The 2024 US election

Donald Trump at a NATO summit in 2019. Francisco Seco / AP  

 

The 2024 US election 

The chief of staff speaks out about Trump: "God help us"  

 

John Kelly, who was Donald Trump's longest-serving chief of staff during the presidency, confirms several rumors surrounding the former president. In an interview with CNN, he says, among other things, that it is true that Trump called American veterans and fallen soldiers "losers".  

 

Kelly describes the ex-president as someone who "has no idea what the United States stands for" and as someone who "admires autocrats and murderous dictators."  

 

- There is nothing more to say. God help us, says Kelly. The details of Trump's remarks about veterans and soldiers were first reported by The Atlantic in 2020.  

 

 

File photo, Joe Biden. Evan Vucci/AP  

 

Task: Faltering internal support for Biden ahead of the election  

 

A number of top Democrats who publicly support Joe Biden's candidacy ahead of next year's election are expressing concerns behind closed doors, the Wall Street Journal reports.  

 

Among the reasons cited are surveys that show an almost dead race between Biden and Donald Trump, the 80-year-old president's advanced age and his weak confidence figures among voters. A person in the party body DNC says that it would be irresponsible not to feel concern even if one hopes for an election win.  

 

Former Miami mayor Philip Levine is open about his criticism, likening the situation to a scenario where a grandfather runs a company, but is at a point where continued leadership risks affecting the heirs.  

 

- How do we get grandfather to leave the CEO role?

 

Matt Gaetz is interviewed outside Congress in Washington. Jacquelyn Martin/AP  

 

US debt ceiling 

The pressure is increasing on McCarthy – Trump friend wants to depose him  

 

Trump supporter Matt Gaetz has now filed a formal request to impeach House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It is the first time since 1910 that someone has tried the maneuver, writes Politico.  

 

No one has previously succeeded, and even for Gaetz it looks tough. So far, only three other Republicans have said they support the initiative. In addition, several sources told Politico that a majority of members of the Freedom Caucus, the House's most conservative right-wing group, appear to oppose the vote.  

For weeks, Gaetz has threatened to try to oust McCarthy if he contributes to the short-term budget that keeps the state apparatus alive being voted through Congress, which happened this weekend.  

 

104-year-old oldest person to skydive: "It was lovely" 

 

Dorothy Hoffner from the USA hopes to be entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The 104-year-old this weekend became the oldest person ever to jump with a parachute when she completed a tandem jump from a height of just over 4,000 meters in Illinois.  

 

Hoffner, who made her first parachute jump when she was 100 years old, is also happy with her second.  

- The whole thing was lovely, wonderful. It couldn't have been better, she says according to The Guardian.  

 

When the jump is officially registered, she breaks the record set by a Swede - 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson, who broke the record last year.