Principals

1. Biden’s late-night goodbye
2. Protesters get spotlight
3. Harris on taxes
4. US presses Hamas
5. Convention headaches
6. Germany eyes Harris
7. Ezra Klein rises

PDB: Intelligence community confirms Iran behind Trump campaign hack

Trump in Detroit … Food industry criticizes Harris’ price gouging plan … NBC: Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham to speak at Dem convention

Biden caps unity-heavy Democratic convention opener

President Biden closed out the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a lengthy speech that touted Vice President Harris as a partner in the major policy goals of his administration. Chants of “thank you, Joe” and “we love Joe” erupted from the convention floor before Biden began speaking around 11:30 p.m. ET — the result of a lengthy delay, even after some scheduled speakers were bumped. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you for 50 years,” an emotional Biden told the crowd. “Like many of you, I give my heart and soul to our nation.” Before Biden’s remarks, Hillary Clinton drew rousing applause for a speech that envisioned Harris’ inauguration “on the other side of that glass ceiling” that she unsuccessfully sought to shatter in 2016. Clinton and other speakers lauded Biden’s record, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Harris herself, in surprise remarks. The party’s overall picture remained one of notable unity given its rapid switch to Harris after Biden ended his reelection bid barely four weeks ago. Tuesday’s convention program is set to feature former President Obama and Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, among other speakers.

Protesters get their DNC spotlight

Democratic fears of a chaotic convention protest and a repeat of 1968 didn’t come to pass on Monday. A permitted March on the DNC drew less half the crowd that organizers had hoped for. A breach of one convention security gate disrupted delegates who were trying to arrive for the evening, but the gate was far from the main entrance and most delegates never saw them. The most animated protesters, DNC chair Jaime Harrison told Semafor, were not Democrats. Still, the effort to force Gaza into President Biden’s political send-off worked. The small group of uncommitted delegates, elected to demand a ceasefire, packed a DNC meeting room for a discussion of how to pressure their party, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Harris was hard at work for a ceasefire. As Biden spoke, some delegates held a banner that read “STOP ARMING ISRAEL.” They were blocked immediately by other delegates holding “We Love Joe” signs, paid for by Harris for President. “Those protesters out in the street — they had a point,” Biden said after the protest inside was halted.

— David Weigel

Harris camp signals backing for Biden tax plans

The 92-page party platform released Monday ahead of the Democratic National Convention offers clues to how Vice President Kamala Harris intends to pay for her economic agenda — but another document could be more of a direct template. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget wrote on Friday that Harris’s campaign told them it endorses the revenue options within the latest White House budget. “The campaign specifically told us that they support all of the tax increases on high earners and corporations that are in the Biden budget,” CRFB vice president Marc Goldwein told Semafor. That would amount to nearly $5 trillion in new revenue raised over a decade from proposals such as the so-called “billionaire tax” and taxing capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income. NBC News reported that Harris is backing a 28% corporate tax rate.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

US presses Hamas after Israel accepts ‘bridging’ ceasefire proposal

The US is increasing pressure on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, after Israel agreed to a so-called “bridging proposal” aimed at resolving existing differences between the two sides. Following an hours-long meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Netanyahu “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal and that “it is now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.” A Netanyahu spokesman confirmed he accepted the proposal, which Hamas previously dismissed as favoring Israel. Blinken is headed to Egypt and Qatar next to press Hamas through intermediaries, and further ceasefire talks are supposed to take place in Cairo “before the end of the week,” the White House said. Meanwhile, Israel said Tuesday that it recovered the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza during a nighttime operation.

A friendly media grows frustrated in Chicago

Kamala Harris’ honeymoon with the press may be ending soon.The Democratic National Convention has been marked by logistical headaches — long lines, bad internet connections, expensive price tags, and limited access to the floor — that have left many of the 15,000 credentialed media grumbling, Semafor’s Max Tani writes. “We are concerned that the decision to reduce dedicated and accessible workspace by hundreds compared to prior conventions will hinder journalists’ ability to cover the historic nature of this convention,” the Standing Committee of Correspondents, the apolitical representative of journalists on Capitol Hill that represents the media to political conventions, said in a statement. The group has been privately raising concerns to the DNC since March about press access.

Samuel Levine, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection will join Semafor’s editors to explore how online platforms can play a constructive role in communicating age restrictions for certain goods and services and the responsibilities and strategies of policymakers in effectively regulating social media use among young people. RSVP for in-person or livestream.

Germans ponder their own ‘Kamala moment’

BERLIN — Germans are obsessed with US politics and have long taken inspiration from electoral trends originating in Washington. Now, the sudden rise of Vice President Harris has generated a new discourse in Berlin: Whether struggling establishment German parties should have their own “Kamala moment” and replace their unpopular leaders. The heads of the left-wing Die Linke resigned over the weekend, leading Der Spiegel to question whether it paves the way for a Harris-like reinvention. And the editor of national tabloid Bild wrote: “I dream of a Kamala Harris moment for Germany.” In this scenario, Chancellor Olaf Scholz would be replaced by his much-more-popular defense minister, and the main opposition party would switch its candidate, too. Many German politicians are in Chicago this week, including the chair of Scholz’s party. The effective rollout of Harris as the new face of the Democratic Party and its newly invigorated base may just give them some ideas.

— J.D. Capelouto

The New York Times’ Ezra Klein problem

Ezra Klein may just be the breakout media star of the 2024 election cycle, Semafor’s Max Tani writes. Klein’s podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, has rocketed near the top of podcast charts, powered in part by Klein’s provocative opinion pieces calling on President Biden not to seek reelection and for Democrats to hold an open convention earlier this year. White House officials were stunned by the columns, which came after Klein was afforded plenty of access to West Wing officials. But his success also presents a tricky situation for The New York Times, which is engaged in intense internal discussion about how to distance itself from the progressive movement and how to avoid being seen as a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, Max argues.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Democrats are feeling more confident about retaking the majority with Vice President Harris leading the ticket, but their victory in November is “far from a sure thing.”

Playbook: The Democrats’ scheduling problems robbed them of a primetime slot for President Biden. “Do they realize the universe runs on East Coast time?” one veteran Democrat said.

WaPo: Democratic state legislators in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Utah are optimistic about making gains this cycle. “I haven’t seen this energy since Barack Obama,” Angela Romero, the minority leader of the Utah House of Representatives, said.

Axios: Harris will accept the Democratic nomination later this week before sitting for an interview as the nominee or releasing detailed policy proposals. Some Harris aides believe “she has been too risk-averse.”

Congress

• Sen. John Fetterman’s communications director publicly disagreed with his stance on Israel and Gaza. — The Free Press
• Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s revenge tour reaches its “apex” today as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., faces a challenger in today’s primaries. — The Hill

Economy

• The Federal Reserve’s biggest challenge remains how to get interest rates back to a level that neither speeds up nor slows growth and inflation, economics writer Jon Hilsenrath wrote in his latest column for Semafor.
• US manufacturers, retailers, and shipping agents are pausing new investments and expansion plans due to uncertainty over future tariffs on goods from China and other foreign nations. — NYT
• The percentage of people who think they’ll be out of a job in the next four months rose to a record high, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s survey of consumer expectations.

Courts

• Former GOP Rep. George Santos pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud, allowing him to avoid a federal trial. He will likely serve at least two years in jail for the offenses. — NYT

• The Justice Department said the federal government will pay the bill if former President Donald Trump is found liable for violating racial justice protesters’ rights in June 2020 when National Guard troops and police drove them from a park near the White House, saying Trump “was acting within the scope” of his office. Meanwhile, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the claims against Trump — POLITICO
• DC Council member Trayon White was arrested on bribery charges.
• The SEC charged billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn and Icahn Enterprises with civil securities fraud for failing to disclose billions of dollars worth of personal loans pledged against his company’s stock.
• A federal judge rejected Hunter Biden’s latest attempt to dismiss tax-related charges, ensuring the case will go to trial next month.

On the Trail

• Vice President Harris is notably not leaning into the historic nature of her presidential candidacy. — Politico
• Conservative lawyer and Donald Trump critic J. Michael Luttig endorsed Harris, calling Trump a threat to democracy. — CNN
• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is spending $27 million on ads focused on taking back GOP-held seats. — NBC
• The final Democratic Party platform includes several references to a second Biden term.
• Trump said, if elected, he would name Elon Musk to a cabinet or advisory position “if he would do it.” — Reuters
• Democratic megadonor Ron Conway said he would break from a network of the cryptocurrency industry’s top super PACs after they said without telling him that they would spend $12 billion to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Conway, who donated $500,000 to one of the PACs late last year, said targeting Brown would undercut efforts to adopt crypto-friendly legislation by alienating Democratic lawmakers. — Politico
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is nearly broke.

National Security

• The FBI, Office of Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that Iran was behind a recent hack targeting Donald Trump’s campaign. “The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process.”
• The US and the Philippines reached an agreement to create a new path for Afghan refugees who assisted the US war effort to temporarily relocate to the Southeast Asian nation to await approvals for visa and resettlement in the US.

Foreign Policy

• The US is piling pressure on Kenya’s President William Ruto over reported extrajudicial killings and abductions by police during youth-led protests in the East African nation, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Semafor.
• Ukraine now holds more than 1,250 square kilometers, or 500 square miles, of Russian territory, and its incursion has upended long-held assumptions about the nature of war and nuclear power, the security expert Phillips P. O’Brien noted.

Technology

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was declared missing after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday, weeks after he was acquitted in the US on criminal charges of inflating the value of a company he sold to Hewlett Packard for $11 billion in 2011. Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer is also among those missing.

Media

• Almin Karamehmedovic was named president of ABC News.
• Talk show host Phil Donahue passed away at 88.

Big Read

The US should push for a “Clean Energy Marshall Plan” to help developing countries transition away from fossil fuels and counter China’s dominance of the clean energy supply chain, former Biden White House economic adviser Brian Deese argues in Foreign Affairs. It would focus on speeding “the adoption of low-cost, zero-carbon solutions, such as the manufacture of batteries, the deployment of nuclear and geothermal energy, and the processing of critical minerals,” Deese writes. “In this moment of domestic economic strength—stark against the backdrop of heightened competition, a fracturing world, and a raging climate crisis—the United States can do something generous for people across the globe in a way that benefits Americans.”

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is investigating Tim Walz’s engagements in China.

What the Right isn’t reading: Donald Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly criticized the former president’s comment about the Presidential Medal of Freedom given to civilians being “much better” than the Medal of Honor given to service members, CNN reported.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Morgan Chalfant

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Larry Hogan is the GOP Senate candidate in Maryland.

• Democrats, finally, move past the Iraq War.
• Harris leads Trump in five of seven battlegrounds, Focaldata poll shows.
• Kenya is turning teachers into its next big export.