Tim Walz

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      Democrats accused of ‘tragic mistake’ by ruling out Palestinian convention speech; Shapiro says ‘Trump is obsessed with me’ – live

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      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: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”.The Guardian’s David Smith ran into Cornel West, the independent presidential candidate, outside the Democratic national convention.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?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.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.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.”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.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.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”.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.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.
      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: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”.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.
      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.
      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.
      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. More

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      Harris to face biggest test of her political life with Democratic convention speech

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      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.The vice-president’s rocket-fueled campaign is still barely a month old following Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from seeking re-election in the face of a disastrous debate performance and questions over his age and mental acuity.Harris, and her vice-presidential pick Minnesota governor Tim Walz, have quickly overturned the election’s narrative, turning a solid Trump lead in the polls over Biden into a slight – but clear – advantage over the former Republican president.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 the president, who based much of his pitch on dark warnings of Trump’s autocratic sympathies.Over the course of the week at the convention, the audience has heard from the Democratic party’s most powerful players, who threw their support unequivocally behind Harris. Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi all gave primetime speeches, as did some of the party’s rising stars, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Now 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.Across three days so far, speaker after speaker has already hailed Harris as a change-agent who would not only defeat Trump but lift the country higher, ushering in a new chapter of possibility and seek to return US politics to some semblance of normality since Trump came onto the political stage eight years ago.The Harris campaign – and especially the outspoken Walz – has also displayed sharp elbows and an ability to insult and poke fun at Trump.The switch in the polls and newfound edge has impressed many observers. “She has had a very good month not just because of a honeymoon, but because of the way she’s presented herself, the way her campaign has positioned her,” David Axelrod, a former top aide to Barack Obama, told the Guardian.Certainly it seems to have unsettled Trump and his campaign. Trump has adopted a policy of directly insulting Harris and inventing a series of nicknames for her while trying to paint her as a leftwing extremist and questioning her racial identity. But the jibes have had little effect and even drawn criticism from some senior Republicans.They have not blunted her lead. Harris consistently tops Trump by three or four points in recent head-to-head surveys and has also improved her standing in the handful of key states that are crucial to victory. While the electoral contest remains impossibly close, she has widened the battleground once more from the Rust belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to once again include Sun belt states like North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.Throughout the convention so far, Democratic speakers have tried to make Trump seem small and diminished. They have sought to keep him on the backfoot and in a reactive mode, responding to attacks and being kept off-balance.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, compared Trump to an “old boyfriend” who has spent the last four years spinning the block, trying to get back into a relationship with the American people.“Bro, we broke up with you for a reason,” Jeffries said.“Kamala Harris has always understood the assignment,” said Laphonza Butler, a California senator and friend of Harris’s.“Kamala, your mom would be so proud of you,” said Doris Baptiste, a family friend who was close to Harris’s mother.On Wednesday night, Walz offered a full-throated attack on Trump, a defense of his record running Minnesota and a passionate advocacy for Harris. After criticizing the Trump campaign, he led the crowd of cheering delegates in a chant of: “We’re not going back! We’re not going back!”Turning to the theme of freedom – which was the focus of the night’s convention programming – Walz said: “That’s what this is all about, the responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we’re building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want. But not everyone has that same sense of responsibility. Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.”Walz said Trump and his running mate had an agenda to only benefit the “richest and most extreme” people in the US. Walz added: “It’s an agenda nobody asked for. It’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely, absolutely. But it’s also wrong. And it’s dangerous.” More

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      Tim Walz channeled grit and empathy at the Democratic national convention

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      “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.As thousands of Democratic delegates from all 50 states packed into the United Center chanted “Coach! Coach! Coach!”, he conjured up the nail-biting finish that the US is now entering. “It’s the fourth quarter,” he said, rocket launching the crowd into a paroxysm of excitement.“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.”Walz never got to tell the delegates the score at the end of the game, but then he didn’t have to. He had already won the contest for their hearts and minds.If Donald Trump were watching the speech on his favoured Fox News, it might have stirred the odd feeling in him. Last month, the former president and Republican nominee caused quite the stir by claiming that vice-presidential running mates make “virtually no impact” on elections.Trump better pray he’s right. Not because of his guy, JD Vance, who is flunking in the polls. But because of this other guy: the plain-talking, gun-owning, and football-coaching former public school teacher.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhen Kamala Harris’s VP pick took the stage sometime after 10pm, he began a little hesitantly. Maybe Walz wasn’t joking, that “big speech” thing was a little much.But as he warmed to his subject, and the delegates got behind him with their deafening cheers, this “son of the Nebraska plains”, as his wife Gwen Walz described him, got into his stride. He channeled the grit and the empathy that has already endeared him to millions of Democrats in the 15 short days in which he has been on the national stage.He deployed words such as “neighbor” (seven times), “school” (eight) and “freedom” (nine) to flesh out a picture of himself as the homely guy next door who cares about you and your family and wants you to lead your best life. When he got to the bit about his record as governor, he turned the dial up, giving vent to his anger and passion.“We made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day,” he said, eliciting one of the biggest roars of the night. “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing kids’ hunger from ours.”In the two weeks of Walz’s breathtaking propulsion into the political stratosphere – meteoric doesn’t do justice to his rise – Trump and team have tried hard to land punches on him. They have accused him of lying about his military record, pegged him as a “radical leftist” who wants to turn the country communist, and rolled out the old attack line that he wants to take your guns.So far, opinion surveys suggest, such efforts have been as sticky as water on a duck’s back.But then, how do you knock the military service of someone who spent 24 years in the national guard, even if he did misstate certain details of his time in uniform? Nor is it easy to portray his legislative record as extreme liberalism when the so-called “Minnesota miracle” of bills that he passed last year included not only universal free school meals, but paid family and medical leave as well as several other reforms that are no more revolutionary than the basic public services routinely provided by virtually every other industrialised nation.And how do you tear down a person for being anti-second amendment when, as he said on Wednesday night: “I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I got the trophies to prove it”?Not to mention that before Walz came on, the convention organisers reconvened the 1999 football team that he coached at Mankato West high school all the way to the state championship.In the end, though, it wasn’t the folksy football metaphors that hang in the air after the speech was done. It was the determination that was conveyed of a man with values forged in small town Nebraska to stop the advance of a someone who spends all day “insulting people and blaming others”.“We’ll turn the page on Donald Trump,” Coach 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.” More

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      Tim Walz accepts VP nomination and pitches voters: ‘We have the right team’

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      Minnesota governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic party’s vice-presidential nomination 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.Almost immediately, Walz leaned in to his rural upbringing. “I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people. I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale,” Walz said, taking a swipe at Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance.He described growing up in a small town and the tolerance that was required for respecting your neighbors. “We’ve got a golden rule,” he said, as the crowd began to finish one of his common lines on the campaign trail. “Mind your own damn business.”Walz also focused on his background in the military service, which Republicans have attacked in recent days, and as a public school teacher in Mankato, Minnesota, where he taught social studies and coached the high school football team. “Never underestimate a public school teacher,” he said.Like many other speakers on Wednesday night, he built on the days’s theme of freedom and pointed to the conservative manifesto backed by Trump allies, Project 2025.“That’s what this is all about, the responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we’re building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want,” Walz said. “But not everyone has that same sense of responsibility. Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.”“Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives. They spent a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know and trust me on this. When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it,” he said.During Walz’s speech, his family was visibly moved, with clips of his emotional son circulating as his father spoke.The main stage speech came at the end of another dynamic night at the convention. The audience heard from former president Bill Clinton and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as rising stars in the party, Maryland governor Wes Moore and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg. And there were interludes from comedian Kenan Thompson and actor Mindy Kaling.But perhaps the most rousing speech was from a surprise guest, Oprah Winfrey, the Chicago-based talk show host and political independent who called on fellow independents to rally around the Harris-Walz ticket. “Values and character matter most of all. In leadership and in life”, she said. “And more than anything, you know this is true: decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”Meanwhile, Walz’s place on the ticket has catapulted Minnesota to the forefront. The state isn’t a swing state, but his record is notable for Democrats. A trifecta in the Minnesota house, senate and governorship has allowed the party to pass a spate of progressive policies, including universal free school meals, gun safety measures, clean energy mandates, child tax credits and more.The North Star state featured heavily on Wednesday’s stage before Walz’s speech. John Legend and Sheila E performed a tribute to Prince, a Minneapolis native near-synonymous with the state, playing Let’s Go Crazy as the room was lit up purple.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionKeith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general and a Walz friend, said Walz called him after the murder of George Floyd by police and asked him to prosecute the case. Walz and Harris “know that nobody is above the law, and nobody is below the law”, Ellison said.Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar introduced Walz, alongside Ben Ingman, a former student and neighbor of the Walzes. Football players and the former head coach from Walz’s Mankato West teams joined Ingman on the stage. “Tim Walz is the kind of guy who will push you out of a snowbank,” Ingman said. “I know this because Tim Walz pushed me out of a snowbank.”Klobuchar talked about how Walz’s attributes, such as how he has a viral video about changing a headlight and that he’s a “dad in plaid”, make him perfect for the VP role. “A former public school teacher knows how to school the likes of JD Vance,” she said.Elementary students from Moreland Arts & Health Sciences magnet school in St Paul, Minnesota led the pledge of allegiance; the students benefitted from the universal free school meals program that has become a key accomplishment of the Walz administration. And Jess Davis, a math teacher who was Minnesota’s teacher of the year in 2019, sang the national anthem.After the speech, the Minnesota delegation celebrated on the convention floor, chanting Walz’s name and cheering.Democratic convention highlights:

      Tim Walz rallies Democrats: ‘We’re gonna leave it on the field’

      Watch speeches from Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro

      Oprah Winfrey takes swipe at Vance’s ‘childless cat lady’ comment in surprise appearance

      Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week

      What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz More

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      Walz, Bill Clinton and surprise Oprah: Democratic convention day three key takeaways

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      The third night of the Democratic national convention featured a surprise speech from Oprah Winfrey, along with scheduled remarks from Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Tim Walz and other major party figures, many emphasizing the “joy” of Kamala Harris’s campaign.Here are some key takeaways: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: “I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this, but I have given a lot of pep talks … 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.”He called on his supporters to step up with urgency: “We got 76 days. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when you’re dead. We’re going to leave it on the field. That’s how we’ll keep moving forward. That’s how we’ll turn the page on Donald Trump. 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. That’s how we make America a place where no child is left hungry, where no community is left behind, where nobody gets told they don’t belong.”2. Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Kenan Thompson and other celebrities invigorate the crowdThe convention continued with a packed celebrity lineup. Oprah Winfrey earned huge cheers when she made an unannounced appearance. She denounced “people who would have you believe that books are dangerous and assault rifles are safe” and took a swipe at JD Vance’s “childless cat lady” comment. She put Harris’s candidacy into the historical context of other trailblazing Black women, including Tessie Prevost Williams, one of the “New Orleans Four” who helped integrate public schools. And she roused the audience with her call to action, singing the word “joy”.Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson had a lively appearance, entering with a large Project 2025 book and virtually interviewing Americans who would be harmed by the rightwing agenda: “You ever see a document that can kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?”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’Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, addressed his 12th Democratic convention, reading 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.” He mocked Trump 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 preached a message of unity, echoing Obama’s comments, encouraging supporters not to demean or disrespect neighbors they disagree with. He praised Joe Biden for “voluntarily” giving up power and celebrated the hope Harris has injected into the race: “If you vote for this team … you will be proud of it for the rest of your life.”4. Parents of a Hamas hostage were featured while protesters and AOC pushed for a Palestinian speakerJon Polin and Rachel Goldberg gave emotional remarks about their son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is held hostage by Hamas. Polin praised the White House and said they had met with Harris and Biden: “They’re both working tirelessly for a hostage and ceasefire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home, and will stop the despair in Gaza.”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. Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor who has treated patients in Gaza, spoke on a Democratic convention panel centered on Palestinian human rights, but there hasn’t been a Palestinian American on the main stage. 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”, posting: “To deny that story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The @DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity.”5. Pete Buttigieg went hard after JD Vance: ‘Doubling down on negativity’Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation, went hard after Donald Trump’s running mate: “JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life that he has in mind for you, then you don’t count, someone who said that if you don’t have kids, you have ‘no physical commitment to the future of this country’ … When I deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids … but our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical. Choosing a guy like JD Vance to be America’s next vice president sends a message … They are doubling down on negativity and grievance, committing to a concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness.”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, arguing that GOP voters should reject the former president, even if they don’t agree with all of Harris’s positions. “If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative, it’s chaotic and crazy, and the only thing left to do is dump Trump. These days, our party acts more like a cult, a cult worshiping a felonious thug,” said Geoff Duncan, former lieutenant governor of Georgia.Olivia Troye, a former homeland security adviser to then vice-president Mike Pence also spoke, saying: “Being inside Trump’s White House was terrifying. But what keeps me up at night is what will happen if he gets back there.”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, warned: “Trump wants to erase us … He would ban our healthcare, belittle our marriages, bury our stories. But we are not going anywhere. We are not going back.”Jared Polis, Colorado’s governor and the first gay man to serve as a US state governor, highlighted the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda of Project 2025: “Democrats welcome ‘weird’, but we’re not weirdos telling families who can and can’t have kids, who to marry or how to live our lives.” Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said LGBTQ+ Floridians were enduring “endless state-sponsored hate”. And Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, earned loud applause when she said: “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the United States supreme court: you can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead gay hand.”Democratic convention highlights:skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion

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      RFK Jr to reportedly drop out of race by end of week – live

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      We reported earlier that independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign announced that he will make an address to the nation on Friday about “his path forward”.ABC News is now reporting that Kennedy plans to drop out of the race by the end of the week.It comes after Kennedy’s running mate, the Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan, said the pair were considering abandoning their campaign in order to help the election of Donald Trump.Kennedy was a member of the Democratic party and attempted to run as its nominee before choosing to stand as an independent.At an event hosted by Politico, Kamala Harris’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon was asked about how Robert F Kennedy’s reported intention to end his presidential bid would affect the race.One of the biggest questions of this year’s election is whether Kennedy is syphoning support from voters who would otherwise back Harris, or Donald Trump, and we may get a better idea of the answer to that if he ends his campaign.Either way, O’Malley Dillon told Politico she did not think it would be a big deal:
      We are very confident that the vice president is going to win whether she’s running against one candidate or multiple candidates. I don’t think it’s really going to interfere with the race too much.
      Nancy Pelosi delighted a well-heeled crowd at the University Club of Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, sharing anecdotes about her extraordinary career arc that she described as “housewife, House member, House Speaker.”Now considered one of the most powerful House speakers in modern political history, Pelosi said she faced doubts as she climbed the ranks in Congress from male colleagues who admonished her to wait her turn.“I became interested in running [for leadership] because we kept losing the elections, 94, 96, 98 and then it was 2000 I thought, ‘I’m so tired of losing … for the children,’” she said, using a Pelosism, that everything she does is “for the children.”When she made her decision to run for Democratic leadership known, Pelosi said she was immediately met with skepticism, especially among her male colleagues. “Who said she could run?” Pelosi recalled them saying. Their incredulity only encouraged her further.“Light my fire, why don’t you, poor babies?” Pelosi said, drawing laughs. In an aside to the audience, she emphasized that she was telling a story that occured “this century.”Pelosi continued, saying she was told there was a “pecking order” and she wasn’t in it.“They said, ‘these people have been waiting a long time,” Pelosi recounted. “So I said: ‘Was it over 200 years?’”The Uncommitted movement continues to press for the Democratic convention to allow a Palestinian to address delegates.Earlier in the day, the movement said it approved of a reported decision to allow the family of an Israeli hostage to address the convention, but said a Palestinian voice should also be heard:Here’s more about their quest to get Democratic leaders to allow them to speak from the convention stage:Two of Donald Trump’s surrogates will hold a press conference tomorrow in Chicago to criticize Kamala Harris’s record on handling immigration and other issues, hours before she is to deliver the closing address at the Democratic national convention.The Trump campaign has not had much of a presence in the city as Democrats have gathered to celebrate Harris’s entry into the race. That will change tomorrow when Vivek Ramaswamy and Carlos Trujillo, a former Trump administration official, address reporters from the Trump Hotel & Tower downtown.Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, is tonight’s keynote speaker, and will deliver a speech focused on telling American voters about his life and career, the Biden-Harris campaign said.“In his remarks at the Democratic national convention, Governor Tim Walz will introduce himself to the American people. He will highlight the values that he learned growing up in a small town in Nebraska, which shaped his service in the national guard, as a teacher, football coach, member of Congress, and governor, and that he will bring to the White House. Governor Walz will lay out what Vice-President Harris will do for working families and call on the American people to work together to elect Kamala Harris president,” according to the campaign.Musicians John Legend and Sheila E will introduce Walz, who will be nominated by Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ingman, a former student of the governor.Gaza solidarity protesters interrupted an environment and climate crisis council meeting at the convention on Wednesday, chanting “free, free Palestine”.“If you want to show some political courage, go and interrupt one of Donald Trump’s rallies,” responded Maryland representative Jamie Raskin, who was speaking. “We’re organizing against Trump, we’re organizing against the reactionary autocrats, plutocrats and kleptocrats.”“Anybody who interferes with that is objectively helping Donald Trump and Tim Walz,” Raskin continued, mistakenly naming Harris’s vice-presidential pick instead of Trump’s. “So cut it out,” he added before the protestors were escorted away.Some climate groups, however, are pushing for the Harris campaign to stop supporting Israel’s deadly war in Gaza by backing an arms embargo. Among them is the Sunrise Movement, the influential youth-led environmental justice group who spearheaded the push for a Green New Deal.“Young people want a livable world for our generation and generations. We want everyone to have clean air and water and safe homes,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, a Sunrise Movement spokesperson. “Everyone must have those rights and freedoms, including Palestinians.”Those of us who have shown up early to the United Center in Chicago (such as your live blogger) are getting a sneak peek at one of the night’s musical guests: Stevie Wonder.He’s sound-checking his 1972 hit Higher Ground, and was earlier at the podium rehearsing some remarks. Wonder has with him backing dancers, as well as a bassist, guitar player and someone who looks to be playing turntables. He is, of course, playing piano.Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is reportedly planning to drop out of the 2024 presidential race and considering throwing his support behind Donald Trump, was asked by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl about Trump calling the climate crisis “a hoax”.Here’s how Kennedy responded:Kennedy spent decades working as an environmental lawyer who sued polluters and founded a large non-profit focused on protecting clean water. Trump has long questioned human-made global warming, including calling it “mythical”, “nonexistent” or “an expensive hoax”, or suggesting that the climate could “change back again”.Pink is expected to take to the stage on Thursday for a closing-night performance at the Democratic national convention, CNN is reporting.The award-winning singer-songwriter will perform on Thursday evening before Kamala Harris’s speech, according to the outlet.As we reported earlier, John Legend will be performing tonight before Tim Walz’s remarks.Donald Trump Jr said he “loved the idea” of having Robert F Kennedy Jr appointed to a role in a potential Trump administration so that he can take a government agency and “blow it up”.The Republican presidential candidate’s son, in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck reported by the Hill, 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.
      He added that he believes Kennedy is “a smart guy” and that “he’s actually got very good views on certain things”. Trump said:
      I think that’s what we need. And so, I think that kind of unity, even where there may be certain disagreements on certain things, I think he could be a really great asset for that.
      The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi demurred and deflected when asked by the Democratic strategist David Axelrod to share how difficult it was to have “that conversation” with the president.Pelosi, who pushed subtly but forcefully in public and private for the president to step aside, said it was ultimately Joe Biden’s decision to make but one that ultimately set the party on a path to winning that they had not been on when he led the ticket.“A great sacrifice was made here,” she said. But the rupture between Biden and Pelosi, two devout Catholics who have known each other for decades has been hard on her, she said. “I’ve cried over this. I’m sad about this,” she said.Her highest priority then and now was to win – and not just the White House, but the House and the Senate. She said the prospect of a second Trump term was too dangerous.“Thank God I was the speaker on January 6, last time,” she said, suggesting the assault on the US Capitol would have been far worse if Republicans had been in charge that day. She said:
      You have to make the decision to win, and you have to make every decision in favor of winning.
      Donald Trump, in an interview yesterday, said he would “certainly” be open to appointing Robert F Kennedy Jr to a role in his administration, if the independent presidential candidate drops out of the race and backs him.“I like him, and I respect him,” Trump told CNN after a campaign stop in Michigan on Tuesday.
      He’s a brilliant guy. He’s a very smart guy. I’ve known him for a very long time. 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 said he would “love that endorsement, because I’ve always liked” Kennedy.Asked if he would consider appointing Kennedy to a role in his administration if he wins in November, Trump replied:
      I probably would, if something like that would happen. He’s a very different kind of a guy – a very smart guy. And, yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly.
      Robert F Kennedy Jr is leaning toward endorsing Donald Trump but the decision is not yet finalized and could still change, ABC News is reporting, citing sources.Kennedy’s hope is in part to finalize things quickly in order to try to blunt momentum from the DNC, one source told the outlet.Kennedy told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl that he would not confirm or deny reports that he is endorsing Trump, adding: “We are not talking about any of that.”Robert F Kennedy Jr, who will address the nation about “his path forward” on Friday, has held “advanced discussions” with Donald Trump and his campaign team about dropping out of the race and endorsing the Republican presidential nominee, the Washington Post is reporting, citing multiple sources. More

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      What to know about Bill Clinton and Tim Walz’s speeches tonight at Democratic convention

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      Bill Clinton and Tim Walz will headline the Democratic national convention Wednesday night.The former president will give an address before the vice-presidential hopeful – Clinton’s 11th Democratic convention speech.In 2020, he tore into Donald Trump, remarking: “If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he’s your man.” In 2016, he made the case for his wife, Hillary Clinton, to be elected, and in 2012, he made a passionate and clear case for why Barack Obama deserved a second term.Walz, the Minnesota governor, will close out the night by officially accepting his party’s nomination for vice-president.Walz’s speech is an opportunity for him to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters as he seeks to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his campaign with Kamala Harris.Here’s what we know about tonight’s speeches from Bill Clinton and Tim Walz.When is Bill Clinton’s convention speech?Bill Clinton is expected to deliver remarks on Wednesday during the 6pm-10pm main programming block.When is Tim Walz’s convention speech?Tim Walz will close out the third night of the convention with a primetime address in the same main programming block.After delays on Monday saw Joe Biden’s address knocked out of prime time, Tuesday’s keynote speech from Barack Obama started earlier, around 10pm ET.How can I watch the speech?The party will livestream the convention on its Democratic national convention website and on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.The Guardian has a team of reporters in Chicago and will be covering the speech in depth, including on a live blog.Major news networks are likely to carry primetime programming. PBS will have live coverage beginning at 8pm each night.What will Walz talk about?Wednesday’s theme is “A Fight for Our Freedoms”, mirroring a message that Harris has embraced in her campaigning. The Democratic nominee has invigorated crowds with her argument that fundamental freedoms are on the line this year, telling voters: “We won’t go back.”Walz may use his speech to highlight how he has similarly embraced that message during his gubernatorial tenure. Since Minnesota Democrats won a legislative trifecta in 2022, Walz has signed a series of bills to enshrine abortion rights into state law, protect access to gender-affirming care and make it easier for people with a felony conviction to vote.“The story here is simple and it’s one that will resonate with Americans across the country,” Minyon Moore, the convention chair, said on Sunday. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are fighting for the American people and America’s future – Donald Trump is only fighting for himself.”Who else is speaking Wednesday?In addition to Walz and Clinton, Wednesday’s programming will include some of the best-known names in the Democratic party, including Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker. Top congressional Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader; Cory Booker, senator of New Jersey; and Amy Klobuchar, senator of Minnesota, are slated to speak as well. Some of the party’s biggest rising stars – including Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary; Wes Moore, the Maryland governor; and Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor – will address the convention.Who else is speaking at the convention?The full lineup of speakers has not yet been released, but several big names – plus many new lawmakers and rising stars – are expected to appear.

      Thursday, 22 August: Vice-president Kamala Harris will close out the fourth night of the convention.
      What else has happened so far at the convention?The first night of the convention included speeches from Biden, Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the convention.Joe Biden closed out the first night, delivering a reflective and optimistic 50-minute address, urging the nation to elect Kamala Harris to protect American democracy.Both Barack and Michelle Obama gave full-throated endorsements of Kamala Harris Wednesday night, with Michelle arguing: “Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment.”“America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris,” Barack Obama said in his keynote address. More