Welcome to Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials

and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal

topics of the day. I'm Harry Littman. Illegally common-dearing the White House and the Washington

Mall. Donald Trump's Republican Party this week rolled out a convention light on policy and

heavy on apocalyptic rhetoric about the prospect of a Biden presidency. Trump family members in

faithful alternated with culture warriors to serve up a series of dystopian claims about Biden,

whose election they warned would mark the end of civil order, the abolition of the suburbs,

and the rationing of hamburgers. The president himself closed out proceedings with a lengthy and

oddly languid acceptance speech in which he recycled a series of familiar fabrications and declared

this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we allow a

radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. They're followed a 4th of July

style grand display of fireworks over the Washington Monument. For the 1500 guests,

few whom were wearing masks on the White House South Lawn. The convention week was marred by unrest

in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After a video captured a police officer shooting an African-American man,

Jacob Blake, seven times in the back at close range in front of his children. Trump and Biden

offered diametrically opposed reactions. Trump tweeting outrage at the looting and lawlessness

and Biden discussed at the site of, quote, another black man shot by police in broad daylight,

close quote. And then a 17 year old supporter of Trump crossed state lines with his AR-15 rifle

to join the fray and shot and killed two of the protesters. Bedlam and Misery seemed to come from

many corners in many forms. The virus daily death rate regularly eclipsed 1000 persons,

as the country overall approached 6 million cases and 200,000 deaths. The official report came out

and showed the economy plunging at an annual rate of 31.7 percent, the sharpest quarterly drop on record.

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