Biden wins primaries – and is interrupted several times during his campaign appearance on Israel’s Black Day – as the government justifies itself to the families of the victims

US President Joe Biden has won the primaries for his party’s presidential nomination in New Hampshire, according to predictions. His success, however, is more symbolic because the delegate votes won in the state will not be taken into account at the Democrats’ nominating convention in the summer. Biden, who wants to run for a second term as president in November, was not even on the ballot in the primaries on Monday evening. Nevertheless, voters had the option to enter his name. Biden’s supporters campaigned for votes, mainly for image reasons, so as not to make the president appear blank.

The background is an internal dispute among Democrats: the party leadership actually wanted to move the start of the primaries to South Carolina – to a state with a more diverse electorate, to give the voices of black voters a bigger stage. The vote there won’t take place until February 3. New Hampshire did not want to lose its status as the first state for the primaries and pushed for an early voting date. Biden stuck to the party line and did not put himself on the ballot in New Hampshire. Only largely unknown candidates who had no chance were listed there. As an incumbent president, Biden has no serious competition in the Democratic primaries.

Biden interrupted his campaign appearance several times because of the Gaza war

However, during an appearance in the US state of Virginia, Biden was interrupted several times by troublemakers over his handling of the Gaza war. According to the accompanying press, on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in Manassas chants included “Genocide Joe” and “Stop the financing of genocide”. Biden’s supporters in the audience loudly protested “four more years” every time a disruptor interrupted. Biden had to interrupt his campaign speech several times. In recent weeks, the Democrat has been repeatedly interrupted by hecklers during speeches.

Also sparking outrage among some of his opponents was Biden’s early speech calling Democrat Terry McAuliffe the “real governor of Virginia.” The audience responded with occasional laughter. McAuliffe served as governor of the state from 2014 to 2018. He ran for the post again in 2021, but lost the election to Republican Glenn Youngkin. Biden was campaigning for his party colleague McAuliffe at the time.

His opponents then accused Biden of not accepting the Democratic election results. Biden even repeatedly warned during the election campaign that former President Donald Trump and his supporters were spreading lies about election fraud. Youngking shared a video of the scene on the X platform and wrote: “Mr. President, I’m here.”

Biden, his wife Jill and US Vice President Kamala Harris mainly campaigned for the right to abortion during the election campaign. (lacquer/sda/dpa)