President Biden will address the nation on Wednesday after his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election. 

Biden will speak to the American people about why he decided to exit the race and what he plans to focus on for the remaining six months of his first term. His address will be delivered from the Oval Office, the White House said. 

The president is expected to be seen in public for the first time in six days on Tuesday as he returns to the nation’s capital from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Biden has not appeared publicly since reportedly testing positive for COVID-19 last week. His only public remarks on his stunning decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election came Monday during a brief phone call into the campaign headquarters of Vice Presidential Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee. 

According to the president’s public schedule, Biden will depart from Delaware at 12:30 p.m. He will then fly from Dover Air Force Base to Joint Base Andrews to return to the White House at around 2:30 p.m. The president will receive his daily briefing at 3 p.m. There are no public events on his schedule. 

In a letter released on X Sunday, Biden said he believes it is in the ‘best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.’ 

‘I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision,’ he added, though he gave no details on the time, place or manner in which he would speak. 

Last week, Biden began to self-isolate after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19. He was last seen publicly deplaning in Delaware on July 17.

In a letter updating the status of 81-year-old Biden’s medical condition on Friday, the physician to the president, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, wrote that Biden ‘completed his sixth dose of PAXLOVID this morning.’

Biden ‘is still experiencing a loose, non-productive cough and hoarseness, but his symptoms continue to improve steadily,’ O’Connor wrote in the letter released by the White House. 

‘His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal,’ the doctor said. ‘His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear.’ 

The doctor said Biden has the KP .2.3 variant, which accounts for approximately 33.3% of new infections in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

‘The President continues to tolerate treatment well and will continue PAXLOVID as planned,’ the letter says. ‘He continues to perform all his presidential duties.’ 

Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the White House, according to a U.S. official. Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. a little more than 24 hours after Biden announced that he would no longer seek re-election. 

On Wednesday, Netanyahu will give a speech in front of Congress, though Harris reportedly declined to preside over the address, according to the Washington Post. Before departing Israel for D.C., Netanyahu told reporters that his country would stand by the U.S. ‘regardless [of] who the American people choose as their next president.’

‘In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together,’ the leader said.

Netanyahu also requested a meeting with former President Trump this week, according to Politico. It is unclear if Trump agreed to the meeting.

Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague and Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ office told Fox News Digital Tuesday morning that she believes President Biden is currently capable of serving as president – after the sudden suspension of his campaign heightened concerns over his ability to complete his term.

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday after more than 30 Democratic lawmakers called on him to withdraw. Pressure mounted following his catastrophic performance at the first presidential debate in June, where he was seen speaking with a raspy voice and jumbling up his words.

Lawmakers immediately began to question Biden’s ability to serve the remainder of his term if he is unable to seek re-election, but the vice president remains confident in Biden’s ability to serve.

Asked if Harris believes Biden is currently capable of serving as president, the vice president’s office told Fox News Digital, ‘Yes.’

‘As the Vice President has said many times before, the nation is lucky to have President Biden leading our nation,’ Ernesto Apreza, press secretary to the vice president, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

The president has been isolated in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for nearly a week since testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The White House physician released several updates on the president’s health since his diagnosis, writing Monday that he ‘continues to perform all of his presidential duties.’

The president said in his withdrawal announcement that he will spend the remainder of his term ‘solely on fulfilling my duties as President,’ but some lawmakers are calling on his Cabinet to take action and remove him immediately.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., sent a letter to Harris and every member of Biden’s Cabinet on Monday demanding they invoke the 25th Amendment, which states that a vice president and Cabinet majority can vote to oust the president in the case that he is unfit to serve.

‘Joe Biden has decided he isn’t capable of being a candidate; in so doing his admission also means he cannot serve as President,’ Schmitt said. 

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she would be introducing a similar resolution to call on Harris to invoke the measure.

Former President Trump said he had ‘automatic chemistry’ with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in a Fox News interview on Monday.

Trump dismissed the pair’s past disagreements as a misunderstanding before they got to know each other, saying Vance is now among his strongest allies.

‘Originally, JD was probably not for me, but he didn’t know me,’ Trump said in the ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ interview. ‘And then when we got to know each other, he liked me maybe more than anybody liked me.’

The former president continued, ‘And he would stick up for me. And he’d fight for the worker as much as I fight for the worker. We just had an automatic chemistry.’

Vance was an early critic of Trump in 2016, when the former president was campaigning to eventually beat Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. 

At the time, Vance had dismissed Trump as ‘cultural heroin’ who was leading the disenfranchised working class into a ‘very dark place.’

Private text messages leaked by Vance’s former roommate show him calling Trump a ‘cynical’ leader and wondering if he would be ‘America’s Hitler.’

Vance’s stance began to shift while Trump was in office, which the Ohio senator said proved many of his assumptions wrong.

Vance told Fox in 2021 that he would never deny having been anti-Trump going into his first administration but that he was happy to have been proven wrong.

‘I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy,’ Vance said. ‘I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak.’

Trump endorsed Vance for the Senate in his successful 2022 campaign, further solidifying their alliance.

‘I was wrong about him,’ Vance told CNN in May. ‘I didn’t think he was going to be a good president. And I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to get him elected.’

In the recent interview with Watters, Trump offered specific praise for Vance’s 2016 memoir, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ which shed light on the struggles of the White underclass in the U.S. – the world in which Vance grew up.

‘It was all about the working men and women and how they aren’t being treated fairly. And he was right about that,’ Trump said. ‘And I understood that maybe better than anyone else. And we just have had a great relationship. And he had serious competition.’

Former President Trump reacted to the news of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigning in the wake of the assassination attempt against him, telling Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that ‘she never gave me proper protection.’ 

Cheatle resigned Tuesday morning amid pressure from Republican and Democrat lawmakers amid scrutiny over the massive security failure that led to the shooting at the Butler, Pa. Trump rally earlier this month. 

Trump, during his rally, ever-so-slightly turned his head—narrowly missing the bullet shot by 20-year-old suspect Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle by just a quarter of an inch. The bullet hit him, instead, in his upper right ear.

The bullet killed firefighter, father and husband Corey Comperatore as he protected his family from the shots, and severely injured two others. 

‘She never gave me proper protection, so I ended up having to take a bullet for democracy,’ Trump told Fox News Digital Tuesday after she resigned. 

‘Many requests were made by on-site Secret Service for more people, always with a turn down or no response,’ Trump said. ‘I have the biggest crowds in history, and they should be treated accordingly.’

Trump told Fox News Digital, though, that ‘big improvements have been made over the last week.’

Fox News reviewed the letter Cheatle sent to the U.S. Secret Service Tuesday morning, just a day after she testified before the House Oversight Committee Monday and over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13. 

‘To the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service, The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure,’ Cheatle wrote in a letter to the agency. ‘On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.’ 

Cheatle said that the ‘scrutiny’ over the last week ‘has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.’ 

‘As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,’ she wrote. 

‘In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,’ Cheatle wrote. 

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of security for the Trump rally on July 13. 

The Justice Department revealed late Monday in a court filing that it does in fact have transcripts of President Biden’s interviews with a biographer after initially having denied possessing the documents. 

While juggling Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to former special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president in the Obama administration, DOJ attorneys said it would be time-consuming to process audio files into transcripts related to the president’s conversations with biographer Mark Zwonitzer. 

‘We don’t have some transcript that’s been created by the special counsel that we can attest to its accuracy,’ DOJ lawyer Cameron Silverberg told U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich last month. 

That changed Monday evening, when Silverberg told Friedrich in a new court filing that Hur’s office did in fact have transcripts of some of Biden’s conversations with Zwonitzer. The biographer worked with Biden in 2007 and 2017 to compile memoirs, Politico reported. 

‘In the past few days, in the course of processing the portions of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings that the parties agreed to (see June 25, 2024 Joint Status Report at 2-3, ECF No. 20), the Department located six electronic files, consisting of a total of 117 pages, that appeared to be verbatim transcripts of a small subset of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings created for the SCO by a court-reporting service,’ a court filing late Monday evening reviewed by Fox News Digital states. 

The specific FOIA request related to the Biden-Zwonitzer transcripts was filed by the Heritage Foundation. 

The court filing Monday evening also revealed that while fielding the various FOIA requests related to the bombshell Hur report, DOJ officials contacted an unnamed person with knowledge of the transcripts, but the individual was unable to weigh in. After resisting reaching out to Hur directly for information pertaining to what documents he relied upon for his final report, the DOJ did in fact reach out to Hur. 

Hur confirmed the Biden-Zwonitzer transcripts and said he relied on the documents, as well as a note handwritten by Biden related to Afghanistan, for his final report. 

Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified materials after his eight years as vice president was released in February, and stated Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

‘Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,’ Hur wrote in his report. 

The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime yet could still serve as president.

In May, the White House asserted executive privilege over audio and video recordings related to Hur’s investigation, including the interviews between Biden and Zwonitzer. 

‘The audio recordings of your interview and Mr. Zwonitzer’s interview fall within the scope of executive privilege. Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations–in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,’ Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote to Biden in a letter obtained by Fox News at the time. 

Silverberg said in his Monday court filing that he will confer with the relevant parties regarding processing the documents for potential release. 

The court filing comes one day after Biden dropped out of the presidential race following mounting pressure from Democrats to bow out and let another candidate take the mantle to run against former President Trump. The pressure was amplified following Biden’s botched debate performance, which opened the floodgates to criticism and concern surrounding the president’s mental fitness and age. 

Vice President Kamala Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 election following Biden’s departure from the race. 

Vice President Kamala Harris declined to preside over a Wednesday joint address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because she will be in Indiana for an event that was previously scheduled, per an aide. 

Harris, who on Monday became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president following President Biden’s campaign suspension, will not be in attendance at the address and will not preside. 

With Harris’s absence, the task ordinarily would fall to Senate President pro tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., but Murray reportedly refused to do so – and will instead be boycotting the address.

Efforts made to reach Murray’s office for comment were unsuccessful.  

When Harris’s office was asked if she would have agreed to preside over Netanyahu’s address if she were going to be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, an aide to the vice president said they would not answer hypothetical questions. 

Netanyahu will be speaking to members of Congress during a joint address on Wednesday after being invited by the bipartisan leaders of both chambers back in May. 

In the absence of both Harris and Murray, the session will instead be presided over by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who is retiring after this Congress. 

During the time of Netanyahu’s address, Harris will be attending the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Grand Boule in Indianapolis, Ind., which is a biennial international conference, per a White House official. 

While she won’t be there, an aide emphasized that Harris’ absence and refusal to preside shouldn’t be considered a change to her stance on Israel.

An aide to the vice president told Fox News Digital that she would be meeting with Netanyahu at the White House this week while he is in Washington, D.C. They noted that the meeting is separate from Biden’s planned meeting with the prime minister. 

Harris is expected to reiterate her commitment to Israel’s ability to defend itself from Iran and militias that are backed by the country, such as terrorist groups Hizbullah and Hamas. According to the aide, Harris will once again condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israeli civilians by Hamas, as well as the sexual violence that took place. 

The vice president will also express her already stated concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where most of the war is taking place. Harris is expected to further convey that the war should end soon and in a way that allows for a secure Israel, the release of all hostages and the restoration of the rights of civilians in Gaza. She will specifically discuss with Netanyahu efforts to reach a deal for a ceasefire. 

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday in the wake of mounting pressure following the assassination attempt on former President Trump, Fox News confirmed. 

Fox News reviewed the letter Cheatle sent to the U.S. Secret Service Tuesday morning, just a day after she testified before the House Oversight Committee Monday and over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13. 

‘To the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service, The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure,’ Cheatle wrote in a letter to the agency. ‘On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.’ 

Cheatle said that the ‘scrutiny’ over the last week ‘has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.’ 

‘As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,’ she wrote. 

Cheatle said, though, that the ‘incident does not define us.’ 

‘We remain an organization based on integrity and staffed by individuals of exceptional dedication and talent,’ she wrote, adding that the agency ‘will move forward with our investigatory and protective mission in a steadfast manner.’ 

‘We do not retreat from challenge,’ she wrote. ‘However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission.’ 

Cheatle said that when she got the call asking whether she would return to the Secret Service after her brief retirement from the agency, she said she ‘did not hesitate.’ 

‘I love this agency, our mission, and the great men and woken who sacrifice so much every day,’ she wrote. ‘I have, and will always, put the needs of this agency first.’ 

‘In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,’ Cheatle wrote. 

Cheatle reflected on her career, reminding that she served as a special agent for 27 years, securing events for then-First Lady Hillary Clinton; worked as a supervisor on then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s detail; supervised then-Vice President Biden’s detail; lead RTC and more–including ‘overseeing the agency’s protective mission under the Trump Administration as AD-OPO.’ 

‘As I stated in the hearing yesterday, all of you are worthy of trust and confidence,’ Cheatle wrote. ‘You deserve the nation’s support in carrying out our critical mission.’

Cheatle said ‘one of my favorite things about this workforce is that the men and women are fiercely committed to our mission.’ 

‘Thank you for all that you do, and will continue to do, for our great nation,’ she wrote, signing the letter ‘kac.’ 

Trump, during his rally, ever-so-slightly turned his head—narrowly missing the bullet shot by 20-year-old suspect Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle by just a quarter of an inch. The bullet hit him, instead, in his upper right ear.

The bullet killed firefighter, father and husband Corey Comperatore as he protected his family from the shots, and severely injured two others. 

Cheatle admitted under oath that the Secret Service ‘on July 13th, we failed.’ 

‘As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency,’ she said. ‘We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.’ 

Cheatle added: ‘Our agents, officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no fail mission.’

House Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, had been calling on Cheatle to resign, calling her and the agency under her watch ‘the face of incompetence.’ 

‘It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign,’ Comer said during the hearing. ‘The safety of Secret Service protectees is not based on their political affiliation. And the bottom line is that under Director Cheatle’s leadership, we question whether anyone is safe.’ 

But Cheatle had defied those calls for days, maintaining she would not tender her resignation, and instead appeared before Congress to answer questions for the American people. 

Cheatle’s initial explanation of why there was such a significant security lapse that led to the near assassination of Trump included details about the roof Crooks was perched upon. 

‘That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,’ Cheatle said last week. ‘And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.’ 

During the hearing, Cheatle said the Secret Service is ‘still looking into the advanced process and the decision made’ as to why an agent wasn’t positioned on top of the roof that Crooks used to fire at former President Trump.

‘The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit. But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation, we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made,’ she said. 

She added that ‘I’m not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there, but we feel that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned’ to the event.

Trump’s security detail reportedly asked for additional security from the Secret Service, repeatedly, but those requests were not met. 

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of security for the Trump rally on July 13. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

President Biden is scheduled to return to the White House for the first time since ending his re-election campaign.

Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday while campaigning in Nevada and has since been isolated at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home. Just days later, Biden made a sudden withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race via a written statement.

The president has not made any public appearances since both his diagnosis and suspending his re-election bid despite growing concerns over his fitness to serve.

After staying out of the public eye for almost a week, the president will reportedly travel from Delaware to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon, according to the White House daily press schedule. 

The White House physician gave an update on the president’s health on Monday, sharing that his symptoms have ‘almost resolved completely’ and that Biden ‘continues to perform all of his presidential duties.’ 

Biden called in to the recently revamped Vice President Kamala Harris campaign headquarters on Monday, making his first public comments since dropping out of the race. 

‘I know yesterday’s news is surprising, and it’s hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,’ Biden told his former campaign staffers. ‘I know it’s hard because you have poured your heart and soul into me to help us win this thing, help me get this nomination, help me win the nomination and then go on to win the presidency.’

In less than two days since Biden dropped out of the race, the campaign was renamed to ‘Harris for President,’ and the vice president has already reportedly gained the support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, according to The Associated Press.

The race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is too close to call in the aftermath of President Biden’s decision to drop out.

Trump garnered the support of 49% of voters compared to 47% who prefer Harris, according to the results of a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

The former president takes a slightly larger lead in a hypothetical six-way race that includes other candidates such as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with Trump coming in as the preference of 45% of voters and Harris garnering the support of 41%. Kennedy Jr. received the most support of independent or third party candidates, coming in with the support of 6% of voters, the poll found.

‘The dramatic reset at the top of the Democratic ticket does little to move the race as Vice President Harris enters the fray with numbers similar to President Biden,’ Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a news release on the poll’s findings.

The poll is one of the first to be released since Biden’s decision to drop out of the race Sunday, which the president said was ‘in the best interest of my party and the country.’

Pressure on the president to drop out of the race among his fellow Democrats had continued to intensify in the weeks after a disastrous debate performance left many questioning his ability to defeat Trump in November.

Biden was quick to endorse Harris in the minutes after announcing his decision on X, noting in a subsequent post that his ‘very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President.’

‘And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,’ Biden continued. ‘Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.’

Harris will now look to solidify support for her candidacy ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month and take on Trump in November.

For his part, the poll found that Trump enjoys his best approval rating in the history of the poll, with 46% of respondents expressing a favorable view of the former president and 49% expressing an unfavorable view. The Quinnipiac University poll first began asking registered voters for their feelings about Trump in May 2015.

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,257 registered voters nationwide between July 19-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.