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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Adam Gabbatt and Martin Belam (earlier)

Kamala Harris named as Joe Biden’s running mate – as it happened

Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris. Photograph: Brynn Anderson/AP

Summary

  • Joe Biden has named Kamala Harris has his running mate. Harris is the first Black and first Asian American woman to be nominated for a major party’s presidential ticket. Biden’s campaign experienced the best hour of fundraising it had ever had after Harris was named as his running mate. Other women who were top contenders to become vice-presidential candidates, as well as many prominent Democrats, including Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders congratulated Harris. “Joe Biden nailed this decision,” said Obama.
  • Donald Trump and his campaign immediately attacked Harris as an extreme liberal, despite her relatively moderate politics. On a call with reporters, Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson and Republican senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee criticized Harris for not being tough enough on crime and her record as a prosecutor that earned her the title of“top cop”.
  • During a news conference, Trump continued to repeat misleading statements and downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in the US. He also criticized Harris for her questioning of justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is accused of rape.

Republicans and the Trump campaign have taken to calling Kamala Harris’ politics “extreme” and leftist. Though her politics have evolved left, Harris is a solidly moderate candidate who ideologically matches Joe Biden.

“Harris’ radical policies may be popular among liberals, but they are well outside the mainstream for most Americans,” wrote Republican party chair Ronna McDaniel.

But Harris continues to draw criticism from the left for her record as a prosecutor. As a presidential candidate, she put out a health care plan that was a bit to the left of Biden’s — which would provide Medicare for all Americans, but would also allow people to choose private plans. Her stance wasn’t quite as progressive as that of Bernie Sanders.

On a call with reporters, Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson and Republican senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee criticized Harris for not being tough enough on crime and her record as a prosecutor that earned her the title of“top cop”.

“It’s sort of conflating the issue — I mean she’s a phony. She was going after the wrong people,” Pierson told reporters as an explanation for the contradiction.

Joe Biden had promised to choose a woman as his running mate, but his naming of a Black woman as his vice president is not only historic but also an acknowledgment that Black women’s voting power — and how crucial Black women are to Democratic candidates success in elections.

As Nikole Hannah Jones, the Pulitzer prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project points out, “so few Black women voted for Trump in 2020 that they fell within the statistical margin of error”.

Updated

Former 2020 presidential candidates congratulate Kamala Harris:

Elizabeth Warren, who was also a top contender to be Biden’s vice-president, congratulated her fellow senator Harris. “I’ve known Kamala Harris for a long time —– from when she took on Wall Street during the financial crisis as attorney general to working for the people every day as a United States senator,” Warren wrote.

Speculation has already begun over what – if any – role Biden might offer Warren in his administration if he wins the November election.

Updated

Joe Biden’s campaign has said that the hour when Kamala Harris was announced as his running mate was the best fundraising hour ever for the presidential candidate.

Donald Trump exited the news briefing after taking questions from mostly friendly reporters. He did not answer a question, shouted as he left the podium, about his past donation to Harris, per reporters in the room.

Fact check:

“The fact is, we caught Joe Biden, President Obama the whole group ... we caught them spying on our campaign. This was an illegal act,” Trump said. “This was the highest level of treason.”

The fact is, there was no treason. The president has often accused Obama of “illegally” overseeing an FBI investigation into the Trump 2016 campaign. But, the Department of Justice inspector general found no “documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation” after investigating the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the elections.

Updated

“She was my No 1 draft pick,” for Biden’s running mate, Trump said of Harris.

Mispronouncing her first name, Trump said Harris was “nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing” to the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, and “nasty” to Biden during the campaign as well.

Updated

Fact check:

Once again, Donald Trump has been spouting false and misleading statements in an attempt to play down the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in the US.

One example: Trump pointed to surges in cases in Germany, France, Spain and other European countries. Those surges are far smaller than what the US is experiencing. Germany yesterday reported 966 cases and four deaths. France reported an average of about 1,600 new infections a day for the past seven days. The US reported 40,522 new cases and 565 new deaths today. Per the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the US ranks 10th highest in the world for coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people.

Updated

Donald Trump holds daily briefing

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is delivering a news briefing. He has begun by talking about “leftwing anarchists”, and rioting in “Democrat-controlled cities”.

As is the norm, the president’s statements are highly misleading.

For more context on the myth of “far-left” extremism, read my colleague Lois Beckett’s striking and thorough piece:

Updated

A visual for our pandemic times. Here’s Biden telling Harris he’d like her to be his running mate – via video chat.

Updated

Here’s Barack Obama’s reaction to the news:

“This is a good day for our country,” he said.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – blogging from the west coast.

Now that speculation over Biden’s VP pick has ended, speculation over who might replace Harris as California senator has begun!

Representatives Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna, Katie Porter and Karen Bass each have supporters lobbying for them.

And then there’s, of course, there are the less conventional choices.

Updated

Today so far

•Joe Biden has selected the California senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is the first Black woman and the first Asian American to be nominated for a presidential ticket.

•“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris – a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants – as my running mate,” Biden said in a tweet announcing Harris’ selection.

•Biden described Harris – his one-time rival for the Democratic nomination – as “smart, tough, and ready to lead”. “You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your vice-president,” Biden said.

•The Trump campaign immediately sought to portray Harris, a centrist Democrat, as politically extreme. “Joe Biden is no moderate, and with Harris as his ‘political living will’, he is surrendering control of our nation to the radical mob,” Trump adviser Katrina Pierson said.

Updated

Though Biden and Harris clashed during the Democratic presidential debates last year, she has become a strong supporter and a prominent voice on issues of racial justice in an election year convulsed by nationwide protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd earlier this summer.

The decision is of great consequence, not only for Democrats’ immediate political prospects but for the future of the party.

Biden, who, at 77, would be the oldest person ever elected, has pitched himself as a “transitional candidate” and a “bridge” to a new generation of leaders, fueling speculation that should he be elected, he would be a one-term-president.

In selecting Harris, a 55-year-old Democratic star, he may not only be naming a partner, but a potential successor who could become the nation’s first female president.

Harris is among the most prominent Black women in American politics with appeal across the party’s ideological spectrum. She served six years as the attorney general of California before arriving in the Senate in 2016.

Though she struggled with criticism of her prosecutorial record during the primary, Harris developed strong ties to Black women, a critical Democratic constituency that the campaign hopes to mobilize in November.

Kamala Harris in 2019, at an Iowa event ahead of the Democratic primaries.
Kamala Harris in 2019, at an Iowa event ahead of the Democratic primaries. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

Black women were critical to Biden’s success in the Democratic primary, lifting him to victory in South Carolina after series of stinging losses.

Pressure mounted for Biden to choose a Black woman as his running mate after Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in May, touching off months of mass anti-racism protests.

In an email announcing Harris’s pick to supporters, Joe Biden said his running mate is “is smart, tough, and ready to lead”.

“You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your vice-president,” Biden said.

“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021.

“I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person.”

Biden continued:

I was privileged to serve this nation for two terms as vice-president alongside President Obama, a man of extraordinary character who I believe will go down in history as one of our great presidents. So, I know a thing or two about being vice-president. More than anything, I know it can’t be a political decision. It has to be a governing decision. If the people of this nation entrust me and Kamala with the office of president and vice-president for the next four years, we’re going to inherit a nation in crisis, a nation divided, and a world in disarray. We won’t have a minute to waste.

That’s what led me to Kamala Harris.

As a United States senator from California, Kamala represents the biggest state in the union. She’s been one of the toughest and most effective senators on two of the most important committees in the Senate – intelligence and judiciary. Two committees that have directly dealt with some of the most important issues facing this nation at home and around the world.

She sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where she deals with the nation’s most sensitive threats.

We’ve all watched her hold the Trump administration accountable for its corruption, stand up to a justice department that’s run amok, and be a powerful voice against their extreme nominations.

She’s been a leader on criminal justice and marriage equality. And she has focused like a laser on the racial disparities as a result of the coronavirus.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in a photo released by the Biden campaign.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in a photo released by the Biden campaign. Photograph: Biden Campaign/ADAM SCHULTZ HANDOUT/EPA

Updated

The Trump campaign has moved swiftly to attack Kamala Harris, claiming the centrist will aid the “extreme agenda of the radicals on the left”.

The campaign statement overlooks the fact that Harris is unpopular among many on the left to describe her as a “radical”, in a continued attempt by Trump to paint Democrats as politically extreme.

“In her failed attempt at running for president, Kamala Harris gleefully embraced the left’s radical manifesto, calling for trillions of dollars in new taxes and backing Bernie Sanders’ government takeover of healthcare. She is proof that Joe Biden is an empty shell being filled with the extreme agenda of the radicals on the left,” Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson said.

“Joe Biden is no moderate, and with Harris as his ‘political living will’, he is surrendering control of our nation to the radical mob with promises to raise taxes, cut police funding, kill energy jobs, open our borders and appease socialist dictators.

“At the ballot box, Americans will resoundingly reject the abysmal failures of Biden-Harris in favor of the America first strength of President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence.”

Updated

Reaction to Kamala Harris is pouring in, from the NAACP to former US attorney general Eric Holder to Mary Trump and beyond:

In a tweet announcing Harris as his running mate, Biden said he had got to know Harris when she worked with his son Beau, a former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015.

“Back when Kamala was attorney general, she worked closely with Beau,” Biden said.

“I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”

Harris, who served as attorney general for California until she became a US senator in 2017, will speak at the Democratic national convention next week.

Updated

Biden selects Kamala Harris as running mate

Joe Biden has chosen California senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential candidate.

Harris strongly criticized Biden during the Democratic primary, but had emerged as a frontrunner to be the VP in recent weeks.

The news comes after Gretchen Whitmer and Karen Bass were told they had not been selected.

More details soon ...

Updated

Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is not Joe Biden’s choice for vice-president, the New York Times reports, as information continues to trickle out about Biden’s running mate.

Whitmer had emerged as a contender for vice-president, despite Biden being urged to run alongside a woman of color. Politico reported that Whitmer had flown to meet Biden over the weekend to discuss the vice-presidency.

She gained recognition in the media after her handling of coronavirus in Michigan, where Whitmer’s early decision to issue a lockdown order riled conservatives.

Gretchen Whitmer.
Gretchen Whitmer. Photograph: AP

Updated

Joe Biden’s team has told some of the contenders for his vice-presidential pick of his final choice, CNN’s Dana Bash reports.

Karen Bass, a congresswoman from California, had been considered to have an outside chance to be Biden’s running mate.

There is still no suggestion from the Biden campaign, which has been tightlipped throughout the process, on when he will announce his VP choice.

Karen Bass.
Karen Bass. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

The parents of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after being put in a chokehold by police and injected with ketamine by paramedics, have filed a lawsuit against police and medical officials.

“We have filed this civil rights lawsuit to demand justice for Elijah McClain, to hold accountable the Aurora officials, police officers, and paramedics responsible for his murder, and to force the City of Aurora to change it longstanding pattern of brutal and racist policing,” Sheneen McClain and Lawayne Mosley said in a statement released by their attorney on Tuesday.

Elijah McClain was stopped by three white officers in Aurora, Colorado, on August 24 last year as he walked home from a convenience store where he was buying iced teas. Police put him in a chokehold, and paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of ketamine to calm him down.

Elijah McClain.
Elijah McClain. Photograph: Family Photo/Reuters

McClain suffered cardiac arrest, was later declared brain dead and taken off life support several days later.

The national reckoning over racism and police brutality following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis brought renewed criticism to Aurora police over McClain’s death.

Updated

Joe Biden may have settled on his running mate, but there is no guarantee we will find out today, according to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin:

The Big Ten college football conference has canceled its football season due to coronavirus concerns, it announced today, in a blow to Republicans and Donald Trump who had urged college football to go ahead.

“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement.

“As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten task force for emerging infectious diseases and the Big Ten sports medicine committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”

In an interview on Tuesday morning Trump said cancelling college football would be a “tragic mistake”.

Biden has decided on running mate – report

Joe Biden has told his top advisors who his running mate will be, and he could announce his vice-presidential choice as early as Tuesday afternoon, CNN reports.

The network cited two people familiar with the matter. Biden and his vice-presidential candidate are due to speak at the Democratic national convention next week.

The frontrunners for Biden’s running mate include the California senator Kamala Harris and the former national security adviser Susan Rice.

Updated

Ghislaine Maxwell requesting move to prison general pop

The British socialite daughter of the late media baron Robert Maxwell has submitted a new court filing in New York complaining of “uniquely onerous” conditions in the federal jail where she is being held.

The 58-year-old Ghislaine Maxwell is awaiting trial on charges related to recruiting girls for her late friend, the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to sexually abuse, and is accused by federal prosecutors of engaging directly in some of the abuse herself. She denies the charges.

She argues that she is being treated worse than other inmates as a result of Epstein’s death by suicide in jail last summer, NBC reports.

Maxwell and Epstein’s extended circles of various friends, associates, acquaintances or party guests and fellows over the years have included Donald Trump and Prince Andrew.

NBC reports of Maxwell:

She’s subjected to round-the-clock surveillance and numerous body scans, her lawyers argued in a new court filing.

Maxwell has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since early July on charges of recruiting and grooming girls as young as 14 for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.

Epstein died by suicide last summer while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and Maxwell’s lawyers say the Bureau of Prisons is treating her worse than other inmates as a result.

“It has become apparent that the BOP’s treatment of Ms. Maxwell is a reaction to the circumstances surrounding the pretrial detention and death of Mr. Epstein,” the court filing says.

Maxwell wants to be removed from solitary confinement and placed into the jail’s general population so she can prepare for her upcoming trial, the filing says.

“These prison guards constantly observe Ms. Maxwell and take notes on her every activity, including her phone conversations with defense counsel.”

And, “her cell is searched multiple times a day and she has been forced to undergo numerous body scans,” the lawyers wrote Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan.

The lawyers wrote that “Maxwell does not seek special treatment at the MDC; but she does ask that she not be specially disfavored in her treatment in detention, especially when it comes to preparing her defense.”

The presumptive Democratic nominee and his predecessor both have views today on how the US should be handling the coronavirus crisis in the US.

Joe Biden:

Hillary Clinton:

The Johns Hopkins University data tracker currently shows that the US has 5.1m confirmed cases of Covid-19 and a death toll of 163,681.

Today so far

  • Donald Trump has deployed fear tactics in his race against Joe Biden, claiming a Biden victory would mean Americans “will have to learn to speak Chinese”. Trump also claimed Biden was “the dumbest senator” during his time in Congress.
  • The number of children who have tested positive for coronavirus has increased by 137% in Florida in the past month. Hospitalizations of children in the state rose from 213 to 436, a 105% increase. The news comes as some Republicans push for children to return to school.
  • Democrats announced the complete speaker schedule for the Democratic national convention next week. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are among the speakers, and both Michelle and Barack Obama will give speeches.
  • Trump suggested he won’t hold socially distanced rallies during the campaign because the optics would look bad. “You know, you have one person and everything’s empty around them. You can’t do that,” Trump said.
  • A US appeals court is considering whether to honor a request by the Trump administration to drop the criminal case against his former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, but the justice department filed a motion last month to dismiss the case.

Updated

There’s no DNC speaking spot next week for Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur who enlivened the Democratic primary with his call for a universal basic income:

Yang dropped out of the presidential primary after winning just 2.8% of the vote in New Hampshire, but he brought fresh ideas to the race and attracted a loyal band of supporters, dubbed the “Yang Gang”.

His signature promise was to provide every adult a monthly check for $1,000. Yang raised over $15m during his campaign, and earned praise from the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but it seems his efforts were not enough to get him on stage next week.

Updated

Donald Trump has waded into the anthem debate as well as the long-running conversation over the merits of LeBron James and Michael Jordan during a call to Clay Travis’ Fox Sports radio show on Tuesday.

Jordan and James are often held up as the two greatest players of the modern NBA era, and the president was asked whom he preferred. “Michael Jordan, plus he wasn’t political so people like him better,” Trump said.

Jordan has been derided for his perceived reluctance to speak out on politics. During a 1990 Senate race in his home state of North Carolina, Jordan refused to endorse Democrat Harvey Gantt, an African American who was running against the incumbent Republican Jesse Helms, a notorious racist. Jordan, who at the time had already won the first of his five NBA MVP awards, explained away his refusal to take a stance by saying: “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

In the recent ESPN documentary The Last Dance, Jordan insisted the comment was a joke. In June, he donated $100m to racial justice causes, and has spoken about the “ingrained racism” of the United States. James, meanwhile, is a longtime critic of the president and has often spoken out about racial injustice in the United States.

Michael Jordan, seen here with Scottie Pippen in 1995.
Michael Jordan, seen here with Scottie Pippen in 1995. Photograph: Robert Baker/AP

Trump also spoke about politics in the NBA more generally. The league has close ties with Black Lives Matters and most of its players have knelt during the anthem following the season’s restart this summer.

“It’s been horrible for basketball. Look at the basketball ratings. People are angry about it,” said Trump. “They have enough politics with guys like me. They don’t need more. There was a nastiness about the NBA and the way it was done. The NBA is in trouble. Big trouble.”

You can read the full story below:

Updated

Trump says Americans 'will have to learn to speak Chinese' if he loses election

Donald Trump said people will have to learn to speak “Chinese” if he loses the election, and claimed Joe Biden was the “dumbest” senator, in an interview this morning.

Speaking to the conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt, Trump said he had “tariffed the hell out of” China, taking “in billions and billions of dollars” for the US in the process. (In reality, Americans are paying for the tariffs, not China.)

“Look, China will own the United States if this election is lost by Donald Trump,” Trump said.

“If I don’t win the election, China will own the United States.

“You’re going to have to learn to speak Chinese, you want to know the truth.”

Trump also claimed Biden was treated favorably by the media, and said the former vice-president lacked intelligence.

Recalling a conversation he had “20 years ago” with an unnamed but “highly-respected senator”, Trump said he was told Biden was the “dumbest in the Senate”.

An excerpt from the transcript of Trump’s interview with Hewitt is below. Trump’s off the cuff statements are always hard to follow, and this anecdote is no different. Trump said:

“I said [to the highly-respected senator]: ‘Who’s the smartest person in the Senate?’ He gave me a name. Then he said: ‘Who’s the dumbest?’ And he said Joe. And I said: ‘Who’s Joe?’ ‘Joe.’ I said: ‘Who is he? Who is he?’ He said: ‘Joe. You don’t know Joe?’ And we go along, and I said: ‘You’re talking about Biden?’ ‘Yeah, I’m talking about Joe Biden.’ I said: ‘Why, he’s the dumbest in the Senate?’ ‘He’s by far.’”

Updated

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration said he would not take the Russian coronavirus vaccine.

Scott Gottlieb, who was the Trump administration’s FDA commissioner until he abruptly resigned in March 2019, told CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ show:

“I wouldn’t take it, certainly not outside a clinical trial right now.”

He added: “It appears that it’s only been tested in several hundred patients at most.”

Russia has approved the Covid-19 vaccine for widespread use after less than two months of human testing.

The Guardian reported on the vaccine this morning:

The development was hailed by President Putin as evidence of Russia’s scientific prowess, but the truncated testing regime has raised eyebrows elsewhere for skipping phase 3 large-scale safety trials, which usually take months. Instead, phase 3 trials will be conducted in parallel with mass production of the vaccine, including in Brazil.

Updated

Florida sees 137% rise in child coronavirus cases

The number of children who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Florida has more than doubled in the past month.

Between July 9 and August 9 the number of coronavirus cases in children rose from 16,797 to 39,735, CNN reported, an increase of 137%.

Hospitalizations of children in the state rose from 213 to 436, a 105% increase.

Across the country, the number of child coronavirus cases rose by 90% between July 9 and August 6, the American Academy of Pediatrics said on Monday. Some of the spike may be attributed to increased testing.

Trump won't hold socially distanced rallies: 'You can't have empty seats'

More on Trump: the president has suggested he won’t hold socially distanced rallies during the campaign because the optics would look bad.

“You can’t have empty seats,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Radio, before recalling a conversation he had with an unnamed person, or group of people.

“You know, if I had five empty seats — for instance, they said: ‘Would I do a rally, sir?’ The reason I won’t do them [is] because: ‘You can have one seat and then seven around that seat, sir, have to be empty.’”

“Oh, that’ll look great,” Trump said.

“You know, you have one person and everything’s empty around them. You can’t do that.”

