WHAT TO WATCH: After Biden's Moment, It's Trump's Prime Time

 WHAT TO WATCH: After Biden's Moment, It's Trump's Prime Time

by The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Joe Biden and his Democratic Party used their convention last week to argue that the underpinnings of American Democracy hang in the balance this November. This week, it’s President Donald Trump’s turn.

Republicans will renominate the president and highlight four years of the Trump administration and promises he delivered on, such as overturning business regulations, pulling out of international agreements, appointing two U.S. Supreme Court justices and transforming the U.S. immigration system.

While Democrats held an entirely virtual convention, pulled off without any major technical mishaps, the Republicans are holding a pared-down version of an in-person gathering on Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina. The convention runs through Thursday and includes a presidential speech from the White House South Lawn and a vice presidential address from Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

The convention was originally scheduled to be held in Charlotte until Trump moved it to Jacksonville, Florida, with the hope the Republican-led state would allow thousands to attend. But Trump had to scrap that plan as coronavirus cases continued to climb.

What to watch at the convention:

RENOMINATION AND THE PLATFORM

The GOP has planned for six delegates from each state and territory, for a total of 336, to attend in-person proceedings for the convention’s first day in Charlotte. They’ll hold a roll-call vote to renominate the president, but unlike the Democrats, it won’t be a prime-time affair. Instead, the voting will take place Monday morning, with a recap shown during the evening’s programming. Delegates will also vote on several resolutions, including measures defending October’s Columbus Day holiday, which honors the polarizing 15th century explorer, and opposing “cancel culture.”

TRUMP’S MESSAGE

Trump gives a formal acceptance speech Thursday night from the South Lawn, but he’s expected to make an appearance every night in the 10 p.m. Eastern hour. It’s unclear to what extent he’ll make remarks, but Monday’s theme, “Land of Promise” highlights how Trump helped renew the American dream. Speakers are likely to renew Trump’s focus from last week drawing contrasts with his Democratic opponent and portraying Biden as an ineffective career politician and a “puppet of the radical left,” aligning him with progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While Democrats repeatedly mentioned the impact of the virus and hammered Trump’s response to it, expect Republicans to defend the president on the issue but feature it less prominently.

HINTS FOR 2024

Republicans seen as potential 2024 presidential candidates are sprinkled throughout the week’s proceedings. On Monday, two potential contenders from the Palmetto State will get their chance in the spotlight: Former Ambassador to the U.N. and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, followed by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is set to give the prominent closing speech.

THE BASE AND BACKERS

Democrats tried to show a united, diverse base and featured Republicans backing Biden. Trump has thus far focused more on his loyal base than expanding his coalition. Monday’s lineup mostly stays in that vein.

The opening day’s speakers include some of the president’s staunchest supporters, such as Reps. Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz; Charlie Kirk, the president of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA; the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is also the campaign’s national finance chair.

Others include House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and former Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. Also speaking: Tanya Weinreis, a Montana coffee shop owner who received federal loans to pay her employees during the coronavirus; Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida; and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who waved firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home this summer.

After Democrats pointedly included Republicans during their convention, Republicans have one slated to speak Monday: Vernon Jones, a Democratic state lawmaker from Georgia who announced in April he was breaking with his party and endorsing Trump. Jones initially announced he was resigning from office after his endorsement but changed his mind, deciding to serve out his term.

WHO WON’T BE THERE

The Democratic convention featured every living Democratic president and the party’s 2004 presidential nominee, John Kerry. The Republican Party, transformed under Trump, is not expected to feature at its convention the only living GOP ex-president, President George W. Bush, or the party’s 2012 nominee. Mitt Romney. Neither man voted for Trump in 2016 or has endorsed him this year.

HOW TO WATCH

The daytime business of the GOP delegates will be available starting at 9 a.m. ET on the GOP convention’s social media channels and AT&T U-VERSE, Direct TV, Twitch, Youtube and Amazon Prime TV. The convention will continue streaming at those places when the prime-time programming starts at 8:30 p.m. ET (a half-hour earlier than the DNC convention) and runs through 11 p.m. ET. CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC and PBS will air the full prime-time presentation while ABC, CBS, Fox News Channel and NBC will air the final hour, from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

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This story has been corrected to show that Vernon Jones is a current state lawmaker, not a former lawmaker. He announced he was resigning but later changed his mind.

