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is provided by... woman: a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. 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 'n world news america." kamala harris campaigns for president in the key swing state of wisconsin after securing support from the top two democratic congressional leaders. >> we have an election to win.

>> protesters staged a sit in at the u.s. capitol ahead of the israeli prime minister's coming address to congress. the head of the u.s. secret service resigns over her agency's failure to prevent the assassination attempt on donald trump. ♪ caitriona: hello and welcome to "bbc world news america."i'm caitriona perry . vice president kamala harris is hitting the campaign trail, holding her first rally as the 2024 presidential candidate. the likely democratic nominee addressed an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in milwaukee, a city in the key swing state of wisconsin where republicans held their national convention just last week. ms. harris'campaign secured a major boost ahead of the rally saying it raised more than $100 million or 77 million pounds in donations so far.

she's also received endorsements from enough delegates needed to win the democratic nomination in the first round of voting according to an associated press tally. building on that momentum, vice president harris rallied supporters in milwaukee drawing a stark contrast between herself and her republican rival donald trump. >> do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law? or a country of chaos, fear, and hate? and here's the beauty of this moment. we each have the power to answer that question. the power is with the people. we each have the power to answer that question. and in the next 105 days, then we have work to do. we have doors to knock on. we have phone calls to make. we have voters to register, and

we have an election to win. caitriona: ms. harris also continues to gain the endorsement from top democrats two days after launching her campaign. senate majority leader chuck schumer and house minority leader chuck -- hakeem jeffries endorsed the candidacy during a news conference tuesday. mr. schumer applauded ms. harris for swiftly unifying the democratic party behind her candidacy. >> vice president harris has done a truly impressive. -- job securing the majority of delegates needed to win the democratic party's nomination to be the next president of the united states. the vast majority of my senators quickly and enthusiastically endorsed her. now that the process is played out from the grassroots, bottom-up, we are here today to throw our support a vice president kamala harris.

caitriona: a new poll just released shows the vice president currently leads her republican rival by two percentage points nationally. reuters if so's poll conducted over the past two days found ms. harris led mr. trump 44% to 42% which is within the three percentage point margin of error, so very close. the poll shows a slight boost for the price -- vice president compared to a similar poll last week when ms. harris and mr. trump were tied in hypothetical matchups. mr. trump said he wants to debate ms. harris, calling her the same as biden but much more radical. president biden meanwhile has returned to the white house after isolating with covid at his home in delaware for several days. he is set to speak to the nation about his decision to end his reelection campaign in a primetime address wednesday. for more on what we can expect from vice president harris' presidential companion, i spoke to democratic congresswoman

pramila jayapal. we've just seen vice president harris' first campaign rally, leaning into her opponent donald trump's criminal convictions and calling on a focus for the future of america not to look backwards. is this an indication of what to expect from her the next few months? >> that's exactly right. she will prosecute the case against donald trump, a convicted felon trying to strip away our freedoms and destroy our democracy and give tax cuts to his wealthy crony friends. and she will focus on our agenda going forward. the 100 day agenda, the work we will do to lift up working families across the country still struggling with cost of housing and childcare. i think this will be a really good contrast for people to lean into and understand that democrats will protect freedoms, expand opportunity for the working class and poor people across the country and preserve our democracy.

caitriona: when president biden was still at the top of the ticket, all polling showed the race being very close particularly in battleground states like where she is today in wisconsin. do you think the change now changes the prospects for the democratic party and the election? >> i think it will be very close no matter what. we do have a divided country, but she is bringing a new energy and momentum, and most importantly unity in the democratic party to the nominee and that is important. i did here in wisconsin they had to move to a different location because so many wanted to come. you may know she has raised a record-breaking almost $100 million in the first day after she announced she would seek the nomination. most important he from my perspective, 58,000 new volunteers signed up after she announced her candidacy. so i think you will see a very energized and engaged population

. she will be able to talk about abortion and reproductive freedom and what's at stake in a way that will be natural, energizing, and as she said, she's talking about the future which is most important. caitriona: all of those volunteers you mentioned and indeed the fundraising, much of that came from small, individual donors. as it feel to you like a movement? >> i do feel that. you are right. i think it was 63% of donations were people who had never contributed before. i have always believed we win elections based on the strength of our base turnout. young people, black and brown folks, working folks of all races who have given up on government and suddenly get energized and enthused to know their voices matter and their work matters. that's what i see and frankly what the vice president is going to be able to do at the top of the ticket, is just energize

people. we have faith we can win. i never lost faith we could win even when joe biden was the nominee. i just think it will be a close race and we need every person's enthusiasm and commitment to do what it takes to turn out voters and build the coalition and win victory in the house, senate and white house. caitriona: it was just sunday afternoon another east coast when joe biden announced he would not seek reelection. a little over a day later, the california delegates put kamala harris over the top to become the presumptive nominee. does the speed indicate that the disunity we saw in the democratic party in the last few weeks has been put to bed? >> i believe it does. i believe we have a unified party. kamala harris was elected just as joe biden was in the primaries so that was a big part of why there was so much unity because people elected her to

