Raw Story

MILWAUKEE — Democrats remain in the midst of a destructive conflict over whether President Joe Biden should quit the 2024 race.

But steps outside the Republican National Convention’s security perimeter, Democratic Party leaders on Wednesday angled to frame the presidential election as a “binary choice” between Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump. No more, no less.

“A binary choice,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) declared.

Democratic leaders uttered the “Biden-Harris” on numerous occasions.

Another oft-used phrase: “Now until November.”

Walz acknowledged that Democrats, at this moment, are not as unified behind their presidential candidate as Republicans are — quickly noting that a parade of one-time Trump critics such as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz all lavished Trump with praise during Tuesday night’s Republican National Convention speeches.

The Democrats drew contrasts between Biden and Trump on abortion rights, personal freedoms and the choice of Trump’s selection of a white man as his vice presidential running mate versus Biden’s choice of a Black and Asian woman.

“Trump picked J.D. Vance because he would bend over backwards,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, said of Trump's new running mate.

He added that despite the Trump campaign’s calls for “unity” this week, Republicans “are here to divide.”

Walz mused that Republicans “don’t have much division in their party” because “they bend the knee and grovel.” He described Vance not as an independent thinker but a “perfect Frankenstein monster created by the Heritage Foundation.”

ALSO READ: Associated Press issues warning about iconic Trump assassination attempt photo

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) further panned Republicans for supporting an immigration policy that aims to potentially deport millions of people living illegally in the United States, but offers few details on how such an undertaking would be done.

“It’s just one party that proposes solutions over and over again,” Escobar said of Democrats regarding immigration. “The alternative is very dark.”

Some prominent Democratic Party members continue to openly question whether Biden, 81, is physically and mentally fit to stand for reelection following a disastrous debate performance last month and underwhelming national interviews since then. Some — including elected members of Congress — have outrightly called for Biden to yield the nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris, or to open the Democratic National Convention to other potential candidates.

Other Democrats remain steadfast in their support of Biden, and the Democratic National Committee is plowing forward toward Biden’s formal nomination.

The Republican National Convention is scheduled to conclude Thursday night with a nomination acceptance speech by Trump, who officially became the GOP nominee on Monday.

The Democratic National Convention is slated to take place a month from now in Chicago. But Democrats assembled in Milwaukee today only offered vague details about how a planned, pre-Democratic National Convention “virtual roll call” to nominate Biden and Harris will work in practice.

The Democratic National Committee will no longer try to nominate President Joe Biden on an accelerated timeline.

Although the Democratic National Committee had decided to hold a virtual vote on July 21 to nominate Biden, many Democrats who are pushing for a new nominee protested and claimed that this move was an attempt to rush through the process without giving consideration to a potential new candidate.

CNN political commentator and former Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield noted that the ballot access deadlines begin on Aug. 20 because ballots must be printed.

"Waiting until 8/19 to formally nominate a candidate would give very little breathing room to get a name on those ballots if there were to be a brokered convention," she wrote on the social media site X. "An earlier virtual process in some ways leaves more flexibility on the table, not less, because it doesn’t put the party’s back against the wall re: ballot deadlines on 8/20. Probably not the argument the Biden team wants to make (to say the least!!), but it is another thing those that are upset about this should consider."

Read Also: The risk of dumping Biden

Now, the DNC announced that it will push back the vote to August.

Anti-Biden Democrats now have a few additional weeks to find a candidate willing to run against Biden, mount a campaign and raise the funds necessary to build and win a national effort in four months.

Many powerful Republicans are horrified and frustrated by Donald Trump's choice of running mate in the upcoming presidential election, according to a new report.

Sen. J.D. Vance's isolationist views both alarm and infuriate hawkish Republicans who fear the 39-year-old will destroy the Republican Party's longtime foreign policy consensus, Politico reported Wednesday.

"Trump didn’t just select a running mate here – he doused political kerosene on the raging Republican fire over foreign policy," writes columnist Jonathan Martin. "While toeing the party line and praising Vance in their public comments, in private the interventionists ranged from horrified to merely alarmed that one of the loudest critics of aiding Ukraine could soon be first in line for the presidency."

One influential Republican member of Congress told Martin, “I’m scared to death.”

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chair, reportedly raised concerns about Russia's invasion, telling an associate, “The Ukrainians better hurry up and win.”

ALSO READ: Do presidents’ popularity increase after assassination attempts? History has an answer

Trump's decision, which represents a victory for his eldest son who lobbied hard for Vance, showcases the lack of influence Republican infighters such Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have on the former president, Martin writes.

