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Mike Pence
Mike Pence shows his worth by reaching the parts Trump cannot
The vice-president, a key link with white evangelical voters, is also a champion debater unlikely to be fazed by Kamala Harris More
US elections 2020
End of an era: has coronavirus killed the political convention for good?
With Democrats and Republicans holding no in-person conventions this year, some have called to ditch them completely – but others say they’re a vital political tool More
Opinion
US elections 2020
Voters can replace a party that knows how to fight with one that knows how to govern
Robert Reich
The division between Republicans and Democrats is no longer between left and right but between different core competences More
Interview
Martin Pengelly
US elections 2020
Interview
Rick Perlstein: ‘If you’re not writing about the berserk, you’re not writing about America’
Martin Pengelly
The historian has completed his epic on the rise of the US right – just in time for Donald Trump’s attempt to hold on to his throne More
Interview
David Smith in Washington
US elections 2020
Interview
Khizr Khan: ‘Trump may damage American democracy permanently’
David Smith in Washington
Khan, whose army captain son died in Iraq, gave a speech at the 2016 Democratic convention that was a moral indictment of Trump. Joe Biden, he says, has the character to be president More
Biden: ‘Every governor should mandate mandatory masks’
Yang and Bloomberg to speak at virtual Democratic convention
Biden campaign gets $26m boost in donations after Harris pick
Highest daily Covid-19 deaths recorded in US since mid-May
US unemployment claims dip below 1m for first time in 20 weeks
Postal service changes pose threat to voting, says ex-USPS deputy
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Updated
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1:28
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for nationwide mask mandate – video
Key events
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5.17pm EDT17:17
Today so far
4.28pm EDT16:28
Senate adjourns until 8 September without stimulus deal
3.44pm EDT15:44
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for a nationwide mask mandate
3.02pm EDT15:02
Biden says Trump’s USPS comments are “pure Trump”
1.05pm EDT13:05
Kamala Harris to deliver DNC speech in Wilmington, Delaware
11.25am EDT11:25
Trump announces normalization of relations between Israel and UAE
9.45am EDT09:45
Kamala Harris brings in $26m to Biden campaign in first 24-hours as VP candidate
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5.44pm EDT17:44
“Sleepy Joe rejects the scientific approach,” Trump said, in a peak case of projection.
As we have reported before — Trump has devalued and undermined science throughout the pandemic.
Here’s me, looking back at how Trump has contradicted science:
Play Video
5:28
From miracle cures to slowing testing: how Trump has defied science on coronavirus – video explainer
Here’s my colleague Oliver Milman, on how Trump’s habit of rejecting scientific fact has raised alarm among health experts:
5.33pm EDT17:33
Trump, who has lied, misled and misrepresented the reality of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, contradicting and ignoring his own public health experts, has begun but attacking Joe Biden: “At every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus – ignoring the scientific evidence.”
He said Biden’s immigration policies would allow “the pandemic to infiltrate every US community.” The pandemic is already widespread
5.25pm EDT17:25
Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, reporting from the West Coast.
We’re expecting Trump to deliver his press conference in a few minutes — and will keep you updated with news and fact checks.
5.17pm EDT17:17
Today so far
Here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening today:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are continuing to make the rounds as a president-vice-president duo. The pair announced they are calling for a nationwide mask mandate and said every governor should implement a mask mandate in their state.
The Senate adjourned today with no coronavirus stimulus package in sight and will be out of session until after September 8. This means that millions of Americans will be left with low unemployment insurance for at least a few more weeks.
Donald Trump announced a normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with Israel agreeing to halt plans to annex parts of the West Bank. While Trump called it a “historic peace agreement”, Israel’s prime minister said on Thursday that the country will still annex parts of the West Bank but had agreed to a temporary halt.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen released a teaser for his new book, Disloyal, which is slated to be released in September after attempts to stop publication from the Trump administration.
Updated
at 5.19pm EDT
5.07pm EDT17:07
Vice president Mike Pence is continuing to put out some jabs toward his new Democratic opponent, sentor Kamala Harris, this time criticizing remarks she made about Americans’ eating habits and the environment.
Speaking at the “Farmers and Ranchers for Trump” launch event in Iowa, Pence told the crowd that Harris said during her primary campaign that she was concerned about the impact Americans’ diet was having on the diet. “She would change the change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat,” Pence said, the crowd booing in response.
“Well I’ve got some red meat for you: We’re not going to let Joe Biden & Kamala Harris cut America’s meat!”
The Hill
(@thehill)
VP Mike Pence: “Sen. Kamala Harris said she would change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat.”Crowd boos.VP: “Well I’ve got some red meat for you: We’re not going to let Joe Biden & Kamala Harris cut America’s meat!” pic.twitter.com/TPqcy92rdw
August 13, 2020
That supporters of the Green New Deal are out to ban hamburgers altogether has long been a talking point of conservatives. While Green New Deal advocates have indicated they want to work with farmers and ranchers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a complete ban on red meat has not been a part of the plan.
4.46pm EDT16:46
The teaser for Michael Cohen’s book is now out after the justice department issued a gag order, which has since been dropped, to stop the book’s publication.
The book, titled Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J Trump, is slated to be released sometime in September, ahead of the presidential election in November.
Michael Cohen
(@MichaelCohen212)
The day has finally arrived. I have waited a long time to share my truth. To read the foreword and pre-order my book DISLOYAL, visit https://t.co/Va4Rt0Zear
August 13, 2020
The book’s foreword is now available online and details Cohen’s feelings of bewilderment at seeing Trump for who he really is after being “Trump’s first call every morning and his last call every night”.
“In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,” Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, writes.
Cohen was serving a three-year prison on federal charges of tax evasion, making false statements, lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence women about their affairs with Trump. But Cohen was released in May after fears of Covid-19 spreading in federal prisons.
After tweeting that he was nearly finished with his book in July, Cohen was sent back to prison. The ACLU ended up joining a suit on his behalf to get him out, which was ultimately successful. A gag order from the justice department to halt the book’s publication was also dropped.
The Trump administration has made very obvious efforts to stop the publication of high-profile tell-alls, all which have been ultimately unsuccessful. Former national security adviser John Bolton book The Room Where It Happened was published was published in June and Mary L Trump’s, Trump’s niece, book Too Much and Never Enough was published in July.
Updated
at 5.13pm EDT
4.28pm EDT16:28
Senate adjourns until 8 September without stimulus deal
The Senate has adjourned its session this afternoon without reaching an agreement with House Democrats on a new stimulus package. The Senate is slated to go back into regular session 8 September.
Steven Dennis
(@StevenTDennis)
McConnell adjourns the Senate for August, save for pro forma sessions. Next regular session scheduled for *Sept. 8* — 26 days from today. pic.twitter.com/1gxFDmlvjq
August 13, 2020
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told senators that they would be called back to Capitol Hill with a 24-hour notice if a deal is reached. McConnell said that he hopes that a bipartisan deal can be reached “in the coming weeks”.
Earlier today the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said that Democrats will come back to the negotiating table when Senate Republicans agree on a larger stimulus package. “We’re not inching away from their meager piecemeal proposal,” she said.
At the press conference, Pelosi had beside her a chart comparing the Democrats’ $3tn Heroes Act, which passed the House in June, to the $1tn Heals Act in the Senate. One line indicated that House Democrats want $100bn for rental assistance while Senate Republicans want nothing.
Without a new stimulus package, millions of Americans are left with much lower unemployment insurance since the federal government stopped giving an additional $600 a week at the end of July. The steep drop in income is expected to lead to widespread evictions.
Robert Reich
(@RBReich)
In which the Senate leaves town for 25 days as 30,000,000 are receiving $0 in extra unemployment benefits and 40,000,000 are on the brink of eviction. https://t.co/Ieh1JdZ58V
August 13, 2020
Updated
at 5.05pm EDT
4.09pm EDT16:09
Two new speakers slated to make appearances at next week’s Democratic National Convention were announced today. Billionaire and former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang both announced today that they will be speaking at the virtual convention.
Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸
(@AndrewYang)
And it’s official – we have been added to the DNC Convention speaker lineup! Thank you #YangGang and everyone else who made this happen! 😀👏🇺🇸#YangIsSpeaking
August 13, 2020
Mike Bloomberg
(@MikeBloomberg)
This November, America has the opportunity to turn the page on the last four years & invest in our future.That starts at the @DemConvention when we nominate @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris.I’m honored to be speaking at the DNC next week. I hope you’ll join us.
August 13, 2020
Yang and Bloomberg will be joining a list of former candidates including senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. Pete Buttigieg is also slated to speak at the virtual convention.
After the Democratic National Committee, which runs the convention, announced the DNC’s speaker lineup, Yang tweeted that he was disappointed that he was not asked to speak. “I’ve got to be honest I kind of expected to speak,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Ted Lieu, a US representative from California, tweeted in response his disappointment that there was little Asian American representation at the convention. “Asian Americans are the fastest increasing group in America, including in multiple swing states,” Lieu tweeted. “The gross underrepresentation of Asian American speakers in the four days of the DNC Convention is tone deaf and a slap in the face.”
3.44pm EDT15:44
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for a nationwide mask mandate
In other mask news, Joe Biden and senator Kamala Harris emerged from a briefing with a panel of public health experts announcing their call for a nationwide mask mandate.
“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months, at a minimum. Every governor should mandate — every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing,” Biden said.
Biden, referring to Americans who refuse to wear a mask and say that it infringes on their individual rights, said “it’s not about your rights” but rather a person’s responsibility as an American.
“Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens,” he implored. “Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that people wear masks in public to prevent the spread of Covid-19. More
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has expressed racist views and support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, has won the Republican nomination for Georgia’s 14th congressional district.Greene beat the neurosurgeon John Cowan in a primary runoff for the open seat on Tuesday in the deep-red district in north-west Georgia, despite several Republican officials denouncing her campaign after videos surfaced in which she expressed racist, antisemitic and anti-Muslim views.She has amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media, where she often posts videos of herself speaking directly to the camera. Those videos have helped propel her popularity with her base, while also drawing strong condemnation from some future would-be colleagues in Congress.In a series of videos unearthed just after Greene placed first in the initial 9 June Republican primary, she complains of an “Islamic invasion” into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs”, and pushes an antisemitic conspiracy theory that the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.Several high-profile Republicans then spoke out against her. The House minority whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, quickly threw his support behind Cowan, while Representative Jody Hice of Georgia rescinded an endorsement of Greene.Greene addressed criticism of her comments on Twitter. “The Fake News Media, the DC Swamp, and their radical leftist allies see me as a very serious threat. I will not let them whip me into submission,” she said, without distancing herself from her earlier remarks.Greene also is part of a growing list of candidates who have expressed support for QAnon, the far-right US conspiracy theory popular among some supporters of Donald Trump. She is regarded as one of the QAnon supporters with the best chance of winning in November.She has positioned herself as a staunch Trump supporter and emphasizes a strongly pro-gun, pro-border wall and anti-abortion message. She has also connected with voters through an intensive effort to travel the district and meet people on the ground.Larry Silker, a 72-year-old retiree, cast a ballot for Greene last week at an early voting location in Dallas, Georgia.“She seems to be a go-getter, you know. She’s out seeing everybody that she can, and I think that’s nice,” Silker said.Asked whether he had seen criticism of Greene’s remarks, Silker said: “Well yeah, you know, you see it. But do you put faith in it? You just have to weigh it out.”The district stretches from the outskirts of metro Atlanta to the largely rural north-west corner of the state. Greene will face the Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal in November. The Republican representative Tom Graves, who did not seek re-election, last won the seat with over 76% of the vote in 2018.The Associated Press contributed to this report More
In mid-June the oil pipeline billionaire Kelcy Warren hosted a fundraising bash at his palatial Dallas, Texas, home that drew the presence of Donald Trump and raised $10m for the US president’s campaign coffers.Warren’s fundraising gusher for Trump occurred after he and his wife had donated a hefty $1.7m since 2019 to Trump Victory, a fundraising vehicle for Trump’s re-election and the Republican National Committee, according to the non-partisan Open Secrets group.All this campaign largesse comes after Warren’s company Energy Transfer notched a major win soon after Trump took office, winning regulatory approval to move ahead with the controversial and legally embattled Dakota Access pipeline.The Dallas billionaire’s ties with Trump were boosted when Trump in 2017 tapped Rick Perry to be energy secretary; a former Texas governor, Perry sat on the board of an Energy Transfer subsidiary before his energy post, and afterwards in early 2020 joined another Energy Transfer board.Warren’s fundraising skills, personal checks and access to top officials, underscore how fossil fuel billionaires and other energy moguls from Texas to New York to Oklahoma, have opened their wallets wide and raised cash to re-elect Trump, after three-plus years of enjoying Trump’s sweeping energy deregulation and tax cuts.Since Trump took office his favorite Super Pac, America First Action, has raked in millions of fossil fuel dollars. The Super Pac has received $1m from the shale oil billionaire Harold Hamm and his company Continental Resources, and another $1m from the coal mogul Robert Murray, who runs the eponymous Murray Energy, according to Open Secrets.The Super Pac has also pulled in $500,000 from the coal billionaire Joe Craft of Alliance Resource Partners, $750,000 from the Texas oilman Syed Javaid Anwar of Midland Energy, and $500,000 from John Catsimatidis, a top investor in United Refining Co, as Open Secrets and news reports show.Moreover, Trump tried to reassure his fossil fuel friends of his support in early April when the pandemic was causing them economic pain. Trump huddled at the White House with a select group of industry moguls including Hamm, Warren and the Texas oilman Jeff Hildebrand to solicit ideas for new federal relief.Afterwards, Trump pledged he would “make funds available to these very important companies”. More
