Author: PolitCens

Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris of California urged people to fight for “the America we know is possible,” as she made history in accepting her party’s nomination to appear alongside presidential candidate Joe Biden on the ballot in November.Harris, 55, a former prosecutor, is the fourth woman to be on a major U.S. party’s national ticket, but the first Black woman and first South Asian American. Her mother was a breast cancer scientist who emigrated from India. She died in 2009. Harris’ father, an economist, came to the U.S. from Jamaica.Addressing the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Harris sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, saying his “failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods.”Earlier in the evening, former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Trump, his successor, saying Trump was treating the presidency like “one more reality show” and jeopardizing the democracy with his inept leadership and authoritarian style.In accepting the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket, Harris spoke of a nation with “complexities and imperfections,” and the need to put in the work to address its flaws, such as combating racism and realizing “the promise of equal justice under the law.”“Make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We will stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths, and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us,” Harris said.Historic nominationBiden’s choice of a Black woman of Asian America descent as his running mate broke the mold of traditional political ticket-making and has excited many minorities and women in the party who were lukewarm or opposed to the 77-year-old white Biden leading the party into the fall election.Harris pledged that a Biden-Harris administration would work to “build an economy that doesn’t leave anyone behind,” take steps to end the coronavirus pandemic, and build a community that is “strong and decent, just and kind.””We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work,” Harris said. “A president who will bring all of us together — Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden.”Harris also made reference to her birth at a hospital in Oakland, California, seemingly a reference to a baseless “birther” theory stoked last week by President Trump that Harris wasn’t qualified to be vice president because both of her parents were immigrants.Meanwhile, Obama delivered a speech taped in historic Philadelphia saying that for nearly four years Trump “has shown no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.” Obama warned that Trump’s reelection could undermine democracy and said he had hoped Trump would take the job of president seriously and “discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”Obama’s speech was extraordinary because former presidents rarely publicly criticize a sitting president.After excerpts of Obama’s comments were released earlier Wednesday, Trump responded, criticizing Obama as having been ineffective and putting U.S. democracy in danger.”When I listen to that and I see the horror that he’s left us, the stupidity of the transactions that he made. Look what we’re doing. We have our great border wall. We have security,” Trump said at an afternoon press conference. “Look how bad he was, how ineffective he was.”‘Setting an example’Many who spoke emphasized Biden’s character and fortitude in overcoming major losses in his life, including the deaths of his first wife and young daughter in a 1972 car accident and more recently, in 2015, the death of one of his grown sons, former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, from brain cancer.Obama said Biden knows the true strength of the United States “comes from setting an example the world wants to follow,” and that Biden and Harris have plans to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, expand medical coverage, rescue the U.S. economy and “restore our standing in the world.” “More than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is they actually care about every American, and that they care deeply about this democracy,” Obama said. “They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder. They believe that no one, not even the president, is above the law and that no public official, not even the president, should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.”Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in her 2016 bid for president, urged people to turn out to vote as she advocated for Biden and Harris in her convention address Wednesday.“This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink, but they can’t do it without us,” Clinton said. “This can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election. If you vote by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back right away. If you vote in person, do it early. Most of all, no matter what, vote.”‘Strong at the broken places’She cited plans for job creation, paid family leave, health care for everyone, helping undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, reforming law enforcement and having elections free from foreign interference.“There’s a lot of heartbreak in America now, and the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic,” Clinton said. “But, as the saying goes, the world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. That’s Joe Biden. He knows how to keep going, unify and lead, because he’s done that for his family and his country.”Trump has been making campaign stops and holding news conferences during Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states.On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27. 
