DNC kicks off final night
The final night of the Democratic national convention is officially underway, with Congresswoman Veronica Escobar gaveling in the session.
Even though Kamala Harris will not speak for another four hours, the United Center already looks quite crowded.
The delegates representing California, Harris’ home state, are clearly fired up about her speech tonight. They were already chanting “California!” before the session even began.
The United Center already looks quite crowded, with tonight’s programming about to get underway. Harris won’t address the convention until roughly 10pm CT. pic.twitter.com/FT98QJpYUW
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) August 22, 2024
Closing summary
This live blog is closing. You can follow all of the action at tonight’s Democratic convention here.
Here’s a look at what else happened today:
Donald Trump called Josh Shapiro a “highly overrated Jewish Governor”, which the White House condemned as “antisemitic, dangerous, and hurtful”.
Shapiro responded by saying the ex-president is “someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this” and says Trump is “obsessed” with him.
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, said she hopes she can maintain a relationship with Joe Biden after she played a key role in pushing him to drop out of the race.
The group Muslim Women for Harris released a statement announcing that it was disbanding in response to the Harris-Walz campaign’s refusal to allow a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage.
Ro Khanna, the progressive California Democratic lawmaker, said the party is making a “tragic mistake” by not allowing a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage.
Donald Trump said he would be “honored” if he received an endorsement from the independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr.
We are about to close this blog, but we’ll continue full coverage of the Democratic national convention tonight, including Kamala Harris’s keynote speech, in our new blog here:
The awkwardness of political campaigning was on full display earlier today, when JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, stopped in at a doughnut shop while campaigning in Georgia.
“I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice-president. Good to see you,” the Ohio senator told the woman working behind the counter.
“OK,” she replied.
The conversation that follows could be described as stilted. Here’s the full interaction, from C-Span:
JD Vance buys donuts in Holt’s Sweet Shop in Valdosta Georgia pic.twitter.com/xOO2j3AoRf
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 22, 2024
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The Guardian’s David Smith ran into Cornel West, the independent presidential candidate, outside the Democratic national convention.
Spotted at Democratic National Convention: Cornell West. pic.twitter.com/XuAOdxi02F
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) August 22, 2024
What might he be doing here? Did West just come to take in the sights, or could it be a sign that he is following the lead of Robert F Kennedy Jr and will end his campaign, perhaps to Kamala Harris’s benefit?
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Donald Trump has defended blocking a bipartisan immigration bill earlier this year even though it had the support of Republican leaders in Congress.
Following a speech in Arizona at the border with Mexico, where he accused the Biden-Harris administration of allowing millions of people to enter the US illegally, Trump was asked about his opposition to the legislation intended to curb immigration.
The bill had the support of Republican leaders in Congress, including Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. But after Trump made his opposition known, McConnell walked away from his own legislation and other Republicans also abandoned it.
Democrats have accused Trump of sabotaging the bill because he of wanting to keep immigration a live political issue. But Trump said he had opposed it for other reasons.
“It wasn’t bipartisan. They had a couple of people on the other side. It was weak. It was ineffective, and it would have allowed, as you know, millions and millions of people to pour through and largely unvetted. It was a horrible bill. It was a weak bill. And they don’t need a bill. All Biden had to do is look to the border and say: ‘Close the border.’ He didn’t need a bill.
“The bill was terrible. If it was good, I would have approved it.”
At the time, Mitt Romney, the Republican senator and former presidential candidate, criticised Trump as more interested in political moves than addressing immigration.
“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is … really appalling,” he said.
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I’m at the pro-Palestinian sit-in outside the United Center, where delegates and activists joined by representative Cori Bush are demanding that the Democratic leadership add a Palestinian American speaker to this night’s lineup to speak from the main stage.
Abbas Alawieh, a delegate from Michigan and leader of the uncommitted movement, said that negotiations with the Democratic party are ongoing and called on the leadership to make a decision by 6pm.
“When uncommitted came here, we didn’t just come for the four days, we came here to create a democratic pathway for the next four years,” said Lexis Zeidan, a co-chair of the uncommitted movement. “It’s not just about the speaker, it’s about Palestinian Americans deserving a voice in our society.”
“Our deadline we’ve set again is six o’clock for a response,” she said, adding that if the party did not meet the deadline, the group would announce updates about “what comes next for this movement”.
Alawieh and several others slept on the concrete last night outside the United Center as they increased pressure on the democratic leadership to address calls for a ceasefire and an arms embargo on Israel.
“As a member of the United States Congress, where else should I be when people in our community and our country are just saying we want a voice on that stage?” said Bush. ”It’s important because what we’re seeing on that stage are the priorities of the Democratic party as we go toward November. We understand that what is said there is being used to mobilize the country to show up in November.”
She asked for a speaker to give up a time slot to give a Palestinian American an opportunity to speak.
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Chicago has been revelling in its status as host city of the Democratic national convention.
Among its pearls is the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, which opened in 1938 and is a treasure trove of autographs, letters, rare books, presidential memorabilia and reproductions of Lincoln and civil war photos.
It currently has an exhibition of artifacts from Chicago’s first political nominating convention in 1860 – the one that set Lincoln on course for the White House.
James Carville popped up for a tour of the bookshop on Thursday and posed for photos while holding a picture of William Sherman, a union army general during the civil war.
