MILWAUKEE - US Democrats opened their nominating convention Monday with a show of unity behind Joe Biden and former first lady Michelle Obama delivering a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump as she urged voters to reject his politics of "division."
"Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country," former US President Barack Obama's wife said in a keynote speech on the first night of a convention that has shifted entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership, or consolation, or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy."
The pre-taped remarks came as unprecedented criticism by a former first lady of a sitting US president, painting him as a man who lacks the competence, character or decency for the job.
It was a potent message for voters who tuned in unsure of what to expect from a virtual convention that lacked the showstopping pizzazz and stagecraft of a live event.
With the Democratic Party poised to officially anoint the 77-year-old Biden as its nominee, Trump defied coronavirus concerns and staged a competing event in Wisconsin, the state where Democrats were supposed to hold their in-person convention.
The carefully choreographed opening for the four-day unifying gathering featured actress Eva Longoria as convention moderator.
"Every four years we come together to reaffirm our democracy," she said. "This year we've come to save it."
Dozens of speakers, including a host of Republicans opposed to Trump, offered a similar message.
In a poignant moment, everyday American Kristine Urquiza described how her father died from coronavirus after going out with friends when he believed the pandemic was not serious.
"His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life," Urquiza said.
'Truth and trust'
Obama also took pains to describe Biden as a "terrific vice president" she grew to know well during the eight years he served as her husband's number two.
"He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country," she added.
Biden "will tell the truth, and trust science," she said in a jab at Trump, who has been accused of repeatedly ignoring the advice of his scientific advisors on how to respond to the pandemic.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who challenged Biden for the nomination from the progressive left, also addressed the convention by videolink, and warned that Trump is "leading us down the path of authoritarianism."
"The future of our democracy is at stake," and electing Biden over Trump is an absolute necessity, he stressed.
"My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine."
'Crazy socialist policies'
Trump flew on Air Force One meanwhile to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and delivered remarks to supporters gathered on the airport tarmac.
He accused Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris of seeking to enact "crazy socialist policies" and warned the 2020 election will be "the most dangerous" ever.
"The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged," added the president, who trails Biden in nearly all national polls as well as multiple battleground states.
The Democratic convention is taking place amid a furor over Trump's own efforts to limit mail-in voting.
Insisting without proof that it fosters fraud, Trump has threatened to block extra funding that Democrats say is urgently needed to allow the US Postal Service to process millions of ballots.
Obama addressed the controversy in her remarks, warning that Trump and Republicans were "lying about the security of our ballots."
Oshkosh, where Trump spoke, is about a 90-minute drive north of the Milwaukee arena where Democrats had intended to gather in a sign of eagerness to win back Wisconsin, one of multiple Democratic strongholds which flipped to Trump in 2016.
But the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed some 170,000 people in the United States, upended election campaigning.
Biden did not speak live on Monday, but he tweeted his support afterward.
"Tonight we saw that Americans are ready to come together, and that we the people can overcome these crises and emerge stronger than ever," he wrote.
While some speeches Monday were clearly pre-taped, Biden and Harris, 55, will address the convention live via videolink, according to the campaign.
Biden, whose poll leads over Trump remain significant, despite a slight tightening of the race, is hoping Harris -- the first woman of color on a major party's presidential ticket -- will invigorate Democrats.
Tuesday will see addresses from former president Bill Clinton and Jill Biden, the nominee's wife.
On Wednesday, Barack Obama will speak, and Harris will have her spotlight moment before the convention culminates Thursday when Biden formally accepts the Democratic nomination and delivers his acceptance speech.
Agence France-Presse
NEW YORK -- Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, has stepped up her assault on billionaires -- a rallying cry popular with her base, but one that could stymie her efforts to garner wider support among US voters.
The 70-year-old US senator from Massachusetts on Thursday unveiled a new ad in an appearance on CNBC, a business news network that often criticizes her, in which she takes on the ultra-rich.
The one-minute campaign ad shows clips of several leading businessmen criticizing her plans for a wealth tax and predicting economic ruin if she is elected to succeed Donald Trump, a billionaire himself.
"The vilification of billionaires makes no sense to me. It's bull," says investor and hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, one of the men targeted in the ad. After he speaks, a note appears on screen -- "charged with insider trading."
"I'm most scared by Elizabeth Warren," chimes in Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, who is identified on screen as a "Facebook board member and major Trump donor."
Then the viewer sees Warren at a campaign rally, challenging America's most wealthy to pay up to help reduce income inequality in America.
"Pitch in two cents so everybody else gets a chance to make it!" she says to cheers from the crowd.
The ad marks a new phase in the White House strategy of Warren, who has put her fight against the rich at the heart of her campaign.
"All of this is a publicity stunt," said Capri Cafaro, an executive in residence at American University's School of Public Affairs and a former Democratic member of the Ohio state senate.
"She's showing that she has the toughest talk when it comes to taking on the billionaires and standing up for working families," she told AFP.
'BILLIONAIRE TEARS'
In her campaign, Warren often fluctuates between using irony and outright scorn for those she doesn't like.
When Cooperman blasted Warren as "disgraceful," the Wall Street foe's campaign Twitter account fired back: "ok billionaire" -- a twist on the "ok boomer" meme that has gone viral among those fed up with their elders.
