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Election 2024 latest news on the presidential race

US President Joe Biden Campaign PA

President Trump defended his attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s faith during a news conference on Monday evening, saying that “a man of deep religion” would not agree with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on policy. The president also said Monday that his nomination acceptance speech, a week after the Democrats’ convention, will happen either at Gettysburg, Pa. — the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War — or the White House, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-and-republicans-push-back-on-trumps-desire-to-deliver-convention-speech-from-white-house/2020/08/05/06b45bf6-d734-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html" target=_blank>an idea that has gotten some pushback</a> from critics who argue that such a move would blur the lines between official and campaign activities.

Biden is expected to name his running mate this week, ahead of his nominating convention that starts Aug. 17, and pressure on him to pick a Black woman continues.

Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-mulls-his-vp-pick-from-his-beach-house-as-trump-supporters-dot-the-boardwalk/2020/08/10/0d683592-da97-11ea-809e-b8be57ba616e_story.html" target=_blank>mulls his VP pick from his beach house</a>, as Trump supporters dot the boardwalk

How did Michigan become a defining swing state of the Trump era? <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michigan-political-geography/" target=_blank>Some of it</a> had to do with history.

Democrats <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-will-highlight-everyday-americans-in-their-prime-time-convention-line-up/2020/08/09/fdcb96ca-da95-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html" target=_blank>are planning to feature</a> a broad lineup of everyday Americans during their four-day mostly virtual convention next week.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/10/polls-still-dont-tell-story-trump-wants-hear/" target=_blank>The polls still don’t tell the story </a>Trump wants to hear.

Biden’s presidential campaign released a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KioNUdpKke0" target=_blank>television ad</a> Tuesday aimed at Florida seniors that features footage of President Trump golfing and accuses him of jeopardizing the Social Security benefits of millions of seniors living in the battleground state.

“Donald Trump stepped off the golf course and signed an executive action directing funding cuts for Social Security,” the ad’s narrator says over footage of Trump driving a golf cart and other scenes. “He also proposed slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund every year — putting your hard-earned benefits in jeopardy. Nearly 4 million Florida seniors rely on Social Security, and once again Donald Trump’s failed leadership is hitting seniors the hardest.”

Trump signed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/08/trump-executive-order-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8" target=_blank>executive actions</a> Saturday that attempt to bypass Congress to provide economic relief to millions of Americans, including one that would allow some workers to postpone paying their Social Security payroll tax, which Democrats warn could weaken the program. In doing so, Trump promised that, if reelected, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/08/08/trump-payroll-tax-cut/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8" target=_blank>he will pursue a permanent cut</a> to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare.

The ad, titled “Swing,” will air exclusively in Florida, the <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/08/11/new-biden-ad-accuses-trump-of-taking-from-social-security-to-pay-for-coronavirus-aid/" target="_blank">Tampa Bay Times reported</a> Tuesday, and comes as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-crucial-florida-some-senior-voters-cast-a-skeptical-eye-toward-trumps-reelection/2020/05/25/4e5e2ef8-9ab4-11ea-89fd-28fb313d1886_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_24&itid=lk_inline_manual_9" target="_blank">Biden has seen major gains with older voters</a>. Trump won the votes of seniors nationally by eight points in 2016 but is trailing Biden in recent national polls. Seniors are an especially powerful voting group in Florida, and more than 20 percent of voters there in 2016 were over the age of 65. Trump won the Florida senior vote by a 17-point margin but is now trailing Biden in polls of Florida seniors.

Jenna Johnson

President Trump defended his attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s faith during a news conference on Monday evening, saying that “a man of deep religion” would not agree with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on policy.

“If you look at their stance on religion and things having to do very importantly with aspects of religion and faith, I don’t think a man of deep religion would be agreeing with the Bernie Sanders plan. You take a look at what they have in it,” Trump said, alluding to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-sanders-task-forces-unveil-joint-goals-for-party-unity/2020/07/08/627de4a4-c161-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_12" target=_blank>policy positions put forth by task forces</a> set up by Biden and Sanders earlier this year in an attempt to unify their party. “You can’t put that into the realm of a religious group of people, I will say that.” 

During a campaign stop in Ohio last week, Trump said Biden wants to “take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God, he’s against guns.” 

Biden — who is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/08/07/trump-hurt-god-biden-catholic-faith/?itid=lk_inline_manual_14" target=_blank>Catholic and has leaned on his faith</a> during personal tragedies — called Trump’s remarks “shameful” and “beneath the office he holds.” 

“Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: It’s provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it’s kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy,” Biden responded.

Lawyers for Kanye West’s presidential campaign are fighting to get the rapper on the ballot in the key swing state of Wisconsin, arguing in filing to state election regulators late Monday that challenges to his candidacy are an effort by Democrats to silence his voice in the race.

West’s petition to join the ballot in Wisconsin was dropped off last week by Lane Ruhland, a lawyer who has served as general counsel of the state’s Republican Party and who represented the Trump campaign in court in July.

The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kanye-west-ballot-campaign-gop/2020/08/09/bfc8e58a-d8ce-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_19">has reported</a> that Republican operatives, some of whom have publicly backed Trump, have worked to get West on the ballot in at least five states, raising fears that the effort is intended to siphon votes from Biden and boost Trump’s chances.

In Wisconsin, where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, West filed a petition with 2,422 signatures to get on the ballot as an independent candidate representing the Birthday Party. State law requires between 2,000 and 4,000 valid signatures. But two challenges were filed last week to the petition. They argued the petition should be disqualified because, among other things, it was filed just after the 5 p.m. deadline on Aug. 4. The challenges also included sworn affidavits from people who signed the West petition saying they had been misled about its purpose by people collecting signatures for the document.

In a 22-page response filed by Michael C. Curran, an attorney based in Spring Green, Wis., West’s campaign argued that under state law, nomination papers are presumed valid and argued that the challenges did not meet the state’s high bar for disqualification. In particular, the campaign argued that while some observers said West’s petition had been filed after 5 p.m., it was filed before 5:01 p.m. — still valid under state law. And they said the voters who said they were misled into signing might simply be experiencing “buyer’s remorse,” regretting their decision to sign only after they were “called and harassed by Democratic party operatives." 

The response did not address the Republican involvement with West’s campaign. But it argued that the complaints against West’s petition were “funded by wealthy outside groups, including the Wisconsin Democratic Party and its allies, who fear the candidacy of Kanye West and seek to silence him.” 

The document further alleged the effort to remove West from the ballot would marginalize people of color. The Wisconsin Elections Commission will consider the challenges and West’s response in the coming week and determine whether his name should appear on the ballot.

Rosalind Helderman

Trump escorted out of White House briefing by Secret Service

Trump abruptly left a news briefing at the White House on Monday evening at the instruction of Secret Service agents.

A few minutes into the briefing, an agent interrupted the president and asked him to “step out” of the room. After a brief conversation, Trump and his aides left the briefing room, as reporters called out for an explanation and did not receive one.

Fewer than 10 minutes later, Trump returned to the briefing room and told reporters that someone had been shot by law enforcement outside the White House fence and was being taken to the hospital. He said that he didn’t know any details about the person who was shot or the circumstances that led to the shooting. He said no one else was injured in the shooting.

“It might not have had anything to do with me, it might have been something else,” Trump said.

Anne Gearan

Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign, is facing criticism after a transphobic tweet in which she misgendered Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, who is transgender.

“This guy is making decisions about your health,” Ellis <a href="https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1292735485220012032" target=_blank>said in the tweet</a>, in which she linked to <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/05/reporter-calls-pa-health-secretary-sir-multiple-times-in-phone-interview.html" target=_blank>a news story from May</a> about Levine pushing back against a reporter who had repeatedly called her “sir.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy organization, sharply criticized Ellis’s tweet, noting that “using a person’s pronouns is a basic level of respect.”

“Jenna Ellis is a bigot and Dr. Levine is a patriot — plain and simple,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “Dr. Levine illustrates character and patriotism while Ellis cannot even define those terms.”

David added that “despite claims of allyship, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and their staff have gone out of their way to dehumanize and attack transgender and non-binary people simply for existing.”

“Trump and his allies have refused to acknowledge the epidemic of violence transgender and gender non-conforming people face, attempted to strip away their access to health care, and blocked these patriotic Americans from openly serving in the military. … Our nation has and should continue to laud the frontline workers and public servants confronting this pandemic, not attack them simply for living their truth,” David said.

Ellis said in a statement that she would not apologize.

“To be called a bigot for simply acknowledging scientific fact is both hilarious and tragic,” she said. “The truth of biology shows that human beings are created immutably male and female. Yet in our post-truth society, the progressive leftists not only demand that we affirm patently false facts, but also demand we not ‘offend’ people who insist on speaking their lies, otherwise we are called insensitive bigots and required to apologize.”

Despite Ellis’s claim, medical professional organizations distinguish between the concept of “sex” — as in one’s biological sex assignment — and “gender identity,” which the American Psychological Association <a href="https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/gender" target=_blank>notes</a> “may or may not correspond to a person’s sex assigned at birth.”

“Transgender is used as an adjective to refer to persons whose gender identity, expression, and/or role does not conform to what is culturally associated with their sex assigned at birth,” the APA states in its publication guidelines. It adds: “When writing about a known individual, use that person’s identified pronouns.”

Twitter’s <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/hateful-conduct-policy" target=_blank>rules against hateful conduct</a> explicitly prohibit the targeted misgendering of transgender people. Several Twitter users responded to Ellis’s tweet Monday by reporting it as abusive and calling on others to do the same.

Levine is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meet-rachel-levine-one-of-the-very-few-transgender-public-officials-in-america/2016/06/01/cf6e2332-2415-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_42" target=_blank>the highest-ranking transgender official in Pennsylvania</a> and one of only a handful serving in elected or appointed offices nationwide.

Nate Wardle, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, dismissed Ellis’s tweet in a statement.

“Dr. Levine is laser-focused on assisting Pennsylvanians in the midst of a national pandemic,” Wardle said. “She does not have time for this nonsense.”

In remarks in Harrisburg last month, Levine denounced recent transphobic comments made against her, saying that “while these individuals may think they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are in fact hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ellis’s tweet.

The Democratic National Convention, meanwhile, is expected to feature Virginia Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William) among its speakers next week, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/07/who-will-speak-at-dnc-392533" target=_blank>reported Friday</a>. In 2018, Roem became the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/08/transgender-people-have-been-elected-before-but-they-can-finally-let-the-voters-know/?utm_term=.aad4a7dcfb06&itid=lk_inline_manual_22&itid=lk_inline_manual_47"> first state lawmaker </a>in the country to be sworn in after campaigning as an openly transgender candidate.

Felicia Sonmez

President Donald J. Trump

Former Obama administration attorney general Eric Holder’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-holder-william-barr-is-unfit-to-be-attorney-general/2019/12/11/99882092-1c55-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_50">criticisms of current Attorney General William P. Barr</a> have been met with apoplexy by Trump’s supporters. Holder, after all, once dubbed himself Obama’s “<a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/04/eric-holder-im-still-the-presidents-wingman-160861">wingman</a>.” So how can he and other critics complain about Barr going out of his way to support Trump’s political agenda?

There’s a rather large — and growing — difference between the two situations, though. And that was on full display this weekend in an interview Barr gave to Fox News host Mark Levin.

Over the course of a lengthy discussion, Barr waded deeply into political matters far beyond regular Justice Department business. He attacked the president’s opponents — both real and perceived — and lodged the latest in a series of conspiracy theories about their true motivations.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/10/william-barr-trumps-2020-wingman/?itid=lk_inline_manual_53" target=_blank>here</a>.

Aaron Blake

The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s largest, oldest and most influential environmental organizations, is endorsing Joe Biden for president.

Michael Brune, the Oakland, Calif.-based group’s chief, said he is confident that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “will be the champion for climate justice that America needs in the White House."

The endorsement Monday was widely expected, but still shows the degree to which Biden has consolidated support among environmentalists once skeptical of his candidacy.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/10/biden-wins-sierra-clubs-endorsement/?itid=lk_inline_manual_58" target=_blank>Read more here</a>.

Dino Grandoni

Trump’s presidential campaign is seeking to raise money off <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/09/heres-what-is-actually-trumps-four-executive-orders/?itid=lk_inline_manual_60" target=_blank>the four executive orders the president signed Saturday</a> aimed at providing additional economic relief to millions of Americans without the approval of Congress.

In a text message to supporters Sunday night, Trump’s campaign wrote, “Pres Trump: I signed 4 Exec Orders to help the American People. What did the Swamp do? NOTHING. Show them where YOU stand.”

That message was followed by another Monday afternoon.

“Pres Trump: I want to celebrate my four new Exec Orders,” the latest message reads. “For the NEXT HOUR: save $10 when you activate your Exec Membership. Donate &amp; join NOW.”

Among other things, Trump’s executive orders call for a payroll tax deferral and instruct key officials to “consider” whether there should be a ban on evictions.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced Monday that he has <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FBI%20Subpoena%2020200806.pdf">issued a subpoena </a>to the FBI for records related to the bureau’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The subpoena was the first issued by the committee as part of its examination of the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation and Biden and Ukraine. Democrats have condemned the inquiry, saying it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-republicans-advance-ukraine-probe-aimed-at-biden-despite-foreign-interference-concerns/2020/08/05/6eb3718e-d503-11ea-b9b2-1ea733b97910_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_67">risks laundering Russian disinformation</a> into the United States through the Senate ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-senator-subpoenas-fbi-for-documents-related-to-2016-russia-investigation/2020/08/10/c2e7552c-db25-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_68">Read more here</a>.

Tom Hamburger

Trump said Monday that he has narrowed his choice of venue for his acceptance speech to two places — the White House and Gettysburg — and “will announce the decision soon!”

“We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations — The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C.,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1292872318562205699" target=_blank>said in a tweet</a>.

Asked what message Trump might hope to deliver with a speech in Gettysburg, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to say.

“I won’t get ahead of the president as to what his convention speech will look like,” McEnany said at a news briefing Monday. “The president has done a lot to bring this country together. We’ve faced unprecedented challenges. ... He has a strong record of achievement."

Earlier Monday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel defended the option of a White House speech. Critics have argued that the White House would be an inappropriate venue for a campaign speech. McDaniel said it was up to the president to decide.

If Trump chooses Gettysburg, it would not be the first time he has given a major address at the site of the bloodiest Civil War battle.

In 2016, Trump traveled to Gettysburg, where he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/22/in-historic-gettysburg-lincoln-spoke-of-unity-trump-complained-of-a-rigged-system/?itid=lk_inline_manual_76" target=_blank>declared that the system is rigged against him</a>, that election results cannot be trusted, that Hillary Clinton should have been barred from running for president and that the media is “corrupt.” He also pledged to sue all of the women who have accused him of sexual assault, a threat on which he has yet to follow through.

More than 100 prominent Black men have signed a strongly worded letter to Biden, urging him to select a Black woman as his running mate and warning that not doing so will result in him losing the election.

“For too long Black women have been asked to do everything from rally the troops to risk their lives for the Democratic Party with no acknowledgment, no respect, no visibility, and certainly not enough support,” the letter states. “Failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election. We don’t want to choose between the lesser of two evils and we don’t want to vote the devil we know versus the devil we don’t because we are tired of voting for devils—period.”

The letter was made public Monday afternoon and is signed by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, radio show host Lenard “Charlamagne tha God” McKelvey, Bishop William J. Barber, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and dozens of others. It follows a letter signed by <a href="https://19thnews.org/2020/08/black-women-insist-that-biden-write-us-into-history/" target=_blank>more than 700 “Concerned Black Women Leaders”</a> who challenged the “relentless attacks on Black women and our leadership abilities” that have accompanied this search for a running mate.

Biden has blown past a self-set deadline of naming a running mate by the first week of August. The Black women he has considered include Sen. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/19/there-was-this-tool-that-they-had-figured-out-was-powerful-kamala-harris-working-system-justice/?itid=lk_inline_manual_81" target="_blank">Kamala D. Harris</a> (D-Calif.); Reps. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/being-police-chief-powered-val-demingss-political-rise-but-could-complicate-her-hopes-of-becoming-bidens-running-mate/2020/07/28/9a2b1c52-b95d-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_81" target="_blank">Val Demings</a> (D-Fla.) and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-karen-bass-is-being-vetted-as-part-of-joe-bidens-vice-presidential-search/2020/06/23/ad425502-b59e-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html?utm_source=acquisition&amp;utm_medium=google&amp;utm_campaign=nat_election2020&amp;utm_keyword=&amp;utm_content=election2020&amp;campaignid=8202785432&amp;adgroupid=91160037118&amp;adid=454545655904&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw4MP5BRBtEiwASfwALxpTMBGGtRdE3ew_1NN94ie-9nic3HAFLqVjnFd-nNJ-j9apGG438hoCO7EQAvD_BwE&itid=lk_inline_manual_81" target="_blank">Karen Bass</a> (D-Calif.); former ambassador Susan E. Rice; former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams; and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexism-biden-vice-president-pick/2020/08/08/ad666a12-d5f3-11ea-aff6-220dd3a14741_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_81" target="_blank">All have faced sharp criticism and scrutiny in recent weeks </a>that the letter writers say has been unfair.

The letter alludes to some Biden allies describing Harris as too ambitious for the position <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kamala-harris-once-went-after-joe-biden-but-now-theres-only-bonhomie-as-the-vice-presidential-tryouts-continue/2020/06/26/9b525566-b6f9-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_82" target=_blank>and questioning her loyalty to Biden</a>. While several contenders have been pushed to explain their previous stances or comments, the letter questions why Biden hasn’t been pushed to do the same for his work on legislation that led to “mandatory minimum sentencing and subsequently crack-cocaine sentencing disparities.”

“Let’s be clear about the kind of remorse and reckoning that matters in 2020 when the Black community is still suffering the consequences for these oppressive measures,” the letter states. “So, Black women are the only ones required to stay in their place and to show remorse for even questioning their own oppression?”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham’s (R-S.C.) reelection campaign has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmsWlhTYQY8&feature=youtu.be" target=_blank>a new ad</a> against his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, that makes repeated mentions of 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — and zero mention of the party’s presumptive nominee, Joe Biden.

“Guess who got the first donation from Hillary Clinton this election cycle?” the ad’s narrator asks. “Liberal Jaime Harrison. Harrison was Hillary’s first-round draft choice. Why? Because she is Harrison’s mentor, just like Nancy Pelosi.” 

"Draft Choice"

The ad’s omission of any mention of Biden suggests that Republicans view the Democrats’ 2016 presidential nominee as more of a liability than their 2020 presumptive presidential opponent.

A <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/2020-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?ReleaseID=3670" target="_blank">Quinnipiac University poll in the past week</a> showed Harrison, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and Graham running neck-and-neck, with both candidates taking 44 percent among registered voters.

Biden is expected to announce his running mate in the coming days, with the Democratic National Convention set to begin a week from today.

The former vice president has repeatedly told reporters that he plans to choose a woman to be his running mate. He’s also said that he’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joe-biden-says-four-african-american-women-are-under-consideration-as-his-running-mate/2020/07/20/24dccaa4-cae7-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">vetting four Black women</a> for the role, and those close to the campaign say the list includes Sen. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kamala-harris-once-went-after-joe-biden-but-now-theres-only-bonhomie-as-the-vice-presidential-tryouts-continue/2020/06/26/9b525566-b6f9-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">Kamala D. Harris</a> (D-Calif.); former national security adviser <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/susan-e-rices-vice-presidential-chances-rest-on-something-others-lack-a-long-relationship-with-joe-biden/2020/07/24/e20179d0-ccff-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">Susan E. Rice</a>; and Reps. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-karen-bass-fought-for-blacks-and-latinos-in-south-los-angeles-now-shes-on-bidens-vp-shortlist/2020/07/31/6d224a58-d1d3-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">Karen Bass</a> (D-Calif.) and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/being-police-chief-powered-val-demingss-political-rise-but-could-complicate-her-hopes-of-becoming-bidens-running-mate/2020/07/28/9a2b1c52-b95d-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">Val Demings</a> (D-Fla.). Sen. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/30/duckworth-interviewed-by-biden-team-vp-slot/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9&itid=lk_inline_manual_92">Tammy Duckworth </a>(D-Ill.) also confirmed last month that she’s been vetted.

Others believed to be in contention are Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has become an informal economic policy adviser to Biden in recent months, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, initially said he’d select his running mate by Aug. 1. Then, late last month, he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-says-he-will-pick-running-mate-by-end-of-next-week/2020/07/28/54e1291a-d0e7-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_94">told reporters</a> that he intended to make up his mind by the end of the first week of August.

Making the announcement just a few days before the convention would allow Biden to build buzz for the party’s quadrennial meeting, with less time for the Trump campaign to define the vice presidential choice in negative terms. The running mate is slated to get a major speaking slot at the convention.

Annie Linskey

The largest Republican super PAC focused on House races announced Monday that it will spend an additional $45 million this fall, including $6 million on a “ballot chase” program as an increasing number of Americans vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. That new spending is on top of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/eyeing-house-majority-top-republican-super-pac-books-43-million-in-fall-ads/2020/04/09/5cd8886c-79e8-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_97" target="_blank">the $43 million in ads the super PAC reserved</a> earlier this year.

“The investments we’re making today are a second down payment in key races where we can make a real difference in the battle for the House,” Dan Conston, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, said in a statement. “The hard work CLF put in from the outset has allowed us to keep Democrats where we want them: on defense. This reserve positions us well for the fall battle and it won’t be our last.”

The group, which has close ties to GOP leaders including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), is targeting races in 21 states with its latest buy. The ads will run on broadcast, cable and digital platforms. The super PAC is pursuing its ballot chase program even though Trump and other top Republicans have attacked voting by mail, claiming without evidence that it will lead to widespread fraud.

Democrats currently control 232 seats in the House, while Republicans control 198. There is one libertarian member, Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), and four seats are vacant.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel on Monday defended President Trump’s proposal to give his acceptance speech at the White House, an idea critics have argued would blur the line between the official business of the president and campaign events.

“Well, here’s my personal opinion: If Joe Biden can live in his basement, the president has every right to talk in front of his house, which is the White House,” McDaniel said during <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6179807558001?playlist_id=938973798001#sp=show-clips" target=_blank>an appearance</a> on “Fox &amp; Friends.”

Despite McDaniel’s claim, Biden has taken part in a number of public events recently. He was seen last week riding a bicycle outside and attended a church service in Delaware on Sunday.

Under federal law, government employees and property are generally barred from being used for political purposes, with notable exceptions. The Hatch Act, which prevents federal officials from certain forms of political activity at work, exempts the president and vice president from any restrictions.

While she defended the idea of a White House address, McDaniel declined to say where Trump plans to give his acceptance speech.

“Oh, I’m not going to go there yet,” she said. “I think that’s going to be up to the president to announce that.”

Joe Biden Campaigns In South Carolina 

The list of speakers at next week’s Democratic National Convention includes at least nine people from around the country, some of whom Biden had met while campaigning, according to a list provided to The Washington Post. They will be featured in a mixture of prerecorded segments and speeches, roundtables, and live remarks.

The list includes Rick Telesz, a farmer from Lawrence County, Pa., who voted for Trump in 2016 but, because of the impact the president’s trade policies has had on his family farm, is planning to vote for Biden. Another conservative Republican, Jeff Jeans of Sedona, Ariz., was adamantly opposed to the Affordable Care Act but changed his mind after being diagnosed with throat cancer and obtaining insurance coverage despite that preexisting condition.

Aldo Martinez, a paramedic from Fort Myers, Fla., was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program started by Obama but rescinded by Trump that gives some children of undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. Martinez immigrated from Mexico City at the age of 12.

The speakers also will include DeAndra Dycus, whose 13-year-old son was shot and severely injured in 2014; Luz Chaparro Hernandez, an elementary school teacher in Milwaukee who is adjusting to challenges from the coronavirus, and Angie Taylor, a cancer survivor from Reno, Nev., who wants to preserve the Affordable Care Act.

The convention — which will be streamed online via a variety of social media platforms and broadcast on television, as well as on Twitch — will take place from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. for four nights starting Aug. 17.

So far, the campaign has confirmed that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would speak on Monday night, and Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are set to speak Wednesday. Biden’s vice presidential nominee will also speak that night (if Warren is the nominee, she would move into that speaking slot instead). Biden will speak on Thursday night in the traditional nominee’s spot.

Former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama also will have speaking roles during the convention. Others expected to speak include John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio who ran against Trump in 2016; former president Bill Clinton,<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/07/who-will-speak-at-dnc-392533"> according to Politico</a>; and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-07/democrats-offer-a-republican-ex-governor-as-convention-speaker">according to Bloomberg News</a>.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-will-highlight-everyday-americans-in-their-prime-time-convention-line-up/2020/08/09/fdcb96ca-da95-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_118" target=_blank>here</a>.

Matt Viser

Negotiations For New Coronavirus Relief Package Continue At The Capitol

Regular readers of The Fact Checker may get a sense of deja vu from a TV ad running in Kentucky.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as we’ve <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/02/mitch-mcconnell-got-rich-old-fashioned-way/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6&itid=lk_inline_manual_122">written</a> in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/04/the-kooky-tale-of-cocaine-mitch/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6&itid=lk_inline_manual_122">previous</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/05/22/how-did-mitch-mcconnells-net-worth-soar/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6&itid=lk_inline_manual_122">fact checks</a>, ranks among the wealthiest senators despite being on a public salary for more than 30 years.

A new ad from his opponent in November, Democrat Amy McGrath, says, “Oh, and Mitch made millions from China.” 

But the story of how McConnell got rich has nothing to do with Chinese trade deals, spycraft or the coronavirus. He simply married into a higher tax bracket. Other than the inheritance in 2007, no record shows McConnell or his wife receiving a financial windfall from the Chaos.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/10/amy-mcgraths-spurious-claim-that-mcconnell-made-millions-china/?itid=lk_inline_manual_125" target=_blank>here</a>.

Salvador Rizzo

Donald Trump

President Trump is increasingly trying to run against a Joe Biden of his own making.

Rather than look for campaign ammunition in the former vice president’s long track record of politically vulnerable votes and policy proposals, Trump calls him “the most extreme left-wing candidate in history” and says he’ll “abolish the police” and “abolish the suburbs.” Biden is even “against God,” in Trump’s telling.

In lobbing such extravagant attacks on Biden, Trump has concocted a profile of the presumptive Democratic nominee at odds with much of Biden’s personal and professional life — a cartoonish depiction so distant from the reality of Biden that the hits don’t always resonate.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-portray-biden-radical/2020/08/09/36776aa6-d8cc-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_131">here</a>.

Ashley Parker

Last week was about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/left-democrats-primary-wins/2020/08/05/aa4abf2c-d733-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_133" target=_blank>as good as the Democratic Party’s left flank could have asked for,</a> with Rep. Rashida Tlaib winning renomination by a landslide in Michigan and Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush unseating Rep. William Lacy Clay in Missouri. But the next few days and weeks will tell us whether the movement can hold onto all of its 2018 gains, and how robust its candidates are when local media coverage of their races turns on scandal.

In Minnesota’s 5th District, Rep. Ilhan Omar has rallied state and national Democrats behind her campaign; both groups have weighed in heavily against her challenger, attorney Antone Melton-Meaux. Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed Omar during the weekend, even though after Joe Biden’s primary win in the state, the congresswoman expressed frustration that liberal voters hadn’t “consolidated” behind Bernie Sanders — a comment seen as a knock on Warren. More importantly, both the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and the Campaign Legal Center filed FEC <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea035/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/24/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_134">complaints</a> that asked whether Melton-Meaux had violated the law by concealing how most of his money was being spent.

“Antone for Congress has disguised over 77 percent of its total spending by routing funds through three recently created LLCs,” the CLC complaint alleged. “The candidate himself has publicly acknowledged that the LLCs are being used as conduits to disguise the identities of the campaign’s ultimate vendors, and additionally described a motive to conceal their identities.” 

Melton-Meaux, who said last month that his contractors were trying to navigate around the DCCC’s blacklist — denying future business to contractors who worked against incumbents — said last week “these individuals and organizations have to protect themselves” and had “done it in a legal way.” His campaign labeled the complaints “frivolous,” but they had muddled what was a helpful topic for his campaign: Omar’s disclosed use of her husband’s consulting firm for nearly all campaign activity. (The firm also worked for her predecessor, Keith Ellison.)

“If Mr. Melton-Meaux is, in fact, intentionally using a shell company to hide his vendors as this complaint alleges he has done, this is a legal question first, not a political one,” DCCC spokesman Cole Leiter <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea036/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/25/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_137">told</a> MinnPost reporter Gabe Schneider.

The Star-Tribune, which has never endorsed Omar, <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea037/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/26/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_138">backed</a> Melton-Meaux in a pre-primary editorial. His ability to spend heavily on negative ads, added to the critical local coverage of her campaign spending, has done some damage. The closing argument by her allies is that Omar is simply too important to lose.

Omar, who won an open seat in 2018, is one of the best-known endorsees of Justice Democrats. The group has also gone in heavily for Alex Morse, the 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Mass., in his challenge of Rep. Richie Neal. But on Friday night, the Daily Collegian <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea038/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/27/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_139">reported</a> Massachusetts College Democrats were condemning Morse’s campaign on the grounds the candidate “had inappropriate sexual relations with college students before and during his congressional campaign.” 

Morse, who had taught a college class for years in the district, admitted he had engaged in sexual relationships with much younger men, apologizing for anyone he made “uncomfortable.” “As I’ve become more comfortable with myself and my sexuality, like any young, single, openly gay man, I have had consensual adult relationships, including some with college students,” Morse told the Collegian. “Navigating life as both a young gay man and an elected official can be difficult, but that doesn’t excuse poor judgment.” 

The candidate had locked up a good deal of national liberal support before those revelations. Over the weekend, none of those endorsers bolted. Jamaal Bowman, the Justice Democrat who defeated Rep. Eliot L. Engel in New York’s June primary, put out a weekend fundraising email on Morse’s behalf. A spokesman for Justice Democrats contacted Saturday had, by Sunday afternoon, not responded to a question about the story; neither had Morse’s media consultant. On social media, some supporters of the effort to replace “corporate” Democrats with liberals said Morse was being smeared.

“What’s very creepy is trying to convert adult college students into babies and anointing yourself the power to sit in judgment of other adults’ consensual sexual lives when you know literally nothing about their lives,” <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea039/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/28/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_142">wrote </a>the Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald.

David Weigel

Election 2020 Tennessee

The closely watched Republican primary for a Senate seat in Tennessee ended Thursday with <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea040/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/36/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_145">a clear victory for Bill Hagerty</a>, the president’s former ambassador to Japan. Hagerty and challenger Manny Sethi disagreed little on substance but spent the final stretch of the campaign trading accusations of being too close to liberals, with Sethi winning endorsements from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who warned Hagerty would be a go-along senator. But the president had endorsed Hagerty, and that closed off any chance for a Sethi upset.

“President Trump has had my back since before the beginning of all of this,” Hagerty said on election night.

Hegarty won by 12 points, losing narrowly to Sethi in Chattanooga, Knoxville and the greater Nashville area. (Sethi is a surgeon at the city’s Vanderbilt University.) That meant Hegarty lost four of the state’s most populous counties, but he won everywhere else. Minutes later, he learned his opponent would not be James Mackler, a Nashville attorney and Army veteran backed by national Democrats, but Marquita Bradshaw, a Memphis environmental activist backed by the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.

“When we entered this race, many warned us that we would not have a place here,” Bradshaw <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea041/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/37/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_148">told supporters</a> on election night. “And hard-working Tennesseans said different.” 

Mackler’s defeat put an end to one of the winningest records in primary politics: the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s ability to get its candidates through contested primaries. Mackler, who had run for Senate in 2018 before stepping aside for former governor Phil Bredesen to win that nomination, traveled the state for years and spent $1.5 million on his primary campaign, pitching himself as a<a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea042/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/38/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_149"> post-partisan</a> candidate focused on “accomplishing the mission.” 

Although turnout was down only slightly from the midterm primary, in 2018, Mackler never caught fire. He ran third in the statewide vote, third in the Democratic stronghold of Memphis and third in his own Nashville. Democrats turning out for other races voted largely for underfunded or no-name candidates; a perennial candidate named Gary Davis, who did not file an FEC report, won 13 counties. Sixty-one percent of the vote went to Bradshaw or Robin Kimbrough Hayes, another Black, female first-time candidate. Bradshaw, who spent just $8,000 on her campaign, dominated in Memphis, the rest of western Tennessee and in the “tri-cities” of eastern Tennessee.

This isn’t the first time Tennessee’s declining Democrats have nominated a candidate few of their voters knew about, but it could have been worse. In 2012, the party’s voters picked a right-wing attorney named Mark Clayton to challenge Sen. Bob Corker, then spent the entire general election distancing themselves from him. Bradshaw, the party’s first Black statewide nominee in 14 years, won’t have that problem, but Republicans eager to run against “socialism” will face the choice of whether to elevate Bradshaw or, as they have done in other races where the GOP had a financial and polling advantage here, ignore her completely.

The stakes are lower, in part, because few downballot races in Tennessee are competitive. The other Democratic story in Tennessee on Thursday was Rep. Jim Cooper's closer-than-expected 17-point win in a primary against Keeda Haynes, a public defender who had gone to prison on what she said was a bogus drug charge. It was the first primary for Cooper in the current 5th District, drawn by Republicans to pack Nashville and its western suburbs into one safe blue seat. Although Hillary Clinton won it by 19 points, Cooper, a Blue Dog Democrat, voted to the right of the Democratic conference, creating an opening for a challenge. It's unclear what Republicans, who will control the 2021 redistricting process, might do to the district.

In the deep red 1st District, a Republican who won by far less than Cooper secured a safe seat in Congress. Pharmacist Diana Harshbarger <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea043/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/39/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_153">won just 19 percent of the vote</a>, enough to hold off more than a dozen challengers. Unlike some of its Southern neighbors, Tennessee does not require runoffs, so Harshbarger will expand the number of Republican women in the House, while dealing a blow to the Club for Growth; it backed state Rep. Timothy Hill, who ran <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2a29267/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/40/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_153">blistering</a> culture war ads but ran 2,345 votes behind Harshbarger.

Hawaii held Saturday primaries that were drained of most drama last October, after Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced she would retire and focus on her presidential bid. That left her challenger, Kaiali’i Kahele, a liberal state legislator, in a commanding position, and he easily won the Democratic nomination in the 2nd District.

Turnout was up slightly from 2018, when Gabbard put away a primary challenger with more than 92,000 votes; Kahele, who had jumped into the race last year to challenge Gabbard, had more than 98,000 votes as of Sunday morning. Carried by 31 points by Hillary Clinton, the district is not competitive in November. In the 1st District, which is less Democratic but not being seriously contested by Republicans this year, the party nominated the <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2aea044/5f306d71fe1ff65e117aaebb/596a076a9bbc0f6d71c8e078/41/62/1b0943f8985261cad12f52353f209761?itid=lk_inline_manual_155">17th candidate</a> nationwide who has expressed some level of support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Also totally uncompetitive in November: Texas’s 4th District, where Republicans met Saturday to nominate their successor for former congressman and current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. They picked state legislator Pat Fallon, who will face Democratic IT professional Russell Foster in a seat the president carried by 54 points.

Harvard University, B.A. in Government, 2005

Felicia Sonmez is a national political reporter covering breaking news from the White House, Congress and the campaign trail. She was previously based in Beijing, where she worked for Agence France-Presse and The Wall Street Journal.

University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Jenna Johnson is the deputy democracy editor at The Washington Post. She previously worked as a National politics reporter, covering the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the White House and voters.



Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2022, for coverage fo the attack on Jan. 6

George Polk Award, 2022, for coverage of the attack on Jan. 6

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, 2018, for coverage of Russian interference 

George Polk Award, 2018, for coverage of Russian interference 

George Polk Award, 2014, for coverage of the Virginia governor's interactions with a wealthy donor

Harvard University, BA in history

Rosalind Helderman is an investigative reporter on the national staff of The Washington Post. She was part of teams awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2022 and the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2018. She joined The Post in 2001. 

Associated Press Virginia staffer of the year

Allegheny College, BA in English and History

Anne Gearan is a White House correspondent for The Washington Post, with a focus on foreign policy and national security. She covered the Hillary Clinton campaign and the State Department for The Post before joining the White House beat. She joined the paper in 2012.

Election 2020 Biden pressed on VP pick; Trump teases decision on acceptance speech location

Here's what to know:

Here's what to know

Live coverage contributors 12

Election 2020: Biden defeats Trump