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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Tom McCarthy (now) and Scott Bixby (earlier) in Philadelphia

DNC 2016, day one: Sanders says 'I'm proud' to support Clinton – as it happened

Michelle Obama’s DNC speech: ‘I wake up every morning in a house built by slaves’

Summary

The first day of the Democratic national convention is tied up with a bow. Here’s what happened:

  • Supporters of senator Bernie Sanders started with boos and ended in tears as their candidate took the stage and urged them to vote for Hillary Clinton, saying she “must become the next president of the United States”.
  • The big question of the night – can the Democrats unify behind their candidate? – appeared unresolved at night’s end, with even core Sanders ally Elizabeth Warren facing heckles and chants from Sanders backers.
  • The roiling emotions in the convention hall added to the suspense of Clinton’s anticipated speech Thursday, and what it will mean for the party. It appeared possible that the candidate may face waves of booing even as she claims the nomination.
  • But there were highlight moments, notably in a powerfully personal speech by first lady Michelle Obama, that pointed to a different possibility – to a Democratic party that leaves Philadelphia with new energy and something resembling unity.
  • Significant ice in the hall between the Sanders and (much larger) Clinton camps was broken by comedian Sarah Silverman, who advised: “To the ‘Bernie or Bust’ people, you’re being ridiculous.”
  • Another notable speech came from senator Cory Booker, whose optimistic refrain “America will rise” pulled the crowd repeatedly to its feet.
  • Before the marquee speakers took the stage, the convention seemed in danger of succumbing to forces of dissent and even scandal. The dissent was embodied by pro-Sanders demonstrators in the streets and inside the hall, where they interrupted the opening prayer with chanting. The scandal came thanks to the star-crossed Democratic national committee, whose chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned Sunday in fallout from an emails leak that showed top party officials arrayed against Sanders.
  • Hours before the curtain went up, Wasserman Schultz announced she was also abdicating her ceremonial convention duties, and would not gavel the event to order.
  • That wasn’t all bad news. It set up a star turn by fill-in-gaveler Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore, who initially forgot to pound the gavel and had to run back to the lectern to do so:

Updated

Here’s some data on the top trends in search tonight, thanks to the folks at Google data. Sanders was searched twice as much as Michelle Obama on Google; Paul Simon fell among the top search terms.

Making the list of top trending questions was, “did slaves build the White House?” Yes – saved you a click.

Via Google:

  • Bernie Sanders was 2X more searched than Michelle Obama, the second most searched speaker. Elizabeth Warren came in third, followed by Cory Booker and Paul Simon.
  • +650% spike for “Citizens United” following Bernie Sanders’ speech, which overtook searches for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which had trended throughout the day.
  • Top 5 trending questions on all of Google in the U.S.
    • 1. What is Citizens United?
    • 2. Who built the White House?
    • 3. Did slaves build the White House?
    • 4. How old is Bernie Sanders?
    • 5. What is TPP?

Russia denies DNC hack

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday brushed aside accusations that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails, Reuters reports:

“I don’t want to use four-letter words,” Lavrov told reporters, when asked whether Russia was responsible for the hacking of emails.

He was speaking at the start of talks with Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos.

Sanders launches new group: 'Our Revolution'

Bernie Sanders has sent an email to supporters announcing a new political vehicle. The email reads in part:

Our work will continue in the form of a new group called Our Revolution.The goal of this organization will be no different from the goal of our campaign: we must transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families.

We cannot do this alone. All of us must be a part of Our Revolution.

Join Our Revolution and help continue our critical work to create a government which represents all of us, and not just the 1 percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice. Add your name here.

Sarah Silverman is talking to CNN about her “don’t be ridiculous” moment, in which she upbraided Bernie-or-bust supporters. “No it wasn’t scripted at all,” she tells Jake Tapper.

She says she loved that Bernie Sanders “wasn’t for sale.” Al Franken, who is there too, reminds the world that 90% of Sanders supporters have been polled as saying they will support Clinton.

Silverman accuses Franken of being a “name-dropper” for bringing up Oregon senator Jeff Merkley.

“If Sanders can’t convince his own supporters, then who can?” Silverman asks.

Franken insists “there’s no question” that Sanders made a strong case and “tonight went a long long way and I really believe that we’re going to leave here united.”

Tapper asks him about his rare foray back into the land of comedy.

“I will do anything for Hillary including be funny,” Franken says.

Here’s a clip of that Sarah Silverman moment earlier:

Sarah Silverman to Sanders diehards: ‘You’re being ridiculous’

Sanders for Trump: #nevertweet

The tabloids in New York hew to their ideologies:

Reaction to Sanders speech

Updated

OK what do you think, did that work?

Sanders: 'I am proud to stand with her'

As the end nears of this epic day at the Democratic convention, Sanders wins applause and cheers for lines that would have drawn layers of booing seven hours ago:

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children.

Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight.

Updated

Sanders’ hand gestures here when he enunciated “significant coming together” were priceless. He was showing them what needed to happen:

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about. But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party.

Updated

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is on the floor for the excitement:

Sanders to supporters: you cannot 'sit it out'

Here’s the first departure from script by Sanders that we’ve detected. He adds a brothers and sisters here:

Brothers and sisters, this election is about overturning Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of our country.

Sanders is applauded for saying that Clinton’s supreme court appointments will challenge campaign finance laws and defend other progressive priorities.

Then Sanders makes a potentially strong argument that supporters cannot “sit out” the election:

If you don’t believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights and the future of our country.

Updated

Here’s video of the rapturous Sanders entry:

Updated

Trump makes play for supporters as Sanders speaks

Sanders is about to mention Hillary Clinton for the first time.

Let’s listen in. He’s in this graph:

We need leadership in this country which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger – not leadership which insults Latinos, Muslims, women, African-Americans and veterans – and divides us up.

There’s a bit of a Bernie! Bernie! chant. And here it comes - using antiseptic, clinical language:

By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close.

That was a reasonably powerful cheer. What booing and jeering there was was overwhelmed by cheering.

But now the crowd has slid a bit out of his control again, chanting through his multiple attempts to start up again.

Sanders brings it back with an anecdote about someone who has it tougher perhaps than many in the hall:

This election is about a single mom I saw in Nevada who, with tears in her eyes, told me that she was scared to death about the future because she and her young daughter were not making it on the $10.45 an hour she was earning. This election is about that woman and the millions of other workers in this country who are struggling to survive on totally inadequate wages.

It’s a bit uncanny to hear Sanders deliver his speech verbatim to his prepared remarks – when it sounds so much like his stump speech:

Let me be as clear as I can be. This election is not about, and has never been about, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders or any of the other candidates who sought the presidency. This election is not about political gossip. It’s not about polls. It’s not about campaign strategy. It’s not about fundraising. It’s not about all the things the media spends so much time discussing.

This election is about – and must be about – the needs of the American people and the kind of future we create for our children and grandchildren.

Sanders: 'our revolution continues'

Sanders is hewing precisely to his prepared remarks:

Together, my friends, we have begun a political revolution to transform America and that revolution – our revolution – continues. Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice – that struggle continues. And I look forward to being part of that struggle with you.

Finally Sanders is under way. He thanks supporters and delegates. He thanks delegates for “all of the work that you have done.”

They are chanting and jumping.

“I look forward to your votes during the roll call tomorrow night,” he tells them.
They are overwhelmed, some shedding tears.

“And let me offer a special thanks to the people of my own state of Vermont who have sustained me and supported me.”

He thanks his wife Jane, kids and grandkids.

Then he gets down to business.

I understand that many people here in this convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process. I think it’s fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am. But to all of our supporters – here and around the country – I hope you take enormous pride in the historical accomplishments we have achieved.

The crowd won’t let Sanders speak. He tries to begin, “it is an honor,” but they keep cheering him. He tries again. “It is an honor to be here tonight” – but no chance, Sanders. The crowd is cheering and chanting. Immense energy in the room.

Thank you, he says. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

No dice.

He waves his hands a bit, trying to quiet them.

He finally succeeds. He says it’s an honor to follow in the “the footsteps of my friend Elizabeth Warren.” He thanks “Michelle Obama for her incredible service to our country. She has made Americans proud.”

Updated

Sanders gets fantastic applause. The delegates wave the blue ‘Bernie’ signs that just have been handed out.

He says thank you a few times. They keep cheering.

Updated

Here’s the Simon/Garfunkel/ Sanders America video playing before the Bernie Sanders comes out to speak.

What are his supporter in the crowd feeling watching it in what they see as a moment of defeat ?

More praise for Michelle Obama’s speech:

Some Sanders supporters continue to struggle with the whole unity thing:

'Clinton must become the next president,' Sanders to say

The Sanders campaign people have just circulated a copy of his prepared remarks.

Here it is in full:

Good evening.

How great it is to be with you tonight.

Let me begin by thanking the hundreds of thousands of Americans who actively participated in our campaign as volunteers. Let me thank the 2 1/2 million Americans who helped fund our campaign with an unprecedented 8 million individual campaign contributions – averaging $27 a piece. Let me thank the 13 million Americans who voted for the political revolution, giving us the 1,846 pledged delegates here tonight – 46 percent of the total. And delegates: Thank you for being here, and for all the work you’ve done. I look forward to your votes during the roll call on Tuesday night.

And let me offer a special thanks to the people of my own state of Vermont who have sustained me and supported me as a mayor, congressman, senator and presidential candidate. And to my family – my wife Jane, four kids and seven grandchildren –thank you very much for your love and hard work on this campaign.

I understand that many people here in this convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process. I think it’s fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am. But to all of our supporters – here and around the country – I hope you take enormous pride in the historical accomplishments we have achieved.

Together, my friends, we have begun a political revolution to transform America and that revolution – our revolution – continues. Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice – that struggle continues. And I look forward to being part of that struggle with you.

Let me be as clear as I can be. This election is not about, and has never been about, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders or any of the other candidates who sought the presidency. This election is not about political gossip. It’s not about polls. It’s not about campaign strategy. It’s not about fundraising. It’s not about all the things the media spends so much time discussing.

This election is about – and must be about – the needs of the American people and the kind of future we create for our children and grandchildren.

This election is about ending the 40-year decline of our middle class the reality that 47 million men, women and children live in poverty. It is about understanding that if we do not transform our economy, our younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living then their parents.

This election is about ending the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that we currently experience, the worst it has been since 1928. It is not moral, not acceptable and not sustainable that the top one-tenth of one percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, or that the top 1 percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income. That is unacceptable. That must change.

This election is about remembering where we were 7 1/2 years ago when President Obama came into office after eight years of Republican trickle-down economics.

The Republicans want us to forget that as a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, our economy was in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Some 800,000 people a month were losing their jobs. We were running up a record-breaking deficit of $1.4 trillion and the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse.

We have come a long way in the last 7 1/2 years, and I thank President Obama and Vice President Biden for their leadership in pulling us out of that terrible recession.
Yes, we have made progress, but I think we can all agree that much, much more needs to be done.

This election is about which candidate understands the real problems facing this country and has offered real solutions – not just bombast, fear-mongering, name-calling and divisiveness.

We need leadership in this country which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger – not leadership which insults Latinos, Muslims, women, African-Americans and veterans – and divides us up.

By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close.

This election is about a single mom I saw in Nevada who, with tears in her eyes, told me that she was scared to death about the future because she and her young daughter were not making it on the $10.45 an hour she was earning. This election is about that woman and the millions of other workers in this country who are struggling to survive on totally inadequate wages.

Hillary Clinton understands that if someone in America works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty. She understands that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And she is determined to create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure – our roads, bridges, water systems and wastewater plants.

But her opponent – Donald Trump – well, he has a very different view. He does not support raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – a starvation wage. While Donald Trump believes in huge tax breaks for billionaires, he believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25. What an outrage!

This election is about overturning Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of our country. That decision allows the wealthiest people in America, like the billionaire Koch brothers, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections and, in the process, undermine American democracy.

Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy in this country. Her Supreme Court appointments will also defend a woman’s right to choose, workers’ rights, the rights of the LGBT community, the needs of minorities and immigrants and the government’s ability to protect the environment.

If you don’t believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights and the future of our country.

This election is about the thousands of young people I have met who have left college deeply in debt, and the many others who cannot afford to go to college. During the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton and I both focused on this issue but with different approaches. Recently, however, we have come together on a proposal that will revolutionize higher education in America. It will guarantee that the children of any family this country with an annual income of $125,000 a year or less – 83 percent of our population – will be able to go to a public college or university tuition free. That proposal also substantially reduces student debt.

This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet, and the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and future generations. Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that – unless we act boldly and transform our energy system in the very near future – there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels. She understands that when we do that we can create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.

Donald Trump? Well, like most Republicans, he chooses to reject science. He believes that climate change is a “hoax,” no need to address it. Hillary Clinton understands that a president’s job is to worry about future generations, not the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry.

This campaign is about moving the United States toward universal health care and reducing the number of people who are uninsured or under-insured. Hillary Clinton wants to see that all Americans have the right to choose a public option in their health care exchange. She believes that anyone 55 years or older should be able to opt in to Medicare and she wants to see millions more Americans gain access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs through a major expansion of community health centers.

And What is Donald Trump’s position on health care? No surprise there. Same old, same old Republican contempt for working families. He wants to abolish the Affordable Care Act, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they currently have and cut Medicaid for lower-income Americans.

Hillary Clinton also understands that millions of seniors, disabled vets and others are struggling with the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs and the fact that Americans pay the highest prices in the world for their medicine. She knows that Medicare must negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and that drug companies should not be making billions in profits while one in five Americans are unable to afford the medicine they need. The greed of the drug companies must end.

This election is about the leadership we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform and repair a broken criminal justice system. It’s about making sure that young people in this country are in good schools and at good jobs, not in jail cells. Hillary Clinton understands that we have to invest in education and jobs for our young people, not more jails or incarceration.

In these stressful times for our country, this election must be about bringing our people together, not dividing us up. While Donald Trump is busy insulting one group after another, Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Yes. We become stronger when black and white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American – all of us – stand together. Yes. We become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native born and immigrant fight to create the kind of country we all know we can become.

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about. But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Among many other strong provisions, the Democratic Party now calls for breaking up the major financial institutions on Wall Street and the passage of a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. It also calls for strong opposition to job-killing free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency – and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children.

Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight.

Updated

Warren: Trump's campaign is an infomercial

Warren:

Trump’s entire campaign is just one more long Trump infomercial. Hand over your money... and the great Trump hot air machine will hand over all the answers. And for one low-low price, he’ll even throw in a goofy hat!

Warren pivots to criticism of Trump:

Not once did he lift a finger to help working people... time after time, he preyed on working people, people in debt... he’s conned them, he’s defrauded them and he’s ripped them off.

Donald Trump set up a fake university to make money by cheating people and taking their live savings.

Donald Trump goes on, and on and on about being a successful businessman, but he filed business bankruptcy six times.

What kind of a man acts like this? ... What kind of a man cheats students cheats investors cheats workers?

Well I’ll tell you what kind of a man. A man who must never be president of the United States. And we’ve got the leaders to make it happen. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. ...

So now, he’s insisting that he and he alone can fix the rigged system.” Last week he spoke for more than an hour, “but other than talking about building that stupid wall, which never get built, did you hear even one idea?

Let’s face it, Donald Trump has no real plans.

Apparently they had that speech on at the White House:

Warren says she’s worried that opportunity is slipping way. Americans “bust their tail” working multiple jobs but can’t make ends meet. Young people have student loans, social security doesn’t cover basics for the elderly. “This is not right. It is not.”

Corporate profits are at all-time highs, Warren says. “There’s lots of wealth in America, but it doesn’t trickle down to hard-working families like yours... people get it. The system is rigged. It’s true.”

The line about the system being rigged gets strong applause, particularly from the Sanders sections.

Huh?

“We’re here today because our choice is Hillary Clinton, Warren says. I’m with Hillary. I’m with Hillary. I’m with Hillary”

Sanders supporters are trying to shout her down. Hard to make out what they’re chanting. Warren keeps right on talking.

Update: “We Trusted you!” they called:

Updated

Who follows that? Senator Elizabeth Warren. She begins, “Bernie reminds us what Democrats fight for every day. Thank you Bernie. Thank you.”

Here are advance excerpts of Warren’s speech:

  • “Trump thinks he can win votes by fanning the flames of fear and hatred. By turning neighbor against neighbor. By persuading you that the real problem in America is your fellow Americans – people who don’t look like you, or don’t talk like you, or don’t worship like you…
  • That’s Donald Trump’s America. An America of fear and hate. An America where we all break apart. Whites against Blacks and Latinos. Christians against Muslims and Jews. Straight against gay. Everyone against immigrants. Race, religion, heritage, gender – the more factions the better.
  • But ask yourself this. When white workers in Ohio are pitted against black workers in North Carolina, or Latino workers in Florida – who really benefits?
  • Divide and Conquer is an old story in America. Dr. Martin Luther King knew it. After his march from Selma to Montgomery, he spoke of how segregation was created to keep people divided. Instead of higher wages for workers, Dr. King described how poor whites in the South were fed Jim Crow, which told a poor white worker that, quote, “no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.” Racial hatred was part of keeping the powerful on top.

…

  • When we turn on each other, bankers can run our economy for Wall Street, oil companies can fight off clean energy, and giant corporations can ship the last good jobs overseas.

…

  • When we turn on each other, we can’t unite to fight back against a rigged system.
  • Well, I’ve got news for Donald Trump. The American people are not falling for it!

After a first day shot through with a sense of betrayal and injustice at the Democratic national convention, it took a comedian to articulate the feeling of tragedy gripping Bernie Sanders supporters.

Sarah Silverman, started with a pretty obvious ‘Feel the Bern’ gag (‘I put cream on it’), but went on to make one of the speeches of the night, with one of the most thoughtful expositions of the argument for switching from Sanders to Hillary Clinton.

Sarah Silverman.
Sarah Silverman. Photograph: ddp USA/REX/Shutterstock

But whilst she articulated the argument for Sanders voters to get behind Hillary, she also displayed a flash of unscripted irritation which appeared to anger some of the Vermont senator’s delegates in the room, . After a day of rolling emotions, Silverman said: “To the ‘Bernie or Bust’ people, you’re being ridiculous.”

The remark came after a unifying speech, which began with her own declaration of support for Sanders. “As some of you may know, I support Bernie Sanders and the movement behind him,” Silverman told the cheering audience.

“Not only did Bernie wake us up, he made us understand what is possible and what we deserve. You know, my shrink says we don’t get what we want, we get what we think we deserve, and Bernie showed us that all Americans deserve quality healthcare.”

“All it takes to accomplish this, it’s everyone, it’s all of us. Or as a pretty kickass woman once said - it takes a village,” Silverman said, the first of numerous references to the common ground shared by Clinton and Sanders.

Silverman called the Democratic primary “exemplary,” especially when compared to the “major arrested-development stuff” employed by Trump, who clearly lacked “human touch or coping tools” as a child.

“That is the process of democracy at its very best, and it’s very cool to see,” Silverman continued, before going in for the full endorsement: “Hillary is our Democratic nominee, and I will proudly vote for her.”

As the audience cheered and jeered, they chants of Bernie and Hillary gliding over one another, Silverman continued. “So inspiring! It’s so inspiring - just a few years ago, she was a secretary, and now she’s going to be president! She’s like the only person ever to be overqualified for a job as the president. So I tell you this: I will vote for Hillary with gusto as I continue to be inspired and moved to action by the ideals set forth by Bernie, who will never stop fighting for us.”

As the arena rocked, Silverman stepped back, before returning to the microphone to give one more sendoff to her more diehard compatriots: “To the ‘Bernie or Bust’ people, you’re being ridiculous.”

Updated

Michelle Obama: 'I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves'

Pretty powerful finish from the first lady:

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dog on the White House lawn.

And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

So don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great. That somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on earth.

Obama says she wants “a leader who is worthy of my girls’ promise and of all our kids’ promise.. in this election we cannot sit back and hope that everything works out for the best. We cannot afford to be tired or frustrated and cynical.

“We need to do what we did four years ago and eight years ago” and elect Hillary Clinton president.

Updated

Michelle Obama: 'I'm with her'

The delegates have purple signs on sticks that looks like the markers in the hall for the state delegations but they all say “Michelle.”

“We lean on each other, because we are always stronger together,” Obama says. “I am here tonight because I know that’s the kind of president Hillary Clinton will be. And that’s why in this election, I’m with her.

“Hillary understands that the presidency is ... about leaving something better for our kids.”

She says Clinton “has the guts and the grace to keep coming back and putting cracks in that highest and hardest glass ceiling until she finally breaks through, and lifts all of us with her.”

Michelle Obama is talking about Clinton’s reaction after losing the 2008 primary.

“There are plenty of moments when Hillary could’ve decided that this work was too hard... but here’s the thing. What I admire most about Hillary is that she never [folds] under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life....

“That’s what I want. I want someone who has the proven strength to persevere.”

We’re not on Twitter at the moment but surely it’s full of wild “Michelle Obama 2020” speculation.

Obama says that with the nuclear button, “You can’t have a thin skin... you need to be.. mature and well-informed. I want a president with a record of public service.”

Michelle Obama: 'only one person I trust'

This election is “not about Democratic or Republican... this election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives,” Obama says.

“In this election there is only one person who I trust with that responsibility.. and that is our friend Hillary Clinton.”

Big, large applause.

The first lady talks about her daughters, “the joy of watching them grow.”

“I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just seven and ten years old, pile into those black SUVs with so many men with guns, their little faces pressed to the windows, and I thought, what have we done?”

She says “we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith.. we insist” that hateful language does not represent the country.

“How we explain that when someone is cruel and acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high.”

Whomever could she be talking about.

Here comes Michelle Obama, and once again we’ve called it – everyone claps.

She is smiling but she can’t talk yet because too many people are clapping too long.

“It’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since I first came to this convention,” she says.

Now here’s a video about Michelle Obama produced by JJ Abrams. It’s kids talking about Michelle Obama (who speaks next), and lots of shots and video of Michelle Obama dancing and exercising with kids.

Prepare to hill a fairly rousing round of applause in the hall. Kids + first lady + hugs = happy Democrats.

Next up is Cheryl Lankford, whose husband, an army sergeant major, died in Baghdad in 2007.

The Democrats air a video of Lankford telling the story of being taken for $35,000 by Trump University.

Now she steps out to tell her story. She says that in addition to losing her husband she never thought she would “be the victim of a scam.

You just saw what happened to me. How Trump University cheated me out of the money I received after my husband’s death. How they broke their promises. How they stopped taking my calls. How the whole thing was a lie…

Conning me out of the money the military gave me after my husband died, I felt he was disrespecting my husband’s memory...

He made millions of dollars off of people like me. Millions. ...

Here’s a guy who was born rich and who has all the money in the world, and there’s nothing wrong with that... but then he decided to make himself even richer by cheating working people who had nothing to spare. What kind of man does that?

She’s applauded.

I’m here because America deserves to know the truth. This election isn’t about Democrat versus Republican. It’s about right versus wrong.

Donald Trump made big promises about Trump University. And I was fooled into believing him. Now he’s making big promises about America. Please don’t make the same mistake.”

This is Booker’s famous We Will Rise speech, as perhaps it will become known.

Isn’t that a Jeb Bush super Pac?

Booker’s refrain is “America, we will rise.”

Booker, who’s been not totally arresting throughout, hits it out of the park at the end. His first mention of “love trumps hate” draws a very large applause. And at the end he has them chanting along to “we! will! rise!”

Here’s the end:

Here in Philadelphia, let us declare again that we will be a free people. Free from fear and intimidation. Let us declare that we are a nation of interdependence, and that in America love always trumps hate. Let us declare, so that generations yet unborn can hear us. We are the United States of America; our best days are ahead of us.

We will rise!

Good spot! What came of the plane ticket negotiation?

Also spotted in the hall: Bill Clinton and... Bernie Sanders.

Booker mounts a bit of an attack on Trump’s record in Atlantic City, not included in the advance excerpts:

[Trump] got rich while his companies declared multiple bankruptcies... he took out a lot of cash, but he stiffed contractors... we in America have seen enough of a handful of people growing rich at the cost of a nation, sending it into crisis.

As Booker speaks, we’re going to take up Businessweek’s Joshua Green on this old college football footage:

We have advance excerpts of Booker’s speech. They’re a bit - well let’s assume the electricity will be in the delivery. Here they are:

“This is the high call of patriotism. Patriotism is love of country. But you can’t love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen. We don’t always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good. We can’t devolve into a nation where our highest aspiration is that we just tolerate each other. We are not called to be a nation of tolerance. We are called to be a nation of love…”

“We have a presidential nominee in Hillary Clinton who knows that, in a time of stunningly wide disparities of wealth in our nation, America’s greatness must not be measured by how many millionaires and billionaires we have, but by how few people we have living in poverty.”

“Hillary knows when workers make a fair wage, it doesn’t just help their families, it builds a stronger, more durable economy that expands opportunity and makes all Americans wealthier.”

“She knows that in a global knowledge-based economy, the country that out-educates the world will out-earn the world, out-innovate the world, and lead the world.”

“She knows that debt-free college is not a gift, it’s not a charity, it’s an investment. It represents the best of our values, the best of our history, the best of our party: Bernie’s ideas, Hillary’s ideas, our shared ideas. Our shared values.

“Hillary Clinton knows what Donald Trump betrays time and again in this campaign: that we are not a zero sum nation, it is not you or me, it is not one American against another. It is you and I together, interdependent, interconnected with one single interwoven American destiny.”

Longoria finishes: “Guess what Donald? It turns out America is prety great already.”

Here comes New Jersey senator Cory Booker. Guess what? He looks happy to be there. He’s Cory Booker.

Silverman: 'You're being ridiculous'

Comedian Sarah Silverman displayed a flash of unscripted irritation which appeared to anger some of Bernie Sanders’ delegates in the room when she said: “To the ‘Bernie or Bust’ people, you’re being ridiculous.”

Updated

Now Eva Longoria, actress and activist. She says she’s so proud to say “I’m with her!”

At this point in the night, the line is vigorously applauded.

Have the Democrats put their boos behind them?

Longoria:

When Donald Trump calls us criminals and rapists, he’s insulting American families. My father was not a criminal or a rapist. In fact he’s a United States veteran.

Hillary’s been fighting for us for decades. Now it’s time to fight for her!

Paul Simon sings Bridge Over Troubled Water. Democrats sway. Many smile.

Maybe he’ll come back for America when Sanders speaks? We’re dreaming aren’t we.

Updated

Paul Simon will be introduced by Sarah Silverman, the comedienne, joined by Al Franken, who’s coming back for seconds. Stage-hog.

“I’m Sarah Silverman and this past year I’ve been feeling the Bern,” she says. “Relax, I put some cream on it.”

Franken: What did you say?

Silverman: I put some cream on it.

“Oh Al, you’ve still got it,” she quips. Then she kicks him out of the camera shot so she can speak:

Some of you my know I support Bernie Sanders and the movement behind him. And Bernie’s already succeeded in so many ways.” She singles out opposition to Citizens United. “I’m very glad

You know my shrink says, we don’t get what we want, we get what we think we deserve. And Bernie Sanders has shown us that all Americans deserve quality health care and education, not just elites.

“As a pretty kick-ass woman once said, it takes a village,” she says.

She says the Democratic primary was so grown up, with omission of details like hand-size or “if they go to the bathroom.”

“Inside secret,” Silverman whispers. “They do.”

Then Silverman absolutely kills:

“That’s four-year-old stuff. That’s calling-people-names-from-inside-my-gold-encrusted-sandbox-because-I-was-given-money-instead-of-human-touch-and-coping-tools.”

Silverman continues: “Hillary is our Democratic nominee and I will proudly vote for her.”

Thunderous applause. And for each one of these lines:

“It’s so inspiring. Just a few months ago she was a secretary and now she could be president!

“She’s like the only person to be overqualified for the job as the president. So I tell you this, I will vote for Hillary with gusto.

“I am proud to be part of Bernie’s movement. And a big part of that movement is to make absolutely sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States.”

There it is: The first time of the night, a spontaneous “Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!” chant.

Then Silverman grabs the mic again. “To the Bernie or Bust people, you’re being ridiculous!”

The crowd loves her. She’s the first person – after Demi Lovato – to really light them up. The first person to really light them up.

Franken and Silverman have to vamp a bit while Paul Simon gets ready. Thank goodness it was them and not... Nita Lowey?

Next up onstage: Paul Simon.

What’s he going to sing?

Here now is Anastasia Somoza, who, along with her twin sister, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia when she was born and is an advocate for Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Somoza, who first met President Bill Clinton in 1993 at a town hall meeting for kids, is a former Hillary Clinton intern.

“I first met Hillary as First Lady on a visit to the White House,” she says:

I was 9 years old and I listened to her and my mom discuss healthcare and early intervention for children with disabilities. Over the past 23 years, she has continued to serve as a friend and a mentor… Championing my inclusion and access to classrooms, higher education and the workforce.”

Somoza says that Clinton’s opponent “shouts, bullies and profits off of vulnerable Americans.” She continues:

Donald Trump has shown us who he really is. And I honestly feel bad for anyone with that much hate in their heart. I know we will show each other, and the world, who we really are in November – when we choose genuine strength and thoughtful leadership – over fear and division. Donald Trump doesn’t see me, he doesn’t hear me, and he definitely doesn’t speak for me.

“I am confident that as president Hillary Clinton will do everything in her power to support the rights... and humanity of all Americans.”

The crowd is applauding Somoza, who is speaking from a wheelchair, with great warmth.

Anastasia Somoza speaks during Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2016.
Anastasia Somoza speaks during Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2016. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

A sanding ovation for Somoza.

Zero arrests, 55 ticketed, 17 hospitalized in heat

Philadelphia officials say 41 people have been treated for heat-related issues or other injuries during protests related to the Democratic convention, the AP reports. Seventeen of those treated have been taken to hospitals to be evaluated.

Additionally, Philadelphia police said 55 people have been cited for disorderly conduct after demonstrators tried to climb barricades near the Democratic convention.

Police say no one was arrested in the crowd of largely pro-Bernie Sanders protesters.

Franken says that work by people to register voters in Minnesota is “the reason I am giving this speech here and not into my bathroom mirror.”

He continues:

This week is about passion. Starting Friday morning, it’s all about work. Hard work.

Many of you have jobs. Many of you have families. Ignore them.

Let me tell you something. Kids love it when their parents aren’t home. They love it!

An eight-year-old kid knows how to use a microwave oven. And let me tell you something else. And 8-year-old kid can teach a 4-year-old kid how to use a microwave oven.

It’s a chucklefest.

Franken notes that Trump has claimed his business experience qualifies him for the presidency. And “if you believe that, I’ve got some delicious Trump steaks to sell you.”

Ba-dum-bum.

“I think rather than voting for someone who’s never done anything other than himself, maybe we should vote for a candidate” who’s devoted her life to improving the lives of other people, Franken says.

“I am proud to call Hillary Clinton my friend and I can’t wait to call her madam President.”

Pretty good applause there from Franken.

Franken returns to comedy to grill Trump

Here now is Minnesota senator Al Franken.

His introduction is built for a laugh, unlike anything he says in the senate:

I’m Al Franken. Minnesota Senator and world renowned expert on right wing megalomaniacs: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and now, Donald Trump…”

Franken then eases into a standup routine:

I got my doctorate in megalomania studies from Trump University,” Franken says. “As a proud alum of Trump U, I think we may be misunderestimating Mr Trump. Sure he’s scammed a lot of people, but did you know that Mr Trump’s school of ripping people off is ranked second in the nation? Right behind Bernie Madoff University. ...

It’s also about learning from success experts like Scott Baio, Mike Tyson and of course a life-sized cardboard cutout of Mr Trump himself.

Here now is New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

She’s talking about Clinton’s work on behalf of children and families – that’s verbatim the theme of the night, Hillary Clinton’s work on behalf of children and families.

“You see, Hillary Clinton’s life’s work has been defined by one question: ‘How we help those who need it most?’” Gillibrand says, continuing:

Donald Trump’s has been defined by a very different question: ‘How can I help myself most?’”

Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and said that wages are “too high”. Hillary knows that in the richest country in the world, it’s unacceptable that a mom with two kids working full-time still lives in poverty.

Donald Trump says that when it comes to paid family leave, “you have to be careful of it.” Hillary knows that it’s long past time for guaranteed paid family leave.”

The paid family leave line gets a bit of clapping. Gillibrand continues:

Donald Trump thinks that women should just work harder because – and I’m quoting – “You’re gonna make the same if you do as good a job.” Every woman in America knows that’s not true! Hillary believes that women deserve equal pay for equal work.

“The choice in this election couldn’t be clearer,” the senator concludes. Her call for support for Hillary Clinton is applauded with moderate warmth.

Singer Demi Lovato, in addition to a rendition of one of her chart-toppers, used her time onstage to address mental-health issues, citing her personal struggle with mental illness as a motivating factor for encouraging politicians “to support laws that will provide access to better healthcare.”

“This is not about politics - it’s simply the right thing to do,” Lovato said, to enthusiastic applause. “I’m proud to support a presidential candidate who will fight to ensure all people living with mental-health conditions get the care they need to live fulfilling lives. That candidate is Hillary Clinton!”

Lovato then launched into her smash hit “Confident,” complete with backup dancers, which even had members of the perpetually angry California delegation dancing. (Sample lyrics: “Bitch, I run this show / So leave the lights on / No, you can’t make me behave”).

Apologies for the interruption, we’ve had some further interruptions of our internet service inside the hall.

On night one of the Democratic convention, Democrats are advised to take cover:

Updated

Heck of a storm. Via C-Span:

Next up is Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

He launches the most effective and exciting – for the crowd – attack on Trump of the night.

“Working people are strong, and Donald Trump is wrong, wrong, wrong,” he says.

He thinks he’s a tough guy. Well Donald, I worked in the mines with tough guys. I know tough guys, they’re friends of mine. And Donald, You’re no tough guy, you’re a phony!

Cheers.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh just won some cheers, and got into what may have been the first cooperative call-and-response with the crowd, with a call to stop Donald Trump from “stiffing” working families.

He began his talk by saying “I’m Marty Walsh and I’m an alcoholic,” to some mirth in the auditorium, before the crowd realized he was perfectly serious and meant to tell his story of recovery with the support of the labor movement and his family.

Flash flood alert hits convention; media tent evacuated

No shortage of action here in Philadelphia tonight. The emergency alert system has just dispatched a flash flood notification:

And they’re evacuating the media tents:

And the storm has broken up a rally with Green party candidate Jill Stein:

Let the good times roll...

Looks like trouble’s brewing outside, too:

There’s some concern the media tent could blow over:

Updated

Here’s video of the booing earlier, as Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge, the permanent chairwoman of the convention, spoke:

DNC chair booed by Bernie Sanders delegates

Here’s Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

He thanks volunteers and donors. “You have voted to make Hillary Clinton the nominee of the Democratic party, this is your victory. And to everyone who supported senator Sanders, this is your victory too!”

There were cheers at first but the Sanders supporters did not seem convinced. In any case the booing has definitely died down.

Many in the crowd seem simply to be ignoring Podesta, as the last speakers were largely ignored. There’s a lot of background noise in the crowd – loud talking – and kind of perfunctory cheering, less-than-thrilled cheering. The crowd has gone from sharply and passionately divided against itself to just kind of flat.

Podesta isn’t saying much memorable. But he sounds busy:

“If we work overtime for the next 105 days we will succeed in making history, and elect the first woman president of the United States!” he says.

That gets some chering.

Trump on Warren: 'she's got a fresh mouth'

Quote via CBS News’ Sopan Deb:

Warren, one of Trump’s most lacerating and – judging by his inability not to respond to her – effective critics, will get the chance to try out her “fresh mouth” on the Democrats later this evening.

Updated

The liberal progressive group Democracy for America, which endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, is urging voters to back Hillary Clinton despite today’s backlash from Sanders supporters, writes Guardian Washington correspondent David Smith:

Charles Chamberlain, its executive director, asked reporters: “Is Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders? Absolutely not.” But he insisted that she is “phenomenally better” than Republican rival Donald Trump.

People should vote with their conscience, Chamberlain added, and he was confident that the vast majority of Sanders supporters would realise that means backing Clinton. “I’d rather fight with the Clinton administration from time to time than with the Donald Trump administration all the time,” he said.

He also suggested that the vocal pro-Sanders protesters in Philadelphia are not a representative sample of the 13 million people who voted for him. They are the most passionate and committed, standing in 100 degree heat, and therefore the ones who find it “hardest to let go”, he said.

But polls show that Sanders supporters are more likely to support Clinton now than Clinton supporters were to back Barack Obama at the same stage in 2008.

Inside the Wells Fargo arena.
Inside the Wells Fargo arena. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
A Bernie Sanders supporter looks in the mirror during a break at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A Bernie Sanders supporter looks in the mirror during a break at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Here’s Tina Kotek of the Democratic legislative campaign committee, and also from Oregon.

She prompts the prompter. “Can we move the prompter a second?”

Then she continues:

“As the first lesbian speaker in any statehouse of our nation” – and she’s interrupted by cheers.

“We have come so far, and we cannot, we cannot go back. I’m known for being someone who tells it like it is. And the fact is, I’m with Hillary because she is with me:

Hillary Clinton understands that the work to improve the lives of everyday Americans doesn’t just need to happen in Washington DC. It needs to happen in state capitols all across our country.

[...]

We need to elect Hillary Clinton to make sure the progress we are making isn’t compromised by .. reckless leadership in the Oval Office.

Additional Sanders surrogates spreading the word that whatever you want to say about the Democratic nominating process, Clinton... won.

Here’s Sanders’ former press secretary:

Lowey went for a Trump-stinks cheer there, but the crowd didn’t seem that into it. Relatively little fire-breathing about Trump from the stage so far. More clumsy Clinton boosting, alternating with giddy Sanders-talk.

New York representative Adriano Espaillat has just deployed the first Spanish of the event, culminating in “Si se puede!”

And the crowd takes him up on it:

Si se puede!

Si se puede!

Si se puede!

Next up, Representative Nita Lowey from New York. “It is my pleasure to join you in this city of Brotherly Love to nominate our first sister president!” she says.

That’s mostly cheered, though there are some lingering moans, or chants, groans maybe, in the crowd.

Lowey tries out a line about the “next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton!” The line receives less booing than most.

Did Sanders’ text message work? The booing at mentions of Clinton’s name seems to have receded, a bit. But there are still some unenthused folks. Looking at you, Texas. (The Texas and California delegations are notably pro-Sanders.)

While our wifi was out (fascinating story – ask us later) – the Democrats approved the party platform by overwhelming acclaim, which was followed by merely whelming disclaim, meaning the ayes had it. Platform adopted.

Ben Jealous, former NAACP head and Sanders delegate, is next on stage. He also coaxes a mixed response for Clinton that is more applause than boos. Which is saying something:

“Bernie will be here tonight. And as he said to us today, today is our day to begin to unify so that we can defeat Donald Trump.”

That’s respectably applauded.

“Defeat Trump, and make Hillary Clinton president of these United States!”

That gets an applause / boo. An apploo.

Sanders appeals to delegates to cool it

Bernie Sanders has texted his delegate whips to get their delegations to stop floor protests.

“I ask you as a personal courtesy to me to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor,” said a text from Sanders. “It is of utmost importance you explain this to your delegations.”

The text was signed, “–Bernie”.

A spokesperson for Sanders, meanwhile, is arguing on Twitter that the rifts at the convention do not represent a departure from or abandonment of Clinton by Sanders supporters.

This is a tough argument to make, to someone sitting inside the convention.

But Mike Casca has graphics:

Trump on Democratic chairwoman: ‘Hillary threw her under a bus’

Trump on Debbie Wasserman Schultz: ‘Hillary threw her under a bus’

Trump renews invitation to Sanders supporters

Trump has just re-upped his invite to Sanders supporters to take the Trump train for a test-run:

P.S. Sanders is a chump

Updated

Biggest unified cheer of the afternoon now, when Cummings brings up Black Lives Matter.

“But we also realize that our communities work best when they work together,” he says. “Our party knows that diversity is not a problem but is a problem [sic].” [Solution he must have meant.”

Now the crowd is attempting to chant Cummings down. The words are not discernible. He goes louder and drowns the chants with an applause line about racial unity.

The chant is “No TPP! No TPP!”

It’s distracting but Cummings soldiers on, conscious, perhaps, of how it would look on TV if he stopped to tell them to cool it.

He gets to a line about “a woman’s right to choose,” and drowns them out again, but the chant is still there when the applause dies down.

Cummings is talking about seeing his deceased father in the stars at night sometimes. The crowd chant continues: No TPP! No TPP!

“That great man with a fourth-grade education with a mind full of wisdom and common sense.. would say this election is bigger than Hillary Clinton,”

... No TPP!..

“it’s bigger than Bernie Sanders, it’s bigger than all of us.”

No TPP!

May god bless America, Cummings says.

Then there’s a video. But the crowd keeps chanting.

Hoyer says “we are running together... to renew faith in government and help all our people make it in America.”

Hoyer riffs on this theme. Then he gets back to the concluding line of his prepared remarks: “All of us must band together for our country and elect Hillary Clinton president of the United States of America.”

Once again, Clinton is booed as much as she is cheered.

And here’s Hoyer’s Maryland colleague, Elijah Cummings. What kind of reception will he meet? He begins with the story of his childhood as the son of a sharecropper who grew up without running water but with a strong dose of social gospel.

Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer, the biggest Democratic wig yet to appear onstage, hits the lectern. How will the Sanders crowd treat him?

He’s almost immediately interrupted:

We’re here to nominate Hillary Clinton, because of her.... [boos, cheers]

...because of her ability, experience and vision for this country. We’re also here to show America why Democrats up and down the ticket are ready to lead.

Russell, the Maine representative and Sanders backer, gets closest to coaxing a full cheer from the crowd for Clinton yet.

“In the end, love does Trump hate. And in the end, I stand with my Democratic family in making sure we win this fall,” Russell says:

I do not want to see anyone like him become the president of this United State. Whether you support Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, we are all in this together, and we will all have a voice in the Clinton administration.

We all know in our heart of hearts, a Donald Trump presidency will not just hurt our party. It will hurt our people. And I am not OK with that.

I will also do everything I can this fall to elect Hillary so that we have a Democrat in the white House.

It is time to get to work!

Then the whole crowd applauds, with some barely audible boos.

And now Webb’s hard work at getting the crowd to behave has gone out the window.

Diane Russell, a state representative from Maine and a self-described “proud delegate for Bernie Sanders,” takes the lectern and gets the Sanders supporters going again.

Russell introduces herself as “the one who introduced the first amendment to reform the superdelegates system!”

She is quite cheered on that count. It is much safer to make pro-Sanders statements from that stage than pro-Clinton statements.

Then Russell she assures the crowd that an effort is under way to reform the nominating process. She’s on the unity commission.

Then, in a powerful window into Democratic leaking, Russell makes a Harry Potter allusion:

“Dumbledor from Harry Potter once said, ‘it takes great courage to stand up to your enemies. It takes even greater courage to stand up to your friends.’

She continues:

On behalf of senator Sanders and the political revolution, in strong, unequivocal support for the unity compromise, this plan gives us the opportunity to present a number of election reforms, including reducing the number of superdelegates by a full two-thirds. That is written right into the commission’s charter.

She reads this rather defensive line from the Teleprompter:

I want to be clear. We did not win this by selling out. We won this by standing up! We won this by standing together.

Updated

Wellington Webb, former mayor of Denver, a rules committee member, introduces himself as “a longtime supporter of Hillary Clinton.”

He’s describing the work of a “unity commission” formed to review the Democratic nominating process.

When he mentions a particular focus on “superdelegates,” someone in the crowd lets out what can only be descibed as a maniacal cackle. It echoes in the arena, which usually hosts basketball and hockey.

“Let me share with you that the primary season brought to light some issues we need to address as a Democratic family,” says Webb. But, “it is vital that we always move forward together.”

He continues with a basketball metaphor:

Just as we watched LeBron James and Steph Curry shake hands after a well-fought fight, we know that the country is eager to watch these two giants fight together.

Webb is ad-libbing now:

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are our champions. They both deserve our cheers.

They both deserve our cheers.

They both deserve our cheers.

I ask you if you would do this for me. Do this for our party. Do this for you. And let’s show Donald Trump we can be united.

Let’s all cheer for Bernie tonight when he takes the stage. And let’s also cheer for Hillary when she takes the stage on Thursday.

There’s a reasonable amount of cheering and a reasonable lack of booing.

Democrats apologize to Sanders for emails

The Democratic national committee has released a statement apologizing to Bernie Sanders and his supporters for “the inexcusable remarks made over email.”

A leak of nearly 20,000 emails among party officials revealed them testing ways to challenge Sanders and disparaging him and his candidacy.

“On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email,” the DNC statement says.

These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process. The DNC does not -- and will not -- tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates. Individual staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.

We are embarking on a convention today that — thanks to the great efforts of Secretary Clinton, her team, Senator Sanders, his team, and the entire Democratic Party — will show a forward-thinking and optimistic vision for America, as compared to the dark and pessimistic vision that the GOP presented last week in Cleveland. Our focus is on electing Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine and Democrats across the country, thanks to Democratic Party that is strong, unified, and poised for victory in November.

The signatories are:

Donna Brazile, Incoming Interim Chair

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Secretary Andrew Tobias

Treasurer Raymond Buckley, Vice Chair

ASDC President Maria Elena Durazo

Vice Chair Mayor R.T. Rybak

Vice Chair Henry R. Muñoz III

National Finance Committee Chair

Fudge: 'we are all Democrats and we need to act like it'

Fudge says, “Let the convention begin.”

Then she lectures the unruly crowd.

“May I just make a point. There are many of you who do not know me in this room. I intend to be fair. ... I will be respectful of you. And I want you to be respectful of me.”

This brings huge cheers.

“We are all Democrats and we need to act like it!” she says. Bigger cheers.

Like Trump’s family’s Republicanism, however, Sanders’s Democratic bona fides don’t run particularly deep, and his non-delegate supporters here may be cut from a similar partisan cloth.

Convention hijacked by shouting match

Every time Hillary Clinton’s name is mentioned on the stage – now by representative Fudge – the crowd is overtaken by a wave of boos, and countervailing cheers.

The crowd is restive. They’re trying to boo Fudge down. Until the Virginia and New York delegations up front there, stand to cheer.

“Excuse me. Scuse me,” Fudge says.

But it’s pandemonium. Thunderdome-style. There’s nothing to be said from the stage. It’s all in the crowd, a contest of shouting.

“Hillary Clinton, this is your time,” says Fudge, and the crowd explodes in both cheers of joy and howls of outrage.

Updated

Former congressman Barney Frank, co-chair of the rules committee, is introduced – and greeted with applause and some boos, presumably for the committee’s resistance to changing the party’s superdelegate nominating rules, a top demand of the Sanders camp.

“Thank you, or not, as the case may be,” he says. Rawlings-Blake conducts a voice vote on approving officers of the convention. There are some vocal nos but nowhere close to the crush of ayes.

Permanent convention chair Marcia Fudge takes the stage.

Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts was on the floor for the extraordinary moment during the invocation, when a Hillary! chant ran into a Bernie! chant:

All-time gavel game.

There was the national anthem. They made it through the whole thing with no interruptions from outraged Sanders supporters. Steady as she goes...

Invocation interrupted by 'Bernie' chants

If there were any question whether the Sanders backers would be restive, the invocation - the invocation – was just interrupted with chants of Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

The pastor had made the mistake of veering away from the godtalk and mentioning nominating Hillary Clinton.

This is going to be lively!

Updated

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake emerges and calls the convention to order.

But she forgets to gavel it. A tech has to intercept her as she walks offstage and herd her back to the lectern.

She jogs back across the blue carpet (in heels) and does the honors.

And there, at last, is the ceremonial gavel. Maybe everything will run smoothly from here?

[note: this post, which incorrectly identified mayor Rawlings-Blake, has been corrected. Thanks to a vigilant reader!]

Updated

Hello from inside the Wells Fargo arena, where Mother Bethel AME church choir has just finished an extraordinary medley culminating in Glory Glory Hallelujah.

So -who’s going to get this party started? Who will wield the gavel?

Streaming live: The Democratic National Convention

Watch live here:

A protest march is heading through downtown Philadelphia. Hundreds of largely Bernie Sanders-supporting demonstrators had gathered at city hall at 3pm, close to the DNC convention center, before walking south half an hour later.

“Bernie Sanders: not for sale” people are chanting, along with: “Clinton lied people died”.

One man is carrying a banner banner that says “Hillary Clinton for prison”. Earlier protesters had chanted “Lock her up” in reference to the Democratic nominee: a common Donald Trump supporter refrain.

The march is being closely monitored by police officers on bicycles, some of whom seem quite ill-suited to cycling in 96f heat.

Someone seems to have sprung a fire hydrant along the route and it is spraying water all over protesters.

Seeing outside Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia shows a larger and more fervent collection of protesters and protests then we ever saw in Cleveland.

A close aide to Hillary Clinton has accused leaders of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union of making “grandiose promises” that they reneged on as soon as they won last month’s referendum.

Jake Sullian, a senior foreign policy adviser to the Democratic nominee, predicted that Americans would learn the lessons of Brexit and not vote for her Republican rival Donald Trump.

“We believe that, as Secretary Clinton has said before, the kind of turbulence and the kind of uncertainty generated by the Brexit vote will ultimately demonstrate to American voters that an approach that is based on evidence and fact and sound, sensible policy making is the approach that the American people are going to pursue,” Sullivan told reporters at the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.

“Just as an example of this, some of the architects of Brexit campaign put forward grandiose promises in the course of running their argument for why the UK should leave the European Union. As soon as the vote happened, they came out and said, ‘Well, maybe we didn’t mean it with those promises’. We think the American people have seen that and it’s going to make them more sceptical of grandiose promises here on this side of the Atlantic in this election.”

One of those architects, Nigel Farage, popped up at the Republican convention in Cleveland last week and spoke to delegates about how Brexit attracted “little people” who do not normally vote but who wanted to send a message to the establishment. He suggested that, despite cultural differences, Trump could benefit from a similar groundswell.

But Sullivan, former deputy chief of staff to Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state, cautioned against drawing too many parallels. “We believe the vote over Brexit in the UK cannot easily be analogised to the presidential election in the United States,” he said. “For starters, obviously the United Kingdom and the United States are different countries with different constituencies and different considerations in play in the election, but more than that, the vote over Brexit was a vote on how the United Kingdom would relate to an institution.

“The presidential election in the United States is a choice between two candidates, two people, two human beings, and the character and temperament of those two human beings will be very much on the voters’ minds as they go into the polling booth.”

Sullivan added: “So our view is that ultimately this comes down to something about the United States, not about Europe, not about the UK, but to the extent that you can draw lessons from the Brexit vote, many of them cut in favour of the kinds of arguments that Hillary Clinton has been making on the campaign trail.”

The former national seadviser to vice-president Joe Biden also addressed the leak of Democratic party emails, which he said multiple intelligence experts and security firms had blamed on government-sponsored Russian hackers. “If it is indeed the case that Russia was behind this hack, this would be a new watershed. This would be Russia interfering in the American presidential election, which is deeply alarming and completely unacceptable if it bears out to be true.”

The line for the shuttle from the Pennsylvania Convention Center - where press briefings are held - and Wells Fargo Center - where the actual convention will take place - is hundreds of people deep.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore, current secretary of the Democratic National Committee and president of the US Conference of Mayors, has announced that she will take DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s place as the master of ceremonies this afternoon, gaveling in the Democratic National Convention after Schultz declared that she would give up the role.

We happen to know that Better Midler employs a full-time comedian to writer her tweets - thanks, Gay Mafia: Los Angeles Chapter! - but this tweet referencing Melania Trump’s plagiarism scandal brings a question to mind: Will first lady Michelle Obama refer to her would-be successor’s speech tonight?

Memo: Bernie Sanders considered asking for plane in return for endorsement

A memo detailing the potential future plans of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign included the possibility of demanding a private plane, funded by the Democratic National Committee, for Sanders to visit swing states during the general election as a negotiating point during the wind-down of his pursuit of the Democratic nomination.

Bernie Sanders, on a different plane.
Bernie Sanders, on a different plane. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

The memo, obtained by Buzzfeed, was apparently left on a table in a hotel restaurant by a careless staffer and frequently emphasizes the important of Sanders using his then-diminishing “leverage” to advance progressive issues within the Democratic party.

The memo opens with two “key decisions” needed to be made in the closing days of Sanders’ campaign: Whether to force a roll-call vote for the nomination at this week’s convention, and whether to concede the nomination prior to the convention, as Sanders eventually did.

In support of the roll-call vote, the memo details that Clinton “will unquestionably be short of a convention majority based upon pledge delegates” and that superdelegates are “by definition undeclared... It is possible that an external event,” like the indictment that failed to materialize after her investigation by the FBI, “would bring Clinton’s viability in the general election into focus in the weeks before the convention.”

But the memo also notes that “short of a major external event, the superdelegates are likely to coalesce behind her candidacy,” and that external pressure from Democratic elites, Senate and House leadership, lobbying organizations and even some Sanders supporters would be extreme in the face of an attempt to circumvent Clinton’s lead in pledged delegates, superdelegates and the popular vote.

Read the whole memo here.

Julian Assange, on Trump vs. Clinton: 'Do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea?'

In an interview with Democracy Now, Wikileaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange compared choosing between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to choosing between two different infectious diseases and said that “personally, I would prefer neither.”

“Well, you’re asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea,” Assange said, in response to a question on his stance regarding Trump. “We know how politics works in the United States. Whoever - whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And so, as a result, corporate lobbyists will move in to help control those levers. So it doesn’t make much difference in the end.”

What does make a difference, Assange said, “is political accountability, a general deterrence set to stop political organizations behaving in a corrupt manner. That can make a difference, because that changes the perception of what you can do or not do.”

Bernie Sanders supporters adopted one of Donald Trump’s attack lines against Hillary Clinton at the opening of the Democratic national convention today, chanting “lock her up” at protests in downtown Philadelphia.

Around 200 people were gathered at Philadelphia City Hall at noon, ahead of a planned march through the city. Most of the crowd were Sanders supporters, who voiced their anger at the leaked Democratic National Committee emails that showed behind-the-scenes support for Clinton during the Democratic primary.

“Lock her up, lock her up,” protesters chanted repeatedly. Many were carrying anti-Clinton banners, drawing attention to both the recent Wikileaks disclosures and her own use of a private email server while Secretary of State.

Matt Schmidheiser, 18.
Matt Schmidheiser, 18. Photograph: Adam Gabbatt for the Guardian

Trevor Minter, a 21-year-old bartender from Fort Worth, Texas, was among the dozens demanding the Democratic nominee be jailed.

“I feel like I’ve been cheated, I feel like my brothers and sisters have been cheated, and I feel like it’s all her fault,” Minter said.

He said he was dissatisfied with “all the classified emails she’s let out using her own servers and using her own personal email and then you have the Wikileaks, all the going behind people’s backs”.

“Lock her up” is a favorite chant at Donald Trump rallies, and could be heard throughout the GOP convention in Cleveland last week. The Republican nominee has branded Clinton “Crooked Hillary”.

The FBI investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while in office, but decided against pressing charges at the beginning of July.

Al Gore: 'I will be voting for Hillary Clinton'

Former vice president and almost-president Al Gore has been radio silent on the shape of the Democratic presidential field this cycle, but less than two hours before the Democratic National Convention is gaveled into order, Gore tweeted that he intends to vote for former secretary of state - and his ex-boss’ wife - Hillary Clinton.

Notably missing: The word “endorse.”

Jane Sanders hot mic: 'They don’t know your name is being put in nomination'

Jane Sanders, wife of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, was caught on a hot mic after his speech to supporters at the Pennsylvania convention center this afternoon saying: “They don’t know your name is being put in nomination, and that’s the concern...”

Campaign spokesman Michael Briggs has clarified that Jane Sanders “means there will be a roll-call vote and the senator’s name will be placed in nomination,” perhaps deflating fans of the Vermont senator who read palace intrigue into his spouse’s remarks.

Updated

Even Vermont senator Bernie Sanders seems unable to control some of his more passionate supporters, judging from the mood at a meeting of delegates that has just broken up at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Loud boos could be heard from within the closed-room as the Vermont senator told them: “We have got to defeat Donald Trump and we have got elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine... this is the world we live in.”

“Trump is a danger to the future of our country and must be defeated,” insisted Sanders. “I intend to do everything I can to see that he is defeated.”

At least a portion of his audience seemed unconvinced. Instead, a chat of “we want Bernie!” sparked up from a vocal group who are clearly not fully onboard with the official message of Democratic party unity.

Sanders got much bigger cheers when he mentioned the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz which he said “opens up the possibly of new leadership at the top of the Democratic party party that will stand up for working people and will open up the doors of the party for those people who want real change”.

He also agreed with other speakers that the struggle, at least in terms of fighting for more progressive policies, goes on. “This campaign has been a fantastic beginning and from today onward we continue the fight,” concluded Sanders as delegates prepared to file out far less fired up than they had been when they came in.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz to be replaced at gavel

In an interview with the Orlando Sun-Sentinal, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has declared that she will not gavel in the convention this afternoon, despite previous pledges to continue with her ceremonial duties during the DNC despite her resignation at the end of the week.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

“I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention,” Schultz said.

“I stepped down the other day because I wanted to make sure that having brought us to this momentous day and to Philadelphia and planned the convention that is going to be the best one that we’ve ever had in our party’s history that this needs to be all about making sure that everyone knows that Hillary Clinton would make the best president,” she continued.

Schultz was booed off stage by delegates from her home state of Florida while addressing Florida delegates at a breakfast this morning, as a group of Sanders supporters drowned out the congresswoman with jeers.

“Shame on you!” some yelled, as others accused her of rigging the election in Clinton’s favor.

Schultz, who announced on Sunday she will step down as DNC chair at the close of this week’s convention, tried at first to remain focused on the party’s agenda.

“We need to make sure we move together in a unified way,” she told the crowd. But as the protests grew louder, Schultz acknowledged she had discussed her resignation with both Clinton and Obama.

“I can see there’s a little bit of interest in my being here, and I can appreciate that interest,” Schultz said, while seeking to tamp down the hecklers.

Updated

A network of delegates pledged to Bernie Sanders has vowed to send a message of defiance inside the Democratic convention hall Monday, where Sanders was expected to make a call for unity behind presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders supporters.
Bernie Sanders supporters. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Network organizer Norman Solomon, a delegate from California, said that about 1,250 delegates, out of 1,893 total claimed by Sanders, had signaled their support for a convention protest.

Sanders himself is expected to call for a unified fight against Donald Trump when he addresses delegates in a closed-door meeting at a downtown convention centre this afternoon. But his supporters were in defiant mood as they waited in long-lines to get into the room. Chants of “feel the Bern” and “this is what democracy looks like” could be heard all over the centre in scenes reminiscent of his rallies during the primary.

Organizers said the group would register a “vocal” objection to the “rigged” nominating system, to the selection of Virginia senator Tim Kaine as Clinton’s running mate, to Democratic national committee (DNC) bias in favor of Clinton and other developments.

“We have everything from the ‘Bernie-or-busters’ to those who said they would support the eventual nominee,” said organizer Karen Bernal at a morning news conference in downtown Philadelphia. “There is a healthy section of the delegation that plans to have some sort of signal of disapproval, ranging from signs to something more vigorous.”

“We’ve been asked not to be so vocal, but that is not my job. My job is to make sure that the wishes of my delegates are heard. The Bernie delegates have never been a group to take marching orders; they are extremely independently minded.”

Discontent among Sanders supporters was visible in the streets Monday, as a crowd of about 100 demonstrators gathered outside City Hall by mid-morning to criticize the DNC and rally support behind Green party candidate Jill Stein. Slogans included “Bernie – or Jill” and “Does Not Care about democracy.”

“We are a little pissed off,” said organizer Manuel Zapata, another delegate from California. “Since the moment we got here people have looked down on us when they walked past with our campaign swag on... They throw ‘party unity’ around as if it’s something that should make us jump for joy, when [Clinton’s] name is mentioned – but everything that has happened over the last year pulls away from that.”

The defiant mood was echoed at a meeting Monday of the National nurses united group, where policy director Michael Lighty predicted “it could get contentious” inside the convention.

“It will not go down well [when he calls for unity],” Lighty said. “These delegates want to fight on the issues and they are not getting a chance. Pleas for unity without movement on the issues, on policy, are not going to get us anywhere. You can’t paper it over.”

Donna Smith, the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, received huge cheers as she told the group of nurses: “We get this, we know that Trump is a threat – but PDA will not endorse Hillary!”

The Democratic National Committee email hack has claimed another victim, according to the Guardian’s Nigel M. Smith: Ariana Grande.

Ariana Grande, dangerous woman (for donuts).
Ariana Grande, dangerous woman (for donuts). Photograph: PR

Licking donuts and saying “I hate America” cost Ariana Grande a prime gig performing for Barack Obama at the White House gala last September, according to several email exchanges exposed by WikiLeaks.

Amid the thousands of DNC emails posted by WikiLeaks Friday on was a 10 September 2015 response to a request from the DNC finance chair, Zachary Allen, to vet the former Disney Channel star to perform at a gala for the US president.

“Ariana Butera-video caught her licking other peoples’ donuts while saying she hates America,” the DNC’s deputy compliance director wrote in response, referring to Grande’s real name. “Republican Congressman used this video and said it was a double standard that liberals were not upset with her like they are with Trump who criticized Mexicans; cursed out a person on Twitter after that person used an offensive word towards her brother.”

A few months before the email exchange, on 4 July, Grande was caught on security cameras (obtained by TMZ) licking donuts sitting on the top shelf at a donut shop in southern California. When offered a fresh tray of donuts by an employee of the store, Grande is heard saying: “What the fuck is that? I hate Americans. I hate America.” The event caused the hashtag #DonutGate to quickly go viral.

Video of the long, passionate lines awaiting to see Bernie Sanders speak:

Donald Trump has tweeted - we know, we know - about the reporting implicating the Russian government in the hacking and subsequent leaking of unflattering Democratic National Committee emails, calling reports that the cyber intrusion was perpetrated by Russian state actors a “joke.”

Bernie Sanders supporters threaten VP insurrection

Delegates supportive of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are now openly threatening to push for a challenger to oppose Virginia senator Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, a challenge that could potentially throw the Democratic National Convention into chaos.

In a press conference, Norman Solomon, a Sanders delegate from California and national coordinator of the Bernie Delegates Network, told reporters that “there’s serious interest right now and exploration as we speak of a formal challenge with an alternative candidate” to Kaine.

The Bernie Delegates Network, an ad hoc group of delegates independent of the campaign that advocates for Sanders, is currently polling its 1,250 members to gauge interest in nominating a challenger at the DNC.

The Guardian’s Dan Roberts is ensconced in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where supporters of Bernie Sanders are gathering for a closed-to-press meeting with the candidate himself.

In short: They seem pissed.

Updated

If you missed it, the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui reported that Republican party leaders have seized on Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s resignation as head of the Democratic National Committee, pointing to Democratic party infighting as evidence that the primaries were “rigged” for Hillary Clinton from the get-go:

Paul Manafort.
Paul Manafort. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Top Republicans seized on the resignation of Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schulz on Sunday, to further their claim that the primary was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton – an assertion presidential nominee Donald Trump has made repeatedly while seeking to draw votes from those who supported Bernie Sanders.

“What we already knew,” Republican chairman Reince Priebus, was “perfectly crafted” in the email leaks. At an appearance in Philadelphia ahead of the Democratic convention, which begins in the city on Monday, he added: “The DNC was tipping the scale the entire time for Hillary Clinton.”

“Today’s events show really what an uphill climb the Democrats are facing this week in unifying their party,” he said. “Starting out the week by losing your party chairman over longstanding bitterness between factions is no way to keep something together.”

While Priebus acknowledged that both parties were struggling to achieve unity over their chosen nominee, he added that success was defined by “how you lead and how you bring things together through times that aren’t the easiest”.

“We’re not sitting here believing that the DNC was impartial,” Priebus said. “We knew they weren’t and [the leak] just was a dramatic illustration of what we knew the truth was the whole time anyway.”

Donald Trump, whose own national convention was marred by party infighting, onstage mutiny and a plagiarism scandal, is positively gleeful after the Democratic National Convention was kicked off by the resignation of the head of the Democratic National Committee and logistical issues that have forced reporters and staffers to work out of Philadelphia’s many coffee joints.

FBI investigating 'cyber intrusion' of DNC

The FBI issued a statement this morning announcing an investigation into the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email servers, calling the hack a “cyber intrusion” that poses “a threat to cyberspace.”

“The FBI is investigating a cyber intrusion involving the DNC and are working to determine the nature and scope of the matter,” an FBI spokesperson stated in a release this morning. “A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat to cyberspace.”

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, saying its hackers stole DNC emails and released them to foment disunity in the party and aid Donald Trump.

Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said on Sunday that “experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, [and are] releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”

Updated

Philadelphia is already seeing more fervent protests than any we witnessed in Cleveland last week, with supporters of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders marching through the streets, demanding his nomination.

Pro-Sanders protesters march before Democratic national convention

More on today's DNC speakers

The theme of the first day of the Democratic National Convention will reportedly put a focus on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s “lifelong work and commitment to putting families first,” in a bid to contrast Cinton’s messaging with Donald Trump’s claim that he alone could solve America’s problems.

The roster tonight will feature “some of the brightest stars” in the Democratic firmament, according to Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook.

Protesters march in support of Bernie Sanders.
Protesters march in support of Bernie Sanders. Photograph: Tracie Vanauken/EPA

The primetime speeches will begin during the 9pm EDT hour, with New Jersey senator Cory Booker, first lady Michelle Obama, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and, finally, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders highlighting “Secretary Clinton’s belief that America does best when the economy works for everyone, not just those at the top,” according to Mook.

“Sanders will stress that the most progressive platform in Democratic party history includes agreements he reached with Clinton to dramatically expand healthcare access and to make public colleges tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes up to $125,000 a year,” said Sanders spokesperson Michael Briggs.

“In his remarks, Sanders also plans to rip into Trump for siding with the Koch brothers and echoing fossil fuel industry claims that climate change is a hoax despite the virtually unanimous scientific consensus that the warming planet is causing devastating harm.”

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook may have told reporters this morning that this week’s Democratic National Convention is “the most professionally run, the most competent convention I have ever experienced for myself,” but he clearly never got a chance to attend last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

With shuttle buses between the convention center - where press briefings are held - and Wells Fargo Center - where the press filing center is - delayed until 2:30pm EDT, reporters on deadline have scattered to various coffee shops, restaurants and street corners to file from this morning’s press briefing.

TL;DR: Greetings from the Panera at the corner of Arch and North 12th Street in downtown Philadelphia!

DNC press briefing

In a slightly delayed press briefing at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia, senior Clinton campaign staff and Democratic National Committee chiefs told reporters that despite an initial feeling of semi-controlled chaos in the wake of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s resignation, this week’s Democratic National Convention will be “the most professionally run, the most competent convention” in the party’s history.

DNC CEO Leah D. Daughtry welcomed reporters to “the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection” - a slight elaboration on the city’s nickname - and declared that “our plans this week will convey a very stark contrast to what we saw last week in Cleveland, and will give the country a clearer vision of our plans... to move America forward.”

Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, declared on a morning filled with logistical nightmares for commuters and convention-goers alike that the Philadelphia convention has already been “the most professionally run, the most competent convention I have ever experienced for myself.”

“The theme of this first day of the convention is really kicking off a broader theme for the entire week and that is that Secretary Clinton has spent her entire life fighting for kids and families, fighting to provide opportunity for those who are given the least and breaking down barriers to opportunity,” Mook said.

“Senator Sanders is going to be closing us out tonight - he is going to be talking about how we are stronger together when we join forces as a party to take on the rigged system,” which Mook called a “big contrast” to the infighting on display at the RNC last week with Texas senator Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump. “First of all, our convention is going to be optimistic, it is going to be hopeful, and it is going to talk about specific plans the secretary has to get our economy going.”

After touting a new convention app - “it’s available now on iTunes, so please download!” requested Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon - the trio opened the floor up for questions, most of which involved the Schutlz’s resignation.

“This was the chairwoman’s decision,” Mook said, when asked whether the Clinton campaign had pressured the chair to resign. “She reached out to Secretary Clinton to notify her about that, and the secretary released a statement yesterday thanking her for her work.”

Asked about the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email system, which led to Schultz’s resignation after the release of damaging communications within the upper reaches of the party, Mook was hesitant to blame the data breach on Russiam

“All we know right now is what experts are telling us - I would refer everybody here to the reporting today in the New York Times,” Mook said. “What the experts said when this breach initially happened at the DNC is that they believed it was Russian state actors who took these emails... what further experts are saying is that then because they released these emails, that Russian state actors were feeding these emails to hackers for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”

Regarding Clinton’s beliefs on whether Russia was involved in the hack, Mook hedged. “She, like all of us, we are reading the same reporting that you all are seeing.”

Updated

Barack Obama’s half-brother said he was so disappointed with the Democratic party that he will vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Malik Obama.
Malik Obama. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

Malik Obama said he supports Trump because of his frustrations with the Obama administration – from its role in ousting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to the administration’s support of same-sex marriage.

“I feel like a Republican now because they don’t stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me,” Obama told the New York Post in a call from the Kenyanvillage of Kogelo.

Obama plans to return to Maryland in November to cast his vote for Trump, where he is registered to vote and used to work as an accountant in the state,according to other media outlets.

Obama’s disappointments with the Democratic party also include presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state. “She should have known better as the custodian of classified information,” said Obama.

The campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump - yep, the “presumptive” is gone for good - has announced that the candidate will participate in a Reddit AMA, or “ask me anything,” on Wednesday evening.

The post will go live at around 6:30pm EDT, with Trump appearing at 7pm, in which users of the content-sharing site will be able to ask Trump darn near anything - although nobody’s guaranteed a response.

To submit, visit https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/, which describes itself as “America’s uncucked media platform.”

Crowd explodes in anger as Debbie Wasserman Schultz addresses Florida delegates

Soon-to-be-former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was greeted with a chorus of jeering and boos when she attempted to address Democratic delegates from her home state of Florida this morning. Schultz attempted to forge on with the address, delivering remarks through the booing.

“I can see that there’s a little bit of interest in my being here and I appreciate that interest,” Schultz said, barely audible.

“And a little bit of interest from the press,” she continued accusingly, “but that really shows you that Florida is the most significant battleground state that will make sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States of America. We are the state that will deliver the White House to make sure that we can continue to make the progress that we have been able to make under Barack Obama for the last eight years.”

We’re ensconced in Room 108 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia, awaiting the appearance of DNC chieftains and Hillary Clinton’s senior campaign staff for the morning briefing today - we’re a little too excited about campaign manager Robby Mook, truth be told - but while we wait, here’s a great bit from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight last night, in which he reams Donald Trump for his apparent use of unauthorized music during the Republican National Convention last week.

Key line: “Yes, that is Queen being played at the Republican National Convention, so it’s with a heavy heart that I announce Freddie Mercury dead again at age 69.”

Democratic national convention: day one

Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Democratic national convention, coming at you live from steamy Philadelphia, where the onetime US capital has been turned into a hub for Democratic leaders, politicians, delegates and hangers-on – plus thousands of journalists and protesters, naturally.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Outgoing DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Today’s program: After morning meetings of special-interest group councils and caucuses, the DNC officially gavels in at 4pm ET. The roster of speakers is not yet complete, but includes a New Hampshire grandmother struggling to fight opioid addiction in her family, a mother-and-daughter duo from Nevada with mixed immigration statuses, a former intern for then-senator Hillary Clinton whose sister has cerebral palsy, and a Dreamer who came to the US when she was four.

Then, the evening’s headliners begin speaking. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whose acolytes have already been making a louder ruckus in Philadelphia than any protests we saw in Cleveland last week, will urge supporters to consider how “far superior” Clinton is to the alternative as Democrats seek to defuse fresh outbreaks of tension at the start of their national convention.

In an opening night address seen as crucial to fomenting party unity after a bitter primary, Sanders will appear alongside first lady Michelle Obama to “make it clear that Hillary Clinton is by far superior to Donald Trump on every major issue from economics and healthcare to education and the environment,” according to his spokesman Michael Briggs.

But news of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s resignation as DNC chair following an embarrassing email scandal plaguing Democrats on the eve of their convention may complicate those efforts. Schultz said she would step down at the close of this week’s convention after a leak of internal DNC emails showed officials actively favoring Clinton during the presidential primary and plotting against Sanders.

That’s what’s happening today – now, on to the morning press briefing at the Pennsylvania convention center, where the Rev Leah D Daughtry, the DNC’s CEO, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon and DNC communications CEO April Mellody will brief the press on the news of the day, and the plans for the convention.

On with the show ...

Updated

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