2020 race: Democrats launch Joe Biden in first virtual convention
Michelle Obama has given an extraordinary address, attacking Donald Trump’s record and urging voters to elect Joe Biden | WATCH
- ‘Biden will end Trump’s hate, division’
- Speakers to focus on COVID, BLM
- Bidens accused of lying
- Michelle Obama praises ‘decent Joe’
- Democrats launch Biden by remote
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the National Democratic Convention which will officially launch Joe Biden’s election campaign. Because of the coronavirus pandemic the entire convention will be virtual, with almost no-one speaking from the original host city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Anne Barrowclough 1.30pm: NDC first day finishes
Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders were the final speakers on the first day of the Democrats’ virtual national convention.
The second day will begin at 11am AEDT Wednesday.
Anne Barrowclough 1.05pm: ‘Only way to end chaos is voting for Joe’
Michelle Obama has given a powerful and emotional address, targeting Donald Trump on many angles.
Like Bernie Sanders she has targeted Mr Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and attacked him for leading the country to the brink of disaster.
In the strongest attack by any former first lady on sitting president, she painted a dystopian picture of an America divided along lines of hatred.
“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He is in way over his head,” she said.
“You simply cannot fake your way through this job,” she said. “Being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.
“If we have any hope of ending the chaos we have to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it,” she said.
“I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith,” she said. “He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country,” the former First Lady said.
He will tell the truth, and trust science,” she added in a jab at Mr Trump, who has been accused of repeatedly ignoring the advice of his scientific advisers on how to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic.
“He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans.”
Mrs Obama also referenced Donald Trunp’s claims that mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud, accusing Republicans of “lying about the security of our ballots.”
She warned about threats to the integrity of the poll, saying: “Folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting.”
Anne Barrowclough 12.45pm: Sanders: Joe will end hate, division Trump created
Bernie Sanders has given an impassioned speech accusing Donald Trump of putting American’s “lives and health” in jeopardy and saying Joe Biden would fight for a more compassionate and inclusive America.
Speaking from Burlington, Vermont, Mr Sanders said the 2020 presidential election was “the most important in modern American history,” as the US suffered the worst health crisis in 100 years and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
“In the midst of all thise we have a president who is not only incapable of dealing with these crises but is leading us down the path to authoritarianism,” he said.
In comparison, Joe Biden would “end the hate and division Trump has created,” he said.
“The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
Anne Barrowclough 12.00pm: Cuomo: Trump made divisions worse
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has used his speech to attack Donald Trump’s reponse to coronavirus, describing the disease as a “symptom of the illness” pervading America.
“A virus attacks when the body is weak and can’t defend itself,” he said? “America’s body politic has been weakened. Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America’s divisions weakened it. Donald Trump didn’t create the initial division. The division created Trump; he only made it worse.”
Mr Cuomo said America trailed the world in defeating coronavirus. “Americans have learneda valuable lesson; how vulnerable we are when we are divided,” he said.
After Mr Cuomo spoke, Kristin Urquiza, the daughter of a coronavirus victim gave a furious address, blaming Mr Trump directly for the death of her father.
Ms Urquiza said her father believed Mr Trump when he said healthy people with no preexisting conditions would probably survive the virus. When Arizona’s lockdown restrictions were eased, the 65-year-old went to a bar, caught the virus and died alone.
“His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life,” she said.
Anne Barrowclough 11.50am: ‘George should be alive today’
George Floyd’s brother, Philonise addressed the virtual convention briefly, saying his brother should still be alive.
“George had a giving spirit, a spirit that has shown up on the streets around our nation and around the world. People of all races, all ages, all genders, all backgrounds, peacefully protesting in the name of love and unity,” he said. “It’s a fitting legacy for our brother. But George should be alive today.”
Mr Floyd spoke after Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bower lashed Donald Trump, accusing him of fanning racial tensions. She said she had renamed an area near the White House Black Lives Matter Plaza in response.
“While we were protesting, Donald Trump was plotting,” Bowser said. “He stood in front of one of our most treasured houses of worship and held a Bible for a photo op. He sent troops in camouflage into our streets. He sent tear gas into the air and federal helicopters, too. I knew if he did this to D.C., he would do it to your city or your town. And that’s when I said enough.”
Anne Barrowclough 11.25am: Speakers focus on Trump’s COVID, BLM response
Excerpts of speeches to be delivered in the next couple of hours show Democrat leaders will
criticise Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and of his response to the BLM protests.
Telling viewers the 2020 election is “the most important in the modern history of this country,: Bernie Sanders will say: “My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election. The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
New York governor Andrew Cuomo will say: “Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America’s divisions weakened it. Donald Trump didn’t create the initial division. The division created Trump; he only made it worse.”
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer says: “Over the past few months, we learned what’s essential: rising to the challenge, not denying it. We’ve learned who is essential, too. Not just the wealthiest among us. Not a president who fights his fellow Americans rather than fight the virus that’s killing us and our economy. It’s the people who put their own health at risk to care for the rest of us.”
Anne Barrowclough 11.05am: Eva Longoria opens 2020 convention
Actress Eva Longoria has opened the Democratic National Convention, telling views the convention offered an opportunity to “reaffirm our democracy.”
Her remarks were followed by a video of politicians and other cultural icons, repeating the them of the convention; “We the people.” A choir dressed in red, white and blue and representing the diversity of the US sang the national anthem while Joe Biden’s grandchildren leading the Pledge of Allegiance.
Anne Barrowclough 10.35am: Trump offers supporters MAGA masks
From dismissing face masks and refusing to wear them, Donald Trump is now offering his supporters MAGA face coverings.
As the death toll from coronavirus passed 167,000 in the US, the president’s campaign announced on Tuesday it was selling the Trump 2020 masks, “providing supporters with new ways to show their support for President Trump’s re-election while taking safety precautions during the coronavirus outbreak.”
Though Pres Trump only rarely wears face masks, his campaign is taking up the cause as a money-making device, offering face masks for sale inscribed with either "Trump" or "MAGA." They go for $15 each. Ad says "nothing is more patriotic" than wearing one of their campaign masks. pic.twitter.com/v2g8l9pRXH
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 17, 2020
Agencies 10.10am: Trump spruiks economic record in counter program
With the Democratic convention unfolding virtually rather than in Wisconsin, Donald Trump has travelled to the battleground state, to spruik his record on the economy and cast Joe Biden as a tool of the “extremist left”.
Kicking off a week of counterprogramming to the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Trump held an Oshkosh airport hangar event in this mostly white, working-class community.
“No one will be safe in a Biden-run America,” Mr Trump declared before the cheering crowd, many of whom weren’t wearing masks. “Biden and Harris are pro-crime and anti-cop. We are anticrime and we are pro-cop.”
The surrounding county backed Mr Trump by more than 7 percentage points in the 2016 election, and Wisconsin Republicans say strong turnout in similar nonurban areas will be critical if the incumbent is to win the state again. Wisconsin polling has shown Mr Biden with a small but consistent lead in the state.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump also made two similar stops in neighboring Minnesota, a state he narrowly lost in 2016 and that his campaign sees as a top pickup opportunity.
Speaking at an airport hangar in Mankato, Mr. Trump said he would “save our cities and our suburbs from the future of crime and chaos, corruption and economic collapse that puppet Joe Biden would unleash in America.” He also declared that Mr Biden would “replace American freedom with left-wing fascism,” although fascism is traditionally considered far-right nationalism.
Mr Trump also went after Democratic vice presidential pick Kamala Harris, saying that in the Democratic presidential primary the California senator “went down like a rock in water.”
A Marquette Law School poll of likely Wisconsin voters released last week showed Mr. Biden with a 49 per cent to 44 per cent lead over Mr Trump. Democrats and Republicans were almost equally likely to say they are certain to vote in November and were evenly matched in terms of enthusiasm about casting their ballot.
In 2016 Mr Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes out of almost three million cast, making the outcome there the third-narrowest among states he won. He was the first Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984 to carry the state.
The state trended blue in the 2018 midterm elections, electing Democrats Governor Tony Evers and re-electing Sen. Tammy Baldwin, but the state Legislature remains in Republican-control.
Dow Jones
David Charter 9.00am: Bidens accused of lying over how they met
Joe Biden and his second wife Jill have been accused of lying about how they met to conceal an extra-marital affair.
Their narrative of meeting on a blind date after her separation was challenged by Bill Stevenson, Jill Biden’s first husband, who helped with Mr Biden’s first senate campaign.
The Bidens have long said that they met after Mr Biden spotted a photo of Jill and his brother found her phone number to arrange a date in March 1975. Mr Stevenson told Mail Online that Jill actually met Mr Biden in 1972 when he helped with the Senate campaign. Mr Stevenson, who was divorced from Jill in May 1975 after they separated the previous year, said he suspected an affair in August 1974 after one of her friends confided suspicions. Further confirmation came in October 1974 when he heard that Mr Biden was driving his wife’s car with her when it was involved in a minor accident.
Mr Stevenson said: “I asked Jill to leave the house, which she did . . . I considered Joe a friend. I’m not surprised he fell in love with Jill.”
The Times
Agencies 8.50am: Pelosi recalls House to ‘save postal service’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recalled the US House of Representatives from its summer recess to vote this week on an act “to save” the US Postal Service.
Ms Pelosi and fellow senior Democrat Chuck Schumer on Sunday (Monday AEST) also called for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a recent Donald Trump appointee, to appear before an “urgent hearing” of the House oversight committee.
They said that Mr DeJoy — “a Trump mega-donor — has acted as an accomplice in the President’s campaign to cheat in the election, as he launches sweeping new operational changes that degrade delivery standards”.
“This is a crisis for American democracy,” Democrat socialist senator Bernie Sanders told ABC.
READ the full story here.
Cameron Stewart 8.30am: Michelle Obama: ‘Decent’ Biden will trust science
Michelle Obama will portray Joe Biden as a man of empathy when she gives the keynote address on the first day of the Democratic convention today.
In excerpts of her remarks released ahead of her taped speech, Mrs Obama said Mr Biden was a “terrific vice president” during the eight years he served as her husband Barack Obama’s number two.
“I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith,” she said. “He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country,” the former First Lady said.
He will tell the truth, and trust science,” she added in a jab at Trump, who has been accused of repeatedly ignoring the advice of his scientific advisers on how to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic.
“He will tell the truth and trust science,” she said. “He will make smart plans.”
Mrs Obama will also contrast Mr Biden’s life with that of Mr Trump who she suggests doesn’t share the life values of most Americans.
“He will govern as someone who has lived the life of someone the rest of us can recognise,” she will say.
Cameron Stewart 7.45am: No balloons, crowds for first ever virtual convention
The first ever virtual convention to nominate a United States presidential candidate kicks off at 11am Tuesday (AEDT), with former First Lady Michelle Obama and left wing Senator Bernie Sanders to speak.
The four day event will officially launch Joe Biden’s election campaign but it will be vastly different to anything seen in US politics to date. Because of the coronavirus pandemic the entire convention will be virtual, with speeches given remotely around the country and almost no-one speaking from the original host city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
That means there will be no balloons, streamers, placards or screaming mass crowds that traditionally mark the once-every four year conventions.
Journalists, lobbyists, party delegates and thousands of others will not jostle side-by-side to cover or catch a glimpse of the spectacle. The bars and restaurants of Milwaukee will remain almost empty.
Instead, America will watch the convention on their screens from their homes – in isolation in a country that is in isolation.
As a result, the convention has become a made-for-TV event and has been packaged into only two hours each night over four nights. The slickly produced (in theory) show will cut to the various speakers as well as pre-produced videos and musical acts.
The Democrat party hopes Americans will tune into the event in large numbers but no one really knows because its all so unprecedented.
To keep viewers engaged the Democrats have arranged a program involving the who’s who of the party, with a keynote speaker on each day.
On the first day, Tuesday (AEST), the keynote speaker of the night will be Michelle Obama, a darling of the party and, according to the polls, the most admired women in the US.
Democratic socialist Senator Sanders will also speak and is expected to exert his left-wing fans, dubbed ‘Bernie Bros,’ to throw their support behind Mr Biden despite his more moderate policies.
Those giving short speeches include former presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar as well as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitman and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
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