Democrats to counter GOP convention

The reelection campaign for US President Donald Trump blitzed social media and streaming services last week with a $10 million ad buy to counter the four-day Democratic national convention.

When the four-day Republican national convention opens on Monday, Democrats will have their chance for pushback.

The Democratic programming will include TV and digital ads released nationally and in key battleground states hitting Trump over his handling of the coronavirus and other issues.

There will be a host of briefings led by prominent Democratic party leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former presidential candidates Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.

The party plans to hold virtual events across key battleground states.

Trump made in-person campaign appearances throughout the Democrats' convention in swing states, including to Pennsylvania and Biden's hometown of Scranton on the same day Biden accepted the nomination.

Biden's campaign team declined to say whether he or his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California will have any visible role during the GOP convention.

Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic Party, basically outlined his party's counterprogramming focus when he told reporters in a call on Friday that the Republican national convention will be marked by "chaos, chaos, chaos".

The Democratic National Committee's war room said on Friday in a statement that the Democratic effort will serve "to remind Americans that Trump has really only delivered on one thing-a 'chaos presidency'".

Democratic campaign officials said the counter programming will echo what top Democrats argued during their convention. Former president Bill Clinton said that the White House is defined by chaos and former first lady Michelle Obama said that when voters look to Trump for "any semblance of steadiness", they get "chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy".

To counter what they expect will be a flurry of misinformation from the president and his supporters, Democrats will use researchers to fact-check speakers, including Trump.

Democrats' theme

On Monday the Democrats' theme will be "families in crisis" and focus on child care, education and care for senior citizens. On Tuesday it will be the economy and on Wednesday Democrats will center on the COVID-19 pandemic and what they say is Trump's failed response to the pandemic.

On Thursday, when Trump accepts his party's renomination in a speech on the South Lawn of the White House, Democrats will present the theme "Country in crisis" and compare his four years in office to the kind of leadership Biden and Harris have promised.

During their convention, Democrats painted Trump as a threat to democracy, and he will counter with a similar message about Biden.

"The future of our country, and indeed our civilization, is at stake on Nov 3," Trump said on Friday, arguing that a victory by "the radical left "would spell permanent destruction.

"I'm the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness, and chaos," Trump said during a speech to a gathering of conservative activists, the Council for National Policy, in Arlington, Virginia.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus, Republicans, like the Democrats, have had to make significant changes to their convention.

The Republican convention, like its Democratic counterpart, will be mostly virtual to avoid large crowds amid the pandemic, though 336 delegates-six from each state and territory-will gather on Monday for proceedings in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event will also be streamed online.

Trump was expected to go to Mills River, North Carolina, on Monday with his daughter Ivanka to see a program handing out boxes of food and fresh produce to people struggling during the pandemic's economic downturn.