Biden and Clinton deliver remarks on first night of DNC

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President Joe Biden gives remarks during the DNC on Monday, August 19, in Chicago.

Democrats opened their convention in Chicago with a send-off to President Joe Biden, who closed the night with a hand-off to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Here are six takeaways:

Biden got four-minute ovation: Biden said choosing Harris as his running mate in 2020 was “the best decision I made my whole career.”

He also sharply criticized Trump and a detailed recollection of his administration’s legislative achievements.

Clinton underscores potential for first woman president: Though she’d fallen short eight years ago, Clinton said she wanted her grandchildren and their grandchildren to know she’d been there for Harris when the “glass ceiling” finally shatters.

She invoked Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president. “Shirley and Geri would say, ‘Keep going,’” Clinton said.

Clinton on Trump’s “familiar” attacks: Referring to Trump’s convictions in New York, she said that he “made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.” The crowd responded with chants of “Lock him up!” – Democrats’ spin on the “Lock her up” chants about Clinton that were omnipresent at Trump’s 2016 rallies.

Abortion rights: Democrats lambasted Trump for appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who helped undo Roe v. Wade’s protections for abortion rights. Three women with stories of abortion and reproductive care told their stories as part of support for abortion rights, which has been Democrats’ most potent issue at the ballot box since Roe v. Wade’s reversal two years ago.

Democrats downplay Israel’s war: Few issues have divided Democrats more – by age, by ideology, sometimes by identity – than Israel’s war in Gaza. Not that you would have known it from watching Monday night. Biden spoke at the greatest length about Gaza, showing sympathy for those killed. But for most of the speakers in prime time, the war barely warranted a mention. It is, quite clearly and unsurprisingly, an issue Democrats see little electoral upside in highlighting.

Spotlight on Project 2025: Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow stepped onstage with a large prop: a book containing “Project 2025” so big that it barely fit on the podium. The moment reflected how eager Democrats are to tie Trump to what McMorrow called “a Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.” Though the former president has disavowed it, Democrats have framed the playbook for a second Trump term as his agenda. McMorrow left the stage with a pledge that the book would return Tuesday night.

Read more of the takeaways.

President Joe Biden speaks on Monday, August 19, in Chicago during the first night of the DNC.

President Joe Biden said early on Tuesday that he had not spoken to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since he made the decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.

He said “no one influenced” his decision, which he made about one month ago.  

“No, I haven’t spoken to Nancy at all,” the president said on the tarmac in Chicago before boarding Air Force One.

The president also talked about what it felt like to be in the convention hall and deliver his address on Monday night.

The president also said that the highlight of his night was his daughter Ashley’s introduction.

Biden was also asked about his reaction to former President Donald Trump’s remarks that there was a “coup” that forced Biden out of the race. The president echoed his earlier comments: “I think he has a problem.”

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, according to her office.

It does not appear that she is expected to attend the Democratic National Convention’s second day of programming.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (L) and his wife Gwen Walz attend the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz has told CNN that she did not use in vitro fertilization to conceive, sharing new details about her and Gov. Tim Walz’s fertility struggles as the governor has highlighted their experience with infertility on the campaign trail.

Gwen Walz said they used a different fertility treatment, intrauterine insemination.

In speeches since joining the Democratic ticket as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Walz has often characterized the issue of access to IVF treatment as “personal” to him and his family while sharing the story of his and his wife’s journey to conceiving their two children.

And in an MSNBC interview in July, he continued attacking Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance for his opposition to a bill that would have guaranteed access to IVF nationwide, while appearing to link the treatment to the birth of his two children.

Gwen Walz told CNN that they tried intrauterine insemination, a process she described as “an incredibly personal and difficult experience.”

Some background: Intrauterine insemination, like IVF, is a common fertility procedure used by couples trying to conceive. But anti-abortion groups have pushed state officials to restrict IVF — when an egg is removed from a person’s body and combined with sperm inside a lab before being implanted.

During intrauterine insemination, known as IUI, sperm is placed directly in the uterus. The process is sometimes combined with ovulation induction, where medication stimulates the release of eggs. People experiencing infertility often start with IUI and move on to IVF if needed.

Read the full story.

President Joe Biden gives remarks during the DNC on Monday, August 19, in Chicago.

“Trump will do everything to ban abortion nationwide. Oh, he will,” President Joe Biden said Monday. 

Facts First: Biden is making a prediction that we cannot definitively fact-check, but the claim does not reflect Trump’s most recent comments on abortion and needs context. 

While Donald Trump boasts that he played a key role in getting the US Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed abortion rights across the country, Trump says it should be up to the states to decide how and when to restrict abortion. Polls show that the majority of Americans are against a federal abortion ban. 

Throughout this campaign, Trump has repeatedly ducked direct questions about his support for a federal ban on abortions, but he said in April that he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected to the White House again. That statement reversed what he said in 2016 when he was first running for the presidency and was the opposite of statements he made throughout his time in office. 

