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Biden concedes debate fumbles but declares he will defend democracy. Dems stick by him — for now

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President Joe Biden is trying to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with ex-President Donald Trump. Biden appeared to acknowledge the criticism on Friday saying ”I don’t debate as well as I used to.”
 
 
President Joe Biden worked forcefully Friday to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former President Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket.
 
Biden’s halting delivery and meandering comments, particularly early in the debate, fueled concerns from even members of his own party that at age 81 he’s not up for the task of leading the country for another four years. It created a crisis moment for Biden’s campaign and his presidency, as members of his party flirted with potential replacements, and donors and supporters couldn’t contain their concern about his showing against Trump.
 
Biden appeared to acknowledge the criticism during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying ”I don’t debate as well as I used to.” But he added, “I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.” Speaking for 18 minutes, Biden appeared far more animated than he had the night before as he excoriated Trump for his “lies” and for waging a campaign aimed at “revenge and retribution.”
 
“The choice in this election is simple,” Biden said. “Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
 
He added, alluding to his candidacy, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
 
First lady Jill Biden, at a Friday evening fundraiser in New York City, said her husband told her after the debate, “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.” But she seconded the president in stressing that he tells the truth and he bounces back from adversity.
 
Even before the debate, Biden’s age had been a liability with voters, and Thursday night’s faceoff appeared to reinforce the public’s deep-seated concerns before perhaps the largest audience he will garner in the four months until Election Day.
 
Privately, his campaign worked to tamp down concerns and keep donors and surrogates on board. Democratic lawmakers on Friday acknowledged Biden’s poor showing, but tried to stop talk of replacing him as their standard-bearer, and instead shift the focus to Trump’s attacks and falsehoods.
 
 
“Well, the president didn’t have a good night, but neither did Donald Trump with lie after lie and his dark vision for America,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told The Associated Press on Friday, hours before he introduced the president in Raleigh. “We cannot send Donald Trump back to the White House. He’s an existential threat to our nation.”
 
Former President Barack Obama backed up his former vice president, posting on X that “Bad debate nights happen.” Alluding to his own poor showing in the first debate of his reelection campaign in 2012, Obama continued, “Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
 
He added: “Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
 
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries answered with a flat “no” when asked Friday if Biden should step aside.
 
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., allowed he “had to take a few more antidepressants than usual” after Biden’s debate showing.
 
But he added that “a Donald Trump presidency would cause me far greater discomfort than a Joe Biden debate performance.”
 
Biden’s campaign billed the Raleigh event as the largest-yet rally of his reelection bid in the state Trump carried by the narrowest margin in 2020. He then traveled to New York for a weekend of big-dollar fundraisers that his campaign now needs more than ever.
 
Biden’s campaign announced that it raised $14 million on debate day and the morning after, while Trump’s campaign said it raised more than $8 million from the start of the debate through the end of the night.
 
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom the Biden campaign sent out to defend his performance, tried to reassure Biden supporters at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday, saying, “This race will not be decided by one night in June.
 
“This race will be decided by you. By us,” she said. “Who sits in the White House next year will be determined by what we together do in these next 130 days.”
 
Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said there had been no internal conversations “whatsoever” about Biden stepping aside, though he, too, acknowledged that the president had a “bad night” on stage.
 
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he could hardly sleep because of the number of telephone calls he got after Biden performed “horribly” in the debate.
 
“People were just concerned. And I told everybody being concerned is healthy, overreacting is dangerous,” Cleaver said.
 
Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat whose support in that state helped Biden secure the Democratic nomination four years ago, said he would likely speak to Biden later Friday and his message would be simple: “Stay the course.”
 
Biden and his team have long wagered that voters would look past their concerns about his age and unpopularity when confronted at the ballot box with a choice between the president and Trump. Despite their concerns about Biden’s performance, they took solace in Trump doing little to expand his own appeal to voters on Thursday.
 
Polls from CNN and 538/Ipsos conducted soon after the debate found that most debate-watchers thought Trump outperformed Biden. But the two men’s favorability ratings remained largely unchanged, just as they did in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction.
 
Democrats seized on Trump’s equivocations on whether he would accept the will of voters this time around, his refusal to condemn the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, and his embrace of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade that had legalized abortion nationwide.
 
But Biden fumbled on abortion rights, one of the most important issues for Democrats in this year’s election. He was unable to explain Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A conservative Supreme Court with three justices nominated by Trump overturned Roe two years ago.
 
As elected Democrats united behind Biden publicly, donors and party operatives shared panicked text messages and phone calls Thursday night and into Friday expressing their concern that Biden’s performance was so bad that he may be unelectable this fall.
 
Among the few public Democratic voices calling on Biden to step aside was congressional candidate Nancy Boyda in Kansas, who broke with most in her party and called on Biden to suspend his campaign and retire at the end of his current term.
 
But there were no immediate signs of organized efforts among donors, his campaign leadership or the Democratic National Committee to convince the president to step aside, according to interviews with several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive conversations.
 
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated about as a potential replacement for Biden, released a statement backing him on Friday.
 
“The difference between Joe Biden’s vision for making sure everyone in America has a fair shot and Donald Trump’s dangerous, self-serving plans will only get sharper as we head toward November,” she said.
 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also dismissed questions on whether he would consider stepping in for Biden, telling reporters, “I will never turn my back on him.”
 
Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite the rules at the August national convention.
 
Trump was set to hold a rally Friday afternoon in Chesapeake, Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years but that his aides believe can flip toward the Republicans in November. [AP]
 
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Just in: 24 people feared dead, others injured as bomb explodes in train station

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No fewer than 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, police and other officials told Reuters.

Pakistan is grappling with a surge in strikes by separatist ethnic militants in the south and Islamist militants in its northwest.

Inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, said 24 people have died from the blast so far.

The target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” he said, with many of the injured in critical condition.

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“So far 44 injured people have been brought to civil hospital,” Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, told Reuters.

Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were underway for more information.

“The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination,” Baloch said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast at Quetta’s main railway station, which is usually busy early in the day.

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In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan province after separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways.

The assaults in August were the most widespread in years by militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

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EFCC Nabs Chinese Brothers, 2 Others for Alleged Illegal Dealing in Solid Minerals

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Operatives of the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested two Chinese siblings: Wang Jiang and Wang Richard for allegedly making efforts to export some solid minerals without requisite permit.

While Jiang was arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport ,Enugu, the rest, including two Nigerians, Donatus Agupusi and Michael Benneth Agu, were arrested at the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the EFCC.

Their arrest followed an intelligence received by the Commission through the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN on November 3, 2024 involving Jiang who was intercepted at the hold baggage screening point, where unidentified suspicious stones believed to be solid minerals wrapped in three different pieces were discovered in his luggage.

Preliminary investigations into the matter revealed that Agupusi, owner of Great Wall Construction Limited, is the employer of the remaining suspects. Investigation also revealed that Jiang was attempting to travel out of the country with the solid minerals in order to carry out some tests on them in China.

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Investigations further revealed that none of the four suspects had a permit to export the solid minerals to China.

The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.

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Amid economic frustrations FG burns N5bn on Lagos VP’s residence

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Despite ravaging hunger and ongoing economic challenges and escalating inflation affecting millions of Nigerians, the Federal Government has come under scrutiny for allocating a significant N5 billion towards the renovation of the Vice President’s official residence in Lagos.

In November 2023, the Federal Government outlined a supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion, which included N3 billion specifically allocated for refurbishing the Vice President’s Lagos residence and an additional N2.5 billion for his official quarters at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja. These expenditures were part of an effort to upgrade government infrastructure, yet they have sparked widespread concern among citizens facing economic hardships.

According to findings from GovSpend, a civic technology platform that monitors federal expenditures, the actual amount spent on the Vice President’s Lagos residence renovations in 2024 totaled N5,034,077,063.

This sum, spent between May and September, exceeded the initial budgetary estimates, raising questions about the use of public funds amid broader financial constraints.

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A closer look at the spending details shows that on May 31, 2024, the State House disbursed N2,827,119,051 to Denderi Investment Limited, an engineering firm, to undertake renovations on the Vice President’s Lagos residence.

Later, on September 5, 2024, additional payments were made for further work on the property, including N726,748,686 from the Office of the Chief of Staff for additional renovations, and N1,480,209,326 for a second phase of the project.

The substantial scale of these allocations has drawn attention from both the public and civil society organizations advocating for fiscal responsibility.

In addition to the Lagos renovation costs, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) announced in November 2023 a plan to construct a new residence for the Vice President in Abuja, at an estimated cost of N15 billion. FCT Minister Nyesom Wike presented this plan during a House of Representatives committee session to justify the FCTA’s supplementary budget of N61.5 billion.

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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a prominent civil rights organization, criticized these expenditures, labeling them as misaligned with the nation’s current financial challenges and a violation of constitutional principles. SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, highlighted the strain that debt servicing places on the country’s budget, with an estimated 30 percent (N8.25 trillion) of the 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion earmarked for debt payments. Oluwadare argued that allocating billions for a new vice-presidential residence in such times represents a breach of public trust.

Other advocates have voiced similar concerns. Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, questioned the sincerity of the government’s commitment to reducing governance costs, pointing out that budget allocations for executive expenses have seen minimal cuts in the past 16 months. Likewise, Debo Adeniran, Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, emphasized the need for a constitutional framework to control government spending, suggesting that a new, more restrictive constitution could help curb excessive financial allocations in the future.

These calls for restraint underscore the pressing need for policy decisions that prioritize public welfare, particularly as citizens face economic pressures on a daily basis.

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