By STEVE PEOPLES, AP National Politics Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Joe Biden says he’s responsible for Donald Trump’s victory last fall, but he attributed Kamala Harris’ loss, at least in part, to sexism and racism.

Biden, who left office in January, addressed the Democrats’ disastrous 2024 election, concerns about his age and Trump’s divisive leadership during a Thursday interview on ABC’s “The View.” The 82-year-old Democrat said he has intentionally avoided speaking out publicly until this week to give Trump more than 100 days in office without his interference, as is typically the tradition following a change in the White House.

Asked about the last election, Biden said he was surprised by the role that he gender and race played in the contest.

“They went the sexist route,” Biden said of criticism that “a woman couldn’t lead the country and a woman of mixed race.”

He added: “I was in charge and he won, so I take responsibility.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Biden has largely stepped away from national politics since leaving the White House.

He’s not expected to play a central role in Democratic affairs as the party turns to a new generation of leadership, although he acknowledged on Thursday that he has maintained regular contact with Harris and has offered his guidance on her political future.

“She’s got a difficult decision to make about what she’s going to do. I hope she stays engaged,” Biden said, declining to share his specific advice.

Biden rejected concerns about his cognitive decline prompted by a disastrous debate performance last June. He also declined to criticize the Democratic leaders who privately pressed him to abandon his campaign.

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“The only reason I got out of the race was because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic Party,” he said, adding that the broader party didn’t buy into concerns about his age following the “terrible” debate performance, “but the Democratic leadership and some of the very significant contributors did.”

Thursday’s appearance also marked Biden’s first joint interview with former first lady Jill Biden since leaving Washington. She rejected those who believe she created a protective cocoon around her husband while in office to protect him from scrutiny about his age.

“It was very hurtful especially from some of our so-called friends,” she said of the criticism.

“I was with Joe day and night … and I did not create a cocoon around him,” she continued. “You saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere.”

Meanwhile, the former president did not hold back when the conversation turned to Trump’s job performance.

“He’s had the worst 100 days any president has ever had,” Biden said.

Lionel Messi will not be the first international soccer superstar to play in Minnesota, if and when the Argentine midfiNtsoelengoeelder takes the field for Inter Miami versus Minnesota United on Saturday in St. Paul.

Pele was that trailblazer when he and the New York Cosmos came to Bloomington in 1976.

The first-year Kicks were averaging 13,000 fans across their opening four matches at Metropolitan Stadium when Pele, a three-time World Cup winner, arrived for a ballyhooed North American Soccer League match.

The Kicks’ advertising slogan in their initial spring was: “In 1976, Minnesota joined the world” with its new soccer club, and that Wednesday night in the Minneapolis suburb, the Brazilian midfielder helped the Kicks’ set a NASL record for largest crowd.

The St. Paul Dispatch’s banner headline read: Pele pulls ’em in: 46,164.

“They turned out to see the maestro,” Kicks captain Alan Merrick recalled to the Pioneer Press in April. “… That game set the benchmark for the success of the Kicks on an ongoing basis. We had massive crowds. And that was one game, I think, that gave the Kicks credibility. It also brought people out to start to understand the game of soccer, because it was still ’76.”

The Kicks folded in 1981, and Minnesota didn’t have first-division soccer until the Loons joined MLS in 2017. Since Allianz Field opened in 2019, MNUFC has consistently sold out its soccer-specific stadium (19,600), and a standing-room-only crowd in excess of 20,000 is expected this weekend.

Unlike some other MLS teams, MNUFC declined to move its Messi-mania game to a bigger local venue — in their case, either U.S. Bank or Huntington Bank stadiums — to accommodate broader fan demand. The Loons said they wanted to honor its season-ticket holders.

The Loons also sought to keep the match on natural grass, which is all but a requirement for today’s top (and aging) players, such as the 37-year-old Messi and his band of former Barcelona teammates reunited in Miami — Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

But Pele and his fellow star, Italian forward Giorgio Chinaglia, played on a Met Stadium surface that had the Twins’ infield dirt exposed in front of one goal. The pitching mound was lopped off and covered with a Kicks logo.

Smooth talker

To hype up the event, a news conference was held the day before Pele played in Minnesota. He showed up in a blue silk leisure suit and catered to Minnesota’s press corps by talking about the weather.

As a heat wave reached 90 degrees on game day, Pele said: “We were led to believe we were coming to a cold land and yet when we arrive it is hotter here than in New York or even Brazil.”

Pele was among the first in what has became a decades-old tradition of pumping up perceived growth of the world’s game in the U.S. He guessed that within 10 to 15 years, the U.S. could rival what other countries had accomplished in the previous century. It’s still a waiting game.

“What’s happened in America in terms of general interest in the game has been fantastic since I’ve been here. Almost unbelievable,” said Pele, who had moved from Santos FC in Brazil to New York in 1974. “The reception wherever we’ve gone has been wonderful.”