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Harris: There is no vaccine for racism

 Harris: There is no vaccine for racism

by Rebecca Klar

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) highlighted the disproportionate impact the coronavirus is having on communities of color, as well as further issues of racial injustice the Democratic vice presidential candidate said can’t be cured with a vaccine. 

“This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other — and how we treat each other,” she said Wednesday night during her convention speech. “And let’s be clear — there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.”

Harris said that although the virus “touches us all,” it is “not an equal opportunity offender.”

“Black, Latino and Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately. This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism,” she said. 

She said it's the impact of inequities in education, technology, health care, housing, job security and transportation. 

She also touched on issues of police brutality, calling for Americans to work to “fulfill that promise of equal justice under law.” 

“For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For the lives of too many others to name. For our children. For all of us,” she said. 

“We're at an inflection point,” she added. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It's a lot. And here's the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more.”

Harris said Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will work to bring Americans together to “achieve the future we collectively want.” 

As she accepted the party nomination as the vice presidential nominee, Harris made history. If elected, she will be the first woman and first person of color to serve in the position.

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Castro says DNC should have put more Latino speakers on stage from beginning

Castro says DNC should have put more Latino speakers on stage from beginning

by J. Edward Moreno

© Greg Nash

Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro said Tuesday that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should have initially scheduled more Latino speakers in this week's convention, warning Latino voters could potentially move away from the party after the November election. 

“Some folks pointed out that last week, out of the 35 primetime speakers, the DNC only had three Latinos in it and no Native Americans, no Muslim Americans,” Castro, a former presidential hopeful, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

The DNC highlighted prominent Republicans and former Trump administration officials who have thrown their support behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the first two nights of the convention. 

Last week, Castro senior adviser Sawyer Hackett noted on Twitter that “there are as many Republicans speaking at the convention as Latinos.”

But over the weekend, the DNC added participants to its schedule, including actress and activist Eva Longoria, Castro said.  

Castro added that the DNC’s initial schedule was “disappointing” because “Democrats built up this beautiful coalition over the last several years that has helped power in several victories, including massive wins in Congress and in states across this county in 2018 and we need that to defeat Donald Trump in November.”

The former HUD secretary said Tuesday that he is confident that Latinos will support Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), in the November election, but Democrats should be worried about what comes after that. 

“If we win in November, what we really want to do is cement a strong relationship between one of the fastest growing communities in the United States and Democrats because not every politician is as off the rails as Donald Trump,” Castro said Tuesday. “Not every Republican is as disliked by Latinos as Donald Trump.”

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With No Love for Trump, John McCain's Widow Praises Democrat Joe Biden

 With No Love for Trump, John McCain's Widow Praises Democrat Joe Biden

by Reuters 

WILMINGTON, Del. — The widow of Republican Senator John McCain spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday on behalf of presidential candidate Joe Biden, a reminder of her late husband's bitter relationship with President Donald Trump.

The prerecorded segment added to a parade of Republicans invited to speak about Biden's life and career at the four-night political convention and sketches an implicit contrast with the Republican Trump.

Biden and McCain became friends after meeting in the 1970s, when the young Democratic senator traveled on work trips with the former Navy captain and Vietnam War prisoner of war.

The relationship endured through the Republican's own Senate career and as the two competed on rival White House tickets when McCain, as the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, faced Barack Obama, who won the election with Biden as running mate.

"They would just sit and joke," Cindy McCain said in a clip of the video about the Biden-McCain relationship played during the convention. "It was like a comedy show sometimes to watch the two of them."

By contrast, McCain and Trump clashed regularly, with the senator challenging the president's policies on healthcare and immigration. Trump disparaged McCain's military service and volunteered months after McCain's death that he was "never a fan" of the late senator. "And I never will be," Trump added.

The bitterness was so deep that McCain, who helped plan his own funeral in 2018, made it clear to family that he wanted Biden to speak and that Trump was not welcome.

"My husband and Vice President Biden enjoyed a 30+ year friendship," Cindy McCain posted on Twitter. Although not expected to explicitly endorse Biden, she wrote: "So I was honored to accept the invitation from the Biden campaign to participate in a video celebrating their relationship."

Some Democrats have bristled over the extensive participation of Republicans in their party's convention, which was scaled back due to the coronavirus.

