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DNC backs virtual roll call vote for Biden as outside groups educate delegates about other scenarios
President Biden is expected to be formally nominated by the Democratic Party in an early virtual roll call vote between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7, the Democratic National Committee affirmed Friday.
At the same time, some outside groups have contacted delegates who are curious about what would happen if Mr. Biden decided to step down, such as an open convention. Mr. Biden and his campaign have repeatedly reiterated there are no plans to leave the race.
The DNC’s convention rules committee met virtually on Friday and reaffirmed that the vote would not take place before Aug. 1 or after Aug. 7. The committee said a final date would be set by DNC leadership after a second committee meeting next week, at some point before July 26, and the rules of the virtual roll call will be adopted.
Convention committee leaders and DNC staffers offered more details about the virtual roll call that was announced in May, but has been recently panned by some Democrats as a way to rush Mr. Biden’s nomination amid heavy criticism about whether he should remain the party’s nominee.
DNC Chair Jamie Harrison reiterated his support for the Biden-Harris ticket during Friday’s meeting, telling the members “thanks to every single one of you, we will re-nominate President Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris.”
The DNC argued Friday an early virtual roll call is necessary to avoid litigation in Ohio, which requires major parties to have a presidential nominee by 90 days from the presidential election in order to appear on the ballot. This year, that date falls on Aug. 7.
Ohio passed legislation to move the date to Sept. 1, but Democrats say they still fear Republicans will keep Mr. Biden off the ballot in the state since that legislation is not yet in effect. The campaign says the early virtual roll call vote will enable Democrats to meet similar deadlines for other states.
“My goal as counsel is to ensure we address and avoid all unnecessary legal risk on the way. And that’s why we need a virtual nominating process. It’s why the wisest, most prudent course is to have that process conclude in time to allow us to file a certified nomination in Ohio by August 7,” said Dana Remus, a former White House counsel advising the DNC on the process.
Asked by a delegate how another candidate could potentially challenge Mr. Biden in a virtual vote, committee co-chair Leah Daughtry said “any challenger would have to have the verified support of hundreds of delegates.”
“Such a challenge has never happened over the past half-century of competitive primaries. But those rules remain in place today, just as they were yesterday, and just as they have been in countless presidential election cycles,” Daughtry added.
DNC staffers on Friday said the virtual ballot is expected to be similar to the one used by delegates in 2020, during the pandemic. They added that members will be given a 24-hour-notice before the virtual ballot window opens.
A Democratic presidential candidate needs the majority of the pledged delegates, over 1,900, on the first round of ballots in order to lock up the nomination. Mr. Biden has close to 3,900 pledged delegates currently.
DNC Party Affairs and Delegate Selection director Veronica Martinez added the virtual ballot will show Mr. Biden “as the presumptive and only qualified nominee,” but there would be an option for delegates to mark their own preference for president. She added this is the same as the ballot for the virtual roll call in 2020.
Some organizations have been contacting delegates to educate them on how an open convention would be conducted, and what would happen to the roll call vote if Mr. Biden were to step down.
Two groups unaffiliated with the DNC that were formed in recent weeks — Delegates are Democracy and Welcome Party — held a webinar Friday with longtime DNC rules and bylaws committee member Elaine Karmack as a special guest, to field questions from delegates and other listeners. Chris Dempsey, founder of Delegates are Democracy, explained that the group’s work is meant to inform about the nomination process, and it is not advocating for Mr. Biden to leave the race.
“You can understand the incentives of why it’s not being discussed [by the DNC]. They don’t want to put this out and undermine the president,” he added. “We’re trying to fill that gap, which is an understandable gap, but it leaves us all worse off if we don’t address it.”
Dempsey said over 50 DNC delegates participated and listened to the call Friday, many of them first-time convention attendees. He added that most of those he spoke with support Mr. Biden but were seeking more information “were the president to withdraw from the race.”
“This is a group of people that when they first got put forward to be delegates, kind of thought they were going to a party, a celebration,” Dempsey said. “And now all of a sudden, they have the weight of democracy on their shoulders potentially.”
Some DNC pledged delegates have been receiving calls from the Biden campaign, according to multiple delegates and DNC members, with some asking if they’re still planning to support Mr. Biden, and others asking if they have any questions about the convention.
A Democratic National Convention spokesperson said communication with delegates “is a routine part of convention operations” and that the convention committee has been engaging with state parties and delegations since 2023. They added that since April, the convention’s political team has done more than 150 one-on-one calls with state delegate leadership.
One DNC delegate from Nevada said they, and other colleagues, have also gotten a call from longshot Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson’s “Open the Convention” group asking if they need assistance in filing a notice to the DNC that they no longer will vote for Mr. Biden and are requesting an open convention. This delegate said all the delegates they know who received such a call have declined the offer.
“We’re happy to work with you to make sure your voice gets heard at the next convention,” an automated voicemail message for the Open the Convention hotline says.
CBS News has reached out to Open the Convention for comment.
Police arrested a man on murder charges this month, 14 years after he allegedly killed a man in Virginia, but the victim’s body has never been found.
Shane Ryan Donahue, a Virginia man, is presumed deceased, the Prince William County Police Department said Tuesday. He was last seen leaving his parents’ home in Nokesville, Virginia, on March 22, 2010. Donahue, 23, was headed to his house in Nokesville, but never made it there.
Donahue was added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System after he vanished. According to records, Donahue did not have a car and regularly got rides from friends. He frequented Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Fauquier County, Virginia, and Northern Virginia.
The case stumped investigators, who followed a number of leads over the years. This spring, detectives reactivated the investigation and started looking at every detail of the case from scratch, officials said. They revisited people who had been interviewed during the initial investigation and reviewed “digital evidence in greater detail due to advances in analytical technology and modern police investigative practices,” according to a news release.
Officers said Donahue was last seen leaving his parents’ home with Timothy Sean Hickerson, now a 43-year-old Florida resident. Investigators connected Hickerson to a burglary at Donahue’s home that happened just days before the Virginia man disappeared.
Detectives got an arrest warrant this month and, with the help of Florida’s Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Hickerson was taken into custody in Palm Coast, Florida. Hickerson was charged with murder and burglary, is now set to be extradited to Virginia.
Former President Donald Trump, an avowed proponent of tax cuts, is floating the idea of reversing a measure passed during his tenure in the White House that effectively raised taxes for many U.S. homeowners.
In a post Tuesday on Truth Social, Trump suggested he would scrap a $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT) that was passed as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — a massive revamp that he has said boosted economic growth.
Now, in the run-up to the November election, Trump said in the post he would “get SALT back, lower your taxes, and so much more,” although he stopped short of offering details. Trump made the post ahead of a speech he’s giving Wednesday at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Trump’s new proposal for getting rid of his $10,000 SALT deduction cap comes as the presidential hopeful is pitching several additional tax cuts that would, if enacted, reduce taxes for major groups of voters. He’s also vowed to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, a pledge that could get support from the nation’s senior citizens, as well as to end income taxes on tipped workers and on overtime pay, ideas that would help lower- and middle-income Americans.
Yet Trump’s reversal on the SALT deduction has sparked skepticism from lawmakers as well as economists and policy experts.
“So … now Trump is against the SALT tax cap which *checks notes* is a key part of the — only — major piece of legislation passed during his administration?” noted Chris Koski, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, on X.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from Nassau, Queens, said in a statement on Wednesday that he is “happy that the former president is saying that he has finally reversed his devastating decision in 2017 to cap the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction.” He also urged Trump to convince Republican lawmakers to vote to restore the full deduction “if he is truly serious.”
The SALT deduction cap “has been a body blow to my constituents for the past 7 years,” Suozzi added.
Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, wrote on X,”Donald Trump took away your SALT dedications and hurt so many Long Island families. Now, he’s coming to Long Island to pretend he supports SALT. It won’t work.”
Asked for details about Trump’s proposal to restore the SALT writeoff, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign told CBS MoneyWatch: “While his pro-growth, pro-energy policies will make life affordable again, President Trump is also going to quickly move tax relief for working people and seniors.”
Here’s what to know about the SALT deduction.
What is the SALT deduction?
The state and local tax deduction allows taxpayers who itemize to deduct property taxes, sales taxes and state or local income taxes from their federal income taxes. Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, there was no limit on how much people could deduct through the SALT deduction.
But the 2017 tax overhaul passed under Trump limited the deduction to $10,000 – a blow to many homeowners in states with high property taxes, many of which are Democratic leaning. At the time of the law’s passage, the Treasury Department estimated that almost 11 million taxpayers in high-tax states like New York and New Jersey would forfeit $323 billion in deductions.
Who benefits from the SALT deduction?
Homeowners with high property taxes, such as people in New York, New Jersey and California, were the biggest beneficiaries of the the full SALT deduction.
But some experts also noted that the SALT deduction primarily put more money in the pockets of higher-earning Americans. About 80% of the full SALT deduction had helped people earning more than $100,000 a year, according to the Tax Foundation.
What happened after Trump capped the SALT deduction at $10,000?
The limit has increasingly impacted middle-class homeowners across the U.S. because of rising property taxes and incomes. Some lawmakers have also sought to either repeal or increase the SALT cap, but none of those efforts have borne fruit.
Earlier this year, some lawmakers sought to double the SALT deduction cap to $20,000 for married couples, with the change retroactive for the 2023 tax year. But that bill was blocked in the House in February.
Won’t the SALT deduction cap expire anyway?
Yes, the SALT deduction cap is a provision that’s due to expire in 2025, as are many other parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, such as a reduction of the individual tax brackets. But Trump has previously indicated he wants to extend the provisions in his signature tax law.
How much would it cost the U.S. to repeal the SALT deduction cap?
It won’t be cheap, according to the the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank that focuses on budget and policy issues.
Eliminating the $10,000 deduction limit “would increase the cost of extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) by $1.2 trillion over a decade,” the group estimates, adding that such a measure would be a “costly mistake.”
Extending the TCJA’s tax cuts would increase the nation’s deficit by $3.9 trillion over the next decade, the group estimates. By adding in a expiration or repeal of the SALT deduction cap, that would grow to $5.1 trillion, it added.
“Lawmakers should not extend the TCJA without a plan to – at a minimum – offset the costs of extension, but ideally the plan would raise revenues relative to current law and help put the nation’s debt on a better trajectory,” the group said in a statement.
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