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Rep. Summer Lee says “we don’t” hear if college students are excited to vote for Biden
Rep. Summer Lee, a progressive Democrat from Pennsylvania who recently visited pro-Palestinian protesters at a Pittsburgh campus, said Sunday that “we don’t” hear if college students are excited to vote for President Biden this upcoming November.
“It’s not a topic that, you know, always comes up, but it does a lot,” Lee said on Sunday. “They’re looking for some sort of acknowledgement from our leadership, that they hear our needs, that they hear these young people saying that we want our country, we want our government to go in a different direction.”
Lee visited student protesters in her district at the University of Pittsburgh on Thursday where she got an assessment of students’ attitudes toward voting for Mr. Biden. The news comes as a new CBS News poll found that Mr. Biden are in a tight race — effectively even — with former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, as well as in two other battleground states, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Lee, who has been critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, won her primary contest in Pennsylvania’s 12th District on Tuesday with a significant margin. The race served as a first test of whether Democratic incumbents, especially those in the “Squad” of left-wing, progressive Democrats in Congress, would be hurt by their opposition to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The Democratic opponent in the primary, Bhavini Patel, ran as more of a moderate and challenged Lee’s willingness to break with Mr. Biden’s support for Israel. Lee was one of the 36 Democrats and 21 Republicans last week who voted against the House bill that will provide $26.4 billion to Israel. She also was one of the first lawmakers in the fall to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Lee how she can ask progressives to vote for Mr. Biden in November if a cease-fire is “such a matter of conscience.” Lee said, just like in every election cycle, she urges voters to look at the totality of a candidate and not just one issue.
“When we look at an election like mine, we’ve seen how popular it is to take a pro-peace stance, how popular it is to call for a different direction in the policies that the United States has towards the war in Gaza, towards sending unconditional weapons, offensive weapons to Netanyahu,” Lee said. “Our government still has time to react, we still have time to listen to the folks who have feelings about that.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday said U.S. college protesters are “antisemitic mobs” and that the demonstrations are “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.”
Lee said she had seen first-hand solidarity among the students, including Jewish students, and she argued that Netanyahu doesn’t want to listen to their message.
“This idea that every criticism of Israel is antisemitic is dangerous,” Lee said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “When you’re on the ground, you see that all of those students have been working together or had been learning and educating together and they are all in one voice crying for a difference in direction, particularly from Benjamin Netanyahu. So I’m not shocked that he would want to cast them as evil.”
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Biden tells congressional Democrats he is “firmly committed” to staying in 2024 race
Washington — President Biden on Monday sent a letter to congressional Democrats saying that he is “firmly committed” to staying in the race and making clear that he wouldn’t be running again if he “did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Lawmakers are returning to Washington this week after a July 4 recess, which came as questions about Mr. Biden’s ability to serve another term roiled the political sphere following a disastrous debate performance last month. A slow leak of Democratic lawmakers have since called on Mr. Biden to step aside from the race. But the president has been clear that he will not drop out.
In the letter, the president cited the votes he received in the primaries so far, saying “the voters of the Democratic Party have voted,” and selected him as their presumptive nominee.
Mr. Biden said the question of “how to move forward” had been aired for more than a week, saying it’s “time for it to end.”
“We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election,” he said. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us.”
This is a breaking story. It will be updated.
Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
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Some doctors recommending Apple Watches to manage health conditions
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Candidates in local elections across the country face intimidation, harassment
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