POLITICAL WRAP: DNC Preview; Mail-In Ballot Concerns

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The virtual Democratic National Convention gets underway on Monday.

So what will the message be?

And how will Democrats keep the excitement up at a virtual event?

And the debate over the post office and mail-in voting.

Our political contributor Mary C. Curtis has more in the video above.

‘It’s just history’: Kamala Harris as the VP nominee

Kamala Harris made history, again, this week, when she became the first Black woman and first Asian American picked for a major political party’s presidential ticket. The daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, the California Democrat has been many firsts.

She has been a county deputy district attorney; the district attorney for San Francisco — the first woman and first African American elected to that position; and California’s first female, Black and Asian American attorney general. Harris was also the second Black woman to join the Senate, succeeding Democrat Barbara Boxer in 2017.

Not quite four years ago, it was Joe Biden, as vice president, who swore her in as California’s junior senator. Now Biden is counting on Harris to help him win the White House as his running mate.

With us on Political Theater to talk about this pick is CQ Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis, a longtime political correspondent covering the intersection of politics, culture and race.

Mary C. Curtis: Biden Picks Kamala Harris as Running Mate

CHARLOTTENC — The ticket is set.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has picked Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate.

Harris is the first Black and Asian-American woman to be on a major party’s presidential ticket.

WCCB Political contributor Mary C. Curtis gives her expert analysis on the decision.

POLITICAL WRAP: Biden VP Pick; Election Interference?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – This week, Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden could announce his running mate.

So who are the final contenders?

And what factors will go into the former Vice President’s decision?

And the U.S. intelligence community’s top election security official is raising concerns about election interference.

Our political contributor Mary C. Curtis has more in the video above.

Mary C. Curtis: Who Will Joe Biden Choose as His Running Mate?

CHARLOTTE, NC — Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is expected to name his vice-presidential pick next week, before the Democratic National Convention convenes.

Biden has pledged to choose a woman as his Vice President but the big question is…who will he pick?

Political contributor Mary C. Curtis breaks down the top contenders.

The Heat: Race for the White House

Just three months away from the presidential election in the U.S., what does it look like for the two major candidates?

On November 3, millions of Americans will choose ​to either re-elect President Donald Trump or elevate former Vice-President Joe Biden. For now, the polls suggest a victory for Biden.

Trump has been criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the ​resulting economic downturn and social unrest in the country.

To discuss:

  • Mary C. Curtis is a columnist for the political publication Roll Call
  • Eric Bolling is a political commentator and host of ​the program, ‘America This Week.
  • Aaron Mate is Host of “Pushback with Aaron Maté” on The Grayzone
  • Joel Rubin is a Democratic Party strategist

POLITICAL WRAP: Plans Changing Again for RNC in Charlotte; Stimulus Debate

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – This month’s Republican National Convention in Charlotte will be closed to the press. A convention spokesperson cites social distancing requirements and resulting capacity restrictions.

Not even all the delegates will be able to to cast votes in person.

Another Republican official tells CNN parts of the convention will be live streamed.

That includes the planned formal nomination of President Trump as the party’s candidate for predient.

Our political contributor, Mary C. Curtis, has more on this and the continuing negotiations over the next stimulus package.

Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup: Cooper’s ‘Last Call’ Rule; Has Charlotte Reached COVID Peak?G

On this week’s Charlotte Talks local news roundup …

Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that there would be a “last call” order throughout North Carolina beginning on Friday, banning alcohol sales in restaurants after 11 p.m. Charlotte has a similar order already in place, but it’s more restrictive. We’ll give details on that, as well as a general update on Coronavirus — has Charlotte reached its peak?

President Trump announced this week that he will accept the GOP nomination for president in North Carolina, leaving many wondering if he means Charlotte, or somewhere else in the state. We’ll hear reaction from Charlotte officials.

There were talks of a conflict of interest — or the appearance of one — at city council this week. We’ll talk about what transpired regarding COVID-19 Relief Funds, council member Tariq Bokhari and his company Carolina Fintech Hub.

For the first time since World War II, the North Carolina State Fair (which was scheduled for Oct. 15-25 in Raleigh) has been canceled.

We’ll have those stories and much more with our roundtable of local reporters on the local news roundup.

Guests:

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com and WCCB 

David Boraks, reporter for WFAE

Joe BrunoWSOC-TV Reporter

Trump in trouble revisits his tried-and-true — protecting your neighborhood from ‘them’

As polls show his base stagnant and his poll numbers dropping, Donald Trump has decided to replay an old favorite. While trying to strike fear of the invading “other” is right out of the 1968 playbook of both Richard Nixon and George Wallace, it’s also a tactic Trump honed at his father’s knee. It makes perfect sense for Trump in trouble to return to what he knows — and he knows all about shutting the literal and figurative door on Black folks moving into white neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, Trump and his father, Fred Trump — president and chairman, respectively, of Trump Management — were named as defendants in lawsuits brought by the Justice Department, accusing them of turning away African Americans who applied to rent apartments in some of the company’s buildings. That would be breaking the letter and spirit of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, something that was by no means the exception among property owners of the time.

The reaction, though, was pure Donald Trump. Rather than settle the lawsuits quietly, as some did, he called the charges “absolutely ridiculous,” denied them, countersued and said the government was trying to make him rent to “welfare recipients,” all sadly predictable. Though the Trumps eventually settled without admitting guilt, test renters of different races received different treatment, and investigations found that certain discarded applications were marked with “C” for “colored.”

Though the coding for a tenant deemed undesirable has changed, the sentiment remains. Trump 2020, in the middle of tweeting misinformation about COVID-19 treatment during a pandemic that has taken more than 150,000 lives in the United States, has decided that the best reelection strategy is fear, warning “Suburban Housewives of America” that Joe Biden “will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream,” and that electing the former vice president would mean hordes of people moving in, and lowering home values and raising crime rates.

Yikes! Is the president trying to protect me from me?

Mary C. Curtis on the final 100 days of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign

CGTN’s Roee Ruttenberg and Mary C. Curtis, a columnist for Roll Call and a Political Contributor for WCCB-TV, disucss what to expect in the last 100 days of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign trail.