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Lois Beckett (now), Joan E Greve, Daniel Strauss and Martin Belam (earlier)

Hillary Clinton to say at DNC: 'Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line' – as it happened

Evening summary

We’re wrapping up our live US politics coverage for the evening but you can follow our Democratic National Convention blog for continuing updates.

An updated summary of some of today’s key events:

  • Facebook announced that it taken down or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon, the baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that has been linked with attempted acts of violence and identified as a potential ongoing inspiration for acts of domestic extremism.
  • The president then publicly praised supporters of QAnon, whose supporters believe Trump is secretly fighting back against a Satanic cabal of Democrats, celebrities, and other powerful figures who are carrying out horrific acts of pedophilia and child abuse. “I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate,” Trump said. “These are people that love our country.”
  • Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory were jubilant at Trump’s comments.
  • Laura Loomer, the anti-Islamic extremist and conspiracy theorist who won a Republican congressional primary in Florida, claimed that the RNC chair Ronna McDaniel called her a “political rock star” and a “change agent for the Republican Party” in a congratulatory phone call. A McDaniel spokesperson did not comment.
  • The postmaster general is refusing to reverse the operational changes already implemented at the US Postal Service, according to House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Postmaster General Lois DeJoy spoke to Pelosi this morning, and the speaker said he refused to commit to restoring mail sorting machines already removed from some USPS locations. DeJoy announced yesterday he was suspending planned operational changes, but Pelosi said, “The Postmaster General’s alleged pause is wholly insufficient and does not reverse damage already wreaked.”
  • The White House dodged questions about whether Trump would accept the election results if he loses to Joe Biden. “Is the president saying if he doesn’t win this election, that he will not accept the results unless he wins?” a reporter asked press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at today’s briefing. McEnany replied, “The president has always said he’ll see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath.”

GOP congressman who endorsed Biden was concerned about Trump and QAnon

Earlier today, even before Trump openly praised adherents of QAnon, a baseless conspiracy about a satanic network of child abusers, a former Republican congressman talked to CNN about why he was endorsing the Democratic candidate for president in 2020.

One reason, former congressman Charlie Dent said, was Trump’s praise Marjorie Taylor Greene, a racist QAnon supporter who recently won the Republican primary for Georgia’s 14th Congressional district, a strongly Republican district. Greene had also embraced a September 11 conspiracy.

“All this does is empower the whack jobs and the nuts to come out. With strong leadership we should be able to marginalize folks like that,” Dent said.

Updated

FBI: Twitter account shared infamous antisemitic document via ‘automatic process’

Earlier today, an official FBI Twitter account shared a link to an infamous antisemitic document, “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” a fraudulent text that has been used for more than a century, including in Nazi Germany, to justify hatred, discrimination, and violence against Jewish people.

The FBI’s tweet listed only the title of the document, and a link to a PDF, with no additional context, sparking criticism and outrage.

In a statement hours after the tweet was posted, an FBI spokesperson said the tweet was posted “via an automated process without further outlining the context of the documents.”

“We regret that this release may have inadvertently caused distress among the communities we serve.”

The original tweet is still live, still without any context, being shared more and more widely.

The FBI spokesperson provided the following explanation of the “automated process” the agency said was responsible for the posting of the anti-semitic document:

Per the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC § 552, the FBI makes records requested by three or more requesters available to the public by posting on the “Vault,” the FBI’s electronic FOIA reading room located at fbi.gov. As per standard procedure for FOIA, these materials became available for release and were posted automatically.

The FBI’s FOIA Twitter account (@FBIRecordsVault) is automated and automatically tweets new Vault posts as they are published on the Vault website. New posts added to the Vault will appear on the Vault’s “Recently Added” page. An automated system monitors that page via an RSS feed and feeds links to new FOIA releases onto the @FBIRecordsVault Twitter account.

Updated

More reactions to Trump’s comments from followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory

Need more background on the QAnon conspiracy theory? Some in-depth reporting

If you are trying to understand more about the dangerous child abuse conspiracy theory that was just praised and boosted by the president today, here are some deep-dive stories to give you more context on how this conspiracy has grown, and why it is so dangerous.

Updated

Was it a mistake for a journalist to ask Trump to comment on QAnon on camera?

Right now, many journalists are trying to capture just how bad it is that the president of the United States has praised an already-growing conspiracy about satanic child abuse.

But journalist Ashley Feinberg made a different point: was it simply a mistake for a journalist to give Trump an opportunity to comment on a conspiracy like this live on camera? Feinberg noted that the likelihood of Trump giving a response like the one he gave is not hard to predict, given years of previous responses to questions like this, and “the outcome is objectively dangerous.”

Unprecedented but not surprising: reactions to Trump’s praise for QAnon conspiracy

Today, Trump chose to praise supporters of a baseless conspiracy theory who believe that he is fighting a secret battle against a cabal of Democrats, celebrities, and billionaires who control the world while engaging in horrific pedophilia and child abuse.

Early reactions to the president’s refusal to condemn a conspiracy that idolizes him highlight how troubling and dangerous his comments are, particularly since the QAnon conspiracy has already been linked to numerous attempted acts of violence and has been identified by law enforcement as a potential inspiration for more extremist violence.

Will Sommer, a reporter who has covered right-wing extremists for years, said the comments would certainly be a “huge validation” for the conspiracy’s believers, and argued that merely describing the bizarre contents of the conspiracy failed to capture just how much harm it is currently causing.

Of course, as PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor writes, it’s certainly not the first time Trump has fueled dangerous and violent conspiracies.

Updated

QAnon supporters 'jubilant' at Trump's comments about the conspiracy theory

My colleague Julia Carrie Wong, who has been investigating the spread of the QAnon conspiracy for months, said that the reaction to Trump’s comments from supporters of the conspiracy is “jubilant.”

Updated

Full text of Trump’s praise for QAnon child abuse conspiracy

During a White House press briefing Trump was asked about the QAnon conspiracy, and “what you have to say to people who are following this movement right now.”

Trump not only refused to condemn or reject the QAnon conspiracy, he praised its followers as “people that love our country.”

The full text:

Trump: “I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don’t know much about the movement. I have heard that it is gaining in popularity and from what I hear, these are people who they watch the streets of Portland, when they watch what happened in the streets of New York City in just the last six or seven months...These are people that don’t like seeing what’s going on in places like Portland and in places like Chicago and New York and other cities and states. And I’ve heard these are people that love our country, they just don’t like seeing it. I don’t know really anything about it other that they do supposedly like me, and they would also like to see problems in these areas, like especially the areas we’re talking about, go away. There’s no reason the Democrats can’t run a city.. And if they can’t, we’ll send in all of the federal troops and law enforcement. We’ll straighten out their problems in 24 hours.”

The journalist who asked the question clarified: QAnon supporters believe “you are secretly saving the world from this Satantic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind?”

Trump: “Well, I haven’t heard that. But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? I mean, you know, if I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there. And we are actually. We’re saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will destroy this country, and when this country is gone, the rest of the world would follow. The rest of the world would follow.”

Trump praises QAnon conspiracy theory: 'These are people that love our country'

Asked for his perspective on QAnon, a baseless rightwing conspiracy theory which believes a network of powerful figures control the world while engaging in child abuse, Donald Trump said: “I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate.”

“I’ve heard these are people that love our country,” Trump added.

Trump claimed he did not know much about the QAnon conspiracy theory. A journalist clarified that QAnon supporters “believe you are saying the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles ... Does this sound like something you are behind?”

“I haven’t heard that. But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?” Trump said. “If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it.

“I’m willing to put myself out there and we are actually, we’re saving the world from a radical leftist philosophy that will destroy this country,” Trump added.

Today, Facebook removed hundreds of groups and pages dedicated to QAnon, whose adherents believe that Trump is waging a secret battle against a Satanic cabal of powerful figures, including top Democrats and celebrities, who run the world while engaging in pedophilia, human trafficking and the harvesting of a chemical from the blood of abused children.

Facebook explained its removal was motivated by concern over limiting the spread of groups that had “demonstrated significant risks to public safety” and that have been linked to violence. A 2019 FBI bulletin identified QAnon as one of the conspiraciy theories that could serve as a motivator for “domestic extremists” to carry out violence in the United States.

I’ll post Trump’s full comments on QAnon shortly.

Updated

Trump confirms plan to restore sanctions on Iran

In his press conference, Trump opened by confirming that he wanted to restore sanctions on Iran, which the Associated Press reported that this would set the stage for a United Nations security council crisis.

“All of a sudden, you’re going to have peace in the Middle East,” Trump said.

“Other UN Security Council members are expected to dispute that the United States has the standing to do so,” journalist Laura Rozen reports. “Indeed, even Trump’s own former national security advisor and architect of his Iran deal exit plan, John Bolton, has argued that the U.S. imposing snapback after quitting the deal [two years ago] would be illegitimate and a mistake.”

A new look at the culture of the company run by postmaster general Louis DeJoy

Vice News reviewed more than a dozen employment-related lawsuits filed against New Breed Logistics, the company that current postmaster general Louis DeJoy ran for 30 years, and found they painted a picture of a company culture rife with racism and harassment, including a man who said a coworker harassed him with racial slurs, but when he complained about it, both men were fired.

DeJoy did not respond to a request for comment submitted through the USPS, Vice News reported.

DeJoy is currently battling with Congressional Democrats over changes to the postal service that have been reportedly slowing mail delivery, as the post office itself has warned states that delays in mail delivery of 2020 election ballots could mean missed deadlines that would deprive Americans of the right to have their votes counted.

DeJoy has billed these changes as cost-cutting measures, but Democratic leaders have called them a deliberate attempt to sabotage the postal service’s ability to deliver Americans’ mail-in ballots this fall.

Obama to say Trump treated the presidency as ‘one more reality show’

Trump is expected to give a press briefing from the White House shortly. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention has released excerpts from Barack Obama’s speech, which is slated to be aired tonight, including a line saying that Trump has shown “no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show.”

The full passage, which includes Obama’s explanation that he had hoped Trump “might come to feel the weight of the office.”

I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. He’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

Updated

Army investigating appearance of troops in uniform on DNC livestream

US military personnel are prohibited from appearing in uniform at political campaign or election events.

But during last night’s live streamed Democratic National Convention, two soldiers in uniform appeared alongside Democratic delegates from American Samoa in a “virtual roll call” of different areas of the United States.

Now the army is investigating the incident, CNN reports. A DNC official told CNN the shot was an “oversight,” and “each state was asked to highlight issues and values that matter most and the American Samoa delegation wanted to highlight their commitment to military service when they filmed their segment.”

Islamophobe claims RNC chairwoman called her ‘rock star,’ ‘change agent’ for the party

This is Lois Beckett, taking over our politics live blog from our West Coast office.

At an election party last night celebrating her primary win in a Florida congressional race, Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and self-described “proud Islamophobe,” claimed that she received a personal call of congratulations from the Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, according to Right Wing Watch.

We’ve asked a spokesperson for McDaniel to comment on whether the call happened, and whether McDaniel in fact call Loomer a “change agent for the Republican party.” No response yet.

Today so far

That’s it from me for now. I will be back tonight to cover the third night of the Democratic convention.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The postmaster general is refusing to reverse the operational changes already implemented at the US Postal Service, according to House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Postmaster General Lois DeJoy spoke to Pelosi this morning, and the speaker said he refused to commit to restoring mail sorting machines already removed from some USPS locations. DeJoy announced yesterday he was suspending planned operational changes, but Pelosi said, “The Postmaster General’s alleged pause is wholly insufficient and does not reverse damage already wreaked.”
  • The White House dodged questions about whether Trump would accept the election results if he loses to Joe Biden. “Is the president saying if he doesn’t win this election, that he will not accept the results unless he wins?” a reporter asked press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at today’s briefing. McEnany replied, “The president has always said he’ll see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath.”
  • The Democratic convention released excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight, which include a searing rebuke of Trump’s leadership. “I wish Donald Trump had been a better president. But, sadly, he is who he is,” the 2016 Democratic nominee will say. She will also urge Americans to “vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”
  • The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments of a challenge to Obamacare a week after the November elections. Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for continuing to support the challenge amid a global pandemic, and the issue is sure to be central to November’s presidential election.
  • Trump called for a boycott of Goodyear tires over a Kansas plant’s ban on political attire, including “Make America Great Again” hats. McEnany was asked whether the presidential limousine would no longer use Goodyear tires, but she said she would not comment on “security matters.”

My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Hillary Clinton: 'I wish Donald Trump had been a better president'

The Democratic convention has released excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight, and the 2016 presidential nominee does not mince her words about her former rival.

“I wish Donald Trump had been a better president. But, sadly, he is who he is,” Clinton will say.

Clinton will note she has met a number of Americans who have said they wish they could go back to 2016 in order to cast ballots or change their votes.

“Well, this can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election,” Clinton will say. “Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”

Like other speakers, Clinton will also reference Joe Biden’s personal losses to underscore his commitment to his family and his country.

“There’s a lot of heartbreak in America right now – and the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic. But, as the saying goes, the world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places,” Clinton will say.

“Joe Biden knows how to heal, unify, and lead, because he’s done all of that for his family and his country.”

Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent said he was supporting Joe Biden’s presidential bid to restore some order to government.

“I’m doing this because I feel that we need to return some sense of normalcy to the function of government. We simply don’t have that now,” Dent told CNN.

The former Pennsylvania lawmaker announced his retirement from Congress in 2017, blaming his departure on “ideological rigidity” that had led to “dysfunction, disorder and chaos” in government.

Dent has been a frequent critic of the president, and he has kept up that criticism since leaving office.

Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent has endorsed Joe Biden for president, two years after leaving office amid disagreements with Trump.

“This isn’t about right or left,” Dent told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “For me it’s about right and wrong.”

The Biden campaign has sought to highlight Republican endorsements at the Democratic convention, hoping to appeal to centrist voters who supported Trump in 2016.

Twitter does not intend to reverse its decision to ban Laura Loomer from its platform, even though the far-right conspiracy theorist won a Republican congressional primary last night.

“We do not plan to reverse that enforcement action,” a Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Beast.

Before her Twitter account was shut down, Loomer tweeted in 2018, “Someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.”

Loomer won the Republican primary in Florida’s 21st congressional district last night, but she is widely expected to lose her general election race in the Democratic-leaning district.

In his convention speech tonight, Barack Obama is expected to reach out to younger voters who may not be as enthused about Joe Biden’s campaign as they were about Obama’s first run in 2008.

The AP reports:

In a live address Wednesday at the Democrat’s virtual convention, Obama will aim to serve as a bridge between those reassured by Biden’s lengthy resume and more moderate record, and a younger generation of Democrats agitating for a seat at the table and pushing for more sweeping changes to the nation’s economic and domestic policies.

‘He is an incomparable witness for Biden,’ David Axelrod, a longtime Obama political adviser, said of the former president. ‘But he also speaks compellingly to young people restless not just to purge Trump, but to achieve real, meaningful change.’

One aide to Barack Obama told NBC News that the former president’s decision to deliver his convention speech from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution was meant to underscore how “our very democracy is on the line” in this presidential election.

Obama is not the only politician visiting the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania this week. Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign event tomorrow in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, where he will deliver a speech on “Joe Biden’s Record of Failure.”

Barack Obama will deliver his convention speech from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, according to CNN.

The former president is scheduled to speak at the virtual convention tonight, shortly before vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris delivers her acceptance speech.

Obama’s choice of setting is significant, considering Hillary Clinton narrowly lost Pennsylvania in 2016 and Democrats are hoping to carry the state in November.

DeJoy will not reverse USPS changes already made, Pelosi says

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the postmaster general told her he does not intend to replace mail sorting machines that have already been removed from certain USPS locations.

Pelosi said she she spoke with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy this morning, and he indicated he would not reverse the operational changes already implemented to the postal service.

DeJoy announced yesterday he would suspend certain planned operational changes, but he did not address the cost-cutting actions he had already taken.

“This morning, I spoke with Postmaster General DeJoy and conveyed to him that his announcement is not a solution and is misleading,” Pelosi said in a statement.

“The Postmaster General frankly admitted that he had no intention of replacing the sorting machines, blue mailboxes and other key mail infrastructure that have been removed and that plans for adequate overtime, which is critical for the timely delivery of mail, are not in the works.”

The Democratic speaker said the House would still vote Saturday on a bill aimed at maintaining USPS’ pre-pandemic level of operations.

Echoing her past statements on the postal service, Pelosi said, “The Postal Service is Election Central during the pandemic, and Democrats will not allow the President to force Americans to choose between their health and their vote.”

Updated

McEnany dodges question about Trump accepting election results

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has just wrapped up her briefing, during which she was asked whether Trump would accept the election results if he did not win.

Trump has previously said that the only way he would lose the presidential election is if it were “rigged,” even though national polls show him trailing Joe Biden by several points.

“Is the president saying if he doesn’t win this election, that he will not accept the results unless he wins?” a reporter asked McEnany.

The press secretary replied, “The president has always said he’ll see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath.”

McEnany said Trump would closely examine the election results to determine if they were subject to fraud, even though voter fraud is very rare.

The president has already tried to raise doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and McEnany’s answer left the door open to him refusing to accept a loss in November.

McEnany: 'MAGA is pretty much synonymous with Blue Lives Matter'

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was again asked about Trump’s call for a boycott of Goodyear tires.

Earlier today, the president tweeted, “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!”

That tweet was an apparent reference to a viral photo from a Topeka, Kansas, Goodyear plant that showed the site’s ban on political attire.

According to the photo, “Black Lives Matter” and LGBTQ pride apparel were “acceptable” to wear at the plant, but “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” and “Make America Great Again” apparel were not.

McEnany repeatedly described Blue Lives Matter, a pro-police response to the Black Lives Matter movement, as an “equity issue.”

When a reporter pushed back, noting that Goodyear’s definition of political apparel is pretty common across many companies, McEnany doubled down and equated the Blue Lives Matter movement to the president’s slogan of “Make America Great Again.”

“MAGA is pretty much synonymous with Blue Lives Matter these days,” McEnany said.

Critics of Blue Lives Matter have argued the slogan demeans the Black Lives Matter movement and unfairly equates the choice of occupation to racial identity.

Updated

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany fielded multiple questions about the US Postal Service, amid concerns that the president is purposely trying to slow mail services to hamper voting by mail.

But McEnany dismissed those concerns as the “latest Democrat manufactured crisis.”

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced yesterday that he was suspending certain USPS operational changes until after the election, but concerns remain over mail sorting machines that have already been removed.

McEnany holds White House briefing

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is now holding a briefing, and she unsurprisingly opened her comments by criticizing House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

When the briefing shifted to reporters’ questions, McEnany was asked whether the president’s limousine would still use Goodyear tires after Trump lashed out against the Ohio company.

McEnany oddly replied, “I am not going to comment on security matters.”

The White House is preparing for Trump’s convention speech next week, which he will deliver from the South Lawn.

The president’s decision to accept the Republican nomination from the White House sparked concerns among government ethics experts.

The office of special counsel said last week that Trump was free to give his speech at the White House, but it emphasized there could be legal concerns for White House employees if they are too closely involved in planning of the event.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Daniel Strauss.

First lady Melania Trump will give her convention speech next Tuesday from the White House Rose Garden, according to the AP.

The president is also expected to deliver his convention speech next Thursday from the White House, after he toyed with the idea of going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the event.

The setting for the two speeches is noteworthy considering Trump and his allies have lashed out against Democratic nominee Joe Biden for not traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to deliver his convention speech.

However, those attacks take on a different tone when the president himself is not traveling for his speech.

Afternoon summary

That’s it for me. I’m handing the blog over to Joanie Grieves. Here’s what happened this morning:

  • Some postal unions are skeptical that Louis DeJoy has stopped instituting changes to the Postal Service.
  • If elected president, Joe Biden said California senator Kamala Harris would be the last person in the room on major decisions.
  • Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, described how Donald Trump would order the secretary to personally go down to the border herself.
  • Trump wants a boycott of Goodyear tires. Ohio senator Sherrod Brown shot back at the president at that call.
  • The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments of a challenge to Obamacare a week after the November elections.

During a gaggle with reporters White House counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said she didn’t know about Trump’s call to boycott Goodyear. But she did say that Trump would hold a briefing at 5 p.m. ET today.

According to a White House pool report the exchange with reporters and Conway went like this:

Why is the president calling for a boycott of Goodyear? It’s an Ohio company, in a battleground state?. Seems like a particularly bad idea for him?


I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can ask about the president at 5 o’clock, he’ll be briefing. I think he’s done plenty for companies in Ohio and elsewhere, far more than Joe Bidne ever did, creating a job.

As of this blogpost the White House has not sent out formal guidance for the briefing.

Updated

The Supreme Court has set a date for when it will hear oral arguments in an Obamacare repeal case. It will be the week after the November elections, adding to what was already slated to be a November in the United States.

Updated

Earlier this morning, Donald Trump urged supporters not to buy tires from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in response to a report that employees are prohibited from wearing clothing with politically-related messages like Black Lives Matter or MAGA on them.

Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, response, shot back at the president.

Goodyear is an Akron, Ohio based company. Ohio is a state Trump needs to win to have a safe path to reelection.

Updated

Donald Trump shifted his criticism of DeJoy’s scheduled testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee over to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

Since DeJoy agreed to give testimony Trump has complained that Democrats timed the hearings to distract from next week’s Republican National Convention.

The U.S. Postal service prevented lawmakers from questioning the firm that helped pick Louis DeJoy to be U.S. Postmaster General, according to the The Washington Post:

The U.S. Postal Service blocked congressional lawmakers from interrogating the firm that helped select Louis DeJoy as the country’s postmaster general, prompting a sharp rebuke from Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer, who called on the organization Wednesday to be more transparent as a federal investigation unfolds.

The spat over access has hindered lawmakers as they probe DeJoy’s recent, controversial changes to mail delivery, and in the process, potentially concealed key details about the involvement of President Trump and his top aides in those decisions, Schumer (N.Y.) warned in a Wednesday letter to the agency. The missive threatens to add to the already sky-high tensions between the administration and the Senate as DeJoy prepares to testify at a high-profile Senate hearing Friday, then a House hearing on Monday.

Schumer fired off his initial inquiry to the USPS in June, asking to learn more about the process that selected DeJoy, a former top Republican fundraiser, to lead the Postal Service. The postmaster general is a position filled by the USPS Board of Governors, which in this case relied on an executive search firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, to guide its thinking.

The Post report is the latest example of increased scrutiny on DeJoy amid Donald Trump’s warnings that voting by mail could poison the November presidential election results. The New York Times recently reported that DeJoy earned millions of dollars from a logistics firm that critics argue is a conflict of interest for DeJoy while he runs the Postal Office. According to the Times’ Catie Edmondson and Emily Cochrane:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has come under fire for his continuing financial ties to a company that does business with the Postal Service, received $1.2 million to $7 million in income last year from that firm, according to financial disclosure forms reviewed by The New York Times.

Mr. DeJoy continues to hold $25 million to $50 million in that company, XPO Logistics, where he served as the chief executive of the company’s supply chain business until 2015 and was a board member until 2018. Documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics show that Mr. DeJoy also received millions of dollars in rental payments from XPO through leasing agreements at buildings that he owns.

The revelations are likely to further fuel scrutiny of Mr. DeJoy, a major donor to President Trump who has made a series of cost-cutting moves and other changes at the Postal Service that Democrats warn are aimed at undermining the 2020 election. Mr. DeJoy agreed on Monday to testify before the House Oversight Committee next week, and Democrats are expected to press him on the justification behind his new policies and question his potential conflicts of interest.

Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, has said that then-DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was personally ordered by Donald Trump to travel to the southern border half a dozen times.

That’s according to a new report in Politico. Taylor, according to Politico, said Trump told Nielsen “‘Get your ass on TV at the border, what are you doing, what the hell are you doing?’”

Here’s more:

As Taylor described it, Trump was fixated on being able to watch his homeland security team in action. “He would order us to go to the border so he could see us down there doing work,” Taylor said. “Do you actually think Kirstjen and I are putting up the steel bollards? That was dispiriting, to say the very least.”

Taylor said the constant pressure from the White House to focus on immigration enforcement and border security kept senior DHS officials from focusing on other issues, including election security and cyber threats. The department’s leadership was “running in circles” for his time there, he said.

“Quite literally there would be threat streams that we would read about in the PDB [President’s Daily Brief] and we’d be like, ‘Shit, we’ve got to spend the day on this!’ And the president would call and we’d be like, ‘Nope, not going to be able to spend the day on this because he’s focused on dah-dah dah-dah.”

That accounting from Taylor is the latest explosive story shared by Taylor. The former DHS staffer was recently featured in an ad for the Republicans Voting Against Trump group. He has also endorsed Joe Biden for president. Here’s the RVAT ad:

Updated

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany will hold a press briefing at 1:00 ET today according to an updated schedule sent out by the White House. The briefing is scheduled for the same time that Donald Trump is scheduled to get his intelligence briefing, so it’s unclear if he will be watching.

The updated schedule does not include a daily coronavirus briefing featuring Trump. Those briefings always devolve into a freewheeling question and answer session between the president and the press.

The McEnany briefing will almost certainly include questions about the Democratic National Convention and the comments Biden supporters have made about Trump throughout the convention.

In a new interview with People magazine, former vice president Joe Biden and California senator Kamala Harris lay out the dynamic they envision for each other if Biden is elected president. Harris described it as the similar dynamic that Barack Obama had with Biden during the Biden administration.

Here’s the exchange:

Sen. Harris, are you going to be the kind of VP to tell him when he’s wrong?

Biden: Yes, she is.

Harris: We already have that understanding. I’m going to be the last one in the room — and there to give him honest feedback. Being vice president to Joe Biden to me means supporting his agenda and supporting him in every way.

That last one in the room phrase is similar to language Biden and Obama used when talking about their relationship. As far back as 2015, Biden has recounted how he told Obama he wanted to be “the last person in the room on every major decision.”

Daniel Strauss here, taking the baton from Martin.

In response to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that all changes to the Postal Service would be suspended until after the November elections, some postal unions are still skeptical.

According to CNN “some postal union leaders expressed skepticism that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Tuesday announcement that mail-processing equipment will remain in place would fully restore the capacity of the Postal Service.”

Here’s more:

Miriam Bell, general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina, said seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled or entirely removed in recent weeks.

Asked if she expects them to return, Bell said, “We truthfully do not know,” adding, “it is highly unlikely they will be put back in place.”

Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy’s announcement, he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work.

Paul Hogrogian, national president for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said he doubts that machines already impacted by the postal service’s reduction efforts will return to service, “especially since some have already been scrapped.”

Kevin Tabarus, president of NPMHU Local 300, which includes New York City and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, said he does not think DeJoy’s reversal Tuesday will undo all the challenges created by recent machine removals and other changes.

“I think it’s too late. The network is already messed up,” Tabarus said. “It’ll be kind of hard to put a machine back in when it was already sent off to be recycled,” Ashley Cargill, a APWU national business agent, told CNN.

That skepticism falls in line with similar responses from top Democratic lawmakers who had wanted to see DeJoy testify before Congress.

New York senator Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, said on Tuesday he told DeJoy “there’s a lot of mistrust because of statements he and the president have made about cutbacks in mail delivery during COVID and about mail-in voting through Election Day.”

Here’s my colleague Tom McCarthy with more on that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez confusion from last night’s DNC, and her angry reaction to the coverage of it.

Speaking on the second night of the DNC, Ocasio-Cortez was assigned to second the nomination of Senator Bernie Sanders as president. Sanders ended his presidential bid and endorsed Joe Biden last spring, but he was in line for a formal nomination as part of the process of transferring his delegates to Biden.

Soon after, NBC News sent a tweet that seemed to impute some intrigue to the fact that Ocasio-Cortez had not endorsed Biden for president. Such endorsements are not typically conferred in the convention setting and there was no reason or expectation for Ocasio-Cortez to do so.

Hours later, the tweet was deleted. But Ocasio-Cortez and others were dissatisfied, accusing the news outlet of stoking false controversy at a time when the Democratic party faces a generational divide between leaders like Ocasio-Cortez and Biden

Read it here: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accuses NBC of spreading misinformation after DNC speech

Moira Herbst writes for us today about the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that is the cheap, cynical government that is the real threat to recovery, not Covid-19 benefits.

Observing that nearly 40% of US adults couldn’t cover a $400 emergency, let alone the seemingly endless emergency of a pandemic, Herbst writes:

When America was reeling from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt rolled out the New Deal, a massive public works and financial reform program. Its Works Progress Administration employed millions of out-of-work Americans to build infrastructure and housing, and to produce some of the best literature and public art of the 20th century.

There may be tens of millions unemployed in this country, but there is plenty of work to do. We need more public school teachers, tents for outdoor learning, N95 masks, Covid testing swabs, energy-efficient infrastructure and yes, public art. How about a Pandemic Jobs Program that pulls in big elements of the Green New Deal?

Read it here: Moira Herbst – Our cheap, cynical government is the real threat to recovery, not Covid-19 benefits

She’s just sent her first tweet of the morning…

Updated

Donald Trump’s congratulations to Laura Loomer appear to have cost him at least one high profile supporter – JT Lewis.

Newsweek report that Lewis, a gun rights advocate who lost his brother in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, had recently announced he had joined President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team. He had previously been running to become a Connecticut state senator, before dropping out ahead of the primaries. He had previously posted in praise of Trump’s approach to school safety.

Loomer has appeared on InfoWars, which repeatedly claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax. Loomer also decried the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida as a hoax.

Read it here: Newsweek – Team Trump activist whose brother died at Sandy Hook breaks with POTUS over Laura Loomer

Julian Borger in Washington has a story for us this morning about US secretary of state Mike Pompeo being pressed by Congressional Democrats over claims China is helping build a Saudi uranium facility. US officials suspect a mill for producing yellowcake – refined uranium ore – is being built by Chinese technicians in the desert near Al-Ula.

The three Democrats – Joaquin Castro, Ami Bera, and Theodore Deutch – asked Pompeo to provide answers to questions on whether the US had registered its concerns with Saudi Arabia and China about the alleged yellowcake factory, and whether the state department was taking steps to prevent Saudi Arabia moving on to other steps further up the chain towards producing fissile material. They also wanted to know whether the US was supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency in trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to accept a comprehensive safeguards agreement that would involve substantial monitoring and inspections.

“At the very minimum, you would expect the administration would speak out and have an opinion on these things, and do what it can to stop a country breaking out with nuclear weapons,” Castro told the Guardian.

Read it here: Pompeo pressed on claims China is helping build Saudi uranium facility

It’s not just Barack Obama whose speech is keenly anticipated today - Kamala Harris will be delivering the biggest speech of her political career as she accepts the nomination to be Joe Biden’s vice president if he wins in November.

Marty Johnson at The Hill has been looking at the shape of that challenge. Biden needs to win over the young Black votes that aren’t nearly anywhere as certain to vote for him as elder Black voters are.

Plus, he needs to reassure the left that he’s taking the progressive wing of the party seriously in his policies. At times he can appear weak in both areas. Johnson writes:

Harris will begin working to change this dynamic with her Wednesday address at the virtual Democratic National Convention, in what will easily be the biggest political speech of her career. Her speech offers a prime opportunity to try and sway the minds of young liberal voters with doubts about Biden.

But there are also some doubts among such voters with Harris, a former San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general whose record has sometimes engendered criticism from the left. Harris has thrown herself into the issue of police reform since ending her presidential campaign late last year and returning to the Senate, sponsoring legislation to end police choke holds and visiting the Black Lives Matter mural in Washington DC.

Read it here: The Hill – Harris faces crucial challenge with biggest speech of career

There were a host of primary votes going on yesterday while the DNC over-shadowed most of the news. One of the victors was Laura Loomer. She will challenge Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel for Congress in November in Florida, and overnight got the vocal backing of the president on Twitter, quote-tweeting far-right former Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam.

She’s described as a far-right social media provocateur whose hate speech got her banned from social media by the Associated Press. She has been a guest on Fox News and alt-right programs after gaining followers by ambushing journalists and politicians in stunts posted online. Her campaign advisor, Karen Giorno, worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign in Florida.

Donald Trump also last night retweeted another recent fringe Republican primary winner, Marjorie Taylor Greene, explicitly calling for Twitter to reinstate Loomer’s account. Greene is a QAnon supporter who was denounced for racism before her win in Georgia last week.

Pulling off a political convention virtually was always going to have its share of challenges, but it looks like the biggest snag to hit the Democratic party so far this week is the confusion over why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to nominate Bernie Sanders in her 60 second spot.

Some social media users mistook it for a snub for Joe Biden, however as AOC explained on Twitter it was standard procedure in order for Sanders to be included in the roll call. He was the runner-up in the primary contest.

The row has continued to rumble overnight, with Ocasio-Cortez explicitly calling out the NBC News social media coverage in the early hours, saying that a clarification and deletion of their tweet is not enough.

While the national 7-day average number of new daily coronavirus cases has been steadily dropping, that isn’t the case for every state. California is recording an average of around 7,750 new cases per day, which is up 4% from two weeks earlier.

Vivian Ho has been in Fresno for us, reporting on how mixed messaging on Covid battered California’s Central Valley

“It’s really in some ways a failure that we as a community have allowed this epidemic to get this far,” said Dr Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer. At the root of this failure, according to community advocates and residents, lies a polarizing rightwing, anti-establishment sensibility that runs deep through the Central Valley – a sensibility, they said, encouraged by the messaging in the actions, or lack thereof, of local leaders during the pandemic.

The tale of two cities in Fresno has bloomed into a tale of two Americas. “The best way I can describe this is one side is fighting for dining out without masks while the other side is picking the crops and putting food on your table while begging for protective gear, just asking to survive,” said Miguel Arias, Fresno city council president.

Read it here: ‘The well’s been poisoned’: how mixed messaging on Covid battered California’s Central Valley

Alongside the Kamala Harris VP acceptance speech, one of the main attractions at tonight’s DNC is the appearance of former president Barack Obama.

Details of what he is expected to say in his live address at 10pm ET have been emerging overnight – and criticism of Donald Trump and the Republican attempts to discourage mail-in voting are high on his agenda. Obama is expected to describe the moves as “cynical”.

Spokeswoman Katie Hill said:

President Obama will highlight the cynical moves by the current administration and the Republican Party to discourage Americans from voting. He’ll make a pointed case that democracy itself is on the line – along with the chance to create a better version of it.

Obama will also speak about why he believes his former vice president Joe Biden has the “the experience and character” to lead the nation at this moment of crisis. Democratic Party officials hope that Obama will project the idea that a Biden administration will restore some normalcy to American high office after the chaotic Trump years.

Rep. John Yarmuth said “Right now president Obama’s role, primarily, is to remind Americans what a stable and thoughtful administration looks like.”

It’s likely that Trump will attack Obama after the speech, just as he attacked Obama’s wife Michelle yesterday, telling her to “sit back and watch”. During the Trump presidency Obama has tended to keep his powder dry on direct attacks on his successor, instead preferring to strike a more aspirational tone.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the American coronavirus crisis for today. Here’s a brief round-up of where we are, and what’s on the diary for today.

  • What we’ve known for months has finally happened – Joe Biden is officially the Democratic Party nominee for president for November’s elections. Here are our key takeaways from the second night at the Democratic National Convention
  • Biden was formally nominated for president with an impressive virtual roll call vote. The well-received videos provided a vibrant visualization of every region in the country. Jill Biden offered a highly personal and emotional case for the election of her husband.
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered a nominating speech for Bernie Sanders, sparking confusion on social media. Some interpreted it as a snub for Biden, but it is just the rules of the convention that candidates who pass a delegate threshold are required to be nominated and included in the roll call vote.
  • Some big names will be talking at the DNC tonight. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Nancy Pelosi are all appearing, and Kamala Harris will giver her acceptance speech for the VP nomination
  • Details are emerging of what is expected to be a highly critical speech from the former president, denouncing Trump’s “cynical moves” to discourage mail-in voting
  • Yesterday the US recorded 43,226 coronavirus cases, and 1,349 new deaths from Covid-19. It means the 7 day rolling average for new daily cases dips to 49,102 per day, but it is higher than the previous two days have been
  • The Senate’s bipartisan intelligence panel went beyond the Mueller report to lay bare the Donald Trump campaign’s Russia links
  • On the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, Trump announced he will pardon women’s suffrage leader Susan B Anthony
  • California’s governor declared a state of emergency as dozens of wildfires raged
  • At the White House, the president receives his intelligence briefing, and there’s a briefing from the press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at 1pm

I’m Martin Belam, I’ll be here for the next couple of hours, and you can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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