In a discussion with shop owner Daniel Weinberg and former White House official Sidney Blumenthal, the veteran Democratic strategist observed: “If you listen to Fox, Chicago is this giant hellhole: homeless people, streets, they’re shooting everybody. It’s one of nicest goddamn, places I’ve ever been.
“My only problem with Chicago as a convention site is that the United Centre is too far away. I don’t know there’s much you can do about it. At some point, Chicago should build a downtown arena like that but I think it’s just a marvellous city. You can get in and out of it.”
Weinberg noted Mark Twain’s saying that history rhymes. Carville, who led Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, replied: “I think it more than rhymes. There’s a lot to be learned from European history - you’re not supposed to say that - but just the power alliances that live with us today.
“Internal conflicts: the movies that we’re seeing, the books that are being written, January 6 – I’m sorry, that’s a little more than rhyming. Forty percent of the people in 10 different states want to secede. History, I can’t say it repeats itself but I think it repeats itself more than it rhymes.”
Blumenthal, a Guardian columnist currently working on the fourth volume of a monumental Lincoln biography, rejoined: “What I’ve been saying is the deeper I get into the past, the closer I get to the present.”
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Donald Trump appears to have finally acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election during a speech on the border with Mexico.
Trump was looking at a graph of immigration numbers toward the end of his presidency when he said: “This was a last week in office for me because of a horrible, horrible election where I got many millions more votes than I got the first time, but didn’t quite make it, just a little bit short.”
Trump did not expand on the statement, which came in the middle of a wandering speech accusing Kamala Harris of permitting millions of undocumented immigrants into the US.
Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on immigrants during a visit to the US border with Mexico by again falsely claiming that they are responsible for a disproportionate share of crime.
Speaking next to the border fence in Cochise county, Arizona, the former president alleged that countries in Latin America, Africa and Europe are emptying their prisons of criminals and sending them across the US border.
“Hardened criminals are pouring into our country. And then they always say the illegal immigrants don’t commit crimes like people that live here. It’s so wrong. They don’t report them, but it’s so wrong. They make our criminals look like babies,” he said.
“These are the roughest people, and they’re the roughest people from all over the world. Their jails are being emptied from all over the world.”
Trump then sought to pin the alleged flood of criminals into the US on to Harris because Biden appointed her to investigate the causes of rising migration from Central America.
“Since Comrade Harris took over the border, there has been a 43% nationwide increase in violent crime and a 60% increase in rape,” he said.
There is no evidence to back up these numbers but Trump claimed that is because the FBI is rigging the crime figures.
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It’s sound check time inside the Democratic national convention hall, and the handful of delegates and journalists in attendance are getting to see musician Pink run through her set.
On that note, rumor has it there’ll be a surprise celebrity guest at some point this evening, but we can only speculate as to who that might be.
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Donald Trump has been speaking from the US-Mexico border near Sierra Vista, Arizona, where he criticized Kamala Harris’s record on immigration and border security and called her “the worst vice-president”.
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Kamala Harris joined the popular social media show Track Star, hosted by Jack Coyne.
In almost every episode of Track Star, guests listen to a snippet of a song, name the artist, and win money ($5), going double or nothing with each round.
On the episode published on Thursday, Harris correctly guessed songs by Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis and Too Short.
She said one song everyone should listen to is Everybody Loves the Sunshine by Roy Ayers. “I grew up with all that music,” she said.
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Members of the Uncommitted National Movement, which won 30 delegates to the Democratic national convention, are calling for a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage of the convention.
The Harris-Walz campaign notably invited the family of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin to speak on Wednesday, which the movement supported.
As we reported earlier, one of the potential speakers offered is Ruwa Romman, a Georgia state representative who is Palestinian.
Romman shared a copy of the speech she wanted to give with Mother Jones, adding that “if an elected official in a swing state who is Palestinian cannot make it on that stage, nobody else can.” Here’s an excerpt of her speech:
Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President [Kamala] Harris and defeating Donald Trump, who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur. Let’s fight for the policies long overdue – from restoring access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza. To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, yes, we can – yes, we can be a Democratic party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars. That fights for an America that belongs to all of us – Black, brown and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my grandfather taught me, together.
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Democratic convention making 'tragic mistake' by denying Palestinian speaking slot, says Ro Khanna
Ro Khanna, the progressive California Democratic respresentative, said the party is making a “tragic mistake” by not allowing a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage of the Democratic national convention.
As we reported earlier, the Uncommitted National Movement has continued its sit-in outside the convention after the anti-war group was denied its request for a Palestinian person to speak at the convention’s main stage. The group Muslim Women for Harris later announced that it was disbanding in response to the Harris-Walz campaign’s refusal of the group’s request.
Khanna, who was an early supporter of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, has met with Arab American and Muslim leaders disaffected by the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war. He posted to X:
The Palestinian right to self determination was erased by the British with the Balfour declaration which mentioned civil & religious but not political rights. The Dem party is making a tragic mistake in 2024 perpetuating this erasure of the Palestinian story & voice. https://t.co/BKO0alUGdS
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 22, 2024
Abraham Aiyash, the majority leader in the Michigan House of Representatives, said leaders of the convention “cannot claim to want peace in Gaza but actively thwart the ability for Palestinians to speak their truth”.
Leaders of the @DNC cannot claim to want peace in Gaza but actively thwart the ability for Palestinians to speak their truth at the DNC.
