Pelosi: ‘It’s all riding on Wisconsin’

MADISON, Wis. — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a stark reminder to Wisconsin Democrats on Thursday about the importance the battleground state plays in the presidential election less than 11 weeks away.

“No pressure, it’s all riding on Wisconsin,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told more than 100 Democrats during a virtual meeting tied to the final day of the Democratic National Convention. “No pressure.”

Democrats, as well as President Donald Trump, have made no secret how essential winning Wisconsin is to the race this year. Wisconsin did not get the national attention it hoped for when the Democratic convention originally planned for Milwaukee moved online.

Still, after Trump’s narrow victory of less than 23,000 votes in 2016, and polls showing another close race this year, Democrats are pledging not to downplay the importance of Wisconsin in Biden’s efforts to defeat Trump.

“The road to the presidency runs through Wisconsin,” said Holder, who was attorney general under former President Barack Obama. “The fate of the United States, the fate of the western world, is on your shoulders. Not too much pressure.”

Back in the spotlight: Michael Bloomberg promised to spend big to defeat President Trump. Across a few short months, he put $1 billion into his own bid for the Democratic nomination.

Now, having dropped out in March after a skewering on the debate stage by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and a lone electoral success in American Samoa, Bloomberg stepped back into the political spotlight Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.

The appearance stirred anger among some progressives as well as former Bloomberg campaign workers — and has reignited questions about the multibillionaire’s pledge to throw his fortune behind the general election effort to defeat Trump.

“He stiffed our party and all the monthly workers he promised to keep on through November,” Amy Siskind, a prominent progressive activist, wrote on Twitter. “Why is Bloomberg speaking?”

In March, Bloomberg made an $18 million transfer to the Democratic Party and offered up the leases to 13 field offices for the party’s use. Within weeks of exiting the race, he put $4.5 million into progressive groups Swing Left, Collective Future and Voto Latino.

But he has not given directly to Biden, whom he endorsed upon withdrawing from the race, and his termination of thousands of campaign workers who expected to be working through November in Biden’s name has inspired multiple lawsuits.

Fox News: Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are providing television viewers with a distinctly different vision of the Democratic National Convention each night from their perches on Fox News Channel.

Hannity calls the virtual convention “the worst infomercial ever made” and provides brief, annotated highlights of some Democratic speakers. Carlson said that if the Democratic National Committee was in direct marketing, it would “be bankrupt by now.”

Fox News is providing an hour of convention news coverage each night.