Donald Trump stole the spotlight Wednesday morning when he suggested Russia hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. Democrats kept it on him Wednesday night.
Clinton’s allies road-tested their harshest anti-Trump diatribes Wednesday, veering sharply from what until now had been a pro-Clinton pep rally and a fevered attempt to forge unity between Clinton’s supporters and restive Bernie Sanders backers.
“Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to put insurance companies back in charge of your health,” argued Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid from the Philadelphia podium. “Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to let big banks run wild again. Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to gamble with your retirement benefits in the stock market. Republicans want to tear down the pillars of middle-class security. We won’t let that happen.”
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley derided Trump as an “immigrant-bashing carnival barker” and a “bully racist.”
It was a jolt after two largely upbeat days in which Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton laid out an affirmative case for Clinton’s election and conveyed a positive vision for the future of the country. President Barack Obama is slated to keynote the convention Wednesday night, along with Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine.
The shift toward anti-Trump rhetoric coincided with a concerted attempt by Trump to cut into the Democrats’ near monopoly on the news cycle.
It began with an unforced error by Trump, whose call for Russia to commit cyber-espionage against Clinton sparked a media frenzy as his critics expressed fresh dismay that he would cross such a line.
Trump spent the rest of the day attempting to rip the camera off of the Democratic confab, maintaining a wall-to-wall day of campaign events, including some scheduled to coincide with the night’s primetime speakers. His remarks seeming to encourage a foreign adversary to spy on a political opponent rankled Republican allies but also ate into Clinton’s near-monopoly on the news cycle this week.
“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” the Republican nominee said at a news conference in Florida, about the messages deleted from Clinton’s private server. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Trump’s comments all but ensure split-screen coverage with the Democrats throughout the evening — and seemed certain to draw rebukes from Democrats themselves. Former CIA chief Leon Panetta is among those slated to address the convention Wednesday evening, and he’s already ripped Trump as potentially complicit in a conspiracy with Russia. Other speakers who intend to highlight Clinton’s national security credentials are poised to wade into the debate.
But early remarks featured scattershot attacks on Trump — and many on his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a darling of social conservatives.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom — noting a speech at last week’s GOP convention by Peter Thiel, the first at the RNC by an openly gay man — railed against Pence for his support of a state law that opponents say permits businesses to discriminate against gay people.
“While it was refreshing to finally see an openly gay man speak at a Republican convention, it does not remove the stain of selecting Mike Pence, America’s most anti-LGBT governor,” Newsom said.
Wednesday’s convention proceedings began with Kaine’s formal nomination to be vice president, a vote by acclamation that occurred with little fanfare. Kaine’s speech will be his debut on the national stage and will be a chance for him to reveal whether he’ll embrace the typical attack dog role that traditional vice presidential picks have been tasked with in recent elections.
Obama is slated to speak in the 10 p.m. hour, and his speech is expected to focus intensely on his relationship with Clinton, though he does intend to take on Trump by name at least a handful of times.
“There are certain things about her, and his engagement with her over the past eight years that he is almost uniquely qualified to speak to,” a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters on the speech. “It’s about revealing an experience that he has had with her, and then allow people to say this is the person that either I didn’t know about before or this is a different perspective I wasn’t’ aware of.”
Trump was also an early target of speakers on the DNC program. “Millions have joined us in rejecting Donald Trump’s bullying, racism, and his attempt to divide our American family,” said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who’s leading the party’s effort to make gains in the House.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who’s had a rocky relationship with Clinton throughout the primary, also ripped Trump for controversies surrounding Trump University.
“That is the very definition of the predator class,” de Blasio said.
The chaotic scene inside the arena that marked the first two days — when restive Bernie Sanders supporters harangued speakers and, ultimately, marched out of the arena after Clinton’s formal nomination — appeared to subside on day three. But it was unclear whether the fury that spilled into the streets and led to brief bouts of physical confrontation and shouting matches with police would return with the same intensity on Wednesday.
And there were some lingering concerns that Sanders loyalists would seek to disrupt Kaine’s speech later in the evening. The party’s liberal wing has been skeptical of Kaine, who only recently came out against Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and has supported changes to Wall Street reforms. Kaine received no formal nominating speech earlier in the day, depriving any restive delegates from expressing vocal opposition.
Bianca Padro and Sarah Wheaton contributed to this report.
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