Sanders set to endorse Clinton on Tuesday after weekend negotiations
Trump hopes to cure cash woes with $449,400-per-ticket fundraiser
Time running out for Trump VP pick: five of the most likely choices
2.53am BST
While Trump was careful not to eliminate [retired Lt Gov Michael Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone “political” was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and one other political person are in his final four.
Things I have caught in my office: 1) Mice 2) This pic.twitter.com/YCGWiJcf5y
Anyone else on #PokemonGO? I've found a #Squirtle & a #Pikachu in DC, but I'm still looking for a Republican willing to vote on #NoFlyNoBuy
Found an Exeggcute on the House Floor! Sorry, no pics allowed! #PokemonGO
2.23am BST
In the ongoing political battle over LGBT rights, social conservatives bent but didn’t break as the Republican party drafted its 2016 platform.
About 20 of the 112 delegates on the Republican platform committee voted to remove support for same sex marriage ban from GOP platform
1.46am BST
Donald Trump is reportedly eyeing former House speaker Newt Gingrich for several potential roles in his hypothetical administration, Bloomberg reports, including a role as a top national security adviser.
Although Gingrich has been talked about as a potential running mate, Bloomberg cited multiple campaign sources as saying that Gingrich was being considered for an unnamed national security role.
1.30am BST
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has stepped up his aggressive campaign against likely general election opponent Hillary Clinton, but when the former secretary of state was waging her own campaign against then-senator Barack Obama, Trump told a national radio audience that she would “make a good president.”
12.57am BST
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sat down with the Golf Channel for an wide-ranging interview, and in a sneak preview obtained by Mediaite, host David Feherty questions Trump on whether he plans on using a teleprompter during his crowning address at the convention’s close.
“Everybody loves it in the stadium, but in terms of television, it probably doesn’t look as presidential,” Trump said. “There’s a time for both - I think there’s a time for both.”
12.41am BST
Submitted: One of the many cringe-y political tweets about Pokémon Go:
Sorry Pikachu, we've been busy catching criminals. ICYMI, NYC crime rates are at historic lows. #CrimeStats pic.twitter.com/hEZXlatNrp
12.12am BST
Dozens of protesters staged a sit-in at Florida senator Marco Rubio’s Orlando office on Monday, demanding action on stricter gun laws and policies to protect LGBT individuals.
12.06am BST
President Barack Obama called the assassination of five police officers in Dallas late last week as a “hate crime” against law enforcement, Politico reports.
“One really striking thing the president said in his opening remarks was that the shooting in Dallas in many ways was strikingly parallel to the Dylann Roof shooting in Charleston in the sense that it was a hate crime,” Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the outlet.
11.47pm BST
In an interview with Buzzfeed News, former Virginia governor and oft-forgotten Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore said that the “Never Trump” movement within the Republican party is bad for the party, and that his goal is to “draw the party together.”
“I’ve not been supportive of Never Trump,” Gilmore said. “I think that we need to unify the Republican party. That’s very hard right now with the Never Trump movement. My goal is, Jim Gilmore’s goal is, to draw the party together.”
11.29pm BST
Earlier, former House speaker and current potential Republican running mate Newt Gingrich told the Associated Press that it wouldn’t be an “automatic yes” if he were extended an offer to serve as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
11.10pm BST
Donald Trump is touting poll results from a survey has the presumptive presidential nominee winning Hispanics by 13%, winning 18% of Democrats and losing women by a mere 2%.
Great poll- Florida! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/4FuPpL5WOM
10.34pm BST
Speaking on a Virginia radio station, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump implied that the “status quo” embodied by former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic rival Hillary Clinton led to the assassination of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday evening.
“The status quo, probably you could say that led to Dallas,” Trump said, “but the status quo is going to just leave our country the way it is.” Of Clinton, Trump continued: “She’ll never change anything. Because she’s a - you know, if you look at it, and I say she’s status quo all the time. Our country needs real change and she can never do it.”
10.24pm BST
Colorado representative Jared Polis is apparently a big fan of Pokémon Go:
Found an Exeggcute on the House Floor! Sorry, no pics allowed! #PokemonGO
10.13pm BST
Hillary Clinton could campaign much more aggressively against climate change than any US presidential candidate before her, under a draft platform adopted by Democratic party leaders, report the Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg and Oliver Milman.
