Morning Report — Obamas assail Trump; predict `uphill’ Harris contest

Former President Obama and Michelle Obama tag-teamed during Tuesday’s Democratic convention to wrap Vice President Kamala Harris in American optimism and serve up a nostalgic twist on movement politics: “Yes, she can.” 

But they came to Chicago, a city they once called home, to do more than endorse a Democratic ticket. They described former President Trump as “dangerous” and said he’s determined to stoke fear to try to slay his foes. 

The Obamas lived it. Trump’s tactics with the first Black president and his family were not subtle and lasted for years, including his expression of “real doubts” in 2011 that Obama had a U.S. birth certificate.

Faced with what they presented as the stakes in the election, the Obamas put race front and center on the convention stage Tuesday. Mobilizing young people, women and voters of color could help Democrats win. Early voting in some states starts next month.

“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” Michelle Obama recalled.

Her most incinerating blast at her GOP rival was carefully crafted and casually delivered. 

“By the way — Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” the former first lady said as she turned a Trump phrase against him.

Trump and the GOP will wield similar tactics against Harris, Michelle Obama said. 

“Her story is your story,” she assured delegates before urging them to take their energy and excitement and convert it to action. “Let us work like our lives depend on it.” 

Her husband, not missing a chance to add some policy persuasion, lauded the vice president’s ideas for more affordable housing, lower-cost health care and options for job training and higher education. He struck a nerve with placard-waving union supporters when he said, his voice rising, that Harris would be a president who “cares” for workers who bargain for higher wages and better working conditions.

“This will still be a tight race in a closely divided country,” Obama repeated. But Americans, he suggested, “want to be better.”

Before the night’s big speeches in Chicago, Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz filled the 18,000-capacity Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Tuesday for a rally held simultaneously with the packed convention events 92 miles away. Republicans used the same arena for their July nominating convention, giving the Harris-Walz ticket a checkmate moment to demonstrate grassroots enthusiasm in battleground Wisconsin — on live broadcasts. 

Harris punctuated that point, telling viewers and delegates in Wisconsin that hers is “a people-powered campaign.” Offering a high-five to her running mate, whom she called “Coach Walz,” she also referred to her husband, entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, who spoke Tuesday in Chicago about their family. “She’ll be a great president we can be proud of,” he said, describing the vice president as a caring friend and stepmom, talented cook and lover of children. 

Their 10th wedding anniversary is Thursday and the balloons are ready.

Tonight, Democratic delegates in Chicago will hear Walz’s vice presidential acceptance address. And they’ll revisit a 78-year-old “new Democrat,” former President Clinton, who grew up in a place called Hope and is still credited with political and communications gifts. Also on the program: former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 election challenger who later joined President Biden’s Cabinet as Transportation secretary. 

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LEADING THE DAY

MORE IN CAMPAIGNS & POLITICS

PRIMARY WATCH: Voters in Florida, Wyoming and Alaska headed to the polls Tuesday. In Florida, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) fended off primary challenger Aaron Dimmock, who was backed by Gaetz’s political nemesis, former GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.). 

Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) will face Democratic former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in November after they prevailed in their primaries Tuesday. Muscarsel-Powell had primary backing from Biden and other Democratic leaders.

Whitney Fox, a former local government official in Florida, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday for the House seat representing the state’s 13th Congressional District, setting up a match-up with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola (D) advanced from her primary to the November general election for what will be a hotly contested House race this fall. Republicans Nick Begich and Nancy Dahlstrom were also projected to advance. Peltola is seeking a second full term representing Alaska’s at-large district after first being elected in a 2022 special election to fill the remainder of late Rep. Don Young’s (R) term after the longtime incumbent’s death. She then won the November general election for a full term in the House. 

Here are five key takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries.

