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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh, Kenya Evelyn and Martin Belam

Biden and Harris say Trump has left America's reputation 'in tatters' at first event as running mates – as it happened

Summary

  • Kamala Harris and Joe Biden made their first campaign appearance as running mates. Each noted that they had first connected through Biden’s late son Beau — who was a close friend of Harris. After commemorating the historic moment — Harris is the first woman of color to be nominated vice president by a major party — the Democrats vying for the White House tore down Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. “This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job,” Harris said. “Our country ends in tatters and so does our reputation around the world.”
  • Trump, at his daily coronavirus update, took to baselessly attacking mail-in voting and stoking racist fears about desegregating the suburbs. The president also repeated false and misleading assertions about the coronavirus pandemic and introduced adviser Dr Scott Atlas, who has promoted unscientific views on the pandemic and the US response that align with those held by Trump.
  • Trump campaign said that Harris “completes the radical, leftist takeover of Joe Biden and the entire Democrat party”. But the attack doesn’t quite land on Harris — a policy moderate whose background as prosector has drawn criticism from progressives.

Asked what he meant when he said that a Biden victory in November would lead “invasion” in the suburbs, Trump pitched implicitly racist housing policies in explicitly racist terms.

Biden and Harris are “going to destroy suburbia”, Trump said. “And 30% plus of the people in suburbia are minorities. African American, Asian American, Hispanic American – they’re minorities – 30%. The number is even higher, they say 35% but I like to cut it a little bit lower.”

“You want something where people can aspire to be there, not something where it gets hurt badly” with low-income housing, the president said.

Trump has been playing up racist fears that more people of color in the suburbs will lead to increases in crime and lower housing values that gave rise to the redlining that persists today.

Last month, he tweeted that as a result of his administration’s decision to roll back an Obama-era program to address racial segregation in suburban housing, “people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” would “no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low-income housing built in your neighborhood”.

Updated

Donald Trump’s latest attack on Kamala Harris: “She is very bad on fact. She is very weak on facts.”

The president has made 20,000 false or misleading claims while in office, the Washington Post’s fact checkers said last month.

Criticizing Democratic governors for maintaining pandemic restrictions, Trump said they are forcing Americans to stay in their homes, which he described as “prisons.”

“In their prisons! They call ‘em prisons,” Trump said.

Inside actual prisons, coronavirus outbreaks have killed thousands, as my colleague Sam Levin reports:

At this news conference, Trump introduced Dr Scott Atlas, and invited him to speak.

Atlas, a healthcare policy expert at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University has promoted unscientific views about coronavirus. My colleague Oliver Milman reported earlier:

Atlas appears to be more in tune with Trump’s thinking on the virus after the president publicly criticized both of his top pandemic officials, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, over concerns they raised about the disastrous spread of Covid-19 in the US and the danger of allowing students to return to school.

In June, Atlas said the idea that schools could not reopen after the summer break was “hysteria” and “ludicrous”. The new White House adviser has also called for college football to resume – a favored move by conservatives – despite a surge in virus cases in many states.

“The environment of college sports is very sophisticated, it is controlled, there is accountability. The athletes couldn’t get a better and safer environment,” Atlas told Fox News earlier this week.

“Young people that age, without a co-morbidity, have virtually a zero risk from this. The risk is less than seasonal influenza. There is such fear in the community, and unfortunately it’s been propagated by people doing sloppy thinking and sensationalistic media reporting.”

Atlas, who has an MD degree from the University of Chicago School of Medicine, has previously provided healthcare policy advice to various businesses and presidential candidates, including Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. He has taken his services abroad, too, advising the World Bank and academics in China.

Dr Deborah Birx and Dr Anthony Fauci — nominally the public health experts in charge of the country’s coronavirus response — have been absent from the president’s briefings.

The supporters who came to catch a glimpse of Biden and Harris today

Despite a thunderstorm, dozens of supporters arrived at the high school hoping to glimpse the new presidential ticket. Most lived in Delaware and were longtime supporters of the Bidens. Two women sat in lawn chairs holding a sign that said “Delaware loves Biden-Harris”. Some wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts while others wore the signature green and pink of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which Harris joined as a college student at Howard University in Washington DC.

Dina Griffin, who wore a pink dress with a matching blazer and a pin that said “VOTE”, said she had hoped Biden would choose Harris but seeing an image of them together for the first time after the announcement brought “tears of joy”.

“A lot of people have lost hope and are feeling upset and depressed about the way this country has gone in the last few years,” said Griffin. “So this moment is just a renewed spark and hope that we can come together to heal our divisions.”

Like Clark Benjamin, a retired educator and Delaware resident, most who turned out on Wednesday had already voted for Biden many times over as senator and then as the vice-president – and planned to do so again in 2020. Though Biden already had her vote, Benjamin said choosing Harris added energy and dynamism to the Democratic ticket.

“It’s historic,” she said, explaining why she chose to spend her afternoon outside in the summer humidity. “That’s why I had to be here.”

But the choice, some said, also revealed something new about the candidate.

“It showed that he was listening to the people who are speaking up around the world and asking for equity, justice and fairness,” said Debbie Harrington, another member of the AKA sorority, referring to the nationwide anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

“His pick said: I hear you. And not only did I hear you, I understand you and I’m going to do something about it.”

In response to the wave of protests this spring against racism and police brutality, Harris emerged as a prominent voice on issues of racial justice. Her advocacy in favor of criminal justice legislation has eased some concerns among progressives over her record.

They delivered the speech on the third anniversary of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, an event that Biden said was, for him, a “call to action”.

Agencies contributed to this reporting.

“On the assumption I win, we’re going to be terminating the payroll tax,” Trump said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have opposed cuts to payroll tax – which finances social security. His executive order proposing a payroll tax suspension delays the collection of tax, but only Congress can eliminate taxes altogether.

The US Chamber of Commerce, which has usually backed White House efforts to cut federal regulations and taxes in favor of businesses, said in a letter to the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, that the payroll tax suspension is “surrounded by uncertainty as to its application and implementation” and “ exacerbates the challenges” for companies.

Updated

“I want to make it unmistakably clear that I am protecting people from evictions,” Trump said. He is not.

Fact check: Trump’s executive order does not reinstate eviction moratoriums, or provide financial aid to Americans struggling to make rent amid the economic crisis.

“They should do that race over,” Trump said of the election that delivered Democratic representative Carolyn Maloney victory in New York, baselessly alleging “ballot frauds”.

The president’s misinformation about mail-in voting and his questioning of election results that favor Democrats could be a preview of what’s to come in November. “It will be the greatest rigged election in history,” Trump said. “This will be one of the greatest frauds in history.”

Updated

Trump is saying that Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are “holding the American people hostage” over “their radical leftwing agenda”.

In fact, Pelosi and Schumer compromised in their ask for a coronavirus relief package, but the Trump administration abandoned negotiations and instead sought to legislate through executive orders.

Taking issue with Democrats’ ask for more funding to bolster voting systems ahead of the elections, the president also launched into his usual lies about mail-in voting, falsely claiming that the system is marred by “fraud and corruption”.

Updated

Donald Trump delivers news conference

The president has begun by discussing the economy and indicating that the US is poised to help Europe.

Most European countries have been much better than the US at suppressing the virus.

Updated

Yesterday, I wrote a bit more about Harris’ friendship Beau Biden, which both Harris and Joe Biden discussed moments ago.

In her memoir, Harris called Beau an “incredible friend and colleague” who became a close collaborator. “There were periods, when I was taking heat, that Beau and I talked every day, sometimes multiple times a day,” she wrote. “We had each other’s backs.”

After Beau’s death, Harris said at the 2016 California Democratic convention that the Biden family “truly represents our nation’s highest ideals, a powerful belief in the nobility of public service”. Joe Biden, she said, “has given so much to our country and on top of everything he has accomplished, he gave to us my dear friend Beau.”

The elder Biden endorsed Harris’s Senate campaign that year, and she endorsed him for president this year after dropping out of the race. In both cases, they mentioned Beau Biden as a reason they trusted and respected each other.

Updated

On public health, Harris drew a distinction between the Obama/Biden administration’s response to Ebola and the Trump administration’s response to coronavirus.

“Remember Ebola? Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the US died – two,” Harris said. That may not be an entirely fair comparison – Ebola nowhere near as easily transmittable as coronavirus – but it is true that Trump gutted pandemic-preparedness systems that Obama built up in response to Ebola.

Updated

Biden, as I noted earlier, highlighted the significance of Harris’ nomination as vice-president. “This morning, all across the nation, little girls woke up, especially little Black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued,” he said. “Today, just maybe, they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way.”

Later, Harris said she also respects Biden as the only man to have served under a black president and the only man to choose a black VP running mate.

Updated

Notably missing at this historic campaign event: applause.

Both Biden and Harris were tasked with delivering rousing speeches without any cheers of agreement from a live audience after they delivered their biggest lines and rallying cries.

Updated

Pointing to the health and economic crisis that has gripped the country, Harris said: “This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job. Our country ends in tatters and so does our reputation around the world.”

Both Harris and Biden have attacked Trump on his administration’s response to the pandemic.

“This virus has impacted every country. But there’s a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation,” she said. “It’s because of Trump’s failure to take it seriously from the start.”

Updated

Earlier, Joe Biden, who introduced Harris, praised her “seriousness of purpose and of mind”.

November will be “a life-changing election for this nation”, Biden said. “The choice we make this November is going to determine the future of America for a very, very long time.”

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica is not only a historic choice, “she’s ready to do this job on day one”, Biden said.

Updated

Kamala Harris addresses the nation as Biden's vice-presidential pick

Harris has begun by discussing her friendship with Beau Biden, Joe Biden’s late son, who served as attorney general of Delaware while Harris was the attorney general of California.

Both Harris and Joe Biden have talked today about how they got to know each other through Beau. Harris told Biden she is “so grateful to become a part of your extended family”.

“In the midst of the Great Recession, Beau and I spoke on the phone practically every day,” she said. “I learned quickly that Beau was the kind of guy that inspired people to be a better version of themselves. He really was the best of us.”

Updated

Today so far

Handing over to my colleague Maanvi Singh on the West Coast. Here’s what we covered today:

That’s all from Washington DC. Stay tuned for more.

Updated

Why Howard University, HBCUs were key to Harris’ climb

And finally, as a fellow Howard University alumna, check out a bit of background on HBCUs and their significance in the evolution of the US’s first Black and Indian American vice-presidential candidate for a major party, California senator Kamala Harris.

From an earlier profile with Essence Magazine:

There’s something special about the investment that an HBCU places in its students. It’s about the nurturing. It’s about refining. It’s about all that goes into making someone transition from being a child into an adult. And in that way, it’s very tough love.”

Stay tuned for my latest: a look at how Harris’s candidacy shines a light on these historically Black educational institutions – especially as some fight for their survival amid a pandemic and recession.

Updated

First photo: Biden & Harris prep for first joint campaign event

Trump on Biden’s campaign from home:

At a White House event Wednesday to promote a return to full-time schooling, Donald Trump interrupted a presentation on the difficulties of online education to chastise rival Joe Biden for running a virtual campaign:

So, if you’re a presidential candidate and you’re sitting in a basement and you’re looking at a computer, that’s not a good thing?

The remark only garnered nervous laughter and applause from attendees who were there in support Trump’s calls to reopen schools despite a worsening coronavirus pandemic that is estimated to have been contracted by more than 97,000 children in a two-week span.

Updated

Fauci: 'I seriously doubt' Russian coronavirus vaccine

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert is doubtful the Covid-19 vaccine touted by Russian president Vladamir Putin is effective.

“Having a vaccine and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things,” he told ABC News during a National Geographic special. The panel is set to air Thursday.

Earlier this week, Putin announced that Russia had registered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, claiming his own daughter to be the country’s first recipient. Experts are skeptical, however.

Air force crew member injured after helicopter shot at in Virginia

The air force has confirmed that a helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Manassas, Virginia, after being shot at from the ground.

The pilot, one of two, was taken to a hospital and since released. The FBI is investigating the incident.

Updated

Trump campaign releases a statement on Kamala Harris nomination

The Trump campaign shares its thoughts on the Biden-Harris ticket:

Kamala Harris was rated the most liberal US senator in 2019 and completes the radical, leftist takeover of Joe Biden and the entire Democrat party. She pushes [the former vice president] even farther to the left than he had already moved.

The campaign went on the chide Harris as “a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders’ socialist takeover,” noting her support for progressive healthcare policies, backing of the “job-killing” Green New Deal, and record as a prosecutor.

Although her policies have evolved to be more progressive over time, many analysts see Biden’s selection as a pragmatic one with a moderate senator from a liberal state. Despite that, from the Trump campaign:

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris together make up the most extreme, leftist ticket in American major party history.

Updated

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris to make first joint campaign appearance

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, will make his first joint appearance Wednesday with his newly announced running mate, Kamala Harris, the senator from California.

According to the campaign, the former rivals will appear together in Wilmington, Delaware at about 4.20pm ET. The AP also reports Biden and Harris will speak at a high school near the former vice-president’s home.

From Biden via the campaign’s email release:

“I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough and ready to lead. Kamala is that person. I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they’ve lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus.”

Updated

US representative Elise Stefanik: Senator Harris is a ‘radical’

The attacks from the right have begun for vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, this time from the Trump campaign surrogate and congresswoman Elise Stefanik:

“[Harris] is a far-left California radical” and her selection as Joe Biden’s running mate creates the “most far-left ticket in the history of the Democratic party”, Representative Elise Stefanik said on a call held by the Trump-Pence campaign officials Wednesday.

Stefanik added that Harris’s record on healthcare, gun control and social justice place her far out of the mainstream. The Republican from New York was once promoted as a moderate voice in the party before evolving to become a Trump supporter.

Updated

Last decade was Earth’s hottest on record

Guardian US is counting down the days until 4 November, when the Trump administration has put in motion the formal exit of the US out of the Paris climate agreement.

That is of course, coincidentally, one day after the US elections (no country was allowed to pull out sooner than this date after agreeing to the agreement in late 2015).

Today there are 84 days to go before the pullout – and there is news of another alarming study on how temperatures have been rising. Oliver Milman reports:

The past decade was the hottest ever recorded globally, with 2019 either the second or third warmest year on record, as the climate crisis accelerated temperatures upwards worldwide, scientists have confirmed.

Every decade since 1980 has been warmer than the preceding decade, with the period between 2010 and 2019 the hottest yet since worldwide temperature records began in the 19th century.

Read the full story here:

Updated

Kentucky attorney general meets with Breonna Taylor’s family

Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general, is under huge pressure amid the widespread calls for action to be taken against the police officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her home in Louisville.

