Election 2024 live: Harris, Walz wrap up Pennsylvania bus tour as Trump plans DNC counter events

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her vice presidential pick Tim Walz embarked on a bus tour through western Pennsylvania on Sunday, one day ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

Joined by their spouses, Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walz, the Democratic running ticket took a road trip through a traditionally red area of the state, promoting unity and positivity as the foundation of their campaign.

Harris and Walz spoke with prospective voters over the phone, gave a stump speech to supporters, met with members of a local firehouse and addressed a high school football team.

The team then headed to Chicago for the first day of the DNC on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is planning counter-programming events to draw attention away from the convention. Allies of the former president plan to hold events at the Trump hotel over four days.

At the same time, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, will hold rallies in key swing states.

Key Points

• Harris’s Pennsylvania bus tour remarks are a stark contrast to Trump’s

• DNC schedule: When Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Michelle Obama and more will speak

• Trumpworld plans DNC counter-program

• Check out the latest 2024 polls

Watch: Tim Walz joins TikTok with guest appearance from dog Scout

Sunday 18 August 2024 03:00 , Holly Patrick

Supreme Court upholds states’ block on protections for trans students

Sunday 18 August 2024 05:00 , Ariana Baio

Twenty-six states will be permitted to maintain their block on the Biden administration’s new rules intended to protect transgender students from discrimination, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

In an emergency order, all nine justices upheld a ruling by lower courts in Louisiana and Kentucky that allowed the states to temporarily pause the new rules as legal proceedings on the matter continue.

The new rules, which were unveiled by the Biden administration in 2021, redefined “sex discrimination” in Title IX to include “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

Ariana Baio reports:

Supreme Court upholds states’ block on protections for trans students

Harris campaign books ‘largest ever’ digital ad blitz in $200m effort to reach voters on their phones

Sunday 18 August 2024 07:00 , Ariana Baio

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is reaching out to potential voters through cellphones and streaming platforms, reserving more than $200 million for digital advertising, a memo from the campaign announced.

The Harris-Walz campaign revealed on Saturday that the investment in digital ads will take up the majority of the $370 million they have reserved for advertising – only $170 million will be geared toward television ads.

For nine weeks, ads will air on popular digital platforms like Hulu, Roku, YouTube and Spotify – mainly focused in battleground states. It does not include spending on social media.

The campaign said they believed it was the largest digital ad reservation in American politics. Streaming has become more popular than traditional television over the last few years.

Trump swerves between economic remarks and personal insults at campaign rally

Sunday 18 August 2024 07:32 , Vishwam Sankaran

Former president Donald Trump swerved from prepared remarks on the economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration and ad-hoc personal insults towards vice president Kamala Harris during his campaign speech last night in northeastern Pennsylvania.

This was his second rally in the state since the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In his speech, he attacked Harris on the US economy by associating the vice president with the Biden administration’s inflation woes, as well as criticising Harris’ plans to stop price gouging as “going full communist”.

Food prices have increased by nearly 20 per cent under the Biden-Harris administration and Harris said she would enact a federal ban on price gouging in the food industry.

Trump asked why the vice president hadn’t solved inflation when she was already in office since 2021.

“Day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. So why didn’t she do it then?” Trump said, part of a scripted attack on Democrats for inflation. Republican strategists believe economic troubles represent one of the major issues where voters could trust Trump over Harris.

He then swerved away into conspiracies and personal comments, however. “You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you? Joe Biden hates her,” the former president said, before describing Biden’s decision to step down in favour of Harris as the 2024 candidate as a “coup”.

Trump boasts of dominating China and Russia with Space Force at rally

Sunday 18 August 2024 07:52 , Vishwam Sankaran

At yesterday’s campaign rally in northeastern Pennsylvania former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump boasted of his administration’s achievements in “rebuilding the military”.

“We came up with a new and very important organisation – to put it mildly – first time since the air force in 80 years we have the space force,” Trump said.

“We took space where we were languishing, falling way behind China and Russia and now we’re dominating them,” the former president claimed.

