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Kamala Harris delivers scorching rebuke of Trump's Covid response ahead of his RNC speech – as it happened

This article is more than 3 years old
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Thu 27 Aug 2020 20.41 EDTFirst published on Thu 27 Aug 2020 04.32 EDT
Key events
Kamala Harris speaks in Washington on 27 August.
Kamala Harris speaks in Washington on 27 August. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Kamala Harris speaks in Washington on 27 August. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

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Donald Trump is scheduled to officially accept the Republican presidential nomination tonight in a speech at the White House. He will be introduced by his daughter Ivanka.

Also speaking tonight, per the Trump campaign:

Housing secretary Ben Carson
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell
Senator Tom Cotton
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy
Representative Jeff Van Drew
Ja’Ron Smith
Ann Dorn
Debbie Flood
Rudy Giuliani
Franklin Graham
Alice Johnson
Wade Mayfield
Carl and Marsha Mueller
Dana White

Here are post-hurricane photos from Lake Charles, Louisiana, about halfway between Houston and New Orleans. The town’s southern edge lies about 20 miles from the Gulf coast.

Latasha Myles and Howard Anderson stand in their living room where they were sitting when the roof blew off around 2:30am as Hurricane Laura passed through the area on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A passer-by Chuck Balsamo communicates with a driver of an overturned 18 wheeler truck in aftermath of Hurricane Laura in Vinton, Louisiana. Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters
Capitol One Bank Tower is seen with its windows blown out in the downtown area after Hurricane Laura passed through on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Mitch Pickering plays his guitar while walking through the downtown area after Hurricane Laura passed through on August 27, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Adam Gabbatt
Adam Gabbatt

Hurricane Laura moves inland on a northerly path

Hurricane Laura, the most powerful hurricane to strike the US this year, was moving inland on a northerly path on Thursday morning, threatening an “unsurvivable storm surge” and tropical force weather as far as Tennessee.

The storm slammed into western Louisiana overnight with gusts of up to 150mph and will cause “catastrophic conditions” as it progresses, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Concern was growing on for people in the path of the tempest in Louisiana who did not evacuate on Wednesday.

The northern eyewall of the storm moved over Cameron Parish, on the Louisiana coast, at 1am ET, before slamming into the city of Lake Charles.

A man rests in front of his house after the passing of Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana on August 27, 2020. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Authorities had ordered coastal residents to get out, but not everyone did in an area which was devastated by Hurricane Rita in 2005. More than 450,000 homes were without power in Texas and Louisiana on Thursday morning.

Laura was heading north towards Shreveport, Louisiana, early Thursday morning, rather than west across Texas as had been one of the leading predictions, meaning the city of Houston has probably dodged a bullet, although coastal Port Arthur is threatened by storm surge flooding.

The fierce wind battered a tall building in Lake Charles, blowing out windows as glass as debris flew to the ground. Hours after landfall, the wind and rain were still blowing hard.

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Here’s a new 2-minute campaign spot for Joe Biden. It covers a lot of ground moving through Biden’s early bio to the tragedies that have struck his family to his work in the Obama administration. Ends on a hopeful note and controversially includes a (mercifully brief) clip of a younger Donald Trump attempting to dance (:24 if you must).

Rosa Lyster

Comment: “Politics is weird right now, but Trump’s convention is another level of strange”

Two weeks ago, Mike Pence did something weird. Every day brings with it an opportunity to be freaked out by something new, so you have probably forgotten all about this by now, but what happened was the US vice president took to the podium at a Farmers and Ranchers for Trump rally in Iowa and started talking about meat in a loud, expressionless voice. “I’ve got some red meat for you,” he intoned. “WE’RE NOT GOING TO LET JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS CUT AMERICA’S MEAT,” he shouted, opening his mouth wide in that startling way of his, where the whole top of the face stays utterly immobile, eyes dead, and the lower jaw unhinges itself.

The third night of the Republican National Convention at Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

It was a noticeably strange scene, and I’m sure people would have been taken aback even if safety concerns due to the pandemic hadn’t meant Pence was addressing a vastly reduced crowd. Pence’s cadences and rhythms, his habit of looking around in belligerent appeal while rocking himself backwards and forwards using the lectern as a support – these methods are suited to large, appreciative audiences whose cheers go at least some way to masking the outlandishness of what is being said. The way it usually goes with these things is Mike Pence or whoever says something unintentionally hilarious about cutting America’s meat, and the roars of the crowd make it clear that he is telling his audience what they want to hear.

