President Biden to deliver Oval Office address on decision to drop out of 2024 race

MEDIA

Major Biden donor shares concerns over Kamala Harris run, slams Democrats for 'squandering' big opportunity

Biden donor John Morgan said he is not "enthusiastic" about VP Harris as a candidate and argues Democrats are "squandering" an "unbelievable" opportunity.

Many lawmakers and donors have come out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris following President Biden's exit from the 2024 race. 

However, one Biden megadonor is not "enthusiastic" about the president's endorsement and is cutting his fundraising efforts.

"You have to be enthusiastic or hoping for a political appointment to be asking friends for money. I am neither," attorney John Morgan wrote on X Sunday. "It's others turn now. The donors holding the 90 million can release those funds in the morning. It's all yours. You can keep my million. And good luck."Morgan further explained why he won't support the Harris campaign on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Tuesday. 

"To go out and have a fundraiser raise 3, 4 or $5 million. It sounds easy, but it's not easy," he stressed. "It's very difficult to do that. You have to have motivation. You have to really believe, or you have to really want something. There has to be a driving force inside of you."

On Sunday, Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential election despite affirming his intentions to stay in the race following his concerning debate performance. 

Fox Business' Madeline Coggins contributed to this update.

Democrat Rep. Emilia Sykes, who is running for re-election in an Ohio district that's vulnerable for Democrats, ignored questions about Vice President Harris’ record on immigration on Tuesday.

"Hello, Congresswoman, do you think that Kamala Harris did a good job as the border czar," Sykes was asked in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Sykes ignored the question and kept walking, which prompted a follow-up question.

"Congresswoman, do you think Kamala Harris did a good job as the border czar? Yes or no?"

Sykes responded, taking issue with the pronunciation of Harris’ name, "I don’t know who Kamala Harris is."

"She’s the vice president," the questioner responds before Sykes enters her office.

Read the full story from Andrew Mark Miller.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington, D.C., on Monday evening in preparation for his address to Congress on Wednesday. He will hold his first meeting with President Biden on U.S. soil since the Iran-backed terrorist movement Hamas slaughtered nearly 1,200 people on Oct. 7, including some 30 Americans, and took about 250 hostages.

The two leaders have had sharp disagreements over Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based. A telling example was Israel’s decision to defy Biden and seek military control over the southern Gaza City of Rafah, the last main stronghold of Hamas battalions and hostages held by the U.S.-designated terrorist entity.

Caroline Glick, an American-Israeli commentator and former adviser to Netanyahu, told Fox News Digital, "Biden's meeting with Netanyahu finds the two leaders on opposite ends of the spectrum. Like the vast majority of Israelis, Netanyahu remains committed to achieving Israel's war goals of destroying Hamas as a military and political entity, returning all the hostages, preventing Gaza from ever threatening Israel in the future, and changing the strategic balance in northern Israel completely in Israel's favor to permit the 80,000 Israeli residents of the border towns with Lebanon to return to their homes safely after living in hotels since they were evacuated in October."

According to Glick, who lives in Jerusalem, "Biden seeks a cease-fire that achieves none of these goals. In their meeting, Biden will pressure Netanyahu to abandon Israel's war goals and accept a cease-fire. Netanyahu will seek to secure weapons supplies to ensure Israel has what it requires to win."

Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this update.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks at a reception alongside Vice President Kamala Harris during a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 20, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff clapped back at former President Trump, who criticized his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, after she launched her presidential campaign.

Trump, who often coins nicknames for his political opponents, dubbed Harris "Laughin' Kamala" and "Lyin' Kamala" on his social media platform Truth Social.

"That's all he's got?" Emhoff said Tuesday when asked by reporters about the former president's comments about his wife.

"You heard the Vice President yesterday making the case against Donald Trump," Emhoff said. "Very clearly laid out the case, directly and in a compelling fashion. But she also laid out a vision for the future. A vision where there's freedom. Where we're not having to talk about these issues of today in this post Dobbs Hellscape that Donald Trump created."

Harris launched her presidential campaign Sunday night after President Biden announced he was suspending his re-election campaign. Harris secured enough delegates Monday night to secure the Democratic Party's nomination, although the party's nominee will not formally be selected until next month's convention in Chicago.

"We're gonna prosecute the case against Donald Trump and his lies, his gaslighting, during COVID, the dereliction of duty, inciting an insurrection and all those other things," Emhoff said.

"We're gonna make that very clear," Emhoff continued. "She's gonna be able to make that case. We're also gonna move on from this type of environment, this Dobbs, where freedoms are taken away, where autonomy is taken away. Where they're telling you, you can't read this book. They're telling you, you can't learn these facts. They're telling you, you can't vote. All that is gonna change, and it must change."

Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this update.

Biden waves to press cameras alongside Waters in Los Angeles after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

A veteran and high-ranking Democratic lawmaker claims she was in the dark about President Biden's intention to resign from the 2024 presidential campaign.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters from California spoke to Politico on Monday, saying Biden dropping off the party's ticket caught her completely off-guard after she "woke up to it on the television."

"I was angry at first, because we’d worked so hard to give him the kind of support that would cause him to stay," Waters told Politico. "We had been told up to the last minute that he was going to stay."

She continued, "After I calmed down, I was alright, because in doing that, he endorsed Kamala [Harris]. And I thought, well, that’s great."

Waters was a die-hard defender of Biden following his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate that led the U.S. public to question his mental capacities. 

She consistently pushed back on any intention to replace the president with a stronger Democratic candidate and told Politico she has "seen him at his best."

However, Waters has also been a high-profile ally of Harris. The California representative told Politico that she sees Harris as a friend and didn't hesitate to endorse her.

"I tell you that Trump, the MAGA crowd, racists — I think that they’re going to hit and they’re going to hit hard," she said of challenges facing Harris. "They’re going to do everything that they can do to try and convince their crowd and others that she should not be the president and he will be dog whistling about a woman and a Black in ways that he knows how to do."

Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this update.

Vice President Kamala Harris once called infamous hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett a victim of an attempted "modern day lynching."

Now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Harris to this day has not deleted her 2019 social media post that repeats the false claim, even after the "Empire" actor's criminal conviction in Illinois for the faked attack. 

Smollett claimed two masked men "doused him with bleach, put a rope around his neck and said, ‘This is MAGA country!'" in the heart of Chicago during the 2019 polar vortex. 

"[Jussie Smollett] is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I'm praying for his quick recovery," California Sen. Harris posted on X, formerly Twitter, Jan. 29, 2019. 

"This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate." 

Weeks later, after it became clear police were investigating Smollett for filing a false report, Harris said she was "sad, frustrated and disappointed" by news the actor made "false claims to police." 

But her initial comments were a "rush to judgment" that showed a "hasty decision before all the facts are known," said Eugene Roy, a retired Chicago Police Department chief of detectives with more than 30 years experience on the force. 

Harris' campaign and her White House office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"It's one thing to express your support for a friend. It's another thing to use your platform as a government official to prejudge a case before it's played out. Before all the facts are known," said Roy, who was featured in the Fox Nation documentary "Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax." 

Fox News Digital's Callie Cassick contributed to this update.

Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that in lieu of co-presiding over the speech to a joint meeting of Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she will attend a previously scheduled event in Indiana, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Grand Boule in Indianapolis.

Since it is a Joint Meeting of the House and Senate, the speaker of the House and president of the Senate, who is the vice president, usually preside. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said today that it may be "unprecedented" not to have the vice president preside. 

However, there have been multiple instances over the years in which the president pro tempore has presided.

One such instance came during Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to a joint meeting of Congress – the last time Netanyahu spoke to Congress.

Then-Vice President Biden did not co-preside with then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Instead, then-President Pro Tempore of the Senate Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, presided.

In 2011, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. However, then-Vice President Biden did not preside over that meeting, either. It was Boehner and then-President Pro Tempore Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

There have been other instances as well. However, it is extremely rare to have someone like Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the acting chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, preside over a joint meeting of Congress. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is the president pro tempore of the Senate now. She will also not co-preside with Johnson during the joint meeting.

