The Hill’s Campaign Report: Trump threatens Postal Service funding l Biden proposes national mask mandate l Democratic convention takes shape

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.

We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.

LEADING THE DAY:

You can feel the presidential race heating up now that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has added Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to the ticket.

President Trump lashed out at Harris on Tuesday, calling her a “mad woman” for her questioning of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Trump complained that Harris is getting a “free pass” from the news media and mocked her performance in the Democratic primary, saying she “quickly evaporated down to almost zero in the polls” after her debate attacks against “Slow Joe” Biden.

In the same interview with Fox Business Network, Trump targeted two of the most prominent Democratic women in Congress, questioning Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) intellect and describing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as “stone cold crazy.”

But it was Trump’s remarks about the U.S. Postal Service that worried Democrats the most.

Democrats believe Trump is sabotaging the USPS ahead of an expected surge in mail voting this November.

Trump on Tuesday said he wouldn’t strike a deal with Democrats on a coronavirus relief package that includes additional funding for the Postal Service because he opposes universal mail-in voting.

“They want $25 billion for the post office,” Trump said. “Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now in the meantime, they aren’t getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it. Now, if we don’t make a deal that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

Biden fired back, saying simply: “He doesn’t want to have an election.”

The Senate left Washington on Tuesday until September after the parties failed to reach a new coronavirus relief deal.

Meanwhile, Biden and his new running mate called on governors to institute a national mask-wearing mandate. Biden cast the proposal as a matter of civic responsibility.

“This is America,” Biden said. “Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.”

Biden has made cautious handling of the coronavirus the centerpiece of his campaign.

“That’s what leadership looks like,” Harris said.

CONVENTION UPDATE:

Biden and Harris will address the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. Biden was initially set to deliver his acceptance speech from Milwaukee, but now none of the speakers will appear at the convention in-person.

Add one new speaker to the list — former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will address the Democratic convention, making him the second former Republican to nab a prime speaking slot. Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his failed presidential primary bid, which he launched because he was worried Biden was a weak candidate. His addition will annoy progressives, who feel like some of their most popular figures, including Stacey Abrams and Andrew Yang, have been frozen out in favor of establishment centrists like Bloomberg and former Republican Gov. John Kasich (Ohio).

CONVENTIONS HEADS UP:

Join The Hill at our virtual 2020 Conventions Hub — your digital headquarters for exciting events and the latest conventions news. We’ll kick off each day with The Big Questions. Party leaders, pollsters and campaign veterans join our editors to discuss the political and policy issues shaping our nation. Stay tuned in for our afternoon briefings — deeper dives into the key policy areas that will shape the 2020 campaign including energy, affordable housing and the ongoing response to COVID-19. Check out the full schedule and RSVP now to hold your spot!

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Begin each convention day with The Hill. Party leaders, pollsters and campaign veterans join our editors daily at 11AM EDT to discuss the political and policy issues shaping our nation and the 2020 campaign. RSVP now for reminders for the DNC and RNC!

PRESIDENTIAL POLLING:

Trump’s campaign has its work cut out for it as it seeks to cast Biden and Harris as tools of “the radical left.” A new Morning Consult survey found that voters view the Democratic ticket as more moderate than the GOP ticket.

A new ABC News-Ipsos survey finds Harris with a positive net favorability rating, at 37 percent favorable and 32 percent unfavorable. Vice President Mike Pence is at 33 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable.

Trump gets poor marks on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the latest Monmouth University survey, with 57 percent saying he’s doing a bad job.

HOUSE CANDIDATE CONTROVERSIES:

More controversial revelations are coming to light about Marjorie Taylor Greene, the GOP nominee in Georgia’s 14th congressional district. The left-leaning Media Matters unearthed an interview in which she expressed her support for conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terror attacks. In the interview, Greene referred to “the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon.”

Greene responded to the interview on Twitter, saying “some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon.  I now know that is not correct.”

This is the latest controversial comment made by Greene to have been unearthed recently. She has compared Democratic donor George Soros to a Nazi, said the 2018 midterms were like an “Islamic invasion of our government” and asserted that African Americans “are held slaves to the Democratic Party.” Greene has also expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

And a plot twist has emerged in the controversy engulfing the race for Massachusetts’s 1st congressional district. Progressive candidate Alex Morse’s supporters are demanding an investigation into reports that allegations of inappropriate behavior were engineered by the University of Massachusetts College Democrats in an effort to hurt his primary challenge against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.).

This comes after Politico reported that the Massachusetts Democratic Party intends to launch an investigation into the college Democrats after the Sept. 1 primary. The allegations shook Morse’s campaign, with the Sunrise Movement suspending its campaigning on his behalf. 

The College Democrats accused Morse of inappropriate behavior in a letter published in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, UMass Amherst’s student newspaper, earlier this week.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

We’re 4 days away from the beginning of the Democratic National Convention, 11 days from the beginning of the Republican National Convention, 47 days from the first presidential debate and 82 days out from Election Day.