The Daily 202: Trump granting a pardon during Republican convention typifies a norm-busting presidency

Trump made a compelling case for why Ponder deserves a pardon. Nonetheless, the scene was a stark display of the unprecedented degree to which Trump has disregarded long-standing standards of presidential propriety and used the perquisites of his public office for political purposes.

At Virginia’s ratifying convention in 1788, George Mason expressed deep concern about giving a president the power to pardon. Madison responded that presidents would be cautious about abusing them because they could face impeachment by the House. The threat of blowback has certainly not deterred Trump from ignoring traditional guardrails.

No president had ever before issued a pardon during a political convention. Neither had any sitting secretary of state addressed a convention until Mike Pompeo did so on Tuesday night from Jerusalem. In another first, Trump appeared from the White House later in the program – where he’s spending this week because of the novel coronavirus – to speak at a naturalization ceremony for five new U.S. citizens that was led by Department of Homeland Security acting secretary Chad Wolf. It was also the first time a DHS leader spoke during a national political convention.

“Hail to the Chief” played, and uniformed Marines opened the door for the president, as the camera rolled. Trump had tweeted earlier in the day that he plans to formally nominate Wolf to be secretary, which comes nearly 10 months after he was installed on an interim basis. The Government Accountability Office said earlier this month that Wolf’s appointment was unlawful under the Vacancies Reform Act, which makes department policies more vulnerable to court challenges.

The second night closed with a speech from first lady Melania Trump in the Rose Garden. Vice President Pence will address the convention tonight from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which is also federal property. The president will conclude the convention with a speech from the South Lawn on Thursday, during which he will be introduced by his daughter and White House aide Ivanka Trump. The National Park Service has approved a fireworks show from the Washington Monument that will begin as soon as he finishes.

The political events at the White House have prompted a chorus of legal experts to warn that Trump administration officials may be violating the Hatch Act. Officially known as the “Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities,” it was signed into law in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Sen. Carl Hatch (D-N.M.) had authored the legislation amid allegations that Democratic politicians gained an unfair advantage in the midterms the year before because of help from employees at the Works Progress Administration.

Miles Taylor, the Trump-appointed chief of staff under then-DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, accused Trump on Tuesday of privately offering pardons last year to government employees who broke the law to implement his zero-tolerance immigration agenda. “That was the moment I finally decided I was going to have to quit the Trump administration,” Taylor said in a video he recorded for Republicans Voters Against Trump.

Last month, Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime political consigliere Roger Stone, who was convicted of seven crimes, including felonies related to lying under oath to protect the president. Stone joined a long list of politically connected recipients of clemency: Joe Arpaio, Scooter Libby, Dinesh D’Souza, Conrad Black, Bernard Kerik, Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Paul Pogue, David Safavian, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., and more.

The White House has taken more direct control over pardons and commutations, with Trump aiming to limit the traditional role played by the Justice Department in the clemency process. Trump has never ruled out trying to pardon himself or his children. His clemency spree undercuts Trump’s claims that he is a “law-and-order” president. 

Aaron Blake noted last month that the crimes for which he has opted to unilaterally circumvent justice include: “Lying about contacts involving a man, Julian Assange, who served as a conduit for Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election and who is currently under indictment (Stone). Three war crimes, including two murders (Clint Lorance). Murder (Michael Behenna). Alleged murder (Mathew Golsteyn). Arson that burned 139 acres of federal land (Steven and Dwight Hammond). Corruptly trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat for personal gain (Blagojevich). Using his high profile after the 9/11 attacks to commit tax fraud (Kerik). Refusing a judge’s order to stop detaining people suspected of being undocumented immigrants (Arpaio).”

Previous presidents have faced intense criticism for pardons. Bill Clinton’s pardon of financier Marc Rich in 2001, during his final hours in office and at the urging of a major Democratic donor, continues to tarnish his legacy. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon probably cost him the 1976 election.

House Democrats announced Tuesday that they will investigate whether Pompeo or any of his aides violated the Hatch Act by giving the speech while traveling on government business in Israel. Pompeo’s spokesperson said no State Department resources were used, though the Trump campaign listed him on the schedule under his official title and honorific.

Kathleen Clark, a legal and government ethics professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, said that the naturalization event appeared to be designed as part of the convention, an action that would violate the Hatch Act. “Under the act, federal employees are prohibited from using their authority to influence the election of a presidential candidate, she said, calling Trump and Wolf ‘breathtaking in their contempt for the law,’” Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Josh Dawsey report. “A White House official [responded that] it was part of the president’s official schedule that was publicized on a public website. ‘The campaign decided to use the publicly available content for campaign purposes,’ the official said. ‘There was no violation of law.’ …

“The most widely known civil provisions of the Hatch Act do not apply to the president and the vice president. But the law applies to executive branch employees who are involved in planning or executing any political events staged at the White House, including video segments filmed there, experts said. And while the president and vice president are exempt from the civil provisions of the law, they are subject to two criminal provisions derived from the Hatch Act, Clark said. …

“Roughly a dozen Trump administration officials have been found in violation of the Hatch Act in recent years. After Special Counsel Henry Kerner recommended the removal of White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway last year for numerous violations, she brushed off the concerns. ‘Blah, blah, blah,’ she told reporters. ‘If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work. Let me know when the jail sentence starts.’ Trump has occasionally joked with aides that he would pardon them for Hatch Act violations, former administration officials said.”

Mary Ann Mendoza is an “angel mom,” a term used by immigration restrictionists for mothers whose children were killed by undocumented immigrants. On Tuesday morning, ahead of her address scheduled for prime time, she promoted an anti-Semitic Twitter thread from a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory who claimed that in 1773, a Jewish goldsmith summoned other businessmen to his home and proclaimed that if they pooled their money, “it was possible to gain control of the wealth, natural resources, and manpower of the entire world.” She apologized and deleted the thread, but she tweeted something similar in 2018: “The Rothschilds have used their globalist media mouthpiece to declare that Donald Trump is threatening to destroy the New World Order!”

“Neither officials from the president’s campaign nor the Republican National Committee responded to a request for comment on how deeply — or whether — Mendoza had been vetted in advance of being assigned her speaking role. The Trump campaign also did not respond to a request for comment on whether Mendoza would remain on the campaign board of Women for Trump,” Seung Min Kim reports.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon supporter who is now the Republican nominee in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, …. tweeted an invitation from the White House to attend the president’s formal convention address from the Rose Garden on Thursday night. She disclosed the invite on the same day CNN reported that she has spread the false ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory that led to a shooting at a D.C. pizza restaurant and previously wrote that the 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville was an ‘inside job.’ … Lauren Boebert, the Republican nominee for a competitive House seat in Colorado, also tweeted Tuesday that she has been invited to attend Trump’s speech on Thursday. Boebert has signaled that she is open to the QAnon conspiracy theory.”

Abby Johnson, who spoke Tuesday night about her conversion from a Planned Parenthood staffer to an antiabortion activist, recently tweeted that she supports reviving household voting, which would allow only the head of a household to cast a vote in elections. The 19th unearthed tweets from this summer in which she described her own views “anti-feminist,” and Johnson reiterated on Tuesday night when asked that a husband should get the “final say” over his wife in how a household votes in elections.

Johnson also said cops would be “smart” to racially profile her son. In a late June YouTube video, she said, “statistically, my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons.” “I recognize that I’m gonna have to have a different conversation with Jude than I do with my brown-haired little Irish, very, very pale-skinned, white sons, as they grow up,” Johnson said. “Right now, Jude is an adorable, perpetually tan-looking little brown boy,” said Johnson, who in 2015 adopted the biracial boy at birth. She is white. “But one day, he’s going to grow up and he’s going to be a tall, probably sort of large, intimidating-looking-maybe brown man. And my other boys are probably gonna look like nerdy white guys.” (Vice)

“Chief on the list of aims Tuesday night was appealing to women, who polls show have deserted Trump in numbers that make his reelection path very difficult. And there was clearly a focus specifically on culturally conservative women,” Aaron Blake reports. “One speaker, Cissie Graham Lynch, the granddaughter of the late evangelical icon Billy Graham, referred to what’s known as bathroom bills on transgender students, saying, ‘Democrats pressured schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports and use girls’ locker rooms.’ … Melania Trump made a general appeal to women, and said she had ‘a special message for the mothers of this country,’ describing struggling with how to talk to children about their changing world. … Another video featured mothers who serve in the White House.”

• The Fact Checker team flags 19 dubious claims: “It was another tsunami of untruths on the second night.”
• Carol Morello: “Pompeo stirs up outrage among some diplomats over speech to RNC.”
• Ahead of Pompeo’s speech, embarrassing new details also emerged from the State Department inspector general’s investigation into the behavior of Trump political appointees in the protocol office. “Whip cracking, drinking and profanity-laced threats: Government office in charge of etiquette plagued by etiquette problems,” John Hudson reports.
• Philip Bump: “For one cynical and perhaps illegal moment, Trump finds a use for immigrants.”
• Isaac Stanley-Becker: “Trump’s Black supporters bring attacks from the Internet to convention prime time, in answer to diverse Democratic ticket.”
• Toluse Olorunnipa: “Trump uses Republican convention to try to rewrite coronavirus history, casting himself as lifesaving hero.”
• William Wan: “Natalie Harp said Trump saved her life. Experts doubt that’s true.”

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow spoke about the pandemic in the past tense, as if it is over. His speech came six months to the day after he declared on CNBC that Trump has “contained” the coronavirus: “I won’t say airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.” Last night, he predicted “better than 20 percent growth in the second half of this year.”

The lineup of speakers for tonight includes both Mike and Karen Pence; Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa); South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R); Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.); former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell; and Lara Trump, Eric’s wife.

“As a recent graduate, I can relate to so many of you who might be looking for a job,” said Tiffany Trump, 26, who finished Georgetown Law school this spring. Her father is a billionaire and the president.

Falwell, the 58-year-old evangelical leader and longtime Trump surrogate, said his contract as president entitles him to a $10.5 million severance package — in part because he is departing from the university without being formally accused of or admitting to wrongdoing. “I haven’t done anything,” he said. He told The Washington Post on Tuesday he had not been involved in an affair, but his wife had. Becki Falwell, in the same interview, confirmed that account. Falwell had seemed untouchable within the evangelical community both because of his deceased father’s status and his close alliance with Trump, which helps explain how he survived controversies over remarks and actions considered racist and anti-Muslim. Falwell has said he turned down Trump’s request to be education secretary during a meeting at Trump Tower before Betsy DeVos was nominated. 

Giancarlo Granda, a former Miami pool boy, alleged this week he had a years-long affair with Becki and that Jerry sometimes watched their interactions, including video calls where she was naked. Granda accused Falwell in a statement of being a “predator,” saying he’d sent Granda an image of a female Liberty University student exposing herself at their farm. “Falwell said he sent the screenshot to several people because he thought it was funny,” Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Susan Svrluga and Michelle Boorstein report.

“Granda’s accusations have revived attention to claims last year by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, that he had intervened on Falwell’s behalf several years ago when someone was threatening to blackmail the Liberty leader … Falwell confirmed Tuesday that Cohen had helped him. … Cohen told The Post in a text message Tuesday that he had worked with Granda’s lawyer to ‘ensure the alleged photos were not released to the public.’ A spokesman for Granda said Granda’s attorney did not speak with Cohen. Cohen also addressed Falwell’s 2016 endorsement of Trump, which came during the Republican primary race, after the alleged photo incident, and was a key turning point in siphoning evangelical support away from other GOP candidates. ‘I asked the Falwells, as a personal favor to me, to assist with the lagging Trump campaign in Iowa,’ Cohen wrote in a text.”

“Clarkson sent at least 558 text messages between March 5 and March 31 to a woman whose job required she sometimes interact with the attorney general. In at least 18 messages he invited the woman to come to his home. … In early April, the woman sent Clarkson a text asking him to stop messaging her personal phone,” ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News report. “Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said in an email Tuesday that he had accepted Clarkson’s resignation. … Clarkson apologized to Dunleavy, who appointed him in late 2018. … Clarkson has been seen as a crusader for conservative positions on same-sex marriage and abortion. … In its article Tuesday, the Daily News and ProPublica report also noted two restraining order applications made by Clarkson’s estranged wife in the 1990s. One was granted. … This year, Dunleavy sent a letter to [Trump] asking for help to secure visas for Clarkson’s wife and stepson to leave Colombia and come to Alaska. He cited Clarkson’s work and his commitment to family.”

“The messages were posted years ago, but they’ve surfaced in Mast’s tough re-election fight against Democratic challenger Pam Keith,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. “One of the comments involves a Feb. 23, 2009, photo of a bar outing posted by Rocco LeDonni, who is now Mast’s campaign manager. The photo was taken during LeDonni’s vacation to South Africa. Mast commented, ‘im so proud of you… i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there…. its legel there right.’ Two years later, LeDonni asked in a May 20, 2011, post: ‘Anyone have any good pick up lines for this weekend considering according to the crazy christian radio guy the world may end on sunday?’ ‘How about don’t turn this rape into a murder,’ Mast responded.”

Aaron Coleman (D), the 19-year-old candidate, vowed to drop out of the race after admitting to sharing nude photos of a minor and threatening her if she did not send more images. The “revenge porn” incident happened when he was 14. But Coleman reversed course yesterday, saying supporters don’t want him to drop out because “they did not vote for me expecting that I was a perfect person.” As Coleman said he would continue running, an ex-girlfriend came forward to accuse him of slapping and attempting to strangle her during an argument last year, allegations on which Coleman hasn’t yet commented. ActBlue, the fundraising platform for liberals, dropped Coleman, saying he’s “out of alignment’ with its mission. Coleman blamed his shunning on “corporate Democrats.” (Fox News)

“The shootings came after a confrontation between protesters and armed men who said they were protecting a gas station,” Mark Guarino and Jaclyn Peiser report. “Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that police are searching for a man seen in video footage holding a long gun. Shots were fired around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, police said. After the first shots, a young White man carrying a rifle began running north on Sheridan Road, away from a crowd of protesters. Video shows the armed man fall to the ground, and then fire multiple rounds into the crowd. Two more people fell to the ground, one shot in the arm and the other in the chest, the Journal Sentinel reported. … Beth told the Times that investigators are looking into the armed men in front of the gas station, who were recorded before the shooting arguing with protesters. One of the men told The Washington Post that he was there to stop people from breaking into local businesses, noting that he’d seen rumors online about pipe bombs being used. ‘If the cops aren’t going to stop them from throwing pipe bombs on innocent civilians, somebody has to,’ said an armed man in a red checkered shirt, who declined to give his name. (There’s no indication that any pipe bombs were involved in Tuesday’s unrest.)”

Jacob Blake’s family called for peace in the streets and the arrest of the officers who shot him. “Anger-fueled protests radiated across the nation Tuesday as the family of a 29-year-old Black man shot in the back by police in [Kenosha, Wis.] demanded swift action,” Guarino, Mark Berman, Peiser and Griff Witte report. “Julia Jackson, Blake’s mother, asked for Americans to show ‘how humans are supposed to treat each other.’ But the family also pinned responsibility for Blake’s grievous injuries on what they called a racist law enforcement system that brutalizes Black people, and expressed dismay that his shooter had not yet been fired or charged. They spoke as Blake – who was shot at least seven times – underwent emergency surgery. The shooting left the father of five young children, three of whom witnessed the incident, paralyzed from the waist down. … ‘They shot my son seven times,’ said Jacob Blake Sr., his father, at a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon, growing emotional as he spoke. ‘Seven times. Like he didn’t matter. But my son matters. He’s a human being, and he matters.’

“More than 48 hours after Blake was shot, Trump had yet to address the incident directly. But speakers at the [RNC] this week have repeatedly invoked burning cities, blaming Democratic leaders for allegedly letting mobs run rampant. … Biden, by contrast, called for a thorough, independent investigation of Blake’s shooting while sympathizing with the ‘grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force.’ … The violence prompted Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency in Wisconsin, a day after he called in the National Guard to protect high-profile sites in Kenosha. … Other cities also saw protests overnight Monday and, in some places, damaging unrest. Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles, while in New York, demonstrators convened in Times Square and marched downtown, some extending across the Brooklyn Bridge.” 

D.C. protesters calling for justice in Blake’s case targeted diners, triggering online backlash. Protesters confronted a woman seated at a table outside a restaurant and demanded she raise her fist in a show of solidarity, Fredrick Kunkle reports. “White silence is violence!” the protesters chanted. The woman, Lauren Victor, refused, explaining she’s a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and has marched in its previous demonstrations. Victor said she didn’t feel it was right for hundreds of people to surround small groups of diners and try to cow them into support. In another exchange, a diner who objected to showing support tried to explain that he worked for a nonprofit committed to addressing mental health care for Black people. Protesters crowded around his table and exchanged angry words with him. 