Since Messi joined MLS in 2023, the Argentine rarely speaks to reporters in away stadiums after matches — despite being the catalyst in setting record crowds in so many places: 72,610 in Kansas City; 65,612 in New England; 62,358 in Chicago; and most recently 60,614 in Cleveland on April 19.

Those figures are more than double the average attendance at MLS matches (23,240) in 2024, according to league data.

‘Still a magnificent player’

At age 25, Merrick’s role as a Kicks’ center back was to try to slow down Pele, who at 36 still possessed dynamic skill and playmaking creativity from an attacking midfield spot.

“He was still a magnificent player,” said Merrick, now 74 and residing in Lakeville. “He was the real deal, without a doubt.”

Messi, meanwhile, can still be brilliant. He led Argentina to the World Cup in 2022 and last season, he scored 20 goals and added 11 assists while capturing the league’s MVP award and Miami won the Supporters Shield (best regular-season record).

Argentina’s Lionel Messi waves after receiving the Golden Ball award for best player of the tournament at the end of the World Cup final soccer match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022. Lionel Messi says he is coming to Inter Miami and joining Major League Soccer. After months of speculation, Messi announced his decision Wednesday, June 7, 2023,to join a Miami franchise that has been led by another global soccer icon in David Beckham since its inception but has yet to make any real splashes on the field.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

Messi hasn’t been as strong this season, with only a handful of goals and assists while missing a few games.

Almost 40 years ago in Minnesota, Pele still displayed moments of quickness, deft passing and even tried to pull off an acrobatic overhead scissors kick. But it was Kicks star midfielder Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe who gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead in the 68th minute.

Then in a controversial moment a few minutes later, Pele assisted on Chinaglia’s equalizing goal. Pele and Merrick each jumped to head a free kick in to the box; their bodies connected in the air, with Pele saying the ball grazed his head.

Both Kicks coach Fred Goodwin and Merrick insisted the goal shouldn’t have counted because they believed Pele fouled Merrick. YouTube footage of the game is grainy and inconclusive.

“It really was a foul,” a steadfast Merrick said in April. “I mean, I’ve seen it multiple times. Even though I’m biased, he definitely fouled me. … Those star players sometimes get some calls that go their way. That was certainly the case.”

In his 21-year pro career, Pele set a Guinness World Record with 1,279 career goals in 1,363 total games. But he didn’t score that day in Bloomington. A few of his shots went high over the crossbar and deep into Met Stadium’s packed stands.

It was Cosmos’ Tony Field who scored the game-winner in the 80th minute for a 2-1 result.

The non-foul call, however, wasn’t the match’s only drama. Pele was booed when he tried to kick the ball out of goalkeeper Geoff Barnett’s hands during one stoppage, and Pele was accused of taking a swing at a Kicks player during one of a few brouhahas.

“As long as he missed or it was glancing touch, there would be no repercussions of that,” Merrick insisted.

Years later, Merrick got to know Pele during his visit to the USA Cup youth soccer tournament in Blaine. Merrick has a cherished photo of the two of them from the 1976 match. On it, Pele — who passed away in 2022 — wrote “good luck” and signed it with a large, flowing letter P.

Brazil’s soccer legend Pelé greets the crowd ahead of a Spanish league soccer match, in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Jan. 16, 2005. Pelé, the Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the last century, died in Sao Paulo on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. He was 82. (AP Photo/Jasper Juinen)

“He was so kind and gentle and he exuded a presence there,” Merrick said. “He was a beacon, as it were. He just had an aura about him that was always impressive. Dressed immaculately, fit guy, kind, courteous, polite to everybody, and unassuming.”

Yet immediately after that 1976 game, Kicks players and coaches were more disappointed with the loss than throwing Pele bouquets of compliments. Barnett voiced his displeasure while holding a beer post-match, and Ntsoelengoe added a sobering opinion of his superstar opponent.

“He didn’t seem as fast as when I saw him play before,” Ntsoelengoe was quoted in the Minneapolis Star. “But it was a thrill to be out there against him.”

For decades, the number of street vendors has far exceeded the number of permits that allow them to legally set up shop on New York City streets. A City Council bill wants to change that.

Street vendors and advocates attending the City Council’s hearing on permitting reforms Wednesday. (Alex Krales/NYC Council Media Unit)

For decades, the number of street vendors has far exceeded the number of permits that allow them to legally set up shop on New York City streets.

In 2021, the City Council passed Local Law 18, which aimed to increase the number of food vendor permits by 445 per year starting in 2022. However, only 382 new permits have been given to vendors so far, said Corinne Schiff, deputy commissioner for environmental health at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), during a Council hearing Tuesday. 

The New York City Council heard testimony about a package of bills to reform the process, including one that would increase the number of permits by 1,500 each year for five consecutive years—and then lift the cap altogether. Another bill would decriminalize vending offenses (Int. 47), and a third would create a division of street vendors assistance within the Department of Small Business Services (Int. 0408).

Right off the bat, officials from Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), Department of Sanitation (DSNY), DOHMH, and Department of Small Business Services (SBS), weighed in on the possibility of increasing the number of permits, which they saw as viable. But agency officials did not support lifting the cap on the number of licenses altogether—the second part of the bill that Bronx Councilmember Pierina Sanchez introduced.

“The New York City Health Department has no concerns about issuing more supervisory license applications annually than local law currently requires, and would like to work with the City Council on some of the details to ease implementation,” said Corinne Schiff, DOHMH deputy commissioner for the environmental health division.

However, she added, “the administration is opposed to lifting the cap entirely.”

One of the first steps a person must take to prepare or serve food for vending is to obtain a vending license with the DOHMH. The second step is to obtain a permit, the number of which has been capped for decades, leading many vendors to seek them on the black market, often paying exorbitant prices.

During the hearing, Schiff argued that eliminating the cap would increase the department’s workload on mandatory food safety training, inspections, issuance of licenses and permits, while requiring more funding.

Carlos Ortiz, DCWP’s deputy commissioner for external affairs, offered another argument as to why the cap should not be lifted: “Impact on quality of life.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, representatives from the city’s Business Improvement Districts or BIDs—which represent brick-and-mortar businesses, and often view street vendors as competition—testified against the bill, and doubled down on the need for more enforcement.

“The issue of how many licenses you wanna give is irrelevant to the Garment District,” said Barbara Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, a BID in Midtown Manhattan. “What is relevant is regulating time, place, and manner that are enforceable, rules that are enforceable, and are in fact vigorously enforced.”

The city already regulates where and when street vendors can operate, like only on sidewalks that are at least 12 feet wide, and some permits only work seasonally, among other rules.

Enforcement responsibilities primarily fall to the DSNY, which took the lead on enforcement of the city’s vendors in 2023. But since 2022, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has led in issuing the greatest number of tickets to vendors. In 2024 alone, these agencies issued over 13,000 tickets to city vendors, and seized tons of food.

Julie Menin, chair of the Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, pressed DOHMH officials about why most of those who’ve obtained supervisory licenses since Local Law 18 was passed did not yet have supervisory permits.

“We don’t know the answer to that,” Schiff said. “The local law doesn’t have a deadline to apply for the permit, and so they may eventually turn into permits.”

Mahmoud Zayed, a street vendor since 2008, said he has rented a permit through the black market for years, “as I have never been able to obtain one in my own name.”

“I have been forced to pay thousands of dollars every two years to people who were able to get permits directly from the city while they only pay a small fee,” he added.

During the more than six-hour hearing, more than 80 people testified, including dozens of street vendors, but also brick-and-mortar owners, investors, content creators, and the general public. The vast majority of speakers supported the bill.

Proponents say street vending, a largely immigrant-powered sector, is often one of few options for people trying to earn a living in an increasingly expensive city. Protections are even more important now, as immigrants are being targeted for arrest and deportation under the Trump administration. 

After the hearing, Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, said it was encouraging to see the administration calling for expanding the total number of vending permits.

“The fight for reforming the street vending system in New York has always been urgent, but especially under this current federal administration, it’s essential,” Kaufman-Gutierrez said.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. held steady this week, not far from its highest levels this year, but below where it was a year ago.

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Average rate on a US 30-year mortgage eases to 6.76%, its second straight weekly decline

The rate stood at 6.76% for the second week in a row, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.09%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, eased. The average rate dropped to 5.89% from 5.92% last week. It’s down from 6.38% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including global demand for U.S. Treasurys, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions and bond market investors’ expectations about the economy and inflation.

After climbing to a just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained above 6.62%, where it was just four weeks ago. It then spiked above 6.8% in the following two weeks and eased last week to 6.76%.

The recent swings in mortgage rates reflect volatility in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which had mostly fallen after climbing to around 4.8% in mid-January, surged last month to 4.5% amid a sell-off in government bonds triggered by investor anxiety over the Trump administration’s trade war.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.33% in midday trading Thursday, up from 4.26% late Wednesday.

Elevated mortgage rates and rising home prices remain affordability hurdles for many would-be homebuyers, key reasons why the spring homebuying season is off to a lackluster start, even as the inventory of homes on the market is up sharply from last year. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in March, posting the largest monthly drop since November 2022.

The median monthly housing payment was $2,868 in the four weeks ended May 4, an all-time high, according to a new report from Redfin.

Economists expect mortgage rates to remain volatile in coming months, though they generally call for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6.5% this year.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve left its main interest alone, as was widely expected, even as it noted an increased risk of higher unemployment and inflation. While the Fed doesn’t set rates on home loans, its actions can influence the trajectory of mortgage rates.

“Looking ahead, the Fed’s wait-and-see approach is likely to keep mortgage rates at a high-6% in the near term, unless major policy developments or economic shifts occur, such as notable outcomes from the upcoming U.S.-China trade talks scheduled for this weekend,” said Jiayi Xu, economist at Realtor.com.