2024 election live updates: Pelosi weighs in on whether Biden should stay in the race | AP News

Movie star and lifelong Democrat George Clooney is adding his voice to calls for Biden to leave the presidential race.

Clooney said in a New York Times opinion piece Wednesday that he loves Biden, but the party would lose the presidential race and any control in Congress with him as the nominee.

“This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private,” wrote Clooney, who has hosted high-dollar Hollywood fundraisers.

Clooney argued the party should pick a new nominee at its convention next month.

The president of Finland says that regardless of whether Biden or Trump win the presidency in November, the U.S. will remain a superpower. That will require it to have strong allies _ especially in Europe.

Alexander Stubb said he is worried about the “polarization of the political climate,” calling it “quite toxic.”

Stubb spoke to reporters as he arrived at the NATO summit Wednesday.

Stubb also said there is “strong bipartisan support” for Ukraine and NATO, following a meeting with 15 U.S. senators.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership.

That advances American assurances that Ukraine will be allowed to join the Western self-defense alliance after its war against Russia ends.

All 32 allies are expected to issue a joint communique Wednesday cementing that “irreversible” commitment to Ukraine. That’s according to a European official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss before the release.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has battled for a firm guarantee Ukraine can join. The U.S. and some others have opposed to avoid an escalation with Russia that could lead to a larger war.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a one-sentence statement after the president held a virtual event with nearly 200 Democratic mayors.

“I’m supporting our nominee, President Biden,” she said.

Bass is a former member of Congress who was on Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist during his 2020 campaign.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California has also backed the president, sending a fundraising appeal on behalf of Biden’s campaign.

“The stakes of this election are simply too high to continue fretting and worrying,” he wrote.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi stopped short of saying President Joe Biden should continue his re-election campaign, saying “it’s up to the president to decide” if he’s going to run.

“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short,” Pelosi said early Wednesday on MSNBC.

Pressed on whether she personally wants Biden to stay on the top of the ticket, Pelosi said, “I want him to do whatever he decides to do.”

She said she watched as he delivered a forceful speech at NATO, and while foreign leaders are in Washington she encouraged Democrats to “hold off” with any announcements about his campaign.

Pelosi has been widely watched for signals of how top Democrats are thinking about Biden’s candidacy.

Late yesterday, a seventh House Democrat, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, publicly called on Biden not to run for re-election. Here’s a look at who else has publicly called on Biden to end his candidacy:

• Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota
• Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas
• Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
• Rep. Adam Smith of Washington
• Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois
• Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona

No Senate Democrat has publicly called for Biden to leave the race.

Facing pressure from within his own party to abandon his reelection campaign, President Biden is relying on labor unions to help make the case that his record in office matters more than his age.

The 81-year-old Democrat is set to meet later today with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of trade unions.

After meeting for around two hours to discuss whether Biden should remain at the top of their presidential ticket, Senate Democrats almost unanimously have agreed on one thing — not to say anything about it.

Inside the room on Tuesday, several Democrats expressed deep concerns about whether Biden can win. But no Democratic senators have said publicly that he should step aside, underscoring the deep bind that the party is in.

▶ Read more about the democrats’ closed door meetings on Biden

Biden welcomed NATO leaders to Washington yesterday by celebrating their unity against Russia’s Ukraine aggression and underscoring America’s ironclad commitment to the alliance under his watch — a message that seemed aimed at bucking up his own wobbly Democratic supporters as much as allies confronting the prospect of a return to the White House of NATO skeptic Donald Trump.

He’s been making his case on the campaign trail, in a defiant letter to Democratic lawmakers and now at an international summit that he’s still up for four more grinding years in the White House.

▶Read more about the NATO summit’s opening day.

Republicans face their own history-making political situation, poised to nominate a former president Donald Trump who is the first ever to be convicted of a felony — in a hush money case — and who faces federal criminal indictments, including the effort to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden.

Pressure and chaos swirling since Biden’s disastrous debate performance is causing cracks inside a White House that until now has been marked mostly by discipline and loyalty.

The Biden White House has been mostly a restrained and staid operation, marked more by an insistence on showcasing policy rather than palace intrigue. But the president’s shaky debate performance has led to an unusually public blame game.

▶Read more about the internal drama, leaks and second-guessing causing cracks in the White House

In his 13-minute remarks, Biden, using a teleprompter, told world leaders gathered in Washington that “NATO is more powerful than ever” on its 75th anniversary, highlighting the expansion of the alliance under his watch.

The U.S. and an array of other NATO allies will send Ukraine dozens of air defense systems in the coming months, according to a new joint agreement that the president announced Tuesday.

▶ Read more on the joint agreement, which Biden called, “a historic donation of air defense equipment for Ukraine”

After days spent lying low, golfing and letting Democratic infighting play out in public, Trump used his return to the campaign trail in Florida to revel in their disarray and ratchet up his attacks on both Biden and Harris, indulging speculation that she could replace the president as the Democratic nominee this year and alleging, without evidence, that his son Hunter Biden is “running our government” and first lady Jill Biden “is helping.”

Trump rallied his supporters at one of his Miami-area golf courses as the presumptive Republican nominee nears a deadline to announce his running mate. But he appeared in no rush, as much of the political world’s attention is still centered on questions about Biden’s ability to govern for another four-year term.

▶ Read more about Trump’s return to the campaign trail

With tensions running high, House and Senate Democrats met privately yesterday as they wrestled over President Joe Biden’s reelection amid concerns over his ability to lead them to victory.

Late Tuesday, a seventh House Democrat, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, publicly said Biden should not run for re-election.

What could become a time for Democrats to bolster their president, instead fell deeper into crisis over real fears they could lose the White House and Congress and watch the rise of a second term Donald Trump.

▶ Read more about the Democrats calling for Biden to drop