RFK Jr to reportedly drop out of race by end of week – live

10.39pm BST

At an event hosted by Politico, Kamala Harris’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon was asked about how Robert F Kennedy’s reported intention to end his presidential bid would affect the race.

One of the biggest questions of this year’s election is whether Kennedy is syphoning support from voters who would otherwise back Harris, or Donald Trump , and we may get a better idea of the answer to that if he ends his campaign.

Either way, O’Malley Dillon told Politico she did not think it would be a big deal:

We are very confident that the vice president is going to win whether she’s running against one candidate or multiple candidates. I don’t think it’s really going to interfere with the race too much.

10.28pm BST

Nancy Pelosi delighted a well-heeled crowd at the University Club of Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, sharing anecdotes about her extraordinary career arc that she described as “housewife, House member, House Speaker.”

Now considered one of the most powerful House speakers in modern political history, Pelosi said she faced doubts as she climbed the ranks in Congress from male colleagues who admonished her to wait her turn.

“I became interested in running [for leadership] because we kept losing the elections, 94, 96, 98 and then it was 2000 I thought, ‘I’m so tired of losing … for the children,’” she said, using a Pelosism, that everything she does is “for the children.”

When she made her decision to run for Democratic leadership known, Pelosi said she was immediately met with skepticism, especially among her male colleagues. “Who said she could run?” Pelosi recalled them saying. Their incredulity only encouraged her further.

“Light my fire, why don’t you, poor babies?” Pelosi said, drawing laughs. In an aside to the audience, she emphasized that she was telling a story that occured “this century.”

Pelosi continued, saying she was told there was a “pecking order” and she wasn’t in it.

“They said, ‘these people have been waiting a long time,” Pelosi recounted. “So I said: ‘Was it over 200 years?’”

10.13pm BST

The uncommitted movement continues to press for the Democratic convention to allow a Palestinian to address delegates.

Earlier in the day, the movement said it approved of a reported decision to allow the family of an Israeli hostage to address the convention, but said a Palestinian voice should also be heard:

Here’s more about their quest to get Democratic leaders to allow them to speak from the convention stage:

Related: Uncommitted movement demands DNC allow a representative to speak on Gaza

Updated at 10.53pm BST

9.57pm BST

Two of Donald Trump’s surrogates will hold a press conference tomorrow in Chicago to criticize Kamala Harris’s record on handling immigration and other issues, hours before she is to deliver the closing address at the Democratic national convention.

The Trump campaign has not had much of a presence in the city as Democrats have gathered to celebrate Harris’s entry into the race. That will change tomorrow when Vivek Ramaswamy and Carlos Trujillo , a former Trump administration official, address reporters from the Trump Hotel & Tower downtown.

Updated at 10.52pm BST

9.40pm BST

Walz to 'introduce himself to the American people' in keynote address

Kamala Harris ’s running mate, Tim Walz , is tonight’s keynote speaker, and will deliver a speech focused on telling American voters about his life and career, the Biden-Harris campaign said.

“In his remarks at the Democratic national convention, Governor Tim Walz will introduce himself to the American people. He will highlight the values that he learned growing up in a small town in Nebraska, which shaped his service in the national guard, as a teacher, football coach, member of Congress, and governor, and that he will bring to the White House. Governor Walz will lay out what Vice-President Harris will do for working families and call on the American people to work together to elect Kamala Harris president,” according to the campaign.

Musicians John Legend and Sheila E will introduce Walz, who will be nominated by Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ingman , a former student of the governor.

Updated at 10.51pm BST

9.28pm BST

Gaza solidarity protesters interrupted an environment and climate crisis council meeting at the convention on Wednesday, chanting “free, free Palestine”.

“If you want to show some political courage, go and interrupt one of Donald Trump’s rallies,” responded Maryland representative Jamie Raskin , who was speaking. “We’re organizing against Trump, we’re organizing against the reactionary autocrats, plutocrats and kleptocrats.”

“Anybody who interferes with that is objectively helping Donald Trump and Tim Walz,” Raskin continued, mistakenly naming Harris’s vice-presidential pick instead of Trump’s. “So cut it out,” he added before the protestors were escorted away.

Some climate groups, however, are pushing for the Harris campaign to stop supporting Israel’s deadly war in Gaza by backing an arms embargo. Among them is the Sunrise Movement, the influential youth-led environmental justice group who spearheaded the push for a Green New Deal.

“Young people want a livable world for our generation and generations. We want everyone to have clean air and water and safe homes,” said Stevie O’Hanlon , a Sunrise Movement spokesperson. “Everyone must have those rights and freedoms, including Palestinians.”

Updated at 10.49pm BST

9.13pm BST

Those of us who have shown up early to the United Center in Chicago (such as your live blogger) are getting a sneak peek at one of the night’s musical guests: Stevie Wonder.

He’s sound-checking his 1972 hit Higher Ground, and was earlier at the podium rehearsing some remarks. Wonder has with him backing dancers, as well as a bassist, guitar player and someone who looks to be playing turntables. He is, of course, playing piano.

