WASHINGTON —President Joe Biden announced Sunday afternoon he was dropping out of the 2024 race following a disastrous debate with Republican Donald Trump.&nbsp; Kansas lawmakers used their social media accounts to respond to the the news.

Biden has thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719969869999.png" alt="File photo White House" />
 <figcaption>File photo White House</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON —President Joe Biden announced Sunday afternoon he was dropping out of the 2024 race following a disastrous debate with Republican Donald Trump.&nbsp; Kansas lawmakers used their social media accounts to respond to the the news.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">For more than five decades, President Biden has made it his life’s work to better our country for hardworking Americans. Above all, he has been firm in his desire to safeguard democracy in a time of hyper-polarization and divisiveness. I thank him for his service and steadfast…&mdash; Laura Kelly (@LauraKellyKS) <a href="https://twitter.com/LauraKellyKS/status/1815091624805818599?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Has anyone told Joe yet? <a href="https://t.co/zyHmx9iPKi">https://t.co/zyHmx9iPKi</a>&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1815092715383861325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Biden has dedicated his life to serving our country and his time as our President has restored decency to the highest office. By stepping aside from the presidential race today, he has once again put the future of our country first.&mdash; Sharice Davids (@sharicedavids) <a href="https://twitter.com/sharicedavids/status/1815097222985589166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">My full statement on President Biden&#39;s decision to not seek re-election. <a href="https://t.co/SaFL9zLN9f">pic.twitter.com/SaFL9zLN9f</a>&mdash; Tracey Mann (@RepMann) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMann/status/1815109571330838911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Biden has thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.&nbsp;

Kansas lawmakers respond to Biden ending his 2024 campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;dropped out of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024">the 2024 race</a>&nbsp;for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.

The decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies to step aside following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">the June 27 debate</a>, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-election-debate-trump-biden-577507522762aa10f6ee5be3a0ced2bb">many falsehoods</a>. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump, and encouraged his party to united behind her.

Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon ET on Jan. 20, 2025.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted to his X account.

Nearly 30 minutes later, Biden throw his support behind Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">its August convention in Chicag</a>

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," he said in another post on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”

Biden's decision came as he has been isolating at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, huddling with a shrinking circle of close confidants and family members about his political future. Biden said he would address the nation later this week to provide “detail” about his decision.

The White House confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

The announcement is the latest jolt to a campaign for the White House that both political parties see as the most consequential election in generations, coming just days after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-vp-vance-rubio-7c7ba6b99b5f38d2d840ed95b2fdc3e5">the attempted assassination</a>&nbsp;of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.

Now, Democrats have to urgently try to bring coherence to the nominating process in a matter of weeks and persuade voters in a stunningly short amount of time that their nominee can handle the job and beat Trump. And for his part, Trump must shift his focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.

The decision marks a swift and stunning end to Biden’s 52 years in electoral politics, as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-debate-donors-trump-campaign-2024-419531be556da1447856f17549371cd7">donors, lawmakers and even aides</a>&nbsp;expressed to him their doubts that he could convince voters that he could plausibly handle the job for another four years.

Biden won&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-election-2024-delegate-tracker">the vast majority of delegates</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/presidential-primaries-caucuses-guam-virgin-islands-biden-trump-ef0c605bf5a312c2467b07f35378bf2f">every nominating contest but one</a>, which would have made his nomination a formality. Now that he has dropped out, those delegates will be free to support&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/replacing-biden-nomination-options-dnc-democratic-convention-d23c02047b6a2c991737915972a2fa4c">another candidate</a>.

Harris, 59, appeared to be the natural successor, in large part because she is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign’s war chest, according to federal campaign finance rules.

Biden’s backing helps clear the way for Harris, but a smooth transition is by no means assured.

<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">The Democratic National Convention</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, but the party had announced that it would hold&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-ballot-biden-access-3bf359cce8e73714be45cb99a6e31546">a virtual roll call</a>&nbsp;to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.

It remained to be seen whether other candidates woul challenge Harris for the nomination or how party may need to adjust its rules again to smooth Harris’ nomination on the floor.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s decision to leave the race, but he and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear. Nonetheless, his team has ramped up its attacks on Harris as pressure on Biden to step down intensified.

Democratic officials, including many who were behind the effort to push Biden from the race, quickly released statements praising Biden's decision.

“His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American.”

In 2020, Biden pitched himself as a transitional figure who wanted to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders. But once he secured the job he spent decades struggling to attain, he was reluctant to part with it.

Biden was once asked whether any other Democrats could beat Trump.

“Probably 50 of them,” Biden replied. “No, I’m not the only one who can defeat him, but I will defeat him.”

Biden is already the country’s oldest president and had insisted repeatedly that he was up for the challenge of another campaign and another term, telling voters all they had to was “watch me.”

And watch him they did.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-lawmakers-debate-2c426f98063ab30143a7675cba10a5b4">His poor debate performance</a>&nbsp;prompted a cascade of anxiety from Democrats and donors who said publicly what some had said privately for months, that they did not think he was up to the job for four more years.

Concerns over Biden’s age have dogged him since he announced he was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">running for reelection</a>, though Trump is just three years younger at 78. Most Americans view the president as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-age-poll-trump-2024-620e0a5cfa0039a6448f607c17c7f23e">too old for a second term</a>, according to an August 2023 poll from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnorc.org/">The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research</a>. A majority also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-state-of-union-mental-capacity-trump-reelection-66d8784586d21f30885d8153f949510c">doubt his mental capability</a>&nbsp;to be president, though that is also a weakness for Trump.

Biden often remarked that he was not as young as he used to be, doesn’t walk as easily or speak as smoothly, but that he had wisdom and decades of experience, which were worth a whole lot.

“I give you my word as a Biden. I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job,” he told supporters at a rally in North Carolina a day after the debate. “Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high.”

But voters had other problems with him, too — he has been deeply unpopular as a leader even as his administration steered the nation through recovery from a global pandemic, presided over a booming economy and passed major pieces of bipartisan legislation that will impact the nation for years to come. A majority of Americans&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/poll-biden-trump-debate-apnorc-cc9e16ef147507162e22c96ddb889ee8">disapprove of the way he’s handling his job</a>, and he’s faced persistently low approval ratings on key issues including the economy and immigration.

Biden’s age surfaced as a major factor during an investigation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-age-trump-2024-4791639cc06cc0affee55aba80c7e6b3">his handling of classified documents</a>. Special counsel Robert Hur said in February that the president came across in interviews with investigators as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The president’s allies seized on the statement as gratuitous and criticized Hur for including it in his report, and Biden himself&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hur-garland-classified-documents-836b99fe9cbef9ba7d32602f4928efec">angrily pushed back</a>&nbsp;on descriptions of how he spoke about his late son.

Biden’s motivation for running was deeply intertwined with Trump. He had retired from public service following eight years serving as vice president under Barack Obama and the death of his son Beau but&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d5c415b99a6945dbbecf60d57bcf68cb">decided to run</a>&nbsp;after Trump’s comments following a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when white supremacists descended on the city to protest the removal of its Confederate memorials.

Trump said: “You had some very bad people in the group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. On both sides.”

That a sitting president didn’t unequivocally condemn racism and white supremacy deeply offended Biden. Then,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">Biden won the 2020 election</a>&nbsp;and Trump refused to concede and stood by for hours while&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, beating and bloodying law enforcement in a failed attempt to overturn the certification of Biden’s win.

“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden once said during at a campaign event.

Biden's wife, first lady Jill Biden, responded to the president's announcement by reposting Biden's letter announcing his decision and adding red heart emojis.

Granddaughter Naomi Biden Neal said on social media that “I’m nothing but proud of my Pop.” She said he has served the country “with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction” and that “our world is better today in so many ways thanks to him.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721587521577.png" alt="Image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;dropped out of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024">the 2024 race</a>&nbsp;for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.The decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies to step aside following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">the June 27 debate</a>, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-election-debate-trump-biden-577507522762aa10f6ee5be3a0ced2bb">many falsehoods</a>. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump, and encouraged his party to united behind her.Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon ET on Jan. 20, 2025.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">💕 <a href="https://t.co/VN2rZpyhVX">https://t.co/VN2rZpyhVX</a>&mdash; Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrBiden/status/1815083964207358095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted to his X account.Nearly 30 minutes later, Biden throw his support behind Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">its August convention in Chicag</a><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721587730353.png" alt="Image Biden used to announce his endorsement of Kamala Harris for President" />
 <figcaption>Image Biden used to announce his endorsement of Kamala Harris for President</figcaption>
 </figure>“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," he said in another post on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”Biden's decision came as he has been isolating at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, huddling with a shrinking circle of close confidants and family members about his political future. Biden said he would address the nation later this week to provide “detail” about his decision.The White House confirmed the authenticity of the letter.The announcement is the latest jolt to a campaign for the White House that both political parties see as the most consequential election in generations, coming just days after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-vp-vance-rubio-7c7ba6b99b5f38d2d840ed95b2fdc3e5">the attempted assassination</a>&nbsp;of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.Now, Democrats have to urgently try to bring coherence to the nominating process in a matter of weeks and persuade voters in a stunningly short amount of time that their nominee can handle the job and beat Trump. And for his part, Trump must shift his focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.The decision marks a swift and stunning end to Biden’s 52 years in electoral politics, as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-debate-donors-trump-campaign-2024-419531be556da1447856f17549371cd7">donors, lawmakers and even aides</a>&nbsp;expressed to him their doubts that he could convince voters that he could plausibly handle the job for another four years.Biden won&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-election-2024-delegate-tracker">the vast majority of delegates</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/presidential-primaries-caucuses-guam-virgin-islands-biden-trump-ef0c605bf5a312c2467b07f35378bf2f">every nominating contest but one</a>, which would have made his nomination a formality. Now that he has dropped out, those delegates will be free to support&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/replacing-biden-nomination-options-dnc-democratic-convention-d23c02047b6a2c991737915972a2fa4c">another candidate</a>.Harris, 59, appeared to be the natural successor, in large part because she is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign’s war chest, according to federal campaign finance rules.Biden’s backing helps clear the way for Harris, but a smooth transition is by no means assured.<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">The Democratic National Convention</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, but the party had announced that it would hold&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-ballot-biden-access-3bf359cce8e73714be45cb99a6e31546">a virtual roll call</a>&nbsp;to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.It remained to be seen whether other candidates woul challenge Harris for the nomination or how party may need to adjust its rules again to smooth Harris’ nomination on the floor.Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s decision to leave the race, but he and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear. Nonetheless, his team has ramped up its attacks on Harris as pressure on Biden to step down intensified.Democratic officials, including many who were behind the effort to push Biden from the race, quickly released statements praising Biden's decision.“His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American.”In 2020, Biden pitched himself as a transitional figure who wanted to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders. But once he secured the job he spent decades struggling to attain, he was reluctant to part with it.Biden was once asked whether any other Democrats could beat Trump.“Probably 50 of them,” Biden replied. “No, I’m not the only one who can defeat him, but I will defeat him.”Biden is already the country’s oldest president and had insisted repeatedly that he was up for the challenge of another campaign and another term, telling voters all they had to was “watch me.”And watch him they did.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-lawmakers-debate-2c426f98063ab30143a7675cba10a5b4">His poor debate performance</a>&nbsp;prompted a cascade of anxiety from Democrats and donors who said publicly what some had said privately for months, that they did not think he was up to the job for four more years.Concerns over Biden’s age have dogged him since he announced he was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">running for reelection</a>, though Trump is just three years younger at 78. Most Americans view the president as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-age-poll-trump-2024-620e0a5cfa0039a6448f607c17c7f23e">too old for a second term</a>, according to an August 2023 poll from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnorc.org/">The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research</a>. A majority also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-state-of-union-mental-capacity-trump-reelection-66d8784586d21f30885d8153f949510c">doubt his mental capability</a>&nbsp;to be president, though that is also a weakness for Trump.Biden often remarked that he was not as young as he used to be, doesn’t walk as easily or speak as smoothly, but that he had wisdom and decades of experience, which were worth a whole lot.“I give you my word as a Biden. I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job,” he told supporters at a rally in North Carolina a day after the debate. “Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high.”But voters had other problems with him, too — he has been deeply unpopular as a leader even as his administration steered the nation through recovery from a global pandemic, presided over a booming economy and passed major pieces of bipartisan legislation that will impact the nation for years to come. A majority of Americans&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/poll-biden-trump-debate-apnorc-cc9e16ef147507162e22c96ddb889ee8">disapprove of the way he’s handling his job</a>, and he’s faced persistently low approval ratings on key issues including the economy and immigration.Biden’s age surfaced as a major factor during an investigation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-age-trump-2024-4791639cc06cc0affee55aba80c7e6b3">his handling of classified documents</a>. Special counsel Robert Hur said in February that the president came across in interviews with investigators as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”The president’s allies seized on the statement as gratuitous and criticized Hur for including it in his report, and Biden himself&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hur-garland-classified-documents-836b99fe9cbef9ba7d32602f4928efec">angrily pushed back</a>&nbsp;on descriptions of how he spoke about his late son.Biden’s motivation for running was deeply intertwined with Trump. He had retired from public service following eight years serving as vice president under Barack Obama and the death of his son Beau but&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d5c415b99a6945dbbecf60d57bcf68cb">decided to run</a>&nbsp;after Trump’s comments following a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when white supremacists descended on the city to protest the removal of its Confederate memorials.Trump said: “You had some very bad people in the group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. On both sides.”That a sitting president didn’t unequivocally condemn racism and white supremacy deeply offended Biden. Then,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">Biden won the 2020 election</a>&nbsp;and Trump refused to concede and stood by for hours while&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, beating and bloodying law enforcement in a failed attempt to overturn the certification of Biden’s win.“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden once said during at a campaign event.Biden's wife, first lady Jill Biden, responded to the president's announcement by reposting Biden's letter announcing his decision and adding red heart emojis.Granddaughter Naomi Biden Neal said on social media that “I’m nothing but proud of my Pop.” She said he has served the country “with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction” and that “our world is better today in so many ways thanks to him.”

Biden: I offer full support and endorsement to Kamala 

The decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies to step aside following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">the June 27 debate</a>, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-election-debate-trump-biden-577507522762aa10f6ee5be3a0ced2bb">many falsehoods</a>.

