Harris responds to Trump’s attack on her racial identity as DNC virtual roll call begins to make her nominee: Live updates

Hell, Donald Trump is weird, isn’t he? It’s funny to say it now, after we’ve spent the past eight years taking him seriously, treating him like a legitimate politician, and in many cases being quite afraid of what he might do next. Simply calling him “weird” feels like the understatement of the century – so why is it getting to him and his supporters so much?

The vice president is expected to run unopposed, and so the process the voting process is underway today and runs through August 5. The party convention, which runs from August 19 to 22, will take place in Chicago.

Mike Bedigan walks us through what we need to know.

Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on The Source, Kelly was asked for his reaction to Trump’s racially-charged comments at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago on Wednesday where he claimed that Harris had “happened to turn Black” recently.

“I don’t know what’s worse, that he thinks she turned from Indian to Black, or that he thinks someone should ‘look into that,’” he said.

“Who should look into that? Does he think the FBI is the Federal Black Investigators?”

Trump continues to face a swarm of backlash about his comments from Democrats, pundits and the wider public.

Despite shooting hoops in the French capital, the sportswomen once again pledged their support for the vice president’s election campaign and urged the importance that the US doesn’t go “backwards” – placing women’s rights at the centre.

“We have been talking, especially with the social justice committee, finding a way to make sure that we can obviously back Kamala as much as we can,” Breanna Stewart, power forward for the US basketball team and WNBA star told CNN.

“Because everything that we’ve been kind of working for this year… has been about voting rights, reproductive rights.”

She continued: “The things she stands for, we also stand for. So making sure that we can definitely stay united and continue to push the message of registering to vote, knowing where to vote and all the resources behind it.”

“We now know Kamala’s brave story. When did the rest of you “turn” black? How old were you? Where were you when the blackness finally took over your body? Share your stories. This is a safe space. #WhenITurnedBlack,” he posted, along with a video of Trump’s comments.

Read Amelia Neath’s full story.

Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro emerged early on as a strong contender in the running to serve as the vice president’s own future VP, with Harris now at the top of the Democratic ticket and Joe Biden stepping aside. A swing-state governor enjoying a wave of popularity through his first term, Shapiro checks several boxes for the Harris campaign.

His ability to drive out votes for Harris particularly in western Pennsylvania is possibly Shapiro’s most important selling point. The governor’s commanding victory in 2022, a 15-point brutalizing of his opponent Doug Mastriano, was aided in part by the fact that Shapiro was about to turn out voters in every county.

Even in deep-red Republican counties with far fewer voters, where Democrats are often wiped out, the governor was about to turn out between 17-30 per cent of the vote in his favor. Compare that to Mastriano, who received just 13.1 per cent of the vote in Philadelphia County, the second-largest district by voter turnout.

John Bowden has the full story.