These speeches are meant to have a long afterlife, full of soundbites intended to be endlessly replayed on news shows. You’re meant to watch these clips and add “red meat” to the list of things that are apparently a huge deal in the upcoming American election. Look at all those people clapping and screaming away, you’re meant to think. None of them seem even slightly alarmed by this. But without the sorely needed buffer of an audience, however, a very different picture presents itself.

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Kushner dismisses NBA protest: 'they have the luxury of taking a night off'

Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has belittled protests and boycotts by NBA players in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shooting by suggesting that the protests amount to a retreat into luxury on the part of the players.

Kushner on the NBA protests: "They have the luxury of taking a night off from work, most Americans don't have the financial luxury to do that." He hopes they'll look for concrete solutions #RNCwithPOLITICO pic.twitter.com/ZAVC62XBOh

— POLITICO (@politico) August 27, 2020

It seems inconceivable to Kushner that the cycle of homicidal violence perpetrated by police on people of color amounts to an emergency demanding action, boycotts, strikes and protests in the strongest possible terms.

Here’s Forbes on how tennis star Naomi Osaka is registering her protest:

Naomi Osaka, one of the world’s top tennis players and the female athlete with the highest single-year earnings of all time, by Forbes’ estimation, announced Wednesday evening she would sit out the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open tournament the following day to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake and other victims of police brutality.

I think that Jared and Ivanka are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to use taxpayers’ money to fund their many vacations from the WH jobs they’re not qualified to hold. https://t.co/SMm7PZe3Oc https://t.co/JRWuVCAi6V

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 27, 2020
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Republican convention delivers whirlwind of lies great and small

David Smith
David Smith

As Hurricane Laura roared towards the southern US coast, the Republican national convention unleashed Hurricane Liar.

There were lies aplenty at the last convention in Cleveland four years ago but, in those innocent days, reporters were still reluctant to call a lie a lie. Donald Trump blew that up on his first day in office when he and his officials claimed his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s.

Now there is no getting away from the fact that Republicans are commandeering more than two hours a night of primetime television to lie and mislead so brazenly, frequently and shamelessly that there’s a chance the American public will simply be worn down into submission and untruth will be normalised.

United States Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence arrive for the third night of the Republican National Convention, at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

As the New York Times columnist Frank Bruni noted, all conventions tell “extravagant fibs” but this one is “less a feat of pretty storytelling than an act of pure derangement”. Wednesday night was another opportunity to deny Trump’s record, deny the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and climate crisis, and deny reality itself.

Vice-President Mike Pence portrayed Trump as America’s saviour from Covid-19. “Before the first case of coronavirus spread within the United States, President Trump took the unprecedented step of suspending all travel from China,” he said, a false statement since there were several exceptions to the ban that still allowed tens of thousands to travel.

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Down power lines stretch across a road in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Sabine Pass, Texas. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP
Flooding caused by Hurricane Laura on August 27, 2020 in Sabine Pass, Texas. Photograph: Eric Thayer/Getty Images
This NOAA/GOES satellite image shows Hurricane Laura over the US state of Louisiana, near the line of US state Texas at 11:50 UTC, on August 27, 2020. Photograph: NOAA/GOES/AFP/Getty Images

Also on CNN, Texas governor Greg Abbott has confirmed that there are no reported deaths in his state so far either.

TX Gov Greg Abbott tells CNN “the early reports are that there were no deaths” from Hurricane Laura, so far, adding “one reason for that is because people did heed the warnings to evacuate.”

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) August 27, 2020

And that is it from me, Martin Belam, in London. I’m handing over to my colleague Tom McCarthy. Take care, stay safe and I’ll see you here tomorrow.

Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards has been on CNN with two pieces of news – that there are no reported fatalities yet, and that the storm surge has not yet met the expected heights.

Speaking on CNN’s New Day, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards says his state currently doesn’t have any reported fatalities from Hurricane Laura. Governor Edwards continued saying, “I don’t know how long that will hold up, but that’s a blessing.”

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 27, 2020

@LouisianaGov tells CNN that storm surge was lower than expected. Most damage appears to be wind-related. #hurricanelaura

— Mike Lee (@MikeLeeFW) August 27, 2020

He also said that when the wind subsides further, the National Guard will begin assessing the damage from the air in helicopters.

The Weather Channel’s Greg Postel has also posted about the surge being lower than predicted.

Early reports suggest storm surge flooding thankfully wasn't nearly as high as some prior projections ... waiting on more data #HurricaneLaura #txwx #lawx pic.twitter.com/rxzn6wRbCU

— Greg Postel (@GregPostel) August 27, 2020
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