Trump previously had his fingers burned when he held a very poorly attended rally in Oklahoma in June.

Donald Trump.
Donald Trump. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Trump also weighed in on NBA players, who have worn Black Lives Matter shirts and knelt before games since the season restarted.

“Some are nasty, very very nasty, and frankly, very dumb,” Trump said.

Trump was also asked about the NFL:

Updated

Half of US residents know someone who has contracted coronavirus, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll.

According to Axios: “50% of respondents now say they know someone who’s tested positive for the coronavirus — up from 46% last week and 41% a month ago.”

There is some divide in the numbers. The poll found that 55% of Democrats know someone who has tested positive, compared to 49% of Republicans and 44% of independents surveyed know someone who tested positive.

Some other tidbits from the survey:

  • 74% of respondents see riding in an elevator with other people as a large or moderate risk.
  • Women (79%) are more likely than men (70%) to see it as risky.
  • But party ID is a bigger predictor: 97% of Democrats, 75% of independents and 60% of Republicans see it as risky.

Updated

A US appeals court is considered today whether a federal judge must honor the highly unusual request by the Trump administration to drop the criminal case against his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, Reuters reports.

Ten judges from the US Court of appeals for the District of Columbia are hearing arguments in the politically charged case after a three-judge panel ruled on June 24, that US district judge Emmet Sullivan must grant the Justice Department’s motion to clear Flynn.

Democrats and other critics have accused Attorney General Bill Barr of protecting Trump’s friends and allies in this and other high-profile criminal cases.

Michael Flynn leaves a Washington court in December 2017.
Michael Flynn leaves a Washington court in December 2017. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

In July Trump commuted the prison sentence of his friend and adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying under oath to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Flynn was charged as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The former adviser pleaded guilty to twice lying to the FBI about his conversations concerning US sanctions with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

After pleading guilty, Flynn changed course and switched lawyers, to pursue a scorched-earth tactic that accused the FBI of setting him up.

Democrats announce full speaker schedule for national convention

The complete speaker schedule for the Democratic national convention – where Joe Biden will officially accept the party’s presidential – has been revealed.

Bernie Sanders will speak on Monday, ahead of the Republican former Ohio governor John Kasich and Michelle Obama. On Tuesday the highlights include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bill Clinton, while Hillary Clinton and “vice presidential nominee” take to the stage on Wednesday.

Kamala Harris, like other frontrunners to be vice-president, has been given a separate speaking slot, but the understanding is this does not mean Harris, or others, will not be VP.

The full line-up:

Monday

Bernie Sanders, Sen Catherine Cortez Masto, Gov Andrew Cuomo, Gov Gretchen Whitmer, Rep Jim Clyburn, Convention chairman Rep Bennie Thompson, Rep Gwen Moore, former Gov John Kasich, Sen Doug Jones, Sen Amy Klobuchar and Michelle Obama.

Tuesday

Former acting US Attorney General Sally Yates, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, former President Bill Clinton and Jill Biden.

Wednesday

Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Sen Elizabeth Warren, Gov Tony Evers, Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the vice presidential nominee and Barack Obama.

Thursday

Cory Booker, Gov Gavin Newsom, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Pete Buttigieg, Sen Tammy Baldwin, Sen Tammy Duckworth, Sen Chris Coons, Sen Kamala Harris, the Biden Family, and Joe Biden.

Updated

Good morning! This is Adam Gabbatt taking over from Martin.

Donald Trump is up and about this morning, and he’s posted a tweet which manages to be both misleading and offensive:

Of course, per capita, the US has not done the most testing in the world. Beyond that, the main problem is that the US has one of the highest death rates from coronavirus in the world.

The term ‘China Plague’, setting aside the problem that it is racist, is also inaccurate, given a plague is spread by bacteria. Covid-19 is caused by a virus.

Updated

A coalition of religious leaders inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last organizing effort has said new data suggests low-income voters in key states could swing some US Senate races.

The Associated Press report that the Poor People’s Campaign is using the data to pressure candidates from both parties to focus on poverty and encourage poor and low-income voters in 13 states to register to vote.

A study released by Columbia School of Social Work assistant professor Robert Paul Hartley found that low-income eligible non-voters make up about one-fifth of the total electorate in states like Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia, or in several more states for midterm election years

It also found that low-income voters are about 22 percentage points less likely to vote in national elections than those with higher incomes.

William Barber II, president of the Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit group that fights poverty and discrimination, said the Poor People’s Campaign intends to use the study as a tool to organize low-income voters to make sure their concerns are heard. “This is not a Republican or Democratic thing. This is a moral thing,” Barber said. “For far too long, the issue of poverty in this country has been ignored.”

Modelled after King’s last organizing effort, the Poor People’s Campaign seeks to bring the issue of poverty to the American consciousness amid anxiety, uncertainty, and growing inequality.

And that is it from me today in an absolutely sweltering London. I’m handing over to Adam Gabbatt, and I will see you tomorrow. Stay safe.

Health secretary Alex Azar wades in on Russian vaccine

The US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said this morning that it is more important to have a safe and effective vaccine against the coronavirus than to be the first to produce a vaccine.

Azar, on a rare US high-level visit to Taiwan, was asked by ABC this morning what he thought of Russia’s announcement that it had become the first country to register a vaccine against the virus.

He said “The point is not to be first with a vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world.”

He says it’s important to have transparent data on the vaccine to prove its safety and efficacy. He also noted that the US has six vaccines in development under the Operation Warp Speed initiative.

By the way, it looks like the White House has confirmed that the president will give another coronavirus press briefing today.

Trump tells Fox Sports Radio his relationship with China's president Xi has deteriorated

Donald Trump has been on Twitter repeating his regularly debunked claim that it is only because the US does more testing than anywhere else that it has more cases of the coronavirus than everywhere else. He claims that the test numbers are ‘fake news gold’ for the media.

For the record, the world has just recently passed 20m global confirmed cased of Covid-19, of which the US accounts for over 5 million - over a quarter.

The president has also been on Fox Sports Radio, where among other things he said he used to have a very good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but that has changed after the coronavirus pandemic and that he has not spoken to his Chinese counterpart in a long time.

It was notable that in the briefing issued by the White House yesterday on Trump’s coronavirus response, it specifically claimed: “President Trump has rightly called out China’s handling of the virus for refusing to be transparent and failing to contain the virus before it spread.”

This is, of course, in marked contrast to the president’s comments at the time.

Elsewhere in the interview, he suggested some men would be insulted that Joe Biden is restricting his VP choice to being a woman, that people prefer Michael Jordan to Lebron James because “he wasn’t political”, that if NFL players are going to kneel for the anthem then the sport should not bother reopening. He also asserted that “You’re not going to see people dying” if college football restarts.

Terry Greene Sterling has been in Phoenix, Arizona for us, looking at 88-year-old Joe Arpaio’s failed attempt to re-gain the post of sheriff of Maricopa county. You might recall that he lost the post four years ago amid national outrage over his abusive policing tactics and immigration crackdowns. He had held it for the previous 24 years.

The vote was a close-run thing, as Greene Sterling reports, and may have a wider significance:

Arpaio lost by about 6,000 votes to his former right-hand man, a once blindly devoted chief deputy named Jerry Sheridan. That Sheridan beat his former boss by only one percentage point demonstrates to activists that Arpaio’s conspiracy theories, rightwing populism and sycophantic devotion to Trump – who saved him from a possible jail sentence with his first presidential pardon in 2017 – still resonates with many Republican primary voters.

What matters about Arpaio’s failed comeback bid, Latino activists say, is that Arizona’s experience with Arpaio has long presaged what could occur when Trump leaves office – and, by extension, what other countries might expect when their populist leaders, like Jair Bolsonaro, step down.

Read it here: ‘Never going away’: what Arpaio’s primary loss could tell us about Trump’s future

Donald Trump to be briefed on US Covid-19 vaccine efforts in wake of Russian vaccine approval

There’s a quick snap from Reuters after Kellyanne Conway spoke to Fox News this morning, to the effect that Donald Trump will be briefed on US Covid-19 vaccine efforts later on Tuesday and will likely give a public update.

It comes as Russia has announced that it is approving its Sputnik V Covid vaccine, despite testing safety concerns.

The development was been hailed by Russian president Vladimir Putin as evidence of Russia’s scientific prowess, but the truncated testing regime has raised eyebrows elsewhere for skipping so-called phase 3 large-scale safety trials, which usually take months. Instead, phase 3 trials will be conducted in parallel with mass production of the vaccine

“The president is getting a vaccine update here at the White House today, and I’m sure he will announce that in an open press event and also probably his press briefing later today,” Conway told Fox News in the interview.

With pressure being put on the logistics of November’s election by the coronavirus pandemic plus Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of mail-in voting, I suspect we are going to see a few stories like this blow up into examples being used on the national stage.

Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that Michigan’s Sterling Heights had 165 absentee voter ballots for the 4 August primary election arrive in the mail six days late. This meant they couldn’t be counted, even though they were post-marked before election day.

The report states that the 165 votes could have been enough to “change the outcome of one Democratic primary for the Macomb County Commission that was narrowly decided by 87 votes”.

“This is quite uncommon for us” Melanie Ryska told Crain’s. She’s worked on election for 18 years and became the clerk of Michigan’s fourth largest city in 2017.

She added: “It’s not uncommon for us to receive 10 or 20 late absentee ballots here and there. But just to get this number at this time is very unusual.”

Of course, incidents like this are liable to be quite the Rorschach test over mail-in votes. One side of the partisan divide will see it as evidence that funding and help for the US postal service needs boosting ahead of the election, and that restrictions on counting absentee ballots before and after election day should be eased to make every vote count. Others will see it as further evidence that postal voting is inherently flawed and that states should be working to focus on making in-person voting Covid-safe for November.

Either way, it is a topic that is not going to fade anytime soon.

Bernie Sanders calls for tax on gains billionaires have made during the pandemic to pay for guaranteed healthcare

Bernie Sanders has written for us today, responding to the news that the pandemic is helping some of the ultra-rich get richer. Apple’s Tim Cook has just joined the ‘billionaire club’ while last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth hit $100bn. Sanders writes:

Incredibly, thanks to President Trump’s tax giveaway to the rich signed into law a few years ago, billionaires now pay a lower effective tax rate than teachers, nurses, firefighters or truck drivers. The extraordinary wealth gains that billionaires have made during he pandemic come at a time when 92 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured and tens of millions of Americans are facing evictions or foreclosures.

At a time when so many of our people are struggling economically, it is morally obscene that a tiny handful of billionaires – the top 0.0001% – are using a global pandemic as an opportunity to make outrageous profits after receiving a de facto bailout by the Federal Reserve. It is time to change our national priorities.

Read it here: Bernie Sanders – The pandemic is helping the rich get even richer. It’s time to tax their obscene wealth

NBC News this morning are carrying a story that voter registration has surged during the period that Black Lives Matter protests have been so high profile in the country. They report that, according to TargetSmart, a Democratic political data firm, there was “a surge of Democratic and unaffiliated voter registrations in June”. The firm says:

Despite a full or partial lockdown in large swaths of the country for much of the month, voter registration began to rebound as people took to the streets to protest

Some of the registration surge is directly ascribed to the protests – on many occasions activists included QR codes on protest signs so that people could begin to register to vote on their phones there and then.

Read it here: NBC News – Voter registration surged during BLM protests, study finds

If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve launched a series today called Lost on the frontline where we have partnered with Kaiser Health News in an effort to document every US healthcare worker who dies from Covid-19.

At the heart of it is our interactive where our journalists have so far profiled 167 of the 922 healthcare workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic in the US, many of them under the age of 40, and some only in their 20s.

We also have a piece from Andy Slavitt as part of the series, asking the question: Healthcare workers never abandon us. Why have we abandoned them to Covid?

As long as the patients keep coming, there will be someone to care. Let’s give nurses and doctors a chance to catch their breath and go about healing our other issues. Let’s not ask more medical professionals to pay the price we don’t need to pay. They aren’t just medical professionals. They are our neighbors who get the early bus, our friends who always pick up the phone, our sisters who make us laugh, our dads who always know what to say. They have their own lives and we must give them that chance.

Read it here: Healthcare workers never abandon us. Why have we abandoned them to Covid?

Seattle city council approves reducing police department by 100 – police chief steps down

Some slow moves towards police reform in Seatlle continue. The city council approved proposals on Monday that would reduce the police department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. It was, reports the Associated Press, an action supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but strongly opposed by the mayor and police chief.

The measures that cut less than $4 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year passed out of committee unanimously last week. On Monday, only council member Kshama Sawant voted against the budget package, saying it does not do enough to defund the police.

Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant speaking to protesters as they call for the defunding of police in Seattle in June
Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant speaking to protesters as they call for the defunding of police in Seattle in June Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Seattle currently has about 1,400 police officers and the reductions fell far short of the 50% cut to the department that many Black Lives Matter protesters were seeking.

Several council members on Monday said the changes were a starting point in a long process to reimagine policing and public safety.

The city council also cut police chief Carmen Best’s roughly $285,000 annual salary and the pay of other top police leaders, although the final cuts to Best’s salary were significantly more modest than those approved last week. The council plan also takes officers off a team that removes homeless camps.

Seattle police chief Carmen Best, left, speaks during a July news conference at City Hall in Seattle. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan looks on
Seattle police chief Carmen Best, left, speaks during a July news conference at City Hall in Seattle. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan looks on Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP

Best responded to the changes to announce that she is stepping down. The city’s first Black police chief, said in a letter to the department that her retirement will be effective 2 September and the mayor has appointed deputy chief Adrian Diaz as the interim chief

“I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times,” Best said in the letter. “You truly are the best police department in the country, and please trust me when I say, the vast majority of people in Seattle support you and appreciate you. ... I look forward to seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety. I relish the work that will be done by all of you.”

In an email to police mayor Jenny Durkan said she she accepted Best’s decision “with a very heavy heart.”

“I regret deeply that she concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was a change in leadership, in the hope that would change the dynamics to move forward with the city council,” Durkan wrote.
Durkan and Best are planning a Tuesday morning news conference.

QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene in Republican primary runoff in Georgia

Another lively race worth keeping an eye on today is in northwest Georgia, where a woman who’s been blasted for racist videos and being adamant support for the QAnon conspiracy theory faces a neurosurgeon who has campaigned on his experience to improve the health care system in the Republican primary runoff.

Marjorie Taylor Greene talks with attendees at a Back the Blue Rally in front of Rome City Hall in Georgia in June
Marjorie Taylor Greene talks with attendees at a Back the Blue Rally in front of Rome City Hall in Georgia in June Photograph: Olivia Morley/AP

Businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has received national attention for a series of videos and social media posts where she expresses racist views and support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. That’s led some Republican officials to condemn her campaign and raised opponent John Cowan’s profile.

The Associated Press reports that the race could indicate just how far candidates are able to push the limits of political rhetoric in the age of President Donald Trump before risking backlash from voters.

Both Cowan and Greene have positioned themselves as staunch supporters of Trump, pushing anti-abortion, pro-gun and pro-border wall messages. But while Cowan has taken a more traditional approach to his campaign, Greene has found a loyal following and controversy online with a continuous flow of video chats and social posts.

Greene led in the initial June 9 Republican primary by a wide margin but failed to secure enough votes to win the nomination outright.

Soon after that race, a series of videos were unearthed in which Greene expresses racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. In the videos, she complains of an “Islamic invasion” into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs,” and pushes an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.

Greene also is part of a growing list of candidates who have expressed support for QAnon, a U.S. conspiracy theory popular among some Trump supporters. She has responded to criticism of her rhetoric by blasting “the fake news media” and “the DC swamp.”

Cowan has strongly pushed back on Greene’s comments, saying in a recent interview that she “deserves her own Youtube channel, and not a seat in Congress.”

Republican Rep. Tom Graves, who did not seek reelection, last won the seat with over 76% of the vote in 2018.

And talking of QAnon, Julia Carrie Wong has this fascinating investigative piece for us today: QAnon Facebook groups are growing at a rapid pace around the world

Talking of Cori Bush, my colleague Poppy Noor has a great interview with her up today. Last week Bush won the her primary race in Missouri’s first congressional district, unseating the Democratic incumbent and ending a half-century family dynasty in Missouri. In it she talks about the struggle to keep fighting for racial justice in the US.

It’s hard looking at Michael Brown’s father and knowing that just last week he found out again that this officer won’t be charged. Just looking at him in his face, and seeing the other activists crying is tough. It has been six years and we keep coming back here every single year and we’re not seeing change

It doesn’t perhaps contain the most ringing endorsement for Joe Biden of all time, suggesting that the progressive and establishment wings of the Democratic Party might not all be singing from the same hymn sheet with the same enthusiasm come November.

When I ask Bush what she thinks of Biden, she can barely keep herself from laughing. “I think … He is the nominee for Democratic president,” she replies, before shaking her head. She adds: “We have what we have, and we have to get Trump out of the seat.”

Read it hear: ‘They don’t know what I know’: why Cori Bush is poised to change politics

Rep. Ilhan Omar faces primary challenge from Antone Melton-Meaux in Minneapolis

teve Karnowski and Mohamed Ibrahim at the Associated Press have more about the challenge Rep. Ilhan Omar faces.

They report that Omar will learn today whether voters in her Minneapolis-area congressional district support the mix of confrontational, anti-Trump progressivism and celebrity that she brings to the job.

Well, they say today, but the outcome may not be known immediately if the results are close. Absentee voting in Minnesota was heavy, and officials must count mail-in ballots that arrive as late as Thursday under safety rules imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Antone Melton-Meaux, fifth Congressional district candidate
Antone Melton-Meaux, fifth Congressional district candidate Photograph: Jim Mone/AP

Omar, the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, is facing a surprisingly well-funded challenger in Minnesota’s Democratic primaries on Tuesday. Antone Melton-Meaux, a Black lawyer and mediator, raised millions of anti-Omar dollars to fill mailboxes and flood airwaves. His “Focused on the Fifth” message has portrayed Omar, a member of “The Squad” of four progressive female lawmakers, as out of touch with the 5th District.

Omar has rejected Melton-Meaux’s attacks, saying they were funded by interests that wanted to get her out of Congress because she’s effective. She also downplayed Melton-Meaux’s money and played up her ground game before the vote, saying, “Organized people will always beat organized money.”

Ilhan Omar takeing part during a demonstration in support of passage of the HEROES Act in Washington
Ilhan Omar takeing part during a demonstration in support of passage of the HEROES Act in Washington Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Progressive Democrats gained confidence in Omar’s reelection chances after primary victories last week by fellow “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and by Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush in a St. Louis-area congressional primary. Progressives also claimed momentum from the renewed focus on racial and economic justice following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.

Shari Dveris, a 42-year-old school teacher, told the Associated Press she voted for Melton-Meaux though, because she doesn’t think the congresswoman “has done anything for her constituents. I just think that he’ll do more for us,” she said. “[Melton-Meaux] seems very honest and upfront, and I’m impressed with what he’s said so far.”

However, John Hildebrand, a 47-year-old teacher in Minneapolis who voted for Omar, said her national profile is an advantage. “I think just her presence encourages other Muslims and Somalis to run for office and to seek to be represented,” he said. “I think she just engages people in the political system more and more.”

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of US politics and the coronavirus crisis. Here’s a quick catch up of where we are, and what we might expect later on

  • 47,083 new coronavirus cases were reported in the US yesterday, that’s down again from the day before. There were 537 more deaths
  • More than 900 healthcare workers have died of Covid-19 – and the toll is rising
  • Donald Trump has been on the offensive again over criticism of his handling of the coronavirus crisis. A 900 word White House briefing was issued as a point-by-point rebuttal to accusations that Covid-19 has run out of control in the nation. Trump’s press briefing yesterday was interrupted by a security incident in Washington
  • The president said he might accept the Republican nomination at Gettysburg. He said he was thinking of speaking at the civil war battlefield where the 16th president delivered his most celebrated address
  • More video of George Floyd’s killing is officially released to the public by the courts. The previously leaked footage shows medics waited nearly three minutes before attempting to revive him
  • Seattle city council approves moves to reduce police numbers there – police chief Carmen Best says she is stepping down
  • There are primaries today Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin. “Squad” member Ilhan Omar is among those fighting for seats
  • The president’s only planned public engagement so far is a 12:30 phone call that is billed to be with “America’s sheriffs”. Mike Pence is out campaigning and fund-raising in Arizona

I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be running the first stint of the blog, you can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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