Cameron met with Taylor’s family this morning.

There were few details released beyond Cameron meeting with Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and other family members “to personally express his condolences,” according to a news release.

Cameron posted some brief details on twitter saying “the investigation remains ongoing”.

Earlier this week, Jamiles Lartey, of the Marshall Project wrote a piece on the obstacles that would need to be surmounted for a prosecutor to bring charges over the killing of the 26-year-old emergency medical worker at her home on March 13.

Updated

Study: Poor, low-income people have most power this election

Poor and low-income voters have exceptional power in the presidential election... when they turn up. A new report from the Poor People’s Campaign looks a just how much weight increased turnout among low-income Americans can have in key senate races:

“If the low-income electorate showed up at the same participation rate as high-income voters, it could swing the election in 10 states that were previously Republican, and five states that were previously Democrat”. - Robert Paul Hartley, author and professor at Columbia School of Social Work

Read more from my latest piece unpacking the 2020 race here.

Another key victory from Tuesday

Even as PAC money poured into the state, Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar handily beat her opponent in Tuesday’s state primary.

From the Washington Post:

The Minnesota Democrat was leading Anton Melton-Meaux 57 percent to 39 percent with 96 percent of precincts reported when the race was called, putting to bed weeks of speculation that her career on Capitol Hill could be cut short by an opponent who argued Omar was more interested in fame than representing her district.

Residents of the Minneapolis-area district, however, chose the Somali refugee and first Muslim woman in Congress over Melton-Meaux, who raised a staggering $3.2 million last quarter from Omar critics around the nation. The race had become one of the most expensive House primaries this year, with each candidate bringing in north of $4 million.

So to recap:

Fox News discussed politics and Blackness...

... without a single Black person.

Did Kanye West and Jared Kushner recently meet privately?

The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior advisor secretly met with the “Birthday Party” presidential hopeful. As the music and apparel mogul faces additional scrutiny of an ill-timed and mostly ineligible run, rumors have circulated over the true intent behind Yeezy’s presidential push. That was before West essentially admitted to Forbes that he’s playing spoiler to the Biden campaign. But is this attempt coordinated with the Trump administration?

The Times may now have the details on what some have already suspected:

The meeting took place in Colorado, where Mr. Kushner was traveling with his wife, Ivanka Trump, those familiar with the meeting said. Mr. West had been camping in Colorado with his family, and afterward flew to Telluride to meet with Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, but was not accompanied by his wife, Kim Kardashian West, those with knowledge of the meeting said.

And what does Kanye West have to say about the speculation?

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino explains why Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate:

Updated

A look a historic, female president & VP runs

In its 244-year history, only four women have ever been on either side of a major party’s presidential ticket. With Kamala Harris now set to be the Democratic nominee for vice-president, let’s take a look through history at Harris’s three predecessors:

Sarah Palin was John McCain’s Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008. Palin offered some bipartisan congratulations and advice on navigating a difficult, and often sexist, journey, including to “fight mightily to keep your own team with you”.

“They know you, know your voice, and most importantly are trustworthy,” she said.

More advice:

[D]on’t get muzzled – connect with media and voters in your own unique way. Some yahoos running campaigns will suffocate you with their own self-centered agenda so remember YOU were chosen for who YOU are. So stay connected with America as you smile and ignore deceptive “handlers” trying to change you.

Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale’s Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984, facing a campaign marked by egregious sexism from fellow politicians and media.

And, of course, Hillary Clinton was the Democratic party presidential nominee in 2016.

While her predecessors are important to highlight, it’s actually the woman who ran but never made it on the ticket who Harris credits for inspiration: Shirley Chisholm, a fellow Black woman of Caribbean heritage who became the first Black person to run for president.

Shirley Chisholm, the Barbadian American activist from New York, was already the first Black women elected to Congress in 1972. But then she ran a monumental campaign on anti-racism, anti-sexism and initiatives to combat poverty for the presidency.

“I am not the candidate for Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I’m equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsement from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer you the tired and glib cliches that have too long been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America

Harris’ own logo during her bid for president was in tribute to Chisholm.

Updated

Watch SNL’s Maya Rudolph reacts to Harris VP news

Now that Kamala Harris is officially Joe Biden’s pick for vice-president, folks are ready for Maya Rudolph to reprise her Emmy-nominated role portraying the California politician on Saturday Night Live. Imagine being the journalist talking with her as news of the nomination dropped?

That was the case for Entertainment News’s Maureen Lee Lenker. Rudolph’s reaction: “Oh shit” and “that’s spicy”.

From Entertainment:

“Ever since I was a kid, truly, I wanted to be on any kind of SCTV, Saturday Night Live, and I can’t believe that I got to work there, and I can’t believe that it’s my family still. I’m so thrilled to even be associated with the show and that I got to go back. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving. Honestly, it’s my favorite place to play. I don’t know that I’m ready to go right this minute, but it’s so nice to have this nomination be associated with the show because it’s my true love”.