He said the space force would end up becoming “one of our truly important” agencies.

“It already is,” Trump said.

Though signed into law by Trump in 2019, the initiative to create the US’s space force was developed over decades, and not a partisan programme, according to the New York Times. Formed to bring the various areas of expertise and responsibility for matters relating to space within a single military command centre, its budget is set to reach $30bn this year.

Trump calls Biden-Harris student loan forgiveness plan 'communist takeover'

Sunday 18 August 2024 08:14 , Vishwam Sankaran

Donald Trump called the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to forgive college student debt a “communist takeover” of the US.

“What they’re doing is a communist takeover of the country...They are a threat to democracy,” Trump said at the Pennsylvania rally.

He claimed he would control inflation and would “make America affordable again”

“Her radical liberal policies, of course, horrific inflation decimated the middle class and gutted the finances of millions of American families,” Trump said, attacking Harris’ economic plans.

The former president at one point during the rally handed over the microphone to pilot Daniel Campo, a former Venezuela resident whose family fled from Cuba and then Venezuela to arrive in the US in 2007.

“We are going on a path that is taking us to what Venezuela became so the only way we can avoid keep going down that path is making Trump president again,” Campo said to a crowd that started chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A”

In photos: Donald Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania

Sunday 18 August 2024 09:00 , Ariana Baio

Disgraced congressman George Santos expected to take plea deal in fraud case

Sunday 18 August 2024 10:00 , Ariana Baio

George Santos, the former Republican congressman ousted amid a series of scandals, is reportedly set to accept a plea deal in his federal criminal case in order to avoid a trial, lawyers involved in the case and those familiar with the matter said.

The disgraced lawmaker is expected to enter a guilty plea to the judge overseeing his case, District Judge Joanna Seybert, on Monday at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, sources told Talking Points Memo, CNN, The New York Times and other outlets.

Ariana Baio reports:

Disgraced congressman George Santos expected to take plea deal

Florida college trashed hundreds of books — including many focusing on LGBTQ and race issues

Sunday 18 August 2024 12:00 , Josh Marcus

Hundreds of books, including scores about LGBTQ+ issues, race and activism, were left in a dumpster and parking lot of a public Florida university on Thursday, angering members of the academic community.

Photos and videos show hundreds of books in dumpsters. The university claimed it was part of routine maintenance, but in the past students had the chance to purchase books being taken out of circulation.

The scene comes as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s continues his campaign to change New College of Florida, a state college with a reputation for being progressive. DeSantis has also signed legislation that targets certain books in school libraries.

Josh Marcus reports:

Florida college trashed hundreds of books — many focusing on LGBTQ and race issues

Harris campaign will embark on bus tour

Sunday 18 August 2024 13:00 , Ariana Baio

The Harris-Walz campaign will embark on a bus tour today to speak with voters across Pennsylvania before the campaign heads to the Democratic National Convention.

Vice President Kamala Harris, First Gentleman Doug Emoff, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz will meet with potential voters and speak about the Biden-Harris administration’s record.

The bus tour is expected to begin in Pittsburgh and make various stops throughout the day in Allegheny and Beaver Counties – crucial battleground areas of the state.

Trump yet again brings up Harris’s appearance – claiming he’s ‘better looking’

Sunday 18 August 2024 13:34 , Rachel Sharp

Donald Trump has yet again brought up the appearance of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris – this time claiming he’s “better looking” than her.

At his campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, the former president spoke about the recent Time magazine front cover featuring the vice president.

“Time Magazine doesn’t have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her,” he said.

“They took a lot of pictures that didn’t work out so they hired a sketch artist.”

He then went on to claim that he is the “better looking” of the two presidential candidates.

“I am much better looking than her,” he said.

“I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.”

Moment Trump confuses Pennsylvania for North Carolina as he campaigns in swing state

Sunday 18 August 2024 13:55 , Rachel Sharp

Harris and Walz hold bus tour in Pennsylvania day before DNC

Sunday 18 August 2024 14:15 , Rachel Sharp

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are holding a bus tour in western Pennsylvania today – one day before the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Chicago.