Some scholars are concerned that conservative advisers to Trump have encouraged him to ban abortions by enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act, a method that could essentially create a federal ban without Trump needing to sign any legislation to do it.  

The Victorian-era anti-vice law that is still on the books is not currently enforced. The law bans the mailing of “obscene” materials used to produce an abortion. Some scholars believe Trump could use the Justice Department to enforce a ban that would not just restrict people from sending the medication currently used in the majority of abortions through the mail, but would ban any kind of materials used to produce any kind of abortion.

Trump has not officially endorsed the enforcement of the Comstock Act, but it is a strategy some of his advisers have outlined as an option for Trump to restrict abortions nationwide.

President Joe Biden touted on his achievements in expanding health insurance coverage to more Americans at the Democratic National Convention on Monday.  

Facts First: Biden’s claim is outdated. While it’s true that health insurance coverage hit a record high last year, fewer people were insured in the first quarter of this year than in the spring of last year – in large part because a federal law that prevented states from winnowing their Medicaid rolls lapsed last year.

Some 331.5 million Americans had either public or private health insurance coverage in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest National Health Interview Survey. But that’s less than the 336.6 million people who were insured in the second quarter of last year.

Similarly, the uninsured rate stood at 8.2% early this year, up from 7.2% in the spring of 2023.

One main reason why health insurance coverage hit a record high last year was because of a Covid-19 pandemic relief provision that barred states from involuntarily disenrolling residents whom they deemed no longer qualify in exchange for enhanced federal funding. That prohibition was lifted in April 2023.

Only 81.7 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program this past April, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That compares to 93.9 million people in March 2023, before the provision lapsed.

President Joe Biden gives remarks during the DNC on Monday, August 19, in Chicago.

Speaking about his achievements on climate, President Joe Biden said his agenda made “cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030” possible.

Facts First: Independent analysis shows the US is off-track to meet an ambitious goal Biden set early in his administration of slashing US carbon emissions in half by 2030 – even with his climate law.  

Biden’s climate target of cutting emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels (2005 was the historical peak for US carbon emissions) by 2030 was always going to be a tough goal to achieve.

When the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, analysis suggested it would get the US most of the way toward its goal – about a 40% reduction in carbon emissions. The thinking was that regulations from agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency would help make up the rest of the goal.   

A recent analysis from the nonpartisan Rhodium Group found that the US isn’t on track to hit Biden’s goal of slashing US emissions in half by 2030. Rhodium estimates the US is currently on track to reduce emissions anywhere from 32-43% by that date.

But the report says the US could surpass Biden’s goal by 2035 if there are no major changes to current policies, finding that the US would likely pick up the pace of decarbonizing its transportation, power and heavy industry sectors in the 2030s compared to the 2020s.  

Remember: One big impediment to Biden’s goal is the fact that the EPA’s marquee climate rules regulating emissions from vehicles and power plants are facing an onslaught of legal challenges and a skeptical US Supreme Court.

And an even bigger question mark is the 2024 election and whether Biden will be replaced by another Democrat with similar climate ambitions or former President Donald Trump – who has vowed to reverse much of Biden’s climate agenda.

Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, August 19.

As Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the Democratic convention in Chicago this week, a broad array of polls testify to her progress on two challenges she faced: shore up support with the groups where Biden was weak and maintain his standing with the groups where he was relatively stronger.

Gained: In national and battleground state surveys, she’s regained a solid amount of the ground that Biden had lost with traditionally Democratic-leaning groups such as Black and younger voters, and made a more modest recovery with Latinos.

Maintained: In national polls and surveys of the critical Rustbelt battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, she matches or exceeds Biden’s showing among older and working-class Whites — two groups in which Biden had largely maintained his 2020 level of support before quitting the race.

Harris’ performance on each of these fronts has allowed her to pass former President Donald Trump in most polling averages measuring each candidate’s overall support. More importantly, it has reopened the electoral map, providing her more pathways to 270 Electoral College votes than Biden had before he left the race.

Challenge remains: In the Rustbelt and Sunbelt alike, formidable challenges remain to this emerging “Kamala coalition.” Although Harris has demonstrably regained ground with younger, Black and Latino voters, in most polls, she still lags below the levels Biden reached with them in 2020. It’s far from certain Harris can win any of the Sunbelt battlegrounds — North Carolina and Georgia in the Southeast, Arizona and Nevada in the Southwest — unless she can come even closer to those previous Democratic benchmarks. And the remaining voters she needs may be tougher to corral than those that have already returned to her.

In the industrial states, she faces the challenge of defending the beachheads she’s established with working-class and older Whites, who comprise a much larger share of the vote in these places than in the Sunbelt battlegrounds. These White voters without a college degree will likely be the most receptive audience to the GOP arguments that Harris is soft on crime and immigration, and an extreme “woke” cultural liberal.

Read the full analysis.

Joe Biden has “held the line on behalf of our democracy. He remains beloved now and always,” a senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris said after the president’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.