Trump news: Under-fire postmaster general says he has 'no intention' of returning mail sorting machines
Senate committee interrogates US Postal Service chief as GOP prepares for 2020 convention
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump said he would send law enforcement officers to polling locations for this November's presidential election in comments branded "an attack on America" by a former White House ethics chief.
“We're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have hopefully US attorneys, and we're going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic),” Mr Trump told Fox News after host Sean Hannity asked if he would have "poll watchers".
Meanwhile, his Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Friday there was “no intention” to return mail sorting machines that were removed in recent weeks, after it was reported that at least 671 machines were removed in critical voting states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia, among others.
The postmaster general said those machines were “not needed”, while adding that he supports vote-by-mail efforts amid the pandemic.
Mr DeJoy, who has overseen sweeping cuts at the agency following his appointment by the president in June, told a US Senate committee he would be voting by mail in fall elections and insisted that the "American people should feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election" despite the president's constant threats to undermine the agency.
On Friday, the president and his family held a funeral service for his brother Robert Trump, who died on 16 August. He was 71. The president held a service in the East Room of the White House.
A group of anti-Trump Republicans have meanwhile seized on the arrest of former Trump campaign chief and senior White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud in an an alleged US-Mexico border wall crowdfunding scheme. He is the subject of an advert targeting Fox News views during next week's 2020 Republican National Convention.
GOP officials and the president are preparing for the event following Joe Biden's official nomination as the Democrats' nominee after his party's week-long convention, during which Democrats and several Republicans condemned the current administration and the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic and economic fallout.
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WATCH: Boy with stutter shares advice Joe Biden gave him in touching DNC speech
Joe Biden formally accepts nomination at final night of Democratic National Convention
"The current president has clocked America in darkness for much too long, too much anger, too much fear, too much division," Biden said.
"If you entrust me with the presidency I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness."
'The most difficult moment America has ever faced' -- Biden
"No generation ever knows what history will ask of it. All we can ever know is whether we're ready when that moment arrives. And now history has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced," Biden said.
"Four, four historic crises all at the same time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over a hundred years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the most compelling call for racial justice since the sixties, and the undeniable realities and just the accelerating threats of climate change."
'No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this president on the facts' -- Biden
"Five million Americans infected by Covid-19, more than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on earth. More than 50 million have filed for unemployment this year, more than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one in six small businesses have closed this year," Biden said.
"And this president, if he's reelected, you'll know what will happen. Cases and deaths will remain far too high. More mum and pop businesses will close their doors, and this time for good. Working families will struggle to get by. And yet the wealthiest one per cent will get millions of dollars in new tax breaks."
Biden pays tribute to Barack Obama
"Let me take this moment to say something we don't say nearly enough, thank you Mr president. You were a great president. A president our children could and did look up to. No one is going to say that about the current occupant of the White House," Biden said.
National mask mandate and Covid-19 strategy on day 1 of presidency, said Biden
"We'll have a national mandate to wear masks, not as a burden but as a patriotic duty to protect one another," Biden said.
Kamala Harris a powerful voice that will help next president restore the promise of America, Biden said.
"Whether it's the existential threat posed by climate change, the daily fear of being gunned down in school, or the inability to get started in your first job, it will be the work of the next president to restore the promise of America to everyone," Biden said.
"And I'm not going to have to do it alone, because I'll have a great vice president at my side, Senator Kamala Harris. She's a powerful voice for this nation. Her story is the American story. She knows about all the obstacles thrown in the way of so many people in our country."
"Women, black women, black Americans, South Asian Americans, immigrants, the left out and the left behind. But she's overcome every obstacle she's ever faced," he added.
George Floyd was murdered, Joe Biden said
"Maybe George Floyd murder was a breaking point, maybe John Lewis's passing the inspiration, but however it's come to be, however it's happened, America's ready, in John's words, to lay down, quote, the heavy burden of hate at last and end the hard work of rooting out systemic racism," Biden said.
Trump said he 'listens better to African-Americans' than Martin Luther King III
In a never-before heard recording obtained by The Independent, Donald Trump told a group of civil rights leaders that he listened more to the African-American community "than anybody else in this room".
The meeting took place in January 2017 and was arranged by Trump's transition team ahead of his inauguration as a way of improving relations between black Americans and the incoming president.
But aides from the time now see it as an historic missed opportunity, and in the words of one the event was "the most disastrous outreach meeting in the history of presidential transition".
Here's the full story from Andrew Feinberg in Washington:
In a moment of predictable mirth for Democrats, Donald Trump claimed overnight the Democratic National Conventionn was requiring ID cards "with a picture" in order to be granted entry.
The US president appeared to forget the convention is in fact entirely virtual.
Here is some of the, erm, kinder reactions to Mr Trump's misinformation.
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