Organizers of this week’s March on Washington in D.C. lowered their crowd estimates, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service. Organizers originally thought at least 100,000 people would gather to call for criminal justice reform and racial equality on the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” address. Now they expect about 50,000 to attend. (Marissa Lang)

Squaw Valley, a California ski resort that hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, said it  is changing its “offensive” name. A new name has not been determined yet. (Des Bieler)

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidance for coronavirus testing this week and now says that many people who have been exposed to the virus by being in close contact with someone who later tested positive ‘do not necessarily need a test’ if they are not experiencing symptoms,” Antonia Noori Farzan reports. The news comes as the U.S. reported surpassed more than 175,000 coronavirus deaths and more than 5.7 million cases, per our tracker. “Experts are expressing concern about the change, noting that people without symptoms are responsible for a large share of transmissions. … ‘This makes no sense,’ tweeted Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. ‘People without symptoms account for up to 50% of transmission. We need MORE testing, not less,’ she wrote. The CDC’s new guidance still recommends that ’vulnerable’ close contacts get tested after potential exposure, which is defined as being within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes.”

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will for the first time require the regular coronavirus testing of nursing home staff. “Employees are thought to have played a major role in inadvertently introducing the virus to nursing homes and spreading it among residents, more than 40,000 of whom have died of covid-19,” Will Englund reports. “Fast tests are becoming available, with more than 5,500 ‘point-of-care’ test kits already shipped out to nursing homes across the country, according to Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health.”
• D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) ordered health insurers to cover the cost of coronavirus testing for high-risk residents. Under the mandate, insurers must cover testing for those who work in high-risk settings; are at a high risk of complications from covid-19; or have been exposed to a person recently diagnosed with the disease. Prior doctor approval isn’t required. (Justin Moyer)

Leaders expressed fears “the Trump administration may cease reimbursing some of their purchases of masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment, a move they said could tear new holes in their budgets while threatening public health,” Tony Romm and Erica Werner report. “In calls throughout August, FEMA signaled that it may soon seek to rethink the criteria by which it doles out [disaster relief] dollars, troubling local governments, which say they are desperate for easy-to-access federal cash as the contagion continues to spread. For one thing, FEMA officials have told cities, states and their emergency responders that they may have to turn to other federal programs to cover some of their coronavirus costs, including protective equipment for government employees and disinfection supplies for schools, according to Erica Bornemann, the director of Vermont’s emergency management agency. … FEMA has not finalized its plans, and they could still change, some officials warned. … But the confusion FEMA has created still prompted mayors and governors to go public with their frustrations.”

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform wrote draft legislation designed to shield companies from liability related to the pandemic and distributed it to state and federal lawmakers, according to a top executive. It found a welcome audience on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans have since proposed and ardently defended liability provisions that appeared in the Chamber’s draft legislation, although the final proposed version, called the Safe to Work Act, contained numerous provisions the organization hadn’t flagged,” Aaron Gregg and Douglas MacMillan report.

Democrats want details about Operation Warp Speed co-chief Moncef Slaoui’s unusual contract. “In a letter Monday to Advanced Decision Vectors, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and two other lawmakers are asking [the consulting company] to explain its role in providing drug company executive Slaoui’s services as the chief coronavirus vaccine adviser to the Trump administration for $1,” Christopher Rowland reports. “By designating Slaoui a private, outside contractor, the administration has allowed Slaoui to avoid disclosure of extensive drug company investments that he accumulated as a former top executive at GlaxoSmithKline and as a partner in a large venture capital fund, Medicxi. Consumer advocates, pharmaceutical pricing activists and congressional Democrats have called the arrangement an end run around ethics rules for government officials.” 

• Cruise lines are already canceling trips into 2021. Princess Cruises, the Carnival-owned line that made headlines earlier this year after hundreds of passengers became infected with the virus on multiple ships, said it would cancel sailings “due to limitations with border and port access.” The decision follows an announcement from British line Cunard, which said it’s halting some sailings until May. Earlier this month, Miami-headquartered Crystal Cruises said it was canceling into January. (Shannon McMahon)
• American will be the first airline to use a coating said to kill the virus for up to seven days, the EPA announced. The agency removed a restriction against Texas, allowing the state to let the airline’s airport facilities and planes use SurfaceWise2, which creates an invisible layer that kills pathogens within two hours, according to its manufacturer. If the product is able to get non-emergency approval from the EPA in coming months, it could become widely available. (Meryl Kornfield)
• American Airlines will cut 19,000 jobs by Oct. 1. (WSJ) 
• South Korea closed many schools again as the country counted its 12th day straight of triple-digit daily increases in cases. Students will return to online learning. (AP) 
• Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt tested positive for the virus after attending his birthday party. In a video, Bolt said he wasn’t showing symptoms and was quarantining. “Be safe out there,” he said. Bolt was captured on video dancing with others without wearing a mask or social distancing during a party in Jamaica. Other pro athletes were at the party, including Manchester City star Raheem Sterling, who is awaiting test results before the next English Premier League season begins. Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness said police are investigating Bolt’s party. (Matt Bonesteel)
• The Gaza Strip has been under several degrees of lockdown since 2007, making daily life a struggle. The restrictions have both obstructed even the most basic preparations for a coronavirus outbreak and made it harder for the virus to find a toehold in its population. But that could change soon, as authorities reported the first four confirmed cases of the virus in the general population. They imposed a 48-hour lockdown in the territory of 2 million. (Miriam Berger and Antonia Noori Farzan)
• High school students in Washington County, Utah, pushed back against their parents’ anti-mask protests. Students in the conservative community spoke out against their parents’ plans to send them to school without a mask and urged them to cooperate with the state’s mandate for public schools to prevent further disruptions of classes. The efforts appear to have been successful: Only six students out of roughly 35,000 in the district were sent home for not wearing masks on Monday. (Deseret News)
• University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld blamed local bars for the school’s “explosion of cases.” In a letter to the Iowa City business community, he said some establishments failed to enforce a statewide mask mandate and social distancing guidelines. (Antonia Farzan)
• Genetic data show how a single superspreading event – a February biotech conference in Boston – sent the virus across the nation. Months later, the viral sub-strain of the virus linked to conference participants has been found in hundreds of people in the Boston area, as well as victims from Alaska to Senegal to Luxembourg. As of mid-July, the variant had been found in about one-third of cases sequenced in Massachusetts and 3 percent of all genomes studied so far in the U.S. (Sarah Kaplan and Chris Mooney)

“Officials across eastern Texas and western Louisiana issued mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday as Hurricane Laura strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to pummel the U.S. coastline, perhaps as the strongest storm to take aim at the region since 2005,” Brittney Martin and Ashley Cusick report. “Laura is expected to make landfall somewhere between Galveston and the Lake Charles area across the Louisiana border, with predicted storm tracks indicating that Port Arthur, Tex., could take the brunt of extremely high winds and heavy rains as the hurricane hits the coast. Forecasts call for Laura to hit the area sometime overnight Wednesday into Thursday, potentially as a strong Category 3 storm with sustained — and possibly devastating — winds above 115 mph. … The projected wind speeds and storm surge pushed officials to switch the order from voluntary to mandatory, said Richard ‘Dick’ Gremillion, head of the Calcasieu, La., Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. ‘Florida has used a strategy for years,’ Gremillion said. ‘They call it, ‘Run from the water, hide from the wind.’ That’s basically what we are asking people to do.’”

“Lightning-sparked fires that have grown to some of the largest in state history have pushed firefighters to the breaking point as they also deal with complications from the coronavirus pandemic and depleted inmate crews,” the AP reports. “‘Historically it’s September and October when we experience our largest and our most damaging wildfires. So to be in the middle of August and already have the second- and the third-largest wildfires in our state’s history is very concerning to us,’ Daniel Berlant, chief of wildfire planning and engineering at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said. … For now, cooler temperatures are helping firefighters begin to corral three huge clusters of fires ignited Aug. 15. The blazes have killed at least seven people, burned nearly 1,300 homes and other buildings, and prompted evacuation orders that still affect an estimated 170,000 people.”

For a second night in a row, Republicans presented foreign stock images as pictures of America. On Monday night, they used two pictures from Thailand. On Tuesday night, Ukrainian and Russian imagery slipped into their videos:

Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, is the daughter of the former mayor of Temple Terrace. She gave a speech decrying nepotism in politics, which was followed by speeches from Tiffany and Eric Trump:

Hillary Clinton responded to a Republican convention speaker who claimed on Monday night that, had she won in 2016, the U.S. would have “no hope of escape except death itself”:

“Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this is going to drag out, and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is,” Clinton told former aide Jen Palmieri in an interview for Showtime’s “The Circus,” per Politico.

Stephen Colbert said the GOP convention resembled a racist spelling bee: 

Trevor Noah was not convinced by the GOP’s appeals to Black voters: