Earlier this week, The Daily Beast reported that President Trump had one thing on his mind heading into his Republican National Convention. The president was telling his closest aides that he was determined to beat his rival Joe Biden in the TV ratings. He was requesting daily ratings for the Democratic National Convention and insisted that his RNC spectacle would demolish their “pathetic” numbers, according to a senior administration official. In the end, apparently not even all of the unethical pomp and circumstance of a Trump-branded White House as the backdrop of his big speech Thursday night could draw more viewers […]
Democratic National Convention
The 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) ended on Thursday night with Donald Trump delivering his acceptance speech. American observers have discussed the competitive advantages and flaws of the DNC and RNC shows weighing up the GOP’s chances of attracting unaffiliated voters. “The Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, goes forward united, determined, and ready to welcome millions of Democrats, Independents, and anyone who believes in the greatness of America and the righteous heart of the American people”, the US president underscored on Thursday, arguing that his opponent, Democratic nominee Joe Biden “is not the saviour of America’s soul” but “the […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver dedicated the opening portion of his Emmy-winning HBO series, Last Week Tonight, to the Democratic National Convention—a star-studded four-day affair filled with the Bidens, Obamas, celebrity emcees, Billie Eilish, and Diplo DJing in front of a CGI White House. Curiously, the 2020 DNC also featured a number of #NeverTrump Republicans voicing their opposition to the president, including Cindy McCain, wife of the late Sen. John McCain; former New York Rep. Susan Molinari, who was the keynote speaker at the 1996 RNC; former Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of the architects of the Iraq War; Meg […]
Rose McGowan’s ongoing feud with Alyssa Milano just escalated again with an online spat for the ages. The inciting incident for all this? Some political tweets, naturally. On Thursday McGowan vented her frustration with the Democratic Party: “What have the Democrats done to solve ANYTHING?” she wrote. Help the poor? No. Help black & brown people? No. Stop police brutality? No. Help single mothers? No. Help children? No. You have achieved nothing. NOTHING. Why did people vote Trump? Because of you motherfuckers.” McGowan subsequently responded to some of the criticisms aired in the replies to her tweet‚ adding at one point, […]
On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert’s Late Show went live after the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention. And, reacting to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s convention-closing speech, where he made an impassioned plea for “a united America,” Colbert nearly jumped out of his chair with excitement. Then, the comedian got serious—and issued his own address of sorts to his viewers. “Well, here’s the deal,” the comic said. “Biden spoke for over 10 minutes and addressed all the pain that Trump has inflicted upon our country; all the possibilities for healing our nation. But most importantly, not once did […]
Thursday night’s Democratic National Convention ended with Joe Biden accepting his party’s nomination with what may be the best speech of his presidential run: an electric call to action, profound acknowledgement of our nation’s grief, and as close to a “mad as hell” moment as we’ve seen from him as he pledged to lead our country into a stronger, safer, and sane new chapter. It was shortly thereafter that this purported chapter began, with Zooey Deschanel and a Property Brother doing a comedy bit as a warm-up act to Diplo DJ-ing a virtual dance party in front of a White House […]
It’s amazing how often it happens that we elect as president someone whose personal attributes are the opposite of the exiting incumbent. Jimmy Carter was a bit of pious moralist preaching sacrifice; Ronald Reagan said set that thermostat wherever you want. It’s gone on like that ever since. Donald Trump, a coarse braggart who thinks the White House is a dump, was the opposite of Barack Obama, a cultivator of understatement who put a premium on dignity (except of course when he wore the unforgivable brown suit). But now Trump may be trumped. The biggest phony ever to barge his way […]
After nearly a year of attacks from President Donald Trump, and months of near-silence as his father fought for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hunter Biden made an appearance in the final minutes of the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. It was his first on the—albeit digital—campaign trail since his work abroad helped spark an impeachment inquiry into the president. In a prerecorded video introducing former Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden appeared alongside sister Ashley Biden to describe the Democratic nominee as both a father and a leader. “He’ll be there when you need him,” Hunter Biden said. “He’ll get […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/15/1080232269_0:0:1201:675_1200x675_80_0_0_fc5d982896c18f2f93a0ff72d233a5e8.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/cartoons/202008211080232349-sore-successor/ US President Donald Trump spent his Wednesday evening rage-tweeting as he watched former President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech. It is common knowledge that Trump loathes Obama, with many still speculating that Trump ran for the presidency because Obama scathingly mocked him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Trump was the only person not laughing in the audience. During his Wednesday evening Democratic National Convention speech from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Obama argued that Trump has turned the presidency into “one more reality show that he […]
It’s almost as if none of them actually believe what they’re saying. On Thursday afternoon, Jesse Watters went on a long rant on The Five about how ineffective former President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was. The smirk never left his face, and all his co-hosts could do when he was finished was laugh at him. “President Obama looked terrified,” Watters claimed. “This was not an uplifting speech at all. It looked like he knows this is going to be a low turnout election, and the internal numbers for the Democratic Party must be horrific. Because this looked […]