Related: Hillary Clinton could run on strongest climate change platform ever
9.33pm BST
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a presidential candidate in possession of a yuge fortune must be in want of a decisive electoral victory in Florida. Which is why it’s so odd that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has apparently shuttered his Sunshine State headquarters less than a week before the Republican National Convention.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, visitors to the candidate’s Sarasota-based state headquarters are greeted by a sign saying that the office is temporarily closed, purportedly to assist with Trump’s national convention plans.
9.16pm BST
Donald Trump has already tweeted a response to reports of a fatal shooting at a Michigan courthouse earlier this afternoon:
Thoughts and prayers with the victims, and their families- along with everyone at the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, Michigan.
9.07pm BST
Checking in with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where delegates are wrangling over everything from LGBT rights to education to pornography and, now, junk food.
My colleague Ben Jacobs is reporting from the city. The question is SNAP welfare benefits (aka food stamps) can be spent.
We are now debating whether ginger ale qualifies as junk food
Now discussion of prairie chickens inside the RNC platform meeting as reporters are being dissuaded from getting anywhere near delegates
The real question now for the platform committee is whether prairie chickens are junk food
Now a concern raised about the political consequences of Republicans opposing chickens
8.43pm BST
Supreme court justices don’t often deign to get into the political thicket, but occasionally a more outspoken justice will take on the press.
Enter Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal stalwart of the court who gave a rare interview to the New York Times this weekend. She can’t imagine President Donald Trump.
“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she said. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
It reminded her of something her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax lawyer who died in 2010, would have said.
7.46pm BST
A flashback to the days of Richard Nixon, who in 1968 – a year of racial tension and violence around the country – said: “time for some honest talk about the problem of order in the US”.
Trump today: "I am the law and order candidate" - Nixon at 1968 Republican convention pic.twitter.com/P9y4uRf8rs
7.14pm BST
“Decades of decay, division and decline will come to an end,” Trump declares.
“The years of America’s greatness will return. We are going to become the first time in a longtime one united country,” he goes on. “Once more we’re going to go big, we’re going to go great.”
7.12pm BST
He goes back to attacking Clinton: “Crooked Hillary is the secretary of the status quo, and wherever Hillary Clinton goes, corruption and scandal follow.”
Trump insists that “despite what she says” Clinton does not care about regular Americans. “She was willing to risk our foreign enemies reading her emails as long as the voting American public could not. Her conduct was willful, intentional and unlawful.”
Related: FBI rebukes Clinton but recommends 'no charges' in email investigation
7.08pm BST
Trump notes a serious issue: suicide among veterans.
“This is a national tragedy that is not talked about. If they are in the system receiving care they are much less likely to take their own lives than veterans who are outside this horrible, horrible system.”
7.02pm BST
The businessman moves on to the “corruption” in the Veterans Affairs department, which he says has gone unrepaired under Barack Obama.
“Every veteran will get timely access to top quality medical care,” he promises. “Veterans should be guaranteed the right to choose their doctors and clinics, whether at a VA facility or at a private medical center. We must extend this right to all veterans.”
Related: Donald Trump stands by incendiary attack on John McCain
6.56pm BST
Trump says that the US has to live up to the promise it makes its soldiers: “You defend America and America will defend you.”
“That promise has been broken by our politicians, like so many other promises our country’s made.”
Related: Donald Trump hopes to cure cash woes with $449,400-per-ticket fundraiser
6.50pm BST
“Our inner cities are rife with crime,” Trump goes on – as the speech takes a darker tone.
He cites the Chicago Tribune on the gun violence epidemic in that city, one of the worst in the US. He says “brutal drug cartels are spreading their reach into Virginia and Maryland”.
.@realDonaldTrump: "Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is weak, ineffective...She is either a liar or grossly incompetent...probably both."
6.47pm BST
Trump takes the stage in Virginia Beach. “Thank you. Wow. What a great group.”
He thanks some more people – especially “the men and women in blue”.
