Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new edition of Insider Today. Please sign up here.QUOTE OF THE DAY
«Let me be as honest and clear …
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new edition of Insider Today. Please sign up here. QUOTE OF THE DAY «Let me be as honest and clear as I can: Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.» —Michelle Obama, addressing the first night of the Democratic National Convention. WHAT’S HAPPENING Getty Bipartisan Senate investigation finds web of ties between Russia and 2016 Trump campaign. The report from the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee chronicles tons of contacts between Russia and Trump officials and labels campaign chair Paul Manafort a «grave counterintelligence threat» for his close connections with Russian intelligence. Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders’ powerful speeches capped an unusual first night of the DNC. The virtual convention mixed kitschy patriotism and strong speeches, with a focus on Trump’s incompetence and unfit character. Tonight’s lineup includes Bill Clinton, Jill Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. UNC cancelled in-person classes a week into the term following a COVID spike. More than 100 students recently tested positive or are quarantined already. Meanwhile, members of fraternities and sororities around the country continue to gather and party, despite instructions not to. Just 6 of Trump’s top 38 donors from 2016 and 2018 have given to his reelection bid. His centralized reelection PAC, America First, has raised only $107 million, far short of the $300 million planned for. The Adelsons, for example, who gave $20 million to Trump last time, have not donated to him, presumably because his anti-China policies endanger their Macau casinos. VIEWS OF THE DAY Former First Lady Michelle Obama. DNCC/Getty Images DNC Night 1 was awkward and dull, until two impassioned speeches saved the show. The people behind the Democratic National Convention curtain need to throw out the script. Actress and activist Eva Longoria did the best she could with a flawed concept, but halting one-minute interviews with «ordinary Americans,» time-delayed «applause breaks,» from the viewers at home, and a seemingly endless parade of «unity» montages only served to highlight that the flaws in the virtual DNC as a televised entertainment event. With rare exceptions, the only effective, entertaining, memorable moments were the speeches — Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama’s, in particular. The producers should just chalk it up to opening-night jitters, and then do everything they can to provide what are always the most memorable moments at past DNCs: more time with the party’s stars addressing the nation. In my latest column, I break down what went wrong and propose how the DNC can save the remaining three nights of their prime-time infomercial for Joe Biden’s candidacy. —Anthony Fisher Bill Clinton speaks to the DNC. Alex Wong/Getty Images Bill Clinton shames the Democratic Party and shouldn’t speak at the convention. You can’t hold a Democratic convention without a Bill Clinton speech. It’s the law, apparently. He’s haunted every convention hall since before AOC was born. Every balloon that has ever been Democratically inflated since 1988 has had a small chance of falling gently onto his head. And so of course we must hear from him again tonight. But must we, really? He is, of course, a two-term president, and he’s given a couple of great convention speeches. (He really saved Obama’s bacon in 2012, when he made Obama’s case better than Obama did.) But Clinton, who has every political gift except knowing when to shut his mouth, should have given 2020 a pass, and have had the wit to know that the party doesn’t need to hear from him.