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Former U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that for nearly four years, President Donald Trump “has shown no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”Speaking on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, where the party has nominated Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, as its presidential candidate, Obama unleashed an extraordinary attack on Trump, warning that his reelection could undermine democracy. In typical U.S. campaigns, former presidents typically withhold criticisms of a sitting president.During a speech at the virtual convention taped in Philadelphia, Obama said he hoped Trump would take the job of president seriously and “discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”FILE – Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an event in Oakland, California, Feb. 19, 2019.“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”Obama delivered his address, including a ringing endorsement of Biden for president, shortly before Senator Kamala Harris was formally nominated by the convention as vice president and gave an acceptance speech stressing her family ties and commitment to economic, racial and social justice.After excerpts of Obama’s comments were released earlier Tuesday, Trump responded, criticizing Obama as having been ineffective and putting U.S. democracy in danger.  FILE – Sen. Kamala Harris speaks as Attorney General William Barr testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 1, 2019.”When I listen to that and I see the horror that he’s left us, the stupidity of the transactions that he made. Look what we’re doing. We have our great border wall. We have security,” Trump said at an afternoon press conference. “Look how bad he was, how ineffective he was.”Obama said Biden knows the true strength of the United States “comes from setting an example the world wants to follow,” and that Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, have plans to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, expand medical coverage, rescue the U.S. economy and “restore our standing in the world.”“More than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is they actually care about every American, and that they care deeply about this democracy,” Obama said. “They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder. They believe that no one, not even the president, is above the law and that no public official, not even the president, should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.”Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in her 2016 bid for president, urged people to turn out to vote as she advocated for Biden and Harris in her convention address Wednesday.“This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink, but they can’t do it without us,” Clinton said. “This can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election. If you vote by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back right away. If you vote in person, do it early. Most of all, no matter what, vote.”FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff are see in Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 12, 2020.Clinton expressed criticism of Trump, particularly his response to the coronavirus pandemic, but spent more of her remarks portraying a Biden-Harris administration as the best choice for the future of the nation.“Let’s set our sights higher than getting one man out of the White House. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to give us so much to vote for,” Clinton said.She cited plans for job creation, paid family leave, health care for everyone, helping undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, reforming law enforcement and having elections free from foreign interference.“There’s a lot of heartbreak in America now, and the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic,” Clinton said. “But, as the saying goes, the world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. That’s Joe Biden. He knows how to keep going, unify and lead, because he’s done that for his family and his country.”Trump has been making campaign stops and holding news conferences during Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states.On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27.
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Former President Barack Obama intends to deliver his most pointed criticisms to date of current U.S. President Donald Trump during his prime-time address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening. In excerpts of his broadcast speech released in advance earlier Wednesday, Obama says, “I hoped, for the good of our country, that Donald Trump could show the desire to take his role seriously, that he could feel the weight of the office. But he never did.” Trump, 74, succeeded Obama, 59, as U.S. leader after the 2016 presidential election.  Watch Live: The Democratic National Convention*/

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“The consequences of this failure are serious: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs lost, our worst instincts released, our glorious reputation around the world greatly tarnished,” Obama’s released excerpts say.  Upon release of the comments, Trump responded, criticizing Obama as having been “ineffective” and putting U.S. democracy in danger. “When I listen to that and I see the horror that he’s left us, the stupidity of the transactions that he made. Look what we’re doing. We have our great border wall. We have security,” Trump said at an afternoon news conference. “Look how bad he was, how ineffective he was.” In normal U.S. campaigns, former presidents typically withhold criticisms of a sitting president.FILE – Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an event in Oakland, California, Feb. 19, 2019.Obama and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris are among an array of U.S. Democratic luminaries making the case to Americans at the virtual Democratic National Convention to elect former Vice President Joe Biden as president in the November 3 election. Obama is expected to say that Trump “hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” a phrase in subject and tone similar to that struck during the convention’s opening night by former first lady Michelle Obama. As a featured speaker Monday, Michelle Obama said Trump “simply cannot be who we need him to be.” Trump responded early Tuesday, tweeting at Michelle Obama: “Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren’t for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama.” For two nights, a host of Biden supporters, including prominent Republicans who have turned against Trump, have voiced their support for the 77-year-old Democrat while condemning Trump’s White House tenure as chaotic and erratic. More attacks on Trump can be expected on the third night of the convention, with Democrats both trying to convince the U.S. electorate it made a mistake in electing the real estate baron-turned-politician in 2016 and that Biden would bring a new sense of civility to U.S. political life and engagement with allies overseas. The 55-year-old Harris, one of two dozen Democrats who sought the party’s presidential nomination but lost to Biden, will be making her most significant national political address after serving for years as a prosecutor in the Western state of California before winning a Senate seat in 2016. In excerpts of her speech released earlier Wednesday, Harris also calls out what she sees as Trump’s “failure of leadership.” According to excerpts, she accuses Trump of turning “our tragedies into political weapons.” FILE – Sen. Kamala Harris speaks as Attorney General William Barr testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 1, 2019.Biden tapped her as his running mate last week after months ago promising to pick a woman to join his quest to oust Trump and Vice President Mike Pence after a single four-year term. Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, is the first Black and first South Asian American to join a major U.S. party’s national ticket. She will be speaking from Biden’s home state of Delaware, as he will be Thursday night when he accepts the party’s presidential nomination in his third run for the presidency over three decades. Biden served as Obama’s vice president for eight years before Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Obama refrained from voicing a preference for a Democratic presidential nominee in the long string of 2020 Democratic primaries and caucuses that led to Biden’s eventual victory. For a large part of Trump’s presidency, Obama also refused to offer rejoinders to his successor’s frequent Twitter attacks on him. But that changed as Biden won the nomination, with Obama forcefully declaring his support for his former second in command and criticizing Trump. Obama, the first Black U.S. president, has raised money for Biden’s campaign at virtual gatherings with wealthy donors. But appearances at political rallies with Biden in the coming weeks before the election would appear unlikely for a simple reason: Biden has dropped such large-scale gatherings on the advice of medical experts worried about the spread of the coronavirus.   To date, Biden has mostly campaigned from Delaware, although occasionally appearing at small gatherings in the nearby large city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Other key Democrats are set to make the case for Biden on Wednesday night, including Clinton, who won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016 but lost the election in the country’s Electoral College, the indirect U.S. system of democracy in which the overall outcome is determined by the winners of each of the 50 states. Two other vocal Trump critics are also set to speak: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, and progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who also sought the Democratic presidential nomination and was on Biden’s short list as a possible running mate. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff are see in Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 12, 2020.Participants in the convention, conducted virtually after the national party all but closed down its planned gathering in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for fear of spreading the coronavirus, officially nominated Biden for the presidency on Tuesday. Biden said the nomination “means the world to me and my family, and I’ll see you on Thursday,” looking ahead to his acceptance speech on the final night of the convention.Biden’s wife, Jill, a college English professor, spoke to the convention delegates and the American public from an empty high school classroom where she once taught. She said her husband of 43 years would bring to the White House “leadership worthy of our nation.” “The burdens we carry are heavy, and we need someone with strong shoulders,” she said on Tuesday night of the coronavirus pandemic and economic turmoil in which millions of U.S. workers have lost their jobs. “I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours. Bring us together and make us whole.” Trump has been attempting to upstage Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states. On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27.
