Summary
That’s it for the politics blog today. We’ll have live coverage of the Democratic convention coming up next on our new liveblog here.
From me and Joan E Greve:
- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he was suspending operational changes to the US Postal Service until after the presidential election. Amid accusations that the Trump administration was purposely seeking to slow mail services to help the president’s reelection effort, DeJoy said he was delaying cost-cutting measures to USPS until after November in order to “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail”.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said DeJoy’s decision was “insufficient” to address concerns about voter suppression. “This pause only halts a limited number of the Postmaster’s changes, does not reverse damage already done, and alone is not enough to ensure voters will not be disenfranchised by the President this fall,” Pelosi said.
- DeJoy will testify before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs on Friday. The postmaster general will also appear before the House oversight committee on Monday, and congressional Democrats say they intend to press DeJoy on whether he will reverse changes already made to USPS operations that have slowed mail delivery.
- The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee released a bipartisan report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report describes an extensive web of contacts between high-ranking Trump campaign officials, including campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and people with ties to Russian intelligence.
- Trump mocked Michelle Obama’s widely praised speech at the Democratic convention last night, in which the former first lady argued the president was the wrong man for the job during an unprecedented moment of crisis for the country. Trump told Obama to “sit back and watch” as he sailed to reelection, even though national polls show the president trailing Joe Biden by several points.
- The president revived racist, xenophobic rhetoric during a campaign event in Yuma, Arizona. He touted his border wall, promoted his anti-immigrant policies, and baselessly cast migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers as criminals – and stoked racist fears against immigrants to promote his campaign over Biden’s.
- Cindy McCain and Colin Powell are the latest Republicans set to participate in the Democratic National Convention tonight. McCain will be featured in a video celebrating Biden’s friendship with her late husband, senator John McCain. Powell, who served as Secretary of State under George W Bush, has already indicated he’ll vote for Biden over Trump – who he publicly rejected in 2016.
Follow along with our DNC coverage:
Updated
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell to deliver endorsement of Joe Biden tonight
Powell, the Republican secretary of state who served in the George W Bush administration, endorses Biden in a clip that the DNC has released ahead of tonight’s events.
One of several high-profile Republicans who have supported Biden over Trump, Powell indicated in June that he’d vote for Biden — choosing again, as he did in 2016, not to vote for Trump.
Here’s the clip:
Here’s more analysis of the Senate report that lays bare the Trump campaign’s links to Russia, from the Guardian’s Luke Harding and Julian Borger:
The report by the Senate intelligence committee provides a treasure trove of new details about Donald Trump’s relationship with Moscow, and says that a Russian national who worked closely with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 was a career intelligence officer.
The bipartisan report runs to nearly 1,000 pages and goes further than last year’s investigation into Russian election interference by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. It lays out a stunning web of contacts between Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.
The Senate panel identifies Konstantin Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence officer employed by the GRU, the military intelligence agency behind the 2018 poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. It cites evidence – some of it redacted – linking Kilimnik to the GRU’s hacking and dumping of Democratic party emails.
Kilimnik worked for over a decade in Ukraine with Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager. In 2016 Manafort met with Kilimnik, discussed how Trump might beat Hillary Clinton, and gave the Russian spy internal polling data. The committee said it couldn’t “reliably determine” why Manafort handed over this information, or what exactly Kilimnik did with it.
It describes Manafort’s willingness to pass on confidential material to alleged Moscow agents as a “grave counterintelligence threat”. The report dubs Kilimnik part of “a cadre of individuals ostensibly operating outside of the Russian government but who nonetheless implement Kremlin-directed influence operations”. It adds that key oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska fund these operations, together with the Kremlin.
The investigation found that Kilimnik tweets under the pseudonym Petro Baranenko (@PBaranenko). The account regularly propagates Moscow’s line on international issues, such as the conflict in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
The fact that a Republican-controlled Senate panel established a direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence makes it harder for Trump and his supporters to allege that the investigation into possible collusion was a “witch-hunt” or “hoax” as the president has repeatedly claimed, in the remaining three months before the election.
Cindy McCain has promoted a clip of a video — which is set to air at the Democratic National Convention tonight — in which she discusses her late husband John McCain’s friendship with Joe Biden.
John McCain ran against Barack Obama and Biden in the 2008 elections.
My husband and Vice President Biden enjoyed a 30+ year friendship dating back to before their years serving together in the Senate, so I was honored to accept the invitation from the Biden campaign to participate in a video celebrating their relationship.https://t.co/Y6XOnBC1IW
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) August 18, 2020
The Democratic National Committee removed a portion of its official platform seeking to end subsidies for fossil fuel companies, even though Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigned on the promise that they would stop such subsidies, HuffPost reports.
From HuffPost:
On July 27, officials added an amendment to the Manager’s Mark, a ledger of party demands voted on as one omnibus package, stating: “Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy.”
The amendment was approved. But the statement ― which reflects pledges presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, each made on the campaign trail ― disappeared from the final draft of the party platform circulated Monday.
In an emailed statement, a DNC spokesperson said the amendment was “incorrectly included in the Manager’s Mark” and taken out “after the error was discovered.”
Activists accused the DNC of retroactively removing the amendment from the final draft of the platform.
Earlier, my colleague Emily Holden reviewed the Biden climate plan. Read her assessment here:
Here’s a view from the Trump campaign event in Yuma, Arizona:
The crowd here in Yuma. Many in masks, but many not. Feels like pre-COVID times, minus the chairs pic.twitter.com/kSJQ91zo3q
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) August 18, 2020
Speaking in Arizona, Trump has revived his racist, xenophobic rhetoric that baselessly casts immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers as criminals.
He also has falsely asserted that the media no longer discusses the border wall. Here is a selection of recent reporting on the border wall:
- Voice of San Diego: “Kumeyaay Band Sues to Stop Border Wall Construction”
- National Geographic: “Sacred Arizona spring drying up as border wall construction continues”
- The Guardian: “Officials ignored warnings about Trump wall threat to endangered species”
- Washington Post: “There’s new wall on 194 miles of the border. Sixteen miles didn’t have a barrier before”
Cindy McCain will be featured in a video that’s set to air during tonight’s Democratic National Convention, according to the AP. She is one oof several Republicans who are participating in the DNC.