"[McConnell] had little to say about the Vance pick, only raising an eyebrow when I asked him about it immediately after it became public and declining to speak any further," Martin writes.

"McConnell is a party man first and was unwilling to distract from the unity of the week."

Many Republicans presented a united front in public, but Martin reports a swift shift in mood behind closed doors.

Following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania rally last weekend, his allies at the Republican National Convention are downright elated over the turn of events, wrote Amanda Marcotte for Salon — and already making plans to use it as a political weapon.

"Trump is leaning into this with all the subtlety of a pro wrestler," wrote Marcotte. "In a video that leaked Tuesday, Trump is heard on speakerphone talking to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his injury, which he described as like being bitten by 'the world’s largest mosquito.' But when Trump showed up at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Monday night, he was sporting a comically oversized bandage on his ear. The crowd responded by chanting, 'Fight, fight, fight!'"

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Trump's allies tried to blame the whole thing on President Joe Biden and Democrats, either through outright conspiracy theories they orchestrated it, or because their warnings the former president poses a danger to democracy supposedly incited it. There is no evidence to support this; the shooter appears if anything to have Republican roots.

Nonetheless, Marcotte wrote, Republicans are "eager" to use the shooting, and speculation about motive, to try to confuse one of the key issues voters still don't trust Trump on: the preservation of democracy and the rule of law.

ALSO READ: How Trump and Senate Republicans are circling the wagons to save Clarence Thomas

"People on the ground at the RNC are eager to use this shooting to deflect the entirely correct accusation that Republicans, by nominating the man who incited the January 6 insurrection, are the ones endorsing political violence," wrote Marcotte. "Instead, they used the shooting to level false accusations at President Joe Biden's administration. One delegate from North Carolina claimed, 'We don't really have a lot of trust in the agencies that are going to be doing an investigation.' She hoped for a private investigation because 'there's a lot of questions' about 'the FBI and who they really work for.'"

Ultimately, she wrote, Republicans care little about Trump as a human being, or about the man who died in that crowd. They just care about a rallying cry to vent their grievances about fellow Americans they hate. "That's why their response to Trump playing up his minor injury with a diaper-sized bandage was not to commiserate with his pain. Instead, the crowd chanted, 'Fight, fight, fight!'"

Former President Donald Trump's campaign is suing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, arguing that their plan to let certain state agency workers register more voters is illegal.

According to the lawsuit filed on Monday and flagged by 12News, Whitmer and Benson do not have authority, under a 1995 law passed by the Michigan legislature, to designate the Michigan Department of Veterans Affairs and Small Business Administration to register voters, as these were not agencies included on that law as available for the governor to designate.

Whitmer issued an executive order last year that allows more state agencies to register voters, and Benson implemented the arrangement. The Trump campaign wants a federal judge to declare this unlawful and force state officials to seek approval from the legislature to give voter registration duties to these agencies.

This lawsuit is the latest in a years-long campaign by Trump and his Republican allies to try to block various policies designed to make it easier to vote.

READ: Behind Trump and the GOP's plan to use this opportunity to shut up Democrats

In another such case, Stephen Miller, a former Trump adviser and the head of the far-right group America First Legal, filed a lawsuit alleging that the state of Arizona set up too many voting centers in Black and Hispanic precincts, creating a voting disadvantage for white and indigenous voters. This lawsuit was dismissed in February.

Earlier this month, anti-voting elements in Wisconsin suffered a defeat after the recently-elected liberal Supreme Court majority restored ballot drop boxes for mail ballots throughout the state, reversing a previous court decision that had abolished their use. "Wisconsin voters should have more options, and drop boxes are a secure and easy way to increase civic participation and ensure voters have another safe, secure, and accessible way to cast their ballot," stated Sam Liebert, the head of a local voting rights group.

The live band at the Republican National Convention took over to fill an awkward moment when House Speaker Mike Johnson's teleprompter malfunctioned.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my honor to Introduce the Attorney General, and there goes the teleprompter," said Johnson (R-LA), who froze for a moment before the band took over, and the crowd laughed.

The playlist included "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad, "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick, "China Grove" and "Taking' It to the Streets" by The Doobie Brothers.

Another was "Roll with the Changes" by REO Speedwagon.

The band extended Cheap Trick's less than four-minute hit with numerous instrumental riffs to fill time for more than 10 minutes. The band performed for more than 30 minutes.

The live band at the Republican National Convention filled in when Speaker Mike Johnson's teleprompter malfunctioned. (Dave Levinthal/Raw Story)

Johnson had just announced that former President Donald J Trump "received a majority of the votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States."