The presidential and vice presidential candidates will be joined by their spouses Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walz for the event, pitted as the “On the Road to Chicago” tour.

Here’s the details of the schedule:

• 12.30pm ET – Stop in Pittsburgh

• 2.25pm ET – Stop in Rochester

• 7.30pm ET – Leave Pittsburgh for Chicago

Trump rambles... about not rambling

Sunday 18 August 2024 14:35 , Rachel Sharp

Trump announces plans to campaign in Howell – one month after white supremacists held march in Michigan city

Sunday 18 August 2024 14:55 , Rachel Sharp

Donald Trump has announced a campaign stop in Howell next week – one month after white supremacists held a march in the Michigan city.

In a press release from the Trump campaign, the former president revealed plans to speak about crime and safety at the Livingston County Sheriff’s office in Howell Tuesday August 20.

The announcement instantly sparked backlash due to the locations longstanding ties to white supremacists.

‘I knew who I could go to’: How Tim Walz gave his queer high school students a refuge

Sunday 18 August 2024 15:15 , Rachel Sharp

Before he was Kamala Harris’s running mate, the Minnesota governor was a geography teacher, coach and faculty adviser for a gay-straight alliance at Mankota West High School.

His former students tell Alex Woodward about their unlikely ally, and why dozens are now campaigning for him:

How Tim Walz gave his queer high school students a refuge

Planned Parenthood to run mobile health center offering free vasectomies and abortion care near DNC

Sunday 18 August 2024 15:35 , Rachel Sharp

A mobile health center offering free vasectomies and abortion care will be available near the Democratic National Convention.

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which offers reproductive healthcare in Missouri and parts of Illinois, is planning to park its mobile clinic blocks from the Chicagop convention center.

Services are on offer to those making an appointment – delegates or not.

On Saturday, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers announced that all appointments for its free vasectomy and medication abortions had now been filled.

The move comes as abortion rights are already on the ballots in several states this November.

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Check out the latest poll updates

Sunday 18 August 2024 15:55 , Rachel Sharp

Here’s what the latest polls say about the 2024 presidential election, from the Independent’s data correspondent Alicja Hagopian:

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates from the 2024 election

Republican Lindsey Graham admits ‘Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election’

Sunday 18 August 2024 16:15 , Rachel Sharp

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has admitted that Donald Trump “the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election” in a candid interview on Sunday morning.

“President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election,” Graham said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press”.

“I’m looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country, to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.”

His comments come as several Republicans have urged Trump to change his strategy and stop the personal attacks on Kamala Harris.

Graham added that he and Nikki Haley are “giving advice on TV to president Trump”.

“He’s got a lot of critics. He’s got a lot of advisers, but to Nikki Haley and DeSantis and Youngkin and all these great people we have, let’s get together and actually campaign for the guy,” he said.

Watch live: Harris and Walz tour Pennsylvania ahead of Democratic National Convention

Sunday 18 August 2024 16:16 , Ariana Baio

- YouTube

How Kamala Harris became Donald Trump’s supertroll and found his weak spot

Sunday 18 August 2024 16:35 , Rachel Sharp

A few days ago, a post on Twitter/X from @KamalaHQ, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign’s “official rapid response page”, contained a video clip of former president Donald Trump talking about how he’d never been given the credit he deserved for tackling Covid. The caption read: “Trump: I never got credit for COVID” and then underneath “(over a million Americans died and he told us to inject bleach)”. Another post by @KamalaHQ was from Trump’s recent press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. “Trump spends his ‘economy speech’ complaining about Kamala Harris being on the cover of TIME magazine.”

And during last week’s calamitous interview between Trump and Elon Musk on X/Twitter, the Harris campaign trolled him in real time, pointing out that Trump argued climate change wasn’t a problem because he’ll “have more oceanfront property”.

