Netanyahu Visit, VP Harris On The Trail, New Election Poll

0:02Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is here in Washington, D.C. Some Democrats say they'll boycott its address to Congress. How does Netanyahu appeal to Israel's vital ally? I'm Michelle Martin in Washington, D.C. And I'm Steve Inskeep in Pittsburgh. This is Up First from NPR News. Vice President Kamala Harris, now our presidential candidate, makes a promise on abortion rights. When Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms as president of the United States, I will sign it into law. How else is she connecting with voters? Also, what do the numbers show? Before President Biden dropped out, very high numbers of voters had made up their minds.

0:44Now an NPR poll shows a significant number of voters undecided. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:01Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast. That's grammarly.com slash podcast. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress today. Republicans support Netanyahu and Israel in the war in Gaza. Democrats are divided and increasingly critical. This occasion matters politically in both countries, and NPR's Greg Myrie is watching from Tel Aviv. Hi there, Greg. Hi, Steve. What does the Israeli Prime Minister hope to gain? Well, the view from here is Netanyahu is going to one of the few places he can find support, which is among Republicans in the U.S.

2:38Congress. But even in Washington, he'll face critics among the Democrats. A growing number plan to boycott the speech and street protest against him are also expected. You know, on the flight to Washington, Netanyahu had a baseball cap emblazoned with the words total victory, which sums up his belief, often stated that Hamas must be completely destroyed in Gaza. That's likely to be a central theme in his speech. But there is ongoing pressure, including from President Biden, to work out a ceasefire with Hamas. OK, so he'll surely meet with President Biden during this visit. What about the people who are still running for president, Vice President Harris and former President Trump?

3:18Yeah, he plans to meet all three and all come with some complications. You know, Biden is increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu over the huge number of Palestinian civilian deaths. So there could be some tensions when they meet Thursday. Regarding Kamala Harris, the vice president traditionally sits behind a foreign leader who's addressing Congress. But Harris has cited a scheduling conflict, though she is expected to meet privately with him tomorrow. and the Trump-Netanyahu relationship soured after the 2020 U.S. election. Netanyahu recognized Biden as the winner, and this greatly annoyed Trump, who falsely claims the voting was rigged.

3:56Well, how are Israelis responding to the news that President Biden has stopped running against Trump this time? Yeah, here in Israel, political leaders and the media acknowledge Biden's unwavering support for decades, And they say this tradition among many, but not all U.S. presidents, may actually end when Biden leaves the White House. Biden still talks about backing Israel a half century ago in its 1973 war against Egypt and Syria. This was Biden's first year in the Senate, and it clearly shaped his views on the Middle East. But as this current war grinds on, even Biden has expressed some criticism.

4:32He wants this ceasefire we mentioned. And he wants an Israeli plan for Gaza after the fighting stops. and Israel still hasn't produced this so-called day-after plan. Well, how does Biden's handling of the Middle East fit into his larger foreign policy record of a presidency that we can now see the end of? Yeah, Steve, I think three foreign wars have defined a good deal of not only his foreign policy record, but even his presidential legacy overall. The first was Afghanistan and the messy U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban's return to power. Then came Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Biden generally got high marks for coordinating a strong Western response, though now Republicans are pushing back, saying the military aid is too expensive and the war is largely a stalemate.

5:20And his embrace of Israel in the war faces this growing criticism from some in his own party, liberal voters, opposition in many parts of the world. So Biden won't be able to dictate outcomes in these conflicts in the final months of his term. but he does have a consequential foreign policy record, and it's been driven by his desire to see the U.S. play a leading role on the global stage. NPR's Greg Meirey is in Tel Aviv. Greg, thanks for your insights, as always. Good to hear from you. Sure thing, Steve.

5:57Today, as we said, is the day the prime minister is scheduled to speak. I'm in Washington, D.C. And I'm in Western Pennsylvania talking with voters about a transformed presidential race. We'll be hearing the voices on NPR. One Democrat, Michelle, said that he wasn't thinking of voting at all this year, but the change in candidates means he's going to show up for Kamala Harris. We also heard from an immigrant from India here who said he was not going to vote for Harris because he felt that she was chosen as vice president for her race and gender. Interesting. Meanwhile, Harris is working to define herself as she begins her campaign for the top job.

6:33She's speaking with a black sorority in Indianapolis today, and she spoke in Milwaukee yesterday. When Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms as president of the United States, I will sign it into law. By the way, Steve, the campaign had to move the event to a larger venue. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivram was with Harris. Hi there, Deepa. Hey, good morning. What was it like to be there? I mean, there are roughly 100 days, right, until the election. And yesterday, in this sweaty, humid high school gymnasium, there were 3 ,000 people gathered to see Kamala Harris. And it felt like there was this huge jolt of enthusiasm into this campaign that was honestly lacking when Biden was the nominee.

7:19I talked to one voter. Her name is Celia Jackson, who was in the crowd. This is the energy. This is the shot in the arm that the Dems needed in order to turn this around. So I'm really hopeful. I also asked Celia if she had been involved at all in the Biden-Harris campaign before to donate or volunteer, and she hadn't. But she said that that changed this weekend. I've already signed up. I'm ready to go. And Celia's one of many. The campaign has seen a huge boost in donations and volunteers. And, you know, I'll note, I've covered Harris for five years now, and I've seen her on so many different stages.

7:53And I think even she coming on stage yesterday was a little stunned by the energy in the room, people chanting her name, the size of the crowd. I think it really all speaks to the intensity and the rapid pace of everything that's happened in the last three days. Well, how did she sound in that new environment? Yeah, she talked about Trump a lot, but, you know, she was also talking about herself. And for the first time, she was saying, when I'm president, which is something we haven't heard before after years of her being number two in the White House. She also talked a lot about her history as a courtroom prosecutor and the kind of crimes that she dealt with.

8:27And that rhetoric is to partly show how she's going to take on Trump in this election. And it's also partly biographic. She's trying to show people who she is and who she was before being Joe Biden's vice president. A new poll from NPR, PBS, and Marist shows 15 % of voters haven't heard of Harris or were unsure how they felt about her. And that same poll also shows that more people are undecided in this race now that Harris is likely going to be the nominee. And that's why I thought it was really interesting to see Harris lean into her history as a prosecutor. There's a bit of reintroducing her to the country that the campaign has to do and keep in mind in a really condensed period of time.

9:05Yeah, we'll hear more about that poll in a moment. But how does the campaign plan to reintroduce her? Yeah, I mean, it's happening in a few ways. Online, there's a whole rebrand of Kamala Harris going on. She is brat. There are coconut emojis. There are things here that I can only sort of explain, Steve. But there is a whole section of the internet that is popping off. And then, of course, you know, her travel is really going to ramp up. Harris has been doing maybe two to three stops a week before all this. And by the end of this week, she will have been to five different states. Okay, Deepa, thanks so much.

9:39Thanks for having me. That's NPR's Deepa Shivram.

9:48We have a snapshot now of the presidential race. Yes, a new NPR PBS News Marist poll finds that a significant number of voters now say they are undecided. Vice President Kamala Harris now has an opportunity to try to win them over. She brings different strengths than Biden and different vulnerabilities. NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro helped put this survey together and joins us. Domenico, good morning. Hey, Steve. So as I'm talking to voters here in western Pennsylvania, I've been asking about Biden's decision not to run. Widespread bipartisan agreement that it was the right move.

10:24A lot of sympathy also for Biden. That's what I hear anecdotally, but what do the numbers show? Yeah, we found the same thing in our survey. Nine in ten Democrats, Republicans and independents all said it was the right thing for Biden to step aside. And there aren't too many things in this world that Republicans and Democrats agree on almost unanimously. But Biden getting out apparently was one of them. That's where the agreement ends, though, when it comes to Biden on whether he should finish out his term. For example, two thirds say that Biden should do so. That includes nine in 10 Democrats and two thirds of independents.

10:54A slim majority of Republicans, though, think that he should resign now. And we've heard Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance saying that he should resign. but that's probably not going to happen. I would imagine when you talk about disagreement, Republicans do not agree with Democrats about whether he's been a good president. No, no surprise there. What was a little more eyebrow raising for Biden, I think, was the fact that almost six in 10 independents think that he'll be remembered as either a below average or one of the worst presidents in history.

11:24This is a group that he won in 2020. And this question might have been a canary in the coal mine for just how difficult it would have been for Biden to win them back. Do the initial signs suggest that Harris would be any different with independent voters? Well, like Biden, she's statistically tied with Trump, but under the hood, there are some interesting things to look at when it comes to independence. A lot more of them are undecided. So that's one thing to look at. She does much better than Biden in holding onto black voters and younger voters when they're given the chance to vote for other candidates like Robert F.

11:55Kennedy, Jr., Professor Cornel West, who's running as an independent, or the Green Party's Jill Stein. In fact, RFK Jr. is only getting 7 % in this survey. West and Stein are down to 1 % each. Those are the lowest numbers we've seen for all of them since Marist has been asking about third-party candidates this year. And that's directly because Harris doesn't shed young voters and non-white voters the way that Biden was when people were given another choice, even in our poll two weeks ago that compared Trump and Biden. Oh, that's really interesting. So voters were parking with third, fourth, fifth-party candidates, maybe drifting away again.

12:28But where does Trump have an advantage? Well, Trump has what we call a high floor and a low ceiling. He's going to get his base of supporters. In 2016, he got 46 % of the vote. In 2020, it was 47 % rounding up. In our poll, he's at, surprise, surprise, 46 % against Harris. Trump's strength in our survey is with white evangelical Christians and white men without college degrees. It's been that way for years. Harris does not do as well in this survey as Biden was doing with suburban voters, white voters overall, and independents. If it stays that way, it could usher Trump back into the White House.

13:00But like I said, one in five independents now say that they're undecided, up from just 4 percent two weeks ago. So Democrats feel at least like they might have a fresh start here. Yeah, this race felt so static and now feels a little different. Domenico, thanks. You're welcome. NPR's Domenico Montanaro.

13:21And that's up first for this Wednesday, July 24th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. How about giving a listen to Consider This, also from NPR? Here at Up First, we give you the three big stories of the day. Our Considuist colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single new story and what it means to you. All that in 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's Up First was edited by Andrew Sussman, Roberta Rampton, Dana Farrington, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Milton Guevara. We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

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