The Democratic National Convention heads into its second day Tuesday.
Former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at the DNC, a day after the unofficial farewell for President Joe Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice president. Biden won’t be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, as he departed Chicago after delivering his own speech.
With President Biden having addressed delegates, the week’s full focus now turns to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz.
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Here’s the Latest:
Harris campaign blames convention process for party platform that wasn’t updated
The Harris campaign is blaming a long-established process at the convention for a party platform that was approved without being updated to reflect that the vice president replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Convention delegates on Monday approved a sweeping set of Democratic policy goals for the next four years that repeatedly referred to Biden seeking reelection. Party officials spent more than a year compiling the platform delegates were to consider, but they also approved it days before Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris.
No effort was then made to change it before it was approved on the convention floor.
“Obviously, the platform was voted on before the switch here, and so it’s part of the process as it played out,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters at a Tuesday morning briefing at the convention.
Rep. Byron Donalds says Harris and Walz don’t support law enforcement enough
Rep. Byron Donalds is warning against the negative effect he says Harris and Walz would have on American policing if elected to the White House.
The Florida Republican said Tuesday at a Trump campaign media availability that Harris and Walz don’t support law enforcement ranks strongly enough. Donalds said Harris, a former prosecutor, “incentivized states to move toward cashless bail,” a policy he said “creates a turnstile for criminals to be arrested and go right back out on the streets.”
Donalds is among the Trump surrogates offering Republican counterprogramming in Chicago as Democrats gather for the DNC.
Donalds also said Walz had a delayed response to the Minneapolis violence after the killing of George Floyd, noting that the areas affected by violence “mostly are inhabited by Black people and Hispanic people — that’s what was burning.”
Donalds also made brief mention of the Day 1 DNC delays that meant a late start to Biden’s speech but paused before he levied more specific criticism of the president: “It’s a shame to do that to somebody — well, I’m going to stop there.”
North Carolina governor says he isn’t concerned by Harris shifting stances on hot-button issues
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says it’s a sign of growth since she last ran for president in 2019.
Harris has dropped her opposition to fracking and her onetime support for progressive proposals like Medicare-for-all and the “Green New Deal” in recent weeks.
“I think the policy and how it affects people is always important, but clearly the character of the candidate can be more important,” said Cooper, speaking at an event hosted by Bloomberg at the Democratic National Convention.
Cooper, who leads a key battleground state has known Harris since they both were state attorneys general.
Cooper noted Harris had a seat at the table as President Joe Biden passed major legislation in their first two years in office and said the vice president “saw the give and the take.”
“And I think that’s just part of growing as an elected official and growing as a candidate and being a president for everybody,” he added.
To avoid running late again, DNC organizers plan to start earlier on 2nd day
Organizers are planning an earlier start to day two of the Democratic National Convention in hopes avoiding scheduling that ran hours late and into the wee hours of the night on day one.
DNC director Alex Hornbrook said Tuesday morning that “we made some real-time adjustments last night” and “we’re working with our speakers and making some other adjustments this evening” including starting at 5.30 p.m. local time in Chicago “to make sure that we stay on track.”
During a briefing with reporters, Hornbrook ducked a question about speakers who were canceled on night one as the program ran long — including a performance by acclaimed singer-songwriter James Taylor — would be rescheduled. He said only, “Our program team is working very hard right now to ensure that we can be on schedule” without providing further details.
President Joe Biden gave Monday’s night key address, but didn’t take the stage until around 11:30 p.m. on the East Coast, and the program didn’t wrap up until well after midnight for a large chunk of the audience watching around the country.
Trump’s campaign is getting started on Day 2 of its counterprogramming around the DNC
Ahead of a news conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago, placards were on display with statistics on homicide rates in various U.S. cities under the heading “Kamala Crime Crisis.”
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, one of Trump’s top U.S. House allies and surrogates, is expected to give remarks and take media questions.
North Carolina governor says he feels good about Democrats’ chances of winning his state
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says he has “that 2008 feeling” about Democrats’ chances of winning his state with Vice President Kamala Harris on the top of the ticket.
Speaking at an event hosted by Bloomberg at the Democratic National Convention, Cooper pointed to demographic shifts that have made the state more amenable to Democrats, but also a contentious race to replace him in the governor’s mansion that will generate its own “bottom-up” effect on the ticket.
Cooper acknowledged that he didn’t have the same optimism about his state just weeks ago when Biden was at the top of the ticket.
“Democrats were not united,” said Cooper said, before Biden dropped out. “I’m grateful for his decision to do that because it brought everybody together.”
Cooper pointed to the rave reception for Biden at the convention’s opening night to say, “Everyone loves President Biden.” But he added of Biden’s decision to step aside: “It was the time to do this, it was the time to make history.”
The DNC won’t only feature speeches by Democrats
The Harris campaign announced Tuesday that several Republican leaders will also offer remarks in Chicago, including former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles.
Also speaking are former Trump White House staffers Olivia Troye, a former national security official, and Stephanie Grisham, who was a White House press secretary.
Grisham said she knows Harris will “defend our freedoms and represent our nation with honesty and integrity.”
“I never thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic convention,” she said in a statement. “But, after seeing firsthand who Donald Trump really is, and the threat he poses to our country, I feel very strongly about speaking out.”
Harris travels to Milwaukee for a rally before returning to Chicago in the evening
The Harris campaign said Tuesday it will spotlight “trusted messengers” from key battleground states over the convention’s three remaining days. They include Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Gary Peters and Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. From Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly will speak along with John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa.
Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina — a state that voted for Trump in 2020 but is now a major pickup opportunity for Harris — will be among the final speakers before Harris accepts the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.
After DNC speech, President Biden and his family arrive in California
President Joe Biden and his family are spending the rest of this week in California at the Santa Ynez Valley ranch of longtime Democratic donor and medical device mogul Joe Kiani.
The Bidens arrived at the property of Kiani, the founder of Masimo and Cercacor Laboratories, early Tuesday after Biden delivered his address Monday at the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Biden has called Kiani “one of my closest friends,” and the president in 2021 appointed his billionaire host to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Kiani has also previously hosted the president’s son, Hunter, at the 8,000-acre property.
Masimo’s companies have been locked in a costly legal dispute with Apple. Kiani has accused Apple of violating patents for their watches from his companies, which pioneered technology related to measuring blood-oxygen levels.
DNC panelists discuss war in Gaza as Harris tries to ease tension with pro-Palestinian activists
The Democratic Party has been riven for months by the war in Gaza, giving rise to a protest movement that threatened Biden’s electoral coalition.
But with Biden gone from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris now leading the party, there were some indicators at the Democratic National Convention on Monday that Harris is taking more assertive steps to ease that tension.
In what organizers called a first, party activists were given space at the convention to hold a forum to discuss the plight of people in Gaza, who’ve been under Israeli bombardment since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and its taking of hostages, as well as to share deeply personal — and often heartrending stories — about family members lost in the conflict.
Though their core demands — a cease-fire and withholding U.S. support for Israel’s prosecution of the war — remain unmet, the decision to allow activists to hold a forum amounted to the offering of an olive branch by Harris. And it’s one that many doubted Biden would have extended if he were still the nominee.
Read more about the panel discussion
US intelligence officials say Iran is to blame for hacks targeting Trump, Biden-Harris campaigns
U.S. intelligence officials said Monday they were confident that Iran was responsible for the hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, casting the cyber intrusion as part of a brazen and broader effort by Tehran to interfere in American politics and undermine faith in democratic institutions.
Although the Trump campaign and private-sector cybersecurity investigators had previously said Iran was behind the hacking attempts, it was the first time the U.S. government had assigned blame for the attack.
The joint statement from the FBI and other federal agencies also indicated that Iran was responsible for attempts to hack Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, saying hackers had “sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaign of both political parties.”
The goal of the hacking and other activities, federal officials said, was not only to sow discord but also to shape the outcome of elections that Iran perceives to be “particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests.”
Read more about the Trump campaign hack
