The logo for CrowdStrike and a Spirit Airlines webpage are shown on a computer screen and mobile phone screen, in New York, Friday, July 19, 2024. A global technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks offline and media outlets off air after a faulty software update disrupted companies and services around the world and highlighted their dependence on just a handful of providers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — Much of the world faced online disarray Friday as a widespread technology outage affected companies and services across industries — grounding flights, knocking banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air.

At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide. The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.

CrowdStrike has said a fix is on the way. Still, chaos deepened hours after the problem was first detected.

Here’s what you need to know.

How did Friday’s global outage happen?

Friday’s disruptions began when a faulty update was pushed out from CrowdStrike for one of its tools, “Falcon.” In a statement about the ongoing situation, the company said the defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux systems were not impacted.

But, because scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs with Windows as their operating system, the consequences of this kind of technical problem have been far-reaching.

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services during peak summer travel — disrupting thousands of flights. Banks in South Africa and New Zealand reported outages impacting payments and online services. Some news stations, particuarly in Australia, were unable to broadcast for hours. And hospitals had problems with their appointment systems, leading to delays and sometimes cancelations for critical care, while officials in some U.S. states warned of 911 problems in their areas.

Elsewhere, people experienced more minor inconveniences, including trouble ordering ahead at Starbucks, causing long lines at some of the coffee chain’s stores. Some billboards in New York City’s famous Times Square also went dark.

Experts stress that Friday’s disruptions underscore the vulnerability of worldwide dependence on software that comes from only a handful of providers.

“It is an ‘all our eggs are in one basket’ situation,” Craig Shue, professor and computer science department head at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said in emailed commentary. “This lets us make sure our ‘basket’ is high quality: the software provider tries to identify threats and respond to them quickly. But at the same time, if anything goes wrong and the basket fails, we have a lot of broken eggs.”

What is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike is a U.S. cybersecurity company that provides software to companies around the world and across industries. It bills itself as being the globe’s most advanced cloud-based security technology provider.

“We stop breaches,” the cybersecurity firm writes on its website.

According to the company’s website, CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 and launched in early 2012. CrowdStrike listed on the Nasdaq exchange five years ago. Last month, the Austin, Texas company reported that its revenue rose 33% in the latest quarter from the same quarter a year earlier — logging a net profit of $42.8 million, up from $491,000 in the first quarter of last year.

CrowdStrike has a partnership with Amazon Web Services and its “Falcon for Defender” security technology is designed to supplement Microsoft Defender to prevent attacks.

Is there a fix?

Disruptions on Friday have continued hours after CrowdStrike first identified the issue. But both the company and Microsoft say that they’re working to get systems back online.

In an emailed statement, Crowdstrike said that it was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” — adding that a fix “had been deployed” for the identified issue.

Microsoft 365 posted on social media platform X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

Spokesperson Frank X. Shaw later added that the company was “actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.” Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft are also appearing to engage IT personnel on official online channels, such as Reddit.

While the problem is fixable, it requires some expertise. Some cybersecurity experts warn of bad actors who may reach out claiming they can help. Smaller companies or organizations with less IT resources are particularly at risk.

Gartner analyst Eric Grenier noted that those impacted should make sure they’re talking to trusted organizations as they work towards recovery. “Attackers will definitely prey on organizations as a result of this,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate and former president, Donald Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

From a media perspective, Donald Trump failed to stick the landing at the Republican convention that nominated him as its presidential candidate for a third time.

His acceptance speech, which exceeded 90 minutes and stretched past midnight Eastern time into Friday, won him wide praise for its vivid recounting of last weekend’s assassination attempt yet switched gears into something resembling what most of his supporters see regularly on the campaign trail.

“The ‘new’ Donald Trump soothed and silenced the nation for 28 minutes last night,” Axios’ Zachary Basu wrote on Friday. “Then the old Trump returned and bellowed, barked and bored America for 64 minutes more.”

The convention was received as a well-run display of unity surrounding the Republican ticket of Trump and vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Conservative media figure Tucker Carlson may be biased — he spoke from the convention stage on Thursday — but he was giddy and giggly about what he had seen. “I’ve never been to a more fun convention or a convention with better vibes,” he said.

A speech that pivoted

Trump began in subdued tones as he talked about a bullet slamming into his ear at a political rally in Pennsylvania. He indulged in dramatic political theater: walking over to kiss the helmet on a displayed uniform of retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the assassin’s bullet intended for the former president.

Trump’s speech had been billed as a call to unity where President Joe Biden’s name wasn’t going to be mentioned, but instead the Democrat’s name came up twice after Trump switched gears. Vanity Fair said the address “gave America whiplash.”

NBC News reporter Garrett Haake, stationed on the convention floor, reported that “in the first half I saw a lot of wet eyes. In the second half I saw a lot of closed eyes.”

The New York Times said in a headline Friday that Trump had struggled to turn the page on “American carnage,” the attention-getting phrase from his 2017 inaugural as president. “On the last night of the GOP convention on Thursday, Donald J. Trump promised to bridge political divides, and then returned to delighting in deepening them.”

Similarly, the Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey wrote that Trump had wrapped “a fresh gesture toward unity around the same dark view of American decline and loathing for political opponents and immigrants that have defined his nine-year political career and transformed the GOP.”

The “Fox & Friends” morning show on Friday opened with a lengthy clip of Trump, who wore a bandage on his right ear, speaking about the shooting.

“I thought it was a magical moment … it was a great speech,” said “Fox & Friends” host Lawrence Jones. Yet Fox News analyst Karl Rove, while praising how the convention was run, said shortly after Trump had left the stage that there was “weakness” during the middle of a speech that began and ended well.

Comments about how long it went on

On other networks, commentators took note of its length and rambling nature. Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary and now an MSNBC analyst, said it was “longer than most American baseball games.”

Others sensed an opening for Democrats, who have been bathed in pessimism about Biden’s hopes — if he even remains a candidate. Trump “dodged a bullet last Saturday and Democrats dodged a bullet tonight,” said CNN’s Van Jones.

“They still have to figure out what to do about Joe Biden,” said ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “There’s still that movement to replace Joe Biden. But they believe, looking at this, this is the candidate that (they feel) they can beat.”

While the portion that resembled Trump’s stump speech was familiar to his fans, those are rarely seen at length outside of networks like Fox and Newsmax that appeal to conservative viewers. A much larger chunk of America was watching Thursday. While television ratings were not immediately available, the Nielsen company said 18 million people watched the convention the night before, most concentrated in the hour where Vance — and Trump the next night — spoke.

With the balloons being cleared from the convention hall in Milwaukee, the attention of the political press will quickly turn to who Democrats nominate to oppose Trump. The subject line in Friday morning’s influential Politico Playbook? “Biden world seethes as Dems move to dump him.”

HARRISBURG, PA:  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (“PGCB”) today reported that tax revenue generated during the combined Fiscal Year 2023/2024 reached a record level of $2.54 billion.

 

This tax figure is the result of a record combined revenue generation of over $5.89 billion from casino slot machines and table games, iGaming, sports wagering, video gaming terminals (VGTs) and fantasy sports contests. The previous high for gaming revenue and tax revenue in a fiscal year was during 2022/2023 with $5.5 billion and $2.36 billion respectively. The estimated amounts for revenue and taxes being reported are prior to any possible adjustments by the PA Department of Revenue.

Tax revenue from the various forms of gaming regulated by the PGCB is returned to Pennsylvanians in a number of ways.  These include, but are not limited to:

• school property tax reduction on an owner’s primary residence;
• state, county, and local economic development, safety and recreational projects;
• support of the agricultural industry through support of horse racing; and,
• revenue toward the Commonwealth’s General Fund.

Pennsylvania Department of Health data from 2020 shows a high safety profile for abortions, with only 239 complications reported out of 32,123 procedures performed. (Longfin Media/Adobe Stock)
Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Service

In Pennsylvania, a unique mobile van brings reproductive resources to communities across Western Pennsylvania. A new podcast, called “(In)Accessible,” explores the challenges people have in finding reproductive healthcare, including abortion, in the state.

Podcast host Rebecca Susman, communications and development director for the Keystone Progress Education Fund, said it features guests doing innovative work to address these barriers, with topics like fertility treatments and menopause care. Susman describes one of the conversations.

“I spoke with Alecia Ott from The Auto(nomous) Body Shop or the ‘auto body shop,’ which is an amazing mutual aid van, where she brings it all over the place, to universities, to events. And she gives out information about birth control and emergency contraception – as well as harm reduction, such as Narcan,” she said.

In Pennsylvania, abortion remains legal until 24 weeks of pregnancy, and it’s one of the closest locations to receive care for people living in many nearby states with abortion bans.

In the podcast, Alecia Ott explains that when she parks the van, she puts out a chalkboard inviting people to stop by for free information and contraception. The eye-catching orange van often sparks curiosity.

“You’d be surprised at how quickly somebody is telling me a story about how they accessed care, or they had to help somebody else find a place to have an abortion or emergency contraception or, you know, fertility help. People are sharing really intimate stories very quickly,” Ott said.

Ott points to a few resources, like the Steel City Access Network in Pittsburgh, that provide transportation for abortion seekers, while the Western PA Fund for Choice offers financial assistance. She also envisions a collaborative network of mobile units to strengthen her advocacy.

Susman said the podcast also has covered the impact of the Dobbs decision, and the confusion people may have about their options, with ever-changing legal challenges in nearby states. She sees Pennsylvania’s current abortion access as the result of strong political leadership, but acknowledges it could be under threat.

“Every single seat in the House, the Pennsylvania House, is up for grabs this fall. And we have another state Supreme Court election as well. This could all change. And these decisions happen because of who we elect into office and who they appoint, so it’s very, very important that we all show up this November,” Susman explained.

AMBRIDGE, July 18 – Beaver County residents will benefit from expanded adult literacy resources thanks to new grant funding of $659,046 to Literacy Pittsburgh, state Rep. Rob Matzie announced today.

 

“The ability to get a good-paying job, benefit from career training, tap into community resources and even successfully navigate life in the community – all depend on basic literacy skills,” Matzie said. “But for some residents – particularly those who speak English as a second language – the lack of those skills is still a major barrier.

 

“This new funding will allow Literacy Pittsburgh to train and support additional instructors and tutors so they can bring these essential tools to more folks in our region.”

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing lane closures at the Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard) and Brighton Heights Boulevard intersection in the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County will occur Monday night, July 22 weather permitting.

Single-lane closures and temporary stoppages of 15 minutes or less will occur at the intersection of Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard) and Brighton Heights Boulevard from 11 p.m. Monday night until 6 a.m. Tuesday morning. Crews will conduct roadway marking removal and installation operations.

The $38.6 million McKees Rocks Bridge preservation project extends between Route 51 (Island Avenue) and Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard) and includes sidewalk replacement, sidewalk support steel repairs, sidewalk railing painting, full-depth concrete pavement reconstruction of the road and two ramps at Helen Street, ADA curb ramp installation, approach pavement work at intersections of Routes 65 and 51, barrier replacement and upgrade, deck overhang and spall repair, railroad fencing installation, and other miscellaneous construction. As work occurs, traffic will be reduced to a single lane in each direction. The overall project is anticipated to conclude in the fall of 2025.

The Brayman Construction Corporation and Advantage Steel and Construction, LLC are the prime contractor.

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Photos by Gary Miller. Published July 18, 2024 12:09 P.M.

(Rochester, Pa) The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative Cruise on the Gateway Clipper Wednesday evening. Among those in attendance included Senator Elder Vogel JR, State Representatives Rob Matzie and Jim Marshall, Commissioner Jack Manning, Republican State Representative candidate Roman Kozak, and Rico Elmore of RCBC spoke about his experience at the Trump rally in Butler. Representatives of Chris Deluzio, Josh Kail, and Candidate Kenya Johns also attended.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on stage during his walk-through on the third day of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump takes the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump’s address will conclude the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.

His moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.

Trump has said the shooting also led him to change his RNC speech, from what was going to be “a humdinger” made up largely of attacks on President Joe Biden to one more focused on bringing the country together.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.

His son Donald Trump Jr. said earlier this week that he spent a few hours with him trying to “de-escalate” some of the rhetoric in the former president’s speech following the attack. Trump has not released information about the extent of his injuries or the treatment he received.

RNC speakers this week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.

“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday.

In his first prime-time speech since becoming the nominee for vice president, Vance spoke of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent, and of how he later joined the military and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics.

The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.

Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”

While Republicans were set to emerge from their convention more united than in recent memory, Democrats are bitterly divided about whether Biden should continue to lead the ticket. Biden, following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month, has resisted increasing pressure to drop out, with Democrats’ own party convention scheduled for next month in Chicago.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats nationally say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to an AP/NORC poll released Wednesday.

Some national polls do show a close race, though others suggest Trump with a lead. And some state polls have contained warning signs for Biden, too, including a recent New York Times/Siena poll that suggested a competitive race in Virginia, a state Biden won in their 2020 matchup.

The RNC has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.

Trump Jr. spoke movingly Wednesday about his father’s bravery, saying he showed “for all the world” that “the next American president has the heart of a lion.” But he toggled back and forth between talking about his father as a symbol of national unity and slamming his enemies.

“When he stood up with blood on his face and the flag at his back the world saw a spirit that could never be broken,” Trump Jr. said.

Trump has not spoken in public since the shooting, though he’s given interviews off camera. But he referenced it during a private fundraiser on Wednesday, according to a clip of his remarks recorded on a cellphone and obtained by PBS News.

“I got lucky,” he said. “God was with me.”

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during the Republican National Convention Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — JD Vance introduced himself to a national audience Wednesday after being chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, sharing the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and making the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.

Speaking to a packed arena at the Republican National Convention, the Ohio senator cast himself as fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration.

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he said.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this,” he said. “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”

The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown, having served in the Senate for less than two years. He rapidly morphed in recent years from a bitter critic of the former president to an aggressive defender and is now positioned to become the future leader of the party and the torch-bearer of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political movement.

The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, Vance enters the race as questions about the age of the men at the top — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns. He also joins Trump after an assassination attempt against the former president — in which Trump came perhaps millimeters from death or serious injury — underscoring the importance of a potential successor.

But Trump’s decision to choose Vance wasn’t about picking a running mate or the next vice president, said Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who introduced the senator at a fundraiser earlier Wednesday.

“Donald Trump picked a man in JD Vance that is the future of the country, the future of the Republican Party, the future of the America First movement,” he said.

Vance shared his story and introduced his family

In his speech, Vance shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent. He later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics — an embodiment of an American dream he said is in now in short supply.

“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he said.

Vance gained prominence following the publication of his bestselling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells the story of his blue-collar roots. The book became a must-read for those seeking to understand the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House that year. Vance spent years as a Trump critic, assailing the former president with insults, before he changed his mind.

Vance, who had never attended, let alone spoken at a previous Republican convention, spent much of his speech talking up Trump and going after Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old president.

Vance says he was in fourth grade when “a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico.”

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” he added. “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

The crowd inside the convention hall welcomed Vance warmly. They erupted into chants of “Mamaw!” in honor of his grandmother, and chanted “JD’s Mom!” after he introduced his mother, a former addict who has been sober for 10 years.

Vance was introduced Wednesday night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who talked of the stark difference between how she and her husband grew up — she a middle-class immigrant from San Diego, and he from a low-income Appalachian family. She called him “a meat and potatoes kind of guy” who respected her vegetarian diet and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

Trump, again wearing a bandage over his injured ear, watched Vance speak from his family box and was often seen smiling.

Most Americans — and Republicans — didn’t know much about Vance before Wednesday night. According to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before Trump selected the freshman senator as his choice, 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about him to have formed an opinion. That includes 61% of Republicans.

Democrats have attacked Vance for his past support for a national abortion ban, his criticism of U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and his eagerness to blame Democrats for Trump’s assassination attempt. But the young senator steered clear of such controversies in his remarks, which were light on the red-meat conservative attacks that convention audience typically expect.

Biden’s campaign responded with a blistering statement calling Vance “unprepared, unqualified, and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”

“Tonight, J.D. Vance, the poster boy for Project 2025, took center stage. But it’s working families and the middle class who will suffer if he’s allowed to stay there,” said Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communication director.

A Trump aide just released from prison electrified the crowd

Convention organizers had stressed a theme of unity, even before Trump survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday. Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol, officials said, would be absent from the stage.

But that changed with former White House official Peter Navarro, who was greeted with a standing ovation hours after being released from a Miami prison where he served four months for defying a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of the former president’s supporter.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They will come for you,” he said in a fiery speech, comparing his legal troubles to those faced by Trump, who earlier this year was convicted on 34 felony charges in his criminal hush money trial.

Also spotted on the floor of the convention: Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair, and Roger Stone, who were both convicted as part of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in that election. Trump pardoned both Manafort and Stone.

Families blamed Biden for the losses of their loved ones

Beyond Vance’s primetime speech, the Republican Party focused Wednesday on a theme of American global strength.

In a particularly powerful moment, the relatives of service members killed during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage, holding photographs of their loved ones.

Christy Shamblin, whose daughter-in-law Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee died in the attack, spoke of the six hours she said Trump spent with her family in Bedminster, New Jersey and “spoke to us in a way that made us feel understood.”

“Donald Trump carried the weight for a few hours with me. And for the first time since Nicole’s death I felt I wasn’t alone in my grief,” she said.

Herman Lopez, whose son, Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, was among those killed, read aloud the names of all 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack.

Also featured were the parents of Omer Neutra, one of eight Americans still being held hostage in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

His parents, Ronen and Orna, said Trump called them after their son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was captured, and offered support. As they spoke, the crowd chanted “Bring them home!”

___

Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Ali Swenson in Minneapolis, Farnoush Amiri, Michelle L. Price and Bill Barrow in Milwaukee, and Will Weissert and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE – President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party select a different candidate, according to a new poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It sharply undercuts his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.

The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORC poll in February.

The findings underscore the challenges the 81-year-old president faces as he tries to silence calls from within his own party to leave the race and tries to convince Democrats that he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The poll was conducted mostly before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It’s unclear whether the shooting influenced people’s views of Biden, but the small number of poll interviews completed after the shooting provided no early indication that his prospects improved.

Meanwhile, as Vice President Kamala Harris receives additional scrutiny amid the talk about whether Biden should bow out, the poll found that her favorability rating is similar to his — but the share of Americans who have an unfavorable opinion of her is slightly lower.

The poll provides some evidence that Black Democrats are among Biden’s strongest supporters, with roughly half in the survey saying he should continue running, compared to about 3 in 10 white and Hispanic Democrats. Overall, seven in 10 Americans think Biden should drop out, with Democrats only slightly less likely than Republicans and independents to say that he should make way for a new nominee.

“I do have genuine concerns about his ability to hold the office,” said Democrat Andrew Holcomb, 27, of Denver. “I think he’s frankly just too old for the job.”

Janie Stapleton, a 50-year-old lifelong Democrat from Walls, Mississippi, held the opposite view, saying Biden is the “best candidate” for president.

People aren’t just sour on Biden on as they size up their choices this election season.

About 6 in 10 Americans want Trump to withdraw — but relatively few Republicans are in that camp.

As for Biden, younger Democrats are especially likely to want to see him bow out – and to say they’re dissatisfied with him. Three-quarters of Democrats under the age of 45 want Biden to drop out, compared to about 6 in 10 of those who are older.

“I just feel like these two individuals are a sad choice,” said Alexi Mitchell, 35, a civil servant who lives in Virginia. She identifies as a Democratic-leaning independent, and while she thinks Biden is probably still mentally up to the job, she worries that the past few weeks’ unraveling of support makes him a weak candidate, no matter what happens next. “If he doesn’t have control over his own party, that’s a fatal flaw,” she said. “He’s put us in a bad position where Trump might win.”

Despite bullish talk from the Biden campaign heading into the debate, the faceoff only left the president in a deeper hole. Democrats are slightly more likely to say they’re dissatisfied with Biden as their nominee now than they were before his halting performance. About half are dissatisfied, an uptick from about 4 in 10 in an AP-NORC poll from June.

By contrast, most Republicans – about 6 in 10 – came out of the debate very or somewhat satisfied with Trump as their candidate. Too few interviews were conducted after the assassination attempt to provide a clear indication of whether Republicans or Americans overall have rallied further around Trump since then.

David Parrott, a Democrat from Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, was willing to give Biden the benefit of the doubt given the president’s age, but he still voiced concerns about a potential second term.

“I don’t know if he can make it another four years or not,” said Parrott, a 58-year-old retiree. “Shouldn’t he be sitting at his beach house taking it easy?”

All of the recent churn has left Americans much more likely to think Trump is capable of winning the 2024 election than is Biden – 42% to 18%. About a quarter thought the the two men equally capable of winning.

Even Democrats are relatively dour about their party’s prospects come November.

Only about a third of Democrats believe Biden is more capable of winning than is Trump. About 3 in 10 think the two are equally capable of winning and 16% say victory is more likely to go to the Republican. By contrast, Republicans are overwhelmingly convinced that Trump is in the best position to win.

Trump also has the edge on Biden when Americans consider who is most capable of handling a crisis, 38% to 28%. And people are about equally divided on which candidate has the better vision for the country, with 35% saying Biden and 34% Trump.

For all of the disenchantment Biden is up against, the president insists it’s not too late to turn things around, saying past presidents have come back from a deficit at this stage in the campaign. In an interview Tuesday with BET News, he said many voters haven’t focused yet, adding, “The point is, we’re just getting down to gametime right now.”

The poll did also offer a bright spot for Biden: 40% of adults say he’s more honest than Trump, while about 2 in 10 think the opposite.

Most Democrats — around 6 in 10 — say that Vice President Harris would make a good president, while 22% think not and 2 in 10 don’t know enough to say. The poll showed that 43% of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of her, while 48% have an unfavorable opinion. Somewhat more have a negative view of Biden: approximately 6 in 10 Americans.

The survey was conducted before Trump selected freshman Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate. It showed that for most Americans, Vance is still an unknown. Six in 10 don’t know enough about him to form an opinion, while 17% have a favorable view and 22% view him negatively.

___

The poll of 1,253 adults was conducted July 11-15, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.