--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): President Biden held a news conference on the sidelines of the NATO summit and fielded questions about his fitness to serve another term.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): I'm in this to complete the job I started. Will his performance at the news conference buy him some time with his own party?
--:-- Host (A Martinez): I'm Sasha Pfeiffer, that's A Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): A new NPR poll finds President Biden did not lose support from voters after the debate, but margins between the two candidates remain razor thin.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): How are voters deciding who to choose in November?
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And Israel has ordered the total evacuation of the largest city in Gaza, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Many families have refused to leave.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Meanwhile, the U.S. will resume sending 500-pound bombs to Israel.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Shipments had been paused over concerns about civilian casualties.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades in briefly]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): This message comes from BetterHelp.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): President Fernando Madeira describes how BetterHelp online therapy has helped him.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right?
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: It's going to be there and they're going to listen to me.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: And I can start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: And it feels natural.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: I love it.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): This message comes from Mint Mobile.
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--:-- Host (A Martinez): See Mint Mobile for details.
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--:-- Host (A Martinez): This message comes from Lisa.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Plus, they back it all up with free shipping, easy returns, and a 100-night sleep trial.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Visit Lisa.com for 25% off mattresses, plus get an extra $50 off with promo code NPR.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): That's L-E-E-S-A dot com, promo code NPR.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): President Biden's fitness for office has been questioned since that debate two weeks ago, and that scrutiny has not eased up.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): No, it hasn't.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Many fellow Democrats have asked him to remove his name from the November ballot.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And Democrats and Republicans alike were closely watching a news conference last night where Biden early on made this stumble.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, but I think she was not qualified to be president.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Of course, he meant to say Vice President Harris.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): There were also a lot of questions about whether Harris would be a better candidate this time around.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): NPR White House correspondent Asma Khaled was there.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Wow. Must see TV yesterday, Asma.
--:-- Asma Khaled: What did the president say last night?
--:-- Asma Khaled: Well, he said a lot, A.
--:-- Asma Khaled: You know, he doesn't do a whole lot of solo press conferences.
--:-- Asma Khaled: This was, in fact, the first one that he did since last year.
--:-- Asma Khaled: It was substantive.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He took questions from a total of 11 reporters, including myself.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He spoke for nearly an hour.
--:-- Asma Khaled: And I will say a lot of the questions centered around his presidential candidacy and whether he ought to drop out or whether he'd allow for his pledged delegates at the Democratic Convention to potentially vote for someone else.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Here's how he answered that.
--:-- Asma Khaled: And so tomorrow, if all of a sudden I show up at the convention, everybody says, we want somebody else, that's the democratic process.
--:-- Asma Khaled: It's not going to happen.
--:-- Asma Khaled: You know I think broadly he made it clear that he staying in this presidential race
--:-- Asma Khaled: I asked him directly about something that he said back during the 2020 campaign
--:-- Asma Khaled: He had referred to himself as a bridge candidate a transition to a younger generation of Democrats.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He insisted that the gravity of the situation had changed.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He said he would not drop out of the race, even if his team hypothetically showed him that his vice president, Kamala Harris, could fare better against Trump.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Now, there was a lot at stake for President Biden last night.
--:-- Asma Khaled: So how'd he do?
--:-- Asma Khaled: Well, there was that notable stumble you mentioned right out of the gate where he misspoke about his vice president.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Earlier in the day, also at a NATO event, he mistakenly referred to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky as President Putin.
--:-- Asma Khaled: I was in the room for that, and I will say it was visibly awkward where a number of European leaders were on stage and people in the room gasped.
--:-- Asma Khaled: But throughout the press conference itself, Biden, you know, he remained calm.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He didn't lose his temper even when he was asked some personal questions like whether he ought to have more neurological testing or whether he was bringing down the standing of the United States in the world.
--:-- Asma Khaled: I will say, A, there were a lot of eyes, as we all know, on Biden last night.
--:-- Asma Khaled: And the big question was whether this debate performance would exacerbate or alleviate Democratic angst in the Democratic Party.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Okay, so on that, Asma, I mean, did this buy him some time with his own party?
