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“I gave my best to you,” Biden says at Democratic convention, passing torch to Harris
President Biden took the stage on the first night of the Democratic National Convention for the last time as president — or as a candidate for the presidency — to cite the accomplishments of his single presidential term and the threat to democracy as the reasons Kamala Harris should succeed him as president.
“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president,” Mr. Biden said in a speech that capped over five decades in office, as senator, vice president and president. “I love the job, but I love my country more. All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people (who) said I should step down — that’s not true. I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy in 2024.”
He received a thunderous standing ovation from the crowd and took a moment to wipe his eyes after his daughter, Ashley, introduced him. It took several minutes for the crowd to quiet, and his speech was interrupted at times by chants of, “We love Joe!” The party faithful filling the Chicago arena held up signs that said “We 💗 Joe.”
Five months ago, Mr. Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and had every right to expect at that time he would be here tonight to take the mantle of Democratic nominee for the second time. Instead, he asked the crowd, “Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as president and vice president of the United States?”
The president joked that he was too young to begin work in the Senate, elected at 29, and “too old” to remain as president.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” he said.
In July, under increasing pressure to step aside as the nominee after a disastrous debate in June against former President Donald Trump, Mr. Biden acquiesced and announced he would give up the nomination and endorse Harris.
The president reminisced Monday night about his decision to run for president after what he saw in Charlottesville in August 2017, when white supremacist rallies devolved into clashes that left one dead and several others injured. He also recalled the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, when rioters breached the Capitol and many tried to stop the certification of his election.
“I believed then and I believe now that progress was and is possible,” Mr. Biden said. “Justice is achievable. And our best days are not behind us — they’re before us. Now, it’s summer. The winter has passed. And with a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now, democracy must be preserved.”
“You cannot say you love your country only when you win,” the president said, in a line that he has used about former President Donald Trump but now could apply to him, albeit for very different reasons.
Everyone in the room, the president said, came together in 2020 to save democracy.
“As your president, I’ve been determined to keep America moving forward, not going back,” he said. “To stand against hate and violence in all its forms.”
Mr. Biden celebrated the accomplishments of his presidency, ticking off a list — 60 million new jobs, a record high stock market, bringing inflation down, the smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years and getting health insurance coverage for more Americans than ever.
When the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Joe,” at one point, Mr. Biden said, “Thank you Kamala, too!”
Mr. Biden then went after his former opponent, Donald Trump, and Trump’s promise of infrastructure week.
“And he never built a damn thing,” Mr. Biden said.
“Donald Trump calls America a failing nation,” the president said, adding that Trump is wrong that America is failing. “He says we’re losing. He’s the loser, he’s dead wrong.”
The president also noted violent crime has dropped across the country after spiking during the pandemic.
“Crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon,” he said, nodding to Harris’ career as a prosecutor.
Mr. Biden said he’ll keep fighting for the freedom to vote and the freedom to love whomever one chooses.
“MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022,” he said. “And Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.”
Turning to foreign concerns, the president said his team is “working around the clock” to secure a cease-fire deal in the Middle East and get aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Protesters criticizing Mr. Biden’s handling of the war stood outside the convention, at times slowing convention goers from entering.
“Those protesters out in the street, they have a point,” he conceded. “A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
The president said Harris and Walz understand this nation must continue to be a place of possibilities, not just for the few, but for all, and Democrats need to ensure they win.
“I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s campaign have ever seen,” the president said.
Strapped into the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico to close out an extended 235-day expedition to the International Space Station.
After a high-speed re-entry above Central America and a steep descent to the Gulf, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, astronaut Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin settled to a gentle, on-target splashdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 3:29 a.m. EDT.
NASA TV
A SpaceX team stationed nearby was on the scene within minutes to stabilize the capsule, make sure no toxic propellant fumes were present and then to haul it aboard a nearby recovery ship where NASA flight surgeons and support personnel were standing by to carry the returning station fliers out of the crew cabin.
Despite two hours of exercise per day throughout their stay in orbit, returning station astronauts need about a month or more to regain their “land legs” after months in the weightless environment of space.
As such, Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin were expected to be carried out of the Crew Dragon and placed on stretchers before being rolled inside the ship for initial medical checks and calls to family and friends. All four appeared in good spirits, smiling and waving as they were rolled inside.
Mission duration was 235 days three hours and 35 minutes, during which the spacecraft circled the globe 3,776 times covering 100 million miles since launch from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3.
NASA
The crew originally expected to return to Earth in September. But the flight slipped into early October in the wake of a decision to delay the launch of their Crew 9 replacements because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner crew ferry ship.
NASA eventually ruled out bringing Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Instead, the Starliner came down without its crew on September 7 and Crew 9 was launched with just two passengers — Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gobrunov — on Sept. 28.
That freed up two seats aboard the Crew Dragon for Wilmore and Williams to use when they come home next February with Hague and Gorbunov.
Sorting all that out pushed the Crew 8 departure into October. NASA and SpaceX then were repeatedly held up by high winds and rough seas at the approved splashdown sites, much of it related to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But this week, conditions in the Gulf finally met NASA’s safety guidelines and the crew was cleared to undock and head for home.
With Crew 8 safely back on Earth, the Crew 9 crew will board their own Crew Dragon capsule early Sunday, Nov. 3, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port and then redock at its space-facing port.
The next day, an ISS-bound SpaceX cargo ship is scheduled for launch from the Kennedy Space Center. After an automated rendezvous, the ship will dock at the just vacated forward port on Nov. 5, election day in the United States.
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A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting deaths of his parents and three of his siblings at a home in Fall City, Washington, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.
The teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder in the slayings of his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, two brothers, ages 9 and 13, and his 7-year-old sister, per King County court records.
He was also charged with one count of attempted murder for shooting and wounding his 11-year-old sister, the documents read.
That girl was in “satisfactory condition” at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Tuesday.
Autopsies performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all five victims died of gunshot wounds. The handgun used in the shooting was believed to belong to the victim’s father, the court records state.
According to the charging documents, just before 5 a.m. Monday, the suspect called 911 with a false story in which he claimed that his 13-year-old brother “just shot my whole family and committed suicide too” at the family’s home in Fall City, which is a community located near Seattle.
However, at about the same time as that call, 911 dispatchers received a second call from a neighbor who lives about a quarter-mile away. That neighbor said the suspect’s 11-year-old sister had ran to his house and was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound, the documents said.
The girl said her entire family had been fatally shot and identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter. The girl told dispatchers she was also shot by her brother and “then described holding her breath and playing dead,” the documents read. The girl later told detectives that she had escaped through a bedroom window.
Deputies responded to the Humiston home, where they found the suspect in the driveway and took him into custody, court records show. The five victims were found dead inside the home.
In a hospital interview with detectives later that day, the suspect’s surviving sister said that she identified the firearm used in the shooting as “her father’s silver Glock handgun,” court documents state.
She said that her father kept the pistol in a small lockbox that “he would sometimes put by the front door so he could bring it to work,” the documents read. She told detectives that the suspect was “the only one who knew the combination to the Glock lockbox.”
Investigators determined that the suspect “systematically murdered” his parents and siblings and “then staged the scene prior to the arrival of first responders to make it appear” that the murders had been committed by his 11-year-old brother, documents read.
The court documents did not speculate on a motive.
The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the suspect is in custody at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center, which is a juvenile facility.
The teen is currently being charged as a juvenile, and prosecutors said a judge will determine whether his case “will be moved to adult court.”
In a statement Tuesday, public defenders representing the suspect said that “our client is a 15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”
