Democrats prepare for DNC Night 1 amidst protests | National News

The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago, with roughly 50,000 people expected to arrive in the Windy City. That includes thousands of anti-war activists demonstrating near the United Center.

President Joe Biden is the headline speaker for the first evening. Later this week, Vice President Kamala Harris will officially accept the party’s nomination.

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Here’s the Latest:

Harris campaign manager says more policy proposals are forthcoming

The Harris campaign’s principal deputy manager, Quentin Fulks, pushed back against criticism that the vice president hasn’t shared many policy proposals since launching her campaign about a month ago.

Onstage at the CNN-Politico Grill at the convention, he pointed to her proposals to give $25,000 in down payment help to first-time homebuyers, to expand the child tax credit and to build more affordable housing units.

“I think that she has rolled out policy and I think any qualms with sort of what’s on the website is just a matter of literally switching the top of the ticket in a presidential campaign,” he said.

“You’re going to continue to see more policy proposals from her. But the important thing is that the vice president isn’t just saying things to get votes. These policies are being developed based on her worldviews, her values, her vision set. And so, it’s really important to her that she gets it right.”

Michigan senator believes authenticity will help Harris win the Great Lake state

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said that Harris’ authenticity will be key to her winning his state this fall.

“We’re a midwestern state, people like to know folks are speaking from the heart,” the Michigan Democrat said onstage at the conventions CNN-Politico Grill. “She needs to show how she cares, which she does. I know that.”

Peters said he’s seen a surge of enthusiasm and energy among Democratic voters who had been looking for a fresh face with new ideas.

But he said he’s looking forward to honoring Biden’s decades of public service in Monday’s evening programming, lauding the president as a “man of incredible character.”

“Just imagine that. A president that puts himself second to what’s good for the country,” Peters said of Biden. “I can think of a recent president that probably that wouldn’t apply to.”

Peters was optimistic about battleground state Senate races in this fall’s election, saying Democrats are running strong candidates against flawed Republicans.

Thousands of protestors march outside DNC

Several thousand protesters marched in the demonstration snaking through residential areas around the United Center, but the numbers fell short of the “tens of thousands” organizers had predicted in their legal battle for a longer route. “We’re proud of the turnout, especially considering the degree of the repression from the city,” said organizer Faayani Aboma Mijana.

Police presence was heavy along the march route but organizers of the march also provided their own marshals to provide security, hand out water bottles and keep people on the city-approved route.

Among the sea of delegates, an ‘honest weirdo’

Long before the Democrats started using the “weird” label for Republican policies and statements, one DNC delegate has been describing himself as an “honest weirdo.”

Dakota Adams, the estranged son of Oath Keepers founder and convicted insurrectionist Stewart Rhodes, is one of Montana’s delegates. Adams is the goth-looking one with the long hair, black leather jacket, black fingernail polish and mostly progressive political ideas.

Adams is running an uphill race as a Democrat for a state House seat in the very Republican northwestern corner of Montana.

He says his clothing is authentic to himself and says he believes voters prefer an “honest weirdo” to other candidates who dress as what he calls “Spirit Halloween cowboys” to curry favor with constituents.

Adams says the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — which his father is serving 18 years in prison for helping to plan — served as a “sobering wake-up call in terms of … how the Republican Party enabled a president to become an active danger to this republic.” It also spurred Adams’ run for office.

Biden arrives at the DNC

President Joe Biden is doing a walkthrough at the United Center in Chicago ahead of his keynote speech this evening. During his remarks on the event’s opening night, he’s expected to hand off leadership of his party to Vice President Harris.

When asked by reporters if he was ready to pass the torch, Biden responded, “I am.”

James Taylor among the musicians readying to take the stage at the DNC

The singer-songwriter did a soundcheck on stage in Chicago on Monday afternoon, ahead of an expected evening performance.

Taylor also performed at the 2012 DNC in North Carolina, where President Barack Obama was nominated for a second term.

Trump closes Pennsylvania campaign event with jabs toward Harris

In his visit to a factory plant in York, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump mostly stuck to the script, as he talked to workers and business people about his proposals to boost energy production. But toward the end he veered back to personal attacks against Harris that had more to do with her father’s work.

“Her father is a Marxist professor,” Trump said, before questioning what Democrats were thinking when uniting behind Harris.

“I wonder if they knew where she comes from, where she came from, what her ideology is,” he said.

He took issue with Harris and her allies calling him and his running mate JD Vance “weird.”

“I think we’re extremely normal people,” he said.

Protesters calling for ceasefire between Israel and Hamas march toward DNC site

Thousands of activists calling for ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war have begun their march towards the United Center, where the Democratic National Convention is taking place.

The activists are participating in the Coalition to March on the DNC, an alliance of over 200 organizations. The activists waved Palestinian flags while chants and drumbeats reverberated through the crowd.

The route is approximately a mile long and will conclude at a park near the arena. Police have lined the streets where the march is taking place.

Trump says if elected he wants to rapidly approve new energy infrastructure

At a campaign event, Former President Donald Trump said that if he is elected he wants to issue rapid approvals of new energy infrastructure and do away with the Biden administration’s “power plant rule.”

He said he will commit to bringing “advanced small modular nuclear reactors,” adding they can be built at a very low cost and are “absolutely safe.”

“I stand for American energy independence and manufacturing dominance,” Trump said.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule earlier this year to put limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants as an effort to roll back pollution.

Democratic state legislators say they are more confident with Harris as party’s presidential nominee

Democrats in state houses are feeling more confident about their chances of defending their control of state legislative chambers and potentially flipping some chambers in November’s elections with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.

“We now have energy and excitement that is at a greater level than it has been,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to state legislatures. “Our battleground states align really nicely with key presidential battlegrounds. I think in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Arizona there’s good overlap.”

Williams said that the Harris campaign had also brought in a new wave of volunteers who could also aid candidates campaigning for local and state office. She added that the DLCC is focused on tailoring Democrats’ national message on issues like abortion, inflation and climate to specific, local interests.

Williams also said that the DLCC candidates running are often more women and people of color than in previous years. Taken together, state and local Democrats are hoping newfound energy within the party that’s on display in Chicago redounds to their races.

“I think that is our challenge: making sure that people feel good and educated and ready to vote down ballot,” Williams said.

On Air Force One headed to the DNC

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Chicago that President Joe Biden “looks forward to addressing his party and the nation” as DNC’s keynote speaker Monday evening.

“He’s going to make the case of the moment that we’re in,” she said. “This is a fulfilling moment for him.”

Protesters gather in Union Park ahead of a planned march

Protesters gathered in Union Park as a series of speakers addressed the crowd Monday afternoon ahead of a planned march.

In between chants of “free free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” protest leaders condemned American politicians across the political spectrum and listed their demands.

“The leading Democrats say a lot of nice words about the communities who helped them get elected,” organizer Kobi Guillory yelled into a microphone. “But they prove through their actions that they serve the same corporate interests as the Republicans.”

Andrew Josefchak told the crowd their movement must continue growing and building upon the momentum from widespread protests on college campuses in the spring.

“We should not have to choose whose lives we value in an election. And taking a stand against genocide should not be treated like a fringe issue, and we are going to make sure it is not treated like a fringe issue,” he said. “Some people think social change is made by delegates in the DNC, but in reality it is made by us and it is made in the streets.”

“We make it clear that we will not be casting any ballots for anybody who oversees the genocide, the indiscriminate murder of Palestinian children, families and futures,” Sara Mahmoud with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression told the group of protesters.

At a Trump campaign event in Pennsylvania

Several dozen supporters were arriving at a factory plant in York, Pennsylvania, to hear former President Donald Trump speak.

A sign behind the podium where he will speak reads “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”

The business Precision Custom Components makes pressure valves, reactors and other parts for military and nuclear purposes. The crowd of supporters includes people who work at the plant and other residents from the area.

It’s Trump’s second campaign stop in the battleground state of Pennsylvania in less than two days.

Rep. Frost: Harris’ run for president has re-energized young people

Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z member of Congress, says that Vice President Kamala Harris now running at the top of the party’s ticket has meant “a renewed energy with young people that I haven’t seen.”