the biden harris ticket. now the delegates are coming state after state often unanimously and saying she's the one who is most qualified to win this election and we are with her. so that has been really good, but obviously there's a process. anyone can run if they want to but i think she has locked this up. california did put her over the top, and i think that was planned that it would be her state. caitriona: task briefly about something else, you are speaking to us from your office. there is some bit of a protest at the capitol rotunda by -- ahead of the visit by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who will address a joint session. >> i will not be attending. i think it's a bad idea he was invited here. prime minister netanyahu has done nothing to ensure the safe return of hostages including eight american hostages that are

still there. he's done nothing, in fact he's worked in opposition to ensuring we have a cease-fire and a two state solution. he has not been helpful in stopping and quelling the tremendous settler violence that has been happening. of close -- of course, he has not even allowed us to get humanitarian aid into the gaza strip which means now over 38,000 palestinians have been killed, over 88,000 have been injured, 85% of children in gaza are not getting food for more than a day at a time. this is a terrible situation. i will not be attending his address. i will instead be going to two events happening tomorrow. one is with hostage families, so

we can listen and talk with them and hear with their thoughts are , and the other is one during the speech itself that is really on a path forward for peace being put on for the center for american progress and others. i will be posting that event as well. caitriona: president joe biden has of course been a strong supporter of prime minister netanyahu. could we expect any different israel policy under president harris should she be elected? >> i think vice president harris is in a situation obviously where she is not the president, but i know her speeches have demonstrated a clear empathy towards palestinians. she has said clearly she supports a cease-fire in language that has spoken to many of the people who have deep concerns, families who are being killed in gaza, as well as israelis. i think she really wants to make

sure we do get to peace and perhaps she will be more willing to use all of the american leverage that we have, as we have been urging president biden to do and i have been urging president biden to do in withholding military assistance unless we get that cease-fire and aid into the gaza strip. caitriona: as you heard there, prime minister benjamin netanyahu is here in washington, d.c., and to protest -- the protests against his presence have already started. these are pictures from the capitol as demonstrators staged a sit in to protest the war in gaza.we are hearing multiple arrests have been made. are around the capitol in advance of -- it will be the prime minister's first time speaking to the house and senate in nine years. mr. not an yahoo! -- netanyahu

will pay a visit to the white house to meet president joe biden.separately he is scheduled to meet vice president kamala harris. following his meetings in washington, he will then travel to florida friday where he will meet former president donald trump at mar-a-lago. we can speak now to the u.s. state department correspondent tom bateman who is on capitol hill for us. describe to us at the scene today. >> we arrived here in another part of the capitol building and came as a mid protests here and as we showed up, there were more than 100 people sat on the floor of the rotunda building here wearing red t-shirts that say "jews say stop the genocide." u.s. capitol police had arrived,

black uniforms and helmets, and they were cuffing protesters on the floor, putting hands behind backs, pulling people up and one by one leading them away. the chanting was continuing as the protesters were arrested. i spoke to one of them as things were beginning to wind down. in her words, she said 500 american jews have flown from all over the country to protest against benjamin netanyahu's visit. she described police ripping prayer shawls off of rabbis and people being forcefully taken away. what we saw after that were outside in the last few minutes, i see more protesters being protests -- processed and being cuffed and taken away. caitriona: are we expecting more demonstrations tomorrow when prime minister netanyahu makes this address, and what can we expect him to say? >> his message will basically be

that israel is the indispensable ally of the u.s. in the middle east. it will be the fourth time he's given a joint address to congress and every time, it has been under virtual. the most controversial was in 2015 where he effectively went behind the back of barack obama to oppose the iran nuclear deal. at this time a lot of opposition because of the war in gaza, the catastrophically high civilian death toll after the hamas attacks. the democratic party deeply divided over this. already it seems clear there will be protests from democratic members of prop -- congress. some will not show up and that is expected to be very large numbers of protesters outside the building in the heart of washington protesting israel's policies when it comes to the war in gaza. caitriona: tom bateman on

capitol hill, thank you. prime minister netanyahu's visit comes as the war in gaza shows no sign of slowing down. residents and parts of the city of southern gaza fled their homes as israeli tanks moved into the area. the israeli military has ordered people to evacuate from khan yunis where the health ministry says strikes have killed 80 palestinians since monday. joining me to look ahead to what we can expect from the prime minister's visit is the former israeli ambassador to the united states. thank you for joining us on bbc news. what do you see as prime minister netanyahu subjective to the visit? what can we expect to hear him say? >> he's going to lay out the israeli reality as it is that we evolved after october 7. he will revisit the horrors of that day, of the hostages, that the people of israel have been

under intense hezbollah shell fire and have been displaced from homes, and he will put an immense emphasis on the iranian nuclear problem. the iraqi shiite militias as well as the houthis rebels, but iran now is the decision away from acquiring nuclear capabilities. the prime minister will stress it's the job of the united states and western world in general to prevent iran from acquiring those. caitriona: the vice president will not be there as she has a prior engagement but a number of democratic members of congress will not be there because they are choosing to boycott. what is your response to that? >> that was expected. i heard from some of israel's best friends in the hell that there will be a great number of democratic members of congress who will boycott.

the impression is the prime minister has a lot politically to gain here. many of his constituents would view a boycott from democrats would be a sign of the prime minister standing up for adversity. the same way he will stand up to those outside the capitol building. it does not necessarily play to his detriment domestically and politically the state of israel. caitriona: there are a number of family members of the israeli hostages still being held by hamas following the horrific attacks on october 7. they are protesting the prime minister's visit as well and they feel he's not doing enough to get hostages home. could he be doing more? >> everyone could always do more in every way. there are also hostage families who joined him. so the division about how to handle the hostage crisis, which is just impossible. on the one hand you want to see the release of hostages, of course.

on the other hand you don't want hamas to emerge from tunnels, declare victory and regain control over the gaza strip and launch another attack that will kill another 1000 israelis. it is an extremely difficult situation. but the hope is that if we keep on maintaining military pressure on hamas and disabuse the head of hamas that time is working on his side, that they will eventually agree to the terms of the cease-fire that israel and the united states has put on the table. caitriona: the u.s. position is there should be a two state solution, yet they have passed a new law banning any such state in palestine saying it would represent an existential danger to israel. does the timing of that legislation make a cease-fire or piece deal in the more difficult? >> it has nothing to beer whatsoever on the cease-fire. hamas have opposed the two state

solution even more adamantly. hamas will oppose it with terror. they will kill any palestinian who stands up for a two state solution much less an israeli. the answer is no. the significance of this trip more than the speech will be the meetings with president trump, with -- former president trump, president biden, and now the head of the democratic election campaign, vice president harris. caitriona: ambassador michael lauren, former israeli ambassador to the u.s., thank you for speaking to us on bbc news. the director of the u.s. secret service re-signed from her position after coming under harsh scrutiny following the assassination attempt of former president donald trump. kim cheatle stepped down as head of the agency responsible for protecting current and past u.s. presidents, a day after she was questioned by lawmakers about the security failures that led to the july 13 shooting.

one person was killed while mr. trump sustained minor gunshot wounds to his right here and two were injured. on tuesday she wrote in a letter to staff, "in light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart i have made the difficult decision to step down as your director." she also said, the scrutiny under the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as the operational tempo increases. "as your director, i take full responsibility for the security lapse." the speaker of the house mike johnson spoke shortly after her announcement. >> our immediate reaction to her resignation is that is it -- it is overdue. she should have done this at least a week ago. i'm happy to see that. i'm happy to see she has heeded the call of both republicans and democrats. now we have to pick up the pieces and rebuild the american people's faith and trust in the secret service as an agency. it has an incredibly important

responsibility protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials in the executive branch. caitriona: president biden can thank kim cheatle for her service. the independent review to go to the bottom of what happened on july 13 continues and i look forward to assessing its conclusions. president biden also said, "what happened that day can never happen again." following the departure, the u.s. secretary of homeland security appointed ronald road junior as act secret service director. let's return to the top story and the kamala harris presidential campaign. ms. harris is the first black and indian-american women to run for president. she was born of an indian mother and jamaican american father. in ms. harris' mothers home

state in india, residents are reacting. >> i am in a small village in the small state of tamil nadu. kamala harris has never visited the village and the villagers say she has not immediate family living here, yet prayers are being offered at the local hindu temple for her success. > it's not an easy job. the first lady of the most powerful nation in the world so she deserves it, we are proud of her. . there's a sense of proud -- pride here especially among women. they see her as one of their own, a symbol of what is possible for women everywhere. >> everybody knows her, even children. my sister, my mother.

that is how they address her. she is residing in everyone's heart. we are happy she's not forgotten her roots even after reaching such heights and we express our happiness. >> in 2020, the village celebrated her vice presidency, bursting crackers and having her picture on calendars and posters. there was even a communal beast where hundreds enjoyed a traditional dish which according to villagers is her favorite. her name is on the list of donors to this place. thousands feel connected to her journey and they hope she will visit someday and their village will find mentions in her speech. caitriona: if you enjoy going back and forward on a swing and have no fear of heights, then this may be the ideal tourist attraction for you.

operators claim it's the highest swing in europe at around 120 meters on top of the hotel roof overlooking alexanderplatz in central berlin. not for the faint hearted. you can find out all about the days news on our website, bbc.com/news and check out what we are working on at any time on your favorite social media platforms. i'm caitriona perry. thank you for watching "bbc world news america." do take care. goodbye. ♪ 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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amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the "newshour" tonight, the secret service director resigns in the wake of sharp criticism for the agency's failure to protect donald trump from an vp. harris: