On Friday, President Joe Biden opened his address to the Democratic National Committee with some sobering observations.
He responded, “You have to say hey to me,” pointing to a person in the throng at the National Education Association. We have a lengthy history. I was 30 and she was 12.
Before he continued, “This lady helped me get a lot done,” the crowd chuckled.
Although Biden made the comment without explaining how he met the lady or how she assisted him, it surprised the audience.
He said, “I mean this from the bottom of my heart,” in his speech. Anyone who knows me can attest that I always mean what I say, but occasionally I say more than I mean.
He blasted MAGA Republicans and referred to GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” policy proposal as “thin” at the beginning of his address in Washington, DC.
Additionally, the president said that the midterm elections represent a decision between “division, fear, gloom” and “hope, unity, optimism” and that he would veto any Republican abortion restriction that made it to his desk.
He praised the $1.30 decrease in petrol costs per gallon and stepped up his criticism of the usage of assault rifles.
Why on earth would you need an assault weapon? It’s an assault weapon designed to murder people and protect both people and America.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy travelled to Pennsylvania and introduced what he calls a “Commitment to America,” Biden said. “After fighting and blocking everything we attempted to do to impede progress for the previous two years,” McCarthy said. He claims that Republicans would pursue a small set of policy objectives with little details if they take back control of Congress.
Here are a couple of the things we didn’t hear throughout the almost hour-long conversation, Biden continued. We didn’t hear him emphasise the freedom to make a decision. He didn’t mention Medicare to us. He didn’t mention Social Security to us.
McCarthy’s declaration that he would “restore trust in elections” was also made fun of by Biden.
Kevin McCarthy claims that the MAGA Republicans will restore confidence in our elections while maintaining a straight face. He implored the gathering, “Bless me father because I have sinned, as we say in my religion.
McCarthy did mention protecting constitutional freedom, according to Biden.
“That sounds wonderful. We are all in favour of doing that, including myself, the president said. “But take a look at what they’ve done in reality.”
As Biden noted, “The MAGA Republicans just rejoiced and welcomed the first Supreme Court decision in our whole history, the first one in our history, that actually took away a basic right that had been given by the same court to so many Americans — the constitutional right to choose.”
Republicans who profess to support law enforcement yet did not denounce the Capitol violence on January 6 were also called out by Biden.
Biden said, “You can’t be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection.” “You can’t call the individuals who assaulted the police on January 6 patriots and pretend to be a party of law and order,”
Republicans of all shades have supported the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that was overturned by the Dobbs decision and returned control of abortion legislation to the states.
Republicans are debating whether to try to prohibit abortion at the federal level or maintain it at the state level, particularly after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham offered a countrywide 15-week ban measure.
Regarding the Graham abortion ban bill, Biden declared, “If they win Congress, I would veto it.”
The protection of the rights of the unborn is included in McCarthy’s Commitment to America, but when he appeared with other GOP politicians in Monongahela, they didn’t make their position on abortion clear.
Instead, McCarthy pledged that the first bill a House GOP majority would pass would “repeal 87,000 IRS agents.” Republicans used this number to stir up opposition to the bill; it was derived from a Treasury Department estimate of how many IRS employees could be hired using the $80 billion appropriation in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Kevin McCarthy claims that the MAGA Republicans will restore confidence in our elections, said Biden, “and finally, with a straight face.” “Bless me, Father, because I have sinned,” as we say in my religion. trust in our elections back to normal? Laughing, the president said.
He said, “MAGA Republicans refused to recognise the outcomes of the 2020 election.”
Additionally, Biden made it seem like the pro-former President Donald Trump MAGA brand wasn’t very effective in general elections.
Later on Friday night, the White House served as the background for Elton John’s performance on the South Lawn.
The stage in front of the White House, under a big tent on a glorious fall night, was, in John’s words, “perhaps the icing on the cake,” despite the fact that he had performed in some stunning places.
Then he opened the performance with “Your Song,” his first significant global success.
The 75-year-old musician was greeted by Vice President Biden and First Lady Jill, who spoke highly of him and his advocacy as well as the impact of his music. A+E and the History Channel came up with the idea and funded the event.
“Famously in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice may come up, and hope and history rhyme,” Seamus Heaney once wrote, and I quote. “Sir Elton John has been that tidal wave throughout his magnificent career, a tidal wave to help people rise up and make hope and history rhyme,”
Biden presented John with the National Humanities Medal as a surprise at the conclusion of the performance in recognition of his body of work and his long history of activism.
John sobbed as he added, “I am stunned and humbled.”
Teachers, nurses, frontline workers, LGBTQ activists, the former first lady Laura Bush, civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, education activist Malala Yousafzai, and AIDS activist and mother of Ryan White, who passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1990, Jeanne White-Ginder were among the 2,000 guests who attended the event.
In reality, the title of the event was “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” a nod to the Heaney poem that Biden cited.
John hadn’t played in the White House since joining Stevie Wonder for a 1998 state banquet honouring British Prime Minister Tony Blair. John is now on a farewell tour at the age of 75 after more than 50 years of playing.
According to people familiar with the discussions who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, the show came together after A+E Networks and the History Channel, which paid for it, asked the White House and John if they’d be up for a collaboration honouring “everyday history-makers” as well as John himself.
It’s unclear whether the programme will be televised. The Elton John Foundation, John’s global HIV/AIDS organisation that has raised more than $525 million to fight the infection worldwide, has previously collaborated with A+E.
John will perform at Nationals Park on Saturday as part of his farewell tour. In July, he began the last part of his farewell tour of North America in Philadelphia.
Teachers, nurses, frontline workers, LGBTQ activists, the former first lady Laura Bush, civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, education activist Malala Yousafzai, and AIDS activist and mother of Ryan White, who passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1990, Jeanne White-Ginder were among the 2,000 guests who attended the event.
In reality, the title of the event was “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” a nod to the Heaney poem that Biden cited.
John hadn’t played in the White House since joining Stevie Wonder for a 1998 state banquet honouring British Prime Minister Tony Blair. John is now on a farewell tour at the age of 75 after more than 50 years of playing.
According to people familiar with the discussions who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, the show came together after A+E Networks and the History Channel, which paid for it, asked the White House and John if they’d be up for a collaboration honouring “everyday history-makers” as well as John himself.
It’s unclear whether the programme will be televised. The Elton John Foundation, John’s global HIV/AIDS organisation that has raised more than $525 million to fight the infection worldwide, has previously collaborated with A+E.
John will perform at Nationals Park on Saturday as part of his farewell tour. In July, he began the last part of his farewell tour of North America in Philadelphia.
John will perform at Nationals Park on Saturday as part of his farewell tour. In July, he began the last part of his farewell tour of North America in Philadelphia.
The first lady and president are huge admirers. In a 2017 biography, Biden recalled singing “Crocodile Rock” to his two young sons as he drove them to school. Later, before his son Beau passed away from illness at age 46, Biden sang the song once more to Beau.
Biden recalled, “I began singing the words to Beau, gently, so that just the two of us could hear it.” Beau didn’t open his eyes, but I could tell he was smiling through my own tears.
On Friday, John sang the song while claiming that Biden once sang it.
John was a favourite of Donald Trump, who served as Biden’s predecessor. John refused to play at his 2017 inauguration because he felt it was improper for a British musician to perform at an American president’s inauguration, despite his attempts to convince him otherwise.
Trump, who has lauded John in his books and often played his songs, including “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer,” in his pre-rally playlists over the years, said Friday’s performance wasn’t intended to mock him. Trump dubbed Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, “rocket man” because to his history of conducting missile tests.
On Friday, John performed “Tiny Dancer” to rousing ovation.
Sir Elton—whom Queen Elizabeth II knighted in 1998—has sold more than 300 million records worldwide, performed at more than 4,000 concerts in 80 nations, and released one of the all-time best-selling singles, a 1997 cover of “Candle in the Wind” in memory of Princess Diana, which sold 33 million copies.