Frost, 27, was a leading voice for President Joe Biden when he was seeking reelection. But with Biden dropping out of the race last month and endorsing Harris, Frost is now campaigning for the vice president.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Frost said the change is “not just because of President Biden, I’ve not seen with a lot of candidates before.”

“I think it’s less about the president and more about the vice president, something that she’s brought to the table,” Frost said. “I think it has to do with her authenticity, her ability to go viral online.”

The stage is set but no one’s shown up

Not a single speaker or spectator showed up by early Monday afternoon to a speakers’ stage in Chicago set up by city officials near the United Center as crowds of anti-war activists preparing to march began filling a park a few blocks away.

Eight groups with progressive agendas had signed up for 45-minute speaking slots Monday. On other days, some conservative groups including the Illinois Policy Institute have plans to speak.

Sen. Schumer regaled boisterous gathering of union members with the tale of his political origin

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was a young man in his early 20s and said he was working at a “big fancy law firm” – a job he hated.

“I was pushing a pencil for some … rich guy who I knew I wouldn’t like if I ever met him,” Schumer said.

So he decided to run for the New York Assembly and told his barber — also a local bookie — who gave him 50-to-1 odds of winning.

Schumer went on to win and the reason, he said, was because of his supporters in the labor movement who campaigned for him.

“You men and women of labor were there when I needed you,” Schumer said to raucous applause. “As long as I’m in office, I will always be there when you need me.”

Israel supporters at park as pro-Palestinian rally took place to ‘make our presence felt’

Around 40 pro-Israel supporters walked around a park where a pro-Palestinian rally was taking place, and later marching towards the United Center.

The pro-Israel counter-protesters, who mainly remained silent while waving Israeli flags, were accompanied by approximately 20 Chicago police officers on bicycles. Although tensions flared at times, no physical altercations occurred during the park walk.

Josh Weiner, co-founder of Chicago Jewish Alliance and walking with the pro-Israel group, said their intent was to “make our presence felt.”

Weiner said the group had applied for permits that were not approved by the city.

“The pro-Palestine protesters have gotten multiple permits, including a march, which seems to be a little bit weighted on one side,” Weiner said.

Biden’s daughter Ashley will introduce him before his DNC speech Monday night

The speech, which will follow remarks by first lady Jill Biden, is expected to serve as a sort of political farewell for the president, who abandoned his bid for a second term amid concerns about his age.

The rest of the speaking program, which is scheduled to last about five hours, will include a mix of Democratic Party stars and union leaders. Rep. James Clyburn and Sen. Chris Coons, two of Biden’s closest allies, are slated to deliver remarks. So is Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and secretary of state who fell short in her own campaign for president.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain will make a solo appearance while other labor chiefs will share the stage earlier in the evening.

As with any convention, there’s the potential for lesser known politicians to seize their speaking slot to make a name for themselves. The line up includes California Rep. Robert Garcia, Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, New York Rep. Grace Meng and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein: Don’t vote for Harris until she supports swift ceasefire in Gaza

Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Monday urged Democrats to withhold their vote from Harris until she supports a swift ceasefire in Gaza.

“We must vote against genocide,” Stein said during an Abandon Harris news conference. “In fact, there is no lesser evil. We have two greater evils: One conducting genocide now, the other saying to finish the job right now.”

Stein is on the ballot in several key states for Democrats this year. She ran in 2016, gaining tens of thousands of votes in battleground states, including Wisconsin where her vote count was more than Donald Trump’s winning margin in the state. Some Democrats have blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year.

DNC’s party platform still names Biden as the candidate for president

DNC delegates are set to vote Monday night on a 2024 party platform that wrongly names Biden as the candidate running for reelection.

The party said the document outlining a progressive vision for the next four years was approved by its platform committee on July 16, days before Biden bowed out and endorsed Harris for president. As a result, the platform repeatedly refers to Biden’s second term and his administration’s accomplishments. It mentions Harris’ work as vice president but doesn’t describe her candidacy or go into detail on her views on key issues.

Harris has talked generally about supporting the Biden administration’s key goals, which are more or