Check out their interview as the news broke here.

Updated

Joe Biden’s VP news marked two historic firsts

Joe Biden’s nomination of California senator Kamala Harris marked the second major announcement to drop Tuesday surrounding the vice presidency.

Haitian-American Karine Jean-Pierre was also named the first ever Black chief of staff to be appointed to serve the vice presidential candidate. Before, Jean-Pierre was recently selected as his senior advisor for his 2020 presidential campaign.

Before joining Biden campaign, Karine Jean-Pierre worked on both Barack Obama’s presidential and re-election campaigns and was chief public affairs officer for MoveOn. But perhaps what she’s best known for? A mean block:

Stepping in to protect then senator Harris was impressive. Jean-Pierre may now be protected a future vice president.

Updated

Good day, I’m Kenya Evelyn taking over the live blog and today is all about reactions to Biden’s historic nomination of California Senator Kamala Harris for vice president.

We’ll have all the latest as reactions pour in, including deep dives on her background and policy initiatives and input from those who’ve known her during childhood.

Stay tuned throughout the day.

Updated

Kamala Harris posts first campaign video after being named VP pick

Kamala Harris has just posted her first campaign video since being named as Joe Biden’s VP pick. It features a deeply personal story about how her mother inspired her decision to become a lawyer and then a politician – and includes a direct attack on Donald Trump.

In the video, Harris says:

I was raised to take action. My mother knew that she was raising two black daughters who would be treated differently because of how they looked. Growing up, whenever I got upset about something my mother would look me in the eye and ask: So what are you going to do about it?

On Trump, she says in the ad:

Right now, America needs action. In the middle of a pandemic, the president is trying to rip away healthcare. While small businesses close, he’s given breaks to as wealthy donors. And when the people cried out for support, he teargassed them.

You can watch it here:

Updated

Talking of coronavirus in Florida, Richard Luscombe in Miami has an interview for us this morning with Rebekah Jones. She was fired for insubordination and subjected to a vitriolic public character assassination by Florida Gov. DeSantis after she claimed she was ordered to censor coronavirus information to justify his ambitious reopening plans for the state. In it, she says:

From the beginning there was an organized effort to limit the amount of information the public could have. And that came from all different directions, different motivations, but it ended up in the same result, that people are getting very limited amounts of data and information to make choices.

They never actually denied what I was saying. They said I was insubordinate, that I didn’t listen to my superiors, and that was true. They asked me to do something wrong and I didn’t do it.

If I was insubordinate to say I’m not going to manipulate data to say it’s safe to reopen when it’s not, then yes, I wear insubordination as a badge of honor.

Read it here: Ousted expert on Florida’s Covid plan: ‘They’re not listening to the scientists’

Florida sheriff bans deputies and visitors from wearing face covering

Florida set a new daily record for Covid-19 deaths yesterday, but it is emerging that on the same day Marion county sheriff Billy Woods issued an edict that his deputies are not to wear masks.

Face coverings, cited by health authorities as a simple way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, are also not allowed on visitors to the sheriff’s office, according to his decree. The Washington Post reports that his email states:

We can debate and argue all day of why and why not. The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t

He also invoked safety from Black Lives Matter protestors as a reason for requiring that visitors remove masks.

In light of the current events when it comes to the sentiment and/or hatred toward law enforcement in our country today, this is being done to ensure there is clear communication and for identification purposes of any individual walking into a lobby

Updated

Trump congratulates QAnon-supporting primary winner who has been denounced for racist videos

Well at least we now know where Donald Trump stands on QAnon supporting Marjorie Taylor Greene. Some members of the Republican party disowned her campaign after a series of racist videos emerged in which she complains of an “Islamic invasion” into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs”, and pushes an antisemitic conspiracy theory that the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.

And that seems all fine with the commander-in-chief

Pompeo defends arms sales to Saudi Arabia

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said his department did everything by the book in regards to arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2019, after a government watchdog found the risk of civilian casualties in Yemen was not fully evaluated.

His comments came after a state department inspector general report earlier this week concluded the state department did not fully evaluate the risk of civilian casualties in Yemen when it pushed through a huge 2019 precision-guided munitions sale to Saudi Arabia, report the Associated Press.

“We did everything by the book,” Pompeo told reporters during a news conference with the Czech prime minister, where he is currently visiting.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (L) and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis (R) attend a press conference in Prague today
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (L) and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis (R) attend a press conference in Prague today Photograph: Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images

“I am proud of the work that my team did. We got a really good outcome. We prevented the loss of lives.”

Congress had requested an investigation into the Trump administration*s May 2019 decision to move ahead with $8 billion in military sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries, sidestepping the congressional review process by declaring an emergency over tensions with Iran.

He also spoke about 5G, saying that there is growing understanding among many countries that security issues must be taken into account when developing new-generation communication networks.

“The tide is turning, there is no doubt about that, against untrusted networks and toward the values of free nations” he said. The US government has put considerable pressure on allies not to use Chinese-sourced technology in their 5G build-outs.

Updated

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons has been on CNN this morning talking about Joe Biden’s VP choice of Kamala Harris. He said of her:

Joe feels that she seasoned she’s got experience. She’ll be not just a great running mate, but a great partner in governing. She will help him fulfil his promise that the ticket will look like America. It will represent the strength that immigrants bring to our country, and the racial diversity that we need to make progress.

He also spoke more personally of Harris comforting him after the death of his father, when he was unable to leave Capitol Hill to be with his family, because business was ongoing. He remembered it like this:

She came to me and was incredibly warm, comforting, encouraging. She gave me real solace in a tough moment. And that was striking to me, because I was on the floor with dozens of my colleagues, some of them I’ve known for many years. And I’d only known her for a couple, and hers was one of the most earnest heartfelt sincere moments of comfort and engagement.

You can watch the clip here:

Biden and Harris will appear together later today in Delaware.

Yesterday we launched our Lost on the frontline series, documenting the healthcare professionals that have died of Covid-19 during the pandemic in the US – including those as young as in their 20s.

We’ve got another piece in the series up this morning, featuring two emergency room physicians Tsion Firew in New York and Cedric Dark in Houston. They are talking about what happened when Covid arrived at their hospitals.

Dark: My anxiety grew as I saw what was happening in Italy. I remember seeing images of people dying in their homes and mass graves. I started to wonder, Is this what we’ll see over here? Are my colleagues going to be dying? Is this something that’s going to get me or my wife, who’s also an ER doctor? Are we going to bring it home to our son?

Firew: In late March, health workers without symptoms were told to come back to work. It felt like a tsunami hit. I’ve practiced in very low-resource settings and even in a war zone, and I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing in New York. The emergency department was silent – there were no visitors, and patients were very sick. The usual human interactions were gone. I spent a lot more time on the phone talking to family members about end-of-life care decisions, conversations you’d normally have face-to-face.

Read it here: ‘Is this when I drop dead?’: two doctors on their time at the Covid frontline

Donald Trump has just tweeted that he is leading the polls “in most swing states!”

This does not appear to be the case. According to the RealClearPolitics poll tracker, two polls out today give Trump a narrow lead in North Carolina of either 1 or 2 percentage points. There’s another poll from Monday of Arizona, giving Trump a one point lead, although the two most recent give it instead to Joe Biden.

In fact, aside from North Carolina and Arizona, since Friday – while of course not every state has had one carried out in it – polls have only shown Trump up in Texas (6 points) and Utah (19 points).

They have, though, over the same time period, shown Biden leading in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which Trump carried last time out.

Trump, though, is doubling down on the idea that the “suburban housewife” will vote for him out of fear of his racially-charged threat that “low income housing would invade their neighborhood”.

Updated

I mentioned the protests in Portland earlier. Oscar Schwartz has an essential read for us this morning about the aftermath of scars and lingering trauma from the use of non-lethal force on protestors by the US police and federal officers.

As Schwartz writes:

Much attention has already been given to the immediate physical trauma inflicted by those weapons. But for Soren Stevenson [a 25 year old injured in Minneapolis], and many other protesters who have been in the firing line in the past month, the impacts will reverberate throughout their lives. When we spoke, Stevenson had just had his left eye removed and his eye-lid sewed shut. He told me that seeing out of only one eye makes him feel dizzy and nauseous. “It hurts to even look at my phone screen,” he said. “I spend a lot of time with my eyes closed.”

After speaking to Stevenson, it struck me that the term “less lethal” isn’t only a euphemism for the harm caused at the moment of impact, but also conceals the long-term trauma lingering afterwards. I reached out to a number of people injured during previous protest movements, wanting to gather what they know about the scars of resistance, those that remain once the rest of the world moves on.

Read it here: After the protests, lingering trauma: the scars of ‘non-lethal’ weapons

Trump renews attack on Harris, calls her 'the kind of opponent everyone dreams of'

The president is awake, and has immediately renewed his attacks on Kamala Harris, who yesterday he called “nasty”. This morning, the adjective is “weak” as Trump tweets “Harris started strong in the Democrat Primaries, and finished weak, ultimately fleeing the race with almost zero support. That’s the kind of opponent everyone dreams of!”

Unlike Donald Trump, nobody on our panel has, as far as I can tell, described Kamala Harris as ‘weak’. You can find out what Theodore R Johnson, Malaika Jabali, Jill Filipovic, Wesley Yang and Geoffrey Kabaservice think of Biden’s choice here.

Read it here: What to make of the Kamala Harris VP pick? Our panel’s verdict

Updated

Those arrested in Portland protests since late May will not face charges

At least several hundred people who have been arrested since late May on non-violent misdemeanor charges during protests in Portland will not be prosecuted, report the Associated Press.

The new policy recognizes the outrage and frustration over a history of racial injustice that has led to sustained demonstrations, as well as the more practical realities of the court system, which is running more than two months behind in processing cases because of Covid-19, Multnomah county district attorney Mike Schmidt said.

