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      The Guardian view on the US Democrats: Biden seized his moment | Editorial

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      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

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      in Elections

      Steve Bannon indicted by federal prosecutors, charged with defrauding ‘We Build the Wall’ donors – live

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      Bannon and three others arrested for leading online campaign
      Kamala Harris accepts vice-presidential nomination on historic night
      Obama delivers searing Trump attack
      Trump tacitly endorses baseless QAnon conspiracy theory
      1.1m Americans made claim for unemployment last week
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      Pelosi dismisses postmaster general's delay to USPS changes as 'insufficient' – as it happened

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      Speaker says pause does not ‘reverse damage already done’
      Democrats show unity on first night of virtual convention
      Michelle Obama picks Trump apart in DNC speech
      Julián Castro warns Democrats of ‘potential slide of Latino support
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      Updated

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      1:01

      ‘They’re afraid of the voter’: Pelosi says Democrats will fight for USPS – video

      Key events

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      8.36pm EDT20:36
      Summary

      7.54pm EDT19:54
      Former Secretary of State Colin Powell to deliver endorsement of Joe Biden tonight

      5.04pm EDT17:04
      Today so far

      4.12pm EDT16:12
      Pelosi dismisses delay to USPS changes as ‘insufficient’

      1.45pm EDT13:45
      Postmaster general suspends operational changes until after election

      1.09pm EDT13:09
      Afternoon summary

      10.26am EDT10:26
      Gun-toting St Louis couple to speak at Republican convention

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      8.36pm EDT20:36

      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:

      7.54pm EDT19:54

      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:

      [embedded content]

      7.23pm EDT19:23

      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.

      7.08pm EDT19:08

      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.

      Cindy McCain
      (@cindymccain)
      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

      August 18, 2020

      6.35pm EDT18:35

      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:

      6.16pm EDT18:16

      Here’s a view from the Trump campaign event in Yuma, Arizona:

      Jill Colvin
      (@colvinj)
      The crowd here in Yuma. Many in masks, but many not. Feels like pre-COVID times, minus the chairs pic.twitter.com/kSJQ91zo3q

      August 18, 2020

      6.15pm EDT18:15

      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”

      6.04pm EDT18:04

      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.

      5.58pm EDT17:58

      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
      at 6.24pm EDT

      5.36pm EDT17:36

      Notre Dame University 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.

      Notre Dame
      (@NotreDame)
      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

      August 18, 2020

      Updated
      at 5.45pm EDT

      5.22pm EDT17:22

      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.

      5.04pm EDT17:04

      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.

      4.49pm EDT16:49

      Trump has arrived in Yuma, Arizona, for his campaign event on immigration and border security. More

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      in US Politics

      Bernie Sanders slams Trump at DNC: 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The president golfs' – video

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      Play Video

      1:50

      In his convention remarks, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders strongly urged his supporters to vote for Joe Biden in the November election, warning that Trump represents a severe threat to US democracy. “Our great nation is now living in an unprecedented moment,” Sanders said, describing this election as the “most important in the modern history of this country”
      ‘It is what it is’: Michelle Obama picks Trump apart in gripping DNC speech

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