Morning Report — Bill Clinton, Walz set stage for Harris tonight

The choice. That’s the idea former President Clinton urged Americans to ponder Wednesday during Democrats’ nominating convention in Chicago.

“Next time you hear him,” Clinton said, referring to former President Trump, “don’t count the lies. Count the ‘I’s. When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin ‘you, you, you, you.’”

At 78, his Arkansas drawl intact and his improvisational speechcraft on display, Clinton wore a knowing smile when he advised his listeners what’s ahead if they want to defeat Trump. “We gotta be tough,” he said. “You should never underestimate your enemy.”

That idea was a through line during the third of four raucous televised convention rallies this week. Hoping to mobilize the electorate they will need Nov. 5, Democrats needled the former president with criticism and borrowed the language of billboards to laud Harris: “Tough. Experienced. Ready.” 

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who delivered a tightly crafted 14-minute speech close to midnight while accepting his party’s vice presidential nomination, echoed the “choice” message.

“We’ve got something better to offer the American people. It starts with Kamala Harris,” Walz said after sprinting through his own everyman biography.

Oprah Winfrey, a surprise speaker in a city that helped make her famous, told the audience she’s a registered independent who wants independent and undecided voters to consider “values and character” and “decency and respect” while sizing up Harris and Trump.

“Let us choose common sense over nonsense,” she said to the roar of applause.

The Hill: Five memorable convention moments.

‘I ACCEPT’: Tonight, the vice president delivers her acceptance speech and springboards into the next phase of her campaign, which will include a debate with Trump Sept. 10 and preparations next month for early voting in some states.

Tonight’s show in the Windy City will soon steer Democrats’ enthusiasm about their ticket toward voter registration, mail-in and absentee voting and turnout. The campaign has organized national watch parties in battleground states tonight to hear Harris, including at least 150 such events in must-win Pennsylvania. 

The New Yorker: Can Harris’s campaign solve the Latino turnout problem? 

WHO IS WATCHING: The convention attracted a larger viewership during Democrats’ second night compared with its opening night, Nielsen said Wednesday. Tuesday's lineup, which featured keynote speeches from former President Obama and Michelle Obama, drew an estimated audience of nearly 20.8 million viewers compared to approximately 20 million viewers for Monday’s program. 

Both nights of the Democratic convention saw bigger audiences than the first two nights of the Republican National Convention, where Nielsen estimated the first night's audience was 18.1 million and the second night's audience was 14.8 million. Trump’s final convention night in Milwaukee in July drew more than 25 million viewers.

Harris returns to Washington Friday while President Biden and first lady Jill Biden remain in California through Sunday. 

LEADING THE DAY

Photo—Leading-Campaign$:

MORE IN CAMPAIGNS & POLITICS

CASH DASH: Democrats are winning the fundraising game this election year — a reality that is putting pressure on House Republicans as they look to expand their majority in the lower chamber. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $17.6 million in July, bringing the group’s total haul for the cycle to a record $228.4 million. The campaign arm has $92 million cash on hand. The House GOP’s campaign arm, meanwhile, raked in $11.7 million in July, raising the total raised this cycle to $173.4 million. The group has $73.3 million cash on hand. 

Republicans knew they were in a tough situation even before Tuesday’s filing deadline, write The Hill’s Emily Books and Mychael Schnell. On a House GOP conference call last week, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (N.C.) called on the conference to transfer more money to the House GOP’s campaign arm. “I need you to want it,” he told the group. But the numbers from July — coupled with the exuberant enthusiasm among Democrats — is putting increased pressure on Republicans to ramp up their fundraising.

MINNESOTA FIRST LADY Gwen Walz is making her mark on her husband’s first national campaign. Walz introduced her husband Wednesday at the Democratic convention, a new experience amid increased media scrutiny, write The Hill’s Caroline Vakil and Julia Manchester. The governor and his wife are largely unknown to the broader American public. An AP-NORC poll released earlier this week found that 4 in 10 Americans said they don’t know enough about Tim Walz to have an opinion of him. 

“Their job in many ways at these conventions is to give the human side of the candidate, and I think particularly for Tim Walz it’s so interesting because he comes across as so human,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. 

DROPOUT WATCH: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to suspend his third-party campaign this week, according to reports. He says he’ll have an announcement Friday in Arizona about a “path forward” for his struggling White House bid. Trump is scheduled to campaign in Arizona Friday and indicated he’d welcome Kennedy’s backing.

NBC News: Here’s how Kennedy’s exit would help Trump, according to polls. 

Kennedy entered the race as a Democrat who enjoyed high name recognition and a reputation for fact-challenged opposition to vaccines. He switched political gears and watched as his poll numbers drifted into the single digits. His campaign claimed it had enough signatures for ballot access in all 50 states but opponents have been challenging access in multiple states. 

ZOOM IN

ECONOMY

FEWER JOBS were added to the U.S. economy in 2023 and early this year than previously thought, a sign that cracks in the labor market are more severe than initially believed. The Labor Department said Wednesday that monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That amounts to a downward revision of about 28 percent. Wednesday’s revision — the largest since 2009 — could fuel concerns that the Federal Reserve may be behind on cutting interest rates, which it hiked from near zero in March 2022 to a range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent in July 2023.

But the big picture remains relatively unchanged: Job growth is slowing, but not collapsing. The unemployment rate is rising, but layoffs remain low (The Hill).

“We’ve known that things on net were probably moving gradually in the wrong direction,” Guy Berger, director of economic research for the Burning Glass Institute, a labor market research and data firm, told The New York Times. “This just largely confirms what a holistic view of the labor market data was saying before today.”

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: Biden and Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, urging him to show more flexibility so a hostage-release and cease-fire deal can be reached in Gaza. The call comes as a U.S. official told reporters Tuesday that Netanyahu's “maximalist statements” are not constructive to getting a deal and risk the ability to move forward (The Times of Israel and Axios).

Meanwhile, Iran’s retaliation against Israel could take a long time to come, a Revolutionary Guard spokesperson said Tuesday. The region has been bracing for Iran’s avowed retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran on July 31, in which Israel has not confirmed or denied its involvement (NBC News).

UK RIOTS: Police in Pakistan arrested a man accused of spreading disinformation about a deadly stabbing attack last month that spurred anti-immigrant riots across Britain. In the hours after the attack, far-right protesters took to the streets, some chanting “we want our country back.” They attacked a hotel housing asylum-seekers, threw bricks at mosques and clashed with police. British authorities have moved quickly against alleged rioters, arresting more than 1,000 suspects and charging nearly 500 (The Washington Post).

THE CLOSER