Speakers at the convention on Tuesday also included Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell, following remarks on Monday by Republicans including John Kasich, a former Ohio governor and frequent Trump critic.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Howard Goller)

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Trump seeks boost in Arizona by focusing on immigration

 Trump seeks boost in Arizona by focusing on immigration

by Brett Samuels 

© Getty Images

President Trump on Tuesday put immigration front and center in a campaign speech in Arizona, taking aim at presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's agenda and betting that his intense focus on the issue will help him carry a key swing state in November.

"Biden's plan is the most radical, extreme, reckless, dangerous and deadly immigration plan ever put forward by a major-party candidate. It must be defeated and it will be defeated on Nov. 3," Trump told a raucous crowd of supporters in Yuma.

The president touted his own administration's achievements in rounding up migrants and installing additional security measures at the border, rattling off statistics on border crossings and arrests. He argued that his intense focus on criminal activity and crackdown on the flow of immigrants into the U.S. have improved safety and the economy.

Trump, as he has done in recent speeches, conversely offered a bleak assessment of a country under Biden's leadership, claiming that the former vice president would take away basic freedoms and allow a surge of dangerous criminals into the country.

"Compare our achievements with the insane and lethal policies that Biden and [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] want," Trump said. "The Biden-Harris plan is a step-by-step recipe for abolishing America's borders."

But some of Trump's assertions about Biden's immigration agenda were exaggerated or inaccurate. 

For example, the former vice president has not said he would tear down already constructed portions of the border wall, as Trump has claimed, but that he would discontinue construction. And the Democratic Party has not advocated for the dissolution of the country's borders, as the president asserted Tuesday.

Biden's agenda does call for reversing the Trump administration's public charge rule and rescinding the president's travel ban that affects several majority-Muslim countries. The former vice president also supports increasing the number of refugees accepted into the U.S. and expanding visa protections for certain groups.

Trump's unwavering stance on restricting illegal and legal immigration has been a calling card of his since he launched his campaign in 2015 with a pledge to build a wall along the southern border and get Mexico to pay for it. Mexico has not paid for the wall, and Trump has instead relied on a national emergency declaration and military funds to construct the barrier or replace existing sections.

The president has otherwise followed through in instituting a rigid immigration agenda, appeasing his base of supporters.

The Supreme Court in 2018 upheld a modified version of Trump's travel ban, which the administration expanded earlier this year; the Department of Homeland Security in 2018 briefly instituted a zero tolerance policy that led to the separation of hundreds of migrant children from their parents; Trump has slashed the number of refugees the U.S. accepts each year; and the president earlier this summer issued a memo to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.

Arizona will go a long way in determining the outcome of the presidential election and control of the Senate in November. A RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump, who won the state in 2016, trailing Biden by 2 percentage points. Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) trails Democrat Mark Kelly by roughly 7 percentage points.

The Yuma event took place in an open-air environment where hundreds of supporters were packed closely together. Many attendees wore face coverings and waved makeshift fans to cool down in the 100-degree heat.

Trump made only a passing mention of the coronavirus pandemic during his speech when he praised Gov. Doug Ducey (R) for his handling of a massive outbreak in Arizona last month.

Tuesday marked the second consecutive day Trump visited potential swing states in a bid to counter-program the Democratic National Convention. Prior to his speech in Yuma, he stopped in Iowa to hear from lawmakers there about the recovery from a devastating derecho storm last week.

Trump on Monday held campaign rallies in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He is expected to speak on Thursday in Pennsylvania as he bids to soak up the spotlight that would otherwise be focused on speeches from prominent Democrats each night this week.

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AP FACT CHECK: Michelle Obama and the Kids in 'Cages'

 AP FACT CHECK: Michelle Obama and the Kids in 'Cages'

by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama assailed President Donald Trump on Monday for ripping migrant children from their parents and throwing them into cages, picking up on a frequent and distorted point made widely by Democrats.

She's right that Trump's now-suspended policy at the U.S.-Mexico border separated thousands of children from their families in ways that had not been done before. But what she did not say is that the very same “cages” were built and used in her husband's administration, for the same purpose of holding migrant kids temporarily.

A look at her remark in the keynote address at the opening night of the remote Democratic National Convention:

MICHELLE OBAMA, on Americans: “They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages."