6.38pm BST
Trump is about to speak on veterans, law and order in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he’s getting an introduction from Chris Christie, the departing governor of New Jersey who quickly endorsed Trump and then spent several rallies staring into the middle-distance next to the businessman.
He says a Trump presidency means “breaking the china” in government. He’s auditioning for vice-president.
6.26pm BST
More than 2,000 students, alumni and faculty of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania – aka the alma mater of Donald Trump – have written an open letter denouncing the candidate: “you do not represent us”.
The highlight reel:
6.08pm BST
Hillary Clinton has received the endorsement of a major progressive group, another sign that Democrats are trying hard to fold Bernie Sanders’ left wing of the party into Clinton’s coalition.
She released a statement that goes to great lengths to reassure the Americans who love Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that team Clinton is just as progressive as they are.
“I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Progressive Action PAC,” she said. “For 25 years, the CPC has been a champion for working people and on behalf of Americans who have been left out and left behind.
“We are stronger when we have each others’ backs. That’s why we will fight to secure universal health care, raise the minimum wage, and protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote--not corporations’ right to buy elections. It’s why we will face up to the reality of systemic racism, and fix it together. And it’s why we will say ‘no’ to trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would hurt American workers, and fully enforce our trade laws to protect American jobs.
“We are stronger when all our people can retire with dignity and security after years of hard work. That is why we will stand up to Republican efforts to undermine or privatize the bedrock promise of Social Security—and we’ll fight to expand it.
Related: Bernie Sanders set to endorse Clinton after Democratic platform negotiations
5.05pm BST
Donald Trump, heading for Virginia.
Trump in line for takeoff at LGA pic.twitter.com/g8Q40ULp0S
Inside the search: Trump "clicks" more w/ Christie than Pence... but most associates see Indiana Gov as smarter/more political pick
Vet holds sign protesting Trump outside Westin where Trump is speaking today. https://t.co/iQaZ9V0btX pic.twitter.com/OOa9RCTjFu
4.54pm BST
A few weeks ago Hillary Clinton sat down for a long interview with Vox editor Ezra Klein. Vox posted the interview online today in full – you can watch below.
It’s an intimate and sympathetic forum for Clinton. She’s invited to plunge into policy details, to speak uninterrupted for minutes, without being challenged to defend potential weak spots in her record including the mixed legacy of welfare reform, her 1990s failure to shepherd health care reform, coziness with Wall Street and mixed tax policy votes as a senator (the interview is devoted to domestic policy).
4.21pm BST
As he mulls a running mate, Donald Trump is leaning toward someone with political as opposed to military experience and he expects to make his mind up in the “next three to four days,” he tells the Washington Post.
While Trump was careful not to eliminate [retired Lt Gov Michael Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone “political” was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and one other political person are in his final four.
“I don’t need two anti-establishment people,” Trump said. “Someone respected by the establishment and liked by the establishment would be good for unification. I do like unification of the Republican party.”
4.15pm BST
Former president George W Bush will join president Obama and the vice president at a memorial service in Dallas tomorrow. The former president is expected to speak.
According to the White House, Obama will deliver remarks at an interfaith memorial service at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center with the families of the fallen police officers and members of the Dallas community “whose unity is reflective of who we are as Americans”:
He will also meet privately with the families of the fallen police officers and those who were injured to personally express the nation’s support and gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The Vice President will attend. President and Mrs. George W. Bush will also attend, and President Bush will deliver brief remarks.
President George W Bush will join Pres Obama and VP Biden in Dallas on Tuesday and deliver remarks at memorial service, per White House.
4.09pm BST
An open-records request filed by the Republican national committee has shaken loose some interesting documents and correspondence pertaining to paid speeches delivered by Bill Clinton.
They show a former president who deftly avoided discussing past scandals by refusing questions that were not screened by his staff in advance. There is the nearly $1,400 bill for a day’s worth of phone calls from San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel and the $700 dinner for two. And they also show that an agency representing Clinton continued to pursue a deal with an event host who emailed a racist remark about audiences and jokingly referred to the male aides Clinton traveled with as his mistresses.
