What A Day

One man is now dead after a weekend of violence in Portland, Oregon, in which pro-Trump demonstrators drove through the city’s downtown taunting Black Lives Matter protestors. Jay Bishop was a member of a group called Patriot Prayer, a far-right group with ties to white supremacists. Massachusetts holds its primaries on Tuesday. Alex Morse is a 31-year-old, Justice Democrats-supported mayor of Hol...

Trump closed out the RNC last night, with a meandering 70-minute long speech that saw him paint a rosy picture of his administration’s handling of COVID-19 and promise a vaccine before the end of the year. Trump also tried to suggest that Biden would usher in chaos, while tending to ignore or misrepresent the chaos that’s happening under his administration. Later today thousands of protestors are...

Police arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse yesterday for killing two protestors and injuring a third at demonstrations in Kenosha, Washington against police brutality. Professional athletes joined in calling for justice for Jacob Blake, with teams from the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and more going on strike. Biden and Trump are averaging a near tie at the moment in North Carolina, which is sort of the site...

Last night’s Republican National Convention brought more speeches from Trump’s employees and family members, including First Lady Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The topic of “school choice” has been referenced often during the RNC—that’s part of a major push from Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to privatize education.  In Portsmouth, Virginia, Vice Mayo...

Protestors gathered for a second night in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, who is reportedly still in intensive care. The three cops that participated in Blake’s shooting have been put on administrative leave, and a state investigation is ongoing.  Milwaukee Freedom Fund: https://bit.ly/mkefreedomfund The Republican Party officially renominated Trump and...

The Republican National Convention begins tonight, predominantly featuring speakers who are Trump’s employees or blood relatives. This weekend, Trump announced that the FDA granted emergency use authorization to a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19… we discuss what that means.  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified to the Senate on Friday in his first appearance since the abrupt changes to USP...

Last night was the final night of the DNC, featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, former 2020 presidential candidates, and most notably, Joe Biden’s acceptance speech. In a stark contrast to his campaign thus far, Biden barely mentioned Trump by name, talking instead about the enormity of the situation America faces.  The state of Michigan announced a $600 million fund to compensate Flint residents who we...

Last night was the third night of the Democratic National Convention, featuring marquee speeches from VP pick Senator Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama. Overall, programming was more focused on issues, with segments on immigration, climate change, gun violence, and more.  New coronavirus antibody data from nearly a million and a half people in New York City showed an infection rate o...

Last night was the second night of the DNC, featuring beautiful shots of delegates across our gorgeous country, as well as speeches from AOC, activist Ady Barkan, and Dr. Jill Biden. We talk to Crooked’s own Jon Favreau about speech writing for the first digital DNC.  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said yesterday that he would suspend cost-cutting changes at the USPS, but it’s unclear whether the...

This year’s socially-distanced DNC began last night, with speeches from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, and more. Joe Biden went into the convention with a 7-9 point national lead against Trump, but the next few months are still full of unknowns. Watch the convention along with us every night this week at crooked.com/convention UNC Chapel Hill has decided to pivot to onli...

The DNC was set to begin today in Wisconsin, but instead, it’s beginning in Zooms across America. We talked to Wisconsin Democrats Senator Tammy Baldwin and party chair Ben Wikler about the state’s recent electoral history and how Biden can win there this year.  The USPS warned that it may not be able to accommodate last minute mail-in ballots. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to call the House ba...

This was the first week since March that the number of new unemployment claims in the US fell below one million. Tens of millions remain jobless and the start of Congress’s August recess means it’s unlikely we’ll see new relief legislation before September. Trump said the quiet part out loud yesterday, admitting that his refusal to provide emergency funding to the postal service would make univers...

The last time we spoke with Monise Seward, a 6th grade special education teacher in Georgia, it was April and schools had just begun to tackle remote learning. It's now the new year, and her class remains completely online. We spoke to her about the challenges of the new normal and her thoughts on in-person classes. Senator Kamala Harris and VP Joe Biden made their first appearance as running mate...

Senator Kamala Harris was announced as Biden’s VP pick yesterday, which will make her the first black woman and first Asian American to be a on major party ticket. We discuss her record on the 2020 campaign trail, as an incisive presence in Senate hearings, and as California’s attorney general.  The Big 10 and the Pac 12 college conferences announced yesterday that they will postpone their fall sp...

Five states hold primaries today, including Minnesota, where Rep. Ilhan Omar is running to keep her seat in Congress. The elections come a week after another progressive, Cori Bush, won a major upset in her race against a longterm incumbent in Missouri. We speak to Bush about her path to politics and check in on Justice Democrats, the political group that backed Bush, Omar, and a handful of other...

Trump signed a bunch of executive orders and actions over the weekend that he presented as a fix to our economic problems. But the reality is much less transformative. We explain what his actions do (cut unemployment) and what they don't do (protect renters from eviction). ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, is planning to sue the Trump administration over its ban on US companies doing b...

New York’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association. AG Letitia James alleges that the NRA has engaged in years of corruption. In the absence of a federal testing strategy, seven governors have formed a purchasing agreement in attempts to get faster COVID antigen tests. In California, problems with the state’s data system may be creating inaccur...

Joe Biden is no longer traveling to Milwaukee for the DNC, and neither are other primetime speakers like President Barack Obama. A sized-down RNC will be held in Charlotte, with Trump planning to deliver his speech from The White House.  Six of the seven largest school districts in the country will begin the school year entirely online, with New York City as the only holdout. One Yale student is s...

The Minneapolis City Council voted to disband the Minneapolis Police Department over a month ago, but achieving that goal requires getting a ballot initiative in front of residents. We discuss that effort and more with Oluchi Omeoga, a co-creator of Black Visions Collective. And in headlines: a deadly explosion in Beirut, the census is ending early, and a whole lot of new Miami Marlins. Black Visi...

The school year is officially beginning in some states and there have already been disruptions due to students and staff testing positive for Covid-19. A huge number of students will learn remotely for now, with only 6 of the nation’s 25 largest school districts saying they will do in-person teaching. Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington all have primaries today. We highlight some n...

Disruptions and delays to the postal service have prompted concern since so many people are planning to vote by mail this year. We break down what’s behind the delay, and how to ensure your vote is counted.  Congress still can’t agree on how to structure unemployment benefits in the next relief bill. Midwestern states like Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin are emerging as coronavirus hotspots.  An...

The Biden campaign says they will announce his VP pick any day now. According to reports, over a dozen women are being vetted — some more seriously than others.  We talk to Crooked Media’s Alyssa Mastromonaco, who helped President Obama select Joe Biden, about what goes into the process in the final days and the importance of this decision.  To hear more from Alyssa, check out That’s The Ticket ,...

Rent is due next week, but we still don’t have a new relief bill to extend federal unemployment assistance and eviction protections. Negotiations have stalled, with Senate Republicans, the White House, and Democrats far apart in negotiations.  Federal agents will withdraw from Portland after a deal was reached between Oregon’s governor and the Department of Homeland Security. When this will happen...

The CEO’s of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet will testify before Congress today in hearings that will examine whether their companies hurt consumers and stifle competition. The Trump administration isn't getting rid of DACA (yet) but it is trying to restrict it. And the country’s second largest teachers union says they’ll support their members if they want to strike rather than go back to sc...

Pharmaceutical company Moderna entered phase three trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, and plans to test the efficacy of their drug on 30,000 healthy participants. The director of the NIH said they plan to reach out to communities that have been hardest hit by the virus to form that sample group.  Major League Baseball has already announced that it’s postponing two games after players and coaches test...