THE FACTS: The reference to cages is misleading and a matter that Democrats have persistently distorted.

Trump used facilities that were built during the Obama-Biden administration to house children at the border. They are chain-link enclosures inside border facilities where migrants were temporarily housed, separated by sex and age.

At the height of the controversy over Trump’s zero-tolerance policy at the border, photos that circulated online of children in the enclosures generated great anger. But those photos — by The Associated Press — were taken in 2014 and depicted some of the thousands of unaccompanied children held by President Barack Obama.

When that fact came to light, some Democrats and activists who had tweeted the photos deleted their tweets. But prominent Democrats have continued to cite cages for children as a distinctive cruelty of Trump.

The former first lady was correct, however, in addressing the removal of children from parents at the border.

The Obama administration separated migrant children from families under certain limited circumstances, like when the child’s safety appeared at risk or when the parent had a serious criminal history.

But family separations as a matter of routine came about because of Trump’s “zero tolerance” enforcement policy, which he eventually suspended because of the uproar. Obama had no such policy.

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EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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USCIS Reminds F-1 Aliens in Post-Completion OPT and Their DSOs to Enter Employer Information in SEVIS

 As exceeding unemployment limits can result in a loss of status, we are reminding F-1 aliens participating in post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT), and their designated school officials (DSOs), that they must update the employer information in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), including unemployment data. Federal regulations require F-1 aliens to notify their DSO within 10 days of any changes to their personal or employment information. In turn, DSOs must update SEVIS with the alien’s information within 21 days. This reminder helps ensure F-1 aliens and DSOs properly comply with existing requirements.

Aliens in F-1 nonimmigrant status may update their employer information through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) Portal, a tool that allows F and M aliens participating in post‑completion practical training to report accurate and timely information directly to SEVP. DSOs may update the information in SEVIS following the instructions to add, edit, or delete the OPT employer. If aliens are unsure of whether they should report information using the portal, or provide the information to their DSO, they should contact their DSO for instructions.

Aliens in F-1 nonimmigrant status and DSOs must ensure that information is entered timely in SEVIS, so that the alien’s record is current and reflects actual employment data. SEVIS will count each day without employer information toward the total number of unemployment days allowed. Failure to update employer information in SEVIS to reflect that the alien is employed may result in any or all of the following actions:

• The alien exceeding unemployment limits and therefore failing to maintain F-1 nonimmigrant status, rendering them removable, unless they are otherwise in a period of authorized stay;
• SEVP setting an alien’s SEVIS record to “terminated” if they have exceeded unemployment limits;
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) initiating revocation proceedings for an alien’s Employment Authorization Document if they have exceeded unemployment limits; and
• The exceeded unemployment limits negatively affecting the alien’s future benefit requests filed with USCIS.

For more information about the SEVP Portal, including step-by-step instructions and videos, visit the SEVP Portal Help section on the Department of Homeland Security Study in the States website. See the Unemployment Counter page on the SEVIS Help Hub for information about SEVIS unemployment calculations.

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Watchdog: Homeland Security Officials Were Wrongly Appointed

 Watchdog: Homeland Security Officials Were Wrongly Appointed

by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The two most senior officials in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were improperly appointed to the posts under federal law by the Trump administration, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog said Friday.

The Government Accountability Office says acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, are ineligible to run the agency under the Vacancy Reform Act.

It was not immediately clear what effects the determination would have on DHS, an agency that has acting officials, serving without Senate confirmation, in a number of prominent roles and is at the forefront of key administration initiatives on immigration and law enforcement.

The report does not carry the force of law, though it could be a factor in lawsuits challenging administration policies or influence members of Congress.

DHS rejected the finding.

“We wholeheartedly disagree with the GAO’s baseless report and plan to issue a formal response to this shortly," the agency said in a written response to questions.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said DHS is authorized by the Homeland Security Act to designate acting secretaries. “GAO is not,” he said. “And GAO’s opinion substituting its views for that of the Agency’s is not only wrong, but laughable."

The Government Accountability Office said it has asked the DHS inspector general, a Trump appointee, to review the situation and determine if the violation affects decisions they have taken.

Wolf should step down and return to the position he previously held in the department and Cuccinelli should resign, according to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

“GAO’s damning opinion paints a disturbing picture of the Trump Administration playing fast and loose by bypassing the Senate confirmation process to install ideologues," the two Democrats said in a joint statement.