From the AP:
Cindy McCain is not expected to offer an explicit endorsement, but her involvement in the video is her biggest public show of support yet for Biden’s candidacy. McCain was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee against Democrat Barack Obama, who won the election with Biden as his vice presidential running mate.
Both Cindy McCain and her daughter Meghan have been outspoken critics of President Donald Trump, and the family is longtime friends with the Bidens. Trump targeted John McCain personally in 2015, saying the former prisoner of war wasn’t a hero “because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic thumbs-down vote against repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law.
When McCain died on a Saturday in 2018, the Trump administration lowered the American flag over the White House to half-staff but then raised it by Monday. After public outcry, the White House flags were again lowered. Trump wasn’t invite to McCain’s funeral.
Donald Trump is speaking at a campaign event in Arizona. According to the press pool, about five hundred people are in attendance, with no social distancing. Many of the supporters are reportedly wearing MAGA face masks.
Arizona governor Doug Ducey is among those who have appeared alongside Trump. As part of yesterday’s Democratic National Convention programming, Kristin Urquiza — who was mourning her father who died of Covid-19, delivered a stinging rebuke of Ducey and Trump.
“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” Urquiza said. “His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.”
Earlier this year, Urquiza also wrote an obituary for her father in which blamed his death on the “carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk”.
Updated
The University of Notre Dame has canceled in-person classes for two weeks after starting the semester on 10 August. Students will be allowed to stay on campus, but activities will be limited and large gatherings barred.
Yesterday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also decided to switch to remote learning after at least 130 students tested positive for coronavirus.
University of Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins announced today that in-person classes are suspended, effective Wednesday, replaced by remote instruction only for the next two weeks because positive rates for the coronavirus continue to climb: https://t.co/gKsvmjCqD6
— Notre Dame (@NotreDame) August 18, 2020
Updated
Sam Levine reports:
In an unprecedented move, Louisiana’s top election official wants to require a positive Covid-19 test if a voter wants to vote absentee over concerns about the virus. This comes amid a lack of consistent access to testing in the state.
Louisiana is one of seven states that will still require an excuse to vote by mail this year, only allowing absentee voting if a voter is aged 65 or older or meets certain other conditions such as temporary absence from their county or hospitalization.
For its elections in July and August, Louisiana eased those restrictions for voters at risk of developing complications from Covid-19 or who had potential exposure to the virus. But under secretary of state Kyle Ardoin’s proposal for the state’s November and December elections released Monday, those accommodations won’t apply. Instead, a voter would need to test positive for Covid-19 between the end of early voting and election day, currently a week-long period to use the hospitalization excuse to request a mail-in ballot.
The proposal from Ardoin, a Republican, comes as Louisiana has seen lags in testing, meaning a voter could get tested and not have their results in time to be able to request a mail-in ballot. Louisiana has seen 138,485 cases of Covid-19 and 4,526 deaths so far. In April, African Americans accounted for 70% of Covid-19 deaths in the state.
Today so far
That’s it from me for now. I will be back tonight to cover the second night of the Democratic convention.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he was suspending operational changes to the US Postal Service until after the presidential election. Amid accusations that the Trump administration was purposely seeking to slow mail services to help the president’s reelection effort, DeJoy said he was delaying cost-cutting measures to USPS until after November in order to “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi said DeJoy’s decision was “insufficient” to address concerns about voter suppression. “This pause only halts a limited number of the Postmaster’s changes, does not reverse damage already done, and alone is not enough to ensure voters will not be disenfranchised by the President this fall,” Pelosi said.
- DeJoy will testify before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs on Friday. The postmaster general will also appear before the House oversight committee on Monday, and congressional Democrats say they intend to press DeJoy on whether he will reverse changes already made to USPS operations that have slowed mail delivery.
- The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee released a bipartisan report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report describes an extensive web of contact between high-ranking Trump campaign officials, including campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and people with ties to Russian intelligence.
- Trump mocked Michelle Obama’s widely praised speech at the Democratic convention last night, in which the former first lady argued the president was the wrong man for the job during an unprecedented moment of crisis for the country. Trump told Obama to “sit back and watch” as he sailed to reelection, even though national polls show the president trailing Joe Biden by several points.
My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Trump has arrived in Yuma, Arizona, for his campaign event on immigration and border security.
According to the president’s reelection campaign, Trump will deliver remarks on “Joe Biden’s failures on immigration and border security.”
The event is part of Trump’s counterprogramming to the virtual Democratic convention this week. He held similar events yesterday in Minnesota and Wisconsin, two other states he hopes to carry in November.
A former Trump administration official who endorsed Joe Biden said he has heard officials are “digging up dirt” on him.
Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the department of homeland security under Trump, said in a tweet, “Hearing @DHSgov White House Liaison has been tasked with ‘digging up dirt’ on me. No worries—I can take it! But another possible case of WH using DHS and taxpayer $$ for political purposes.”
Hearing @DHSgov White House Liaison has been tasked with “digging up dirt” on me. No worries—I can take it! But another possible case of WH using DHS and taxpayer $$ for political purposes. Cc: @DHSOIG
— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) August 18, 2020
Taylor announced his endorsement of Biden in a video released yesterday by the group Republican Voters Against Trump.
“What we saw week in and week out, for me, after two and a half years in that administration, was terrifying,” Taylor says in the video.
“Given what I have experienced in the administration, I have to support Joe Biden for president and even though I am not a Democrat, even though I disagree on key issues, I’m confident that Joe Biden will protect the country and I’m confident that he won’t make the same mistakes as this President.”
Trump lashed out against Taylor in a tweet this morning, mocking him as a “disgruntled employee” and a “real ‘stiff’”.
Pelosi dismisses delay to USPS changes as 'insufficient'
House speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a critical statement on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s decision to postpone operational changes to the US Postal Service until after the election.
The Democratic speaker described DeJoy’s decision as a “necessary but insufficient first step in ending the President’s election sabotage campaign.”
Nice try, Postmaster General DeJoy, but the House will still be passing our bill to ensure the delivery of the mail through the election. We will deliver for America by voting on Saturday. #DontMessWithUSPS
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 18, 2020
“This pause only halts a limited number of the Postmaster’s changes, does not reverse damage already done, and alone is not enough to ensure voters will not be disenfranchised by the President this fall,” Pelosi said.
The speaker noted the House would still vote Saturday on a bill aimed at maintaining USPS’ pre-pandemic level of operations. The House oversight committee will also hold a hearing with DeJoy on Monday.