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ZOOM IN

INTERNATIONAL

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: The Biden administration is working to keep cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas afloat, even as both sides have poured cold water on the idea that a deal could be imminent, saying the efforts — and the latest American proposal aimed at bridging gaps between the two sides — have not resolved some of the most substantive disputes in the talks (The New York Times).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his latest trip to the Middle East Tuesday after meeting with negotiators in Egypt and Qatar. A deal “needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead,” Blinken told reporters in Doha before departing for Washington. the U.S. expects the truce talks to continue this week (Reuters).

Hamas condemned claims by Biden that it backed away from talks, calling his remarks a “green light” for Israel to continue the war in Gaza. The “misleading claims … do not reflect the true position of the movement, which is keen to reach a ceasefire” agreement, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement (The Hill).

The U.S. restricts Ukraine from using American-made weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, a policy that’s under renewed pressure because of Ukraine’s advance into Russia’s Kursk region. The Hill’s Brad Dress reports if the U.S. lifted its restrictions, Ukraine could advance further and hold the territory gained. The Kursk advance has also shattered a Kremlin message that advancing and attacking inside of Russia is a red line and an escalation, threats that have held the U.S. back from approving long-range strike capabilities. 

Kyiv’s bold cross-border advance has seen troops continue to take out key bridges in the western part of the country, while Moscow’s mayor accused Ukraine Wednesday of attempting to launch “one of the largest ever” drone attacks on the capital.

The Wall Street Journal: How a General’s blunder left Russia’s border vulnerable. Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin dismantled a council that oversaw security in the Kursk province in the months before Ukrainian troops invaded.

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ELSEWHERE

STATE WATCH

IN MAINE, an independent commission tasked with reviewing October’s shooting in Lewiston found the local sheriff’s office and leaders of the gunman’s Army Reserve unit failed to take actions that might have prevented the state’s deadliest mass shooting. The report faults the Army Reserve and local police for not taking opportunities to intervene in the gunman’s psychiatric crisis and seize weapons from the reservist before the shooting, which killed 18 (CNN).

ELDER FRAUD is on the rise, and the average amount of money stolen last year through scams of Americans older than 60 totals more than $36,000. Check this map to see where seniors are most affected. 

THE BIRTH RATE in the United States dropped again between 2022 and 2023, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national birth rate has been steadily declining for the last 17 years. Between 2007 and 2022, the U.S. birth rate fell by nearly 23 percent, according to CDC data. The low birth rate has become an election debate topic, as both the Harris and Trump campaigns look at updating the child tax credit rate to encourage more people to have children (The Hill and Newsweek).

IN UTAH, the state government sued the administration in an effort to gain control of about a third of the total area of the state. The lawsuit, which goes directly to the Supreme Court, argues that the federal government’s control of the land is unconstitutional. Some analysts say they’re dubious the suit will hold up in court.

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THE CLOSER

And finally … 💌 Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recounted in her Monday convention speech that 104 years ago this week, Tennessee was among 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote under law. But before that result, there was a hitch, as she pointed out. There was a tie in the state Legislature in Nashville, ultimately broken in a final roll call by 24-year-old lawmaker Harry Burn, thanks to some prodding from his mother, Febb.

The arc of gender equity and voting rights in the United States might have been different or even slower if Burn had not received a 1920 letter delivered to him in the chamber:

“Dear Son, … Hurray and vote for Suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed Chandlers’ speech, it was very bitter. I’ve been waiting to see how you stood but have not seen anything yet…. Don’t forget to be a god [sic] boy and help [suffragist] Mrs. Catt with her ‘Rats.’ Is she the one that put rat in ratification, Ha! No more from mama this time. With lots of love, Mama.”

As Burn, who was seeking reelection and under intense pressure to oppose ratification, waited to cast his vote, the letter was in his pocket. Astonishing some colleagues, he voted “aye.” The next day, he explained.

“I believe in full suffrage as a right,” he said. “I believe we had a moral and legal right to ratify. I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

When Burn died in Tennessee at age 81 in 1977, Hillary Clinton was on her own political journey in the South. Married to Bill Clinton, then the elected attorney general of Arkansas, she was appointed by then-President Jimmy Carter as the first woman on the Legal Services Corporation board.

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