When Bill Gates expressed concern that he would have to pay $100 billion under her wealth tax, her team launched a tax calculator for billionaires on her website, and she offered to meet the Microsoft founder and philanthropist to explain her policy platform.
When one clicks on the tax calculator, you can enter your net worth and get a rough estimate. If you're Gates, Cooperman or former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, there are dedicated links that automatically inputs net worth. For Gates, it's $107 billion.
Bloomberg is, meanwhile, mulling his own presidential bid.
Warren is also selling anti-billionaire swag on her site. One mug has the mocking phrase "Billionaire tears." Buttons promoting the wealth tax -- which would be a two percent levy on fortunes exceeding $50 million -- say "two cents" and show two pennies.
Cooperman is always ready to take a swing at Warren, but he's not the only one.
Former Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein -- who also appears in the campaign ad -- said he was surprised by being included, and noted: "Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA."
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon lamented that Warren was "vilifying" the rich, telling CNBC: "I think we should applaud successful people."
Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, accused the senator of "misleading the public" with proposals that he suggested would not work, criticizing, in particular, her Medicare for All health plan.
Amid all the swirling controversy and tit-for-tat attacks, will Warren's strategy pay off?
After running neck-and-neck with former vice president Joe Biden in several opinion polls, earning more than 20 percent support in some surveys, a Reuters-Ipsos poll published Friday showed her trailing off at 13 percent, behind Biden and fellow Senator Bernie Sanders at 19 percent each.
According to Cafaro, some voters already skeptical about Warren's many policy plans could be turned off by her harsh words for the rich.
"But if you're someone that does feel that billionaires need to pay their fair share, this is going to make you even more firmly committed to her candidacy," the analyst added.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
DETROIT -- Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden and rival Kamala Harris will stage a rematch of last month's explosive debate confrontation during Round 2 on Wednesday, with a re-energized Biden promising a more aggressive approach.
On the second of back-to-back nights of Democratic debates, Biden will be flanked at center stage by Harris and Cory Booker, US senators who are the most prominent black contenders in a Democratic nominating contest in which race has played a prominent role.
Seven other candidates, including former US Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, will join them on stage in Detroit in search of a breakout moment that will generate new momentum for their campaigns.
On Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren repeatedly defended their progressive proposals under heavy fire from more moderate rivals who argued their plans to provide universal healthcare, fight climate change and decriminalize illegal border crossings would hurt Democrats at the polls next year.
The crowded field of about 2 dozen candidates has been vying for attention and financial support in the Democratic race to pick a challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
Biden did not figure prominently in the first night of the debate but is likely to be the focus of the second.
The former vice president has engaged for weeks in an escalating fight with Harris and Booker for the support of black voters, a vital constituency in the Democratic nominating battle.
Biden admitted he was taken by surprise last month when Harris criticized him for opposing federally mandated busing for school integration in the 1970s and for working with segregationists while serving in the US Senate decades ago.
The sharp attack gave Harris a bump in the polls, and Biden's feeble response led to a dip in his standing. He has recovered in some recent polls and still maintains a firm grip on first place, helped by strong support from black voters.
Booker, who was not on stage with Biden at the last debate, has stepped up his attacks. He called Biden "the architect of mass incarceration" during the NAACP convention in Detroit last week, a reference to Biden's work as a senator on the 1994 crime bill, which critics say led to the disproportionate imprisonment of African-American men.
Biden and his campaign fired back, sharply criticizing Booker's tenure as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, where he led a police department that became embroiled in a federal civil rights investigation.
'FANTASY WORLD'
Biden has also taken swipes at Harris, calling her promise she could institute her version of a Medicare for All health insurance plan without a middle-class tax hike "a fantasy world."
The debate lineup will create a stark visual contrast between Biden, a white 76-year-old, and his younger rivals Harris, 54, and Booker, 50, potentially making Biden look out of step in a party increasingly driven by the grassroots energy of younger and more diverse activists.
Biden, who could face intensifying questions about his age and front-runner status with another poor debate performance, promises to take the fight to Harris and Booker this time.
"I got a past I'm proud of. They got a past that's not quite so good," said Biden, who refers frequently to his eight years as No. 2 to the first black US president, Barack Obama.
A Biden senior campaign official told reporters in Detroit the debate would not be a make-or-break moment for Biden, who will focus his criticism on Trump but fight back against attacks and distortions of his lengthy public record.
"He's not going to allow anyone to mischaracterize his record," the adviser said.
The debates come about six months before Iowa holds the first nominating contest, and the two nights in Detroit could be the last chance for many of the lower-tier contenders to make an appearance on the national debate stage.
The Democratic National Committee will double its fundraising and polling requirements to qualify for the next debates in September and October, leaving out more candidates and raising questions about their ability to continue their campaigns. So far, only about a third of the field has met the qualifications.
Castro, who also served as mayor of San Antonio, got a slight bump in polls and fundraising after an aggressive performance in the first debate. He will be under pressure to do it again if he hopes to claw into the upper tier.
Gillibrand, Inslee and the other participants on Wednesday will simply be on a desperate quest to get recognized.
The other candidates on stage for the second night will be US Senator Michael Bennet, US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