Barack Obama likes to talk about the bending arc of history. His own story is a testament to it. Not just the well-known biographical portions, but the political parts as well. In 2004, as an unknown state Senator from Illinois, he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic convention that is remembered for its lofty oratory and themes of unappreciated national unity. As president for eight years, he re-committed to that ethos by vowing repeatedly that the “fever” of Republican opposition would eventually “break.” On Wednesday night, he addressed the Democrats’ convention once again, this time as a party luminary and […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/14/1080225916_0:55:3274:1897_1200x675_80_0_0_df9d922aedbde842dff160d808aafa7d.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Aakriti Sharma. Sputnik International https://sputniknews.com/viral/202008201080223777-kamala-harris-impresses-tamilians-with-mention-of-aunts-in-her-dnc-speech/ New Delhi (Sputnik): Senator Kamala Harris was officially nominated for vice president by the Democratic Party on Wednesday. If Biden wins the November election, Harris, a former California Attorney General who dropped out of the presidential race in December 2019, would become the first female vice president in US history. After accepting her nomination for US vice president, Kamala Harris in her address at the Democratic National Convention appealed to diverse voters of the party to rally behind presidential candidate Joe Biden. The stories of Kamala’s childhood where she grew up as […]
Much has been made of the Extreme Telethon Energy of the virtual Democratic National Convention, which aired its third night Wednesday with segments shot from all over the country. Billie Eilish and Jennifer Hudson sang. Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and, in a brief standout moment, Gabrielle Giffords delivered moving speeches. Kamala Harris made history. Moderating it all, an inspired choice of A-list actress in an inspired pin-stripe pantsuit, was Kerry Washington, in full Olivia Pope mode, staring into the camera and pleading with earnestness typically reserved for when there is a toll-free 1-800 number on the bottom of the […]
Sixteen years ago, Barack Obama captured the hearts of many Americans with a youthful, exuberant hope in his keynote address in Boston. Now, Obama is the retired elder statesman, reminding us Wednesday night that despite Donald Trump’s American carnage, his hope remains. Obama opened his remarks by saying, “I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did. Donald Trump hasn’t […]
Fox News’ opinion and “hard news” wings have seemingly gone all-in on a new, misleading narrative about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Tuesday evening DNC speech nominating runner-up Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for president, repeatedly suggesting that the progressive star “snubbed” Joe Biden as a sign of Democrats in disarray. Shortly after Ocasio-Cortez’s largely procedural and symbolic act of seconding Sanders’ nomination on Tuesday evening—a speech which also featured her checking off a number of policy positions she shares with the democratic-socialist senator—several media outlets noted that she never mentioned by name Joe Biden—the party’s actual nominee—in her brief remarks. The New York […]
Tuesday’s second night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention hammered home the notion that the party of Joe Biden is a big tent. Big enough to hold the Bernie revolutionaries, national security nerds, avowed centrists, the McCain family, Medicare for All advocates, teachers, people who miss the Kennedys, nurses, beautiful Soul Cycling grandmas, and Bill Clinton’s remaining fan. All of these people would rather hang out in the big tent of the Democrats than squeeze into the sweaty clown car of Trump’s GOP. Like Night One, Night Two was an experiment in trying to make Zoom calls between strangers interesting. But […]
Monday night on Fox News, Brit Hume was the sole dissenting voice who had anything negative to say about Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech, accusing the former first lady of distorting and exaggerating the facts in her admittedly “effective” speech. When it came time for him to weigh in on former second lady Jill Biden’s speech on Tuesday night, he decided to draw a pointed contrast between the two women. “I think this speech tonight by Jill Biden was tremendously effective in the sense that it didn’t have a hard, angry edge that we heard last night to a considerable […]
Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention left Stephen Colbert speechless. He had a lot more to say about Bill Clinton’s. In his second live Late Show of the week, Colbert broke down the biggest moments from night two of the DNC, or as he called it, “one of the most electrifying infomercials of the year.” Noting that the theme for the second night was “Leadership Matters,” he joked that the Republicans had already decided to rename night two of their convention, “All Qualities Matter.” The host’s sharpest commentary, however, came in response to the address delivered by former President […]
Concluding the opening night of a Democratic Convention that until a few minutes earlier had felt overly platitudinous, centrist and bloodless, Michelle Obama delivered a speech that was the opposite—impassioned, uplifting and, at the same time, full of truths about America that this country rarely likes to acknowledge about itself. One of the most astounding moments in a speech filled with them came when the former first lady revisited a line that has been endlessly quoted since she uttered it 2016. But this time around, the ex-FLOTUS—in tacit recognition of the toll that four years of Donald Trump’s bottom-feeding, “no low […]
As the only late-night host to go live after the Democratic National Convention Monday night, Stephen Colbert had jokes ready about everything from John Kasich’s comical “crossroads” metaphor to Bernie Sanders delivering his speech in front of our “national strategic stockpile of firewood.” But when it came to the Michelle Obama barnburner that closed out the evening, the Late Show host just couldn’t bring himself to make fun of the former first lady. Early in his live monologue, Colbert admitted that he was “deeply moved” by the patriotic display that opened the first night of the DNC. “It’s because this feels […]
In one day, John Kasich managed to make AOC and Donald Trump mad at him. I guess we know why his is the road less traveled. Standing at a literal crossroads (or was it a fork in the road?) the former Ohio governor did the unthinkable for a man once thought of as a conservative Gingrich Republican: He spoke at the Democratic National Convention on behalf of Joe Biden for president. “I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country,” Kasich said. “In normal times, something like this would probably never happen, but these […]
So here it is, convention week. Yes, it will be weird, without the crowds and the applause. But we’ve gotten used to a lot of weird things, and we’ll get used to this. There are many more important things about this convention to discuss than its virtual-ness. We have 80 days to go until Donald Trump and his propaganda network try to steal the election. There are no ifs here. If it looks like he’s losing—and it does—he’ll cheat. So Joe Biden and the Democrats need to spend 80 days saying two things relentlessly: one, warning the American people about his […]