— Abraham Aiyash (@AbrahamAiyash) August 22, 2024
The plight of the Palestinians isn’t just an inconvenience you can ignore because it’ll ruin “vibes” - children and families are being blown…
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Patrick Gaspard, a former White House official and influential thinktank leader, urged local businesses in states such as Georgia to prepare themselves, saying:
This is not just a Democrat versus Maga Republican thing. It is a profound American question. We have not seen anything like this before in our lives and so you can’t be waiting for that.
On a positive note, he added:
I will say I’m excited to see that Marc Elias, who is just a badass election lawyer that some of us worked with for a long time, is now officially sitting next to Bob Bauer [Joe Biden’s personal lawyer] inside the campaign and not outside of the campaign.
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Patrick Gaspard, who served in various positions in Barack Obama’s administration, noted that the Republican state legislature in Georgia just enacted a provision that gives “astonishing” levels of discretion to state officials to question the outcome of a vote count to delay certification.
He warned of similar moves afoot in Nevada and North Carolina and also criticised Kevin Roberts, leader of the rightwing Heritage Foundation, for recent comments the country is in the midst of a “second American revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be”.
Gaspard, president and chief executive of the Center for American Progress in Washington, said:
That kind of rhetoric, the instrumentisation of those local elected offices and the stoking of these fires on social media – and Donald Trump himself will manipulate all of this – is going to lead to civil unrest and civil confrontation in a close contest that Kamala Harris is declared the winner in. I don’t think anybody is ready for that.
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Patrick Gaspard, a former White House official and influential thinktank leader, has warned that America faces “multiple January 6-like incidents” if Kamala Harris ekes out a narrow electoral college victory in swing states.
“Following this election, which we will win in very close margins in those states, I’m 100% confident that Donald Trump and his cabal will say of course one, that the election was stolen and two, that people need to take back their country,” Gaspard told reporters at an event hosted by Bloomberg in Chicago.
They’re going to support mobilisations in the streets that I think will lead us to have not just a January 6-type incident in the Capitol, but that could potentially lead to multiple January 6-like incidents in state capitols around the country – in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, in Nevada, in Arizona, in North Carolina.
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I just spoke with James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, and the last Arab American to speak from the main stage of the Democratic convention, in 1988.
He called the DNC’s decision to deny a Palestinian American speaker an “an unforced error, a kind of a bonehead move that is going to cost them votes and didn’t need to”.
Zogby said some of the potential speakers offered to the DNC included a Georgia state representative who is Palestinian, Ruwa Romman, and a Democratic organizer who has known Harris for years and has lost dozens of family members in Gaza, Hala Hijazi. He said:
It was a no brainer, just a no brainer, and they couldn’t agree to that, and I don’t know why, and I don’t think there was any logic involved.
This is what’s called a real stupid, boneheaded mistake, to end up literally dumping on your own story that ought to be about the convention and Kamala Harris and hope and joy and all that. And instead, we’re talking about a dumb mistake made by consultants to exclude Palestinian voices.
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A group of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered outside the Chicago cultural center, where demonstrators say they are protesting a Democratic fundraiser.
From the Chicago Sun Times’s David Struett:
A small protest has formed outside the Cultural Center, where demonstrators say they are protesting a DNC Biden Victory fundraiser. They are chanting “Free, free Palestine.” Code Pink is among a few groups here. There a couple dozen protesters and equal number of police officers pic.twitter.com/Sk3F56UUrv
— David Struett (@dstru312) August 22, 2024
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Josh Shapiro: 'Trump is obsessed with me'
The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, responded to Donald Trump’s calling him a “highly overrated Jewish Governor”, comments that the White House has condemned as “antisemitic, dangerous, and hurtful”.
Shapiro told reporters:
I think it’s clear over the last few years, Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics.
Trump is “someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this”, he added.
From Courier Newsroom’s Sean Kitchen:
Gov. Josh Shapiro responds to Donald Trump's anti-semitic post on truth social moments ago. pic.twitter.com/oL7klHVMbk
— Sean Kitchen (@pennslinger) August 22, 2024
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Michigan representative Alabas Farhat sent a letter to the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, for pushing aside members of the uncommitted movement, which have launched protests after the party rejected requests for a Palestinian American to speak on the main stage.
Farhat represents Dearborn, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans, and the birthplace of the Uncommitted movement.
“The Democratic Party can no longer ignore the genocide that is occurring in Gaza,” reads the letter by Farhat.
The DNC must return to the table with Uncommitted leaders and support them in their advocacy for a ceasefire.
A genocide has been taking place for the better part of a year. The failure of the DNC to make sure a Palestinian voice was heard during the convention cannot be understated. There is still time to make it right, before the convention is gaveled in. @TheDemocrats @harrisonjaime https://t.co/doBuwnkXlq
— Alabas Farhat (@AlabasFarhat) August 22, 2024
Other lawmakers joining Farhat’s call to include a Palestinian American speaker include: congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, representative Abdelnasser Rashid of Illinois, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and others.
Nancy Pelosi says she hopes to maintain relationship with Joe Biden
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, said she hopes she can maintain a relationship with Joe Biden after she played a key role in pushing him to drop out of the race after his dismal debate performance.
Asked whether she has plans to speak with Biden, Pelosi told MSNBC: “Well, I hope so.” She added:
But again, that was then. This is now. We have to go forward and use all of our energy not reviewing the past, but going forward to win this election.
Pelosi said expects Harris “will be wonderful” during her speech at tonight’s Democratic national convention “because she has so much confidence; she will be herself.”
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The Arkansas supreme court has upheld a decision to reject petitions for an abortion amendment.
The court ruled on Thursday that the proposal won’t be on the ballot in November. The court’s decision is a setback for the organizers who wanted voters to decide on a constitutional amendment about abortion in the mostly Republican state.
The issue came after the group organizing the initiative, Arkansans for Limited Government, did not follow state rules when submitting documents about paid signature gatherers. They submitted the documents separately instead of all at once, as required by law. The group argued they should have been allowed more time to fix this.
Vance talks about death of Laken Riley in attack on immigration policies
In Georgia, which is not a border state, JD Vance criticized vice-president Kamala Harris over her record on immigration policies during the Biden administration.
His speech drew on a sensitive issue with Georgians: the death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University, who was found in a wooded area at the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens in February. Authorities charged an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, José Antonio Ibarra, with the murder of the student.
Republicans have rallied around Riley’s death to call for stricter immigration rules and stringent penalties for undocumented migrants who commit crimes.
“Rural America has been affected by this terrible poison that drug cartels are bringing in as much as anybody,” Vance said on Thursday afternoon. “We have got to close down the border.”
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In a post on Thursday marking his 10th anniversary with Kamala Harris and ahead of her highly anticipated speech at the Democratic national convention tonight, second gentleman Doug Emhoff wrote:
“Ten years of marriage, forever to go. Happy anniversary, @VP. I love you.”
Accompanying the post is a video of the couple featuring multiple photos of them over the years, as well as a voiceover from Emhoff saying:
“We did go on that first date. Love at first sight. We were literally talking about our future by the end of that first date. And that next morning, I’m sending her an email, ‘Here are my availabilities for the next six months.’”
Ten years of marriage, forever to go. Happy anniversary, @VP. I love you. pic.twitter.com/MlfqjhZ7oh
— Douglas Emhoff (@SecondGentleman) August 22, 2024
Earlier this week, Emhoff spoke of his marriage to Harris in an address at the DNC, saying, “I trusted Kamala with our family’s future. It was the best decision I ever made. This Thursday will be our 10th wedding anniversary which I know, it means I’m about to hear that embarrassing voicemail again,” referring to a voice note he sent Harris the morning after their first date.
“However, that’s not all I’ll be hearing. That same night, I’ll be hearing my wife, Kamala Harris, accept your nomination for President of the United States,” he added.
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JD Vance due to speak in Georgia
JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is expected to speak in south Georgia on Thursday afternoon, pushing on border security and immigration.
Vance was slated to deliver his remarks in Georgia at 1pm ET and is expected to begin soon.
The campaign stop in Valdosta comes ahead of Kamala Harris’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later today.
Trump is also scheduled to visit the southern border in Cochise County, Arizona, after campaigning across battleground states this week.
In Georgia, immigration is one of the top issues for voters after the economy, according to a recent poll from The New York Times and Siena College. Trump’s team has repeatedly tied immigration to an increase in violent crime, although multiple studies have debunked these claims.
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Lori Lightfoot, the former mayor of Chicago, has some choice words for JD Vance after the Republican vice-presidential nominee said that Chicago has become “the murder capital of the United States of America, thanks to very failed Democrat leadership”.
In response to Vance who told reporters: “My little theory about why they decided to have the convention in Chicago, is, Tim Walz has been going around saying that he served in war, and maybe they did it in Chicago so that he could actually accurately say that he visited a combat zone,” Lightfoot said:
“A nice thing about not being mayor anymore is I don’t care who hears me tell this clown to STFU.”
A nice thing about not being mayor anymore is I don't care who hears me tell this clown to STFU. https://t.co/gj80kWbLYg
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) August 21, 2024
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Muslim Woman for Harris says it is disbanding over lack of Palestinian speaker at DNC
The group Muslim Women for Harris released a statement announcing that it was disbanding in response to the Harris-Walz campaign’s refusal to allow a Palestinian person to speak on the main stage. The group’s statement reads:
We cannot in good conscience continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the Uncommitted movement, that VP Harris’ team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC.
The statement was released as members of the uncommitted national movement, which won 30 delegates to the convention, and their supporters held a sit-in outside of the convention.
Ilhan Omar joined the demonstration for some time, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called in to the sit-in via FaceTime. The sit-in came after the anti-war group was told a Palestinian person would not be allowed to speak on the main stage – until then, whether or not such a speech would happen was up in the air.
Kamala Harris’s campaign notably invited the family of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin to speak on Wednesday, which Uncommitted supported. The group called for a similar platform for a Palestinian person.
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Chicago police said Wednesday’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside the Democratic national convention went ahead without arrests and that there were no injuries.
More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully past a park on Wednesday where pro-Israel demonstrators had gathered earlier, according to AP, a day after tense confrontations with the police led to 56 arrests at a protest outside the Israeli consulate in downtown Chicago.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s reported plan to drop out and endorse Donald Trump on Friday “is a desperate attempt to change the narrative” in Trump’s currently struggling campaign, Rahna Epting, executive director of grassroots progressive organization MoveOn, said in a press call Thursday.
RFK Jr. has spent weeks begging Trump for a job, so these folks have been in cahoots for a while. He has always been a puppet of sorts for the Trump campaign.
Matt Bennett, executive vice-president for public affairs of Third Way, a center-left think tank, said it’s ultimately a good thing for Democrats that Kennedy is leaving the race, and he doesn’t think the endorsement of Trump “will bring a huge swath of voters” to his campaign.
But, Bennett noted that “the third party threat is not past,” as Jill Stein, who he described as an “asset of [Vladimir] Putin and the Russians,” is still running.
Michael Tyler, the Harris-Walz communications director, said the campaign would not be surprised if independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr endorsed Donald Trump. Tyler said:
RFK was obviously funded in large part by Maga donors. He carried a lot of Maga talking points throughout the campaign.
Kennedy’s campaign said he would address the nation in Phoenix on Friday “about the present historical moment and his path forward”.
He is widely expected to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, and possibly endorse Trump during his remarks in Arizona, a state where nearly one-third of the electorate is registered independent.
“My message is not for him,” Tyler said.
My message is for many of the undecided voters, many of whom found a home with him in the early stages of this campaign. If they were feeling disaffected about the state of the race, if they were looking for a new way forward ... then there’s a home for them in Kamala Harris’s campaign.
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Notably absent from the list of main stage speakers announced this morning was a Palestinian American.
The exclusion has infuriated activists, some of whom are staging a sit-in in front of the United Center. But it has also angered progressives and some unions.
Just as we must honor the humanity of hostages, so too must we center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 22, 2024
To deny that story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The @DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity. https://t.co/bxk8wk63oK
Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said the campaign has been active in its outreach to members of the uncommitted movement and said they were “glad” the delegates representing anti-war protesters were present at the convention.
“We’re absolutely not taking their votes for granted,” Tyler said.
We’ve worked to engage them throughout the convention. We’re proud of the fact that we held panel conversations with members of the Uncommitted movement. We’re proud that the vice-president herself engaged with leadership of the Uncommitted movement in Michigan a couple of weeks ago.
He added:
I think what they will see, what folks who continue to demonstrate and protest will see, is a vice president ... who’s committed to ending the violence, ending the conflict, making sure that we resolve this conflict with a permanent ceasefire.
Just in: Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the first member of generation Z elected to serve in Congress, will deliver a speech on the main stage at the Democratic national convention on Thursday evening. A statement from Frost reads:
I am honored to be taking the stage in Chicago on Thursday, where alongside hundreds of thousands of Americans, I will highlight that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the best choice if we want to save our planet from the climate crisis.
In 2022, Frost defeated his Republican rival, Calvin Wimbish, by a considerable margin, winning 59% of the vote in Florida’s 10th congressional district, which includes Orlando and many of its surrounding theme parks. Frost’s statement continues:
The climate crisis is here, and Floridians know that our state is ground zero. We must elect Kamala Harris as the President of the United States for our people, our democracy, and our planet.
White House condemns Trump's 'antisemitic' and 'derogatory' remarks about Shapiro
The White House has condemned a social media post by Donald Trump last night that called Josh Shapiro the “highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”.
Trump, posting to Truth Social, wrote that Shapiro had “refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had”. Shapiro “has done nothing for Israel, and never will”, Trump added.
In response, Herbie Ziskend, the White House’s principal deputy communications director, said:
It is antisemitic, dangerous, and hurtful to attack a fellow American by calling out their Jewish faith in a derogatory way, or perpetuating the centuries-old smear of “dual loyalty.” President Biden and Vice President Harris believe we must come together as Americans to condemn and combat Antisemitism – and hate and bigotry of all kinds.
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The fourth and final night of Democrats’ joy-fueled convention in Chicago will feature another long list of speakers – secretaries, senators, governors, congressmen and activists – in the buildup to Kamala Harris’s formal acceptance speech.
Notable speakers include rising stars such as Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s governor, and Mark Kelly, the Arizona senator; Democrats running in swing races, such as Bob Casey, the Pennsylvania senator, Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin senator, and Ruben Gallego, the Arizona congressman who is running for an open senate seat.
Attendees will also hear from gun control advocates, including Georgia congresswoman Lucy McBath, whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed in a “stand your ground” killing, as well as members of the Tennessee Three who were expelled from the state legislature after demanding action on gun control. Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt, will also speak, along with other survivors and the families of victims of gun violence.
Thursday night’s theme is “For Our Future”. The evening will end with Harris’s historic acceptance speech in which she will become the first woman of color to accept a major party’s presidential nomination.
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In a December 2023 speech, JD Vance defended a notorious white nationalist convicted over 2016 election disinformation, canvassed the possibility of breaking up tech companies, attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and talked about a social media “censorship regime” that “came from the deep state on some level”.
The Ohio senator’s speech was given at the launch of a “counterrevolutionary” book – praised by the now Republican vice-presidential candidate as “great” – which was edited and mostly written by employees of the far-right Claremont Institute.
In the book, Up from Conservatism, the authors advocate for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act, for politicians to conduct “deep investigations into what the gay lifestyle actually does to people”, that college and childcare be defunded and that rightwing governments “promote male-dominated industries” in order to discourage female participation in the workplace”.
Vance’s endorsement of the book may raise further questions about his extremism, and that of his networks. The Guardian emailed Vance’s Senate staff and the Trump and Vance campaign with detailed questions about his appearance at the launch, but received no response.
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Uncommitted continue to hold sit-in outside DNC after Palestinians denied a speaker
An impromptu sit-in that began last night at the United Center continues today. The uncommitted movement started the sit-in after the Democratic convention denied its request for a Palestinian American to speak on the main stage and said they will continue it until their request is granted.
More support for the action came in overnight, including from the United Auto Workers.
On Wednesday, movement leaders were told they were close to getting a speaker on the stage, Waleed Shahid, an organizer with uncommitted, said at a press conference this morning.
Over the course of last night, party leaders offered the uncommitted movement could have meetings with convention and Harris campaign staffers – but did not change their minds on allowing a speaker, Shahid said. The movement did not intend to disrupt the DNC, but to work with the convention process to elevate the issue and then to mobilize for Harris, he said.
Layla Elabed, a leader of the uncommitted national movement, said having a speaker on the main stage was the “bare minimum”, and far below the policy change uncommitted and anti-war voters want to see from Harris on Gaza. Elabed said:
This has been an embarrassment for those of us who had faith in the Democratic party that we still had voices here.
The movement has suggested a potential list of Palestinian American speakers, including elected officials, and their remarks would be pre-approved and vetted by the convention.
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Donald Trump attacked Minnesota governor Tim Walz on Thursday morning’s Fox & Friends after the Democratic vice-presidential nominee pushed back against Trump and Project 2025 the night before. Trump said:
First of all, he’s a total lightweight and he shouldn’t be even having any access to possibly being president.
Trump on Project 2025 in response to a question totally teed up for him by Fox & Friends: "They drew up some conservative values. Very conservative values. And in some cases, perhaps they went over the line, perhaps they didn't. I have no idea what Project 2025 is." pic.twitter.com/bh3e29f6I9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 22, 2024
Walz closed out Wednesday night by calling out the former president and his running mate JD Vance, saying “their Project 2025” is an “agenda nobody asked for”.
The Democratic vice-presidential pick was referring to the rightwing policy document that some warn could serve as a blueprint for Trump’s administration if he wins a second term in office.
“We’ll turn the page on Donald Trump,” Walz said.
That’s how we’ll build a country where workers come first, healthcare and housing are human rights, and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom.
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Nicole Shanahan, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s running mate, suggested on Tuesday that the independent presidential candidate would do an “incredible job” as secretary of health and human services in a potential Trump administration.
Donald Trump later indicated he was open to the idea of joining forces with Kennedy, telling CNN that he “probably would” appoint Kennedy to some role. Trump said:
I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I’d be open to it.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, said on Wednesday that he “loved the idea” of having Kennedy appointed to a position in a Trump administration so he can take a government agency and “blow it up”. Speaking to conservative radio host Glenn Beck, Trump Jr said:
I loved the idea, love the idea of giving him some sort of role in some sort of major three-letter entity or whatever it may be and let him blow it up.
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign announced yesterday that he planned to make a campaign speech on Friday addressing his “path forward”, amid speculation the independent presidential candidate and environmental lawyer will throw his support behind Donald Trump.
Kennedy’s campaign said he will hold the event in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump, meanwhile, is also set to host an event on Friday night, in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb.
Multiple outlets reported that Kennedy would use his address on Friday to endorse Trump, but sources close to the independent presidential candidate have cautioned that nothing is finalized.
Speculation that Kennedy could abandon his presidential bid intensified after his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, revealed on a podcast earlier this week that he was considering that option – and considering endorsing Trump, the Republican nominee.
Shanahan suggested Kennedy’s continued candidacy risked diverting support away from Trump, thereby helping to elect Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
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Trump says he would be 'honored' by RFK Jr endorsement
Donald Trump said he would be “honored” if he received an endorsement from the independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is reportedly planning to drop out of the race to back the Republican nominee.
Trump, in an interview with Fox & Friends this morning, said he had known Kennedy for a long time, describing him as a “very smart guy” and “very good person”. Trump added:
If he endorsed me. I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place. He is a respected person.
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Democrats rose to their feet when Nancy Pelosi walked on stage at the United Center in Chicago for the Democratic national convention. They applauded, and then applauded louder. Pelosi waved before quieting the room.
The former House speaker began by expressing her gratitude to Joe Biden, calling his term “one of the most successful presidencies of modern times,” even though she had pushed subtly but forcefully for the president to step aside. “Thank you, Joe,” she said, before turning to Kamala Harris, a fellow California Democrat who Pelosi proclaimed was “ready to take us to new heights”.
Pelosi may have retired as House Democratic leader, but the convention has proven – if proof were needed – that the veteran congresswoman remains one of the most consequentially and uniquely influential power brokers in the party who can make – or break – a US president.
Bill Clinton: 'I'm still younger than Donald Trump'
Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, made his first major speech of the 2024 presidential election cycle on Wednesday night at the Democratic national convention.
Clinton read off written notes, not the teleprompter, suggesting the speech was edited last-minute. He warned Democrats against complacency:
We’ve seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn’t happen, when people got distracted by phoney issues. This is a brutal business.
The former president landed several jabs at Donald Trump, mocking the Republican nominee for his narcissism and obsession with crowd sizes, following Barack Obama’s widely cited joke on Tuesday: “[Trump] mostly talks about himself … his vendettas, vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.”
Clinton appeared frail on the podium and spoke at a slow pace, but he delighted the crowd when he said: “I’m still younger than Donald Trump.” He also laid out the case for Kamala Harris, calling her the “president of joy”.
Here’s a clip of Clinton’s speech last night:
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Pop singer Pink is set to perform tonight at the Democratic national convention, ahead of Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech.
The singer has been an outspoken activist for women’s rights, condemning the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. Pink told fans who supported the court’s decision to stop listening to her music.
She’ll join the slew of performers that took the stage at the DNC this week, including Lil Jon, Stevie Wonder, Maren Morris, and John Legend.
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The country music group The Chicks will perform the national anthem on Thursday night at the Democratic national convention, CNN reports.
The band, previously known as the Dixie Chicks, will take the stage when Kamala Harris delivers her speech on Thursday.
The Chicks are no stranger to political controversy. While on stage during a performance in 2003, the band announced that they disagreed with former president George W Bush’s decision to enter the Iraq War.
Here are some images from the newswires from the Democratic national convention last night.
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The Democratic national convention’s final night will feature victims of gun violence and lawmakers pushing for changes at the state and national levels, according to NBC News.
Speakers tonight will include former Representative Gabby Giffords, Representative Lucy McBath, who lost her son Jordan to gun violence in 2012, and the “Tennessee Three,” made up of representatives Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Justin J Pearson.
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Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, is at the California delegation’s breakfast meeting in Chicago this morning.
Jeffries told delegates that “the east-coast, west-coast conflict is over. We’re all together,” according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES at the California delegation breakfast in Chicago: "The east-coast, west-coast conflict is over. We’re all together."
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 22, 2024
The California delegates will have all female speakers at their breakfast in honor of Kamala Harris’s historic nomination, the outlet’s Mica Soellner reports.
CA delegation will have all female speakers at their breakfast in honor of Harris’s historic nomination.
— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) August 22, 2024
Some speakers expected: Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Maxine Waters, and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is dropping by the Minnesota delegation’s breakfast meeting in Chicago this morning, according to reports.
Walz and his wife, Gwen, are expected to thank delegates at the breakfast for their support of the Harris-Walz ticket.
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Key takeaways from day three of the Democratic convention
1. Tim Walz’s pitch to voters: ‘We’ll turn the page on Donald Trump’: Kamala Harris’s running mate gave his keynote pitch to supporters at the end of the third night of the convention, talking about his military service, coaching and teaching days, and his family’s fertility journey. He leaned into his humble roots and deployed repeated football metaphors, and called on his supporters to step up with urgency. Here’s our full report on Walz’s speech.
2. Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Kenan Thompson and other celebrities invigorate the crowd: The convention continued with a packed celebrity lineup. Oprah Winfrey earned huge cheers when she made an unannounced appearance. Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson had a lively appearance, musician Stevie Wonder urged the crowd to choose “joy over anger”. Actor Mindy Kaling gave a personal account of cooking with Harris. And musicians John Legend and Sheila E performed at the end of the night.
3. Bill Clinton: ‘We need Kamala Harris, the president of joy’: The 42nd president addressed his 12th Democratic convention, where he warned Democrats against complacency, mocked Donald Trump for his narcissism and obsession with crowd sizes, preached a message of unity and praised Joe Biden for “voluntarily” giving up power and celebrated the hope Kamala Harris has injected into the race.
4. Parents of a Hamas hostage were featured while protesters and AOC pushed for a Palestinian speaker: Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg gave emotional remarks about their son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is held hostage by Hamas. Members of the uncommitted movement, who have been advocating for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, said they welcomed the speech, but continued to advocate that a Palestinian leader get an opportunity to address the crowd. Gaza solidarity protesters staged a sit-in outside the convention, and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the convention to “center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment”.
5. Pete Buttigieg went hard after JD Vance: ‘Doubling down on negativity’: The US secretary of transportation, went hard after Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. Here’s a clip of Buttigieg’s speech.
6. Prominent Republicans again rallied for Harris: ‘Our party acts more like a cult’: Prominent Republicans and former Donald Trump supporters continued to earn loud applause at the convention, which featured Geoff Duncan, former lieutenant governor of Georgia, and Olivia Troye, a former homeland security adviser to then vice-president Mike Pence.
7. Speakers uplifted LGBTQ+ rights: ‘Trump wants to erase us’: Speakers repeatedly promoted LGBTQ+ rights, offering a sharp contrast to the Republican national convention which continually featured extremist, anti-trans rhetoric. Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ+ organization, Jared Polis, Colorado’s governor and the first gay man to serve as a US state governor, congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, all took to the stage on Wednesday night.
I’m at the Nevada delegation breakfast on the last day of the Democratic national convention. It’s a small group but they’re very fired up, and a bit anxious about mobilizing the critical state to deliver the election to Democrats in November.
Speakers parsed the Latino vote – saying that there was less of an issue of Latinos flipping to the Republican party, but rather that they were leaving the Democratic party to go more to the center. Congresswoman Susie Lee, who is running for re-election, focused on abortion rights, education and union protections.
Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, addressed the crowd the morning after his own popular speech on the convention stage:
Are we going to be a society that serves each other, that sees each other…that our job is not to be afraid of our neighbors, our job is to love them.
He revisited his story about Kamala Harris calling him when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, and warned the delegates not to be complacent about turning out voters. He said:
If we think we’re going to sit on our hands and cruise until election day, we will lose this election to Donald Trump. And none of our souls can handle that.
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During Tim Walz’s speech on the Democratic national convention stage last night, the Minnesota governor directly addressed his family – his wife, Gwen, 23-year-old daughter Hope and Gus, his 17-year-old son. Walz said:
Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world and I love you.
His children could be seen in tears as they listened and applauded him. “That’s my dad!” Gus declared as he stood up and pointed to the stage.
You know you’ve done well as a parent when your kids are as proud of you as Gus and Hope are of Tim Walz. “That’s my dad.” No three words better describe our next Vice President. pic.twitter.com/zNOyBjo5Fy
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) August 22, 2024
Walz’s wife and children joined him on stage at the end of his speech, along with nearly a dozen other family members.
Walz has spoken frequently about the struggles he and his wife, Gwen, experienced in order to have children while on the campaign trail.
In an interview with People magazine, he said Gus had a non-verbal learning disorder, ADHD and an anxiety disorder, conditions that he and his wife called his “secret power”.
“You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this,” Tim Walz said demurely towards the end of his keynote Democratic national convention address on Wednesday night.
The moment wreaked of understatement. The look on his face, the way he raised his white eyebrows as if he were apologizing, the shrug of his shoulders. Even the phrase “big speech”.
This wasn’t a big speech. It was a monumental speech, with the future direction of a country of 333 million people riding on it.
But then Walz dropped his faux modesty and got to work. “I have given a lot of pep talks,” he said.
From then on it was full steam ahead towards the goal line. After all, if you’re Walz, a scarcely known governor from the midwestern state of Minnesota, and you’ve just been yanked into the most significant election of recent times in the most powerful country on Earth, then what else are you going to do at the climax of your 16-minute oration than invoke your years as a high school football coach?
Friday Night Lights never had it so good.
Read the full analysis of Walz’s speech: Tim Walz channeled grit and empathy at the Democratic national convention
Tim Walz accepts VP nomination and pitches voters: ‘We have the right team’
Minnesota governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic party’s vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday night by emphasizing his rural bonafides and Americana background as a teacher and coach in a more sweeping speech than the unassuming midwesterner has given before.
“You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this,” Walz said as he closed out Wednesday’s Democratic convention in Chicago. “But I have given a lot of pep talks.” The former football coach laid out the metaphor as the crowd again chanted:
It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field, and boy do we have the right team. Kamala Harris is tough, Kamala Harris is experienced, and Kamala Harris is ready.
The pep talk capped off a well-received speech full of Walzian refrains – that he knows what small-town neighborliness is, that his time in the classroom taught him about public service. He walked out to John Mellencamp’s Small Town, amid a sea of signs that said “Coach Walz”. The crowd chanted “coach” as Walz put his hand to his heart.
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The Democratic national convention continued on Wednesday night with a packed celebrity lineup.
Oprah Winfrey garnered huge cheers when she made an unannounced appearance; Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson drew laughs by entering with a large book lampooning Project 2025; Stevie Wonder urged voters to choose ‘joy over anger’; and the actor Mindy Kaling had the crowd cheering for Kamala Harris.
Here’s a clip of the highlights from Wednesday night of the convention:
The theme of the final night of the Democratic national convention is “For Our Future”, according to organizers.
Day four of the DNC will focus on what organizers describe as a “brighter, more hopeful era”. Here’s the full description:
America can’t afford to put Donald Trump back in the White House – because a second Trump term would be even more dangerous and more extreme than the first one. But the choice we face in November isn’t just about us versus Donald Trump. This election is a fight for the future. Vice President [Kamala] Harris and Governor [Tim] Walz will lead America into a brighter, more hopeful era.
Harris to face biggest test of her political life with DNC speech
Kamala Harris will tonight face the biggest test of her political life so far when she addresses the Democratic national convention in Chicago in a bid to persuade American voters to defeat Donald Trump in November’s presidential election and put her in the White House.
In addressing the Democratic convention on Thursday night – and by proxy the wider US electorate watching in their millions on television – Harris will be making a direct pitch to voters to back her vision for the United States.
Harris’s campaign has sought to portray a more optimistic, future-focused view of the country than her rival, and perhaps also than that of Joe Biden, who based much of his pitch on dark warnings of Donald Trump’s autocratic sympathies.
It is expected that Harris’s speech will seek to lay out her personal story as she bids to become a historic president: the first woman president and the first woman of color due to her south Asian and Black background. Her speech is likely to focus on her work as a prosecutor, defending victims of crime.
But her speech will also lay out a sharp contrast between her positive view of the country’s future prospects and Trump’s almost wholly grim warnings about the state of the nation and his focus on immigration and crime.
Harris to deliver keynote address at Democratic national convention
Good morning US politics readers and welcome to our coverage of the Democratic national convention, where Kamala Harris will deliver the keynote address tonight as she formally accepts her party’s historic presidential nomination.
Harris’ remarks will close out the fourth and final night of the convention, which has seen delegates treated to speeches from the Democratic party’s most powerful players as they have thrown their support unequivocally behind Harris. Last night saw speeches by Bill Clinton, the former president, Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, will hold separate battleground state events today focused on immigration as their campaign tries to paint the Democrats as weak on border security.