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this update.

Vice President Kamala Harris raised $100 million from Sunday afternoon — when President Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president to succeed him as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee — through Monday night, her campaign announced on Tuesday morning.

And the Harris campaign also touted that the fundraising in the wake of the president's blockbuster news came from more than 1.1 million unique donors, with 62% of them first-time contributors.

The Harris campaign has been spotlighting the surge in fundraising, and in an email release on Monday afternoon highlighted that the money raised was the "largest 24-hour raise in presidential history."

But the Harris campaign hasn't offered a breakdown of what percentage of the cash haul was raised online by small-dollar donations and what share came from top-dollar donors. The haul includes money raised by the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees.

"The historic outpouring of support for Vice President Harris represents exactly the kind of grassroots energy and enthusiasm that wins elections," campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. "Already, we are seeing a broad and diverse coalition come together to support our critical work of talking to the voters that will decide this election."

Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this update.

Former President Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, accusing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of violating campaign finance laws by transferring his $91 million in fundraising cash to her new campaign. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images; Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Former President Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday, accusing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of violating campaign finance laws by transferring his $91 million in fundraising cash to her new campaign. 

Biden bowed out of the presidential race on Sunday following weeks of calls for him to leave following a shaky debate performance. 

The president endorsed the vice president to run for the Democratic ticket in his place and transferred his millions of dollars in campaign cash over to her. 

The Trump campaign argued in the complaint, first reported by The New York Times and obtained by Fox News Digital, that Harris is "seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash."

David Warrington, who serves as general counsel for the Trump campaign, called the act "a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended."

"Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it," the filing concluded. "The Commission must not and cannot sit idly by while one candidate takes nearly one hundred million dollars from the authorized committee of another, in violation of the Act and the will of the donors who gave the money in the first place."

Fox News Digital's Brie Stimson and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this update.

Screens display news reports at the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square and Fox News Building in New York, United States, on July 21, 2024. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Since the end of World War II, there have only been three incumbent presidents, all Democrats, who turned down running for a second term: Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Joe Biden.

The 46th president had faced mounting pressure from his Democrat allies and legacy media outlets to bow out of the race since June 27, when he delivered a botched debate performance against Trump that was riddled with garbled remarks and where the president lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than during other recent public events. 

The debate reignited concern among conservatives and critics that Biden's mental acuity had slipped, while it marked the beginning of a pressure campaign among Democrats to oust Biden in favor of a candidate they believed is better suited to take on Trump.

Dozens of members of Congress began publicly thanking Biden for his work in the White House and decades in public office while calling on him to pass the torch to another candidate. He made the announcement just more than a week after an assassination attempt on Trump's life during a rally in Pennsylvania and just days after the Republican National Convention wrapped up in Milwaukee, where Trump was certified as the Republican Party's nominee.

Shortly after his announcement on Sunday afternoon, Biden endorsed Vice President Harris to pick up the mantle and make a run for the party's nomination. As of Tuesday, Harris had enough delegates to lock up the nomination, which will be certified by the DNC next month.

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.

President Biden is set to address the nation on Wednesday evening from the Oval Office for the first time since he officially dropped out of the 2024 election. 

"Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people," Biden posted to his X account on Tuesday. 

Biden had been self-isolating in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since last Wednesday, when he was diagnosed with COVID-19, which forced him to cancel scheduled events in Las Vegas and fly back to his home in The First State. After suffering "mild symptoms" and "general malaise" after his diagnosis, he received a negative diagnosis on Tuesday of this week and returned to the White House. 

His trip back to the nation's capital on Tuesday marked the first time Biden was seen in public since suspending his re-election bid on Sunday and the first time since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 17. 

Biden's address Wednesday is expected to shed additional light on his departure from the 2024 race after he, his campaign and the White House vowed for weeks that Biden would remain in the election cycle and was determined to win in the rematch against former President Trump. 

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.