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FROM PHILADELPHIA
Morning Jumpstart
• Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, who sacrificed personal ambition for her husband’s political career and then rose to be a globally influential figure, became the first woman to accept a major party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night in Philadelphia, a prize that generations of women have dreamed about for one of their own
• Clinton cast herself as a unifier for divided times, as opposed to Republican nominee Donald Trump. “Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” Clinton said as she accepted the Democratic nomination. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” (they’re going to hammer away at that line)
• “Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart, bonds of trust and respect are fraying,” said Clinton, who worked on the speech until the early hours of Thursday morning. “And just as with our founders there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together.”
• After 25 years in a sometimes brutal national spotlight, Clinton tried to explain who she is and what drives her – from her Methodist faith to her passion for govt policy that could mean all the difference for people. “I sweat the details of policy. Because it’s not just a detail if it’s your kind – if it’s your family. It’s a big deal. And it should be a big deal to your president.”
Not Here to Take Your Guns
• She disputed Trump’s assertion that she wants to repeal the Second Amendment, saying “I’m not here to take away your guns. I just don’t want you to be shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in the first place.” Campaigning in Iowa Thursday, Trump said there were “a lot of lies being told” at Clinton’s convention (expertise being shown by trump?)
• “He’s [Trump] betting that the perils of today’s world will blind us to its unlimited promise,” Clinton said. “He wants us to fear the future and fear each other. Well, a great Democratic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came up with the perfect rebuke to Trump more than 80 years ago, during a much more perilous time: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'”
• Praising her rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), she told his mostly liberal supporters – some of whom booed, walked out or staged a “silent protest” in the hall, declining to applaud her speech – “I want you to know, I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause.” (they’re worried it’s her cause this week but won’t be once she’s in office – point)
• She asked voters to trust her compassion. “To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.” She asked them to trust in her own resilience. “More than a few times, I’ve had to pick myself up and get back in the game.” (they don’t doubt that; they doubt her trustworthiness)
I Get It
• “The truth is, through all these years of public service, the ‘service’ part has always come easier to me than the ‘public’ part,” Clinton said. “I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me,” she added, before sharing memories of her humble roots and life lessons of church and her mother – particularly, “no one gets through life alone.”
• “Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come,” Clinton said. “Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too – because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit
• Clinton was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who spoke warmly of her mother as a woman “driven by compassion, by faith, by kindness, a fierce sense of justice, and a heart full of love.” President Bill Clinton watched from a seat on the convention floor, beaming with pride and repeatedly leaping to his feet (thought chelsea’s speech was well delivered and strong testament)
• Clinton was joined on stage at the end of the night by her running mate, Sen Tim Kaine (D-Va), who addressed the convention Wednesday. Fireworks exploded inside the arena and red, white and blue balloons plunged from the arena rafters
• Now we’re on to a bitter three months’ general election campaign, with a Democratic candidate who has trust issues and an unprepared, irresponsible, divisive Republican candidate who’s just invited Russia to cyberspy on his rival – and no he wasn’t joking. his campaign didn’t suggest the joke aspect until much, much later. at first they went with a different explanation – vj
• The father of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq posed a question to Donald Trump: Have you even read the Constitution? To rapturous cheers, Pakistan-born Khizr Khan fiercely attacked the businessman Thursday at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, saying that if it was up to Trump, his son would never have been American or served in the military
• Khan said that Hillary Clinton, by contrast, “called my son the best of America.” The address was the latest effort by Democrats to highlight their diversity and criticize Trump’s most contentious plans. Beyond his proposed wall across Mexico, the mogul has threatened to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. if he becomes president (now pretending it’s not about Muslims per se)
• Capt Humayun Khan died in 2004 when a car loaded with explosives blew up at his compound. He was 27. Honoring his son, Khizr Khan pulled a copy of the Constitution out of his suit pocket, “I will gladly lend you a copy,” was his offer to Trump (haven’t seen any tweets from Trump attacking Khan yet. go on, make our day)
• “Look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law,'” he said, standing next to his wife, waving the paperback document vigorously. “Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery?” He then asked. “Go look at the graves of brave Americans who died defending USA. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing.”
• Khan, who moved to the U.S. in 1980, said he and his wife were “patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.” Trump, Khan argued, was imperiling the idea that people could be free to follow their dreams with his smears of Muslims, women, judges and other groups. He urged Muslims, immigrants and all patriots: “Vote for the healer, not the divider.”
• Chelsea Clinton introduced her mother – “my wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious mother” in starkly personal terms. Recounting notes left when her mother was out of town, conversations at the inner table, Clinton said she’s often asked how her mother keeps going. “Here’s how,” she answered. “It’s because she never, ever forgets who she’s fighting for.”
• “I’m Michael Jordan, and I’m here with Hillary,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA hall of famer, deadpanned as he appraised a perplexed convention hall. “I said that because I know that Donald Trump couldn’t tell the difference,” he clarified with a smile. Abdul-Jabbar, who is Muslim, warned powerfully of Trump’s proposed Muslim immigrant ban
• John Allen, the retired four star Marine Corps general who commanded American forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere, delivered a thundering endorsement of Clinton because, he said, “the stakes are enormous” not to. Flanked by fellow veterans, Allen said Clinton would use all the “instruments of American power” to defeat ISIS, strengthen NATO and honor treaties
• “With her as our commander in chief, our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction,” Allen said. “I also know that our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture, and they will not be engaged in murder, or carry out other illegal activities.” (allen spoke as though at a rally – wonder if he’ll campaign for clinton – he was good)
• Allen’s speech was a direct condemnation of Trump, who has called for a reintroduction waterboarding and other more brutal forms of torture. As Allen spoke, Trump reissued that call in Iowa. “So they can chop off heads. They can drown people in steel cages. They can cut your throats. We can’t waterboard. You know, we’re playing by different rules.” (because we have honor – for now)
• Sen Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) brought attention back to manufacturing and trade. Highlighting the foreign provenance of many of Trump’s products and the clients and investors his businesses have harmed, Brown said the only thing Trump’s business record made certain was that “Donald Trump looks out only for Donald Trump.”
• The night featured at least two Republicans: Doug Elmets, a spox who worked in Ronald Reagan’s WH, and Jennifer Lim, director of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I knew Ronald Reagan. I worked for Ronald Reagan,” Elmets said. Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan.” (clinton is doing a big reach for Independents and Republicans who can’t stand Trump)
• Some Democratic women of the Senate spoke. Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) recalled calls from Clinton this year when she was diagnosed with cancer. Sen Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) remembered the “work-horse, humble, steady and ready to learn” who arrived in the Senate in 2001 (i heard this privately from several congresswomen this week in Philadelphia)
• Rep Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) spoke of his grandmother, a Mexican immigrant who settled in Texas as a young girl. “She wasn’t a rapist or a murderer, he said, referencing Trump’s incendiary remarks about why he would build a wall with Mexico. “She was a 6-year-old orphan.” (but she could have grown up into a murderer…)
Tension: Black delegates / Bernie or Bust Movement (AP, me)
• As most Democrats rally around Hillary Clinton, the lingering “Bernie or Bust” movement is stirring frustration at the party’s convention among delegates of color, who say they’re upset at the refusal of the Vermont senator’s most fervent supporters to fall in line. “I think there are undercurrents of privilege that concern me,” said Danielle Adams, a black Clinton delegate from NC
• Adams is among those who say the “Never Hillary” crowd, a group that is largely younger and white, isn’t considering the struggles black Americans still face every day. And, they argue, how the nation’s ethnic and racial minorities may be affected by a Donald Trump presidency (have heard this also)
• Rep Elijah Cummings (D-Md), an African-American and close ally of Clinton, was telling the story of his late father – a share-cropper in South Carolina – on Monday when Sanders supporters started chanting “No TPP” and holding up signs opposing the trade pact. “It was downright disrespectful,” said Kweisi Mfumi, a Clinton delegate and former head of the NAACP (was, too)
• Cummings wasn’t bothered. “The optics were not pretty, but I couldn’t be upset with them. Two or three years ago, they would have been outside politics,” he said, adding that more than 100 people have since apologized for the outbursts. “I’m so glad these people are under our tent.” (he’s a generous man)
• Others, meanwhile, are frustrated by Sanders backers who contend the nomination was stolen from the senator. They say those delegates are ignoring the fact Sanders lost the nomination to Clinton, in part, because he didn’t appeal strongly enough to African-American voters
• Many Bernie Sanders supporters claim they have been treated unfairly, hit with signs and reprimanded by Hillary Clinton supporters over the course of the four-day Democratic convention. Natalie Vowell, 33, from Missouri, said Clinton supporters have pushed her around and shouted at her in the convention hall. She might not vote in November (more at TMN)
Freddie Gray Prosecutors Criticize Baltimore Police (NYT, me) • At an extraordinary presser a day after their boss, Marilyn Mosby, state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced she was dropping charges against the three officers who still await trial, the two lead prosecutors said police failed to serve search warrants for the officers’ personal cellphones and repeated a charge made in court that a detective assigned to the Freddie Gray case sabotaged it • Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, and Janice Bledsoe, deputy state’s attorney, said prosecutors tried to get the personal cellphones of the six officers, which might have shown their communications during and after the episode, but “Baltimore Police Dept did not execute those warrants in the correct amount of time, and they expired,” Bledsoe said • The Baltimore PD has stood by its investigation, saying in a statement Wednesday that over 30 “ethical, experienced and talented detectives worked tirelessly” on it. One officer’s trial ended in a hung jury, Three other officers, who opted for trials before a judge, were acquitted • Schazow reiterated that the lead police detective in the case, Dawnyell Taylor, had sabotaged the case. Taylor claimed in testimony that a medical examiner had told her that Gray’s death was “a freakish accident” which Schatzow suggested was false; the same medical examiner officially called it a homicide • Gray was arrested on 12 April 2015 and sustained a neck injury that badly damaged his spinal cord, and he died a week later. Mosby brought criminal charges against six officers, saying the arrest of Gray was baseless, officers were slow to get him medical help, that he sustained the fatal injury during a ride in a police van, partly because officers failed to put a seatbelt on him • Some bright investigative journalist/journalists will hopefully dig into the police investigation into the Freddie Gray case. When they do, I look forward to their findings – there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark, as Shakespeare said
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Victoria Jones – Editor News is news
Comments are my own
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