Updated at 10.23pm BST

8.59pm BST

Robert F Kennedy Jr , who is reportedly planning to drop out of the 2024 presidential race and considering throwing his support behind Donald Trump , was asked by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl about Trump calling the climate crisis “a hoax”.

Here’s how Kennedy responded:

Kennedy spent decades working as an environmental lawyer who sued polluters and founded a large non-profit focused on protecting clean water. Trump has long questioned human-made global warming, including calling it “mythical”, “nonexistent” or “an expensive hoax”, or suggesting that the climate could “change back again”.

Updated at 10.22pm BST

8.49pm BST

Pink is expected to take to the stage on Thursday for a closing-night performance at the Democratic national convention, CNN is reporting.

The award-winning singer-songwriter will perform on Thursday evening before Kamala Harris’s speech, according to the outlet.

As we reported earlier , John Legend will be performing tonight before Tim Walz ’s remarks.

Updated at 10.21pm BST

8.43pm BST

Donald Trump Jr said he “loved the idea” of having Robert F Kennedy Jr appointed to a role in a potential Trump administration so that he can take a government agency and “blow it up”.

The Republican presidential candidate’s son, in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck reported by the Hill, said:

I loved the idea, love the idea of giving him some sort of role in some sort of major three-letter entity or whatever it may be and let him blow it up.

He added that he believes Kennedy is “a smart guy” and that “he’s actually got very good views on certain things”. Trump said:

I think that’s what we need. And so, I think that kind of unity, even where there may be certain disagreements on certain things, I think he could be a really great asset for that.

8.35pm BST

The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi demurred and deflected when asked by the Democratic strategist David Axelrod to share how difficult it was to have “ that conversation” with the president.

Pelosi, who pushed subtly but forcefully in public and private for the president to step aside, said it was ultimately Joe Biden ’s decision to make but one that ultimately set the party on a path to winning that they had not been on when he led the ticket.

“A great sacrifice was made here,” she said. But the rupture between Biden and Pelosi, two devout Catholics who have known each other for decades has been hard on her, she said. “I’ve cried over this. I’m sad about this,” she said.

Her highest priority then and now was to win – and not just the White House, but the House and the Senate. She said the prospect of a second Trump term was too dangerous.

“Thank God I was the speaker on January 6, last time,” she said, suggesting the assault on the US Capitol would have been far worse if Republicans had been in charge that day. She said:

You have to make the decision to win, and you have to make every decision in favor of winning.

Updated at 9.49pm BST

8.30pm BST

Trump 'open' to giving RFK Jr role in administration

Donald Trump, in an interview yesterday, said he would “certainly” be open to appointing Robert F Kennedy Jr to a role in his administration, if the independent presidential candidate drops out of the race and backs him.

“I like him, and I respect him,” Trump told CNN after a campaign stop in Michigan on Tuesday.

He’s a brilliant guy. He’s a very smart guy. I’ve known him for a very long time. I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I’d be open to it.

Trump said he would “love that endorsement, because I’ve always liked” Kennedy.

Asked if he would consider appointing Kennedy to a role in his administration if he wins in November, Trump replied:

I probably would, if something like that would happen. He’s a very different kind of a guy – a very smart guy. And, yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly.

Updated at 9.00pm BST

8.19pm BST

Robert F Kennedy Jr is leaning toward endorsing Donald Trump but the decision is not yet finalized and could still change, ABC News is reporting, citing sources.

Kennedy’s hope is in part to finalize things quickly in order to try to blunt momentum from the DNC, one source told the outlet.

Kennedy told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl that he would not confirm or deny reports that he is endorsing Trump, adding: “We are not talking about any of that.”

Updated at 8.22pm BST

8.14pm BST

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who will address the nation about “his path forward” on Friday, has held “advanced discussions” with Donald Trump and his campaign team about dropping out of the race and endorsing the Republican presidential nominee, the Washington Post is reporting, citing multiple sources.

Updated at 8.14pm BST

7.58pm BST

RFK Jr to drop out of race by end of week – report

We reported earlier that independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr’ s campaign announced that he will make an address to the nation on Friday about “his path forward”.

ABC News is now reporting that Kennedy plans to drop out of the race by the end of the week.

It comes after Kennedy’s running mate, the Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan, said the pair were considering abandoning their campaign in order to help the election of Donald Trump.

Kennedy was a member of the Democratic party and attempted to run as its nominee before choosing to stand as an independent.

Updated at 9.01pm BST

7.54pm BST

Donald Trump can’t seem to help but double down on his election lies – he offhandedly commented: “they’re great at cheating in elections,” in the middle of his remarks on Russia’s war with Ukraine, which he said he would get “settled” if elected.

Updated at 7.55pm BST

7.52pm BST

Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to see Kamala Harris shatter the glass ceiling, but that should not be her message to voters.

The prospect of Harris becoming the first woman president in American history “brings tears to my eyes” said Pelosi, the first – and so far only – female speaker of the House, “but not votes to the ballot box”.

“There isn’t that much time that people give to politics, and we want them to know what it means to them in their lives,” Pelosi continued, speaking at the University Club of Chicago.

Harris has nodded to the historic nature of her candidacy, but it is not a feature of her pitch to voters.

“However wonderful it is, it’s icing on the cake but it ain’t the cake,” Pelosi underlined.

Updated at 9.50pm BST

7.51pm BST

John Legend will take the Democratic national convention stage tonight ahead of the vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Walz ’s remarks.

Legend is expected to perform a tribute to Prince , one of Minnesota’s most iconic artists, to welcome Walz to the stage, Rolling Stone reports.

7.46pm BST

Donald Trump praised Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán , calling the authoritarian leader “very strong”, and claiming the Hungarian leader “said the only thing that’s going to save the whole world is Trump has to be president again”.

Trump and his allies on the right have formed closer ties with Orbán in recent years, with the prime minister even visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this year.

Updated at 7.48pm BST

7.43pm BST

Uncommitted delegates and their allies rallied in a park near the United Center this morning to reiterate a call that the Democratic convention include a speech from a Palestinian American on the main stage.

The family of Israeli hostages since Hamas’s 7 October attack are expected to speak on the stage tonight, a move that the uncommitted movement said they support. They also want to see a space for a Palestinian speaker, but the DNC has not yet responded to their demand.

Abbas Alawieh, a leader of the Uncommitted National Movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, held up his phone and said he was waiting for their call. Time left in the convention is dwindling. He said:

If the issue is we don’t have room for Palestinian Americans in the party, we’ve got a problem.

The congresswomen Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar joined the delegates to pressure the Biden administration for a ceasefire and arms embargo. The group is not in opposition to the Democratic party, Bush said: “We are the party.”

Doctors who worked in Gaza also again shared what they witnessed, the latest of many attempts to tell Democrats the gravity of what people living in Gaza are facing.

“I don’t want to be here,” said Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan , explaining that she is not normally involved in politics. “But I don’t know how else to save lives.”

Updated at 7.47pm BST

7.41pm BST

Donald Trump is speaking in Asheboro, North Carolina, where he made his first appearance in an outdoor rally since he survived an assassination attempt in July.

He made his speech behind bulletproof glass, as captured in the clip below:

Updated at 7.43pm BST

7.40pm BST

Donald Trump , speaking at a campaign rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, brought back his false assertion that Nato countries have failed to pay “their dues” as members of the alliance.

In fact, Nato members are not legally obligated to pay the 2% of gross domestic product on defense that the alliance outlines as a target contribution.

Trump’s claim that Nato allies have somehow defaulted on their monetary obligation has generated outrage in the past.

“Oh, the fake news gave me a hard time for that,” said Trump, maybe anticipating the response his inflammatory comments would elicit. “The press went crazy.”

7.38pm BST

RFK Jr to address 'path forward' amid reports of backing Trump

Robert F Kennedy Jr will address the nation on Friday about “his path forward”, his campaign has announced, amid reports that he is considering dropping out as an independent presidential candidate to support Donald Trump.

Kennedy’s campaign said he will deliver remarks at an event in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday. Trump is holding a rally of his own in Arizona on Friday evening.

Updated at 9.01pm BST

7.31pm BST

Donald Trump called on about two dozen sheriffs and North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, to join him on stage.

The group shuffled in and out of the bulletproof pen quickly before Trump launched into his speech.

“Comrade Kamala,” Trump exclaimed, doubling down on the claim that Kamala Harris is a far-left candidate and repeatedly claiming in his opening remarks that under a second Trump presidency, the country would experience economic prosperity.

7.26pm BST

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been gathering for a third day at a park near the United Center in Chicago where the Democratic national convention is being held, as they reiterated calls to end US aid of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Ilhan Omar, the Democratic congresswoman for Minnesota, was among the speakers who attended today’s rally, as well as doctors who have traveled to Gaza to treat injured Palestinians, AP reported.

From the Intercept’s Akela Lacy:

7.17pm BST

Donald Trump has taken to the stage to deliver remarks on the topic of national security at a North Carolina rally – part of a swing state tour coinciding with Democratic national convention.

It’s an outdoor event, and the former president is standing behind tall, bulletproof glass panels.

Updated at 7.30pm BST

7.15pm BST

Democratic officials were asked at the morning briefing about whether Tim Walz’s experience with fertility treatments would be mentioned in his speech tonight.

The question came a day after the governor’s wife, Gwen Walz, clarified that they conceived their two children through IUI, also known as artificial insemination.

Walz had previously indicated that he and his wife had relied on IVF, in-vitro fertilization, in their family-planning journey. IVF has come under increased attack since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

“I think he’s been very clear so far that infertility is a deeply personal journey that he and his wife have been courageous enough to share,” said Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director.

I think that should be celebrated. I think it’s, frankly, very relatable to millions of American families across this country who have gone through the same struggle.

Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, added:

I know that without fertility treatments, regardless of the three letters of that fertility treatment, without that, those children wouldn’t be walking on this earth.

7.04pm BST

Democrats are clearly fired up about their chances of victory with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the top of the ticket, even as they warn their supporters against complacency in the race.

“We are seeing more momentum on the ground and across the country than I’ve ever seen in politics, than I’ve ever seen in my life – not just here, but in the states that will decide this election,” Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, said at a briefing this morning.

