"Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a forceful message to American lawmakers during a Wednesday congressional address, saying that the Jewish state's war against Hamas and the terror group's Iranian benefactors is vital to American interests and helps protect the United States.

"'If you remember one thing, one thing, from the speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory,' Netanyahu said to widespread applause. 'All our enemies should know this: Those who attack Israel will pay a very heavy price.'

"The Israeli leader's speech before Congress comes amid a contested U.S. election season. The Jewish state's war has divided Democratic leaders and fractured the party's foreign policy establishment. Scores of Democratic lawmakers boycotted Netanyahu's speech, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.).

"Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, declined to preside over the address in favor of a political event with a college sorority, prompting criticism from GOP lawmakers and signaling that support for Israel's war is again emerging as a key issue ahead of the November elections. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), a vocal anti-Semite and fierce opponent of Netanyahu's government, attended the speech and used it as an opportunity to protest. Tlaib sat in the crowd, scowling, while she held signs that read 'Guilty of genocide' and 'War criminal.'"

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"The astonishing political events of the last four weeks make plain, once again, how much of America's history depends on what voters have come to accept as the choice of one person: each presidential nominee's choice of a vice presidential candidate. Even as the nomination process was expanded, half a century ago, to include millions of primary voters, the choice of the vice presidential nominee has devolved from smoke-filled rooms of bosses who represented large constituencies to the choice of a single person.

"Consider the 47-year-old Barack Obama's selection of 65-year-old Joe Biden in 2008. For 2016, Obama shoved Biden aside in favor of the rival he bested in the February 2008 primaries, Hillary Clinton. The Biden family and many others think their man would have beaten Donald Trump and would be in the twilight of an eight-year presidency now."

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"Before she was Joe Biden's understudy the last four years, Kamala Harris ran offices as a California prosecutor and senator. Often, scandal and failings followed in her wake.

"As California Attorney General, Harris was widely criticized for failing to take on prosecutorial misconduct. In fact her office was 'called out' by judges for 'defending convictions obtained by local prosecutors' who had inserted false confessions, lied under oath, and withheld evidence. A federal appeals judge even admonished officials in 2015 to talk to Harris 'and make sure she understands the gravity of the situation' involving prosecutorial misconduct.

"Likewise, Harris' top deputy was accused of sexually harassing a staffer while working for Harris at the California Department of Justice, costing the state $400,000 to settle the case."

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"They didn't soulfully consider Joe Biden's marked decline and decide, for the good of him, his party and the country, that he had to step down.

"They lied, and they got caught.

"The Democratic Party line on President Biden was that he had turned in an exceptionally effective State of the Union address. He might mess up a name here or there, but he had gotten better with age.

"He should be judged on his achievements, which rivaled those of LBJ. Anything suggesting he was in decline was a paranoid lie, or -- in a truly ridiculous neologism -- 'a cheap fake.'"

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"J.D. Vance touted his working-class roots and promised to fight on behalf of America's 'forgotten communities' in his first public address since being selected as former president Donald Trump's running mate. The U.S. senator from Ohio capped off day three of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the enthusiasm and lack of disorder stand in stark contrast to the Democratic Party's ongoing public meltdown. Republicans are united and optimistic, whereas Democrats can't credibly claim to know who will be on their party's ticket next month when they convene in Chicago."

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"U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who is running for the Senate, warned donors in a private meeting that his party was likely to suffer major losses if President Joe Biden continued his reelection campaign, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing two unnamed sources.

'I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,' the Times reported, citing a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event, a Saturday fundraiser in New York. 'And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.'"

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"No failure, regardless of how monumental or catastrophic, is ever so bad that President Joe Biden and his lieutenants won't try to spin it into some kind of success. Because no Democrat will ever admit failure, there's never any accountability when things go unimaginably bad.

"Witness the spectacle of Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday defending U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is facing a growing chorus of calls to resign, and declaring he has '100 percent' confidence in her and her agency in the wake of an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on Saturday at a rally in western Pennsylvania."

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"Of all the words uttered since Donald Trump was nearly felled by an assassin's bullet and tragedy struck his rally in Pennsylvania, the most profound came from his wife, the former First Lady Melania Trump.

"The words she wrote a few hours after watching 'that violent bullet strike my husband' met this spiritual moment when madness is afoot and the world seems more dangerous than ever.

"You could hear the voice of the immigrant who understands America's intrinsically gentle nature, and appreciates the 'courage and common sense' of its people.

"'I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans. We have always been a unique union. America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one,' she said."

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"President Biden's high-stakes press conference at this week's NATO summit was a triumph -- for his challenger, former president Trump.

Why? Because Biden's performance did nothing to resolve the Democratic Party's dilemma over his status as its 2024 presidential candidate. The press conference supplied Biden's internal critics with ammunition against his candidacy, such as when he misidentified Kamala Harris as 'Vice President Trump.' But Biden's answers on foreign-policy questions were also strong enough to reassure, at least for the moment, his allies within the party. The result is that Biden lives to fight another day as the Democrats' presumptive nominee.

Which is exactly what Trump wants. Since Biden's terrible debate performance on June 27, the former president has basked in the best of both worlds: Biden has struggled to put down the revolt within his party, while sinking in popularity and trailing Trump in national polling averages as well as in swing states."

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"Democrats calling for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy could face a series of logistical challenges if they are successful in convincing him to step down.

"Changing the presidential ballot is feasible, but it could come with its share of headaches and complications depending on the state and when and how the change is made.

"Battleground states are already sensitive to changes in election laws, which saw dramatic modifications across the country in 2020 in part because of COVID-19 policies. Some states have, since that time, made pivotal changes to their voting processes, while others have brought criminal charges against high-profile officials for alleged election interference.

"Now, these same states could soon be confronted with one of their highest-stakes election dilemmas yet: how to legally change their Democratic presidential nominee weeks or months out from Election Day."

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