from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, August 19th.

So here we are on day one of the Democratic Convention, and three days after Vice President

Harris staked her claim to being the

better anti-inflation and affordability candidate than Donald Trump, and off we go, into the Democrats

four-night primetime TV commercial, which is what conventions are these days. Can the Harris campaign

build on the incredible momentum she has had that has surprised

almost everyone since Joe Biden withdrew on July 21st?

Here's Harris from her affordability policy speech on Friday, taking aim at price gouging

by grocery store chains that haven't brought the price of basic food items down

as inflation in their supply chains has eased.

We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed.

But our supply chains have now improved. And prices are still too high.

A loaf of bread cost 50% more today than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef is up almost 50%.

Many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades.

And while many grocery chains pass along these savings, others still aren't.

Vice President Harris from Friday, we'll hear more from that speech as we go.

And joining us now as they gear up for convention coverage are Katie Tour and Luke

Russert from MSNBC.

Katie Tour is anchor of MSNBC's Katie Tour reports weekday afternoons, an author of the memoir,

Rough Draft, which came out last year. Luke Russert is host and creative director of their

live event series, MSNBC Live, and author of his memoir, Look for Me There, Grieving My Father,

Finding Myself, which also came out last year. Luke will be hosting an

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