Nearly 30 minutes later, Biden throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">its August convention in Chicago</a>.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s decision to leave the race, but he and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721330354017.png" alt="Photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;dropped out of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024">the 2024 race</a>&nbsp;for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721585094795.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies to step aside following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">the June 27 debate</a>, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-election-debate-trump-biden-577507522762aa10f6ee5be3a0ced2bb">many falsehoods</a>.Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon ET on Jan. 20, 2025.“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted to his X account.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… <a href="https://t.co/x8DnvuImJV">pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV</a>&mdash; Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1815087772216303933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Nearly 30 minutes later, Biden throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">its August convention in Chicago</a>.“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," he said in another post on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”Biden's decision came as he has been isolating at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, huddling with a shrinking circle of close confidants and family members about his political future. Biden said he would address the nation later this week to provide “detail” about his decision.The White House confirmed the authenticity of the letter.The announcement is the latest jolt to a campaign for the White House that both political parties see as the most consequential election in generations, coming just days after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-vp-vance-rubio-7c7ba6b99b5f38d2d840ed95b2fdc3e5">the attempted assassination</a>&nbsp;of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.Now, Democrats have to urgently try to bring coherence to the nominating process in a matter of weeks and persuade voters in a stunningly short amount of time that their nominee can handle the job and beat Trump. And for his part, Trump must shift his focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.The decision marks a swift and stunning end to Biden’s 52 years in electoral politics, as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-debate-donors-trump-campaign-2024-419531be556da1447856f17549371cd7">donors, lawmakers and even aides</a>&nbsp;expressed to him their doubts that he could convince voters that he could plausibly handle the job for another four years.Biden won&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-election-2024-delegate-tracker">the vast majority of delegates</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/presidential-primaries-caucuses-guam-virgin-islands-biden-trump-ef0c605bf5a312c2467b07f35378bf2f">every nominating contest but one</a>, which would have made his nomination a formality. Now that he has dropped out, those delegates will be free to support&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/replacing-biden-nomination-options-dnc-democratic-convention-d23c02047b6a2c991737915972a2fa4c">another candidate</a>.Harris, 59, appeared to be the natural successor, in large part because she is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign’s war chest, according to federal campaign finance rules.Biden’s backing helps clear the way for Harris, but a smooth transition is by no means assured.<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">The Democratic National Convention</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, but the party had announced that it would hold&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-ballot-biden-access-3bf359cce8e73714be45cb99a6e31546">a virtual roll call</a>&nbsp;to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.It remained to be seen whether other candidates woul challenge Harris for the nomination or how party may need to adjust its rules again to smooth Harris’ nomination on the floor.In 2020, Biden pitched himself as a transitional figure who wanted to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders. But once he secured the job he spent decades struggling to attain, he was reluctant to part with it.Biden was once asked whether any other Democrats could beat Trump.“Probably 50 of them,” Biden replied. “No, I’m not the only one who can defeat him, but I will defeat him.”Biden is already the country’s oldest president and had insisted repeatedly that he was up for the challenge of another campaign and another term, telling voters all they had to was “watch me.”And watch him they did.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-lawmakers-debate-2c426f98063ab30143a7675cba10a5b4">His poor debate performance</a>&nbsp;prompted a cascade of anxiety from Democrats and donors who said publicly what some had said privately for months, that they did not think he was up to the job for four more years.Concerns over Biden’s age have dogged him since he announced he was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">running for reelection</a>, though Trump is just three years younger at 78. Most Americans view the president as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-age-poll-trump-2024-620e0a5cfa0039a6448f607c17c7f23e">too old for a second term</a>, according to an August 2023 poll from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnorc.org/">The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research</a>. A majority also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-state-of-union-mental-capacity-trump-reelection-66d8784586d21f30885d8153f949510c">doubt his mental capability</a>&nbsp;to be president, though that is also a weakness for Trump.Biden often remarked that he was not as young as he used to be, doesn’t walk as easily or speak as smoothly, but that he had wisdom and decades of experience, which were worth a whole lot.“I give you my word as a Biden. I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job,” he told supporters at a rally in North Carolina a day after the debate. “Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high.”But voters had other problems with him, too — he has been deeply unpopular as a leader even as his administration steered the nation through recovery from a global pandemic, presided over a booming economy and passed major pieces of bipartisan legislation that will impact the nation for years to come. A majority of Americans&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/poll-biden-trump-debate-apnorc-cc9e16ef147507162e22c96ddb889ee8">disapprove of the way he’s handling his job</a>, and he’s faced persistently low approval ratings on key issues including the economy and immigration.Biden’s age surfaced as a major factor during an investigation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-age-trump-2024-4791639cc06cc0affee55aba80c7e6b3">his handling of classified documents</a>. Special counsel Robert Hur said in February that the president came across in interviews with investigators as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”The president’s allies seized on the statement as gratuitous and criticized Hur for including it in his report, and Biden himself&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hur-garland-classified-documents-836b99fe9cbef9ba7d32602f4928efec">angrily pushed back</a>&nbsp;on descriptions of how he spoke about his late son.Biden’s motivation for running was deeply intertwined with Trump. He had retired from public service following eight years serving as vice president under Barack Obama and the death of his son Beau but&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d5c415b99a6945dbbecf60d57bcf68cb">decided to run</a>&nbsp;after Trump’s comments following a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when white supremacists descended on the city to protest the removal of its Confederate memorials.Trump said: “You had some very bad people in the group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. On both sides.”That a sitting president didn’t unequivocally condemn racism and white supremacy deeply offended Biden. Then,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">Biden won the 2020 election</a>&nbsp;and Trump refused to concede and stood by for hours while&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, beating and bloodying law enforcement in a failed attempt to overturn the certification of Biden’s win.“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden once said during at a campaign event.Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s decision to leave the race, but he and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear.

Read letter from President Biden on dropping out of 2024 race

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on multiple allegations after a standoff.&nbsp;

On July 18, a deputy with the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office located a subject with an active felony standing in the driveway of a residence in the 2800 BLK SW Indian Hills Road, according to Shawnee County Sheriff' s Lt. Scott Wanamaker.

 The deputy attempted to make contact with the subject, who immediately ran inside the residence. When deputies approached the residence, a second subject holding an AR-style rifle confronted them. When deputies confronted that subject, he refused to comply with any law enforcement commands and performed movements consistent with chambering around inside the firearm.

Deputies established a security perimeter and were able to communicate with all individuals inside the residence. After a 24-minute standoff, one subject exited the residence and was taken into custody. After an hour elapsed, the second subject, who confronted deputies with the firearm, exited the residence and was taken into custody. No shots were fired during the incident and no injuries were reported.

Nathaniel Javier Ayala-Hinkle, 26, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on charges of Felony Interference with Law Enforcement, as well as two Shawnee County felony warrants, and a misdemeanor warrant from the City of Topeka,

Francisco Javier Ayala-Silva, 55, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on two counts of Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer and Felony Interference with Law Enforcement.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721419060442.png" alt="Ayala-Silva-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Ayala-Silva-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on multiple allegations after a standoff.&nbsp;On July 18, a deputy with the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office located a subject with an active felony standing in the driveway of a residence in the 2800 BLK SW Indian Hills Road, according to Shawnee County Sheriff' s Lt. Scott Wanamaker. The deputy attempted to make contact with the subject, who immediately ran inside the residence. When deputies approached the residence, a second subject holding an AR-style rifle confronted them. When deputies confronted that subject, he refused to comply with any law enforcement commands and performed movements consistent with chambering around inside the firearm.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721418991291.png" alt="Ayala-Hinkle -photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Ayala-Hinkle -photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Deputies established a security perimeter and were able to communicate with all individuals inside the residence. After a 24-minute standoff, one subject exited the residence and was taken into custody. After an hour elapsed, the second subject, who confronted deputies with the firearm, exited the residence and was taken into custody. No shots were fired during the incident and no injuries were reported.Nathaniel Javier Ayala-Hinkle, 26, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on charges of Felony Interference with Law Enforcement, as well as two Shawnee County felony warrants, and a misdemeanor warrant from the City of Topeka,Francisco Javier Ayala-Silva, 55, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on two counts of Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer and Felony Interference with Law Enforcement.

Suspect threatened Kansas deputies with AR-style rifle

<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search/?query=byline:%22REBECCA%20SANTANA%22&amp;mediaType=text&amp;st=keyword&amp;sortOrder=newest">By REBECCA SANTANA&nbsp;</a>

WASHINGTON (AP) — During Abraham Lincoln's presidency, anyone could come to the White House and see him. Come they did: mothers looking to have their sons released from military service, wives urging that their husbands be freed from prison after resisting the draft, others who simply wanted to meet the president.

“Some only wanted comfort in a terrible time, and that he freely gave,"&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/James-B.-Conroy/e/B00E7NGKLO?ref=dbs_t_r_fta_b00e7ngklo">James B. Conroy</a>&nbsp;wrote in his book "Lincoln’s White House: The People’s House in Wartime."

The world has vastly changed since the 1860s, and so has protection for presidents. Protective details have grown in size, responsibility and technology over more than a century of the Secret Service protecting presidents.

When presidents leave the White House, they are accompanied by a phalanx of Secret Service officers and agents. Cars can no longer drive past what is often dubbed “the people's house” at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The fence has been raised, and don't even try to get past the gate without an appointment or badge.

The number of people under guard also has grown as vice presidents, former presidents, candidates, family members and more get protection.

During the Civil War, Lincoln was hesitant to make the White House look like an armed camp, but in late 1864 several police officers were assigned to guard him, the White House Historical Association said. President Franklin Pierce was the first to have a full-time bodyguard, in 1853.

It wasn't until 1901, after President William McKinley was assassinated, that Congress asked&nbsp;<a href="https://www.secretservice.gov/about/history/150-years">the Secret Service</a>&nbsp;— originally a Treasury Department division that went after counterfeiters — to take up the charge of protecting the commander in chief.

Since then, protective details have grown and evolved, often in response to assassinations, close calls or other major security events. Former Secret Service agents say the agency is studying&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-assassination-attempt-shooting-federal-investigation-2a90bdfd23ba9c3569cb9c29a459e87b">the attempt on former President Donald Trump's</a>&nbsp;life at a rally in Pennsylvania a week ago and making changes to adjust to it.

