Bernie Sanders will use his Democratic National Convention speech to urge those who supported his progressive presidential bid -- or who may have voted Republican four years ago -- to unite behind Joe Biden in November.
According to excerpts released before Sanders' Monday night speech, he plans to say that the country needs “an unprecedented response” because of the “unprecedented set of crises we face.”
Many of Sanders’ top advisers and supporters have spent months working with Biden’s campaign on joint task forces that devised common policy goals for use in the Democratic platform.
The idea was to promote party unity in a way that did not happen in 2016, when many Sanders supporters remained unenthusiastic about Hillary Clinton.
Sanders plans to say that Americans must “come together” to defeat President Donald Trump and elect Biden. He will say, "The price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AHEAD OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION:
— Here’s what to watch as Democrats open a new kind of convention
— Democrats claim ‘big tent’ in first convention in pandemic
— How Bernie Sanders is helping keep the progressive movement strong
— Trump motivates Democrats to rally behind Biden, Harris
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Follow AP’s election coverage at https://apnews.com/Election2020
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez says the handful of 2020 presidential caucuses should be the last the party ever holds.
He didn’t specifically name Iowa, which for decades has led off the nominating calendar, but his position would represent a seismic shift in the party’s traditions.
Perez’s term as chairman will end before the 2024 nominating calendar is determined. But he told The Associated Press on opening day of the Democratic National Convention that he plans to “use the bully pulpit as a former chair" to make needed changes.
Iowa's caucuses this year were disastrous, with state and national party officials spending days trying to determine the winner. Because of the irregularities, The Associated Press decided against declaring a winner.
The first two nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire, are overwhelmingly white, while the national party is much more diverse. That gap was underscored this year when eventual nominee Joe Biden did poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to dominate the nominating fight over the ensuing months once more diverse states voted.
Perez wouldn’t comment on whether he thinks Iowa or New Hampshire should give up their leadoff spots. But he said the demographics “will undoubtedly come up” in future party discussions.
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President Donald Trump is accusing his 2020 opponent Joe Biden of being a “puppet of left-wing extremists" hours before the start of the Democratic National Convention.
Trump was in Minnesota on Monday to press his law and order reelection rhetoric as part of counterprogramming to the DNC.
At an airport hangar in Mankato, Trump called Biden a “puppet of left-wing extremists trying to erase our borders, eliminate our police, indoctrinate our children, vilify our heroes, take away our energy."
Trump says a Biden victory would “replace American freedom with left-wing fascism.” However, fascism is a form of right-wing authoritarianism.
He went so far as to say Biden probably doesn't know where Minnesota is. Trump has pushed a message that the 77-year-old Biden is in cognitive decline, while critics have raised the same accusation against the 74-year-old Trump. The president recently tried to demonstrate his mental fitness by reciting five words in order in a television interview.
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Joe Biden will accept the Democratic presidential nomination in a live speech Thursday night, but he’ll be seen and heard every night of the convention in some form.
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez tells The Associated Press on Monday that Biden will be part of the virtual convention’s prime-time programming leading up to his Thursday address. For example, Perez said Monday’s programming will include Biden talking with activists about criminal justice reform.
Perez said viewers this week also will see the former vice president talking about the COVID-19 pandemic and his health care proposals and having conversations with everyday Americans about the economy.
During traditional conventions, the nominee is often mentioned from the speaker’s podium but is largely shielded from view as the convention builds to the acceptance speech on Thursday night.
There have been rare exceptions. Al Gore greeted his then-wife, Tipper Gore, for a very public kiss after her speech in 2000. President Barack Obama emerged from backstage to greet former President Bill Clinton after his speech 2012.
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An adviser to Michelle Obama says the former first lady will speak from the heart about Democrat Joe Biden’s competency and character.
Mrs. Obama is scheduled to give a speech Monday on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Aide Valerie Jarrett says the speech will draw sharp contrasts between the Republican incumbent seeking reelection and the man who was her husband’s two-term vice president.
Jarrett says, “This election is very personal for her.”
Donald Trump succeeded Barack Obama as president in 2017 and promptly set out to undo many of Obama’s achievements on health care, the environment and foreign policy, among others. Trump also routinely criticizes Obama’s job performance.
Biden’s sense of empathy will also be a focus of Mrs. Obama’s speech.
Mrs. Obama, who leads an effort to help register people to vote, will also speak about the importance of voting in the Nov. 3 election. The election will take place amid a deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 170,000 Americans and sickened more than 5 million others.
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Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez says he’s making the most of a virtual convention and that the new framework will allow him to visit with more delegates than he could with a traditional convention.
Perez told The Associated Press on Monday that he expects to attend “50 or 55” delegation and party caucus meetings online this week. There are 57 delegations representing the 50 states, six territories and Democrats Abroad, plus regional caucuses and other demographic-based caucuses.
In a normal convention, Perez said, a chairman might get to “a dozen or so.” That’s because the delegation breakfast meetings take place in and around the host city, all at the same time. That makes it logistically impossible to hop to more than a few each morning. This time, Perez is in the host city of Milwaukee, but he’s based at the party’s control center in what amounts to a remote broadcast studio that allows him to hopscotch across DNC meetings and media interviews.
Perez dropped in virtually to seven gatherings, including the Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland delegations and the DNC Labor Council. He had several more on his list Monday afternoon ahead of the first night of prime-time programming.
Presumptive nominee Joe Biden’s campaign also is dispatching top surrogates to delegation and caucus meetings and evening watch parties.
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Wisconsin Democrats are marking the start of the Democratic National Convention by blaming President Donald Trump for botching the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
They say that has forced them to cancel the in-person gathering that would have brought about 50,000 people to Milwaukee. Instead, when the convention starts on Monday night it will be delivered virtually, with speakers offering prerecorded or live comments online.
State Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler says the Republican president's failure to adequately respond to the pandemic is why Democrats had to move to an all-virtual event. Trump’s Wisconsin campaign spokeswoman hasn't responded to a request for comment.
Wisconsin Democrats tried to put a positive spin on the situation during an online “Welcome to Wisconsin” convention kick-off event Monday morning.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett noted the beautiful weather that would have greeted delegates had the convention gone as initially planned.
Barrett said from his home: “I wish you were here spending all of your money, but you can come back any time. We will leave the lights on.”
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Unlike most recent presidential campaigns, it’s unclear whether the Democratic ticket will travel after the party’s national convention in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley-Dillon isn’t saying whether the former vice president or his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, expects to travel to key states this fall.
O’Malley-Dillon tells The Washington Post she’s not as concerned about the travel restrictions as she is about making sure the campaign is “spending the time and building community and connection and engaging with voters.”
President Donald Trump has mocked Biden for his light travel schedule.
O’Malley-Dillon also says the Biden campaign has lawyers ready to litigate any effort to limit voting by mail, which Trump has said without evidence is rife with fraud. Trump said last week he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.
O’Malley-Dillon says Biden’s campaign will have “the largest voter protection effort” ever conducted on a presidential campaign.
Democrats’ virtual national convention begins Monday night.
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The first night of Democrats’ national convention features a lineup of several former Republican officials who are backing former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
Officials announced that former Ohio Gov. John Kasich will be making remarks, along with former New York Rep. Susan Molinari and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman.
Also slated for Monday night is Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. Whitman was a senior member of Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential bids but backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Kasich was one of the last contenders in the 2016 GOP primary and has been a fierce critic of Trump.
Biden campaign co-chair and U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond says the inclusion of speakers from all political backgrounds reflects a theme of unity during national struggles including the coronavirus pandemic.
Democrats are gathering virtually across the country for this week’s national convention, which begins Monday night. Other speakers include House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, former first lady Michelle Obama and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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President Donald Trump says he has “no choice” but to campaign in Wisconsin this week while the Democratic National Convention goes on, in order to address voters there in what he says is a news media environment hostile to him.
Trump says during a morning interview on “Fox and Friends” that he plans to visit Oshkosh on Monday “because we have a fake media in this country, so I have to work. I don’t have time not to.”
Trump describes what he sees as unfair treatment by a news media with “fire out of their eyes” in their questions for him, while presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden “doesn’t come out of his basement.”
Biden had largely campaigned virtually throughout the summer but has begun appearing in public, as he did with newly-named running mate Kamala Harris over the weekend.
Trump plans an afternoon campaign stop at a private air hangar in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a pivotal state in the quest for a majority of the Electoral College votes. The Democratic convention is being held in Milwaukee this week, but mainly features speakers addressing the event virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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