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 CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty ImagesFormer President Barack Obama's suggestive hand gesture when talking about Donald Trump's obsession with "crowd size" at the DNC was improvised "in the moment" according to his former speechwriters, who took a break from hosting their podcast Pod Save America, to work with him on it, they revealed on Wednesday.
"I should disclose, once a staffer, always a staffer, I volunteered to help a little, look at the speech a couple of times," Jon Favreau said during a podcast episode recorded just after his longtime boss left the stage Tuesday night before Dan Pfeiffer, former communications director for Obama, confessed that he helped out as well.
"Dan included the d--- joke," Favreau then joked, before clarifying that the hand gesture, which most viewers seemed to believe was a not-so-subtle reference to Trump's manhood, was not in the script.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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The Israeli military has ordered new forced evacuations in parts of central Gaza, signaling the expansion of ground operations and the latest displacement of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times over the course of Israel's war on the territory. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, pushing the official death toll past 40,200. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. In Chicago, where Democrats are gathered for the DNC, Gaza has been mentioned only in passing from the main stage of the convention. The party's official platform adopted this week does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. "There's been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on 'how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?'" says human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine's bid for U.N. membership. "Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they'll get more goodies from the U.S.?"
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 Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersCHICAGO — Former President Bill Clinton celebrated his 78th birthday Monday at the Democratic National Convention, where his birthday toast hinted at the kind of speech he'll give in honor of Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
"I've got a pretty good reputation of supporting women running for president," Clinton told a few hundred loyalists who included former and current aides and officials who served in his administration, according to Paul Glastris, his former White House speechwriter.
Soul star Mavis Staples, 85, led a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" to the ex-president, joined by guests who included: Chicagoan Bill Daley, Clinton's former Commerce secretary and chief of staff; former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton ally and former fundraiser; and Huma Abedin, a longtime Hillary Clinton loyalist and aide to the former secretary of State.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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