Wednesday Briefing

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024

The presidential election is less than 80 days away. This is what we’re watching.

Vice President Kamala Harris made a video appearance from Milwaukee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last night.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Harris rallies Democrats on Day 2 of the convention

The lineup of speakers on the second night of the Democratic National Convention featured Barack Obama, and the nominee herself, Vice President Kamala Harris, made a video appearance. A jubilant crowd danced in the aisles and cheered as Republicans who’d disavowed Donald Trump announced their support for Harris. Here’s the latest.

Harris and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, her running mate, were rallying supporters at the site of last month’s Republican convention in Milwaukee, in the swing state of Wisconsin. “This is a people-powered campaign,” she said, appearing on screens throughout the Chicago arena. “And together we will chart a new way forward.”

In a show of unity, the speakers last night included Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, eight years after hundreds of his supporters stormed out of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to protest Hillary Clinton’s nomination after a bruising primary contest.

Republican counterprogramming: Trump spoke about crime and public safety in Howell, Mich., about an hour northwest of Detroit. His choice of location — a city whose past involves white supremacy and activity by the Ku Klux Klan — drew criticism from the Harris campaign.

More highlights:

• President Biden was greeted on Monday with chants of “Thank you, Joe!” in honor of his lifetime of public service. But the crowd was also thanking him for not running again.

• Harris supported Obama in 2008 when Hillary Clinton was dominating the Democratic primary race. It was a political risk that he never forgot.

• Harris’s appearance onstage Monday was a surprise for two reasons. One was her suit. Our fashion critic explains.

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