notre Dame.

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.

A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.

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City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”

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Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.

Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.

“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.

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Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.

Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.

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“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.

@fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @fernando40tiktok.commarc via Storyful

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Image from @Bogs4NY via X

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The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.

Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.

“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.

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Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”

He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.

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Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.

On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.

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