The strange experience of reporting on the Democratic National Convention during a pandemic

This week is one of the most exciting in the American electoral calendar: the Democratic National Convention. In January, the journalists at The Independent’s New York and Washington DC bureaux sat down together and hashed out a plan for how we would handle it, who would cover which speeches, and what time we would meet up at the convention centre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That was back when nobody knew who’d become the nominee, New York streets were still adorned with “Bloomberg 2020” posters, and Bernie Sanders looked like he might finally get his turn. Then, of course, coronavirus happened.

Needless to say, we are now writing our rapid responses and analysing our speeches from our couches and kitchen tables rather than from the front seats of conference rooms. Over Zoom calls and Slack boards, we gather at 9pm each night to start off the evening, and share our real-time reactions to the speeches unfolding. To make it feel a little more cinematic, I’ve been projecting video from the convention onto my studio apartment wall; it lends it a little more gravitas. And I’ve found the American ability to turn everything into first-rate entertainment particularly helpful now that I have to drum up enthusiasm from the confines of my Brooklyn apartment, surrounded by the detritus of dinner, rather than from a hotel bar in a new city, surrounded by the great and the good.

On Tuesday night, Joe Biden was formerly declared the Democratic Party’s pick for president; tonight, he will officially accept during a lengthy speech. We all know Trump is watching with an eagle eye, although he professes not to be and has been filling his diary with events to try and prove it (his Twitter, a window into his soul, proves where his real preoccupations lie). Many liberals and progressives are worried that Trump will claim he has been “proven right” about “Sleepy Joe” after Biden speaks: they worry that Biden will make a gaffe or a malapropism, or fluff his lines in a way that right-wing media can seize on. DC-based political strategist George Ajjan, who once stood for Congress as a Republican himself, told me earlier this week that we shouldn’t be worried, however. He believes Trump shot himself in the foot with the “Sleepy Joe” strategy – and that Biden is about to prove everyone wrong. He elaborated on that fascinating theory here.

If meta-analysis of political strategy isn’t your thing, we have plenty else to offer from the American offices this week. Tom Steyer, the billionaire who ran for president earlier this year before dropping out, has written about the confidence he now has in “his friend” Joe Biden in another Voices piece. Washington Examiner managing editor Jay Caruso did a straw poll of his friends across the political spectrum and wrote about what Biden needs to do to win over undecided voters tonight. Relationship therapist Rebecca Hendrix analysed Jill and Joe Biden’s relationship after Jill’s speech about her husband at the DNC, and compared it to the attachment style of Donald Trump and Melania. And I wrote about AOC’s political positioning during her extraordinary 90-second Tuesday night speech, as well as the surprising sadness of Bernie Sanders’ longer one the day before, which he delivered from his home in Vermont.

As the convention draws to an end, we’ll be here, glued to our laptops throughout the night, making sure we’re getting the best scoops for you whether you’re on London, New York or California time (or anywhere else in between). Tonight is Joe Biden’s first chance to address the nation as the official opponent of Donald Trump, and it will make for a fascinating precursor to the upcoming debates. What’s said and by who could also end up being very significant to a future Biden administration if he succeeds in making Trump a one-term president. The field has narrowed to Biden and his VP pick Kamala Harris – but there’s still everything left to play for.

Yours,

Holly Baxter

US opinion editor