Evan Osnos: “Republicans have long accused Democrats of plotting to smuggle socialism into the United States. But leveling that charge against Biden, whose career has been distinguished mostly by careful centrism, is an awkward task. Biden entered the Democratic primaries with a narrow goal: to end the Trump Presidency. Most Americans, he argued, did not want a revolution. At an early fund-raiser in New York, he promised not to ‘demonize’ the rich and said that ‘nothing would fundamentally change.'”

“But, by the time Biden effectively clinched the nomination, in March, he had begun to describe his candidacy as a bid for systemic change on the scale of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. According to a senior aide to Bernie Sanders, Biden told Sanders, in a phone call about a possible endorsement, ‘I want to be the most progressive President since F.D.R.’ That evolution has confounded critics on all sides.”

“A group of onetime Republican presidential appointees who served as senior ethics or Justice Department aides are endorsing Joe Biden for president, warning that Donald Trump has ‘weaponized’ the executive branch and is putting in peril the legitimacy of the U.S. Justice Department,” Politico reports.

Said former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer: “I think a lot of us are extremely alarmed, frankly, at the threat of autocracy. He’s going to be unleashed if he gets a second term. I don’t know what’s going to stop him.”

Miles Taylor and Elizabeth Neumann, former senior DHS officials who served in the Trump administration, have started a group of Republicans “who work or have worked for Trump but want to elect Biden and reform the Republican Party,” Politico reports.

“So far, two current senior administration officials have anonymously signed on to the effort and one of them has preliminary plans to reveal their identity closer to the election and expects to get fired as a result…”

“The person also said the group is preparing another ‘bombshell’ to be revealed as soon as Tuesday but didn’t get into any more detail when pressed.”

“They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your Liberty, your Freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live…”

— Kimberly Guilfoyle, speaking at the Republican convention.

Michael Cohen will appear in a series of ads for the Democratic group American Bridge in the coming days, telling voters that Trump “can’t be trusted” and that they “shouldn’t believe a word he utters” during the Republican National Convention this week, CNN reports.

From a 90-second video: “For more than a decade, I was President Trump’s right-hand man, fixer and confidant. I was complicit in helping conceal the real Donald Trump. In essence, I was part of creating an illusion. Later this week, he’s going to stand up at the White House and blatantly lie to you.”

He adds: “I’m here to tell you he can’t be trusted — and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters. So, when you watch the President this week, remember this: If he says something is huge, it’s probably small. If he says something will work, it probably won’t. And if he says he cares about you and your family, he certainly does not.”

Former Gov. Chris Christie said the Trump campaign cannot run the same way they did in 2016 and he hopes that changes this week.

Said Christie: “And so they have to do it differently this time. It has to be more optimistic and less dire. It has to be one that talks about what they want to do and how they want to leave the country at the conclusion of their eight years in,

He added: “I think quite frankly, that the Trump campaign has not done well on either of those fronts. And I’m hoping that’s going to start to change this week, especially on Thursday night.”

“Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris will be regularly tested for the coronavirus as their in-person campaigning intensifies in the final 10 weeks before Election Day,” Bloomberg reports.

“The campaign would disclose if either candidate tests positive for the virus and staff who interact with Biden and Harris will also be tested regularly.”

In an unscheduled appearance on the first day of the Republican national convention, President Trump falsely claimed Democrats were attempting to steal the election by expanding absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic, The Guardian reports.

Said Trump: “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”

A new Morning Consult poll in North Carolina finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 49% to 46%.

In the U.S. Senate race, Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 47% to 39%.

A new Democracy Corps survey in 16 battleground states finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 10 points, 53% to 43%.

“The race showed Democrats stable with a 6-point lead in the generic congressional and up a point to an 8 point margin in the big five Senate contests. That suggests Democrats could win full control in November.”