“During a pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central,” Pelosi said. “No one should be forced to choose between their health and their vote.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated Democratic calls to provide more funding to the US Postal Service may present an opportunity to reopen coronavirus relief negotiations.
But the Republican leader said he would not support a bill that only allocates more money to USPS.
“I don’t think we’ll pass, in the Senate, a postal-only bill,” McConnell told the Louisville Courier Journal.
Negotiations over the next coronavirus relief bill stalled earlier this month, after the White House and Democratic congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement on the overall cost of the package.
McConnell indicated the conflict over USPS could present a negotiating opportunity, but Democrats may be hesitant to make concessions on other aspects of the relief bill in order to fund mail services, which they have described as fundamental to US democracy.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to hold a vote on a bill regarding USPS on Saturday.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that he was postponing operational changes to USPS came after days of heavy scrutiny and on the day more than 20 states were set to file a lawsuit challenging the changes.
On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also recalled the House of Representatives to Washington to deal with USPS funding.
There were protests outside DeJoy’s home last weekend and the postmaster general is set to appear before the Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs on Friday and the House oversight committee next week. The USPS inspector general is also investigating the changes.
USPS has always maintained it has the capacity to deliver election mail in the fall, but many experts expressed deep concern about whether the reported delays would affect the November election.
Ron Stroman, who stepped down as the number two official at USPS in June, told the Guardian last week that making operational changes just months before the election was “a high-risk proposition”.
Democratic Senator Gary Peters expressed lingering concerns about the US Postal Service, despite Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that he would delay operational changes until after the presidential election.
Peters is the top Democrat on the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, which will hold a hearing with DeJoy on Friday.
“There is simply no excuse for why Postmaster General DeJoy began instituting changes that have severely disrupted service for Michiganders and people in communities all across the country during an unprecedented public health and economic crisis,” Peters said in a statement.
“While it is a positive development that the Postmaster General says he will be temporarily rolling back some of these harmful changes as I have demanded – there are still too many unanswered questions.”
Peters specifically questioned whether DeJoy would be restoring mail sorting machines that had already been removed from some USPS locations and whether he was leaving any of his already-implemented changes in place. The Michigan senator pledged to press DeJoy on those issues during Friday’s hearing.
Peters said, “Given how much the American people are relying on the Postal Service during these challenging times, the Postmaster General should not making any changes that put mail delivery at risk before the election or for the duration of the Coronavirus public health emergency.”
Criminal justice activist Alice Johnson, who received a commutation from Trump in 2018, will address the Republican convention next week.
Johnson announced she had been booked to speak at the convention in an interview with the Daily Beast.
“I’ll be there talking about criminal justice reform, that is my main mission,” Johnson told the Daily Beast. “I’m there because I’ve been affected by our criminal justice system, and that’s my mission.”
Trump commuted Johnson’s life sentence on federal cocaine trafficking charges two years ago, after celebrity Kim Kardashian brought the case to the president’s attention.
Trump and his allies have since sought to highlight Johnson’s commutation as a way to paint the president as a champion on criminal justice reform.
However, the president has been generally resistant to changes in policing since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in May.
Former second lady Jill Biden will address the virtual Democratic convention tonight, and NBC News has details on her speech.
According to NBC, Biden, a longtime teacher, will focus her remarks on the challenges facing schools amid the coronavirus pandemic and the ways Joe Biden’s presidency could ease the return to the classroom.
Biden will also offer a more personal endorsement of her husband through the lens of his family life.
Biden aides tell me @DrBiden will speak about education through the lens of COVID and the leadership she feels is needed to get kids back to the classroom. She’ll talk about @JoeBiden the father, the husband and the man, per aides.
— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) August 18, 2020
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has released a statement on the Senate intelligence committee’s bipartisan report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“The Senate’s bipartisan report further exposes the alarming lengths to which Donald Trump and his campaign welcomed and relied on a hostile foreign power’s interference in the 2016 election,” Pelosi said.
The Senate’s bipartisan report further exposes the alarming lengths to which Donald Trump & his campaign welcomed & relied upon foreign interference in 2016.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 18, 2020
Pelosi specifically called out Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell for not taking up a House-passed bill focused on protecting US elections.
“This report is a chilling reminder that Leader McConnell’s obstruction of meaningful election security legislation is leaving our democracy exposed to foreign attack,” Pelosi said.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he was postponing changes to USPS operations until after the election, following widespread criticism of his actions.
However, it’s unclear whether mail sorting machines that have already been removed will be restored and whether letter carriers will be allowed to take extra trips to ensure timely delivery of mail.
So concerns remain about whether voters, particularly voters of color, will have reliable access to mail-in ballots for November’s presidential election.
DeJoy commits only to pausing *some* of the changes. The priority to ensure letter carriers operate on schedule and don't take extra trips, even if that means leaving mail behind, is not addressed in his statement. This has been the major source of delays. https://t.co/w13wMIXrZ8
— Eric Katz (@EricM_Katz) August 18, 2020
Doesn’t say he’s reversing. Says he’s suspending. Will removed mailboxes be replaced? Will sorting machines and processing capacity be restored? How much damage has already been done? Important follow up questions. https://t.co/r871hYZtAV
— Steve Grzanich (@SteveGrzanich) August 18, 2020
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
There have been reports of widespread mail delays across the US in recent weeks. Postal workers and Democrats have blamed recent changes Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implemented, including cutting overtime and telling workers to leave the mail behind if it was going to delay them on routes.
Trump said last week he opposed additional funding for USPS because it would make it easier to vote by mail, a key method for voting under the coronavirus pandemic.
DeJoy, a major Republican donor without prior USPS experience, said in a statement that post office hours would not change, mail processing facilities would not close, and equipment, including mailboxes, would not be removed. He also said the agency would continue to approve overtime.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will likely discuss his decision to back away from the proposed operational changes to USPS when he testifies before Congress.
DeJoy has agreed to testify before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee on Friday, and he will appear before the House oversight committee on Monday.
The decision to postpone the operational changes until after the election will certainly allay some of Democrats’ concerns, but they will still likely press DeJoy on ensuring reliable mail services for the election, especially because so many more Americans will be voting by mail this year due to the pandemic.
Updated
Postmaster general suspends operational changes until after election
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has just announced he will delay operational changes to the US Postal Service until after November’s presidential election.