Alex Hannaford writes:

How Kamala Harris became Donald Trump’s supertroll and found his weak spot

Marjorie Taylor Greene slams move to offer free vasectomies and abortions near DNC ‘truly heartbreaking’

Sunday 18 August 2024 16:55 , Rachel Sharp

MAGA lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has slammed the move to offer free vasectomies and abortions near the DNC calling it “truly heartbreaking.”

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which offers reproductive healthcare in Missouri and parts of Illinois, is planning to park its mobile clinic blocks from the Chicagop convention center.

Services are on offer to those making an appointment – delegates or not.

On Saturday, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers announced that all appointments for its free vasectomy and medication abortions had now been filled.

The move comes as abortion rights are already on the ballots in several states this November.

JD Vance uses Jeffrey Epstein in an analogy about Harris and inflation

Sunday 18 August 2024 17:30 , Ariana Baio

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance used Jeffrey Epstein and human trafficking as an analogy to compare Vice President Kamala Harris taking control over inflation.

While speaking with Shannon Bream on Fox News this morning, Vance attempted to undermine Harris’s economic policies dramatically.

“Giving Kamala Harris control over inflation policy, Shannon. It’s like giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy,” Vance said.

Epstein was a sex offender who notoriously cultivated a circle of high-profile individuals to participate in sexually abusing women and children.

“She is more of the same. It is doubling down on the failed policies of the Harris administration to give Kamala Harris a promotion rather than to fire her,” Vance said.

Willie Brown threatens to sue Trump over ‘fake’ story of near-fatal helicopter ride

Sunday 18 August 2024 18:00 , James Liddell , Graig Graziosi

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has threatened to sue Donald Trump after the former president told an allegedly completely fictitious story about him.

During a lie-filled press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the former president recounted what now appears to be a tall tale about a helicopter ride he claims he once took with Brown.

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing.”

Not long after Trump had finished speaking, Brown rubbished every single aspect of his story from the helicopter ride together to him criticizing Harris.

Now, Brown has said he might sue the former president over the allegedly false story because “somebody has got to make sure that he stops lying.”

“If he keeps it up, at some point, I’m going to give him a taste of his own conduct,” Brown told CBS News. “If he sues The New York Times for printing that I said he lied, I’m going to sue him.”

Harris arrives in Pittsburgh

Sunday 18 August 2024 18:23 , Ariana Baio

Vice President Kamala Harris has arrived in Pittsburgh to embark on her bus tour around Allegheny County before heading to the DNC.

A small crowd of supporters have been waiting for Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, to arrive in the Keystone State. The crowd is nestled in between the two buses that will take the Harris-Walz campaign for the day.

Harris-Walz kick off campaign meeting with voters

Sunday 18 August 2024 18:53 , Ariana Baio

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz kicked off their bus tour around Pennsylvania by meeting with voters in Pittsburgh.

Harris, joined by her husband Doug Emoff, and Walz, joined by his wife Gwen Walz, arrived to dreary skies but brought lots of smiles and waves as they shook hands with people who greeted the campaign.

Chants of “Kamala” and “We’re not going back” erupted throughout the small crowd of people during Harris and Walz’s brief visit. Neither Harris nor Walz gave official remarks

Harris, Emoff, Walz and Gwen Walz took a selfie shortly before boarding the campaign bus to go meet with other potential voters.

Tammy Duckworth rebukes Trump’s comments about Medal of Honor recipients

Sunday 18 August 2024 19:20 , Ariana Baio

Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said Donald Trump “doesn’t deserve to be commander in chief” after the former president downplayed awards given to veterans for their actions in combat.

Her comments in response to the former president speaking about giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to one of his megadonors in 2018.

“It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor — that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead,” Trump said.

Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq War, called Trump “despicable.”

Trumpworld plans to counter-program the DNC

Sunday 18 August 2024 19:50 , John Bowden

Republicans aligned with Donald Trump will join the hordes of Democrats descending on Chicago this week as the Trump campaign continues to look for a way to blunt Kamala Harris’s momentum.

