On the ground at the RNC

It is day three of the Republican convention in Milwaukee and tonight Trump’s vice presidential pick J.D. Vance will take the stage. The reaction was muted in the arena when Trump anointed Vance on Monday, likely due to a combination of low name identification and concerns from the establishment that he is not helping Trump’s electability. This will therefore be an important moment for Vance to introduce himself to the broader Republican electorate. Outside of the security perimeter this morning, a Trump supporter was holding court with the following sign: “Advance America, vote Trump and Vance.”

Another headliner tonight is Peter Navarro, who got out of prison Wednesday after serving three months for defying a congressional subpoena from the January 6 committee and promptly flew to Milwaukee. He will no doubt hit on the political weaponization of the Department of Justice against Trump and his supporters as January 6 and Trump-related court cases continue to unravel.

The second day of the convention on Tuesday had two themes. Officially, it was about making America safe again. Family members of crime victims, such as the brother of Rachel Morin, the Maryland mother who was murdered by an illegal alien, spoke movingly about the consequences of open borders and progressive criminal justice reform. There have been two safety incidents disturbingly close to the convention center. One knife-wielding man was shot and killed by police after an altercation and another man in a ski mask was apprehended after carrying a firearm without a concealed carry permit.

Unofficially, the theme was unity. Former Trump challengers Nikki Haley and Governor Ron DeSantis spoke back-to-back and urged the GOP to rally behind Trump. Haley was received with heavy boos, but won over a significant portion of the crowd when she offered a full-throated endorsement of the president and urged supporters of hers to follow suit, even if they may not agree with Trump on everything. Haley perhaps took most of the arrows for DeSantis, who appeared right after to a much less caustic reaction.

Of course, the president himself will speak tomorrow night to close out the convention. The general mood here is excited and celebratory. Party members and Trump allies tell me that this convention feels different. Saturday’s assassination attempt reminded everyone how important this moment is for the party and the country and they feel confident about their party’s nominee moving forward into November.

-Amber Duke

On our radar

THE DNC VERSUS JD Within about twenty-four hours of Donald Trump’s selection of vice president, the Democratic National Committee developed its anti-J.D. Vance arguments, centering around abortion. The DNC’s new advertisement — obtained by Mother Jones ahead of its public release — showcases pro-life clips of both Trump and Vance. “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery,” Vance says in one of them.

BLESS YOUR CHART Georgia has over 558,000 false listings on its voter rolls, with 963 registered to a commercial address, over 170,000 missing or wrong apartment numbers and 114,817 invalid addresses. These are active voter registrations and individuals could cast a ballot today if there were an election in Georgia.

TO PROTECT AND OBSERVE Americans’ confidence in the police increased eight percentage points over the past year to 51 percent, the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions of seventeen major US institutions measured in Gallup’s annual update. Confidence in other institutions remains low.

Biden wants to modify SCOTUS

President Biden is finalizing plans to make enormous changes to the Supreme Court, including establishing term limits for justices and an ethics code. These changes arise amid growing concerns that the justices are not being held accountable.“I don’t want to prematurely announce it—but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court,” the president announced in a Zoom call on Saturday. “I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help,” he added.

The president is also considering whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, two sources — wishing to remain anonymous — told the Washington Post.

These changes would be subject to congressional approval, and it is highly unlikely they will pass in the Republican-controlled House. Passage in the Senate requires sixty votes, but a constitutional amendment is slightly more challenging, requiring two-thirds support in each chamber or by a convention of two-thirds of the states, and then approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.

About two in three Americans say they favor terms or mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, according to a 2022 poll from the Associated Press-NORCCenter for Public Affairs Research.

Though Biden has resisted reforming the high court, since taking office he has been more vocal about the Supreme Court’s supposed departure from mainstream constitutional interpretation. During the 2020 election, he had promised to create a commission to study potential changes. He followed through with this and the commission issued a 294-page report to the president, but Biden has not acted on it since the report’s approval in 2021.

SCOTUS has also come under criticism by Democrats for the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and its decision to throw out the forty-year-old Chevron deference in June.

Trump criticized the move on Truth Social, saying “The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court.”

“We have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country,” he added.

–Elisenne Stoller

Biden’s botched attempts to win back black voters and Democrats

President Biden is pressing on in his efforts to convince people he is fit to run this week — but is not having much success. A recent survey from the Associated Press found that only about three in ten Democrats are extremely or very confident that Biden has the mental capacity to serve effectively as president, down slightly from the AP poll in February at 40 percent.

Representative Adam Schiff called on Biden to drop out of the race hours ago, becoming the “most prominent elected Democrat” to do so, according to CNN.

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch. And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election,” Schiff said in a statement.

Biden spoke at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People annual convention yesterday where he said vice president Kamala Harris “could be president of the United States,” which is not a surprising thing to say, just poor timing. “She’s not only a great vice president, she could be president of the United States,” Biden said — and stopped after this phrase to let the crowd cheer.

Biden’s address at the NAACP comes at a time when black voters — 47 percent — believe that someone else ought to be the Democrat’s standard-bearer, according to a July 3 poll from New York Times.

Ed Gordon from BET News sat down with Joe Biden for an interview, which airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET. The interview will “focus on critical issues impacting our community and discuss why black Americans should continue to support his candidacy amidst growing public concerns and calls for him to withdraw.”

Gordon asked Biden if there was anything, including family members, that would make him reevaluate staying in the race. “If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody doctors came and said ‘you’ve got this problem, that problem.’” Biden said. “But, I made a serious mistake, uh, in the whole debate, and uh, and look when I originally ran I said I would be a transitional candidate. And I thought that I’d be able to move from this and pass it on to someone else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so — so divided. And quite frankly I think the only thing that age brings a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve demonstrated how to get things done for the country.”

–Ella Johnson