The attempt to kill&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reagan-assassination-attempt-trump-butler-gunman-bd3c038d706de55a64727f7d15dffbc8">President Ronald Reagan in 1981</a>&nbsp;is often cited as a turning point in how the Secret Service operates.

Reagan was coming out of the Washington Hilton hotel when John Hinckley Jr. opened fire from a crowd of onlookers and journalists just 15 feet or under under 5 meters away. Hinckley got off six shots before Secret Service officers tackled him. The last shot ricocheted off a limo and into Reagan.

Some of the changes that followed aren't so obvious to the outside observer but still critical. For example, the Secret Service started assigning an agent to the small group of reporters who travel with the president so they would know whether someone was infiltrating the group.

After Reagan's shooting, presidents also were driven into buildings through underground parking garages. When that's not possible, a cover is erected around the entrance to obstruct the line of sight as the president gets into or out of a vehicle.

“Nobody walks through the front door any more," said retired supervisory Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald, now a criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven. “Presidents and protectees of the Secret Service have seen more loading docks and have walked through more kitchens than ever before.”

Joseph LaSorsa, a retired Secret Service agent who served from 1976 to 1996 and was on Reagan’s protective detail, said the post-Reagan era also saw the increased use of metal detectors for crowds approaching the president to eliminate the possibility of a weapon getting into the “secure area” around the leader.

Changes also followed the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 as he drove through Dallas in a convertible, former agents say. Presidents no longer sit in open vehicles but wave to onlookers through the thick glass of a heavily armored limousine nicknamed “the beast.”

Former agents also say the focus on advance work before trips increased significantly and more was done to secure routes taken by the motorcades.

The White House also has seen changes designed to make it more secure.

On one day in May 1995, an estimated 26,000 cars drove along Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House. The next day, the street was eerily quiet after workers stacked concrete barriers at each end to cut off access.

Mounting security concerns a month after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-sc-state-wire-oklahoma-shootings-aca553750da7df122884db27423b8d95">Oklahoma City bombing</a>&nbsp;at a federal building prompted the closure. There were other changes, too, such as air traffic restrictions after a small plane crashed into the White House lawn in 1994. As well, gunfire twice hit the mansion that same year.

Then-President Bill Clinton said closing the street was necessary to protect against the kind of attack seen in Oklahoma City but vowed that “people's access to the White House and their president” would not be impeded. He even vowed that protesters would still have the right to walk up to the White House property. Many still do.

Thomas Jefferson first encircled the White House with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-timelines/history-of-the-white-house-fence">wooden post and rail fence around 1801</a>. He replaced that with a stone wall by 1808, which wasn’t great at offering views of m

To deter fence jumpers, sharp metal points were installed in 2015, and later the height doubled to roughly 13 feet (4 meters). Under that later renovation, the space between the bars got slightly wider — just enough to allow a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/white-house-toddler-fence-secret-service-6ece5fc94204dbc3001457403269c28e">wee or naughty child</a>&nbsp;to squeak through.

Increased security around the president inevitably expands the distance from Americans. While people can still visit the White House, they must request tours through their congressional member and submit their identification information to the Secret Service ahead of time.

Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who served on details protecting three presidents during his 23-year career, said he often hears people say the president shouldn't do outdoor rallies or should be kept away from people.

He understands the tradeoff — more security means more separation between the president and the people. As an agent, Eckloff said, he always considered his job not as protecting the person but the office of the presidency.

“If I woke up in a country where the president of the United States stayed in a castle, never engaged with the voters, no common American ever had a chance to see him, I wouldn’t consider my sacrifice worthy,” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721480001403.png" alt="President Biden surrounded by Secret Service agents on Wednesday in Las Vegas-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>President Biden surrounded by Secret Service agents on Wednesday in Las Vegas-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search/?query=byline:%22REBECCA%20SANTANA%22&amp;mediaType=text&amp;st=keyword&amp;sortOrder=newest">By REBECCA SANTANA&nbsp;</a>WASHINGTON (AP) — During Abraham Lincoln's presidency, anyone could come to the White House and see him. Come they did: mothers looking to have their sons released from military service, wives urging that their husbands be freed from prison after resisting the draft, others who simply wanted to meet the president.“Some only wanted comfort in a terrible time, and that he freely gave,"&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/James-B.-Conroy/e/B00E7NGKLO?ref=dbs_t_r_fta_b00e7ngklo">James B. Conroy</a>&nbsp;wrote in his book "Lincoln’s White House: The People’s House in Wartime."The world has vastly changed since the 1860s, and so has protection for presidents. Protective details have grown in size, responsibility and technology over more than a century of the Secret Service protecting presidents.When presidents leave the White House, they are accompanied by a phalanx of Secret Service officers and agents. Cars can no longer drive past what is often dubbed “the people's house” at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The fence has been raised, and don't even try to get past the gate without an appointment or badge.The number of people under guard also has grown as vice presidents, former presidents, candidates, family members and more get protection.During the Civil War, Lincoln was hesitant to make the White House look like an armed camp, but in late 1864 several police officers were assigned to guard him, the White House Historical Association said. President Franklin Pierce was the first to have a full-time bodyguard, in 1853.It wasn't until 1901, after President William McKinley was assassinated, that Congress asked&nbsp;<a href="https://www.secretservice.gov/about/history/150-years">the Secret Service</a>&nbsp;— originally a Treasury Department division that went after counterfeiters — to take up the charge of protecting the commander in chief.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720913971898.png" alt="Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)" />
 <figcaption>Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</figcaption>
 </figure>Since then, protective details have grown and evolved, often in response to assassinations, close calls or other major security events. Former Secret Service agents say the agency is studying&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-assassination-attempt-shooting-federal-investigation-2a90bdfd23ba9c3569cb9c29a459e87b">the attempt on former President Donald Trump's</a>&nbsp;life at a rally in Pennsylvania a week ago and making changes to adjust to it.The attempt to kill&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reagan-assassination-attempt-trump-butler-gunman-bd3c038d706de55a64727f7d15dffbc8">President Ronald Reagan in 1981</a>&nbsp;is often cited as a turning point in how the Secret Service operates.Reagan was coming out of the Washington Hilton hotel when John Hinckley Jr. opened fire from a crowd of onlookers and journalists just 15 feet or under under 5 meters away. Hinckley got off six shots before Secret Service officers tackled him. The last shot ricocheted off a limo and into Reagan.Some of the changes that followed aren't so obvious to the outside observer but still critical. For example, the Secret Service started assigning an agent to the small group of reporters who travel with the president so they would know whether someone was infiltrating the group.After Reagan's shooting, presidents also were driven into buildings through underground parking garages. When that's not possible, a cover is erected around the entrance to obstruct the line of sight as the president gets into or out of a vehicle.“Nobody walks through the front door any more," said retired supervisory Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald, now a criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven. “Presidents and protectees of the Secret Service have seen more loading docks and have walked through more kitchens than ever before.”Joseph LaSorsa, a retired Secret Service agent who served from 1976 to 1996 and was on Reagan’s protective detail, said the post-Reagan era also saw the increased use of metal detectors for crowds approaching the president to eliminate the possibility of a weapon getting into the “secure area” around the leader.Changes also followed the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 as he drove through Dallas in a convertible, former agents say. Presidents no longer sit in open vehicles but wave to onlookers through the thick glass of a heavily armored limousine nicknamed “the beast.”Former agents also say the focus on advance work before trips increased significantly and more was done to secure routes taken by the motorcades.The White House also has seen changes designed to make it more secure.On one day in May 1995, an estimated 26,000 cars drove along Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House. The next day, the street was eerily quiet after workers stacked concrete barriers at each end to cut off access.Mounting security concerns a month after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-sc-state-wire-oklahoma-shootings-aca553750da7df122884db27423b8d95">Oklahoma City bombing</a>&nbsp;at a federal building prompted the closure. There were other changes, too, such as air traffic restrictions after a small plane crashed into the White House lawn in 1994. As well, gunfire twice hit the mansion that same year.Then-President Bill Clinton said closing the street was necessary to protect against the kind of attack seen in Oklahoma City but vowed that “people's access to the White House and their president” would not be impeded. He even vowed that protesters would still have the right to walk up to the White House property. Many still do.Thomas Jefferson first encircled the White House with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-timelines/history-of-the-white-house-fence">wooden post and rail fence around 1801</a>. He replaced that with a stone wall by 1808, which wasn’t great at offering views of mTo deter fence jumpers, sharp metal points were installed in 2015, and later the height doubled to roughly 13 feet (4 meters). Under that later renovation, the space between the bars got slightly wider — just enough to allow a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/white-house-toddler-fence-secret-service-6ece5fc94204dbc3001457403269c28e">wee or naughty child</a>&nbsp;to squeak through.Increased security around the president inevitably expands the distance from Americans. While people can still visit the White House, they must request tours through their congressional member and submit their identification information to the Secret Service ahead of time.Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who served on details protecting three presidents during his 23-year career, said he often hears people say the president shouldn't do outdoor rallies or should be kept away from people.He understands the tradeoff — more security means more separation between the president and the people. As an agent, Eckloff said, he always considered his job not as protecting the person but the office of the presidency.“If I woke up in a country where the president of the United States stayed in a castle, never engaged with the voters, no common American ever had a chance to see him, I wouldn’t consider my sacrifice worthy,” he said.

How Secret Service protection has changed for presidents over the years

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/mayasmith/">MAYA SMITH</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Kansas Medicaid secured $2.5 million for school-based services, including funding for in-school mental health services, increased outreach and enrolling more families in Medicaid.

The goal of the grant, announced by&nbsp;<a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/KSDHE/bulletins/3a51949" target="_blank">KDHE on June 25</a>, is to increase Medicaid health care services for children and their families within schools, which now includes services specifically for mental health.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund spent two months applying for the grant, as well as gathering support and research from other organizations around Kansas.

“This is really a win for all schools across the state,” said David Jordan,&nbsp;president of the organization. “It will help modernize Kansas schools’ Medicaid program,&nbsp;and open up an opportunity for schools to be reimbursed and offer new services to more kids.”

Rather than give potential resources to families, the grant will allow for students to get a wide variety of health care services right in their own school.

“This will help more children get access to health care services by accessing the services during the school day,” said KDHE spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh. “After the school day ends, families may not have transportation, know where the services are or the support to access the needed services. When health care services are delivered during the school day, it normalizes the experience for the child.”

Greenbush Education Service Center community supports director Monica Murnan, a former state legislator, works directly with Medicaid billing for schools as well as in special education. She said this grant will make services in schools a more streamlined process.

“The grant sends a message to the state saying, ‘Let’s make this easier to get these important services to kids,’ ” Murnan said. “For many children, school is where they receive health care services. If the school can support that through funding from the federal government, it seems to be a good use of our time to figure out how to do that.”

One of the focuses of the grant will be expanding mental health services directly within schools.

“KDHE receives a number of grants to improve the health of Kansans, but I think this is sort of the first of its kind,” Jordan said. “It would allow for direct therapy, care coordination and other services to be provided in schools by professionals.”

Before this grant, students could receive services primarily for speech or occupational therapy as part of an individualized education plan. Now, schools can focus on an even bigger population of students, as well as advancing opportunities for mental health services.

“Before, this was written into your IEP, and that’s it,” Murnan said. “Which was great for speech occupational therapy services, but didn’t fit that need for behavioral health services. The vision of the federal government is to help improve school safety and also behavioral health opportunities for kids and families by using the school as the conduit.”

Murnan said this as an opportunity for expansion moving forward.

“School districts struggle with providing social and emotional support to kids, (and) this will allow for more services to be reimbursed,” Murnan said. “It’s kind of the right place, right time, right relationship model.”

Although the grant will bring more funding into school health services than ever before, Jordan believes this is only a step in the right direction for Kansas health.

“Our hope is that Kansas is able to take advantage of federal grants and to bring dollars back to improve the health of Kansans,” Jordan said. “And improve our Medicaid program so that we’re better supporting our most vulnerable Kansans and improving health.”

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/mayasmith/">MAYA SMITH</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Kansas Medicaid secured $2.5 million for school-based services, including funding for in-school mental health services, increased outreach and enrolling more families in Medicaid.The goal of the grant, announced by&nbsp;<a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/KSDHE/bulletins/3a51949" target="_blank">KDHE on June 25</a>, is to increase Medicaid health care services for children and their families within schools, which now includes services specifically for mental health.The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund spent two months applying for the grant, as well as gathering support and research from other organizations around Kansas.“This is really a win for all schools across the state,” said David Jordan,&nbsp;president of the organization. “It will help modernize Kansas schools’ Medicaid program,&nbsp;and open up an opportunity for schools to be reimbursed and offer new services to more kids.”Rather than give potential resources to families, the grant will allow for students to get a wide variety of health care services right in their own school.“This will help more children get access to health care services by accessing the services during the school day,” said KDHE spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh. “After the school day ends, families may not have transportation, know where the services are or the support to access the needed services. When health care services are delivered during the school day, it normalizes the experience for the child.”Greenbush Education Service Center community supports director Monica Murnan, a former state legislator, works directly with Medicaid billing for schools as well as in special education. She said this grant will make services in schools a more streamlined process.“The grant sends a message to the state saying, ‘Let’s make this easier to get these important services to kids,’ ” Murnan said. “For many children, school is where they receive health care services. If the school can support that through funding from the federal government, it seems to be a good use of our time to figure out how to do that.”One of the focuses of the grant will be expanding mental health services directly within schools.“KDHE receives a number of grants to improve the health of Kansans, but I think this is sort of the first of its kind,” Jordan said. “It would allow for direct therapy, care coordination and other services to be provided in schools by professionals.”Before this grant, students could receive services primarily for speech or occupational therapy as part of an individualized education plan. Now, schools can focus on an even bigger population of students, as well as advancing opportunities for mental health services.“Before, this was written into your IEP, and that’s it,” Murnan said. “Which was great for speech occupational therapy services, but didn’t fit that need for behavioral health services. The vision of the federal government is to help improve school safety and also behavioral health opportunities for kids and families by using the school as the conduit.”Murnan said this as an opportunity for expansion moving forward.“School districts struggle with providing social and emotional support to kids, (and) this will allow for more services to be reimbursed,” Murnan said. “It’s kind of the right place, right time, right relationship model.”Although the grant will bring more funding into school health services than ever before, Jordan believes this is only a step in the right direction for Kansas health.“Our hope is that Kansas is able to take advantage of federal grants and to bring dollars back to improve the health of Kansans,” Jordan said. “And improve our Medicaid program so that we’re better supporting our most vulnerable Kansans and improving health.”

$2.5 million Medicaid grant will expand mental health services in Kansas schools

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement investigating a Saturday shooting in Topeka have identified the victim as 31-year-old Earon Cooper of Lawrence.

Just after 12a.m. Saturday, police responded to a shooting in the 2900 block of SW Topeka Blvd., according to Police Lt. Ronnie Connell.

First responders located Cooper suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

This 11th homicide investigation of 2024 in Topeka, according to Connell.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement investigating a Saturday shooting in Topeka have identified the victim as 31-year-old Earon Cooper of Lawrence.Just after 12a.m. Saturday, police responded to a shooting in the 2900 block of SW Topeka Blvd., according to Police Lt. Ronnie Connell.First responders located Cooper suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.This 11th homicide investigation of 2024 in Topeka, according to Connell.

Police ID Kansas man who died after shooting on Saturday

NEW YORK (AP) —As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.

Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/%E2%80%9CWe%20know%20that%20adversaries%20and%20bad%20actors%20will%20try%20to%20exploit%20events%20like%20this,%E2%80%9D%20Kurtz%20said%20in%20a%20statement.%20%E2%80%9CI%20encourage%20everyone%20to%20remain%20vigilant%20and%20ensure%20that%20you%E2%80%99re%20engaging%20with%20official%20CrowdStrike%20representatives.%E2%80%9D">statement</a>. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”

The UK Cyber Security Center said they have noticed an increase in phishing attempts around this event.

Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by the faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions. That’s less than 1% of all Windows-based machines, Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston said in a blog post on Saturday.

He also said such a significant disturbance is rare but “demonstrates the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tech-outage-crowdstrike-microsoft-windows-7294e6c9356050cb095dad3353e9244c">interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem</a>.”

With their tightly timed, interwoven schedules and complex technology systems, many big airlines struggle to stay on time when everything goes well. It perhaps was not surprising that the industry was among the hardest hit by the outage, with crews and planes caught out of position.

By mid-afternoon Saturday on the U.S. East Coast, airlines around the world had canceled more than 2,000 flights, according to tracking service FlightAware. That was down from 5,100-plus cancellations on Friday.

About 1,600 of Saturday’s canceled flights occurred in the United States, where carriers scrambled to get planes and crews back into position after massive disruptions the day before. According to travel data provider Cirium, U.S. carriers canceled about 3.5% of their scheduled flights for Saturday. Only Australia was hit harder.

Canceled flights were running at about 1% in the United Kingdom, France and Brazil and about 2% in Canada, Italy and India among major air-travel markets.

Robert Mann, a former airline executive and now a consultant in the New York area, said it was unclear exactly why U.S. airlines were suffering disproportionate cancellations, but possible causes include a greater degree of outsourcing of technology and more exposure to Microsoft operating systems that received the faulty upgrade from CrowdStrike.

Which airlines are getting hit the hardest?

Delta Air Lines canceled more than 800 flights, or one-fourth of its schedule for Saturday, and that number did not include Delta Connection regional flights. It was followed by United Airlines, which dropped nearly 400 flights.

The worst airport to be, for a second straight day, was Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Delta is the dominant carrier. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that thousands of people spent the night at the airport, many sleeping on the floors.

European airlines and airports appeared to be recovering slowly, although Lufthansa and its affiliates canceled dozens of flights. Its Eurowings budget subsidiary said check-in, boarding, booking and rebooking flights were all available again, although “isolated disruptions” were possible.

London’s Heathrow Airport said it was busy but operating normally on Saturday and that “all systems are back up and running." Flights at Berlin’s main airport were departing on or close to schedule, German Press Agency dpa reported, citing an airport spokesman.

Health care systems affected by the outage faced clinic closures, canceled surgeries and appointments and restricted access to patient records.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., said “steady progress has been made” to bring its servers back online and thanked its patients for being flexible during the crisis.

“Our teams will be working actively through the weekend as we continue to resolve remaining issues in preparation for the start of the work week,” the hospital wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/windows-outage-update/">statement</a>.

In Austria, a leading organization of doctors said the outage exposed the vulnerability of relying on digital systems. Harald Mayer, vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Doctors, said the outage showed that hospitals need analog backups to protect patient care.

The organization also called on governments to impose high standards in patient data protection and security, and on health providers to train staff and put systems in place to manage crises.

“Happily, where there were problems, these were kept small and short-lived and many areas of care were unaffected” in Austria, Mayer said.

The Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany, which canceled all elective procedures Friday, said Saturday that systems were gradually being restored and that elective surgery could resume by Monday.

“I wasn’t that surprised that an accident caused severe global digital disruption. I was a little surprised that the cause of it was a software update from a very well-respected cybersecurity company,” said Oxford University management professor Ciaran Martin, a former chief executive of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center.

“There are some very hard questions for CrowdStrike. How on earth did this update get through quality control?" he said. "Clearly the testing regime, whatever it is, failed.”

Martin said governments in the U.K. and the European Union will be powerless to take steps to prevent such breakdowns “because we have become dependent on a very American version of technology, and the power to do anything about that doesn’t rest in this continent.”

Other analysts doubted that the outage would lead Washington or any other government to propose new mandates on tech companies.

“I don’t know what the mandate would be. Do better QA?” said Gartner analyst Eric Grenier, using an acronym for quality assurance.

What did scam artists learn from the outage?

Grenier expects that a majority of affected machines will be fixed in about a week, with more time needed to reach laptops used by far-flung workers because the work can’t be done remotely – it’s a hands-on operation.

In the meantime, there will be scammers trying to take advantage of businesses that have indicated they were affected by the outage.

“The threat is very real,” Grenier said. “Bad actors have the information to send targeted phishing emails and calls. They know what endpoint-protection tools you use. They know you use CrowdStrike.”

Grenier said affected businesses need to make sure they use a fix supplied by CrowdStrike. “Don’t accept the help of somebody coming out of the blue and saying, ‘I’ll fix that for you,’” he said.

Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia, Stephen Graham in Berlin and Technology writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721398046262.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) —As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage.“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/%E2%80%9CWe%20know%20that%20adversaries%20and%20bad%20actors%20will%20try%20to%20exploit%20events%20like%20this,%E2%80%9D%20Kurtz%20said%20in%20a%20statement.%20%E2%80%9CI%20encourage%20everyone%20to%20remain%20vigilant%20and%20ensure%20that%20you%E2%80%99re%20engaging%20with%20official%20CrowdStrike%20representatives.%E2%80%9D">statement</a>. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”The UK Cyber Security Center said they have noticed an increase in phishing attempts around this event.Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by the faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions. That’s less than 1% of all Windows-based machines, Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston said in a blog post on Saturday.He also said such a significant disturbance is rare but “demonstrates the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tech-outage-crowdstrike-microsoft-windows-7294e6c9356050cb095dad3353e9244c">interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem</a>.”<h2>What's happening with air travel?</h2>With their tightly timed, interwoven schedules and complex technology systems, many big airlines struggle to stay on time when everything goes well. It perhaps was not surprising that the industry was among the hardest hit by the outage, with crews and planes caught out of position.By mid-afternoon Saturday on the U.S. East Coast, airlines around the world had canceled more than 2,000 flights, according to tracking service FlightAware. That was down from 5,100-plus cancellations on Friday.About 1,600 of Saturday’s canceled flights occurred in the United States, where carriers scrambled to get planes and crews back into position after massive disruptions the day before. According to travel data provider Cirium, U.S. carriers canceled about 3.5% of their scheduled flights for Saturday. Only Australia was hit harder.Canceled flights were running at about 1% in the United Kingdom, France and Brazil and about 2% in Canada, Italy and India among major air-travel markets.Robert Mann, a former airline executive and now a consultant in the New York area, said it was unclear exactly why U.S. airlines were suffering disproportionate cancellations, but possible causes include a greater degree of outsourcing of technology and more exposure to Microsoft operating systems that received the faulty upgrade from CrowdStrike.<h2>Which airlines are getting hit the hardest?</h2>Delta Air Lines canceled more than 800 flights, or one-fourth of its schedule for Saturday, and that number did not include Delta Connection regional flights. It was followed by United Airlines, which dropped nearly 400 flights.The worst airport to be, for a second straight day, was Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Delta is the dominant carrier. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that thousands of people spent the night at the airport, many sleeping on the floors.European airlines and airports appeared to be recovering slowly, although Lufthansa and its affiliates canceled dozens of flights. Its Eurowings budget subsidiary said check-in, boarding, booking and rebooking flights were all available again, although “isolated disruptions” were possible.London’s Heathrow Airport said it was busy but operating normally on Saturday and that “all systems are back up and running." Flights at Berlin’s main airport were departing on or close to schedule, German Press Agency dpa reported, citing an airport spokesman.<h2>How are healthcare systems holding up?</h2>Health care systems affected by the outage faced clinic closures, canceled surgeries and appointments and restricted access to patient records.Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., said “steady progress has been made” to bring its servers back online and thanked its patients for being flexible during the crisis.“Our teams will be working actively through the weekend as we continue to resolve remaining issues in preparation for the start of the work week,” the hospital wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/windows-outage-update/">statement</a>.In Austria, a leading organization of doctors said the outage exposed the vulnerability of relying on digital systems. Harald Mayer, vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Doctors, said the outage showed that hospitals need analog backups to protect patient care.The organization also called on governments to impose high standards in patient data protection and security, and on health providers to train staff and put systems in place to manage crises.“Happily, where there were problems, these were kept small and short-lived and many areas of care were unaffected” in Austria, Mayer said.The Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany, which canceled all elective procedures Friday, said Saturday that systems were gradually being restored and that elective surgery could resume by Monday.<h2>Will the tech industry face a reckoning?</h2>“I wasn’t that surprised that an accident caused severe global digital disruption. I was a little surprised that the cause of it was a software update from a very well-respected cybersecurity company,” said Oxford University management professor Ciaran Martin, a former chief executive of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center.“There are some very hard questions for CrowdStrike. How on earth did this update get through quality control?" he said. "Clearly the testing regime, whatever it is, failed.”Martin said governments in the U.K. and the European Union will be powerless to take steps to prevent such breakdowns “because we have become dependent on a very American version of technology, and the power to do anything about that doesn’t rest in this continent.”Other analysts doubted that the outage would lead Washington or any other government to propose new mandates on tech companies.“I don’t know what the mandate would be. Do better QA?” said Gartner analyst Eric Grenier, using an acronym for quality assurance.<h2>What did scam artists learn from the outage?</h2>Grenier expects that a majority of affected machines will be fixed in about a week, with more time needed to reach laptops used by far-flung workers because the work can’t be done remotely – it’s a hands-on operation.In the meantime, there will be scammers trying to take advantage of businesses that have indicated they were affected by the outage.“The threat is very real,” Grenier said. “Bad actors have the information to send targeted phishing emails and calls. They know what endpoint-protection tools you use. They know you use CrowdStrike.”Grenier said affected businesses need to make sure they use a fix supplied by CrowdStrike. “Don’t accept the help of somebody coming out of the blue and saying, ‘I’ll fix that for you,’” he said.___Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia, Stephen Graham in Berlin and Technology writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report.

Malicious actors trying to exploit global tech outage for their own gain

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democrats churn over whether President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;should stay in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024">2024 race</a>, the party turmoil is deepening over whether his Vice President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/kamala-harris">Kamala Harris</a>&nbsp;is next in line for the job or if a “mini primary” should be quickly launched to choose a new nominee before the party's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">August convention</a>.

Harris hit the campaign fundraising circuit Saturday in breezy Provincetown, Massachusetts, and picked up a nod from the state's prominent Democratic Sen.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/elizabeth-warren">Elizabeth Warren,</a>&nbsp;who said before the visit that if Biden were to step aside, his vice president is “ready to step up.”

At the event, which organizers said raised $2 million and was attended by 1,000 guests, Harris did not mention the calls for Biden to leave the race or for her to replace him, instead repeating one of her regular campaign lines: “We're going to win this election,” she said.

“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in equality? Do we believe in the promise of America? Then are we ready to fight for it?” she called to a cheering crowd. “When we fight, we win.”

But&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-poll-biden-newsom-whitmer-7ef83e5c8e510e39d7c54f7e28310064">installing Harris</a>&nbsp;to the top of the ticket, which would be a history-making moment for the party elevating the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent as its presidential nominee, is not at all certain. Officials from the highest ranks, including Speaker Emerita&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nancy-pelosi">Nancy Pelosi</a>, prefer an open process, some believing it would strengthen any Democratic nominee to confront Republican&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump.</a>

“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave.... that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this week on a widely discussed social media post.

With the publicly aired deliberations, Democrats are prolonging an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-election-2024-presidency-6fa4b6ff9382d9161d21dfc52838008f">extraordinary moment</a>&nbsp;of uncertainty and upheaval. Biden has weighty options before him this weekend that could set the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads toward the November election.

It’s creating a stark juxtaposition with Republicans, who, after years of bitter and chaotic infighting over Trump, are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/republican-national-convention">energized and embracing</a>&nbsp;the former president’s far-right takeover of the GOP, despite his criminal conviction in a hush money case and pending federal criminal indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election before the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/trump-election-2020-indictment">Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol</a>.

Biden, despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Trump in a rematch, hasn't been able to quell the uproar. Skeptical Democrats doubt he can keep the White House after his stumbled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2024/a-halting-biden-tries-to-confront-trump-at-debate-but-sparks-democratic-anxiety-about-his-candidacy/">debate performance</a>&nbsp;last month, and worry he will take hopes for party control of Congress down with him.

On Saturday, Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name to the list of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress who say it's time for Biden to leave the race. The Californian called on Biden to “pass the torch,” to Harris.

More lawmakers are expected to speak out in the days ahead. Donors have raised concerns.

“There is no joy in the recognition he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats urging Biden’s exit from the race.

From his beach home in Delaware, Biden, 81, is isolating after announcing a COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said Saturday that Biden's symptoms were improving, but that he remained plagued by a dry cough and hoarseness. He received separate briefings Saturday on domestic and national security issues, the White House said.

The president’s team insisted he’s ready to return to the campaign this coming week to counter what he called a “dark vision” laid out by Trump.

“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday.

But outside the Rehoboth enclave, the debate and passions are intensifying.

Very few of the Democratic lawmakers who are agitating for Biden to leave have mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they favor an open nominating process that would throw the party’s endorsement behind a new candidate.

A person familiar with Pelosi’s thinking said that while she is a friend and admirer of the vice president, she believes that anybody who wants to be president is better served by such a process, believing that whoever emerges as the candidate would be strengthened to win the election. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to characterize Pelosi’s thought process.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a Pelosi ally who has called on Biden to step aside, said Friday on MSNBC that some kind of “mini-primary” that would include Harris makes sense.

Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont have both called for Biden to exit the race and said they would favor an open nominating process at the convention.

“Having it be open would strengthen whoever is the ultimate nominee,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to move to someone other than Harris, and logistically unworkable with a virtual nominating vote being planned for early next month, before the Democratic convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19.

Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who has called on Biden to step aside, explicitly endorsed Harris as a replacement.

“To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling upon President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice-President Harris to step forward to become the Democratic nominee for President,” McCollum said in her statement.

The standoff over Biden's political future has become increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders, a month from the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">Democratic National Convention</a>&nbsp;that should be a unifying moment to nominate their incumbent president to confront Trump. Instead, the party is at a crossroads unseen in generations.

It's unclear what else, if anything, the president could do to reverse course and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters, who are wary of his ability to defeat Trump and serve another term,

Biden, who sent a defiant letter to Democrats in Congress vowing to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to shore up support, an absence noticed by senators and representatives.

The president did conduct a round of virtual conversations with various caucuses in the past week — some of which ended poorly.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Seung Min Kim, Farnoush Amiri and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720316947280.png" alt="File photo White House" />
 <figcaption>File photo White House</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democrats churn over whether President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;should stay in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024">2024 race</a>, the party turmoil is deepening over whether his Vice President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/kamala-harris">Kamala Harris</a>&nbsp;is next in line for the job or if a “mini primary” should be quickly launched to choose a new nominee before the party's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">August convention</a>.Harris hit the campaign fundraising circuit Saturday in breezy Provincetown, Massachusetts, and picked up a nod from the state's prominent Democratic Sen.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/elizabeth-warren">Elizabeth Warren,</a>&nbsp;who said before the visit that if Biden were to step aside, his vice president is “ready to step up.”At the event, which organizers said raised $2 million and was attended by 1,000 guests, Harris did not mention the calls for Biden to leave the race or for her to replace him, instead repeating one of her regular campaign lines: “We're going to win this election,” she said.“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in equality? Do we believe in the promise of America? Then are we ready to fight for it?” she called to a cheering crowd. “When we fight, we win.”But&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-poll-biden-newsom-whitmer-7ef83e5c8e510e39d7c54f7e28310064">installing Harris</a>&nbsp;to the top of the ticket, which would be a history-making moment for the party elevating the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent as its presidential nominee, is not at all certain. Officials from the highest ranks, including Speaker Emerita&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nancy-pelosi">Nancy Pelosi</a>, prefer an open process, some believing it would strengthen any Democratic nominee to confront Republican&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump.</a>“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave.... that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this week on a widely discussed social media post.With the publicly aired deliberations, Democrats are prolonging an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-election-2024-presidency-6fa4b6ff9382d9161d21dfc52838008f">extraordinary moment</a>&nbsp;of uncertainty and upheaval. Biden has weighty options before him this weekend that could set the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads toward the November election.It’s creating a stark juxtaposition with Republicans, who, after years of bitter and chaotic infighting over Trump, are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/republican-national-convention">energized and embracing</a>&nbsp;the former president’s far-right takeover of the GOP, despite his criminal conviction in a hush money case and pending federal criminal indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election before the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/trump-election-2020-indictment">Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol</a>.Biden, despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Trump in a rematch, hasn't been able to quell the uproar. Skeptical Democrats doubt he can keep the White House after his stumbled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2024/a-halting-biden-tries-to-confront-trump-at-debate-but-sparks-democratic-anxiety-about-his-candidacy/">debate performance</a>&nbsp;last month, and worry he will take hopes for party control of Congress down with him.On Saturday, Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name to the list of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress who say it's time for Biden to leave the race. The Californian called on Biden to “pass the torch,” to Harris.More lawmakers are expected to speak out in the days ahead. Donors have raised concerns.“There is no joy in the recognition he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats urging Biden’s exit from the race.From his beach home in Delaware, Biden, 81, is isolating after announcing a COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said Saturday that Biden's symptoms were improving, but that he remained plagued by a dry cough and hoarseness. He received separate briefings Saturday on domestic and national security issues, the White House said.The president’s team insisted he’s ready to return to the campaign this coming week to counter what he called a “dark vision” laid out by Trump.“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday.But outside the Rehoboth enclave, the debate and passions are intensifying.Very few of the Democratic lawmakers who are agitating for Biden to leave have mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they favor an open nominating process that would throw the party’s endorsement behind a new candidate.A person familiar with Pelosi’s thinking said that while she is a friend and admirer of the vice president, she believes that anybody who wants to be president is better served by such a process, believing that whoever emerges as the candidate would be strengthened to win the election. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to characterize Pelosi’s thought process.Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a Pelosi ally who has called on Biden to step aside, said Friday on MSNBC that some kind of “mini-primary” that would include Harris makes sense.Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont have both called for Biden to exit the race and said they would favor an open nominating process at the convention.“Having it be open would strengthen whoever is the ultimate nominee,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to move to someone other than Harris, and logistically unworkable with a virtual nominating vote being planned for early next month, before the Democratic convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19.Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who has called on Biden to step aside, explicitly endorsed Harris as a replacement.“To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling upon President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice-President Harris to step forward to become the Democratic nominee for President,” McCollum said in her statement.The standoff over Biden's political future has become increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders, a month from the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/democratic-national-convention">Democratic National Convention</a>&nbsp;that should be a unifying moment to nominate their incumbent president to confront Trump. Instead, the party is at a crossroads unseen in generations.It's unclear what else, if anything, the president could do to reverse course and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters, who are wary of his ability to defeat Trump and serve another term,Biden, who sent a defiant letter to Democrats in Congress vowing to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to shore up support, an absence noticed by senators and representatives.The president did conduct a round of virtual conversations with various caucuses in the past week — some of which ended poorly.___Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Seung Min Kim, Farnoush Amiri and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Beyond Biden, Dems are split over who would be next —VP Harris or launch a 'mini primary'

SEDGWICK COUNTY —&nbsp; A Kansas man is going to prison for a violent sex assault of a child.

This week, Judge Bruce Brown sentenced 21-year-old Jacob DeLeon to over 48-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office. 

In January, DeLeon pleased guilty two counts of rape. The crimes occurred in June 2021 involving a victim under the age of 14, according to Sedgwick County arrest records.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/7/1625607024507.png" alt="Jacob Anton DeLeon -photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Jacob Anton DeLeon -photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —&nbsp; A Kansas man is going to prison for a violent sex assault of a child.This week, Judge Bruce Brown sentenced 21-year-old Jacob DeLeon to over 48-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office. In January, DeLeon pleased guilty two counts of rape. The crimes occurred in June 2021 involving a victim under the age of 14, according to Sedgwick County arrest records.&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;

Prison for Kansas man who admitted to violent child sex assault

BUTLER COUNTY —El Dorado Correctional Facility (EDCF) inmate Blade A. Floyd, 24, died Thursday, July 18, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Corrections.

 Floyd was found unresponsive in his cell. Staff and EMS administered life-saving measures but were unable to revive him. The cause of death is pending the results of an independent autopsy.

Floyd was serving a 96-month sentence for three counts of burglary, two counts of attempted aggravated burglary, and drug possession based on convictions in Wilson County, Kansas.

Per protocol, when a resident dies in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), the death is under investigation by the KDOC and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The investigation is ongoing.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721421738385.png" alt="Floyd-photo KDOC" />
 <figcaption>Floyd-photo KDOC</figcaption>
 </figure>BUTLER COUNTY —El Dorado Correctional Facility (EDCF) inmate Blade A. Floyd, 24, died Thursday, July 18, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Floyd was found unresponsive in his cell. Staff and EMS administered life-saving measures but were unable to revive him. The cause of death is pending the results of an independent autopsy.Floyd was serving a 96-month sentence for three counts of burglary, two counts of attempted aggravated burglary, and drug possession based on convictions in Wilson County, Kansas.Per protocol, when a resident dies in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), the death is under investigation by the KDOC and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The investigation is ongoing.

Kansas inmate serving time for burglary found dead in his cell

NEW YORK— One week after&nbsp;a gunman's attempt to assassinate&nbsp;former&nbsp;President Donald Trump&nbsp;at a Pennsylvania rally, the public has an update on his health.

On Saturday, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who was Donald Trump's White House physician, &nbsp;released a report that details&nbsp;the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.

Trump's campaign had earlier refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.

The first word on Trump's condition came about half an hour after shots rang out and Trump dropped to the ground after reaching for his ear and then pumped his fist defiantly to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. The campaign issued a statement saying he was “fine" and “being checked out at a local medical facility.”

“More details will follow,” his spokesperson said.

It wasn't until 8:42 p.m., however, that Trump told the public he had been struck by a bullet as opposed to shrapnel or debris. In a post on his social media network, Trump wrote that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote..

Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention this past week with a bandage over his right ear.&nbsp;

Dr. Jackson who served as Trump's White House doctor and traveled to be with him after the shooting, said in a podcast interview Monday that Trump was missing part of his ear — “a little bit at the top" — but that the wound would heal.

“He was lucky," Jackson said on “The Benny Show,” a conservative podcast hosted by Benny Johnson. ”It was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effects from the bullet. And it just took the top of his ear off, a little bit of the top of his ear off as it passed through."

He said that the area would need to be treated with care to avoid further bleeding — “It's not like a clean laceration like you would have with a knife or a blade, it's a bullet track going by," he said — but that Trump is "not going to need anything to be done with it. It's going to be fine.”

&nbsp;Trump is holding his first public campaign since he survived the attempted assassination, returning to the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate JD Vance.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721353012709.png" alt="Trump at the RNC Thursday night-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Trump at the RNC Thursday night-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK— One week after&nbsp;a gunman's attempt to assassinate&nbsp;former&nbsp;President Donald Trump&nbsp;at a Pennsylvania rally, the public has an update on his health.On Saturday, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who was Donald Trump's White House physician, &nbsp;released a report that details&nbsp;the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721510068404.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Trump's campaign had earlier refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.The first word on Trump's condition came about half an hour after shots rang out and Trump dropped to the ground after reaching for his ear and then pumped his fist defiantly to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. The campaign issued a statement saying he was “fine" and “being checked out at a local medical facility.”“More details will follow,” his spokesperson said.It wasn't until 8:42 p.m., however, that Trump told the public he had been struck by a bullet as opposed to shrapnel or debris. In a post on his social media network, Trump wrote that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear.“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote..Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention this past week with a bandage over his right ear.&nbsp;Dr. Jackson who served as Trump's White House doctor and traveled to be with him after the shooting, said in a podcast interview Monday that Trump was missing part of his ear — “a little bit at the top" — but that the wound would heal.“He was lucky," Jackson said on “The Benny Show,” a conservative podcast hosted by Benny Johnson. ”It was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effects from the bullet. And it just took the top of his ear off, a little bit of the top of his ear off as it passed through."He said that the area would need to be treated with care to avoid further bleeding — “It's not like a clean laceration like you would have with a knife or a blade, it's a bullet track going by," he said — but that Trump is "not going to need anything to be done with it. It's going to be fine.”&nbsp;Trump is holding his first public campaign since he survived the attempted assassination, returning to the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate JD Vance.