In a new statement DeJoy said he still believed the changes he implemented, which prompted accusations that he and Trump were trying to hamper voting by mail, were necessary.
However, DeJoy decided to postpone the changes until after November “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”
“I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability. I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective, and work toward those reforms will commence after the election,” DeJoy said.
“In the meantime, there are some longstanding operational initiatives — efforts that predate my arrival at the Postal Service — that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic.
“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”
The announcement will come as a relief to Democrats, who accused the president of trying to suppress the vote by slowing mail services.
Updated
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Lauren Aratani.
The Senate intelligence committee released a bipartisan report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the panel’s findings appear to be even more detailed than those of special counsel Robert Mueller.
One important finding to note: the committee concluded that Trump discussed the Democratic emails released by WikiLeaks with his former associate, Roger Stone, even though he told Mueller he did not recall doing so.
The report says, “Despite Trump’s recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.”
The committee also concluded that the presidential transition team’s inexperience and willingness to conduct diplomacy through unofficial channels left the team open to foreign influence.
“Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team’s inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy,” the report said.
“The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives.”
Updated
Afternoon summary
Here’s what has happened so far today:
- The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report, the fifth volume in the investigation, gave more details about connections to Russian Donald Trump’s campaign team had during the election.
- Head of the US Postal Service Louis DeJoy is set to testify in front of the Senate Oversight Committee on Friday. DeJoy will also testify in front of a House committee on Monday.
- Trump responded to Michelle Obama’s scathing speech against him by saying that, actually, she is the one who is in over her head and it was clear that the speech was pre-recorded as the number of Covid-19 deaths she cited against him are actually higher. Just moments before, he pardoned the late women’s rights icon Susan B. Anthony.
- The Republican National Committee announced three people who were featured in viral photos largely criticized by Democrats will speak at its convention next week.
Updated
Screen time at the national nominating conventions is considered a spotlight that can be used to further political ambitions, an effective way in getting on the radar of voters in a party.
Barack Obama is the most recent and pronounced example of this, with his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention getting the then-junior US representative attention that would eventually spring him into a successful presidential campaign.
In a story published this afternoon, Politico points out that a lineup of interested convention speakers at the Republican National Convention could be trying to position themselves for the 2024 election. Here’s more from Politico:
Trump’s reelection is up in the air, but Republicans with national aspirations are already maneuvering to be the GOP’s standard bearer in four years — an under-the-radar campaign that will burst into the open at the convention. Republicans anticipate an intense clash as the party prepares for a post-Trump world, whether he’s still in office or not.
[Nikki] Haley will join a slate of potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates on prime-time TV for the virtual convention — each looking for the kind of breakout moment that helped catapult Barack Obama to the presidency. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst are expected to speak, as is South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, whom Haley appointed to the Senate. So, too, will Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
The 2024 primary “will be a battle for soul of the party, and the jockeying for position has already begun,” said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who helped spearhead ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2016 presidential bid.
Eighteen states have agreed to take federal grants to boost their state’s unemployment insurance by $300 to $400, according to the AP.
Donald Trump, in an attempt to provide some economic relief in light of Congress’ stalled stimulus negotiations, signed four executive actions earlier this month that are supposed to boost unemployment insurance, among other things.
The executive action said the White House will use money from the Department of Homeland Security’s disaster relief fund, typically used in response to natural disasters, to provide $300 in additional unemployment insurance each week. States, which have been left completely cash-strapped due to coronavirus response, are expected to tack on an additional $100.
It is unclear whether the states that have agreed to take on federal grants will decide to provide the additional $100.
Thirty states are still deciding whether they will take the federal grants while two have declined. A spokesperson for Wyoming governor Mark Gordon said that states are hesitant to take on the grant as incorporating the funding into a state’s insurance program is complicated and the effort would be wasted if Congress ends up bolstering unemployment through its own bill.
The House may vote on a slimmed down version of its $3tn HEROES Act stimulus package, according to NBC News.
Sources told NBC News that a vote on a lighter HEROES Act was floated during a Democratic caucus yesterday, with one representative suggesting a vote on a $2 trillion to $2.4 trillion stimulus bill. The House is planning to hold a vote on a bill supporting the US Postal Service this weekend.
House Democrats and Senate Republicans have been in a weeks-long stalemate over a new coronavirus stimulus package that has most recently culminated in the Senate ending its session last week with no compromise in sight. The Senate will be back in session September 8.
It has been nearly five months since Congress passed the CARES Act. A vote on a thinner HEROES Act would be an attempt from House Democrats to show they are making a good effort to compromise with Senate Republicans, whose $1 trillion HEALS Act they have criticized as being too little to save the economy.
Updated
Though today marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920, the right to vote is still very much at peril. From states enacting policies that lead to voter suppression to the dismantling of the US Postal Service before a largely mail-in voting election, the fight for fair voting is still waging across the country.
Here’s more from Megan Botel for the Guardian about six women who are leading today’s fight against voter suppression:
The [women’s suffrage] movement culminated in the ratification of the 19th amendment on 18 August 1920, marking end of America’s longest-running social justice movement. It produced the single largest enfranchisement effort in the nation’s history, guaranteeing women the right to vote. But it was only a beginning.
Many, especially Black women, did not benefit from the 19th amendment. But they did not waver in fighting for equal rights. Fannie Lou Hamer, among the leaders of the 1964 Freedom Summer Campaign and co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party, carried her force into the civil rights movement. Dorothy Height, who was a key organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
These women paved the way with a century-long history of female-led activism. And it is still women leading the charge.
Two former presidents will be speaking back-to-back at the virtual Democratic National Convention tonight. Jimmy Carter will be speaking alongside his wife Rosalynn, with Bill Clinton appearing after.
Also speaking at the @DemConvention tonight
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) August 18, 2020
-Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg
-President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter
-Bill Clinton pic.twitter.com/8jZWJ5WkPz
Updated
In some quick Covid-19 news, the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) announced this morning that it screened 773,319 people at checkpoints nationwide yesterday – the highest number on a Monday since March 16, before stay-at-home orders halted virtually all travel.
JUST IN: @TSA screened 773,319 people at checkpoints nationwide yesterday, Aug. 17. It was the largest number of individuals screened at checkpoints on a Monday since March 16th.
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) August 18, 2020
The announcement comes after TSA said yesterday that 831,789 people passed through checkpoints on Sunday, the highest number since Tuesday, March 17. Airline stocks surged after the news.
Though the virus is very much still thriving in many parts of the country, cases have started to taper down a bit in some states, perhaps encouraging people to travel to soak up the last few weeks of summer. Many states, especially along the Northeast, have implemented travel restrictions forcing visitors or returning residents to quarantine for 14 days to prevent further spread of the virus.
Here’s something to add to the pile of news that would be bigger if all of *gestures wildly* this wasn’t happening.
The Senate Intelligence Committee released this morning a bipartisan report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the final volume in the committee’s five-part investigation.
The report offers more details about the connections to Russia that Trump’s team had during the election. For example, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort passed along internal polling data to a Russian intelligence officer he had close ties to. The report also said Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive derogatory information that would benefit his father’s campaign during the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with people who had ties to the Russian government, but ultimately did not get any information.
Axios has a helpful breakdown of the report.
Gun-toting St Louis couple to speak at Republican convention
The Republican National Committee has invited to speak at its convention next week the gun-toting couple from St. Louis, Missouri and the teenager from Kentucky whose confrontation with a Native American elder went viral last year.
Nick Sandmann was in the center of the now-infamous picture of him in a red “Make American Great Again” cap smiling down at Nathan Phillips, a Native American elder, at a anti-abortion march in early 2019. Sandmann was criticized for appearing to disrespect a Native American elder.
I can’t tell you all enough about how excited I am to be apart of this years RNC! https://t.co/lur4zw1YS8
— Nicholas Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) August 18, 2020
His counterparts, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, are two lawyers from St. Louis who pointed guns at protestors who, as they were heading to the mayor’s house, marched outside their mansion.
While the speakers have never had any official role in the Republican party, the announcement is likely meant to be a poke at Democrats, who heavily criticized the images and videos that centered on the three people. Breitbart first reported on the announcement yesterday. The convention will be held somewhat in-person next week in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Updated
Donald Trump just responded to the scathing speech Michelle Obama delivered last night at the virtual Democratic National Convention, where Obama said that Trump is “clearly over his head” and “simply cannot be who we need him to be for us”.
“It is what it is,” she said, using the same phrase Trump used earlier this month when asked about the country’s staggering Covid-19 death toll.
In turn, Trump today said that the former first lady is in over her head. He also criticized her for not delivering her speech live. Trump pointed out that the coronavirus death toll she cited in her speech was inaccurate, since the numbers have since risen. He also said that her speech was “extremely divisive”.
Updated
Trump pardons icon of the US women’s suffrage movement
Donald Trump just pardoned Susan B. Anthony, an icon of the US women’s suffrage movement, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting when laws prohibited women from voting.
Anthony died at 86 in 1906, 14 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.
President Trump will pardon Susan B. Anthony, found guilty by an all-male jury of illegal voting in 1872 presidential election.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 18, 2020
Reporters are saying that those with Trump at the signing of the pardon are members of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group. Though Anthony never publicly spoke out for or against abortion, her legacy has been appropriated by anti-abortion groups such as the Susan B. Anthony List. While some have attributed anti-abortion writing from a writer who went by the acronym “A” to Anthony, the activist’s connections to the writing is dubious at best.
Updated
Postmaster general to testify in front of Senate on Friday
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the head of the US Postal Service (USPS), will testify even earlier than expected, testifying before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, the Washington Post is reporting this morning.
The move is likely an attempt from Senate Republicans to get the first word in before DeJoy testifies in front of the House. House Democrats had announced yesterday that they called DeJoy to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
DeJoy, who was appointed by Trump as postmaster general earlier this summer, has come under fire for cost-cutting measures like reducing overtime and extra trips that ensured on-time delivery. Democrats have particularly sounded the alarm over the cuts in service as USPS prepares to conduct the largest mail-in voting operation in US history.
Updated
Just a little bit of economics news in from Reuters. US homebuilding picked up for a third straight month in July in the latest sign the housing sector is emerging as one of the few areas of strength in an economy suffering a record slowdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Housing starts increased 22.6% - far more than expected - to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.496 million units last month, the Commerce Department said.
And that’s the lot from me, Martin Belam, today in London. I’m handing over to my colleague Lauren Aratani, and I’ll be back for more tomorrow.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been doing the media round this morning talking about last night’s DNC opening. She said she felt it was pretty clear to everyone that “Michelle Obama knocked it out of the ballpark.”
She also spoke a little bit about the experience of appearing at a virtual convention, which is such an unprecedented oddity in this year’s election campaign. Michigan’s governor said that Michelle Obama had managed in her speech to talk “one on one to the American people” which she said was hard to do in the unusual situation.
And she again attacked the president over his coronavirus record, saying:
We are at the wealthiest country in the world, and yet, we are having the worst outcomes and the worst economic impact because of the mishandling of this virus. Trump did not create the coronavirus, but he is in charge of our response to it.
Michigan @GovWhitmer: “We are at the wealthiest country in the world, and yet, we are having the worst outcomes and the worst economic impact because of the mishandling of this virus ... Trump did not create the coronavirus, but he is in charge of our response to it” pic.twitter.com/d8MWWnCc42
— New Day (@NewDay) August 18, 2020
Kyle Daly has a slightly different take on QAnon this morning for Axios, analysing claims that the reason it has taken off successfully online is because it resembles a videogame.
For all its real-world impact, QAnon hooks people by working like a video game. Game designer Adrian Hon has argued that Qanon is a lot like an alternate-reality game, in which players follow a trail of clues online and off, to solve mysteries or just discover more clues to chase.
But QAnon also echoes other game genres, mashing them together to become an all-encompassing, highly addictive experience. Intentionally or not, it has rolled up gameplay components from the past several decades of game design.
People like solving mysteries and they like feeling privy to secret knowledge. QAnon gamifies those sensations at massive scale. And although tech giants are starting to crack down on it, there’s no indication that its spread is slowing any time soon.
And I did enjoy this play-off in the last paragraph
The Voynich manuscript is a book from the 15th century filled with strange drawings and writing in an unknown language. The simplest explanation is that it’s just nonsense — either an intricate hoax or total gibberish. That hasn’t stopped scholars, linguists and cryptographers from spending centuries chasing its mysteries.
Read it here: Axios – How QAnon works like a video game to hook people
Some caution from political scientists Adam E Enders and Joseph E Uscinski this morning to reporters like me when covering the QAnon conspiracy theory, and just how widespread belief in it in the US actually is:
We’re willing to wager that most readers are in near disbelief that their peers believe these ideas. Indeed, the QAnon theory reads more like an amateur action movie than most conspiracy theories maligning small groups of elites. Can such ideas really have become mainstream under our noses, prevalent enough to overtake one of two major political parties?
To answer this question, we take a different tactic than most journalistic reporting by examining opinion polls – what people actually believe, and to what extent. Our findings reveal that the QAnon movement may be better at capturing news coverage than the hearts and minds of the American mass public.
Read it here: Is QAnon taking over America? Not so fast
Yesterday, you may recall that a former senior member of the Trump administration – Miles Taylor – endorsed Joe Biden in the presidential race.
Taylor, who served as chief of staff to former homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, said in a video announcing his endorsement, “Given what I have experienced in the administration, I have to support Joe Biden for president.”
The endorsement made Taylor one of the most senior members of the Trump administration so far to publicly back Biden’s campaign. Activists immediately criticized Taylor, though, for not reckoning with his own complicity in separating kids from families.
Of course, the president has some views on the matter this morning too, claiming never to have heard of Taylor, but also describing him as “a real stiff”
Many thousands of people work for our government. With that said, a former DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE named Miles Taylor, who I do not know (never heard of him), said he left & is on the open arms Fake News circuit. Said to be a real “stiff”. They will take anyone against us!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020
An interesting, if a little niche, poll has caught my eye via social media this morning – polling people in the rural areas of Pennsylvania about their response to the United States Postal Service crisis. The authors say:
Rural America is rarely covered in stand-alone political surveys, but issues with the USPS in the headlines and its heightened importance to the conduct of the 2020 election cycle due the pandemic at the same time its budget is being pressured is of such paramount importance to the economic and material health and well- being of rural America, that an anonymous donor funded this research project to help bring more attention to the issue.
There’s some caveats around the numbers and the small sample-size, but the authors seem to have gone out of their way to make the polling bi-partisan, even if we don’t know the source of the funding.
Fascinating poll of red state rural voters views on USPS: pic.twitter.com/2AK4NKbzdo
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) August 18, 2020
What is interesting is the poll finds that
- 24% of people had noticed a deterioration in the USPS service, and over 50% polled say they are very or somewhat reliant on the service.
- 57% of these likely voters report they’d be less likely to support a candidate who reduced the budget for the USPS, or privatized the agency – which includes Republicans
- There’s still a massively partisan split on how to vote in November. 68% of Republicans report they are “not at all likely” to vote by mail while 53% of Democrats say they are “very likely.”
- 88% of people questions in rural Pennsylvania approve or strongly approve of Trump’s handling of the pandemic
As I say, it is niche and a small polling size, which skews towards Republicans because of the demographic in the areas surveyed, but it asked some interesting questions.
Read it here: Niskanen Center – Poll shows rural voters oppose USPS cuts
There’s been a huge focus on the mechanics and logistics of the November election, with Trump’s attempts to undermine voting by mail.
Ed Pilkington has been looking for us about how some sports teams are stepping in to help out:
At least 12 professional sports teams and their stadiums from the worlds of baseball, basketball, football and hockey are preparing to open their doors to allow fast, safe and socially distanced voting. The masterminds behind the idea, the non-partisan Election Super Centers Project, expect that number to rise to 25 within weeks, and are hoping university and college arenas will join as well.
In a parallel initiative, the LA Lakers star LeBron James has announced he is working with several teams, including the LA Dodgers and Detroit Pistons, to open up their arenas as polling places in November. James has formed a campaign, More Than a Vote, that seeks to use the influence of black athletes and artists to combat systemic, racist voter suppression and unleash the electoral power of black voters.
Read it in full here: Sports teams tackle voting crisis with plan to turn arenas into polling stations
Roger Stone drops appeal against his felony convictions
Politico are reporting that Roger Stone has dropped his appeal against his seven felony convictions. Last month Donald Trump sparked outrage by commuting Stone’s prison sentence.
At the time, special counsel Robert Mueller weighed in declaring that “Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Stone was convicted in November 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican of Utah, described Trump’s decision back then as “unprecedented, historic corruption”.
Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) July 11, 2020
In a statement Stone said:
It is time for me to move on with my life with my family, friends, and supporters. I regret not going forward with the appeal to fully expose all that happened, with the hope that by doing so, I could help prevent it from happening to anyone else ever again; but I had to decide based on what is best for me and my family. The political taint that exists in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, from the prosecutors to the judge to the jury pool, is so deep and abiding that the possibility of achieving a just result on the merits is as nonexistent as it was when this process played out the first time.
This could be a 2+2=5 situation, but Trump yesterday told reporters that he was planning to pardon someone important today... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kamala Harris has reportedly chosen her security name. Martin Pengelly reports for us:
It is one with resonance for the first black woman and first Indian and Jamaican American to be part of a major party presidential ticket: Pioneer.
Harris chose the name from a list provided by her new protectors after being picked as Joe Biden’s running mate last week, CNN first reported, citing an anonymous law enforcement official.
Biden is still using the name he had when vice-president to Barack Obama: Celtic. Family members of those protected can choose names beginning with the same letter. Biden’s wife, Dr Jill Biden, is Capri.
Property magnate-cum-president Donald Trump, whom Biden will face at the polls in November, also goes by an appropriate code name: Mogul.
Read it here: Kamala Harris reportedly chooses very apt Secret Service code name
Brendan Farrington has been looking for the Associated Press at the understandable uptick in requests to vote by mail in today’s Florida primary.
He spoke to Catharine Skipp, who voted by mail for the first time because she has largely confined herself to home during the pandemic. She told him she also had another new experience: her ballot was challenged.
The 66-year-old Democrat and native Floridian lives in Miami-Dade County, the area hardest hit by the virus. She said she registered to vote the first chance she could and has voted in every election since, usually being in line when polls open on election day. “I always had a thing for being there at 7 o’clock when the doors open,” Skipp said.
The pandemic has inspired more than 2.1 million people to so far cast mail-in ballots in the state, with more still coming in. That compares to fewer than 1.3 million in the 2016 primary.
Different states have different rules. Mail-in ballots have to be received by 7 pm Tuesday in order to be counted in Florida. For voters who obtained vote-by-mail ballots but ran out of time, or in some counties stamps, to send them by mail, Florida’s secretary of state recommended hand-delivering them to secure drop boxes at each county’s elections offices.
While Trump has raised questions about the potential for fraud in voting by mail, he later walked back his comments and said Florida’s system is secure.
Skipp praised the system, even after elections officials questioned the signature on her ballot. She was given notice that her signature was challenged and given plenty of time to correct it.
“I was impressed. It felt very secure. Very on top of it,” she said. “They questioned my signature in an efficient way. And then I got an email that they had received my cure affidavit and everything was cool.”
While we are on the subject of the Florida primaries, Politico have this useful guide from Gary Fineout on five you need to keep an eye out for.
Talking of Trump attacks, there’s a new Trump campaign ad this week which questions the mental capacity of Joe Biden. It’s a well-trodden path for a Trump campaign, that repeatedly raised questions about Hillary Clinton’s health in 2016.
The ad mixes clips of Biden speaking from a few years ago, with more recent clips, and is called “What happend to Joe Biden” to imply some kind of decline.
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told Axios in response to the ad: “Donald Trump is spectacularly failing every conceivable strategic test by ramping up mentions of this subject at all.”
The ad is part of the Trump campaign’s four-day takeover of the YouTube masthead while the Democratic National Convention is on.
Trump made headlines around the world recently when he insisted that a cognitive test that required him to remember the words “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” was difficult.
Read more about the ad here: Axios – Trump campaign ad attacks Biden’s mental faculties
Trump tells Michelle Obama to 'sit back and watch' in Twitter attack
It was always unlikely that Donald Trump would be unable to resist wading in on the response to Michelle Obama’s speech. That’s just made up his opening Twitter salvo for the day, telling the former first lady to “sit back and watch”.
....My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before. Jobs are flowing, NASDAQ is already at a record high, the rest to follow. Sit back & watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020
He was also back on a favourite theme of how the Obama administration reacted to the H1N1 swine flu outbreak.
Looking back into history, the response by the ObamaBiden team to the H1N1 Swine Flu was considered a weak and pathetic one. Check out the polling, it’s really bad. The big difference is that they got a free pass from the Corrupt Fake News Media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020
As a reminder, the CDC put the death toll from H1N1 swine flu at 12,469. The current US death toll from the coronavirus is in excess of 170,000.
He also again accused the Obama administration of treason.
The ObamaBiden Administration was the most corrupt in history, including the fact that they got caught SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, the biggest political scandal in the history of our Country. It’s called Treason, and more. Thanks for your very kind words Michelle!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020
As a reminder, last night Michelle Obama said of the president:
Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.
You can watch her speech here.
Updated
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to publish book on Covid-19 leadership
Associated Press report that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has gained a national following through his management of the coronavirus pandemic, is writing a book that looks back on his experiences, which includes leadership advice and a close look at his relationship with the Donald Trump administration.
Crown announced Tuesday that Cuomo’s “American Crisis” will be released 13 October, three weeks before election day. The news comes the day after Cuomo addressed the DNC and called the virus’ spread a metaphor for a country weakened by division.
New York State currently has one of the lowest infection rates in the US, in contrast to the spring, when it had one of the highest.
Crown’s book blurb promises that:
In his own voice, Andrew Cuomo chronicles in ‘American Crisis’ the ingenuity and sacrifice required of so many to fight the pandemic, sharing his personal reflections and the decision-making that shaped his policy, and offers his frank accounting and assessment of his interactions with the federal government and the White House, as well as other state and local political and health officials.
Cuomo had said last month that he was thinking of a book, commenting during a radio interview on WAMC that he wanted to document the “entire experience, because if we don’t learn from this then it will really compound the whole crisis that we’ve gone through.”
Financial terms for “American Crisis” were not disclosed.
Cuomo, currently serving his third term, has been praised for his blunt, straightforward press conferences. His style has differed notably from the more erratic approach of Trump. Cuomo has said that Trump is “in denial” about the severity of the pandemic and has faulted him for ignoring advice from scientists. Trump has blamed Cuomo’s “poor management” for New York’s tens of thousands Covid-19 fatalities.
Ryan Lizza offered this analysis for Politico of Michelle Obama’s speech last night:
For most of the night Monday, the Eva Longoria-moderated Democratic Convention — really just a series of recorded speeches and music videos — struggled to balance being entertaining and uplifting with communicating the dire consequences of the pack-a-day like habit that Democrats say Trump represents. The videos ranged from sober to saccharine. Many of the speakers, who lacked the feedback of a live crowd, were mocked as stiff. The speeches were treacly.
Then Michelle Obama came on screen. If the previous hour and forty-five minutes was like the dry text of a Surgeon General’s warning, Obama’s riveting speech was the equivalent of scaring you straight with one of those grisly pictures of cancerous lungs decimated by tar and smoke. She didn’t quite put it this way, but the takeaway was that reelecting Trump would mean certain death.
Lizza also suggests that the speech was “surely the first time a president’s wife has repudiated her husband’s core observation about American politics as outdated and incorrect.”
They recall Barack Obama in 2004 declaring that there were “no blue states and no red states”, and contrast it with Michelle Obama last night explicitly saying “my message won’t be heard by some people…[because]…we live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention.”
You can read it here: Politico – Michelle repudiates Barack’s core tenet of politics in urgent plea to boot Trump
Florida, Alaska, Wyoming holding primary elections
There’s some primary action today, as three states hold contests that will help set the stage for elections in November to determine the balance of power in Washington.
Reuters have a scene-setter from Susan Cornwell, where she says that Republicans will be choosing a standard-bearer in their effort to snatch back a south Florida congressional district on Tuesday.
They want to reclaim Florida’s 26th district from Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant from Ecuador who ousted a Republican to win the House of Representatives seat in a close race two years ago.
The frontrunner in the Republican primary that will pick her challenger is Carlos Gimenez, the Cuban-born mayor of Miami-Dade county. He announced his bid for the party’s nomination in January with an endorsement from Donald Trump, even though Gimenez had said in 2016 that he would vote for Hillary Clinton.
Gimenez is considered the favorite over former firefighters’ union chief Omar Blanco.
Alaska and Wyoming also hold primary elections on Tuesday. Whoever wins Wyoming’s Republican primary is likely to become the next US senator from the solidly Republican western state, where Sen. Mike Enzi is retiring this year.
Former Representative Cynthia Lummis, who belonged to the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is thought to have the edge over a crowded field.
Back in Florida, freshman Republican Rep. Ross Spano is fighting to keep his seat in the 15th congressional district amid investigations into campaign finance violations related to his 2018 campaign. He has denied wrongdoing, but faces a strong primary challenge from Lakeland city commissioner Scott Franklin. The seat is likely to remain in Republican hands.
Another incumbent, Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is being challenged in the 23rd district by community activist Jen Perelman.
Although it has been a generally good year for progressive challengers, Perelman lags behind Wasserman Schultz in campaign cash, and the incumbent has seen off primary challengers in the last two elections.
Last night Perelman was tweeting out pictures of some of the abuse that her campaign has been recieiving, saying “We will not be intimidated”
We will not be intimidated Debbie.#JENerationalChange is coming to #FL23. It’s time.
— Jen Perelman For Congress (@JENFL23) August 18, 2020
Good night all & see you at the polls in the morning ☀️! pic.twitter.com/AqNPrdgKKc
In the 21st district, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, far-right activist Laura Loomer is one of six Republicans vying for the House seat. She has been kicked off social media platforms for anti-Muslim comments and endorsed by former Trump adviser Roger Stone. The winner will have an uphill fight against Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel in November.
Updated
You feel like there are going to be a lot of op-eds about Michelle Obama today. Here’s Frank Bruni for the New York Times on the former first lady.
I want to note that nowhere in Trump’s inner circle is there anyone with the gravitas and grace of Michelle Obama, because someone like her wouldn’t last a nanosecond there. Trump would find the example of her too threatening, the yardstick of her too diminishing. She’d find his ethical ecosystem uninhabitable: the cold, dark surface of the moon without a spacesuit.
I want to savor her every word on Monday night, when she so beautifully distilled what’s wrong with Trump — “He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us,” she said — and so hauntingly defined what it feels like to live in Trump’s America. “Kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another,” she said. “They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we really are and what we truly value.”
Read it here: New York Times – Michelle Obama showed us why these Democrats are our last best hope
If you missed it, by the way, here’s her speech in full:
Black Virginia state senator Louise Lucas charged with damaging a Confederate monument
A Virginia state senator has been charged with damaging a Confederate monument in Portsmouth during protests that also led to a demonstrator being critically injured when a statue was torn down, authorities said Monday.
The Associated Press reports that Sen. Louise Lucas faces charges of conspiracy to commit a felony and injury to a monument in excess of $1,000, Portsmouth police chief Angela Greene said during a news conference. The Black Lives Matter protest occurred in June.
Lucas is a longtime Democratic legislator and a key power broker in the state Senate, joining the chamber in 1992. The charges were filed the same week Virginia lawmakers are taking up dozens of criminal justice reforms during a special legislative session.
The reaction from some of her fellow Democrats was swift.
“It’s deeply troubling that on the verge of Virginia passing long-overdue police reform, the first Black woman to serve as our Senate Pro Tempore is suddenly facing highly unusual charges,” Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, tweeted on Monday evening.
It's deeply troubling that on the verge of Virginia passing long-overdue police reform, the first Black woman to serve as our Senate Pro Tempore is suddenly facing highly unusual charges.@SenLouiseLucas, I look forward to seeing you in Richmond tomorrow—so we can get to work. https://t.co/flI9W5HnYH
— Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) August 17, 2020
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia called for the charges against Lucas and several others to be dropped. The ACLU said the charges constitute a stark overreach by police because they were not approved by the local prosecutor’s office.
Lucas’ attorney, Don Scott, told WAVY-TV that Lucas will “vigorously” fight the case and be vindicated.
Her actions were criticised by some at the time, as the protests against the statues gained widespread media coverage.
Greene said that “several individuals conspired and organized to destroy the monument as well as summon hundreds of people to join in felonious acts.”
Greene said those acts “not only resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the monument, but also permanent injury to an individual.”
Greene did not detail exactly what Lucas or several other people are accused of doing to merit the charges that have been filed against them.
Other people facing charges include members of the local NAACP chapter, a local school board member and members of the public defenders office, the police chief said.
Eugene Robinson has a piece on the Washington Post site at the moment in praise of Michelle Obama, titled “For someone who says she hates politics, Michelle Obama is a political powerhouse”
The job of a speaker on the first night of a national party convention is to inspire the faithful and set a tone for the rest of the week. Obama’s famous dictum, first pronounced at the 2016 Democratic convention — “When they go low, we go high” — mandates magnanimity and purpose. On a day when Trump tried to draw attention to himself by throwing red meat to his loyal base, painting Democrats as dangerous radicals who oppose law and order, Obama’s speech offered vivid contrast — and served as a corrective. No one can accuse her of being some sort of antifa-loving revolutionary. “Going high” is still the only option, she cautioned Monday. If we go low, she warned, “we degrade ourselves.”
Read it here: Washington Post – For someone who says she hates politics, Michelle Obama is a political powerhouse
It’s the morning after the night before as the Democratic National Convention opened, sort of, in Wisconsin. David Smith described it for us as a telethon, commercial, and awkward family Zoom call all in one. Welcome to today’s live US politics and coronavirus coverage, here’s a quick catch-up on where we are, and what we can expect from today
- Former first lady Michelle Obama stole the show at the DNC last night, accusing Donald Trump of being the “wrong president for our country” and “clearly in over his head”
- Bernie Sanders warned that Trump was leading the nation “down the path of authoritarianism” while John Kasich, the anti-Trump Republican former governor of Ohio, urged Americans “take off our partisans hats and put our nation first”
- Ordinary voter Kristin Urquiza spoke movingly about the death of her father from Covid-19, saying “His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.”
- There were 542 deaths and 40,022 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the US yesterday
- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy agreed to testify before the House oversight committee next Monday. The House will vote on legislation regarding USPS on Saturday
- Trump will be signing a proclamation celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote. He is then in Iowa for a disaster recovery briefing, then campaigning in Arizona
- He also trailed yesterday his plans to pardon someone “very, very important” today
- Speakers due at the DNC tonight include Jill Biden, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bill Clinton, Stacey Abrams, Chuck Schumer and John Kerry
I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be here for the first couple of hours of another long and busy day. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