People arrested on similar charges in future demonstrations will also not be prosecuted, he said.

“The protesters are angry ... and deeply frustrated with what they perceive to be structural inequities in our basic social fabric. And this frustration can escalate to levels that violate the law,” Schmidt said. “This policy acknowledges that centuries of disparate treatment of our black and brown communities have left deep wounds and that the healing process will not be easy or quick.”

Hailea Berglund, left, and Tanzania White hold hands while marching toward the Portland police bureau north precinct on the 75th day of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in Portland
Hailea Berglund, left, and Tanzania White hold hands while marching toward the Portland police bureau north precinct on the 75th day of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in Portland Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Portland police chief Chuck Lovell, who was told of the policy change on Friday, said it doesn’t change Oregon law and still holds accountable people who commit violent acts or intentionally damage property.

“Committing a crime is different from demonstrating,” Lovell said in a statement. “The arrests we make often come after hours of damage to private property, disruption of public transit and traffic on public streets, thefts from small businesses, arson, burglary, attacks on members of the community, and attacks against police officers.”

A protesters slaps his shield while marching toward the Portland police bureau north precinct on the 75th day of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in Portland
A protesters slaps his shield while marching toward the Portland police bureau north precinct on the 75th day of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in Portland Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Protests have taken place in Portland for more than 70 days since the death of George Floyd. The situation was exacerbated after president Donald Trump dispatched US agents to guard a federal courthouse in the city.

A protester leads a chant in front of the Multnomah county sheriff’s office on the 76th night of protests against racial injustice and police violence in Portland
A protester leads a chant in front of the Multnomah county sheriff’s office on the 76th night of protests against racial injustice and police violence in Portland Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

The agents began withdrawing on 31 July, and Black Lives Matter demonstrations have continued every night, calling for the city council to defund the police and reinvest the money in the Black community.

Here’s another indicator of where some of the attacks on Kamala Harris from the right will fall – Trump advisor Steve Cortes claiming that she is “to the left of even Bernie Sanders”.

This may be news to the veteran Vermont senator – Sanders has frequently spoken himself of the need to nudge Joe Biden to the left in his policies.

To back his claim, Cortes was linking to a Newsweek piece that used the scores on the website govtrack.us to rank Senators. It states that Harris is the most liberal because she joined in voting for bipartisan bills the least often compared to other Senate Democrats.

Amie Parnes and Jonathan Easley have a piece over at The Hill looking at how Joe Biden arrived at his choice of Kamala Harris.

“She was always in the narrative from the beginning,” said one source who is close to Biden. “And even after that, it was always Kamala and this person and Kamala and that person. She was never ever out of the picture. She was always in the mix.”

Another confidant characterized Biden’s final decision as “classic Joe.”

“He did what he always does,” the source said. “Whenever there’s a discussion about policy or the issues of the day, he would come in with what he thought but he will and does entertain everyone’s opinions. At certain points, it seems like he may change his mind, but typically he ends up where he starts.”

Read it here: The Hill – How Biden decided on Harris

QAnon supporter denounced for racism wins Georgia Republican primary

Confirmation as well that Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has expressed racist views and support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, has won the Republican nomination for Georgia’s 14th congressional district.

She has amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media, where she often posts videos of herself speaking directly to the camera. Those videos have helped propel her popularity with her base, while also drawing strong condemnation from some future would-be colleagues in Congress.

In a series of videos unearthed just after Greene placed first in the initial 9 June Republican primary, she complains of an “Islamic invasion” into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs”, and pushes an antisemitic conspiracy theory that the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.

We’ve got the full story here: QAnon supporter denounced for racism wins Georgia Republican primary

The choice of Kamala Harris is certain to be criticised from the right by the Republicans, but also from the left of the Democratic party. Derecka Purnell writes for us this morning on why Black progressive women feel torn about Kamala Harris:

Harris is sharp, strategic and witty, undoubtedly qualified to be vice-president of the United States. She graduated from a historically Black college and belongs to a prestigious Black sorority. A biracial woman with Jamaican and Indian heritage, we have seen her break color barriers and shatter glass ceilings, even though poor, Black women have felt and swept the falling shards.

Thousands celebrated her senate seat win and even more were captivated when she picked apart presidential candidates at debates – especially Biden. Her one-liners were unforgettable. Until we remembered that she honed those argumentative skills in court as a prosecutor, including during fights to uphold wrongful convictions.

Then, there’s the fatigue. Progressives will have to defend the California senator’s personal identity, while maneuvering against her political identity. Political accession and racism go together like stars and stripes.

Purnell does find some hope however, “from the countless activists who are choosing to organize across the state and local level, who are vigorously defending democracy on their blocks and creating care in their families and communities.”

Read it here: Derecka Purnell – Why Black progressive women feel torn about Kamala Harris

That tweet from Errol Webber brings me to this piece. Over at Reuters, James Oliphant has written his analysis of why Kamala Harris may prove an elusive target for Donald Trump – because of the effect his attacks may have on women voters

Oliphant says that within minutes of the announcementTrump had called Harris “nasty”, “horrible” and “disrespectful” while his campaign painted her as an extremist who would yank the moderate Biden to the left. But there is little evidence that the public views Harris as a radical.

In fact, he says, she’s more liked by Republicans than Biden, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on the 10th and 11th of August. The poll showed 21% of registered Republican voters have a favourable impression of Harris, compared with 13% who had a similarly favourable view of Biden.

More concerning for Trump: attacks that could appear sexist or racist against the first Black woman on a major party ticket in US history could complicate his campaign’s effort to shore up his standing among suburban women, a critical voting bloc he must win back in order to get re-elected.

“If he wants to use misogynistic tropes against Kamala Harris, I think that is deeply challenging for him,” said Neera Tanden, a top aide to Clinton during her presidential bid. “He has no room for error with suburban women.”

According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Biden had an advantage of 10 percentage points among women and a 6-point lead among those who live in the suburbs. Overall, Biden leads Trump by 11 points, less than three months to go before the 3 November vote.

Sarah Longwell, a Republican pollster, said Trump’s advisers would likely want the president, known for fiery and bombastic rhetoric against his political rivals, to be more cautious about attacking Harris unless they had reason to believe suburban women distrusted or disliked her.

“But there’s no evidence yet that they do dislike or distrust her,” Longwell said. “In fact, my guess is that she’ll play pretty well with suburban women.”

You can see that the Republicans have maybe not opted to stay classy in their initial attacks on Kamala Harris. Here’s California congressional candidate Errol Webber this morning.

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota wins her primary battle

In the latest in a string of victories by a new generation of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota survived a stiff challenge from a well-funded opponent who tried to make an issue of her national celebrity.

Representative Ilhan Omar waves to cars and stands with volunteers and campaign members in northeast Minneapolis for a “Get Out The Vote” event during the primary election yesterday in Minneapolis
Representative Ilhan Omar waves to cars and stands with volunteers and campaign members in northeast Minneapolis for a “Get Out The Vote” event during the primary election yesterday in Minneapolis Photograph: Nicole Neri/Reuters

Omar, seeking her second term in November, easily defeated Antone Melton-Meaux, an attorney and mediator who raised millions in anti-Omar money, reports the Associated Press.

Her campaign was bouyed by victories last week by Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Cori Bush in St Louis, and momentum from the renewed focus on racial and economic justice after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.

“Tonight, our movement didn’t just win,” tweeted Omar, who’s spokesman said she was unavailable for an interview. “We earned a mandate for change. Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we once again broke turnout records. Despite the attacks, our support has only grown.”

Melton-Meaux used the cash to paper the district and flood airwaves with his “Focused on the Fifth” message that portrayed Omar as out of touch with the heavily Democratic Minneapolis-area 5th District, which hasn’t elected a Republican to Congress since 1960.

He conceded defeat saying “I’m incredibly proud of the work that we did, that garnered at least over 60,000 votes from the district, from people who resonated with our message of effective leadership grounded in the district, and bringing people together to get things done.”

Omar’s aggressive advocacy on liberal issues, and her eagerness to take on Donald Trump – and his vocal response to that – have made her a prominent figure in Congress.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot has added to the Democratic party voices praising Kamala Harris as the VP nominee.

The Chicago Tribune reports her saying that she “burst out in a huge grin” upon hearing the news, telling MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview:

This is not a woman to be trifled with. This is exactly the right pick. This ticket, I think we’re going to face some tough times because we’ve already seen that today that Trump and his people are going to race to the bottom. But Kamala Harris and Joe Biden together are tough. They’re determined, they’re experienced, and this is going to be, I think, an amazing campaign, all the way through 3 November.

Good morning, the long wait for Joe Biden’s VP pick is over, and so the campaign for November’s election enters a new phase. Donald Trump has already dismissed Kamala Harris as “nasty”, Biden has praised her as “a fearless fighter for the little guy”.

Here’s our live coverage of US politics for the day, starting with a quick catch-up of where we are, and a little of what we can expect from today

  • Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. It is a historic first for a woman of color. Trump’s reelection campaign wasted no time in targeting her with scattergun attacks that sought to define her as “the most liberal leftist nominee” ever to run for VP. That might be news to some on the left of the Democratic party who see her as more of a safe predictable centrist choice
  • Yesterday 53,344 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the US, with at least 1,444 new deaths. Both of those figures are back up nationally from the day before. Illinois and South Dakota are among the handful of states where case numbers still seem to be on the rise
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has expressed racist views and support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, has won the Republican nomination for Georgia’s 14th congressional district
  • In a victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic party, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota easily defeated Antone Melton-Meaux, who had raised millions in anti-Omar money
  • At 3pm today Donald Trump will be taking part in a White House event titled “Kids First: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School”
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be holding their first joint grassroots fund-raiser this evening, and will be appearing together for the first time since the pick in Wilmington, Delaware

I’m Martin Belam - I’ll be with you for the next couple of hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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