But Democratic officials underscored that the election is expected to be extremely close, and there is not a moment to spare. To demonstrate that, Harris and Walz made a campaign trip to Wisconsin yesterday, as the convention continued in Chicago.

“I cannot emphasize this enough: this will be a very close election, and this campaign isn’t wasting any time talking to the voters that will decide this election,” said Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director.

At Harris’s Wisconsin rally, one attendee yelled out: “You already won!” Harris sharply replied: “No, we haven’t already won – 77 days of work to do, my friends.”

Updated at 7.07pm BST

6.49pm BST

Tim Walz will have the chance to introduce himself to a much larger audience tonight, as he headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention. Polls suggest that most of the country was unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate.

“He will introduce himself to the American people tonight on the convention stage, highlighting the small town values that have shaped his lifetime of service and his commitment to safeguarding the freedoms that we all hold dear,” Alex Hornbrook , convention committee executive director, said at a briefing this morning.

The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, who was also named as a potential running mate for Harris, praised Walz as a “good man” who would serve as a “great role model for all Americans”.

“When you look at Tim, you see a Democratic governor delivering results in every community, from the cities to the suburbs to rural towns,” Beshear said. “Like Vice-President Harris, he has worked around the clock to help middle-class families get ahead.”

Updated at 6.51pm BST

6.44pm BST

Veteran Black and Latino political leaders including Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton have come together to announce a new partnership designed to supercharge the power of minority voters.

Speaking at an event at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Huerta was met with a chorus of “ si se puede ” as she entered the room. That’s the phrase she coined in 1972 during the 25-day fast of her co-founder, Cesar Chavez’s – later translated into English by Barack Obama and used as the motto of his 2008 presidential campaign – “Yes we can”.

Huerta is 94, and brought an effortless sense of history into this already historic-feeling convention. She recalled when Coretta Scott King, the civil rights leader and wife of Martin Luther King, told her that “we will never have peace in the world until women take power”.

Huerta is not one to settle for the past, telling the room that she would prefer to revise King’s aphorism. “We will never have peace in the world until feminists take power,” she said, adding: “Not all women are feminists.”

Coretta and MLK’s elder son Martin Luther King III talked about the power that is gained from uniting communities. His family organization, the Drum Major Institute, is announcing a new union with one of the largest Latino and immigrant political networks, Mi Familia Vota.

“With an election on the horizon we must work together to empower our cities at the ballot box, to ensure equal access to what Dad said was our most sacred right, the right to vote,” he said.

Al Sharpton, the longtime New York civil rights activist, leant his support to the new fusion of Black and Latino political movements. He urged the two communities to forge closer unions.

“We cannot date politically, we got to get married – because we have mutual enemies,” he said. “The biggest threat they fear is for the Black and Latino communities to come together and vote together like a block.”

Updated at 6.52pm BST

6.35pm BST

Interim summary

Here’s a look at where thing stand:

• Kamala Harris’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump’s campaign, Reuters reported, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday. The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in July, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.

• Dozens of people were arrested in Chicago on Tuesday night during a protest against the Biden administration’s position on Israel amid its deadly war in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the last nine months. The National Lawyers Guild Chicago, which provided legal observers for Tuesday’s protests, said more than 70 people were arrested.

• JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, said it would be “good” for the Trump campaign if Robert F Kennedy Jr dropped out as an independent presidential candidate and joined forces with him and Donald Trump. Vance, in an interview with Fox & Friends this morning, was asked about reports that Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, are considering abandoning their campaign to help the election of Trump.

• The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and other Democratic heavy-hitters flocked to a breakfast of Michigan delegates on Wednesday as they try to build enthusiasm in a key battleground state with polls close to a dead heat. The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and the senator Gary Peters also attended the breakfast, which was meant to recognize the congressman Dan Kildee and the senator Debbie Stabenow, who are not running again.

• Polling data shows Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, has had a smoother launch as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate than JD Vance for Donald Trump. About one-third of American adults, or 36%, have a favorable view of Walz, compared with about one-quarter (27%) who have a positive opinion of Vance, according to a survey by the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research.

• A group of 50 Republicans in Congress who have served in the armed forces have signed a letter accusing the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, the Minnesota governor Tim Walz, of lying about his time in the Army National Guard. The letter, shared with Politico, accuses Walz of “egregious misrepresentations” of his military service and calls on him to “come clean”.

• More than half of Americans who are in generation Z say they have “very little” trust in the presidency, according to a new poll. The Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey published today shows 53% of voting-age members of generation Z – which it defines as those under the age of 28 – said they have “very little” trust in Congress, 51% said the same about the presidency, and 44% of the supreme court.

Updated at 6.41pm BST

6.20pm BST

Here are some images coming from the newswires in Chicago where anti-war demonstrators are protesting against the US’s military support for Israel’s war in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since October:

Updated at 7.19pm BST

6.03pm BST

Dozens arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Democratic convention

Dozens of people were arrested in Chicago on Tuesday night during a protest against the Biden administration’s position on Israel.

The National Lawyers Guild Chicago, which provided legal observers for Tuesday’s protests, said more than 70 people were arrested.

Chicago police superintendent Larry Snelling said between 55 and 60 people, including three journalists were arrested at the protest.

5.48pm BST

Eva Longoria, actor, Democratic activist and proud Tejana , urged Democrats to sharpen their economic pitch to Hispanic voters.

“The argument of the economy is something that I think we’re not articulating well enough to our Latino brothers and sisters,” she told attendees of the Hispanic caucus meeting on Wednesday morning.

And so I encourage you guys to get out there and really get rid of that disinformation, the misinformation, especially in Spanish language.

She argued that many of the White House’s economic policies have disproportionately buoyed “Latino families and Latino pocketbooks”, pointing to the Covid stimulus plan that helped Americans recover from the pandemic.

Longoria represented Texas in Tuesday afternoon’s roll call vote.

“It’s a very clear choice, because we have one candidate who’s using Latino issues and Latinos as a scapegoat, as a political agenda, really demonizing who we are, demonizing our contributions, minimizing our contributions to this country,” she said on Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of people who want us to stay home,” Longoria added.

And there’s a reason, because they know the Latino vote will be the deciding factor in this election.

Updated at 5.56pm BST

5.40pm BST

The Ohio senator JD Vance ’s comments on Fox & Friends this morning followed reports that Robert F Kennedy Jr is considering abandoning his campaign as an insurgent independent presidential candidate in order to help the election of Donald Trump.

The startling disclosure was made by Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s vice-presidential candidate, who said the pair were considering dropping their campaign over fears it might help elect Kamala Harris , the Democratic nominee, as president.

Shanahan, a wealthy Silicon Valley attorney, reportedly worth $1bn as a result of her former marriage to Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, said:

There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump … [Or] we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump … and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.

Updated at 6.15pm BST

5.31pm BST

Vance says it would be 'good' if RFK dropped out and teamed up with Trump campaign

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, said it would be “good” for the Trump campaign if Robert F Kennedy Jr dropped out as an independent presidential candidate and joined forces with him and Donald Trump.

Vance, in an interview with Fox & Friends this morning, was asked about reports that Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan , are considering abandoning their campaign to help the election of Trump.

Vance said he thinks “it would be good for the campaign” but added that he had not spoken to Kennedy about it, adding:

My pitch to him and to a lot of his voters would be the Democratic Party of my grandparents, that supported his uncle John F Kennedy for president, has been completely abandoned by the modern leadership of the Democratic Party.

Vance argued that the Democratic party has “gone so far in the leftward direction” that Kennedy is “no longer welcome” in the party.

Updated at 5.46pm BST

5.13pm BST

“We’re hiring another football coach,” Mankato West high school principal John Barnett told Scarlets head football coach Rick Sutton after interviewing Tim Walz about a geography teaching position. “You’re definitely gonna want to talk to him.”

This was back in the spring of 1997, when Walz was a thirty-something national guardsman relocating to Minnesota from Nebraska so his wife could be closer to her family. So Sutton arranged a second informal interview at his house, one that would ultimately decide whether Walz’s $25,000-a-year teaching gig would come with a $2,500 bonus for working with the football team. “I knew very, very early on in our conversation that this was a guy that I definitely wanted on my staff,” Sutton recalls of Walz, who took the job.

By all accounts Walz made as strong a first impression with Kamala Harris ; strong enough that the Democratic presidential nominee picked him to be her running mate over more popular choices. On Wednesday, the Minnesota governor takes center stage at the Democratic national convention to accept the party’s vice-presidential nomination. His primetime speech could well come off sounding like one of his old half-time pep talks.

Walz, whose progressive wins in the state legislature also recommended him for the job alongside Harris, has only recently emerged as a national figure since describing Maga Republicans and their retrograde politics as “weird” . With that one simple word, which suddenly has the right taking offense , Walz did in a single news cycle what Democrats haven’t been able to do in 16 years – and that’s retake control over the national political narrative by stealing a page from Donald Trump’s negative-branding playbook.

Read the full story here: ‘Clear eyes, full heart’: the unlikely championship that launched Tim Walz

Related: ‘Clear eyes, full heart’: the unlikely championship that launched Tim Walz

Updated at 5.30pm BST

5.05pm BST

Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman for New Jersey, died this morning aged 87, his family said.

Pascrell “fought to his last breath to return to the job he cherished and to the people he loved”, according to a statement posted to X.

Pascrell represented the Paterson area in New Jersey in Congress for nearly three decades, after being first elected to Congress in 1996 and having served on the House ways and means committee since 2007, according to local media.

Updated at 5.36pm BST

4.59pm BST

Vladimir Putin exploited Donald Trump ’s “ego and insecurities” to exert an almost mesmeric hold over the former US president, who refused to entertain any negative evaluation of the autocratic Russian leader from his own staff, and ultimately fired his national security adviser, HR McMaster, over it.

The bold assessment of Trump’s fealty to Putin comes in McMaster’s book At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, published by HarperCollins and arriving on 27 August. The Guardian obtained a copy.

“After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump,” McMaster recalls saying in the memoir covering the turbulent 457 days the now retired general served as national security adviser from February 2017 until he was effectively fired by tweet in April 2018.

