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tv   BBC News America  PBS  July 22, 2024 5:30pm-6:01pm PDT

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program
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is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose, and the way you give back. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" 'n washington and this is bbc world news america. joe biden is out. kamala harris is in. . donations poor in for the vice president's campaign as she secures endorsements from top democrats. the u.s. secret service director tells congress them trumps
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attempts at assassination was one of her agency's worst secured he failures. daily airstrikes hit southern guns as the israeli prime minister travels to washington for high-level meetings. ♪ welcome to world news america. democratic donors and lawmakers are rallying around vice president harris as she kicks off her presidential campaign following joe biden's exit from the race. in just the last 24 hours vice president harris team has raised more than $81 million, the largest amount of fundraising in 24 hour period. since the start of this presidential campaign. former speaker of the house nancy became the latest high-profile democrat to endorse ms. harris on monday. she wrote today it is with immense pride and limitless optimism for our country's future that i endorse vice president harris for president
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of the united states. ms. harris is gaining support from democrats who were floated as possible challengers for the democratic nomination including michigan goverr gretchen whitmer who endorsed ms. harris on monday and announced she will serve as the campaign's co-chair. the world heard from harris for the first time since joe biden's withdrawal and subsequent endorsement on monday. ms. harris praised the president's record while speaking earlier at a white house event. >> in one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office and i first came to know president biden through his son. we worked together as attorneys general in our states and back then bo would tell me stories about his dad. he would talk about the kind of father and the kind of man that joe biden is. the qualities that beau revered
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in his father are the same qualities i have seen every day in our president. his honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart, and his love, deep love of our country. and i am firsthand witness that every day our president joe biden fights for the american people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation. >> kamala harris cannot officially become the nominee until the democratic national convention next month but with wide-ranging support from her party, there is already plenty of speculation about her potential running mate. u.s. media reports ms. harris has spoken with a few potential pix for her vice president including pennsylvania governor josh shapiro, north carolina governor roy cooper and kentucky governor andy beshear. all three have since endorsed her for president.
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ile we can speak now with represented of mike quigley, a democratic congressman from illinois. thanks for joining us on the program. does kamala harris have your endorsement? >> she does. i endorsed her about an hour after the president's announcement yesterday. >> you were one of those who was vocal early on calling for joe biden to step aside. what is it about kamala harris you think puts the democratic party on a stronger footing? >> first of all, i appreciate the president's selfless historic decision. i tried to do what i did in the most respectful manner possible he has a legacy. i think now what he can say is he helped save democracy twice in the united states. she gives us a fresh start. unfortunately president biden's polling was going in the wrong direction in hurry. it was holding up the entire ticket. i think what you are going to
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see here is a reversal of that. at the closing days of biden running, the focus was all on the president and his condition, how he was doing. it left trump to basically golf and have an occasional rly. now the attention will be back on trump where it should be. his crimes, his misdemeanors and the fact i think his first days as president if you were to be elected again would be very similar to the last days. as you might know, i was in the room on january 6 when he incited a violent insurrection against our country. >> when you talk about vice president harris giving the democratic party a fresh start, aren't her policies and her platform the same as that of joe biden or do you expect her to try to shift the democratic platform? >> every person is a little bit
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different. every candidate is a little bit different. i think she can run on the biden legacy. it is the first nonviolence legislation passed under that legislation in 30 years. the first massive infrastructure bill passed in my lifetime. pulled us out of the depths of covid and january 6. the economy grew to an extraordinary level. i think she is going to be her own purpose -- run person. she does not have to run away from an aged ordinary legacy of three and a half years of biden harris. >> do you think it is inevitable she will be the nominee? she has received so many endorsements at this point. >> i do. the fact is unity matters now. there is still time to do this. there is time to do the virtual nomination and vote before the convention so the democratic convention can start and operate in the manner it was going to. just with a different nominee.
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>> if she is the official nominee, before things move, the convention in your home state of illinois, what would happen regarding vice president? do you expect that person to be voted on in advance as well? >> absolutely. i understand those interviews are taking place. the vetting is taking place. you're talking about governors from three states. i think it is safe to assume -- i would assume one of those three would be the vice presidential nominee and they would be part of the same virtual nomination process that was planned in the first place. >> what do you think is the greatest challenge facing the democratic party given that you are changing your candidate relatively close to polling day? >> i think there is plenty of time. the world is focused on this. it is what every american is thinking about frankly. money is not going to be the
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issue. you're going to see polling very quickly be margin of error. if we were in a horse race, i think we can win. a lot of the issues we were facing polling moving in the wrong direction, people focused on the condition and health of the president and his campaign. i now think it works in the opposite direction. i will focus on candidate trump and that works to our advantage. > congressman, you mentioned a moment ago you believe those three governors are being interviewed to be the vice presidential candidate. you have an indication of the timeline for that person to be unveiled? >> some of the stuff is pretty closely held. obviously they know time is of the essence. these are people that are well known. i think the democrats have a deep bench including my own governor of illinois would be an
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outstanding candidate. i think that will move quickly. you will be hearing an announcement sometime soon. >> we will await that. congressman quigley of illinois. thank you for speaking to us on bbc news. former president donald trump has shared strong reactions to president biden's withdrawal from the waist. most recently he has criticized mr. biden and ms. harris saying on his social media website joe biden will go down as the worst president in the history of the united states. kamala will be worse he writes. this as his vice president of nominee held his first solo rally in his hometown of middletown, ohio monday. mr. vance questioned the honesty of the biden administration regarding the president's fitness for reelection. > every single person who saw joe biden knew hwas not capable of doing the job and for three years they said nothing until he became a political
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deadweight. that is not a way to run a untry. that is not a way to run a political party. that is an insult to voters. >> the u.s. secret service secretary amberly cheadle testified between -- before the u.s. house oversight committee on monday facing questions about the security failures that allowed a gunman to open fire at a rally over a week ago. the gunman killed one person and injured three others including the former president before he was shot dead by agents. she faced calls to resign from both democratic and republican lawmakers in the days following the assassination attempt. she said today she will stay on in her role. >> on july 13, he failed. as a director of the united states a good service i take full responsibility for any security labs of our agency. we are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. we must learn what happened and i will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like july 13
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does not happen again. >> joining me now for more on the hearing is our north america correspondent. the hearing was quite contentious at times. a lot of back-and-forth between miss cheadle and the lawmakers. . what did we learn about the security situation in butler, pennsylvania? >> tensions really flared up at the hearing even before kimberly cheadle arrived. it was clear she knew she was getting no sympathy from anyone in that room. we heard the clip at the start. she said what the room was feeling. the secret service had failed in its duties that day. she stopped short of resigning. that was something many of the congressional committee recalling on her to do. onof the most important questions they wanted answering was why was there not an agent on the rooftop which was near
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the rally where the gunman was able to climb onto and fire those shots. she kept saying the investigation is still ongoing. she was told these are the reports that are out with her. she was accused of stonewalling. she did make a bizarre comment in which she said something about how the secret service preferred sterile roofs. she had previously said the secret service did not like sloping roofs which sparked huge condemnation. she rectified it. the inference was sterile roofs. there was a moment in the hearing where one of the republican, nancy mace, swore at her accusing her of not telling the truth. not being honest. the big calls were for her to resign. miss cheadle said she would not be doing that. >> ok. thank you for that.
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one lawmaker calling for miss cheadle's resignation is new york congressman michael lawler who joins us now. congressman, thank you for joining us on bbc news. you have called for miss cheadle's resignation. why is that? rep. lawler: there is no question this was a colossal failure on the part of the secret service. and as the director, she has to take responsibility as she said in her opening statement but then proceeded throughout the course of her testimony to even aid and avoid answering direct and straightforward questions. i think ultimately while there is an investigation underway, it is clear to me and many of my colleagues including the chair and the ranking member of the oversight committee who just put that a letter calling her --
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calling for her resignation that she needs to go. the fact that a gunman was able to get on top of that roof unimpeded with a direct line of sight to the former president and get a shot off that but for a millimeters difference would have taken president trump's life is absolutely outrageous. it never should have happened. it is not enough to say we are looking to make sure this does not happen again. it happened. she needs to be held accountable for that. >> what is the biggest question she faces as far as market -- as far as you are concerned? >> she could not answer a simple question as to why there was not a secret service agent on that roof with a clear line of sight. she could not answer as to how many agents were on the ground or whether or not certain requests had been denied. it was really quite alarming
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given that she knew for a full week she was going to be testifying before this committee that she was not either more prepared or chose to be evasive in her answers. given the severity of the situation, as far as i am concerned, time is up. she needs to resign. if not, be removed immediately. >> what do you think is the wider role for congress? we have heard the speaker talking about a bipartisan task force to investigate what happened a week ago. >> i absolutely think there should be a bipartisan independent investigation of the secret service and the failure here. in additio along with congressman richie torres, a democrat of the bronx, we are going to be introducing our bill tomorrow morning to ensure that the candidates for president receive the same level of
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security, enhanced security that the president does. you cannot have a situation like we sell just 10 days ago where former president trump, the leading candidate for president and the republican nominee now and likely to be the next president of the united states gets shot at at a rally. that is not how we decide elections in america. our election should be determined by votes at a ballot box. not by violence at a rally. it is critically important the resources are available and all of these candidates including rfk jr. whose family twice has been victim to political assassination receive the direct support and protection that is befitting the united states. >> if you are planning to introduce that bill, does that mean as we stand today you do not have confidence in the security that is being provided
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to the former president donald trump? >> he got shot so it is clear there is no confidence in the level of security that was provided. the fact is on numerous occasions, requests were made and denied. that obviously is disturbing. if the position of the secret service is that they don't have enough resources, they should be making that abundantly clear not after a shooting but before a shooting that they needed more resources. the fact is that this should not have happened. from my vantage point congress has a responsibility to act. we need to ensure the safety and well-being of president trump, vice president harris who is likely to be the democratic nominee as we move forward, rfk jr. and of course president biden. this cannot be permitted to
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happen in america. certainly not in the course of the presidential election. >> congressman michael lawler from new york. thanks for joining us on bbc news. >> thanks for having me. >> the gaza health ministry says at least 70 palestinians have been killed by israeli shelling and airstrikes in eastern khan yunis on monday. the israeli military had issued new evacuation orders for people in the area shortly beforehand. thousands of palestinians have once again fled looking for somewhere safe to take refuge. the army arabic language folks person said the region had become dangers -- become dangerous and the military would act forcefully in response. the spokesman advised residents to evacuate toward the humanitarian zone. the order comes a little over a week since al mallozzi experienced multiple israeli airstrikes that killed 90 displaced people who were sheltering in tents.
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israeli officials say two more hostages taken to gaza by hamas during the attacks of the seventh of october have died. the idf says the bodies of alex and -- are still being held by hamas. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is on his y to washington for a scheduled official visit. this week mr. netanyahu is set to meet president biden and address two -- address both chambers of congress. the prime minister said he would think mr. biden for all the support he had given israel during his tenure. mr. netanyahu added israel would be the united states strongest ally in the middle east regardless of who is elected president in november. our correspondent takes a look at how people in the region are reacting to his visit to washington. >> no deal, no travel says the sign. there was a steady drumbeat of
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protests before the israeli prime minister flew to washington demanding that he focus all his attention on a >> he has no reason to be in washington, d.c. talking politics when he should be home solving our problems. we have a lot of problems first and foremost the hostages need to be brought back to their homes. >> benjamin netanyahu is under a lot of pressure. many israelis blame him for policy failures that allowed the attacks and their anger he has not taken responsibility. they have problems two -- problems too with israel's most important relationship. >> president biden declared unwavering support for israel after the hamas brutal attack. but he has grown alarmed at the cost of measured -- of mr. netanyahu's demand for total victory. the desolation of gaza has triggered a domestic clash against mr. biden. the scale of destruction, the
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mounting deaths of palestinian civilians. here, people fleeing the latest israeli military operation in the city of khan yunis. 70 were killed said the hamas run health industry. the prime minister insists this is working despite the cease-fire talks. just before visiting the u.s., he visited troops in gaza. >> the military pressure they exert here right on hamas's throat helps us uphold our just demands in advance the hostage exchange deal. >> mr. netanyahu's political opponents say it was a mistake for congress to give him a platform. >> he does not represent israel. sends the wrong signal to israelis. probably the wrong signal to netanyahu himself when the american congress invites him to appear as if he is saving us. >> no matter how strained the
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relations, the u.s. remains centerstage in israel. >> mr. prime minister -- remind those members of congress what israel has been through. >> the former u.s. ambassador addressing a rally for the hostages with a message for mr. netanyahu. >> i hope that the prime minister understands the anxiety of many members of congress and he addresses those anxieties in his speech including what he is doing on humanitarianssues, he is doing to make sure -- articulate this fight is not with the palestinian people. it is with hamas. >> the political turbulence in washington creates uncertainty but not about this. israel needs america. america and many others need a cease-fire. bbc news, jerusalem.
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>> now we can return to our to story and go to delaware where i'm joined by our correspondent naomi wells. we are expecting the vice president kamala harris to make an address in delaware shortly on her first campaign rally in the moment. what are we expecting her to say? >> this will be as you say the first moment she has been to hq. she will want to show her determination for the whole party to get behind her and also show she is willing to fightfor that nomination she has been clear i have been talking to some voters in delaware about the news president biden was stepping down and what they make this is a state that means a lot to president biden. he was a senator here for
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decades. it is where he has his holiday home where he is isolating from covid. the reaction was mixed. some were delighted to hear the news he had endorsed her. think that she would be a great candidate and are prepared to becker and think she will in -- to back her and think that she one suit -- and young voters. others are concerned about her. did not seem that enthusiastic. did not think the democratic party had put itself in much glory over the last couple weeks. . some feeling like it was too late to turn things around after some scenes of chaos internally with lots of disagreement over who should be the nominee. one of the things she will be trying to stress tonight is a degree, an image of unity. >> lots of endorsements continue to flood in for her even if as you say not everyone is enthused by this almost coronation process. is her nomination a certainty at this point? >> it is still not a certainty. she needs to make sure she has enough delegates to back her to
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officially crown her the nominee. one thing that has helped her has been the stream of endorsements that have come in over the last 24 hours. one of the most significant ones later this afternoon was the former speaker nancy pelosi. she is an incredibly influential figure in the party. she is also someone who while she did not say it publicly was someone who privately was raising concerns about president biden and calling for him to step aside. >> thank you for that. that is it for world news america today. i'm cait announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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