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the supporters of QAnon, a convoluted, pro-Trump conspiracy theory, and suggested he appreciates their support of his candidacy.Trump insisted he hadn’t heard much about the movement, “other than I understand they like me very much” and “it is gaining in popularity.”Speaking during a news conference at the White House, Trump courted the support of those who put stock in the conspiracy theory, saying, “I heard that these are people that love our country.” It was Trump’s first public comment on the subject and continued a pattern of president appearing unwilling to resoundingly condemn extremists who support his candidacy.QAnon has ricocheted around the darker corners of the internet since late 2017 but has been creeping into mainstream politics more and more. The baseless theory centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts, and shirts and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans are not uncommon at his rallies.How the QAnon Conspiracy Theory Went Global At least 71 countries have an anti-‘Deep State’ QAnon community An FBI bulletin last May warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have become a domestic terrorism threat. The bulletin specifically mentioned QAnon. Earlier last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center warned that the movement is becoming increasingly popular with anti-government extremists.Trump’s comments were condemned by the campaign of his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.”After calling neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville ‘fine people’ and tear gassing peaceful protesters following the murder of George Floyd, Donald Trump just sought to legitimize a conspiracy theory that the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorism threat,” said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. “Our country needs leadership that will bring us together more than ever to form a more perfect union. We have to win this battle for the soul of our nation.”Pressed on QAnon theories that Trump is allegedly saving the nation from a satanic cult of child sex traffickers, Trump claimed ignorance, but asked, “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?””If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it,” Trump said.QAnon supporters were quick to celebrate Trump’s comments on social media, with many calling them a validation of their views. Many have long contended he sends them coded messages of support, and on Twitter, one user claimed Trump’s choice of a pink tie on Wednesday was another signal of support.Trump’s comments came a week after he endorsed Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won her GOP House primary runoff in Georgia last week. Greene called the QAnon conspiracy theory “something worth listening to and paying attention to” and called Q a “patriot.” Trump praised her as a “future Republican Star.”Trump has a long history of advancing false and sometimes racist conspiracies, including last week, when he gave credence to a highly criticized op-ed that questioned Democrat Kamala Harris’ eligibility to serve as vice president even though she was born in Oakland, California.Asked about the matter, Trump told reporters he had “heard” rumors that Harris, a Black woman and U.S.-born citizen whose parents were immigrants, does not meet the requirement to serve in the White House. The president said he considered the rumors “very serious,” but later he and his campaign indicated they were not making an issue of the claim. Constitutional lawyers have dismissed it as nonsense.Facebook announced just hours before Trump’s statements that it was banning some QAnon Facebook groups and accounts. 
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An array of U.S. Democratic luminaries, topped by former President Barack Obama and vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, are making the case to Americans Wednesday night at the virtual Democratic National Convention to elect former Vice President Joe Biden as president in the November 3 election. For two nights, a host of Biden supporters, including prominent Republicans who have turned against President Donald Trump, have voiced their support for the 77-year-old Democrat while condemning Trump’s White House tenure as chaotic and erratic. More attacks on Trump can be expected on the third night of the convention, with Democrats trying to convince the U.S. electorate it made a mistake in electing the real-estate-baron-turned-politician in 2016 and that Biden would bring a new sense of civility to U.S. political life and engagement with allies overseas. FILE – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris appear on a video feed at the start of the second day of the Democratic National Convention, being held virtually, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Aug. 18, 2020.The 55-year-old Harris, one of two dozen Democrats who sought the party’s presidential nomination but lost to Biden, will be making her most significant national political address after serving for years as a prosecutor in the western state of California before winning a Senate seat in 2016. Biden tapped her as his running mate last week after months ago promising to pick a woman to join his quest to oust Trump and Vice President Mike Pence after a single four-year term. Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, is the first Black and first South Asian American to join a major U.S. party’s national ticket. She will be speaking from Biden’s home state of Delaware, as he will be Thursday night when he accepts the party’s presidential nomination in his third run for the presidency over three decades. Biden served as Obama’s vice president for eight years before Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Obama refrained from voicing a preference for a Democratic presidential nominee in the long string of 2020 Democratic primaries and caucuses that led to Biden’s eventual victory. FILE – Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an event in Oakland, California, Feb. 19, 2019.For a large part of Trump’s presidency, Obama also refused to offer rejoinders to his successor’s frequent Twitter attacks on him. But that changed as Biden won the nomination, with Obama forcefully declaring his support for his former second in command and criticizing Trump. Obama, the first Black U.S. president, has raised money for Biden’s campaign at virtual gatherings with wealthy donors. But appearances at political rallies with Biden in the coming weeks before the election would appear unlikely for a simple reason: Biden has dropped such large-scale gatherings on the advice of medical experts worried about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.   To date, Biden has mostly campaigned from Delaware, although occasionally appearing at small gatherings in the nearby large city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, FILE – Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks at United Nations headquarters in New York City, March 10, 2020.Other key Democrats are set to make the case for Biden on Wednesday night, including Clinton, who won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016 but lost the election in the country’s Electoral College, the indirect U.S. system of democracy in which the overall outcome is determined by the winners of each of the 50 states. Two other vocal Trump critics are also set to speak: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, and progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who also sought the Democratic presidential nomination and was on Biden’s short list as a possible running mate. Participants in the convention, conducted virtually after the national party all but closed down its planned gathering in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for fear of spreading the coronavirus, officially nominated Biden for the presidency on Tuesday. Biden said the nomination “means the world to me and my family, and I’ll see you on Thursday,” looking ahead to his acceptance speech on the final night of the convention. Biden’s wife, Jill, a college English professor, spoke to the convention delegates and the American public from an empty high school classroom where she once taught. FILE – In this image from video, Jill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, speaks during the second night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 18, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP)She said her husband of 43 years would bring to the White House “leadership worthy of our nation.” “The burdens we carry are heavy and we need someone with strong shoulders,” she said of the coronavirus pandemic and economic turmoil in which millions of U.S. workers have lost their jobs. “I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours. Bring us together and make us whole.” Trump has been attempting to upstage Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states. On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Republican are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27. 
 
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Rapper and music producer Kanye West’s campaign ran into trouble Tuesday on his first day of trying to get on the presidential ballot in his home state of Wyoming.
People gathering signatures on behalf of West and another presidential candidate got too close to polling locations during the state’s primary, election officials said.
The signature-gatherers for West and candidate Brock Pierce refused to keep at least 100 yards (91 meters) away, prompting election workers to call police and sheriff’s deputies at five of the seven polling locations in and around Cheyenne, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said.
“Some of them became quite aggressive and refused to leave,” said Lee.
Election officials at Laramie County Community College confiscated a handwritten sign that read “registered voters sign here” on one side and “Kanye West” on the other, potentially causing people to falsely believe they needed to sign West’s petition in order to vote, Lee said.
A man standing outside a polling place in Cheyenne said he worked for Pierce’s national campaign and was gathering signatures for both candidates. He declined to provide his full name. He said he was 100 yards away from the polling place entrance but he actually appeared to be closer.
Social media messages seeking comment from West agent Trevian Kutti and Pierce weren’t immediately returned Tuesday. Election officials in Casper, where a state elections official said similar violations occurred, didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
West, who once backed Republican President Donald Trump, announced last month that he had broken with Trump and would launch his own presidential bid. His campaign filed paperwork on July 15 with the Federal Election Commission.
West has so far qualified in several states including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah and Colorado. His effort to get on the ballot has been challenged in Wisconsin.
The reported incidents in Wyoming don’t affect whether signatures count as valid, said secretary of state’s office spokesman Will Dinneen.
Widespread problems with people electioneering too close to polling places haven’t been reported in the state in at least 20 years.
“This has been really beyond anything we’ve ever seen,” Lee said.
West announced in July he’s running for president on a ticket he calls the “Birthday Party.” West has since been gathering signatures to get on the ballot in several states.
West filed with state officials on Monday to begin collecting signatures in Wyoming. He has until next Monday to submit 4,025 valid signatures to get on the ballot.
West bought a ranch and has lived in the Cody area in northwestern Wyoming since last year.
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Democrats formally nominated former Vice President Joe Biden as their candidate for president Tuesday, during the second night of an extraordinary virtual convention that included criticism of President Donald Trump from Republicans as well as Democrats, and personal stories of Biden as a public servant, father and husband. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story from Wilmington, Delaware.
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An unexpected travelogue connected as a television event during the second night of the Democrats’ virtual convention, livening up a show that so far is struggling in the ratings.
The roll call vote that formally sealed Joe Biden’s nomination as the Democratic candidate for president Tuesday came from sites in the 50 states and territories. Biden received votes from the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama and from the parents of murdered hate crime victim Matthew Shepard in Wyoming.
It became a guessing game for viewers: Where will my state’s delegates speak from? Washington Post editor Tanya Sichynsky tweeted that it was “the most any of us have traveled in months.”
“It’s like the Olympic parade of nations,” tweeted NBC’s Kasie Hunt, “which I so missed this year.”
It made the ABC and CBS decisions to cut away from the roll call to show portions of former President Bill Clinton’s address feel like old hat. None of Tuesday’s speakers had the immediate impact of former First Lady Michelle Obama on Monday night.
The nomination was marked by a Zoom-like outbreak of applause and streamers tossed at Biden and his wife, Jill, as Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” played in the background.
“Not quite the same,” said ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Democrats have worked to produce a relentlessly theme-driven facsimile, but it still isn’t a television event like past conventions. Television viewership for Monday’s first night was sharply down compared with the opening of Hillary Clinton’s nomination week in 2016.
An estimated 19.7 million people watched Monday’s coverage between 10 and 11 p.m. on some 10 different television networks, the Nielsen company said. Four years ago, opening night drew just under 26 million viewers.
The Biden campaign claimed their event was a hit online, with campaign spokesman T.J. Ducklo saying an additional 10 million people streamed live video of the convention on various platforms. Those numbers could not immediately be independently verified.
Broadcast networks were hit hardest by the changed format. NBC’s telecast drew 2.28 million viewers, down from 4.29 million four years ago, Nielsen said. ABC reached 2.44 million people on Monday, compared to 4.13 million.
The left-leaning MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace were anchors, led the way Monday with 5.1 million viewers, up from four years ago. CNN had 4.78 million. Unlike the broadcasters, the two cable networks ran the Democrats’ production nearly in its entirety.
Fox News Channel’s audience was unimpressed; the 2.1 million viewers it reached for its hour of convention coverage compared poorly with the 3.4 million viewers that time slot occupant Laura Ingraham had on an average July day. Earlier in the evening, Fox kept to its regular lineup with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity criticizing the Biden campaign, instead of showing news coverage of the convention.
Veteran television producer Don Mischer, whose credits include the Oscars, the Emmys and the 2004 Democratic national convention, said that while the convention’s first night was well-produced, it suffered from the lack of a live audience.
While Obama “hit a home run” with her speech, “had that been done in front of the crowd, with the crowd’s emotion getting stronger and stronger as she went through that speech, by the time she got to the end, there would have been a rush of palpable emotion that would have resonated with people many times greater than what came across,” he said.
Republicans will take their shot next week in nominating President Donald Trump for a second term.
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Democrats formally nominated former Vice President Joe Biden as their candidate for president Tuesday, during the second night of an extraordinary virtual convention that included criticism of President Donald Trump from Republicans as well as Democrats, and personal stories of Biden as a public servant, father and husband. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story from Wilmington, Delaware.
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A bipartisan investigation into Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election found that Moscow successfully used a complex web of operatives and active measures to ensnare members of President Donald Trump’s campaign, in some cases, leaving the incoming administration open to manipulation. The report concluded, among other things, that Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” because of his dealings with people close to the Kremlin. But it also found that the FBI’s investigation of the Russian meddling in the election was “flawed.” FILE – Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, July 17, 2016.Released Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the report is the fifth on the subject by the committee and the culmination of more than three years of work. It includes hundreds of witness interviews and the review of more than 1 million pages of documents.The report focuses on key players from Russia and the Trump campaign, as well as efforts undertaken by Russian intelligence and organizations like the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, which according to the report, “likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort.” Although the report does not find evidence that Trump campaign officials willingly and knowingly worked with Russia to win the election, committee investigators concluded that whether due to ambition or naivety, key officials were indifferent to the possibility help was coming from the Kremlin. With WikiLeaks and its release of documents obtained during Russia’s hack of the Democratic National Committee’s computer services, for example, the report found the Trump campaign, “sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump’s electoral prospects.” “The Trump Campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort,” the report added. The Senate report raises especially deep concerns about the role of Manafort, a Republican political operative and international lobbyist who joined the Trump campaign in March 2016.  “Manafort’s presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information,” the report said. Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud charges during a separate investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. He was released from prison earlier this year.  FILE – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, May 5, 2020.“We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election,” said acting chairman, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. No Hoax: Bipartisan Probe Says US Intelligence Made Right Call on Russian Election MeddlingA newly issued bipartisan report says the top US intelligence agencies made the right call when they traced the plot back to Russian President Vladimir Putin 
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U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy vowed Tuesday that mailed-in ballots in the November 3 presidential election will be delivered “on time” and suspended until after the election all changes at the agency that Democrats claimed would possibly have kept millions of votes from being sent to election officials to be counted. DeJoy, a wealthy campaign donor to Republican President Donald Trump whom Trump appointed to head the U.S. Postal Service, said in a statement that the agency “is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall.” DeJoy declared, “We will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and Election Day.” He said cost-cutting measures he has undertaken at the deficit-ridden agency will be put on hold until after Election Day “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.” Mail-in voting in the U.S. starts in some states in September. DeJoy had curtailed overtime pay for workers, which postal critics said had resulted in recent delivery delays.  But he said that “overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.” FILE – U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, left, is escorted to a meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, August 5, 2020.DeJoy also said mail-processing equipment at postal centers and blue mail collection boxes on streets throughout the U.S. “will remain where they are” and that no mail processing facilities will be closed. In recent days in some cities, the postal agency was seen removing some of the boxes from street corners, leading to allegations the Trump appointee was trying to help him win by curbing mail-in voting.  U.S. election officials are expecting millions more mailed-in ballots than in previous elections in the presidential contest between Trump and his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. It is the expected result of voters trying to avoid contracting the coronavirus by casting ballots by mail to avoid going to polling places where they would come face to face with many other people waiting in line to vote. Trump and first lady Melania Trump themselves have requested absentee ballots in their adopted home state of Florida. But for months, the president has railed against state election officials throughout the country who have sought in some cases to implement wider vote-by-mail plans by sending ballots directly to voters, as opposed to waiting until voters request ballots. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that massive mailed ballot schemes will lead to widespread fraud and a rigged election against him. He also has said the mail-in balloting helps Democrats to the detriment of Republicans, although studies have shown little partisan advantage with voting by mail.    DeJoy, who took control of the postal agency in June, is set to testify twice before congressional panels in the coming days to answer bipartisan criticism that he has made changes that have slowed mail deliveries. The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is questioning him Friday and the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee will do so Monday. The Senate panel said its hearing will scrutinize the “finances and operations of the United States Postal Service during COVID-19 and upcoming elections.” COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.FILE – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, August 13, 2020.House Democrats say they plan to vote in an unusual Saturday session on an extra $25 billion in funding for the postal agency and to limit changes they contend would inhibit the processing of mailed-in ballots. It was not immediately clear how DeJoy’s pledge to halt postal system changes until after the election would affect the Democratic-proposed legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last weekend called the House back into session from its summer recess to vote on the Postal Service funding and to reverse DeJoy-instituted changes they claim would possibly keep mailed-in ballots from arriving at election offices throughout the country in time to be counted in the election.  Senate Republicans this week are expected to introduce coronavirus relief legislation that will include billions for the Postal Service. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has not said, however, if he will bring senators back from recess to vote on the measure. Trump said Monday he wants to “speed up” mail deliveries but underscored last week he opposes additional funding for the agency.  Trump defended DeJoy, who has donated $1.2 million to his campaign since 2016 and almost $1.3 million to the Republican Party, for taking significant steps to cut costs at the agency and improve its performance.  Pelosi accused Trump of conducting a “campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters.”  
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The Democratic Party’s proposed platform criticizes China’s trade practices, proposes less spending on national defense, and opposes “forever wars” as it seeks to lay out the party’s foreign policy goals and highlight differences with President Donald Trump. The 80-page platform, which is to be adopted at the Democratic convention this week, is largely symbolic because the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden does not have to endorse its positions. However, the platform provides an official outline of the party’s vision and policy priorities. It was crafted by a panel of Democratic leaders, including Biden’s last remaining challenger for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, and seeks to bridge the gap between the party’s progressive wing that includes Sanders, and Biden’s more moderate approach. The proposed platform maintains the broad policy priorities of Biden, who is expected to accept the Democratic nomination Thursday from his home state of Delaware.China criticismChina has become one of the central foreign policy issues in the 2020 presidential race, heightened by President Donald Trump’s trade war with the country as well as the coronavirus pandemic, which originated there.Biden: Conflict With China Not InevitableUS vice president’s trip to Asia overshadowed by concerns about China’s recent establishment of air defense identification zone over East China SeaIn their party platform, Democrats took a strong stance against China’s trade policies and sought to portray Trump’s efforts against the country as not tough enough. “Unlike President Trump, we will stand up to efforts from China and other state actors to steal America’s intellectual property and will demand China and other countries cease and desist from conducting cyberespionage against our companies,” the draft platform reads.The platform also criticizes billions of dollars of tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods in an effort to negotiate a trade deal with China, calling his trade policies “reckless” and saying they hurt American farmers. Trump has sought to confront China on a number of issues, including trade, currency manipulation, and China’s military aggressiveness in the South China Sea. He has also said China must be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and China signed the first phase of a trade deal in January, but negotiations on a second phase have stalled. Biden has criticized China’s “abusive” trade practices along with its human rights record. He has stressed the need to work with international allies to counter China.International alliancesCharles Stevenson, a professor of American foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), argues that the most significant foreign policy difference between Trump and Biden is that “Trump has practiced an assertive unilateralism” while Biden has made clear he wants to return to an “international, cooperative, pro-alliance” model of diplomacy that was prominent in previous administrations.Trump has approached foreign diplomacy much differently than most past presidents, publicly questioning the value of international alliances and organizations, including the North American Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization.  The Democratic Party devotes several pages of its platform to the topic of international alliances. It accuses Trump of having “attacked the sources of our strength, hollowed out American diplomacy, shredded international commitments, weakened our alliances, and tarnished our credibility.”It promises to repair what it sees as broken relationships with governments across the world, including in Europe and Africa. On Africa, it accuses the Trump administration of treating the continent with “neglect and contempt.”Biden has focused many of his foreign policy plans on rebuilding close relationships with allies and cooperating with international institutions.Defense and troop levelsThe Democratic platform calls for reducing military spending, a sharp contrast to Trump, who has championed an increase in defense spending and has warned that Democrats will weaken the military. “We can maintain a strong defense and protect our safety and security for less,” the platform reads, calling for annual audits of the Pentagon and an end to what the party sees as the department’s “waste and fraud.”The platform also calls for bringing “forever wars to a responsible end.”Both Biden and Trump have promised to decrease U.S. troop levels overseas.US Troop Size in Afghanistan Will Reduce to 4,000  ‘Very Soon’, Trump Says  Taliban officials say their deputy leader discussed the state of Afghan peace process with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday Trump has reduced troop levels in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 12,000 as part of a U.S.-Taliban deal signed earlier this year. In June, he announced that he would reduce U.S. troop levels in Germany by 9,500 from a total of 34,500. However, Trump has struggled to fulfill a 2016 campaign promise to reduce overall U.S. troop deployments overseas.Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, says the Republican Party has routinely been seen as more hawkish than the Democratic Party, but said an argument can be made that Trump was less hawkish than his Democratic challenger in 2016, Hillary Clinton, who was criticized for her vote in favor of the Iraq war. Kondik said the same case could be made by Trump against Biden, who also voted in favor of the Iraq war when he was a senator.On Yemen, the Democratic platform calls for ending support for the Saudi-led war in that country. And on Iran, it rejects “regime change” as a U.S. policy goal there.November electionWhile foreign policy issues can lead to fierce debates between the parties, they seldom are a top issue for U.S. voters. “Given the pandemic, they are even less likely to have an impact” on this year’s election, Stevenson said.The economy was ranked the most important issue in an August poll by the Pew Research Center, with 79% of registered voters saying it was very important to their vote. The next top issues were health care and Supreme Court appointments. Foreign policy issues ranked sixth on the list, with 57% of registered voters saying it was very important to their vote.
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