No, we still don’t have a vice-presidential pick. No, we don’t have a coronavirus relief package either. It’s Tuesday, and this is your politics tip sheet. |
- Joe Biden has completed his vice-presidential interviews and dissolved his vetting team, which means all that’s left is for him to make his decision. The announcement is expected midweek.
- No one seems to know what Biden’s choice will be — not even the people closest to him, and not even the campaign staff members planning for the announcement. “This is like the best-kept secret in the universe,” former Senator Barbara Boxer of California said.
- The White House and Congress are still deadlocked over a new coronavirus relief package. As millions of Americans try to get by on much smaller unemployment payments, lawmakers have scattered across the country for their August recess, and there were no negotiations on Monday.
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- Democrats and Republicans remain deeply divided over how big the package should be, and Republicans are divided even among themselves. And governors of both parties were struggling on Monday with how to respond to President Trump’s executive order that they deliver their unemployed residents more benefits.
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- Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Republican who has criticized Trump before, joined Democrats in denouncing the executive actions the president announced when Congress couldn’t reach a deal, calling them “unconstitutional slop.” Trump, following his usual playbook, mocked Sasse as a “Republican in Name Only” and tweeted that he was playing “right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems.”
- Trump is considering measures that would let border officials temporarily block American citizens or legal permanent residents from entering the country if an official “reasonably believes” the person has the coronavirus or has been exposed to it.
- Separately, the Secret Service yesterday led Trump out of the White House briefing room midsentence after a shooting nearby. He returned a few minutes later and went on with his briefing.
- Trump said he would deliver his convention speech either at the White House or at Gettysburg National Military Park. Both options are ethically questionable, because both are government property, and under the Hatch Act, federal employees are not supposed to engage in political activity on the job. Trump himself is exempt from that ban, but the many staff members who would presumably be involved are not.
- We’re getting a better sense of who will speak at the Democratic National Convention next week. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Barack and Michelle Obama are all on the roster. So is John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio and 2016 presidential candidate, who is a “never Trump” Republican.
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- And in Puerto Rico, a primary election was, to put it mildly, a mess — such a mess, in fact, that officials there decided to reschedule it, drawing outrage from candidates and civil liberties groups. Voters on the island waited in line for hours after trucks failed to deliver ballots to polling locations.
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 | | Jim Mone/Associated Press |
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Minneapolis voters lined up to cast their ballots a day before Tuesday’s primary election. |
Here’s what the Democratic convention lineup looks like. |
0By Michael M. Grynbaum and Glenn Thrush |
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Michelle Obama on Monday. Jill Biden on Tuesday. Barack Obama on Wednesday. Joe Biden on Thursday. |
That’s the nightly prime-time lineup of keynote speeches for the Democratic National Convention next week, according to a schedule of events. |
The convention, originally planned for Milwaukee, then forced into a cramped virtual format by the coronavirus, has been a logistical nightmare for planners who have had to grapple with wary television networks, daunting technical challenges and the omnipresent, low-grade threat of a disruption by President Trump. |
The schedule, provided by Democratic officials involved in the planning, above all else reflects Biden’s chief political goal: uniting the jostling progressive and establishment wings of the Democratic Party behind an elder statesman who has spent the last several months courting skeptical progressives. |
The first-night schedule reflects that big-tent objective. Senator Bernie Sanders, Biden’s main rival for the nomination — and still the standard-bearer of the populist left — has been given a keynote slot, just before Michelle Obama speaks, and after Andrew Cuomo, the moderate governor of New York, delivers what is expected to be a scathing attack on Trump’s handling of the pandemic. |
After the formality of a virtual delegate vote on Tuesday, Biden’s running mate will address the convention on Wednesday. As a precaution, planners have scheduled speaking times for some top vice-presidential contenders in case they are not picked, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. |
Twentysomethings in Wisconsin. Suburban women in Arizona. Seniors in Florida. What do they all have in common? They’re the voters that may end up deciding the 2020 presidential race. How are the campaigns thinking about these key demographics, and how are they shaping their candidate’s message to appeal to them? |
Tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, hit the trail with The Times’s politics team as we take a closer look at America’s most coveted constituencies. You can R.S.V.P. here. |
Special guests include Patricia Mazzei, our Miami bureau chief, and our political reporters Alex Burns, Astead Herndon and Nick Corasaniti. |
Hosted by Rachel Dry, deputy politics editor at The Times. |
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| Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com. |
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