--:-- Asma Khaled: I think we'll have to see how the party responds in the coming hours.
--:-- Asma Khaled: I mean, will one presser really alleviate the concerns from that poor debate?
--:-- Asma Khaled: I don't know.
--:-- Asma Khaled: After the debate, another congressman publicly said for the first time that Biden should step down.
--:-- Asma Khaled: That's Jim Himes of Connecticut.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He's the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He said he did not think Biden could beat Trump.
--:-- Asma Khaled: You know, the president is headed to the key battleground state of Michigan in today for a campaign event.
--:-- Asma Khaled: He's got a big TV interview on Monday.
--:-- Asma Khaled: A lot of eyes are going to be on him for every event and interview that he's giving in the coming days.
--:-- Asma Khaled: And a key question I have is if the performance last night is sufficient for Biden's team, if it sort of emboldens him, well, at the same time, not erasing the concerns people in his party have, which keeps the focus on Biden at a time when Democrats want this election to be focused on their Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
--:-- Asma Khaled: That said, and PR's Asma Khalid, thank you very much.
--:-- Asma Khaled: Good to talk to you.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Despite President Biden's dismal debate performance two weeks ago, the race for the presidency remains unchanged.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): That's the big takeaway from a new NPR PBS NewsHour Marist poll out this morning.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Join us to discuss the results of the poll is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So is all that Democratic angst unfounded?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Well, you know, I mean, there's still a lot for Democrats to be concerned about, clearly, with the way Biden's able to present himself.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: But despite that bad debate performance, as you noted, and the multiple Democratic members who now say they're worried about Biden at the top of the ticket, the race is statistically unchanged, according to our poll.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: It found that Biden actually gained a point from last month's Marist survey when it was 49-49, dead heat between him and Trump.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Now it's Biden ever so narrowly ahead, 50-48.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Biden does slip a little when third parties are introduced with Trump ahead by just one point.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: But listen to what we're talking about here.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Two points, one point, all of that is within the poll's margin of error as this race has been the entire time.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And that's maybe the biggest conclusion here, that nothing has really changed wildly since the debate.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So how is he doing this?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Well, President Biden is buoyed by older voters and college educated white voters in particular.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know, this was true before the debate.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: It appears they've mostly stuck with him.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And this is different than 2020 when Trump won college educated white men, for example.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: These groups in large measure dislike Trump a lot.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Importantly they are among the highest propensity voters
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know they vote at some of the highest rates of any group
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So unlike with other groups Biden is struggling with for example younger voters non voters they not likely to stay home this group
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know, with younger voters and non-white voters, especially younger Latino and black men, it isn't so much Biden versus Trump as it is Biden versus the couch.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Then, Domenico, other surveys have found that President Biden has slipped a little bit.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So how do we square all of these things together?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Well, you know, what pollsters say, and we all know this, is we're in a really hyper-polarized landscape.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: People have very locked in views of both of these men, even though other national surveys you're seeing the difference, you know, really be so marginal.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know, our poll and others generally have about a three to four point margin of error, meaning the results could be three points higher, could be three points lower.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: We can't tell how other polls are being conducted or weighting, you know, their surveys, but they might be conducting them somewhat slightly differently.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Within our poll, the one thing that is really important and notable is that two-thirds of Americans say what's more concerning is to have a president who does not tell the truth than to have one who's too old to do the job.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: 68% said that not telling the truth was a bigger problem.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So even though we certainly saw in the survey that a majority of people think Biden doesn't have the mental fitness to be president, majorities say he does have the character to be president when a majority say that Trump does not.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): If it winds up not being President Biden, what do the polls say about the other potential Democratic replacements?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Yeah, this is really interesting because everyone does about the same as Biden.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know, California Governor Gavin Newsom did exactly the same as Biden, 50 to 48 when we tested him.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Vice President Harris was at 50-49 over Trump.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was tied.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Newsom did slightly better with independents than Harris and Whitmer.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And, you know, he's been on Fox News quite a bit, so there might be some exposure there to those voters.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Of course, any of those candidates certainly have more of a capability of prosecuting the case against former President Trump coherently and defending themselves.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And that's something that Biden has really struggled with and a big reason why so many Democrats, you know, who want him to step aside, say that he should.