6, June 2020
US: Biden clinches Democratic presidential nomination 0
Former US Vice President Joe Biden secured enough delegates to formally clinch the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday, setting the stage for a challenge to President Donald Trump in the November election.
A candidate needs at least 1,991 delegates to secure the nomination. Biden crossed the threshold when results came late on Friday after seven states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries earlier in the week.
The achievement was a formality after Biden became the presumptive nominee when his main rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, quit the race in April.
“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said on Friday.
At one point, the field had more than 20 candidates, with contenders dropping out as their chances faded.
Biden had a slow start and recorded his first win in South Carolina at the end of February. After that, some other candidates seen as centrist or moderate dropped out before Super Tuesday votes on March 3, when the highest number of delegates were up for grabs and Biden won key contests.
It then became a two-horse race with Sanders, who was seen as a progressive candidate challenging incumbent Democrats.
While Sanders was a front-runner after early races, Biden carried his Super Tuesday momentum into subsequent contests and increased his lead.
Sanders quit the race upon seeing no path to the nomination as the novel coronavirus outbreak made campaigning and outreach difficult.
A US senator and then vice president under President Barack Obama, Biden has promised to choose a woman as his running mate, with several black candidates likely in the running.
(Source: Reuters)
19, June 2020
US: Pompeo slams ‘lies’ by ‘traitor’ Bolton over White House tell-all book 0
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late Thursday ripped into John Bolton for his explosive memoir about working for President Donald Trump, calling the former national security advisor a “traitor.”
“John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths and outright falsehoods,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people.”
“To our friends around the world: You know that President Trump’s America is a force for good in the world.”
Pompeo said he had not yet read the book, “The Room Where It Happened,” which the Trump administration is trying to block from publication.
But according to excerpts published by major newspapers, Bolton said that Pompeo – one of the rare aides never to clash publicly with Trump – disparaged him in private.
According to The New York Times, Bolton writes that he received a note from Pompeo during Trump’s historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, saying of the president, “He is so full of shit.”
Pompeo traveled four times to North Korea in 2018 to jumpstart diplomacy for Trump, who has hailed his own efforts as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
But Bolton wrote that Pompeo, a month after the Singapore summit in June 2018, dismissed Trump’s North Korea diplomacy; saying it had “zero probability of success,” according to the Times report.
Bolton is well-known for his hawkish views on North Korea and left in September shortly after Trump, accompanied by Pompeo, again met Kim on the Demilitarized Zone in Korea.
Source: AFP