CNN: “About 21.6 million viewers watched coverage of Trump’s RNC address across nine cable and broadcast networks, down from 23.6 million viewers who watched Biden’s DNC address on the same nine networks.”

“The totals may fluctuate slightly when final numbers are released later in the day, but Biden clearly edged out Trump.”

“The Democratic convention was also higher-rated than the Republican convention overall when the audience for all four days is tallied up.”

Brian Stelter: Biden hits Trump where it hurts: in the convention speech ratings.

David Hopkins: “It’s hard to remember another presidential campaign in which concrete proposals and potential legislative initiatives have played such a minor role. Democrats have plenty of ideas for policy reform, as usual, but they did not make them the centerpiece of their public message in last week’s convention; Biden’s acceptance address mostly omitted the traditional ‘laundry list’ of issue-specific domestic appeals in favor of a narrower focus on denouncing Trump as a threat to American values and mismanager of the COVID response.”

“But the Republican convention was even more devoid of a vision for the next four years that centered on the actual powers and responsibilities of the president, as opposed to its frequent expression of emotionally charged but mostly symbolic opposition to the media, national anthem protests, destruction of local statuary, and ‘cancel culture.'”

“In the midst of an ongoing national economic and public health crisis that requires active, competent management to address effectively, it’s remarkable that our national debate at this moment isn’t more concerned with each candidate’s specific plans and capacities to solve the immediate, life-threatening problem that the nation continues to face.”

Philip Bump: “President Trump isn’t running against Joe Biden, not really. The former vice president may occupy the Democratic Party line on the presidential ballot, but it isn’t Biden that Trump’s rhetoric describes.”

“Trump is instead running against a straw man whom he describes as a Trojan horse for socialists and communists. Trump is running against someone who holds positions that aren’t held by Biden himself — and if Trump convinces enough Americans that Biden and that straw man are one and the same, he might just win more votes.”

Two attendees and two support staff at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte tested positive for COVID-19, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Those people were instructed to isolate immediately, and close contacts were also told to quarantine.

From outside the White House, just after President Trump concluded his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

Vox: “It’s a moment that encapsulates what amounted to a week of gaslighting on Covid-19 by Trump and the Republican convention — an attempt to make America think that a president who had so clearly failed was in fact a victory for the US.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) claimed that he was “attacked by an angry mob” while walking with his wife from the White House following President Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention.

“As he laid out his case for reelection, President Trump deployed a powerful, and familiar, political tactic: fear,” the AP reports.

“In a tradition-defying convention address delivered from the White House, Trump painted a grim portrait of violence in American cities run by Democrats and populated by voters who largely oppose him. Though his depictions were at odds with the full reality on the ground in those cities, Trump held himself up as the last best hope for keeping lawlessness from reaching suburban communities — the same communities where he needs to stem the tide of voters turning against the Republican Party.”

“Fear has long been wielded by politicians, in part because it works.”

Mike Barnicle: A sick president scrambles to spread his contagion of fear.

The USC Dornslife tracking poll finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump nationally by 13 percentage points, 53% to 40%.

A new Navigator Research poll has a similar finding with Biden ahead, 54% to 41%.

“But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate we want to get done.”

— President Trump, in an interview with the New York Times, when asked about his second term agenda if re-elected.