The comment, to McMaster’s wife, Katie, came in the aftermath of the poisoning in the UK by Putin’s agents of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former intelligence officer, and his daughter, in March 2018.

Read the full story here: Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says

Related: Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says

4.50pm BST

Trump to hold first outdoor rally since assassination attempt

As we reported earlier, Donald Trump will be campaigning in Asheboro, North Carolina, today. It will be his first outdoor campaign rally since surviving an assassination attempt on 13 July at an open-air rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump’s event today has enhanced security from past outdoor rallies, including panes of bulletproof glass boxing in the podium where he will speak.

From AP’s Michelle L Price:

4.35pm BST

Delegates called November’s ballot a “get out the vote” election and said that they needed to make clear to Michigan voters that Democrats stand for “freedom”.

“I’d say Michigan is ground zero for the presidency and for the control of the US Senate, and for control of the US Congress,” Jason Morgan , a state representative for the college town of Ann Arbor and vice-chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, told the Guardian.

And we have several US House seats that are open, that we need to win and hold on to. We have a US Senate seat that’s up and up for the first time in decades that is critical to the control of the US Senate, and we are the top battleground state in the country when it comes to the presidency.

We know that Michigan can go blue. We believe it will, but it’s going to take everything that we have to make sure we’re turning out voters, ensuring that they know how important this election is and winning every vote.

Morgan, who was dressed in a T-shirt and baseball cap, said he thought he would “just pop down and grab food” before he “realized we had such a robust program this year”. The energy was the highest he had felt in the state since 2008, he said, when Barack Obama was the candidate.

Having Nancy Pelosi here to talk to us is certainly exhilarating. And you know, it’s just something special.

Updated at 4.38pm BST

4.25pm BST

The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and other Democratic heavy-hitters flocked to a breakfast of Michigan delegates on Wednesday as they try to build enthusiasm in a key battleground state with polls close to a dead heat.

The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and the senator Gary Peters also attended the breakfast, which was meant to recognize the congressman Dan Kildee and the senator Debbie Stabenow, who are not running again.

But attention was focused on races up and down the ticket in Michigan, as part of a larger strategy of protecting a blue wall of states for the presidency and in both the house and the senate. Pelosi, who remains one of the Democratic party’s most influential operatives, said:

We fully intend to hold the house and to win you cannot add by subtracting. You cannot add by subtracting. So we have to win. All the seats that we have were very important.

Jeffries called Michigan a “critical state in the battle for our future”/

Updated at 4.33pm BST

4.14pm BST

Polling data shows Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, has had a smoother launch as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate than JD Vance for Donald Trump.

About one-third of American adults, or 36%, have a favorable view of Walz, compared with about one-quarter (27%) who have a positive opinion of Vance, according to a survey by the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research.

Significantly more adults also have an unfavorable view of Vance than Walz, 44% to 25%, the poll shows.

Updated at 4.19pm BST

4.02pm BST

The US job market appears weaker than first thought, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

The US created 818,000 fewer jobs than first calculated in the twelve month to the end of March, a 0.5% decrease, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ quarterly census of employment and wages.

The news comes as the Federal Reserve weighs a cut in its benchmark interest rate, the first since March 2020. The chair of the Fed, Jerome Powell, has signaled that the central bank is now leaning towards cutting rates after raising them to tamp down inflation. Powell will give an update on his views this Friday at the central bank’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The news also comes in an election season when the economy is the top priority for voters. The outgoing president, Joe Biden, has received low marks from voters for his handling of the economy despite a remarkable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. While inflation is fading, voters remain unhappy about prices.

Some 16m jobs have been created since Biden took office and average unemployment has remained lower than during any administration in 50 years.

Related: Newly released numbers indicate a weaker US job market than expected

3.54pm BST

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota governor, has also faced accusations from his opponent, the Republican Ohio senator JD Vance, of lying about his family’s experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Walz has repeatedly spoken about his struggle to have children with his wife, Gwen, while on the campaign trail and characterized the issue of IVF access as “personal” to him and his family. Walz told supporters at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, earlier this month:

This one’s personal for me about IVF and reproductive care. When we wanted to have children, we went through years of fertility treatment.

But on Tuesday, Gwen Walz issued a statement clarifying that she and her husband went through a different process known as intrauterine insemination, or IUI, to conceive their daughter, Hope. IUI is often attempted before IVF but does not face the same level of political controversy because it does not risk destroying unused embryos, according to AP.

Gwen Walz said that a neighbor, who was a nurse, helped administer “the shots I needed as part of the IUI process”, adding:

Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience. Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time.

Updated at 3.59pm BST

3.38pm BST

Since being named as Kamala Harris ’s running mate, Walz’s 24-year record in the Army National Guard has become a target of attack from Republicans.

His Republican opponent, the Ohio senator JD Vance, has accused Walz of leaving the service in 2005 as a means of avoiding deployment to Iraq. Walz chose to leave the Guard in 2005 to run for Congress, and there is no evidence to suggest he retired to avoid wartime deployment.

Neither Walz nor Vance, who served in the Marine Corps for four years, have combat experience.

In 2018 during a gubernatorial campaign, Walz said “we can make sure those weapons of war that I carried in war” are not on America’s streets. A spokesperson acknowledged recently that he “misspoke”.

Updated at 3.40pm BST

3.30pm BST

GOP military veteran lawmakers accuse Walz of lying about his military service

A group of 50 Republicans in Congress who have served in the armed forces have signed a letter accusing the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, the Minnesota governor Tim Walz, of lying about his time in the Army National Guard.

The letter, shared with Politico, accuses Walz of “egregious misrepresentations” of his military service and calls on him to “come clean”. It is signed by members of the House and Senate across the spectrum of Republicans, including allies of Donald Trump and more moderate members.

The letter states:

You have stated that you are “damn proud” of your service, and like any American veteran, you should be. But there is no honor in lying about the nature of your service.

“You have violated the trust of our brothers and sisters in arms,” the letter continues.

Their blood, sweat, and sacrifice are the only reason our nation is able to exist. Until you admit you lied to them, there is no way you can be trusted to serve as Vice President.

A spokesperson for Walz responded by pointing to a recent statement signed by Democratic military veteran members of Congress defending Walz from attacks on his record, as well as an open letter of support featuring signatures of 1,000 military veterans.

Updated at 3.58pm BST

3.11pm BST

The Harris campaign said about 15,000 people attended the rally at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Tuesday night to hear Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, in battleground Wisconsin.

3.01pm BST

More than half of Americans who are in generation Z say they have “very little” trust in the presidency, according to a new poll.

The Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey published today shows 53% of voting-age members of generation Z – which it defines as those under the age of 28 – said they have “very little” trust in Congress, 51% said the same about the presidency, and 44% of the supreme court.

The survey was conducted in April and May, before Kamala Harris announced her candidacy and pledged to earn the votes of young people in this election.

Related: ‘I was not voting before, now I am’: gen Z voters on what they think of Kamala Harris

2.40pm BST

Tuesday night featured the ceremonial roll call when delegates from each state announce their support for the nominees. This portion of the event was led by the Grammy-nominated DJ Cassidy and had party vibes as each state had its own song.

Celebrities made surprise appearances – the film-maker Spike Lee with the New York delegation; the rapper Lil Jon with Georgia; the Stranger Things actor Sean Astin with Indiana; and the actor Wendell Pierce with Louisiana.

Lil Jon sang a spin on his hit Get Low, saying, “VP Harris … Governor Walz” to the tune of the “To the window … to the wall.”

Updated at 2.43pm BST

2.32pm BST

The Democratic national convention on Tuesday featured former Republicans, including a former Trump aide, as the party works to appeal to beyond their core voters.

The DNC brought out Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump’s former press secretary, to offer a first-hand account of the Republican nominee’s character. Grisham, a Republican operative who also served as spokesperson for former first lady Melania Trump , said Donald Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth”.

Before Grisham, Kyle Sweetser, an Alabama voter, told the convention crowd he previously voted for Trump and donated to his campaign, but was now supporting Harris:

I’m not leftwing, period. But I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris.

John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Arizona, said:

I have a confession to make. I’m a lifelong Republican. But I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican party.

Updated at 2.45pm BST

2.21pm BST

Michelle Obama, the former first lady, had one of the most energetic receptions of the night at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday.

She reflected on how the Republican nominee had attacked her family:

For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.

She offered heartfelt praise for the vice-president, praising the “steel of her spine, the steadiness of her upbringing, the honesty of her example, and yes, the joy of her laughter and her light”. Obama said:

Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.

The former first lady described “a deep pit in my stomach, a palpable sense of dread about the future”. But she got a standing ovation when she said: “America, hope is making a comeback.”

Updated at 2.28pm BST

2.13pm BST

Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator, detailed an extensive progressive agenda that he said Democrats must enact if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz take the White House.

Sanders mentioned Harris’s name only a handful of times and instead focused his forceful speech on the need to expand healthcare access, reduce the cost of higher education and raise the minimum wage.

In a nod to big money that has targeted progressives in primaries, Sanders said:

Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primary elections.

He also earned cheers when he said:

We must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire.

A group of uncommitted delegates earlier in the night told reporters that they still hadn’t heard back from the Democratic convention on their demand to have a Palestinian American leader speak on stage.

Updated at 2.16pm BST

2.06pm BST

Amid chants of “Yes, she can!”, Barack Obama returned to the scene of past triumphs on Tuesday to pass the mantle of political history to Kamala Harris – and eviscerate her opponent Donald Trump.

The former president delivered the closing speech on night two of the Democratic national convention in his home city of Chicago. Obama prompted raucous cheers as he delivered a withering critique of Trump, who succeeded him in the White House in 2017.

It was another night crackling with energy in the packed arena as the US’s first Black president made the case for the nation to elect the first woman and first woman of colour to the Oval Office.

Obama was speaking 20 years after he first exploded on to the political stage at the Democratic convention in Boston. That summer, Harris helped host a fundraiser for Obama’s run for the Senate in Illinois. Four years later, she backed him against Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, a campaign in which he coined the phrase “Yes, we can!”

The same chant greeted Obama when he took the stage in Chicago just after 10pm ET on Thursday and embraced his wife, Michelle . But halfway through his speech, Obama broke from his teleprompter remarks to ad lib: “Yes, she can!” The crowd instinctively chanted, “Yes, she can!” in response.

Updated at 2.21pm BST

1.57pm BST

Harris campaign raised four times more than Trump in July

Kamala Harris ’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump ’s campaign, Reuters is reporting, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday.

The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in July, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.

Harris’s figures include money that was raised during the month before she launched her candidacy on 21 July, after Joe Biden stepped aside. Biden endorsed Harris, who took over control of Biden’s fundraising group.

Harris also outspent Trump last month, spending $81m compared to $24m, according to their FEC reports.

Updated at 4.44pm BST

1.47pm BST

Kamala Harris appeared at a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday at the same time the Democratic national convention was running in Chicago.

Harris and her running mate, the Minnesota governor Tim Walz, took the stage in Milwaukee, the largest city in a crucial battleground state, moments after they were reaffirmed as the Democratic nominees following the state-by-state role call at the convention.

In her speech, Harris took aim at Donald Trump and criticized him for saying that he had “no regrets” about the supreme court’s ruling that overturned Roe v Wade.

Here’s a clip from Harris’s speech in Milwaukee:

Updated at 1.50pm BST

1.33pm BST

Here are some images from the newswires from the Democratic national convention on Tuesday night.

Updated at 1.37pm BST

1.15pm BST

Trump calls his supporters ‘basement dwellers’, says ex-press secretary

In Chicago, the Democrats are making a play for disaffected Donald Trump voters – and they used one of his former White House staffers to make their case on Tuesday night.

Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former press secretary who also served as a spokesperson to Melania Trump, offered firsthand accounts of the former president’s behavior behind closed doors and said he “has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth”. Grisham said:

I wasn’t just a Trump supporter, I was a true believer, I was one of his closest advisers. The Trump family became my family. I saw him when the cameras were off … Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him.

Grisham earned applause when she said she was the first senior staffer to resign that day. She ended her short speech with an endorsement of Kamala Harris, saying:

I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.

Read the full story here.

Related: Trump calls his supporters ‘basement dwellers’, says former press secretary

Updated at 1.23pm BST

12.57pm BST

Trump and Vance campaign in North Carolina

Donald Trump will be campaigning with his running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance , in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday where he will speak about national security in the swing state.

The Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidate will deliver remarks at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame this afternoon.

This will mark Trump’s third visit to North Carolina this month, after he spoke in Charlotte on 24 July and in Asheville on 14 August.

Updated at 1.14pm BST

12.39pm BST

Although Kamala Harris ’s big speech is scheduled for Thursday, she made a surprise appearance at the convention yesterday when her large Milwaukee rally with Tim Walz was live-streamed in Chicago. The moment allowed her to energize two large crowds at the same time.

On Monday at the start of the convention, Harris also made a surprise speech on stage to thank Joe Biden.

In Milwaukee, Harris criticized Donald Trump for comments earlier in the day saying he had “no regrets” about Roe v Wade . She also told her supporters:

We know this is going to be a tight race until the very end.

Updated at 1.11pm BST

12.27pm BST

Pelosi and Buttigieg to address DNC today

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , who was instrumental in persuading Joe Biden to step aside a month ago, will also address the Democratic national convention today.

Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg , a former adviser to Donald Trump on security and foreign policy, will also speak as part of Democrats’ enlistment of Republicans, Reuters reports.

12.19pm BST

Convention organizers have dubbed the theme for Wednesday “a fight for our freedoms” .

Associated Press reports that it is a nod to the concept around which Kamala Harris has organized her presidential campaign.

She frames Donald Trump as a threat to abortion rights and personal choices, but also to democracy itself.

12.02pm BST

Walz to headline third night of Democratic national convention

Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.

The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.

But Walz has an early advantage in cultivating a positive image, as he has captured the internet’s imagination in the past few weeks. Fans of the friendly governor have showered social media platforms with memes depicting him as the father figure that America needs right now. On the campaign trail, Harris often introduces her running mate as “Coach Walz” to remind voters of his background as a teacher and football coach.

Related: Tim Walz will speak at Democratic convention in opportunity to address wider audience

11.57am BST

Opening summary

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the Democratic National Convention with former president Bill Clinton and prospective vice-president Tim Walz due to address the crowds in Chicago later.

Last night delegates were treated to speeches by Bernie Sanders , who said that “billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections,” and Kamala Harris ’s husband Doug Emhoff who told the audience that his wife was “ready to lead,” adding: “She brings both joy and toughness to this task, and she will be a great president we will all be proud of.”

Michelle Obama energized the crowd, telling them that “hope is making a comeback” as Harris prepares to take on Donald Trump. Her husband, concluding the evening with his keynote speech, mocked Trump for his “childish nicknames”, “crazy conspiracy theories” and “weird obsession with crowd sizes”.

Barack Obama ended the second night of the convention with a characteristic call to action: “We’ll elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we believe in. And together, we too will build a country that is more secure and more just, more equal and more free. So let’s get to work.”

You can read our report here:

Related: ‘America is ready for a better story’: Barack Obama lauds Kamala Harris in rousing speech