The Daily 202: Democrats paint their own portrait of American carnage – induced by Trump

A procession of diverse speakers – from former president Barack Obama to an 11-year-old girl whose mom was deported – have framed the stakes of the election in unusually heavy and dire terms, expressing outrage over President Trump’s conduct in office and bitterness over the outcome of the 2016 election. Together, they conveyed the party’s eagerness to capitalize on the electorate’s overwhelming view that America is on the wrong track amid the pandemic, recession and civil unrest.

“This president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the way they are — they are counting on your cynicism,” Obama said. “They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. … That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all. … Don’t let them take away your democracy.”

During Trump’s inaugural address in 2017, he complained that “a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government” while not looking out for the citizens. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” Trump said.

There were faint echoes of this critique in Obama’s speech, delivered with a more-in-sadness-than-in-anger tone from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. 

“For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves,” the former president said. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t, and the consequences of that failure are severe. … Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished and our democratic institutions threatened like never before. … This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win.”

Thirty miles down Interstate 95, Harris capped off the two-hour program during a speech at the Chase Center in Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s hometown. She spoke before a small group of reporters and aides. Everyone was tested for the novel coronavirus before being allowed inside. A large security perimeter has been set up around the venue, even though few people are around. Joe and Jill Biden joined Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, onstage after she finished speaking. They kept socially distant. 

It felt awkward as they waved and pointed from a stage into a mostly empty venue, but it was a sign of the times. At least 169,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus in the United States, with 5.5 million confirmed cases.

The Labor Department announced Thursday morning that 1.1 million people applied for unemployment insurance for the first time last week, up from 970,000 the week before. More than 28 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, according to the most recent data.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted on the eve of the convention found that 14 percent of American adults think the outbreak is under control, 40 percent approve of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, 59 percent said the contagion has had a severe impact on their community, 65 percent said they are worried that they or someone in their immediate family will catch the virus and 68 percent described the state of the economy in negative terms.

Hillary Clinton noted that she won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes in 2016 but lost in the electoral college. “Remember back in 2016 when Trump asked: ‘What do you have to lose?’ Well, now we know: our health care, our jobs, our loved ones, our leadership in the world and even our post office,” said the former secretary of state and first lady. “For four years, people have told me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was. I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted.’ Look, this can’t be another ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ election.”

The Biden campaign wants the November election to be as much as possible a referendum on Trump. That is why Biden talked as much about the president as Harris when he introduced her at a rally here last week. It is also why the third night of the convention portrayed the country, at times, as a sort of apocalyptic hellscape.

“We know time is running out to save our planet,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). “We have the chance this November to end two existential crises: the Trump presidency and the environmental annihilation he represents.”

Speaking from an early childhood center in Springfield, Mass., Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she was only able to achieve what she did as a star law professor because her Aunt Bee could watch her kids after she divorced her first husband. “Child care was already hard to find before the pandemic, and now parents are stuck,” Warren said. “The devastation is enormous.”

“Remember in November,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking from her San Francisco district. “Rid the country of Trump’s heartless disregard.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the only non-Hispanic White man who was given a prominent slot during the two-hour broadcast, co-hosted a segment in which he interviewed struggling small-business owners in his state. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a self-described “Mexican American Jewish Italian,” interviewed a restaurant owner in his city who had to close down because of covid-19 on the same day she got a rave review in her local paper. 

The voices of everyday people often proved more powerful than speeches by politicians. A farmer explained how he has suffered because of Trump’s trade wars. An advocate for women noted that domestic violence rates are surging during the pandemic. 

DeAndra Dycus, a gun-control activist, explained that her 13-year-old son got shot in the back of the head while dancing at a birthday party. He is now permanently disabled, unable to walk or talk. “Since March, I’ve only been able to see my son three times. But I cannot touch or hug him due to covid-19,” she said.

Estela Juarez, an 11-year-old American citizen, read aloud an open letter to Trump describing her mother’s deportation to Mexico during a video montage that featured images of kids in cages. Her father is a Marine combat veteran who served in Iraq. Now it is just the two of them. “She’s been taken from us for no reason at all,” said Estela. “We need a president who will bring people together, not tear them apart.”

Harris likened “systemic racism” to the coronavirus. “This virus, it has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other,” she said. “And let’s be clear: There is no vaccine for racism.”

Obama’s plea had the feel of an Oval Office address, as the camera zoomed in for a tight shot that revealed how much his hair has grayed since his breakout moment as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston. Trump tweeted real-time reactions to Obama’s speech, including accusing him, in all caps, of spying on his 2016 campaign. During a news conference before the evening program, Trump called Obama an “ineffective” president and described his 2016 victory as a repudiation of Obamaism. “The reason I’m here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden, because if they did a good job, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.

Republicans have issued their own increasingly dire warnings about what would happen if the opposition won at the ballot box. Campaigning in Wisconsin earlier Wednesday, Vice President Pence said Biden has been co-opted “by the radical left” and that a Biden presidency would put the country “on an inexorable path toward socialism and decline.”

After months of Trump attacking his cognitive abilities, Biden used the same attack against the president. “When it comes to the pandemic, after months of failure, he just gave up,” Biden said during a virtual speech to the Wisconsin delegation. “I used to think it was because of his personality, but I just don’t think he can intellectually handle it. I don’t think he’s competent enough to know what to do.”

Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed criminal charges this morning against Trump’s former chief strategist and three other men they alleged defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors using an online crowdfunding campaign that was advertised as raising money to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. “Prosecutors said Bannon and another organizer of the campaign, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, claimed that they would not take any compensation as part of the campaign, called ‘We Build The Wall,’ but that was a lie. Bannon, prosecutors alleged, received more than $1 million through a non-profit he controlled, and Kolfage received more than $350,000,” Matt Zapotosky reports. “Prosecutors alleged they and two others routed payments from the campaign through the non-profit and another shell company and disguised them with fake invoices to help keep their personal pay secret. All four were arrested Thursday and are expected to make court appearances later in the day. They are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.”

“U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero threw out the lawsuit brought by the president’s personal lawyers, who had argued that the subpoena to Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm, was ‘overbroad’ in its request for documents and that it amounted to ‘harassment.’ Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. argued repeatedly that the subpoena, issued by a grand jury, was legally valid and tied to a legitimate criminal investigation,” Shayna Jacobs reports. The judge said Trump’s legal team failed to show the subpoena was issued “in bad faith.”

“Pressed at a White House briefing about the online movement, which the FBI has identified as a potential domestic terrorist threat, [Trump] claimed not to know anything about it other than the affection its adherents have for him,” Colby Itkowitz, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Lori Rozsa and Rachael Bade report. “‘I don’t know much about the movement; I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate,’ Trump said during a White House press briefing. ‘I heard these are people that love our country.’ ‘QAnon believes you are secretly saving the world from this cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Are you behind that?’ a reporter pressed. ‘I haven’t heard that. Is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?’ Trump responded. ‘If I can help save the world from problems, I am willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there. And we are actually, we’re saving the world.’ … [QAnon followers] lit up in response to the president’s comments, with users writing in all caps that the remarks ‘validated’ their movement.”

Others were aghast. “Q-Anon is nuts — and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement. “If Democrats take the Senate, blow up the filibuster, and pack the Supreme Court, garbage like this will be a big part of why they won.” Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who ran against Trump in 2016, tweeted: “Why in the world would the President not kick Q’anon supporters’ butts? Nut jobs, rascists, haters have no place in either Party.”

• Facebook banned about 900 pages or groups and 1,500 ads tied to QAnon. (NBC News) 
• Trump urged supporters not to buy Goodyear tires after the company reportedly banned workers from wearing his campaign hats. The company is headquartered in Ohio. The president’s limo also uses Goodyear tires. (Seung Min Kim and John Wagner)
• Kevin Clinesmith, who worked in the FBI general counsel’s office starting in 2015, pleaded guilty to altering an email a colleague relied on in seeking a court’s blessing to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the bureau’s 2016 investigation of Russia’s election interference. He told a federal judge he thought he was inserting truthful information. (Matt Zapotosky and Ann Marimow)
• Aaron Coleman, a 19-year-old Democrat who admitted to revenge porn, defeated a seven-term incumbent in a primary for a Kansas House seat. Seven years ago, he told a then-13-year-old girl he would circulate a naked photo of her if she didn’t send him more nude images. He followed through on his threat when she refused. Coleman confirmed the woman’s claims. (NYT)
• The Army is investigating how a pair of soldiers ended up in American Samoa’s roll call video during the convention. This violates Pentagon rules restricting political activity in uniform. The soldiers are assigned to the Army Reserve’s 9th Mission Support Command. The composition of the segment was an “oversight,” said DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa. (Alex Horton)

He has been imagining this moment for more than 50 years, and he hopes the third try is the charm, but this is not exactly the triumph he had in mind. “Nearly every four years since 1980, Biden considered a presidential run — and yet it never seemed like his time,” Matt Viser reports. “Several candidates have run multiple times — William Jennings Bryan in the early 20th century, for example, and former California governor Jerry Brown in 1976, 1980 and 1992. But perhaps the one who best matches Biden’s longevity is Henry Clay, who starting in 1824 ran multiple times over a quarter-century. Biden has also identified with Clay, who, like him was elected to the Senate at 29 and earned a reputation as the ‘great compromiser.’ But none of those figures ever won the presidency.”

“Reports of postal problems surged in recent weeks and appeared to run from rural routes in the nation’s heartland to cities up and down both coasts. Antidepressants suddenly held up in the mail for nine days on Long Island. A roof warranty claim in California that did not reach its destination in time. Complaints have poured in to politicians. The office of Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) office said this week that it has received more than 15,000 letters about mail delivery concerns,” Todd Frankel reports. “The question now is whether the problems will abate after Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster general, suspended on Tuesday actions the Postal Service was undertaking, including removing mail sorting machines and limiting overtime, that had been blamed for exacerbating delays. But it’s not clear how much of a difference the moves will make. According to private data, this summer’s mail woes appear to be only slightly worse than they were last year — and the delivery may be more related to the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Election officials are racing to expand voting options. There are efforts to install or expand drop boxes for the November elections in at least 14 states. Election officials are also seeking new, larger venues for in-person voting on Election Day in case an unexpectedly high volume of voters shows up. “Officials are worried that legions of voters won’t choose to vote by mail after all, forcing them to reexamine their capacity to safely offer in-person voting and to provide other ways to drop off ballots,” Amy Gardner, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Erin Cox report. “Democratic officials and election watchdogs said that they remained unconvinced the agency’s moves were sufficient to protect mail voting in the fall and that they would be pushing ahead with a House oversight hearing and a bevy of lawsuits. … On Wednesday, the president continued his attacks on mail voting, tweeting, ‘IF YOU CAN PROTEST IN PERSON, YOU CAN VOTE IN PERSON!’”

• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said any lawmaker who supports plans to provide more money to USPS “might as well just put it into a big pile on your front lawn and burn it.” He also said he opposes more relief for people who have suffered because of the pandemic. ”If you give people money and you make it less painful to be in a recession, we can stay in a recession longer,” he said. (Fox News) 
• White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump will “see what happens” before deciding whether to accept the results of the election. (Philip Bump)
• Former congressman Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who resigned in frustration a year-and-a-half into Trump’s presidency, endorsed Biden. “Trump has been destructive,” Dent writes in an op-ed for CNN. “He attacks the independence of the judiciary, abuses his authority with executive actions, tramples on Congress’ constitutionally granted ‘power of the purse’ authority under Article I, and detests a free press. In short, he is a threat to the rule of law and functional democracy.”

“The issue resurfaced recently after William R. Evanina, the top U.S. intelligence community official overseeing election security, said in a statement that China’s leaders preferred that Trump, whom they view as unpredictable, leave office. But it’s hard to say that China would genuinely prefer Biden, either,” Eva Dou and Gerry Shih report. “Despite pressuring Beijing with a steady drumbeat of punishing policies that have not been seen in 40 years of formal relations under either Republican or Democratic administrations, Trump in some ways has offered Xi [Jinping] a window of opportunity on the world stage and in domestic politics… ‘I had a Chinese scholar say to me: If we could convince all the countries in the world to come together and damage those pillars of U.S. strength, we could not be as successful as Donald Trump has been single-handedly,’ said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing and former National Security Council China director for Presidents Obama and George W. Bush.” 

Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) gave her longest speech since she was nearly killed outside a grocery store in 2011, and a video showed her playing a French horn. “Words once came easily,” she said. “Today I struggle to speak, but I have not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words.”

“Child abuse reports began to plummet across the country — not because it wasn’t happening, but because teachers, doctors and others had fewer ways of catching it. Now, a new survey of children’s advocacy centers across the country offers some of the clearest data yet on the scope of this gap in child abuse reporting,” Samantha Schmidt reports. “The centers, which provide support for families and children as abuse cases move through the justice system, reported serving 40,000 fewer children nationwide between January and June of this year than the same period last year, from 192,367 children in 2019 down to 152,016 this year, a 21 percent drop, according to the National Children’s Alliance, an accrediting body for a network of 900 children’s advocacy centers.” 