4.02pm BST
Bernie Sanders has cleared the way for an endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, and declared a successful end to his campaign to pull their party to the left during weekend negotiations over the Democratic policy platform, write the Guardian’s Dan Roberts and Lauren Gambino:
“We have made enormous strides,” said Sanders in a statement issued after a meeting in Orlando that swung the party in his direction on the minimum wage, climate change and marijuana though failed to make headway on fracking and trade.
Related: Bernie Sanders set to endorse Clinton after Democratic platform negotiations
3.51pm BST
The Democrat who was running what looked like an ill-fated bid for the US senate seat coming open in Indiana has stepped aside in favor of the former two-term senator and governor Evan Bayh:
Democrat Baron Hill is dropping out of Indiana Senate race. Will be replaced as the nominee by former Sen. Evan Bayh - POLITICO
Dems taking full advantage of what Republicans did to their party this year. https://t.co/vKYbzPiTSc
3.45pm BST
Donald Trump will visit Lexington, Kentucky, for a 5pm fundraiser Monday, according to local Lex18:
The event will cost attendees $1,000 for the reception and more than $5,000 for a picture with Trump. Shortly after the announcement, a general admission ticket was released with prices beginning at $250.
3.34pm BST
Twitter and CBS News today announced a partnership to stream the network’s live coverage from the Republican and Democratic National Conventions on Twitter.
“The stream will be live on Twitter each day from gavel to gavel and will be enhanced with live, convention-related Tweets,” a statement said.
3.28pm BST
Move over, Ted Cruz: House speaker Paul Ryan will lend his star power to Donald Trump’s national convention, with a primetime speaking slot lined up for Tuesday night, Politico reports:
The speech “will be 10 minutes long, and will focus on the House Republican agenda and ‘the sharp contrast between Republican ideas and four more years of Obama-like progressive policies; and the need for conservatives to unite around Republican candidates in advance of a critical election,’ per an aide.
3.20pm BST
Former two-term Democratic senator and Indiana governor Evan Bayh will seek to return to the US senate, CNN reports, in a boost for Democrats hoping to take back the senate majority in November.
Bayh will run to replace retiring Republican senator Dan Coats, according to an anonymous source quoted by CNN.
Bayh's reported late entry into #INSEN signals he/Dems see a favorable macro-climate in fall. U don't jump in this late without that sense.
Reminder of how insufferable Evan Bayh was in retirement https://t.co/KCyB5sNr42 pic.twitter.com/QJ1LXRvzIO
1.53pm BST
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Bernie Sanders is set to endorse Hillary Clinton in a joint appearance on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Tuesday, his campaign has confirmed. It would be the candidates’ first appearance together as explicit allies in the presidential race.
Clinton announced significant policy initiatives last week that were coordinated with the Sanders campaign and seemingly designed to encourage his supporters to accept her as a standard bearer for the cause. She called for a moratorium on student debt and tuition aid, and for federal funds for community health clinics and an expansion of Medicare.
Safe to say r/SandersForPresident is not amused by @BernieSanders endorsing @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/QvtvKk2KzH
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee hopes to persuade fellow billionaires and even mere millionaires to stump up to $449,400 each to fill gaping holes in his campaign for the White House.
Related: Donald Trump hopes to cure cash woes with $449,400-per-ticket fundraiser
Related: Who will be Donald Trump's running mate? Five of the most likely choices
Possible Trump VP pick Gen. Michael Flynn on abortion: "Woman have to be able to choose." #ThisWeek https://t.co/AXyRZiMDL1
Prayer at RNC Platform: Although many of us support Mr. Trump we know that only you, Lord, can truly make America great again
“Everything we have booked has adjusted their budgets down,” explains Mike Smith, chef-partner at Marigold Catering, which is one of a dozen official caterers to the Republican National Convention. “We had somebody cut their guest count in half and we’ve had somebody cut their budget in half. Everyone across the board expected all this craziness and the money is just not there. We released a bunch of staff because, like everybody, we expected to do a lot more than we are actually doing.”
Party healing update via @loisromano: John Kasich welcomes the RNC to Ohio. https://t.co/hQvLZeY0b8 pic.twitter.com/YstKdbVAvO
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