Day one to hail Biden-Harris policies, contrast with Trump

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning on spending much of this week in court, not on the campaign trail, as he fights for ballot access in several states for his long-shot White House bid.

Kennedy is scheduled to testify Tuesday in a Harrisburg, Pennslyvania, court, where a Democratic Party-aligned group has challenged the signatures of his ballot petitions and the legitimacy of his stated home address in New York.

Pennsylvania is seen as a key state — and possibly the key state — to win for the candidacies of Harris and Trump.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Kennedy plans to testify at an appeal of a ballot access case in New York, where a judge last week ordered him removed from the state’s ballot after finding his claimed home address in Westchester County was not a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration.”

– Dan Mangan

Joe Biden and Jill Biden will both take the stage tonight for speeches that are vastly different than what they planned to give just a month ago.

Aiming to cement the president’s legacy of a decades-long career in public service, the first lady will honor her husband’s “strength and character” in her prime-time speech, a source familiar with her remarks told NBC News.

The president will then make the case for electing Harris and tout their administration’s achievements, multiple Biden officials told NBC News. Biden will also stress what he believes to be a grave threat to democracy if Trump returns to the White House.

“After saving democracy in 2020, President Biden is determined to defeat the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump,” one official told NBC News.

– Josephine Rozzelle

The Harris campaign has launched a new, bilingual WhatsApp channel called “Latinos con Harris-Walz,” designed to connect with the nation’s roughly 36 million voters who identify as Hispanic or Latino.

“Now more than ever, we must meet Latinos where they are, and creative programs like this WhatsApp channel are how this campaign will reach the voters who will decide this election and win in November,” said Maca Casado the campaign’s Hispanic media director in a statement.

WhatsApp is the #1 most popular social media platform among Hispanic and Spanish-speaking individuals, according to the Pew Research Center.

— Christina Wilkie

The “For the People” theme will be focused on President Joe Biden’s “leadership and legacy as a historic president who put the American people’s interest above his own,” the Democrat convention committee says in a statement.

The day’s line-up will also aim to highlight that, “while Donald Trump puts himself first, Democrats are fighting for the American people.”

Convention chair Minyon Moore said the four days of events are “an opportunity to bring the story of our party to the American people — not just the story of what we’ve achieved under theBiden-Harris administration, but how the Harris-Walz ticket is planning to build on that historic record for a new way forward into the future.”

— Christina Wilkie

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her chosen running mate Walz revived the tradition of U.S. presidential campaign bus tours, riding through Pennsylvania the day before the Democratic National Convention.

Long a staple of American campaigning, bus tours have fallen out of favor in recent cycles. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton did much bus touring during the 2016 presidential race. Four years later, bus tours were put on hold entirely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

— Christina Wilkie

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will depart for California late Monday after the White House leader delivers his speech at the convention.

The White House daily schedule says Biden will fly from Chicago to Santa Barbara, then take a chopper to Santa Ynez. A local news outlet, Noozhawk, reports that airspace is restricted around the area for the rest of the week.

The Bidens’ travel plans underscore the complicated role that Joe Biden currently occupies within the Democratic party, which is preparing to “pass the torch” to Harris later this week.

It’s also a reminder of the broader options available to a president who does not have to spend all his or her extra time on the campaign trail running for reelection.

— Christina Wilkie

As Democrats gather in Chicago, the two Republican nominees will spend the day at separate campaign events in battleground Pennsylvania.

Trump will deliver remarks at an “economic and energy” event in York, Pa. at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Vance will be in Philadelphia, where he will speak on the same topic at 1:00 p.m, according to the Trump campaign.

The New York Times polling average shows Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris neck-and-neck in the state, with Harris up one percentage point, 49% to 48% as of Sunday.

— Christina Wilkie

As tens of thousands of protesters fill the streets, many of them pro-Palestinian demonstrators, members of the Uncommitted National Movement say the DNC has agreed to hold an official panel today at 4:00 p.m. ET on “Palestinian Human Rights in the Democratic Party.”

The group released this speaker list:

• Layla Elabed, founder of Uncommitted National Movement
• Hala Hijazi, a Palestinian-American party organizer
• Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon
• Former Representative Andy Levin (D-MI)
• Keith Ellison, Minnesota Attorney General
• Jim Zogby, President of Arab American Institute

“We thank the DNC for recognizing this pivotal issue and remain dedicated to pushing VP Harris to stop providing weapons for Israel’s assault on Gaza,” the movement said in a statement announcing the panel.

— Christina Wilkie

As Democrats descended on Chicago, they were greeted by messages projected onto the side of Donald Trump’s branded skyscraper, Trump Tower. NBC News reporter Alex Tabet captured several of them.

— Alex Tabet