• The union representing New York City’s public-school teachers said its members won’t return to classrooms next month unless the city meets its health and safety demands – including testing all students and staff and ensuring all schools have a nurse. The announcement comes a week after Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said schools would reopen in September for in-person classes, arguing the city’s low positivity rate, less than one-quarter of 1 percent, allows for safe reopening. (Moriah Balingit)
• In Detroit, 91 percent teachers’ union members voted to authorize a potential “safety strike” over reopening plans. The union said its roughly 4,000 members would refuse to teach in-person classes. (Antonia Farzan) 
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he should have been quicker to mandate face coverings. “That would have made a dramatic difference,” he said. (Reis Thebault)
• A man punched a teenage employee at a Sesame Street theme park near Philadelphia after he was asked to wear a mask. The worker was hospitalized, and a man has been charged with assault. (Tim Elfrink)
• A Trump administration adviser predicted a vaccine could be widely available by next spring. Moncef Slaoui, co-director of Operation Warp Speed, said late-stage clinical trials of vaccine candidates from Moderna and Pfizer are going “very well.” (Business Insider)
• At least 5,000 people are expected to attend a youth wrestling tournament held in a Kansas City, Mo., arena, despite a rising number of cases in the area. (Matt Bonesteel)
• Hawaii delayed its reopening to mainland travelers until at least Oct. 1. The state was set to allow entry, with a negative test result, on Sept. 1. (Shannon McMahon)
• The CDC said Native Americans are disproportionately harmed by the virus: In 23 states, their rate of infection is 3.5 times that of White people. (Reis Thebault)
• Italy and Spain both hit records for the highest number of new cases confirmed since each country ended lockdowns in May and June. Over a 24-hour period, Italy recorded 642 new infections and seven fatalities, while Spain registered 3,715 infections and 127 fatalities. (Miriam Berger)
• The seven-day average of new cases in D.C., Maryland and Virginia dropped to 1,594, down from more than 2,000 earlier in August. That’s the lowest since July 17. (Dana Hedpgeth, Ovetta Wiggins, Rebecca Tan and Donna St. George)

“When the Fed’s top policymakers gathered July 28 and 29, officials discussed a slew of worrisome scenarios and noted that relief from the Cares Act was set to expire ‘against the backdrop of a still-weak labor market,’ according to meeting minutes released Wednesday,” Rachel Siegel reports. “If the pandemic worsens and the recession persists, Fed officials said banks and other lenders could tighten conditions in credit markets and ‘restrain the availability of credit to households and businesses,’ according to the minutes. Meeting participants also talked about businesses facing supply chain issues, the challenges of reopening and closing, and employee absenteeism, with particular strain felt by small businesses.”

“Alexei Navalny, Russia’s main opposition figure, is in a coma after drinking a cup of tea that his spokeswoman said she suspects was deliberately laced with poison,” Isabelle Khurshudyan reports from Moscow. “Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter that Navalny started to feel ill during a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, leading the pilot to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was taken to a local hospital and was on a ventilator. The chief doctor for the Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, where Navalny is in the intensive care unit for toxicology patients, told the state-run Tass news agency that Navalny is in serious condition. … A year ago, Navalny, 44, was hospitalized with an ‘acute allergic reaction’ a week after being detained … In 2017, Navalny was attacked with an antiseptic green dye that damaged vision in one of his eyes. 

“Navalny, who was barred from running for president in 2018, has frequently been jailed and harassed. In March, authorities seized the contents of his bank account as well as the accounts of his wife, son and daughter. Last month, Navalny was forced to close his Anti-Corruption Foundation … [that had] exposed graft and other wrongdoing by Russia’s elite for more than a decade … Navalny was believed to be traveling as part of an initiative to promote a tactical voting strategy to oppose pro-Putin candidates in September’s regional elections. … In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia’s arrests and detention of Navalny from 2012 to 2014 violated his rights.”

This tactic is straight out of the KGB playbook Putin learned when he was a young intelligence officer. In 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former double agent, and his adult daughter were poisoned in the U.K. with a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former spy and prominent critic of the regime, died of polonium-210 poisoning in London. He identified Putin as the culprit while in his hospital bed. The polonium was in his tea.

“Mired in a dry, sweltering heat that has baked the brush and timber into parched fuel, California is on fire again, with blazes threatening communities up and down the West Coast. Tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes early Wednesday as wildfires raged out of control, this time after an unusual series of thunderstorms swept through the region with more than 20,000 lightning strikes acting as lit matches to piles of kindling. Authorities said they were tracking and battling at least 92 known wildfires spanning more than 200,000 acres across California. Many of the fires are largely uncontained or not contained at all,” Heather Kelly, Andrew Freedman, Jason Samenow and Hannah Knowles report. “Flames rushed across the outskirts of Vacaville, about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, taking out numerous homes and buildings and forcing hasty evacuations from swaths of the city of nearly 100,000. … Such evacuations were made even more complex because of the novel coronavirus, with some residents concerned that leaving their homes for shelters could compromise their health amid surging cases in California. Authorities urged residents to first and foremost get out of the path of the flames.” 

• There’s a shortage of firefighting crews in California because the state locked down prison camps due to the pandemic. An outbreak among inmates in Lassen County means only 30 of California’s 77 wildfire crews are available. (Sacramento Bee)  
• Iowa is as prone to destructive derechos as Florida is to hurricanes. “When the derecho tore through Iowa on Aug. 10, it unleashed winds gusting up to 140 mph, equivalent to a major hurricane. The vicious storms arrived with little warning, ravaging the state’s corn crop and devastating communities. The damage is expected to rise well above $1 billion,” Matthew Cappucci reports. “More than a week later, upward of 30,000 customers remain without power.” 
• Torrential rain and floods battered the ancient quarter of Sanaa, the Yemen capital, damaging more than 100 homes, many of which are centuries old. (Ali Mujahed and Sudarsan Raghavan)

“The settlement, which will be announced Friday, will award the most money to the city’s youngest children, who were at greatest risk for lead poisoning and the physical damage and neurological problems that can cause,” Kayla Ruble reports. “The water crisis, which began in 2014 when this economically distressed city changed the source of its municipal water supply to save money, became one of the nation’s worst public health disasters in decades. … Between 18,000 and 20,000 children and adolescents lived in Flint during the water crisis, officials have estimated.”

“Abbott’s announcement came nearly a week after Austin’s city council voted to slash its police budget by $21.5 million,” Jessica Wolfrom and Mark Berman report. “Abbott’s proposal sets up a possible clash between local and state officials in Texas on an issue that has tormented city councils nationwide this summer. … However, Abbott’s office has not released details about his plan and did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. That leaves some specifics of the idea unclear, including what would constitute ‘defunding.’” 

• Portland protesters set fire to a county building. “Several hundred people participated in the peaceful protest before a smaller group broke off, police said, lighting fires in dumpsters in the street to block traffic and slow down police who later tried to clear the scene. Some sprayed anti-police graffiti on the county building and scrawled instructions to ‘aim here’ across the windows on the first floor. A few masked people threw rocks through window panes, and someone tossed a flaming newspaper into the building,” Katie Shepherd reports.
• Bill Barr announced nearly 1,500 arrests so far under “Operation Legend.” Of those, 217 have been charged with federal crimes, most of which are drug- and gun-related, ABC News reports. The attorney general launched the crackdown last month.
• Illinois is removing a statue of former senator Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in an 1858 Senate race and the 1860 presidential campaign, because he personally profited from slavery and supported popular sovereignty. (AP)

“Trump has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to go to the United Nations on Thursday in the first step toward reimposing all U.N. sanctions against Iran, using a legal maneuver that most of the Security Council considers dubious. In announcing Pompeo’s task, Trump said his decision in 2018 to abandon the landmark deal struck with Iran during the Obama administration had made the world safer,” Carol Morello and Felicia Sonmez report. “On Thursday, Pompeo will officially notify the Security Council that Iran is no longer complying with its commitments under the nuclear deal negotiated with the United States and other world powers. That sets the clock to trigger ‘snapback’ sanctions in 30 days.”

• The U.S. government said it will not seek the death penalty for two admitted ISIS members if British authorities promptly transfer evidence to aid their prosecution for suspected involvement in the executions of foreign hostages in Syria. (Ellen Nakashima and Rachel Weiner)
• The mutinous coup against Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta opens a power vacuum in West Africa. The nation is struggling to repel fighters loyal to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Analysts say these militants have expanded their territory in the countryside during the pandemic, despite foreign military intervention. (Danielle Paquette)
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s suspension of Parliament for five weeks amid an ethics controversy fueled cries of a coverup. (Amanda Coletta)

As Obama gave his speech, Pompeo mocked him by sharing this moment from “The Simpsons.” A Princeton professor noted the awkward backstory:

From Obama’s speechwriter:

Trump has always called for “LAW & ORDER,” yet the Democrats got a series star on their side: 

The Ohio GOP is encouraging mail-in voting, even as Trump continues to claim without evidence that it’s prone to fraud:

Mark Kelly, the Democratic nominee against Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) and the husband of Gabby Giffords, launched a Spanish-language ad on health care:

Seth Meyers said Trump and Fox News are trying to distract from the Democratic convention:

Trevor Noah said Americans must stop debating Kamala Harris’s Blackness: