Subterms
Trump paints Biden as ‘radical’ candidate and danger to US
Jacob Blake’s father says his paralysed son is handcuffed in hospital
Louisiana city wakes up to hurricane aftermath
1,124 new coronavirus deaths and 45,561 new cases in US yesterday
Sign up for our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated More
Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for re-election in front of the White House on Thursday night.“This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas,” Trump said after he “profoundly” accepted his party’s nomination.Trump went on to excoriate the Democratic party and argue that the choice for voters is between a president who has a record of unmatched accomplishments and an opposition party and candidate eager to tear down the country.“At the Democrat national convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice,” Trump said. “So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?”Trump’s remarks were the capstone of a night where speakers focused on national security and safety, describing the country as rife with chaos and lawlessness in the streets. Speakers also repeatedly stressed that Trump was a longstanding friend of the African American community and minorities.Few mentioned the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 Americans dead. Trump himself delivered his speech in front of an audience of around 1,500 officials and supporters at the White House, sitting packed together, few wearing masks.“I did what our political establishment never expected and could never forgive, breaking the cardinal rule of Washington politics,” Trump said. “I kept my promises.”Trump has kept around half of his 2016 campaign pledges, according to Politifact. Trump’s address was the main event of the party’s national convention.Over the past four days, speakers at the convention have included White House aides to Trump, his family members, and a few statewide elected politicians. Broadly they have argued that Biden is a leftist radical that would bring ruination to the country and Trump is the only person who can stop it.Trump delivered his speech amid heightened tensions across the country over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who was repeatedly shot in front of his children and left paralyzed by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday. The shooting has sparked a wave of anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests across the country.Trump and his campaign have charged again and again that Biden is a “socialist” and liberal extremist who wants to defund police across the country and supports a Medicare for All healthcare plan championed by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Both are untrue.In his speech, Trump portrayed himself as a president focused on law and order. During the protests across the country, Trump has expressed support for law enforcement using tougher tactics. He has dispatched federal law enforcement and military officials to cities experiencing protests, which has served to inflame tensions.Biden himself has pointed out that the dire picture Trump has described is actually what’s going on now, during his time in office.“The violence you’ve seen is in Donald Trump’s administration. Donald Trump’s America,” Biden said during a fundraiser Thursday afternoon.Trump, Mike Pence, and other speakers have also argued that under Trump the economy has only improved, foreign terrorists have been defeated, and the coronavirus pandemic is an afterthought. But the US defense department says Isis has not been entirely defeated; tens of millions remain unemployed; and more than 180,000 people have died from Covid-19, far more than in any other country.Trump has made some kind of appearance every night of the convention, at times blurring the lines between campaigning and governing, and raising ethics concerns. But Trump aides, including his chief of staff, have denied allegations that the president and his team violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from conducting political activity while on duty.Besides Trump, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani delivered speeches. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, used his speech to paint a portrait of an America on the verge of anarchy, and accused New York current mayor Bill De Blasio of allowing protests and crime to spiral.“Today, my city is in shock. Murders, shootings, and violent crime are increasing in percentages never heard of in the past,” Giuliani claimed. In reality, serious crime is down under de Blasio, the annual number of murders is around half the number it was under Giuliani.“These continuous riots in Democratic cities gives a good view” of a Biden administration, Giuliani claimed. He ended by saying “Mr President, make our nation safe again!”In a taped speech, senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, described Trump as his friend, and framed himself as a midwestern champion leading the defense of the Senate from Democrats.“Today’s Democratic party doesn’t want to improve life for middle America,” McConnell said in the video, going on to say “we are the firewall against Nancy Pelosi’s agenda”.Unlike most speakers this week, Trump’s housing secretary Ben Carson directly addressed Blake’s shooting, starting his remarks by saying “our hearts go out to the Blake family” before launching into a full throated defense of Trump on the African American community.“Before the pandemic African American unemployment was at an all time low,” Carson said, in a somewhat misleading statement. “At this point in time President Trump is the man with the courage, the vision, and the ability to keep it shining brightly.”The RNC has notably lacked some key party figures and the presence of the last Republican president, George W Bush. Meanwhile, Democrats’ convention included speeches by former Republican elected officials who have emerged as outspoken critics of the president.On Thursday morning, aides to the previous two Republican nominees for president, the late John McCain and the Utah senator Mitt Romney, released statements endorsing Biden. The Biden campaign hopes that support will motivate moderates and Republicans to support the centrist Democrat.Earlier on Thursday, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, delivered a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.“The Republican convention is designed for one purpose: to soothe Donald Trump’s ego, to make him feel good,” Harris said. “But here’s the thing: he’s the president of the United States, and it’s not supposed to be about him. It’s supposed to be about the health and the safety and the wellbeing of the American people.” More
500 more members of national guard to be sent to Kenosha
Tonight’s NBA playoff games reportedly postponed over protests
Two dead in Kenosha on third night of unrest after Jacob Blake shooting
Key takeaways from RNC night two: culture wars and a pitch to women
US recorded 1,212 coronavirus deaths and 38,712 new cases
Sign up to our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated More
On Tuesday, America heard two calls for peace and unity. The first came from the mother of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back by police multiple times in front of his children, and reportedly left paralysed. After episodes of arson and looting followed peaceful protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Julia Jackson urged: “We need healing.”The second was the gaslighting speech from Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention. The woman who offered what was described as “a plea for racial unity” is the same woman who said American people wanted to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate; wore a jacket reading “I really don’t care. Do U?” on her way to visit detained children on the Texas border; and was appearing on behalf of a man who has triumphed through bigotry. She spoke at a convention seeking to press those same buttons with what one Republican political operative described as “fear porn”. Speakers have included the St Louis lawyers who brandished their guns at Black Lives Matter protestors marching past their home.The first lady’s address was – like much of the programme on Tuesday – a cynical attempt to sanitise the brand, allowing her husband and the Republicans to exploit racism while insisting it is nothing of the kind, and for voters to back them without too much discomfort. Donald Trump’s attempts to capitalise on the Black Lives Matter movement by positioning himself as the “president of law and order” who would defend white suburbs, lifting from Richard Nixon’s playbook, have so far been notably unsuccessful. The public has proved much more sympathetic towards the protests than expected.Whether that will change before November’s election is unclear. What is certain is that the spectre of American carnage that he conjures up has real and dangerous impact. Mr Trump has not invented racial divisions, police impunity, paranoia about “anti-American” forces, or a culture of people taking the law into their own hands. But he has exploited and fostered them.Hours after the convention speech, two people were shot dead and another injured at the protests in Kenosha. A group of heavily armed white men had reportedly clashed with demonstrators earlier, and the county sheriff said a “militia” had been patrolling the streets. Footage posted on social media showed what appeared to be a white man with a semiautomatic rifle firing at what are believed to be Black Lives Matter protestors. Despite the tumult, the alleged gunman is finally seen walking away with his arms raised, a weapon still dangling from his shoulder, as police tactical vehicles drive past him – a stark contrast with the treatment of Mr Blake.Words have consequences. Mr Blake’s family were calling not simply for calm, but for the transformation that the US desperately needs. “We have been watching police kill Black people for years,” his sister Letetra Widman reminded listeners. “I don’t want your pity. I want change.”The first lady’s call was for the perpetuation of the status quo. Her husband rose to power by stoking bigotry and plans to remain in power the same way. His departure alone cannot fix America’s deep-rooted problems. But another victory in November would only multiply them. More
There have never been two campaign gatherings like this week’s US Democratic convention and next week’s Republican one. Stripped to their essentials by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conventions cannot match the energy of normal years. Yet the big speech by the presidential candidate at the convention remains a defining campaign moment, and this year is no different. The greater severity imposed by the virtual convention is also appropriate. For this is not a normal US election year. It is one in which the central contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will define the future of the United States and the world like few others.Because of the constraints, the Democratic convention lacked true razzmatazz. In that respect it was tailor-made for Mr Biden’s decent, stubborn but markedly unexciting political message. And yet the lack of glitz had certain advantages. It meant that the nightly coverage offered to American voters this week was more serious-minded. The televised broadcasts were full of ordinary people’s video accounts of what they are going through as a result of the pandemic, recession and racism. The format also meant that Mr Biden could use his acceptance speech to cut to the chase about the issues at stake in November’s election, rather than play up the rhetoric that would have been expected in a packed hall. In any case, Barack Obama had powerfully supplied that form of oratory the previous evening.Mr Biden nevertheless delivered an effective and successful speech. He did not mention Mr Trump by name at any point. Yet everything he said in his 25-minute address was completely explicit about the profound contrast between the two candidates. America was experiencing “too much anger, too much fear, too much division”, he said. In the heart of the speech, he zeroed in on four policy crises which together define the choice voters must confront – the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the biggest movement for racial justice since the 1960s, and the “undeniable” threat of climate change. Together, these crises faced America with a perfect storm, through which Mr Biden promised “a path of hope and light”. Such language can sound vacuous, but Mr Biden was absolutely right about the four great issues. He has also usefully cast himself as the candidate of optimism.The Democratic leader made much of his claims to be a unifier. His choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate has helped. The convention also went some way to unite this party for the task to come. There were significant speeches from defeated rivals, notably Bernie Sanders, who has rallied behind Mr Biden since the primary season ended and played his hand well during subsequent policymaking processes. Elizabeth Warren made a strong and humane contribution too. Mr Obama’s speech was a stirring reaffirmation of his belief in an American system of democracy and justice which Mr Trump has done so much to undermine and in which the faith of many natural Democrats has been deeply challenged by events including police killings. Although Mr Biden is a candidate from the heart of old Democratic politics, it is worth noting that this year’s convention had a watershed feel because it was the first for decades not dominated by the Clintons.Mr Biden will not be an inherently exciting Democratic candidate. There are good reasons for asking whether he has either the vision or the capacity to turn post-Trump America around successfully. He is instinctively happier reaching out to the middle ground than driving the new radical agenda that the times also demand. But he came through this week much better than some feared. His campaign, like his life, has shown resilience and judgment. His offer of hope and light is well crafted for such dark times. Now Mr Biden must also beat Mr Trump. Now it gets harder. The world is willing him on. More
In choosing Kamala Harris as his deputy, the Democrats’ presidential nominee Joe Biden has shown he can read the room of American politics. His vice-presidential pick had to be able to reach parts of the country – and his party – that Mr Biden could not. Ms Harris is such a candidate. She is both a safe choice and a historic one. Ms Harris would be the country’s first black vice president, its first Asian-American vice-president and its first female vice-president. In a time of Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and the United States’ shifting demographics, Ms Harris’ appointment is about bending the arc of history towards justice.This message is crucial for younger voters, and especially those of colour, who have been lukewarm towards Mr Biden. Having Ms Harris on the ticket is not going to turn leftwing “Bernie” fans into Biden ones. But she signals to black voters, who did not turn out enough for Hillary Clinton, their importance and acknowledges the key role black women play for the Democrats. Like Barack Obama, Ms Harris represents an interracial America that most citizens aspire to live in today. Her appointment is a future-facing one: Ms Harris, at 55, is more than two decades younger than Mr Biden, who would be the oldest president elected if he won.Given his age, Mr Biden needed a deputy who could step up. A senator since 2017, Ms Harris has seen Washington from the inside. In Congress, Ms Harris has shown that she can shred her rightwing opponents. Her record as a prosecutor in California has left her with things to explain or defend. But not enough to disqualify her. Her decisions, as a district attorney and state attorney general, that unsettled the left insulate her from the Trump campaign charges that she is soft on crime.This promises to be the dirtiest election in American history. As long as Covid lingers Donald Trump cannot energise his base with bellicose rallies. He can’t point to a reviving economy. Polls suggest Mr Trump is on course to lose the White House and that his party is in danger of losing the Senate. In their desperation Republicans may punch lower and harder. The Trump campaign also has the resources, in time and money, to fight a deeply divisive campaign against Democrats.That is why Mr Trump’s opponents must remain united. Next week’s (mostly virtual) Democratic national convention sees establishment names as well as leftwing rising stars share the stage. Both Mr Biden and Ms Harris are centrists, backed by wealthy donors while being mostly committed to progressive values. They face a moment of terrible risk for America. Mr Biden and his deputy must be a force for change and cannot settle for politics as usual. In many ways Mr Biden has moved in this direction. Most voters already feel that Mr Trump is not doing a good job. Mr Biden has assured the public he can’t do any worse. With Ms Harris, he has shown them he – and they – can do a lot better. More
Harris: ‘When people cried out for support, [Trump] teargassed them’
Democrats hail Kamala Harris as VP pick
Ilhan Omar sees victory in Democratic primary
QAnon supporter denounced for racism wins Republican primary
Florida sheriff bans deputies from wearing masks
Sign up to our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated More
President says empty seats at a rally won’t ‘look great’
Investigation: finding every US healthcare worker who dies fighting Covid-19
US health secretary expects vaccine by December
Cori Bush interview: ‘They don’t know what I know’
Sign up to our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated More