DHS, which was already under intense criticism for carrying out administration policies aimed at curbing legal and illegal immigration, found itself embroiled in more controversy this summer as it dispatched federal agents in tactical gear to Portland to confront protesters outside federal buildings without the cooperation of local authorities.

Maloney, D-N.Y., and Thompson, D-Miss., condemned what they see as the department's priorities under Wolf and Cuccinelli.

“At a time when DHS should be marshaling the resources of the federal government to respond to the pandemic that has killed over 165,000 Americans, the Department’s illegally appointed leaders are instead focused on continuing the Administration’s attack on immigrants and intimidating peaceful protesters in a show of force for the President’s reelection campaign,” they said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the two officials should step down and DHS should conduct a legal review of all decisions made under their leadership. “President Trump's efforts to install political sycophants to implement his extreme policies in an end run around the law and Senate have finally caught up with him,” Schumer said.

The GAO analysis traces the violation back to a tumultuous period at DHS in 2019 when then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned. It found that she was improperly replaced by Kevin McAleenan under the rules governing succession in federal agencies.

McAleenan altered the rules of succession after he was subsequently removed, but GAO's legal analysis concluded that the later appointments of Wolf and Cuccinelli were invalid.

Opponents of administration policies have already sought to use their uncertain status in legal challenges. In March, a federal judge in Washington said Cuccinelli's appointment violated the 1998 Vacancy Reform Act and set aside a directive he issued that granted people seeking asylum less time to consult with an attorney before a screening interview.

DHS is the third-largest Cabinet agency, with about 240,000 employees.

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Castillo v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

 Awards of attorney fees incurred during the administrative phase of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims process do not constitute appropriate equitable relief under 29 U.S.C. §1132(a)(3).

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The Memo: Trump attacks on Harris risk backfiring

 The Memo: Trump attacks on Harris risk backfiring

by Niall Stanage

President Trump has already begun blasting Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), but some Republicans fear the attacks could easily deepen his own problems.

The president’s support with women has eroded over the course of his presidency, and GOP strategists are especially worried about female voters in the suburbs, who turned sharply against the party in the 2018 midterms.

Aggressive Trump attacks against Harris, whom presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden named as his vice presidential running mate on Tuesday, could repel the very voters Trump needs to win over.

In a Fox Business interview that aired Thursday morning, Trump referred to Harris as “sort of a madwoman,” an allegation he based upon what he called her “angry” questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearings.

Trump has also called Harris “nasty” and tweeted that she abandoned the Democratic presidential primary “with almost zero support.” He has expressed surprise that Biden chose Harris given that she had “said such bad things” to say about the former vice president during primary debates.

Harris would be only the third woman to be the vice presidential nominee of a major party, and the first nonwhite woman in that role. While anyone on the front lines of a presidential campaign expects to come under attack, descriptions of a female candidate as “nasty,” “angry” or imbalanced are widely seen as sexist tropes.

“Trump and the Trump campaign need to be very sensitive to the fact that attacks they might make against Biden could be perceived as sexist if they are made against Sen. Harris,” said Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) 2016 presidential campaign. “Given how important women voters are in this election, they can’t afford to be put on defense about whether or not an attack is sexist.”

Conant noted that this is not something that only Trump, or only Republicans, have had to deal with. He cited his own work for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) when she first ran for Senate in 2014. Ernst was running against Democrat Bruce Braley, each seeking to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D). During the campaign, Harkin at one point said Ernst would be “wrong for Iowa” even if she were “as good looking as Taylor Swift.” Harkin later expressed regret for the remark.

Back in 2008, some Democrats were worried that Biden himself could appear patronizing to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee that year, during their sole debate. In the end, Biden was perceived to walk that line effectively.

There is no real question that Trump is in trouble with female voters. A Monmouth University poll this week indicated that women were breaking against Trump by almost 30 percentage points. The poll found that, among registered voters, 61 percent of women backed Biden and just 32 percent supported Trump.

In 2016, Trump lost female voters to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton — the first female presidential nominee of a major party — by 13 points, according to exit polls. But he won white women by 9 points, 52 percent to 43 percent.

Liz Mair, a GOP strategist and former online communications director of the Republican National Committee, said she believed women were reacting against Trump more out of a general resistance to his personality than anything else.

“I don’t think it is any particular scandal or comment or policy,” Mair said, comparing Trump to the kind of “narcissistic” man whose advances many women have had to fend off at some point in their lives.

“This is somebody whose ethos is reminiscent of people who women have not wanted proactively in our lives,” she said. “He is reminiscent of the guy who you go, ‘What a pest, what a nuisance, go away.’”

The Trump campaign has been trying other tactics that are widely seen as thinly veiled attempts to get moderate female voters to move back toward the president. In particular, Trump’s repeated insistence that suburban life would be endangered by a Biden presidency is seen as part of this effort.

But a Wednesday tweet in which the president raised the specter of “low income housing [that] would invade their neighborhood” — and the fact that the president suggested that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who is Black, would be put “in charge” of this effort by Biden — raised yet another furor over implicit racism.

“We know that Trump is already trying to scare white women suburban voters with his rhetoric about protecting the suburbs,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist who was a senior spokesperson for Clinton in 2016. “People just don’t seem to be buying it. I think after four years, people see through the rhetoric."

Finney knows better than most, from her Clinton experience, the perils of putting too much faith in polls or taking any votes for granted. But she argued that the kind of attacks Trump has made on Harris just reinforce traits that many female voters find off-putting.

“For voters who are already moving away from him, it reminds them of what they don’t like about Trump — the division, the meanness,” she said.

It is always possible that Trump could pull a surprise again and do better than expected or find traction with some new line of attack.

Mair cautioned against taking too glib a view of the electorate. She said that, as someone who had served as a consultant to female candidates, “I am not a big subscriber to this idea that women vote for women, and it’s all girl power and all this kind of nonsense.”

But that doesn’t change the fact that Trump's standing with women has deteriorated — and the attacks on Harris seem unlikely to change that tide.

Conant, the Republican strategist, gave a stark assessment of the stakes.

“If Trump loses, it is going to be because he underperforms with women. You look at the gender divide in this race and it is clear why Trump is trailing in all the polls. He can’t afford to give up any more ground.”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.

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2nd ICE Detainee in Georgia Dies From COVID-19 Complications

 2nd ICE Detainee in Georgia Dies From COVID-19 Complications

by The Associated Press

LUMPKIN, Ga. — A diabetic Costa Rican man in federal immigration custody has become the second detainee in Georgia to die from COVID-19 complications after being held at a detention center that has reported more than 150 coronavirus cases.

Jose Guillen-Vega, 70, died Monday night at a Columbus hospital, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The preliminary cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest, secondary to complications of the coronavirus disease," officials said Wednesday. He had been hospitalized since Aug. 1.

County Coroner Sybil Ammons said Guillen-Vega also suffered from diabetes and hypertension, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Guillen-Vega was awaiting deportation and housed at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin. The facility has seen six deaths in the last three years, including one other death connected to COVID-19, according to immigrant rights advocates. Stewart detainee and Guatemala native Santiago Baten-Oxlaj, 34, died from the virus in May. The detention center had 154 confirmed coronavirus cases among detainees as of Tuesday.

Stewart’s two coronavirus deaths are the most of any ICE facility in the nation. Three other people have died in federal immigration detention centers after testing positive for COVID-19, according to ICE.

ICE critics have been demanding the agency free at-risk detainees since the pandemic began. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said those at higher risk of serious illness from the virus include people aged 65 years and older as well as those with serious heart conditions, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, and conditions that leave them with weakened immune systems.

Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director for Project South, a social justice organization, told the AJC that Guillen-Vega’s death was preventable.

“There is no reason that a 70-year-old should have been held at a deadly facility in the midst of a pandemic,” Shahshahani said. “How many more tragedies (have to happen) at Stewart before people are released and the government shuts down this horrendous facility?”

ICE said that, nationwide, it has released more than 900 detainees who might be at higher risk for severe illness.

In a statement, ICE said it is “firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody.” The agency also said officials would review Guillen-Vega’s death as they do “in all such cases.”

Guillen-Vega came to the U.S. in December 1999 on a visa that expired in June 2000, ICE said. He remained in the country and was later convicted of statutory rape and indecent liberties with a child in North Carolina on March 15, 2001, authorities said. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and later transferred to Stewart on July 15.

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