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades in briefly]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Palestinian civilians who fled parts of Gaza City in the past two weeks are returning to find very little left of their homes.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): They had evacuated after the Israeli military renewed its operations in what is the largest city in Gaza.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): At the same time, the U.S. is lifting a pause it had put on weapon shipments a month ago.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): NPR's Hadil Alshalchi joins us now from Tel Aviv.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: So while intense urban combat, including Israeli airstrikes, continues in other parts of Gaza City, the Israeli military announced yesterday that it had left the district of Shujia'i, where it launched an offensive which lasted two weeks.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The Shujia'i civil defense said that more than 60 Palestinians were killed, among them many women.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: And the Israeli military said it had killed dozens of militants in their operation and destroyed a number of tunnels.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Gaza City has seen numerous Israeli ground invasions since the beginning of the war in October, and about 300,000 Palestinians remained in the north during the last operation.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: This has been a pattern, though, in the war, where the Israeli military declares victory over Hamas and withdraws from towns just for it to re-enter, saying that Hamas has regrouped.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Okay, and then what are those Palestinians who did evacuate? What are they seeing when they come back?
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Utter devastation.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The Shujiai civil defense said that the neighborhood is uninhabitable.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: They said almost 120,000 Palestinians are now homeless and that the Sabha medical clinic was destroyed.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: It used to provide services to almost 6 Palestinians
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Civil defense also reports that Palestinian rescue teams are finding bodies that seem to have bled out strewn across rows that whole neighborhoods have turned into rubble and dust
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: And the civil defense says that they're having a hard time pulling out bodies that are stuck under the rubble of buildings, and some of them are entire families.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: And what's happening in other parts of Gaza City?
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: So two days ago, the Israeli military told Palestinians in Gaza City that they could use routes it had provided if they chose to leave the area.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The head of the Gaza civil defense said they aren't able to access certain areas because of snipers on rooftops.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The thing is, this time, we didn't see that large exodus of Palestinians evacuating Gaza City as we have in previous attacks.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: We spoke to Fatma al-Dama.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: She is a freelance journalist in North Gaza near the Jabaliyah district.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: And she said that while her family told her to leave, she said, what's the point?
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: An official can aim.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: It's a motive, not a motivation.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Dama says since nowhere is safe, I'd rather die at home.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: At least I'm familiar with my neighborhood.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: And now U.S. officials say that they're going to be sending a large number of weapons withheld from Israel, but not all of them, right?
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: That's right.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The Biden administration announced yesterday that it's going to go ahead and send a shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel that it had paused because the U.S. was concerned about Israeli military operations in Rafah in the south of Gaza.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: Now, if you were following, in early May, the U.S. warned Israel against a full incursion in Rafah because of the risk to civilians.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: About one million Palestinians were sheltering there.
--:-- Hadil Alshalchi: The shipment at the time included 802,000-pound bombs, which are still going to be withheld.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades in briefly]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And that's Up First for Friday, July 12th.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): I'm Amy Martinez.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And I'm Sasha Pfeiffer.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): And don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend, too.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): It'll be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Roberta Rampton, Mark Katkov, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): It was produced by Zia Butch, Ben Abrams, and Katie Kline.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carly Strange.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Join us again on Monday.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades in briefly]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): This message comes from NetSuite.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): What does the future hold for business?
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Can someone invent a crystal ball?
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Until then, over 42,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one AI cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): With real-time insights and forecasting, you're able to peer into the future and seize new opportunities.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash story.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Support for this podcast and the following message come from MidiHealth.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Women's midlife health issues have often been trivialized and ignored.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): It's time for a change.
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--:-- Host (A Martinez): Visit join midi.com to book your virtual visit.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (A Martinez): This message comes from the Nature Conservancy.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Nature is common ground for everyone, and uniting to protect nature can help solve today's challenges and create a thriving tomorrow for future generations.
--:-- Host (A Martinez): Discover why at nature.org slash NPR.
