Key events
‘Yes she can’: Obama lauds Harris in rousing speech
David Smith
Amid chants of “Yes, she can!”, Barack Obama returned to the scene of past triumphs on Tuesday to pass the mantle of political history to Kamala Harris – and eviscerate her opponent Donald Trump.
The former president delivered the closing speech on night two of the Democratic national convention in his home city of Chicago. Obama prompted raucous cheers as he delivered a withering critique of Trump, who succeeded him in the White House in 2017.
It was another night crackling with energy in the packed arena as the US’s first Black president made the case for the nation to elect the first woman and first woman of colour to the Oval Office.
Obama was speaking 20 years after he first exploded on to the political stage at the Democratic convention in Boston. That summer, Harris helped host a fundraiser for Obama’s run for the Senate in Illinois. Four years later, she backed him against Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, a campaign in which he coined the phrase “Yes, we can!”
The same chant greeted Obama when he took the stage in Chicago just after 10pm ET on Thursday and embraced his wife, Michelle. But halfway through his speech, Obama broke from his teleprompter remarks to ad lib: “Yes, she can!” The crowd instinctively chanted, “Yes, she can!” in response.
Harris campaign raised four times more than Trump in July
Kamala Harris’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump’s campaign, Reuters is reporting, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday.
The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in August, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.
Harris’s figures include money that was raised during the month before she launched her candidacy on 21 July, after Joe Biden stepped aside. Biden endorsed Harris, who took over control of Biden’s fundraising group.
Harris also outspent Trump last month, spending $81m compared to $24m, according to their FEC reports.
Kamala Harris appeared at a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday at the same time the Democratic national convention was running in Chicago.
Harris and her running mate, the Minnesota governor Tim Walz, took the stage in Milwaukee, the largest city in a crucial battleground state, moments after they were reaffirmed as the Democratic nominees following the state-by-state role call at the convention.
In her speech, Harris took aim at Donald Trump and criticized him for saying that he had “no regrets” about the supreme court’s ruling that overturned Roe v Wade.
Here’s a clip from Harris’s speech in Milwaukee:
Here are some images from the newswires from the Democratic national convention on Tuesday night.
Trump calls his supporters ‘basement dwellers’, says ex-press secretary
Sam Levin
In Chicago, the Democrats are making a play for disaffected Donald Trump voters – and they used one of his former White House staffers to make their case on Tuesday night.
Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former press secretary who also served as a spokesperson to Melania Trump, offered firsthand accounts of the former president’s behavior behind closed doors and said he “has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth”. Grisham said:
I wasn’t just a Trump supporter, I was a true believer, I was one of his closest advisers. The Trump family became my family. I saw him when the cameras were off … Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him.
Grisham earned applause when she said she was the first senior staffer to resign that day. She ended her short speech with an endorsement of Kamala Harris, saying:
I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.
Trump and Vance campaign in North Carolina
Donald Trump will be campaigning with his running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance, in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday where he will speak about national security in the swing state.
The Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidate will deliver remarks at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame this afternoon.
This will mark Trump’s third visit to North Carolina this month, after he spoke in Charlotte on 24 July and in Asheville on 14 August.
Although Kamala Harris’s big speech is scheduled for Thursday, she made a surprise appearance at the convention yesterday when her large Milwaukee rally with Tim Walz was live-streamed in Chicago. The moment allowed her to energize two large crowds at the same time.
On Monday at the start of the convention, Harris also made a surprise speech on stage to thank Joe Biden.
In Milwaukee, Harris criticized Donald Trump for comments earlier in the day saying he had “no regrets” about Roe v Wade. She also told her supporters:
We know this is going to be a tight race until the very end.
Pelosi and Buttigieg to address DNC today
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in persuading Joe Biden to step aside a month ago, will also address the Democratic national convention today.
Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, a former adviser to Donald Trump on security and foreign policy, will also speak as part of Democrats’ enlistment of Republicans, Reuters reports.
Convention organizers have dubbed the theme for Wednesday “a fight for our freedoms”.
Associated Press reports that it is a nod to the concept around which Kamala Harris has organized her presidential campaign.
She frames Donald Trump as a threat to abortion rights and personal choices, but also to democracy itself.
Walz to headline third night of Democratic national convention
Joan E Greve
Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.
But Walz has an early advantage in cultivating a positive image, as he has captured the internet’s imagination in the past few weeks. Fans of the friendly governor have showered social media platforms with memes depicting him as the father figure that America needs right now. On the campaign trail, Harris often introduces her running mate as “Coach Walz” to remind voters of his background as a teacher and football coach.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the Democratic National Convention with former president Bill Clinton and prospective vice-president Tim Walz due to address the crowds in Chicago later.
Last night delegates were treated to speeches by Bernie Sanders, who said that “billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections,” and Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff who told the audience that his wife was “ready to lead,” adding: “She brings both joy and toughness to this task, and she will be a great president we will all be proud of.”
Michelle Obama energized the crowd, telling them that “hope is making a comeback” as Harris prepares to take on Donald Trump. Her husband, concluding the evening with his keynote speech, mocked Trump for his “childish nicknames”, “crazy conspiracy theories” and “weird obsession with crowd sizes”.
Barack Obama ended the second night of the convention with a characteristic call to action: “We’ll elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we believe in. And together, we too will build a country that is more secure and more just, more equal and more free. So let’s get to work.”
You can read our report here: