Biden celebrates prisoner deal and importance of allies in key moment for his legacy
CNN
Thursday’s massive multi-country prisoner swap with Russia – touted by the US as the largest since the end of the Cold War – marked a major diplomatic achievement and legacy-defining moment for President Joe Biden less than six months before he leaves office.
Thursday’s massive multi-country prisoner swap with Russia – touted by the US as the largest since the end of the Cold War – marked a major diplomatic achievement and legacy-defining moment for President Joe Biden less than six months before he leaves office. The prisoner exchange, which included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, was Biden’s first major foreign policy action since announcing last month he was ending his reelection bid and endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris. The agreement involved months of complex negotiations with allies and adversaries alike, involving seven countries and 24 prisoners. Flanked by the families of the prisoners who were released, Biden spoke from the White House Thursday and praised the US alliances that helped make the deal possible – an implicit knock of Donald Trump’s criticisms of NATO in a moment that injects a new dynamic into the presidential race between the former president and Harris. “Anyone who questions if allies matter: They do,” Biden said, raising his voice. “They matter. Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world. Friends you could trust, work with, and depend upon, especially in matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.” Trump questioned the deal and what was given up in the exchange, calling the negotiators an “embarrassment.” “Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They are extorting the United States of America. They’re calling the trade ‘complex’ – That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
A Florida teenager has been arrested after he “brandished a machete in an aggressive, threatening posture over his head” at two women Tuesday outside an early voting location near Jacksonville, police said.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has issued a series of political predictions this week, based on strong Republican showings in early voting turnout data, that former President Donald Trump is “trending toward a crushing victory” in Pennsylvania and that Vice President Kamala Harris should even be “worried about losing Virginia.”
Vice President Kamala Harris maintains a narrow advantage in two of the three “blue wall” states that collectively represent her clearest path to an Electoral College victory over former President Donald Trump, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS.
Up to 35 ISIS operatives were killed in US strikes against multiple ISIS camps in Syria on Monday evening, the US military announced on Wednesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday distanced herself from President Joe Biden’s comments that seemingly referred to Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage,” setting off a political firestorm a week before Election Day.
A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Virginia to implement a program that state officials say is aimed at removing suspected noncitizens from its voter registration rolls, siding with Republicans in one of its first significant decisions tied to next week’s election.
A man in Arizona told detectives he put his deceased father’s body in a freezer and moved it around the state for four years — all to keep a roof over his head, police say.
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Joe Biden’s withdrawal was almost Trumpian in that it was unexpected, unprecedented and released unpredictable forces. Chief among them, the person the outgoing president tapped to replace him on the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The great ones get their backs up. They say ‘No one can do this job as well as I can.’”
Democrats are mounting an unprecedented digital advertising campaign in the closing weeks of the presidential race, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a targeted effort that the party hopes will tip the balance in one of the closest elections in US history.