Trump’s Chicago hotel will become the epicenter of the Republican world as his allies including Florida Senator Rick Scott and his colleague in the House, Byron Donalds, are among those who will lead the GOP’s efforts to counter-program the Democratic convention. Themes of the four-day event at the Trump hotel will include crime and the economy, and will mirror issues being spoken about at the DNC in order to drive home the GOP message.

Trump himself will rally in Las Vegas in Friday for his second event focused on an economic message in as many weeks after several other events over the course of several days.

Harris’s rally remarks are a stark contrast to Trump’s

Sunday 18 August 2024 20:16 , Ariana Baio

In Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted her campaign’s desire to build community and bring people together out of love for the United States – a noticeable contrast to Donald Trump’s remarks in which he often calls the US a failing country

“This campaign here is born out of our love for this country,” Harris told a group of supporters on the second stop of her Pennsylvania bus tour.

Harris repeated her desire to “reinforce” communities who have felt political divide. She expressed hope and positivity for the future.

That message is quite different from Trump who yesterday in Pennsylvania warned that the US was a country in decline and that World War III and a Great Depression were on the horizon.

In Pennsylvania Harris takes calls from voters

Sunday 18 August 2024 20:45 , Ariana Baio

Making their way around Pennsylvania, the Harris-Walz campaign made a stop at their field office in Beaver County to take calls from prospective voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emoff, Governor Tim Walz, and Gwen Walz took calls before giving a stump speech to attendees.

Trump shares AI-generated photo of Harris as USSR leader

Sunday 18 August 2024 21:15 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump continued to invoke his strategy of attacking Vice President Kamala Harris by sharing an AI-generated photo of what looks like Harris presiding over an army of USSR soldiers in “Chicago.”

The former president shared the image on Truth Social on Saturday evening. It had no caption on it but elluded to a statement he made during his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.

“In her speech yesterday, Kamala went full communist. You heard that? She went full communist,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in Wilkes-Barre.

He compared her policies to that of a communist country – like the Soviet Union.

Harris-Walz campaign visits firehouse in Aliquippa

Sunday 18 August 2024 21:25 , Ariana Baio

For their next stop on the Pennsylvania bus tour, Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff Tim Walz and Gwen Walz are at a firehouse in Aliquippa.

After departing from the bus, the group shook hands with members of the local fire department (and the paw of the firehouse dog) and spoke with the group.

Watch: Harris and Walz tour Pennsylvania ahead of Democratic National Convention

Sunday 18 August 2024 22:00 , Ariana Baio

Walz taps into old coaching days to give inspiration speech to high school football team

Sunday 18 August 2024 22:15 , Ariana Baio

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz put his coaching jacket on while addressing a group of high school football players about the importance of unity and positivity on Sunday, as part of the campaign’s bus tour through Pennsylvania.

At Aliquippa High School, Vice President Kamala Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emoff and Walz spoke with a group of high school football players about the future of the country.

The group of young athletes sat and listened as Walz reminded them of the importance of unity and functioning as a team both on and off the field.

“Politics isn’t that much different than this. It’s about something bigger than themselves, it’s about setting up a future goal and trying to reach it,” Walz said.

“It’s about doing it with dignity and hard work. It’s about doing it with humility and when you lose, you walk across the field and you shake hands with the other team and know they played hard too,” Walz continued.

Walz is often referred to as “coach” – a reference to his days of coaching high school football.

Trumpworld’s DNC counter-programming plans

Sunday 18 August 2024 22:48 , John Bowden

Republicans will join the swathes of Democrats descending on Chicago this week as Trumpworld tries to find a way to blunt Kamala Harris‘s momentum.

As the four-day Democratic National Convention gets underway in the Windy City, Donald Trump and his allies are making plans for counter-programming to the event.

Trump’s Chicago hotel will become the epicenter of the Republican world as his allies including Florida Senator Rick Scott and his colleague in the House, Byron Donalds, are among those who will lead the GOP’s efforts to counter-program the convention.

Themes of the four-day event at the Trump hotel will include immigration, crime and the economy, and will mirror issues being spoken about at the DNC in order to drive home the Republican party’s message.

John Bowden reports:

Trumpworld’s DNC counter-programming plans revealed

Harris campaign slams Trump for planning rally in Michigan town with long ties to KKK

Sunday 18 August 2024 23:00 , John Bowden

Kamala Harris’s campaign has slammed Donald Trump for planning a rally in a Michigan town with long ties to the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign savaged the Republican ticket’s choice of venue arguing that Trump is making an appeal to the white nationalists who marched against Jews and other minorities in Charlottesville in 2017 – a moment which led to Trump controversially praising demonstrators and counterprotesters at a press conference.

“The racists and white supremacists who marched in Trump’s name last month in Howell have all watched him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and tell far-right extremists to ‘stand back and stand by.’ Trump’s actions have encouraged them, and Michiganders can expect more of the same when he comes to town next week,” the Michigan communications director for the Harris campaign, Alyssa Bradley, told The Washington Post.

John Bowden reports:

Harris campaign slams Trump for planning rally in Michigan town with long ties to KKK

Tim Walz posts selfie ahead of bus tour

Monday 19 August 2024 00:00 , Ariana Baio

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, shared two selfies of himself, his wife Gwen Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emoff shortly before they boarded buses to take them around Pennsylvania.

“Road trip,” Walz wrote in the caption of his post.

How Tim Walz gave his queer high school students a refuge

01:00 , Alex Woodward

A straight, football-coaching National Guardsman wasn’t the LGBT+ ally that Seth Elliot Meyer expected.

But Meyer, who came out as queer in his freshman year of high school in 2000, admits he was wrong about Tim Walz.

“I just sort of naively believed that someone who was a big, masculine dude with a deep voice was never someone who’s going to be on my side,” Meyer says.

“As much as those younger students who were courageous enough to be out in those years, it was just as important to have those very kind of ‘normal,’ strong, straight, masculine allies backing us up.”

Before he was governor of Minnesota, before he was a member of Congress, and before he was a candidate for the next vice president of the United States, he was “Mr Walz,” a geography teacher at Mankato West High School, roughly 80 miles south of Minneapolis.

Read more from Alex Woodward here

Trump obsesses over Harris’s Time magazine cover declaring he’s ‘better looking’ than her

03:00 , Ariana Baio

During his appearance in the crucial swing state, the former president dedicated some time to mocking Harris’s Time magazine cover by insinuating the depiction made her look better.

Ariana Baio reports:

Trump claims he’s ‘better looking’ than Harris as he obsesses over Time cover again

Who is on the DNC schedule?

05:00 , Ariana Baio

The Democratic National Convention gets underway on Monday August 19 in Chicago, Illinois, with some political heavyweights slated to headline the four-day gathering.

While the DNC is first and foremost a presidential nominating convention, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz are already officially on the Democratic party’s ticket after a five-day round of online voting from delegates wrapped on August 5.

But there were still be speeches from Democratic leaders like President Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jason Carter, the grandson of Jimmy Carter.

Find out more about who is on the DNC schedule here

Tim Walz emphasizes unity in campaign stump speech

07:00 , Ariana Baio

“This campaign is a chance to bring out that joy, turn the page and look to the future,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told supporters on Sunday in Pennsylvania.

In a short stump speech, Walz told young people that the Harris-Walz campaign is an opportunity to see the positive side of America and come together.

“Some of us who have less hair are old enough to remember when you could go to Thanksgiving to watch a Steelers game with your relatives and not complain about politics the whole time. We shared a commitment to democracy,” Walz said.

“We don’t call each other names, we don’t do it. And we don’t use the least fortunate among us as punchlines for jokes because they are our neighbors,” he added.

JD Vance compares Harris to Jeffrey Epstein and claims polls showing Trump losing are fake

08:00 , John Bowden

JD Vance likened Vice President Kamala Harris to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a wild interview on Sunday, where he also claimed that polls showing him and Donald Trump losing are “fake”.

John Bowden reports:

JD Vance wildly compares Kamala Harris to Jeffrey Epstein