Joe Biden has arrived in Chicago, where he is scheduled to this evening address the Democratic national convention.
After arriving on Air Force One at O’Hare international airport, the president flew on the Marine One helicopter to Soldier Field, just south of downtown:
Biden’s speech this evening will be one of the last major appearances in his more than half-century career in politics, after he last month opted to end his bid for a second term and allowed Kamala Harris to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.
In addition to Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are also scheduled to address the convention in the coming days.
The protest march against the Democratic national convention has alighted at a city park within sight of the United Center in Chicago.
“What does Harris stand for? Genocide and war. We know what that meeting’s for. Genocide and war”, protesters chanted, facing the convention center. “If we don’t get no justice, then they don’t get no peace.”
Speaking to the Guardian after the podcast recording, congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont said her young constituents are fired up and ready to work to elect Kamala Harris in November.
“The people that you should be centering in the work that you do back home are those folks who are going to be the future leaders in those communities and those organizations,” Balint said.
Asked whether she thought Harris had done an effective job so far in centering young voices, Balint said that she has been very impressed by the vice-president’s campaign.
“It’s remarkable when you think about what they’ve done in just a few weeks time,” Balint said. “I think that they understand that it is about the future.”
Three House Democrats – Becca Balint of Vermont, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Maxwell Frost of Florida – sat down with podcast host Molly Jong-Fast and Skye Perryman, president of the group Democracy Forward, for an interview in Chicago this afternoon.
Asked about Project 2025, Crockett said there is “no daylight” between the rightwing manifesto and Donald Trump’s agenda, even though the former president has tried to distance himself from the effort.
“I’m not saying that just because I’m a proud Democrat,” Crockett said. “I’m saying that because over 30 people that either worked in his administration or worked on his campaign are the authors of this.”
Frost added that young people are fired up about Harris’s campaign in part because they are scared about the policy proposals promoted in Project 2025.
Discussing the newfound enthusiasm around Harris’s candidacy, Frost noted that the ranks of new campaign volunteers are “very diverse”.
“That shows that our movement and the vice-president and what she’s doing has gotten to the culture,” Frost said. “And that’s when you have truly untapped movement potential.”
Joe and Jill Biden came onto the stage at the United Center, where the Democratic convention is taking place, for a quick sound check ahead of their speech at the convention tonight.
Reporters in the room shouted questions at the president, including whether he was ready to pass the torch. Biden replied: “I am.”
Asked about what his speech’s message would be, Biden said: “You’ll hear tonight.”
Joe Biden has arrived in Chicago, where he is scheduled to this evening address the Democratic national convention.
After arriving on Air Force One at O’Hare international airport, the president flew on the Marine One helicopter to Soldier Field, just south of downtown:
Biden’s speech this evening will be one of the last major appearances in his more than half-century career in politics, after he last month opted to end his bid for a second term and allowed Kamala Harris to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.
In addition to Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are also scheduled to address the convention in the coming days.
Thousands of people gathered this afternoon in a Chicago park not far from the venue of the Democratic national convention to protest the party’s stance on Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the Guardian’s George Chidi and Andrew Roth report.
The demonstration was one of several expected during the convention over Joe Biden’s policy of supplying Israel with weapons used in the incursion, while pushing for it to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. Among the protesters was independent presidential candidate Cornel West, as well as people with family members in Gaza.
Here’s more:
About half a mile east of the Democratic national convention in Chicago, Union Park filled at noon Monday with demonstrators intent on sending a message to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, delegates and the world: that the war in Gaza should not be an afterthought.
Organizers for the Coalition to March on the 2024 Democratic convention drew 172 local and national organizations together for the protest. Thousands of people gathered for the march, one of the main anti-war demonstrations this week.
“This is not about some Machiavellian politics,” said social critic and independent presidential candidate Cornel West at the onset. “This is about morality. This is about spirituality.”
Mo Hussief, a Chicago accountant, joined the rally.
“My family is in Gaza,” Hussief said. “I’ve had over 100 family members murdered over the last 10 months by the genocide. So, I’m here to protest as an American, to say I don’t want my tax dollars to be used to murder my own family.”
Hussief is a Democratic voter. Or, he had been, he said. He supports labor rights and wants public healthcare support, key Democratic policy goals. But none of that brings back dead cousins in Jabalia, he said. The death toll in Gaza hit at least 40,000 last week.
Hussief said it is impossible for him to cast a ballot for the vice-president as long as she supports arming Israel.
“I want the Democrats to basically do a weapons embargo for Israel,” he said. “If there is a weapons embargo on Israel, I will 100% vote for Harris. I love Tim Walz. The Democratic party does align on domestic issues. But for me, they have to end the genocide.”
Read the full story here:
Singer-songwriter James Taylor will perform at the Democratic national convention, and was spotted by photographers rehearsing in the hall:
In addition to Taylor, the Hollywood Reporter says that Americana star Jason Isbell and country artist Mickey Guyton will also perform at the convention.
George Santos, the former Republican congressman from New York, pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal corruption charges.
Santos pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a minimum two-year prison sentence.
Joe Biden was “continuing to fine-tune” his speech tonight at the Democratic national convention, the White House said.
The president was in a “great mood” and in “great spirits”, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters as Air Force One landed in Chicago’s O’Hare airport this afternoon.
Biden plans to “spend time, continuing to prep for his big night”, she said.
Donald Trump has been speaking at a factory plant in York, Pennsylvania, his second campaign stop in the battleground state in less than two days.
Addressing workers, Trump said America’s future would be “built right here in Pennsylvania, and it will be built by American workers like you” if he is re-elected to the White House.
Kamala Harris is calling for raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, according to her campaign.
In a statement shared by NBC News, Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said the Democratic presidential candidate would push for a 28% corporate tax rate, calling it “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share”. The statement added:
As President, Kamala Harris will focus on creating an opportunity economy for the middle class that advances their economic security, stability, and dignity.
Cornel West, the independent presidential candidate, has made a surprise appearance at the protest at Chicago’s Union Park, Semafor’s David Weigel reports:
Organizers of the Coalition to March on the DNC had predicted a crowd of tens of thousands as recently as Monday morning, but the Washington Post reports that fewer than 2,000 protesters filled a portion of Chicago’s Union Park by this afternoon.
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, will deliver a speech at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday night.
Sanders will speak “to the popularity of a progressive economic agenda that delivers for the working class of America”, a statement from his office said.
The address will also highlight the critical importance of getting big money out of the political process, and ending the greed of the billionaire class.
Sanders is scheduled to speak at 8.30pm CT.
Congressional Republicans have accused Joe Biden of “egregious” conduct for which he should be impeached – despite providing no evidence that the president committed a crime – in a 291-page report whose impact has been significantly blunted by his withdrawal from the presidential race.
In what was supposed to be a central theme of the GOP’s drive to derail Biden’s re-election effort, the report alleges that he was the architect and beneficiary of a lucrative influence-peddling scheme fronted by his son, Hunter Biden, and brother, James Biden.
The culmination of a months-long impeachment inquiry conducted by three Republican-led House of Representatives committees – the oversight, judiciary and ways and means panels – the report was timed to coincide with the opening of the Democratic national convention in Chicago, but it is now Kamala Harris, the vice-president, at the top of the ticket, not Biden.
“Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetise his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report states.
President Biden’s participation in this conspiracy to enrich his family constitutes impeachable conduct.
It added:
The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious. President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family.
However, the report failed to provide evidence that Biden committed a crime and appeared to fall short of the constitutional definition of “high crimes and misdemeanours” required to impeach a sitting president.
My colleague Rachel Leingang has been eyeing the merchandise section of the Democratic national convention in Chicago:
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
